A Basket of Fruit

I think I've heard a nursery rhyme like that somewhere. I just can't remember where. But anyway...
This is, obviously, a picture of a basket of fruit. Now, you may not think much of it, but fruit is very important. You have to have a lot of it to stay fit. Of course, the last time I had pure fruit was probably, oh, I don't know, a week ago? Today I had a cup of V8 juice. The bottle said 8 oz of the juice is equal to your full serving of fruits and vegetable.
I remember when I was in first grade I had this student teacher, who funnily enough turned out to be the mom of my little sister's student teacher 3 or 4 years later. But what I really learned from her is that contrary to popular opinion, tomatoes and cucumbers are NOT vegetables. Even though they are made to seem that way, especially among the Veggie Tales shows. Tomatoes and cucumbers are fruits. Why? Because they have seeds. Vegetables don't have seeds.
Although cucumbers and tomatoes are prepared as vegetables, mostly because they are not sweet like normal fruits, (I just looked this up because I was confused a bit), they have been classified as fruits because of their seeds. A vegetable is an edible part of a plant. A fruit is a plant itself, or it grows off of a vine. At least, that's how I put it. I could be describing it wrong, but oh well.
I'm staring at Sham sleeping right now, and you know what's weird? Isn't it weird that when your lungs expand, it's the bottom of your chest that goes up, instead of the lung part. Weird, huh?
But back to the subject. Vegetables are all kind of bitter, and tomatoes and cucumbers are called vegetables because they are prepared like vegetables. In salads and such. Honestly, have you ever seen a tomato or cucumber in a fruit salad? No way. They're way to bitter.
So there goes my persuasive "essay" on how cucumbers and tomatoes are NOT vegetables. It wasn't an assignment or anything, but what else do I write about in a blog that is getting more and more boring to write?
I'm so tired. I went to bed at 12:45 and woke up at 9 because I had to take a bath. My legs were KILLING me. I don't know if it is another growth spurt, or what. All I know is that my legs were so sore, I could barely walk.
Time to go. Time to maybe take an hour long nap. I'll still be done by 2:30, with the main work anyway. Bye!

Marbles!

Probably one of the most fun games to play when you are bored. There are many different ways to play marbles, but my favorite is the classic game Ringer. You make a cross of 13 marbles in the middle of a 10 foot cjrcle, and you have to try and get as many out as possible.
I was never good at shooting marbles, mostly because you really have to get used to holding the shooter properly. But I finally figured it out, so now I can hit my target most of the time.
You know what's weird? Imaginon sells marbles. And it's a library. I was surprised when I saw that big ol' wooden container of marbles over in the corner, with little purple bags hanging above it. Moby and I each got one bag of marbles, including a shooter. We never really played with them, but I'm starting to practice now.
These marbles are from the dollar store. 100 normal marbles and 2 shooters. The problem with these is that they're all the same. No colors at all, just glass. There's no way to tell any of them apart.
The ones I got at Imaginon are all sorts of colors. There are speckled orange, dark blue, white and black, red white and blue, and all sorts more.
We always play marbles inside, but since we can't use chalk or anything to mark the ground, we take a piece of string and make it a circle. It may not be as big as it's supposed to be, but so what? We're playing inside.
Yesterday I stayed up till 12:30 watching Atonement. I think we got lucky because my dad asked the guy behind the desk if there were any copies left, and the guy handed him one that just got back. Yay! All in all, it was a good movie, kind of sad, but good. It had a nice lesson too. I think maybe I'll go find the book at the library.
Guess what today is... Mommy's birthday! She's gonna be 38! Yay for Mommy! YaSeen's birthday is next, on April 28, exactly one month later.
Gotta go. I know this is a short post, but it's Friday! Everyone wants to stop doing work and go have fun on Spring Break! And I've been writing for thirty minutes too. So toodeloo!

Yet ANOTHER Star Wars Game...

