5.25.2013

My most popular post

After publishing the last post on Graduation, I started looking at the individual views for all of my posts, trying to find out which of my posts has the most views. For a while, it was one of my posts on the oovoo toolbar. Then I got to my Season 1 days, and there it was, with 24 views: Boom Town.

BOOM TOWN?! Boom Town is my most popular post? Why? I hated that episode! Of all seven seasons of Doctor Who that I've seen, that's probably my least favorite episode, and that's the post everyone reads? I was taken aback to say the least. My brother thinks it might be because it's the most interesting of all of my posts, but that's not true. My Oovoo toolbar updates are far more entertaining, and you would think recent Who (not season 1) would be the most viewed.

I'm just flabbergasted.

Graduation

So today is one of the days for graduation. The school I compete at is having their graduation today, so I have a lot of friends who are graduating today.

Initially, I wasn't going to go because I just didn't want to. I hear stories from people about how it's really like sitting for two hours and just hearing names called out, and cheering every once in a while for people you know.

And that just didn't sound fun to me.

Then this morning, I got a text from one of my friends who is graduating today, and she said something like, "You're coming to the ceremony tonight right?"

It was like a knife to the gut.

Because I guess I'd just assumed that the graduates wouldn't care if I came. That was my first mistake. Then, as I realized I had to tell her I couldn't come (for a legitimate reason), I realized that I actually wanted to go. I mean, it would be less exciting if I had to sit by myself, but if I found some friends who were also going, I could sit with them, and it would be fun cheering for my friends who I care about so much, and getting to see them afterwards and congratulate them.

And now I can't go, which is making me feel depressed. Why can't I go? Because earlier this week, when my mom asked me if I had anything going on on this particular night, I said no, because I thought I didn't want to go. So we're having someone over. Not that it won't be fun hanging out with this particular person, but I feel like a horrible human being for not going to the graduation, and it's all my fault that I can't go.

So, friend, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I wish I could come, but I can't. And now you know why.

BUT for all of my friends who are graduating today, I will probably be at your graduation parties tomorrow! So I'll still get to see you and congratulate you, even if it's not tonight. Though I wish it could be tonight. Okay, that's enough feeling sorry for myself.

I think I'm going to do it. Finally.

Months ago (perhaps a year ago) I discussed on this blog my idea to do a vlog on YouTube, called Confessions of a Vamp1reslayr. I was going to do "confessions" every video, where I confessed that I was a fan of Doctor Who, or that I had a blog, or various other pointless tidbits about me and my life.

I've changed my mind. Not about having a vlog; that desire remains strong. But rather, I've changed my mind about what the vlog will be about. I'm not going to do Confessions. In fact, I won't probably have a theme.

So why am I going to start now? I'm inspired. It started, obviously, months ago, and then I talked myself out of it as school started and life got cray-cray. Then I started watching this "weekly" documentary called Becoming YouTube. Becoming YouTube is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It's all about YouTube and the YouTubers who make content, and the content that they make. From the start, it was inspiring, with its calls to people who want to make YouTube videos to actually make YouTube videos. Most inspiring was the episode on Girls on YouTube. This particular episode centered on the content that females make, and the responses they get, as well as the major discrepancy between females and males on YouTube. Frankly, not many females make YouTube videos. And if they do, they tend to be hair and makeup tutorials, not quality vlogs. That episode ended with a call to females to make content--and to make good content.

Yet, when that episode came out, I was deeply entrenched in my second semester of college-work, and had no time to start. Then I discovered Itswaypastmybedtime, a vlog created by Carrie Fletcher. Carrie is awesome. She's one of my favorite people on YouTube, and she makes really good vlogs. I fell in love with her videos, and I've been watching them regularly. And then, school ended, and I had all of these ideas about what I wanted to do with my summer. And vlogging hadn't occurred to me. Then just the other day (Thursday) we watched a movie called Indie Game, which is about Indie game developers. Which you wouldn't think is related to vlogging, but they were talking about the creative process, and how it was sort of like sending your kid to the first day of school, and you can only wait. And it just reminded me so much of what YouTubers say about YouTube, and the videos they upload, and so many different videos came to mind:
Becoming Youtube, every single episode
Charlieissocoollike, I'm Scared
Crabstickz, Quitting YouTube

(And no, I did not alphabetize those on purpose--though I did just finish fixing our movie stand for alphabetization)

And I realized right then: I wanted to start making YouTube videos. So I started thinking about when I could do it, and I was busy Thursday because I was going to a grad party, and Friday I had breakfast with a friend and a grad party, so I decided that today, Saturday, was going to be the day I made my first YouTube video.

