A Kaleidoscope

Argh! Now I HAVE to do half an hour of writing! Ick! I can't write for half an hour! That's too long! Especially when stuff I write about is anything but interesting! So now that I'm done griping...
This is a kaleidoscope. Is that how you spell it? Cause I'm not sure. Anyway, I never could figure out how they worked. I think the makers just take colored stuff and slice it so that it's almost paper thin, and then they stick everything between two sheets of glass. Then they take 50 million lenses and put them every which way. I know something has to be twistable, I just don't know whether it's the lenses or the glass. I could be totally wrong in my predictions, but that's honestly how I think kaleidoscopes are made.
We got this one for Eid, our religious holiday. It came in a nice fancy box. It is actually a nice kaleidoscope. Wooden, gold dial, and the colors are nice too. I think I saw some pearls in there.
Isn't it just weird how teachers can turn fun stuff into boring stuff? I hated it when my teachers used to take those shaped blocks and tell us to make patterns on a piece of paper and then trace it. I liked making patterns, but I hated tracing it. It's fun to take yellow hexagons, blue skinny diamonds, red fat diamonds, orange squares, and green triangles and make cool symmetrical patterns out of them. It's just that when you add work to it, it isn't fun anymore. You know what I mean?
Now that I'm done talking about this picture, what else do I talk about? I mean, it's Thursday, I would like to get my work done so that I can go and watch the last episode of Season 3 of Lost so that I can be prepared for Claire's reaction to Charlie's death in the premiere that's coming on tonight at 9, *gasp* *gasp* *gasp*
I know I'm addicted to the show, you don't have to tell me! I'm not that stupid. It's just a great TV show, one of the better. And if only the stupid writers would go and resolve their little pay dispute, I would be so much happier, knowing that I will be seeing more than 9 episodes. And then I could watch Heroes too. o:-)
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know what to write anymore and I still have 10 minutes left!!!!!!! What am I supposed to do? Oh wait, I know what to write about!
I haven't seen my friends in about a month and a half. I may be exaggerating, but it sucks that I haven't seen them in forever. My sister is a social butterfly. She either gets invited over, or invites over one of her friends, every single weekend! Sometimes they come and she goes, and sometimes they don't. It's just not fair! When I was in fourth grade, I didn't get to do all that!!!
I despise all sorts of school lessons. Sure, they're educational, but my dad once saw this comic. There was a picture of a kid going into school, and his brain was so big that he had to carry it in a jar. Then an adult came out of the building years later. He had no jar. That's what school does to you, and that's why I'm sitting here not in a public school.
3 minutes left!!!
2 minutes left!!!
1 minute left!!!
Yay!!!

Slippers...

Ahhhh... just when you need them most, you can never find socks or slippers. I kind of got sick of cold feet. Especially in the middle of the winter. I'd always wanted slippers, mostly so that I could wear my shoes in the house. Or, they're sort of like shoes, but not really. Shoes aren't that comfortable. So anyway...
I always had a fascination with slippers that matched bathrobes. Now I have some. I love getting out of the shower, drying off, and slipping on my bathrobe and slippers. They're so fuzzy, and I think my kitten likes them too.
The light blue set of slippers on the right are my bath slippers. The dark ones on the left are those annoying ones with the little lumpy dots on the bottom. They're so uncomfortable when you're walking on hard floors because the dots keep pushing into the bottom of your feet. At least they're falling off now.
The weird thing about it all is that sometimes my feet start sweating because they're so hot when I wear the slippers. That doesn't make any sense, but doesn't it feel so good when you're very hot, and then you take off whatever is making you hot, and then you go stand in front of something cold? Yup yup.
I'm not a big fan of shoes. I prefer barefoot, but unfortunately you can't go barefoot in the store or the public street. Only in the front or backyard.
I like nature, but I despise hot weather. I love cold weather, except for all the clothes you have to wear when you go outside. It'd be cool if you could go barefoot in cold weather, huh? My dad grew up in the Lama Foundation up in the mountains of New Mexico, and when it would snow there, he and his friends would see who could go the farthest in it barefoot. Ouch.
This winter really sucked. I mean, first of all, it didn't even snow a lot, second, it was too cold for it not to snow, and third, I hate tending the fire. I wish it would just fill itself with wood. Oh wait, I forgot, that's a gas fireplace. It doesn't even use wood!
Winters down here just suck. I haven't seen real snow in almost three years. I miss it. I remember 2003. Oh yes. That was a beauteous snow. Ankle high, clean, soft, perfect. I wish I lived a little farther up north where they get one of those every year. Not really far up north, but far enough where I can be guaranteed snow once a year. I love making snow angels and having snowball fights and making snowmen, even though I'm a little old for all that. So what? Who says I can't act like a little kid every once in a while, huh?
Now I have to get ready to do math, reading, social studies, basketball, religious studies, and then I'm done for the day. You may think I don't do as much work, but I just don't spend all my time doing free stuff like people at school do.
Time to go. I really really really wanna watch Lost tonight, but it's not the season premiere, only the finale of last season. Gosh. Hurry up and get here, nine o' clock tomorrow!!!