Only this time, it is the all-time bestselling Star Wars game. Star Wars Battlefront 2. Full of action, fighting, and a whole lot more. It is a remake of the first Star Wars Battlefront, with a lot more stuff added. I've never actually played the first one, so I wouldn't know, but people have told me.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 follows the story of the 501st regiment of clone troopers. We are told the story from one of the troopers. The first level is the beginning of the Clone Wars, Geonosis. Then, the rest of the war goes through Mygeeto, Felucia, Kashyyyk, Utapau, and Coruscant. But that's not the whole game. That is just the war. Next we have the part where the clones become stormtroopers. Then we fight on Naboo, Mustafar, Kamino, Death Star, Polis Massa, Tantive IV, Yavin 4, and Hoth.
Some of the fighting and places you have seen in the Star Wars movies. Others are from books. But there are plenty of things to do. And that is just the campaign mode, where you have certain objectives.
My favorite part of the game is Galactic Conquest. This is where you choose a side, and you travel throughout the galaxy trying to conquer every planet. If you can defend or capture a planet, then you get money, and you use that money to buy more people or special bonuses, or even create a new fleet so that you can get more places faster. You can be Stormtroopers, Rebels, Droids, or Clones. I just finished being Rebels and winning, and now I'm trying to be the droids.
There is also Instant Action, where you choose a planet and you can capture the flag, try to take it over, hunt invaders with the natives, and several other things, but it is INSTANT. You don't save or anything, you just play it. No objectives or anything. Just a violent way to mess around.
The thing about this game is that in the Campaign, it shows the whole war from the bad guys' point of view. All we got in the movies was the point of view of the Jedi, Senators, and Rebels. I mean, obviously we all knew kind of what the stormtroopers and clones were thinking, but we never really paid all that much attention. In this game we get the feeling of what the clones were thinking throughout all that fighting. Like on Yavin 4, all the stormtroopers cared about was avenging those lost in the Death Star explosion. They only wanted revenge. Otherwise, they wouldn't have attacked. And they did have feelings. On Felucia, after leaving, the clone speaking said that he hoped Aayla Secura died quickly, because she deserved that much, implying that he knew the Great Jedi Purge was coming, and he cared about the treachery.
All in all, I think this is a good game for Star Wars fans and video game fans. It's got lots of video game elements, and lots of Star Wars elements, although it IS a Star Wars video game. Gotta go now. Bye!!!

Just a Cabinet...

Or IS it? Looks more like a cabinet filled with clothes to me. Doll clothes. Or maybe that's just because it's in my room. But anyway, that thing is chock full of all sorts of freaky doll clothes and accessories. Specifically American Girl stuff. I remember quite a few of the things in there.
My all time favorite doll dress in there was a limited edition 2003 dress. The dress is red velvet with a little sequined snowflake at the bottom. It comes with red velvet slippers with bows and a white leather coat with faux fur trimmings. Originally it came with accessories, a tiara, a red velvet hand purse, pearl earrings and a necklace, but when we bought the dress, the accessories were all sold out.
That is one of three dresses that I bought from the American Girl company, unless you count the one that came with the doll. One of the other dresses was kind of what a girly girl would wear on the first day of school. It was a skirt, shirt, and cardigan. The skirt was purple corduroy with star shaped pockets. It had these colorful ruffles at the bottom which I noticed were attached to the skirt with buttons, so they were removable. The shirt was light purple, and the ends of the long sleeves were layered and wide, and by wide I mean sort of spread out, not all tight and close fitting, I've just forgotten the word for it. The cardigan was turquoise, my favorite color, with embroidered flowers, and layered so that one end of it buttoned to the other, and the other end had a piece of string on it, so it came around a bit and tied to another string. It's hard to explain, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, sorry. The outfit also came with shoes. They were purple, shiny and smooth, and clog-like, in the way where the soles were clogs. They were like slippers, only that there was an elastic on the back to keep them on the doll's feet.
I have no clue why I'm talking in the past tense, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to talk present tense, for some reason.
The last outfit that I got was meant for my doll. All the others didn't have a specific doll that they belonged with. This one was a probably modeled off of a Spanish design. It started with a long shirt with elbow length sleeves trimmed with ruffles, and on top of that goes a skirt. The top of the skirt was white, and separated by a green ribbon, the bottom was turquoise with black ribbon designs at the end, and white dots scattered throughout. The shoes were just plain old turquoise slippers.
I used to love American Girl dolls when I was younger. Now, I'm not going to buy anything else, but there is no way you're going to get me to give away my old doll. I'm saving it for my daughter. Hopefully I will have one, and I'll give the doll to her, and she'll give it to her daughter, and so on. Maybe one day the doll will be worth a fortune and people will come and offer to buy it, but my great great granddaughter will say, "NO WAY! My great great grandmother got this as a present for fasting when she was eight, and there is no way you'll get it." If it even lasts that long.
I'm so tired. Yesterday I went to bed at 11:30, and woke up at 9:30 and I'm STILL TIRED!!!!! Gosh, my body is lazy. It shouldn't need THAT much sleep.
On Monday we went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. My dad is picky about movies, cause he doesn't like a lot of the ones that I do. He says they're stupid. I like National Treasure though. It's exciting, and it may never actually happen, but treasure hunting movies are awesome, especially ones with clues all over national monuments.
Time to go now. Time is up, and I got started late. TTYL!!