We'll see if it actually happens. It's 2 pm already, and I haven't eaten lunch (it's almost ready), and I still have some chores to get done, and then we have someone coming over tonight (I dunno when) so we'll see if I actually have time to film it.

But I have an idea, I have the resolve, and I think I'm actually going to do it this time.

I think.

5.23.2013

Soccer

I wish I could get in shape. Honestly, I really do. Part of my desire to exercise is to lose a little bit of weight. But since I only have a little bit of weight that I really need to lose, my primary aim is to get in shape. I want to have muscles and be able to run, and things like that.

Besides, I just enjoy exercising.

Yet, for some reason, despite my very obvious desire to exercise, I have the greatest trouble actually doing it. For whatever reason, every time I decide that I want to exercise, my brain tries to sabotage me by coming up with excuses. Some of the excuses are good: it's snowing outside; you're sick and shouldn't over-exert yourself; you have a million other things to do...And some of the excuses are not good: but you could watch TV instead; you'd have to change your clothes; but you were about to eat lunch!

More often than not, I think I'm afraid to start exercising because in all of the times when I started exercising, I ended up stopping at some point for some reason. And if I know that it's not going to last, I think I end up asking myself:

What's the point?


All of this to set up what I actually want to talk about today. Last night was the Forensics Team Picnic, a time when the team gets together and attempts to grill food (and fails most of the time), announces Mock Awards, and elects officers for the upcoming season. The Picnic is also the time of the annual soccer game.

It happens every year. The seniors and alumni/coaches team up against everyone else in an epic game of soccer. We play barefoot and with street rules, though that doesn't stop the other team complaining about there being six different goalies, while they have people playing with their shoes on. It is a time to foster team cooperation and love.

For me, this was a great chance for me to exercise my competitive nature, and kill everyone else on the team. Not literally.

I had not had so much fun in such a long time. It was like all of the great things that I love about debate: being able to go on offense, and put others on defense, and attack, and use my skills to receive results. With an addendum: it was physical activity.

Gosh, I have missed physical activity. Again, I will repeat: it has been a very long time since I have exercised. So when my chest was restricting, and it was hard to breathe, and every part of my body wanted me to quit moving and go sit down, I could smile. I relished the feeling, and kept pushing myself. Instead of sitting down, I would spring harder than before. I would get right up with the ball, and kick it away from people, and follow where it went, and run over to the goalpost to try to be available for someone to pass it to me so I could kick it in (which they never did until I was incapable of shooting from where I was).

The other thing that was fantastic about it was that it was sort of all instinct. I knew how to kick the ball, and how to get the ball away from people. Obviously, I don't have any training (other than playing when I was in first and second grade), but it just felt good to play.

So I love soccer. If I was going to play any athletic sport, it would be soccer. In fact, I realized last night, if I could play soccer to get in shape, I would. Today, I'm sore in my thighs, calves, obliques, shoulders, and triceps. Not to mention how good I feel today simply from having the exercise. I could get in shape fast if I played soccer every couple of days. And now that's what I want to do. I think it would be fun to get friends together over the summer to just play soccer.

Maybe make it a regular thing, where like every Tuesday night or something we all just meet at the park; who can come comes, and we just play.

Or, I could just start running up in the mountains I live in now, and get in shape super quickly, and just play soccer when I can. Maybe I should buy a soccer ball.

Anyway, I need to start exercising, and I love soccer. And hopefully those two things will work together, and make my summer rock.