Makeup

You know the problem with boys? I mean, besides the obvious? They don't understand anything about girls. Nothing. My brother is an ignorant little boy, and he cannot seem to comprehend why I like to wear makeup. He really can't. He thinks makeup makes people look uglier, but if you do it right, it makes you look really good. So, lets see what I have in this pouch...
Well, I got the big mirror at Target, and I got ripped off for it. Almost 10 bucks for a mirror? I guess because it's professional, and it zooms in on your face 10 times more than a normal one. Very good for eyes. I also have powdered concealer because that's the only kind that's good for my skin. The liquid stuff is always too dark. Pink blush, peachy eyeshadow, black mascara, black and blue eyeliner, black natural eyeliner, pink lip gloss, and a bunch of hair bands. So yeah, I like makeup.
The problem with makeup is that people put on so much that they look like a porcelain doll. I was looking in a catalogue one day, probably Kohl's, and I saw this picture of a lady. Now normally I would overpass it, but I couldn't help but notice that her face was so white. I mean really white. Not a whole lot white, but white enough that you could tell it was fake. Or was it that she glowed? Literally. Good makeup is when you can't tell that you're wearing it.
My mom is kind of opposed to the whole makeup thing. She thinks that it's immodest and it makes you look fake. Like I said, it does if you put on too much. Luckily, I taught myself how to do it just right. But I'm not going to reveal my secrets, no I'm not. You'll have to just figure it out yourself. Teeheehee.
Okay, now I have writer's block. I'm not even choosing to write this blog. I only do it cause I have too. Apparantly it is a good writing lesson. But if you don't mind, I'm gonna go now and track down my kitty. Bye!

My Guitar

You know how I used to play my flute? Well, I kinda got sick of that. So I decided to get a new instrument. The guitar. I mean, why not? Most of my dad's family are guitarists. Or pianists. Or something or other. So anyway...
I got this guitar at Sam's Club, yes, Sam's Club. It was $135 and it came with the guitar, obviously, a bag, picks, a tuner, strings, a stand, a strap, and a really lame DVD that is only a section of the actual one.
So far, I haven't been very successful in getting anything done. I can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Happy Birthday, I can play a couple power chords, but I need to get back to watching the DVD.
The guitar itself is pretty nice. It's a Fender Starcaster, and it's six-string. Nice and shiny, and it doesn't get out of tune too much, but that's probably because I don't play it vigorously.
My brothers and sisters love to annoy me by touching it everyday. We'll all be sitting in the library and suddenly, TWANG! And then they all get mad when I tell them to stop. I mean, honestly, if you had a nice new instrument that you couldn't really play yet, would you want somebody touching it? It's just so annoying. And then my little brother likes to go twist the tuning pegs. Ouch. One time my dad tried to play it, and it was WAAAAY out of tune. It didn't sound good.
I would've learned to play the guitar using my dad's, but seeing as it has no workable strings, it's very old, and the case is all torn up, why would I do that? He hasn't played it in years.
The thing I like about guitar is that you can sing the song you're playing at the same time that you play it. With the flute, you have to go by ear alone. And if you haven't memorized all the note fingerings, then you have no idea what to do. At least with the guitar you can get an idea about where the note you need is.
With all that said, I'm leaving now. I have to go and do stinking math. Ick ack ook.
Bye bye, TTFN, TGIM, and I can't wait for Lost's Season 4 Premiere on Thursday!!!