The Magic Encyclopedia

No, it's not an encyclopedia that is magic, it is an encyclopedia OF magic. Magic tricks, that is. It's got all sorts of crazy string, card, coin, hanky, rope, and ring tricks. It's absolutely wonderful. Especially when you have nothing to do.
My favorite tricks are the card ones. Most of the time, all you need is a deck of cards. Every now and then you may need to get an extra one, or you may need an old deck that you can write on, but most of the time, all you need is one deck. New cards work the best because you can bend and shuffle them well. Card tricks normally involve guessing a card or finding one.
Rope tricks, those are fun. All you ever need is a rope and a ring. A couple ropes might do it, because you might be cutting one in half. Rope tricks involve tying and removing without taking out the knot, untangling it, or getting it through the ring. Fun fun.
Coin tricks are not all that easy to come by. I mean, sure, there are some out there, but most of them are not all that good. It's rare to actually come by a REALLY good coin trick that nobody can figure out. Cause coin tricks are easy to figure out. But they're still really fun.
I love magic tricks. It's especially fun when you have an audience of little kids because they're all like "How did you DO that?!" and they almost never figure it out. Wheras big kids (*cough* Moby) want you to do it over again until they know how to do it. Or they just ruin all the fun trying to examine every bit of equipment. My fun tricks have been ruined that way. Next time I'll just have to do everything on a table and not let anybody come up to it without permission.
I also love mind tricks. You know, the ones where you guess what the person has written down, or what they're thinking. Especially ones that involve math. Love those.
I remember one time a couple years ago, it was some school break, and I did this big magic show thingy for all my brothers and sisters. They weren't enthusiastic volunteers, but I bribed them with one of those M&m dispenser machines. The ones where you pull a lever and out pops a couple m&ms. We have two, which are both in my dad's office at work. One of them was the yellow M&m guy sitting in a chair with a remote. If you lift the hand holding the remote, the bottom of the chair opens and lets out a few m&ms. The other one was the blue M&m guy playing the saxophone. If you lift up the sax, the floor opens up and lets out a couple candies.
Time to publish this and go. Two minutes left. See ya'll Wednesday, cause Monday and Tuesday is a break! Hopefully! Bye bye!

Awwwwww...

Isn't that just sweet? The two cats that are always fighting can finally put their differences aside and sleep on the same rug. Wow. They've done it before, but eventually one of the cats wakes up, and then notices the other one and pounces on him or her. And then that cat wakes up, and they get in a big fight which ends up in Sham running away. Usually.
We all think that Sham has a crush on Sam, if that's even possible with cats. She's always stalking him, whacking his face, and trying to catch his tail. I mean, she's not that annoying. Okay, maybe she is, but STILL. What other reason would she have for doing all that stuff?
This is the favorite spot for the cats. The sheepskin in our room. I don't know where we got it, all I know is that it's been around for years, and that cats like it. Which is weird, because how can they feel something soft if their whole body is covered by soft, warm fur? I guess they can't feel that. All they feel of their fur is the skin. And lying on something soft makes them feel cozier. Who knows?
Sham has this weird thing she likes to do. If she sleeps in my room, at 6:10 to 6:30 in the morning, she climbs in my bed if she's not already there, and starts finding an exposed part of my body, and tackling it. Biting, pouncing, you name it. It always wakes me up. And I try to go back to sleep, but if she sees that I'm up, she'll start trying to claw my face and eat my hair. Eww.
So then I go open the door and let her out. She runs downstairs to eat, and then I throw a cat treat outside and she runs after it. I quickly shut the door and go back to sleep. Evil cat. Waking me up for that. Well, at least now I know she'll never pee in the house.
You know what we need? A cat flap. Sure, it's a lot of work, but it'll be useful. I mean, it might be tough to go buy a cat flap, cut out a section of the door, and then fit the flap, but I'll never have to let the cats out again. Ever.
10 whole minutes left! Well, while I'm bored, let's talk about probably the most anticipated episode of, you guessed it, LOST.
Sooo, Michael's back, and we all want to know why. We also want to know who is going to die, but everyone has already taken a guess at Claire, because, why else would Kate have Aaron? Come ON, people! Claire would never willingly give away her kid. Honestly.
We also want to know why Michael is on that freighter, and why he's calling himself Kevin Johnson. And why is he working as a janitor?!! Ewww. That's one job that I will never have!
Oh well. I will be watching at 9 pm, mark my words. And with a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and frozen strawberries, too. Yummy.
5 minutes left. What else do I write about? I guess I could say that I'm reading the very educational book "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". Very disturbing, yet very educational. What will I have to read next?
I'm gonna publish this. Two minutes left, anyway. Bye!