5.20.2013

Oh man

So I've seen the finale of Doctor Who. And I still had an episode before that one to review. And honestly, I don't particularly want to review it right now. To start, I need to see the finale again before I can truly process it. My mom says it's the best episode of Doctor Who ever, but I think I need to see it again before I can decide if I agree with her. There was some nice conclusion, with a couple of characters, and some nice humor, and some nice emotional moments and everything. It was a really good episode. Anyway, a full review coming later. Suffice it to say: Wow. I can't wait until November.

5.12.2013

My Quest (The Best of Times)

There's a book by Sarah Dessen, called Along for the Ride. It's really good. Basically there's this girl named Auden who missed out on a lot of things from her childhood, and through her friendship with this guy named Eli learns how to regain certain parts of her childhood, and learns to be okay with changing. A lot lately I've been thinking about how I want this summer to be amazing. Even before I read this book for the second time. I decided to re-read it in part because of my desire for this summer to be epic.

Basically in the book she has this "quest," in which she has this sort of list of things to do in order to make up for lost time. This includes bowling, learning how to ride a bike, having food fights, and things she never got to do. Stuff like that. Her goal, basically, is to have "the best of times."

This summer, I'm going on a quest, like the one in the book. While I obviously had a good childhood, and didn't "miss out" on anything super huge, there are things that I didn't get to do, and things that I haven't done enough. So I've decided that this summer, I'm going to do them.

This sounds extremely cheesy. Basically, I want this summer to be the best of times. It's not like it's the summer before I go to college, it's just before my senior year, but I think it's coming at a really good time. Lately I've been struggling with complacency. There are a lot of things that I do wrong, and that I frequently fail at, but for some reason I put up with it, because I'm afraid of changing. I'm afraid of living without those things, because they've become like a crutch. I've become complacent with the fact that there are things I haven't done, and that there are things I need to do that I haven't been doing. I haven't cared enough, but I'm finally sick of it. I'm going to do something about it.

I live in the basement, meaning that my window has this little window well outside of it, but unlike the ugly metal ones I'm used to seeing, there are these like little wooden planter steps leading out of it. I've set up the space beside my window to sit and look out the window, and read, or look out at the stars, but I haven't been doing it, and I still haven't gone out of the window. So today I did. I pushed the screen out (don't worry Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, I didn't break it or hurt it) and just stepped out for a second. Again, going into cheese-ville, it felt like the start of something. You know? Like I was finally going out of my comfort zone, finally doing something I've wanted to do. I had stopped being complacent. So, in my pajamas, in the middle of the mess that was my room, I just had a sort of shouting match with myself, with lots of talking about how I wasn't going to be okay with simple adequacy, that I was going to demand more from myself.

Anyway. This summer I've got a quest. My quest involves some of the following:

--Eating an entire batch of cookie dough with someone in one sitting

--Pulling an all-nighter with friends

--Going to a drive-in

--Eating at Chick-fil-a (because it tastes good, and I haven't been in a while)

--Eating ice cream (not frozen yogurt, which is good, but I miss ice cream)

--Going to the movie theater

--Taking pictures of everything, and putting them in an album on Facebook called "The Best of Times."


This is my quest.

I'M DONE!!!

So I'm done with school. I have one day left: two classes, in one I get doughnuts and to look at a test I already know I passed; in the other, I eat candy and watch a movie. So all of my finals are done. 4.0 College GPA, and 27 credits later, I've come so far.

Seriously. So much has happened this year. There's the obvious, like going to a public-ish school for the first time since third grade (full time), and going to college. But I've learned a lot about myself, and my intellect and abilities, but also the extent of my ego, and my limits. I know my limits better now, and understand how far I can go without overdoing it, and I know, too, that when I push myself, I can get a lot done. I learned to trust in God a lot more (though I still failed). I guess I learned the necessity of it a lot more than before, and I understand better how to trust in Him than I did at the beginning of the schoolyear.

I've been pushed to my limits and had times of ease. I've had to learn how to deal with different temptations of different kinds, and had to learn how to be a good friend with people, even when they piss me off. I dunno. I've just learned so much. I've been stretched so much. And now I'm going to stretch myself further. More on that in the next post. Suffice it to say that for now I'm done with school. Yay.

Doctor Who S7: E11--The Crimson Horror

This is a week late. But I'm watching the newest episode now, so I thought it was about time I looked back at last week's episode...