Sham... Again!

Yes, once again it is the evil demon kitty what calls herself Sham. (Sorry, Daddy! I couldn't help it!) These days, she has been a little bit nicer, but if you'd been stuck in an animal burrow for two days, you'd be nicer to your owners too, wouldn't you?
Four days ago, we put Sham outside because she was being bad. Later in the afternoon, I called her to come in and she didn't come. Strange. Usually she comes running. So we wait two days, and she still doesn't come. We start hanging up posters, and then our neighbor says she might've been eaten by a hawk. After hearing that, I was just sad. And then, surprinsingly, the day after that, Moby goes out to look for her again, and whaddaya know, she turns up safe and sound! A little dirty, but safe nonetheless. I was so happy, I was crying, and Mom was so mad! "No, no, no, no, no!!!!!!!!!" were her words if I remember correctly. What was funny was that Sham ran in and just started gobbling up her food. We think she was chasing a rabbit or something and got stuck in it's burrow, but she wasn't really skinny, so she probably caught it.
One reason my mom was so mad, was mainly because Sham is a little mischevious. Sam, (the other cat), will be sitting on the chair, innocently, and Sham sneaks up behind him and WHAK! she swings at his tail. Again and again and again. And if he notices, she'll casually run away, and come back. WHAK! WHAK! WHAK!!! And then they'll get into a one paw fight. It's quite funny actually.
Sham gets attacked by Sam a lot. She probably deserves it though. After all the whacking, she actually does. My dad wants her to have kittens, but my mom says we don't want her passing on her mean genes. (Hey that rhymes!) My dad says that if she's so bad, why don't we get rid of her? And on and on and on. Whatever happens, she's still my favorite kitten in the world. And Sam is my favorite cat.

Slushy Snow Day...

You know how you get these snow days that are sort of nice, but then it all melts? That's what we got. When I woke up, there was snow on the ground, school was cancelled, and we played computer games all day. The only problem was that it rained. All day. So, by the time this picture was taken, almost all the snow was gone. It may not look so here, but for some reason the snow in the front yard lasts longer than in the backyard. But then again, it is urban North Carolina, isn't it?
Boy, sometimes I wish I lived up in the mountains. It's so much nicer up there, and it snows more. I'm a cold weather person, probably because I've spent most of my life in hot places. Or warm, but never known for cold. I lived in Charlottesville, VA, and I have pictures of me as a baby sliding down our snow-covered car. Then we moved to Florida when I was 2, so you can see why I hate hot weather. Then we moved up here when I was 4, so I've lived here most of my life. The only major snowstorms we've had were in two consecutive years, and one of them wasn't even a snowstorm. It was an ice storm.
Yes, the ice storm of 2001, or was it 2002? I can't remember. Probably 2001. Our power was out for days. But it was fun. I mean, ice isn't good for snowball fights, but it's slippery and cool.
2002 was the big snowstorm. Snow all the was up to my ankles, and it was real snow. Not hard stuff. Soft and fluffy. Perfect for snowball fights. Too bad nobody wanted to play with me.
And now, in 2008, we have this stuff. Icky. There wasn't enough to do anything, let alone have a snowball fight. Okay, maybe there was enough, but it was too hard, so it really hurt. And I really wanted to make snow icecream, but it wasn't thick enough for that. Who wants to eat snow on top of the ground anyway? I prefer snow that people haven't stepped on!
So I've had snow adventures, but not many. I like cold weather, and people think I'm strange, but I just do. In hot weather, you're limited to the things you can do. In cold weather, if you want to do stuff that you do in hot weather, go inside a garage and do it!

Ick... Laundry!

Okay, if you're like most people, you probably hate laundry. I mean, nobody sane actually likes to wash clothes! It's so tedious, and it takes up precious time! Let me break down the tedious steps for you...
First, get the laundry from all the baskets in all the rooms and dump it in one big pile. Hard enough? No? Then just wait...
Second, sort the colors. White in one pile, dark in one pile, and light in another. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put all the clothes together in one pile. You will end up with gray clothes! When we were in Africa, my dad didn't sort his laundry, so when we got back, all his clothes were gray.
Next you have to take one pile at a time and put them in the washing machine. Then you have to pour in the proper soap, bleach if needed, then you close it after letting the water pour in. Then you wait for an hour or so.
When you're done with all that, you have to put all the wet clothes in the dryer, put in softener sheets if needed, and then start that. While that's going, you probably want to put in another load for washing.
Or you could do it all the old-fashioned way where you fill a bucket with hot water and soap and you hand wash everything with a sponge. Of course, that takes longer, and it requires you to do more work, instead of a machine doing it. Then you have to hang all the clothes outside on a clothesline, and too bad for you if it rains.
Whichever way you do it, when you're done you have to fold everything, iron the nice stuff, and put it all away in various closets and dresser drawers. That's the part that I do. My mom does all the washing and sorting and folding, and I put it all away, which can take awhile, depending on how long it's been since the last laundry day.
See! I told you it was a tedious process! Nobody actually likes doing laundry. I have yet to meet someone who did. Unless you get paid for it, of course. In Africa, the maids did the laundry, but I think they were getting paid nicely for it. When I get married and have kids, I think I'll probably just have to suck it up and do all the work that comes with it. Laundry, cooking, calling strange people, waking up early, staying up too late, it's all part of growing up. Boy, am I glad I have a mom to take care of me. :-)

Another Obnoxious Toy

Don't you just hate obnoxious toys with sound? I sure do. I hate everything about them. The noise, the style, EVERYTHING! It's just another stupid toy clogging up the closet.
Somebody gave this to my little brother, and that was about four weeks ago. He doesn't play with this anymore. You see the little buttons on top? I know what three of them do, but seeing as I'm not a car freako, I don't know what the others do. The note-shaped one plays this really stupid song. Something like "Let me take you for a free ride, free ride!" It's so annoying. I probably shouldn't have shown anyone else where the mute button was. The two arrows right next to each other move the car forward and backward.
We have so many toys that make sounds. The one that really strikes me is one that I liked, mostly because it was so cute. I mean, who doesn't like Elmo? You know, that red monster from the show Sesame Street? I used to love that show. The toy we had was a Tickle Elmo. You'd press his belly, and he'd say "Stop that!" Do it again: "Stop, stop! Elmo no like tickle!" And another time: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" He'd just crack up. That was a cool toy. I still like Elmo. (Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!)
Then we had this horse. You squeezed it's rear, and it'd start making horse sounds. That was just annoying, especially when people would step on it.
Then we have this chicken thing that we got from our cousin. I didn't get it, my sister did. It played the chicken dance song. You know, "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, blah blah blah..." So that was just annoying.
I think all adults hated the day that toy makers put voice boxes in things. Little kids didn't. They probably thought it was the best thing in the world. But then they grow up to hate it. Why can't people just leave stuff the way it is? Do we have to modernize everything, even toys? The world doesn't need to change anymore!