Episode summary: Jenny and Madame Whats-her-face Silurian and Strax start investigating Sweetsville, or something (sorry, I'm fuzzy on the names), and discover that the curator of the "city" is actually converting everyone into dolls, or something, including the Doctor. Then the Doctor comes back, and he has to save Clara. What was fun was that Jenny and Madame Silurian know Clara as dead, so they're totally confused that she's still alive.

I didn't love this episode. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good. It was just sort of blah. It started out slowly, and the whole side story with the blind girl and her "Monster," was kind of lame (though I liked that the Doctor was her "Monster"). I dunno. It was just sort of boring. It didn't keep my attention or keep me guessing, like Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS did. This episode is really good so far, too, so I'll talk about that when I'm done.

Actual 100th post!!! I thought the previous one was 100, but apparently I had a drafted post that the blog was counting as one of them. So this is post 100. Exciting! Especially because I have about 1300 views or so, which is fun. Yay blogs!!!

5.02.2013

English Post 2: Super Battle

Prompt: Pit superheroes against each other; who will win?

Superman vs. Batman

Here we have the guy with all the power vs the guy with all the gadgets. Probably Superman would win, because he'd just punch a hole in Batman's armor, carry the unconscious Batman over the ocean, and drop him.


Superman vs. Spiderman

You'd think the answer would be obvious, but we might have an underdog in Spiderman. As far as powers go, he cannot match Superman. Spiderman has endurance, though. He won't give up. I think this would be the best fight (of the two mentioned), especially if it occurred movie-style, with lots of different face-offs. Then we'd see a lot of Superman beating Spiderman up, and Spiderman not giving up, but learning from Superman each time (assuming Superman doesn't have a lapse of conscience, as he did in Man of Steel). So then, with all his intelligence and science buddies, Spiderman might even figure out Superman's weakness, and there would be this great moment where Spiderman's face will be all bloody, and awesome, and he's standing over Superman, who looks untouched, but afraid. Then Spiderman would choose not to kill Superman, because of honor and mercy and things.

Then the question becomes, if Superman beat Batman, and Spiderman beat Superman, could Spiderman beat Batman?

Hmmm...

Discuss.


Written by me; please reuse with permission.

Thanks!





English Post 1: Finally Mine

Prompt: After all these years, it was finally there, right in front of him...

He stared at it longingly. He imagined what it would be like to hold, smell, touch. He had waited for this day for so long, it suddenly seemed wrong to have it. It felt like at any moment someone would jump out from behind something, and tell him he couldn't have it--not yet.

He shuddered at the thought. He had done too much, waited too long to stop now. All those things he'd done to get here. The things he'd stolen, the people he had used -- killed -- for one moment the weight of his crimes came crashing down, and he was overcome. He fell to the ground, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain and then --

It was gone. The pain would come, but it never stayed for long, pausing just long enough to remind him that he was human.

"Not anymore," he whispered. He looked back up at the object of his obsession. "Never again."

He stood, grabbing hold of it, and it was finished.

He got his wish. Oh, that fate might have prevented this wish from coming true.



Written by me; please ask permission before reuse.

Thanks!

5.01.2013

Coming of Age (minus one)

In March I had my seventeenth birthday, which was interesting.

For starters, the Monday before my birthday, we moved houses. We're now living up in the mountains near *undisclosed location* and it's pretty cool. Maybe I'll give more details at a later date. So that Monday, and Tuesday, and even Wednesday, we were doing a lot of moving things from one house to the other, and cleaning, and unpacking. Then that Thursday was my birthday. We went to Red Robin, and Target, and TCBY, and Barnes and Noble. Then later that night, we (as in my brother and I) went to the high school we compete in forensics at, because we were leaving that night to go to the State Tournament. That was a really fun weekend. I made it to the top 16 in LD, which was pretty awesome. Then I got robbed of a round, and was knocked out. However, one of the people I'd beaten the first day (who got to stay in because of a wild card round) ended up being the State Champion.

So, basically, I beat the State Champion.

So that's my birthday. These last two months have been crazy, though, so I'll continue the story.