My School Books

Do you have any idea how hard it is being homeschooled? It's harder than it looks. Sure, we get later bedtimes and we don't have to get up early in the morning, but everything we do makes up for that. Let's go over the schedule, shall we?
1-Wake up. 2-Eat Breakfast. 3-Read BBC News. 4-Write in my Blog. 5-Language Arts. 6-Math. 7-Social Studies or Science. 8-Read Wikipedia. 9-Music. And sometimes 10-Research Paper.
So you see, all those take a long time. Language Arts, Math, Science or Social Studies, and the research paper are all the things we do for an hour. Everything else we do for half an hour. And sometimes religious studies are thrown in there. And most of the time, we have to work after our siblings get home, because we haven't done everything.
I like being able to do this, because if I go to public school, we waste our time with a lot of stuff. Bus rides, time between classes, oh, and don't you just hate it when the teacher has to stop the class to explain everything to the kids who don't understand, yet most people understand perfectly! It's so annoying!
The only REAL problem with homeschooling is that I am stuck ALL DAY with my brother and mom, and I don't see my friends very often. Here we have my little sister talking to her friends all day when she gets home, AND going to their house every weekend, and she's only 9! I'm much older than she is, and I'm not doing that!
So now we come to the jealousy part of it. I sometimes wish I could go back to school, but, then again, it's a normal part of all this. I at least wish that I could see my friends more than I do! Agh!
Time for me to go and start on my schedule. I'm going to Sam's Club today to get a guitar, so that I have an instrument to play, besides the flute. To play the flute, you really need a teacher, and I sure don't have one. Bye!

The Film Players

The only reason I'm calling them film players is cause only one of them is a cassette player, and only one of them is a DVD player, and the other one isn't even a film player, so who cares? Anyway, they all contribute in some stance to playing a movie.
We never use the VCR, okay? Nobody does anymore, unless you're very very VERY old-fashioned. I don't even think they MAKE cassettes anymore, do they? It's all DVDs now. You remember all those classic Disney movies, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, and all those? Yeah, why do you think they're making Special Edition DVDs for them? Cause nobody owns the Disney cassettes anymore! I have yet to go to somebody's house and see them watching a cassette. Nope. It's DVDs all the way.
I'll bet sooner or later, there will be these little chips that you just stick in the back of your television to play the movie. No clumpy, lumpy disks or cassettes. To have one of those, that'd be rare. I'll bet if you save them, in a couple decades, you could sell it for a million bucks.
That stereo on the bottom, yeah that is the most complicated piece of machinery I've laid eyes on. Okay, not the MOST complicated, but it is annoying. There are like four different video settings, and I can never figure out which one to use. There's "Video 1", "Video 2", "Dvd/6ch", and another one I can't remember. And sometimes the sound doesn't come on, you have to figure out why the red light is on next to the word MUTE. "Gee, I wonder why?" So you have to figure out how to turn Mute off. AGH! At least we don't have that problem anymore, cause we always watch DVDs, so it's always on Video 2.
Enough of that. I just can't wait till January 30, or is it 31, I can't remember, cause the season premiere of Lost is coming on the ONLY channel we have. The trailer was really good. I wanna watch it!

Carmex

You know, isn't it funny how I hate chapped lips, but I bite them anyway? I just can't stop. It's like my lips are just begging to be bitten, and then they go and hate me for it. That's why I love this stuff. Carmex may taste bad, but it helps. A LOT!
When I first got my braces, I thought they'd help me stop biting my lips. Boy, was I wrong. I think I'm biting them more than ever now. So now they look really bad, flakes of brown skin, dry, cracked, you get the picture. To make a long story short, they were really ugly.
The thing that's so good about Carmex is that it works. Most lip balms and chapsticks don't really work very well. They may moisten your lips for awhile, but it wears off. Carmex doesn't. It stays, and even when it does wear off, you don't need to put it on again. It's a once a day thing. Maybe twice. And if you do happen to put it on liberally, it won't hurt. It might actually work better.
You know those little scabs you get right on the side of your mouth, where your lips meet? I hate those. Cold sores. When I was in Africa, I got a lot of them. And the problem was that I couldn't stop picking them, so everything got worse! My teachers noticed, the kids noticed, everyone noticed! They're really ugly, and what's worse, if you try to open your mouth wide to take a big bite, it pops open and starts to bleed! Ick. Carmex saved me. I just put it on three times a day, and whaddaya know, it was gone.
I used to call Carmex, yes, Carmax. Like the car dealers. I was passing by one on the way to this thing, and I was like, "Why are car dealers and chapstick called the same thing?" And my dad said, "One is Carmax, the other is Carmex!" Silly silly me.

Cameras Galore...

Sony has the absolute best cameras ever. I mean it, too. This camera is just one of three or four Sony cameras that we have, and it is awesome. There are a lot of different settings you can have, depending on what kind of picture you want to take, and where. For example, there is a setting for absolute white backgrounds, mainly snow days. There is a setting for twilight, and for regular old days.
I don't know why I like the cameras so much. I guess it's because my aunt is a photographer, now my cousin is, and I kind of want to be one, but I sure don't have money for those expensive professional cameras that use film. This one is digital, which is good.
This camera is not ours. My dad borrowed it from his work. Of course, he borrows a lot of stuff from his work. He has an obsession with free stuff. He's borrowed laptops, cameras, DVDs, and all sorts of things.
I'm not as obsessed with photography as my sister is. She loves to take pictures. She takes random pictures of just about everything. Hands, eyes, lips, toys, you name it. Me, I'm more of a computer person. I like computers. They're fun. Especially when you have to try to figure out the way everything works. Games are cool too.
When I grow up, I really want to be a children's doctor. First of all, it's a well-paying job. Second, I like helping kids. And third, we need more Muslim doctors.
Soooooo... how are YOU today? Doing good? Okay. Me too. I can't wait till tonight. I am gonna watch movies all night long. And maybe play a bit of RuneScape. Okay, a lot of RuneScape. But I'm also gonna watch Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Harry Potter 5. Hurray for BlockBuster! TGIF, eh?

I'm Feeling Cactusey...

Get it? Cactusey? That means I feel like poking you! Hahahaha!
Okay, so it was stupid. But I dare you to touch it. Go on. I double dog dare you. Can't turn away now...
Did you touch it? Good. You, at least, have some sense.
Okay, all that was really stupid. But cactuses are just soooooooo boring, unless you're a plant person, or you study plants. What's the word for that? Ecologist? Plantologist? Something like that.
You might also enjoy cactuses if you're out in the desert with no water and about to die of thirst. When you find a cactus, you're probably like "Thank you, God!" Then you take a knife, or a sharp rock or whatever and go cut the cactus open, and then out comes pure, wonderful, life-dependent liquid. Water. *Slurp* *Slurp* *Slurp* *Sigh*
You know why this cactus is all lopsided? We were praying one day, and someone backed up into it, and it fell on the ground. All the dirt came out. :-( It could've been me, it might've been me, it probably was me, but you'll never know, now will you?
I always wondered why cactuses have spikes. Maybe it's cause they don't WANT you to steal the water in them, and yet you do it anyway. Hey cactus! Let me tell you something... We can't last without water for more than 3 days, but you can last for 7 years with all the water inside you! Give us humans a break! And just WHY do you have a flower on top of you? It tempts us even more!
I don't like spikes, but these don't hurt very much. You know those leaves that you find on garden bushes? Those are the ones that hurt. And they're so shiny too!
I've gotta go now. I need to finish all my work if I want to play RuneScape tonight!

Our Couch

I know it's old, you don't have to tell me. My parents have had it since they got married, which was like 18 years ago. And we have another one exactly like it, only longer. They are so comfortable. On this one, I can only fit longways if my legs are stretched out while I sit up, but on the other one I can lay down fully stretched out.
These couches seem so comforting. Their design and color are so warm, and they are so soft. Each one consists of one long base pillow, two large pillows for the back, and two smaller ones for the sides. When I sleep, I like to use the large pillows, but the small ones will do.
We have had several incidents with these couches. My mom hates that Silly Putty stuff, and for a reason. We had guests over one day, about 5 years ago, and we were playing with Silly Putty. After everyone had left, Mom might've been cleaning up, and she saw Silly Putty smeared all over the couch cushion. She was maaaad. Really mad. Since then she has forbidden us to ever, ever, EVER play with Silly Putty. Sheesh.
These couches are so old, that the stuffing is falling out. So my mom sewed up one of the zippers of the base cushions. I never really could figure out why. I think it's because we liked to unzip them and pull out all the stuffing, and then we'd get it everywhere. Teeheehee.
The base cushions are wonderful for making clubhouses and sleds. Our stairs aren't that tall, but it's fun to take the cushion and sit on it at the top of the stairs, and then push off. WHEEEEE!!!!!! I did that a lot when I was little.
The couches are just full of beautious memories. Sleepovers, fun, clubhouses, fun, fun, and fun. I might want to get new ones, but I'll never forget all the things we've done with these.