A couple of weeks later, we went to the Nat Quals tournament.

And I qualified.

I'm going to Nationals!!! So is my novice, who rocks socks. She went undefeated until her very last round, but she was still awesome, and the top qualifier. So nationals are in June, in Alabama. And that's very exciting. We got the topic today. Resolved: An oppressive government is more desirable than no government.

It's the most amazing topic ever, and I get to debate it at Nationals!!

Obviously, I'm very excited. So I've had about a month off of forensics, but I need to start doing practice again soon because it's next month, and we have the topic now. But it's also the last two weeks of school for me, which means lots and lots of work. I have two papers due on Friday, and two tests and a presentation next week. So there's too much, and I'm going just a little bit crazy. But I'll pull it out in the end. I always do.

But so far coming of age (minus one) has been cray-cray. I'm also looking for a job for the summer, and I'm starting summer school at the end of May (and taking a philosophy class) and then I'm taking 17 credits next semester. So that'll also be cray-cray. My coming-of-age-minus-one year is going to be insane.

Geronimo.

Doctor Who S7: E11--Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

A salvage crew strikes on the TARDIS when it's vulnerable (because the TARDIS doesn't like Clara--what's up with that?), and like ruins the TARDIS, and emits this, like, poisonous gas, and the Doctor gets locked outside the TARDIS, but Clara gets locked inside. So the Doctor convinces the salvage crew to help him get Clara back out, in exchange for the TARDIS itself. So they go in, and of course the TARDIS is being difficult, and the salvage crew is being stupid...

So everything from here on out is...

*SPOILERS*

So I LOVED THIS EPISODE!!! It was so good. In the beginning you got to see some of the back-and-forth that I love about Clara and the Doctor, and then cray-cray stuff happened, and then throughout the whole episode there was all this mystery, and wonder, and then there were these zombie creature things that were chasing everyone, and even killing people.

So one part at a time. First of all, the burn on Clara's hand was really cool. Because you saw it at first, and you were like, what?! and then it kept coming up, and you would see more of the words as the episode went on, and you were kept wondering what it said, and how it was important, and then for some reason I loved that she blew on the burn. Because it's totally a normal thing to do, but I feel like in TV shows they tend to do things a little unrealistically, but just her blowing on the burn made me relate to her so much more. Is that weird?

Then the whole TARDIS being angry thing was nice, because we all know how temperamental the TARDIS is, and it was fun to see her throw a temper tantrum.

And the library!!! For starters, we got to see the swimming pool inside of a library, but then we got to see a legit library. And there were these bottles with voices in them, like memories, with people talking in Gallifreyan, and that was interesting. Because it showed that there was like this sort of hidden part of the Doctor, where he kept memories of his people and himself, and that they were all bottled, and hidden. I dunno. It was just interesting because it showed a different side of him.

And then in the library we also saw the Book of the Time War or whatever it was called, and Clara looked in it, and found out what the Doctor's name was!!! And it's weird because the Doctor's name is made into such a huge mystery, that it's going to change everything when we find out, but what on earth could it possibly be that would change everything? You know? That it's such a huge deal, and that Doctor Who (the show) will never be the same again, and that it's so earth-shattering.

It's a name.

How is it so important?

But we're going to find it out someday. The name of the last episode of the season is The Name of the Doctor, so maybe we'll find out them, but it's possible that they'll end this season on a cliffhanger, and not tell us until the 50th Anniversary special (WHICH I'M SO EXCITED FOR!)

But the best--the very, very best part of this episode--was when we found out that Clara had died at the beginning of the episode. Because I knew the gas was poisonous, but I just figured she hadn't breathed it in, or was in a different part of the TARDIS, or...something. It had not even occurred to me that she was dead. And then that the zombie things chasing everyone were her. That she was the zombie, because she had died and roasted.

It was crazy. Not gonna lie.

I liked the exchange when the Doctor was chewing Clara out, and she was like, "I died? I've been alive two other times this season?" It was pretty great,ecause she really has no clue what's going on. And that's interesting because--what is going on?

So this was an amazing episode, and I loved it to pieces. Obviously, I'm very enthusiastic about it.

Geronimo!

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