Monopoly

Did you know that Monopoly is the top selling board game of all time? You probably did. Did you ever wonder why people like it so much? Probably not. All I do know is that it is the awesomest game ever. And, yes, I know I said awesomest.
Monopoly is just a fun way to attempt to get richer and richer. Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you don't. It's all about luck. Whenever I play, I always have to have the dark blues, greens, yellows, reds, and railroads. I don't usually end up with all of them, but I need some of them. It's also fun to rip people off. I'll have something that the other player wants, and they'll have something that I want. We exchange. I'm really good at bargaining. Especially when I need something that is worth more than what they need. And every now and then I'll give up valuable property so that I can get enough money. I also play by the Free Parking rule where you receive money when you land on it. That's not an official rule, but I still use it anyway. It keeps me from going broke.
The only problem is that when I try to buy all the expensive properties, I end up mortgaging some of the valuable ones. I always lose money because in the beginning I buy less expensive ones to use for bargaining. I think it's a good strategy though.
The most despicable space of all is the Income Tax space. When you pass go, you obviously expect to get 200 bucks, but if you end up on the Income Tax space, you don't get that! Unless you do 10% which ends up to be less than $200 ONLY on your first turn, unless you have no properties and a little bit of money. It's too much math to do anyway.
I like Monopoly, and unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family who does, except my dad, but he only likes the original. He hates variants of any sort. So if I get really lucky, someone will come over and want to play with me. Last week this girl came over twice and she played it with me almost all the time. I was happy then. I think we played around 4 games, and we each won twice.

RuneScape

Okay, so maybe you haven't heard about Second Life, but your social life must be non-existent if you haven't heard about RuneScape. I mean, it's probably the most popular MMORPG for people from the ages of 9 to, say, 18. And even adults play it! If you get yourself an account, it's not hard to see why. I mean, look, it's got all these different skills you can attempt to get good at, things to fight, places to go, and if you are a member, all that is doubled! I just got my membership two days ago, and I am pleased with the results. It is only 5 dollars a month, and you get loads of added stuff. More skills, places, monsters, and a lot of cooler things.
I've been on RuneScape for about four years, and I love it. I stopped playing for a 6 month period because I thought it was boring, and meanwhile my brother advanced all his levels. So I started catching up with him. Now I'm trying to slay this evil dragon that keeps killing me, and I think I've finally worked out how to do it. Strength potions!!!
This person in the picture is obviously me. You're probably thinking, "Blue hair? Where'd you get that crazy idea?!" But you oughta know that I wanted to try something different. I was kinda sick of brown. So I paid 2000 coins to redo my hair. And I intend for it to stay this way. Teeheehee. The armour that I'm wearing is adament. The highest you can get is dragon, but only rich or lucky people can get that. I have about 56k in my RS bank account. (I used to have somewhere close to 90k, but I spent it all on this armour). So you get the point.
Now, if you think I'm wasting my time playing this game, you oughta think about the educational aspects. The game shows how people lived in medieval times, and it shows how they made all their items. Sure, it may not be THAT accurate, but we get the general idea, thank you. There also is a lot of mythology, but that's typical for any medieval game, or book for that matter.
So if you don't have a RS account, go get yourself one at, where else?, http://www.runescape.com/ and if you do have one, good for you. You know how I feel about the whole parent abolishment of our valuable games. All I can say is that I know RuneScape will be around for another couple decades. Just as long as people don't stop playing.

Rubik's Cube

Do you know how hard it is to actually solve these things? You have no idea. You may think that all you have to do is locate the colors and move them to the right place. That may be the case, but you have to do it WITHOUT messing up all the others you already did. Sound easy now?
I'll give you a couple hints on how to solve it, in case there are any of you out there who bought the cube without the cheat sheet. Sorry, but how else was I supposed to figure it out?
First, solve the green cross. Then do the green corners. Next, solve the bottom two rows of every color except blue, because of course, blue is on top. Then solve the blue cross. And then solve all the rest. Not too easy, huh? I'm sure if you go onto the internet there'll be something more helpful than this.
The only advice I can really give you is that once you get the cheats, keep trying, because unless you're a super genius, I can guarantee that you'll have to start over at least twice. I know I did. I kept getting to this one step, and then messing up. It was really annoying.
I have memorized how to solve this, although it took me awhile. Now I'm just bored of it. I think I'm gonna go find myself the 4x4 Rubiks. I wonder how hard that'll be...

The OLD iPod

Okay, so maybe it's not THAT old, but compared to all the new ones with the colors, it looks old. I mean, really, if you compared this old Shuffle with the new one, you'd see a lot of differences.
One, this is a lot taller than the new one. The new Shuffle is about an inch by 3/4 of an inch. Amazing. Two, this one only comes in white, even though you can get colored covers for it like I did. The new ones come in, how many colors? Let's see, there's blue, purple, gray, black, orange, green, and a whole bunch of others that I can't name right now. And three, at least this one can connect to a computer without you having to search for a USB cord. There's already a connecter built into it on the bottom. The new one requires a cord. HA!
I'm probably the only one with this Shuffle nowadays, mostly because it doesn't make sense to get a new one when yours already works perfectly. People will go out and buy new electronics, just because they're there. They'll make the excuse, "Oh, everyone else has one! I'll be so different if I don't get one RIGHT NOW!" And you know what? People are just wasting their money because in about three years, if you can bear to wait that long, the price will go WAYYY down. Or so my dad says. But he can only talk because he WON his three iPods by doing something for his work. Whatever it was.
And then I meet people who have more iPods than they do family members. WHY? What's the point of that? Nobody's gonna use them. Maybe you should sell them on eBay and see if anyone will buy a used iPod. I highly doubt it though.
What is the world coming to? Everyone has to go spend money on useless things. Only poor people know the real value of money. Someday, a lot of people will be poor because they're buying a lot of useless junk that never helped anyone. You'll see.

It's Nice To Be Organized...

Yes, I know it's been a long time, but superior bloggists like me have to take breaks every once in awhile, you know. So anyway, all Christmas week I was away in South Carolina and Georgia, and I kinda sorta had to help watch at least 30 kids. There was a big religious event in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and most of the parents had to go for three days into seclusion. So I, along with two other girls, my dad, and this other guy, had to watch all the kids.
Anyway, after that was FINALLY over, we had to drive five hours to Atlanta, Georgia, which is farther from Moncks Corner than it is from Charlotte, which I find scary. So while we were there, I went with my mom and her two friends to a Swedish furniture store called IKEA. It was really amazing, and I was so jealous of all the people who could afford all the cool stuff. Way over at the end of all the displays, there was a children's section with toys and such, and I found these containers that can be hung from the wall. I put it in my bed, and it has organized my stuff so much! I have a dresser-top that I use for all my stuff, but lately it has been really messy. When I found this, I was so excited! And yes, I solved the Rubik's Cube all by myself.
I also found a mesh one, kind of like this, but it is layered like an apartment building, so I use it for all my small stuffed animals.
These are so helpful! Now I finally have an easy-access place for all my stuff! I used to have to go open a flip-top box that is under a whole bunch of stuff, but now I just have to know which compartment my stuff is in! Easy shmeesy! IKEA is an absolutely wonderful store! And one is coming to Charlotte! Yay!