Our Newly Fixed Computer

It took a long while, but it finally got fixed. FINALLY. Ohmigod. So now we have five workable computers in the house. And one computer for fun games. Like Lego Star Wars and Star Wars Battlefront. Yippee.
I love Star Wars Battlefront. It's so fun, it's got all the action, and the best part is, I am SOOOOO better at it than Moby. And he knows it.
There's Lego Star Wars, which is also fun. Little Lego Jedi running around killing Lego droids and later, stormtroopers. Little Lego people with guns shooting droids and stormtroopers, and every now and then, a Lego Wookiee with a crossbow shooting at whatever is in sight. Fun fun.
There's The Hobbit which is a remake of the Hobbit book. Extended chapters/levels and a whole lot of action.
Roller Coaster Tycoon is sort of fun, but every now and then it gets kinda boring. I mean, sure it's fun to try and run a mega-hit theme park and all, but it gets kinda boring after awhile. With trying to maintain all the employees, keep your money going, and keep stupid virtual kids from throwing up on the ground, it's really hard to keep on going, but I guess that's what makes it so fun.
Do you know how much work it took to get this computer fixed? Well, seeing as I slacked off a bit, I guess it's kind of my fault, but still. We had to recover all the pictures from the broken hard drive, then we had to get a new hard drive, then we had to install it, then we had to reinstall Windows, then we had to reinstall all the drivers, and so on and so on. But it's finally fixed.
I can't wait till school is over!! Then we may just be able to get back on the computer, just so long as certain chores are done.
I think it's about time to go now. Byebye!!

Crayons...

This is a box of crayons. Yes, crayons. But I think a lot of people can see that. There are a whole bunch of crayons in there. Collected and piled up for years and years. And it's not just crayons, either. It's got pencils, scissors, markers, colored pencils, sharpeners, almost anything you can think of that you can use to draw. There's probably scraps of paper in there too.
Now, just to make this post longer, I shall describe each item in detail.
Crayons are round chunks of wax that are colored. They are used to fill in the lines of a drawing. The most popular brand of crayons in this family is Crayola.
Pencils are round, tall chunks of wood with harmless lead in them. They used to have harmful lead in them, but I think all the deaths made them stop doing that. Pencils are mainly used to write words or draw pictures. If you do it right, you can also fill in a drawing and make it look shiny. Most pencils require sharpening, but mechanical pencils are plastic and have removable sticks of lead. You normally push the eraser in and the lead starts coming out.
Colored pencils are, well, pencils with colored lead. Useful when you don't really have any crayons, or you don't want the waxy feeling on your paper. These also require sharpening.
Markers are plastic tubes with colored ink in them. Just put the tip on a piece of paper, and out comes the ink. The problem with markers is that the ink seeps through to the other side of the paper, sometimes getting on other surfaces, but luckily, most markers have washable ink.
Scissors are used to slice and cut pretty much anything bendable and flat. But mostly paper. They can also be used by little kids to cut up clothes, which my sister did once, and she got in big trouble for it, too. We are always trying to think up ways to invent scissors that cut a perfect circle, but none of them will ever work.
Paper is the white thing made from trees that is used in almost every craft project. Sometimes it is colored. That is called construction paper. Paper can be cut, torn, drawn on, written on, you can basically do almost anything with it, including making paper hats. Most paper is rectangular in shape, but you can cut it into a square, or whatever you want it to be.
So that is my description of everything in that box known as "The Crayon Box" for years and years. Every now and then it spills, and you can guess what happens then, but usually it is very useful when you are looking for a certain shade of a color, because I'll bet you that there is at least one of every single darn color in that box. You just have to look hard enough.
You may think it is impossible to lose a box, but think again. We've lost this box many, many times, mostly because people bring it places like the kitchen table and don't put it back, instead putting it under the library shelf and leaving it there. Or under the bed. And so on.
Time to go. I think this is long enough, don't you? Maybe you're getting a bit tired of reading it. So, ta-ta for now!!

Just an Egg...

It's almost Easter, so here come the eggs. Just like this one. I'm just having one issue...
What do eggs have to do with Jesus being raised to life again, or so the Christians say? I mean, c'mon. EGGS?! COLORED AND DYED EGGS?! Where do people get these crazy ideas? And for all of you out there who believe that there is actually a rabbit that hops around and gives out free chocolate eggs, you've got issues. No offense or anything, but, I mean, come on now!
Well, I don't care if an egg is the symbol of Easter. I just like all the candy! It's so cheap at Wal-Mart; three bucks for a pound of solid chocolate!!!!! Yay!!!
I remember when I was in the three lower grades of elementary school, we would always have an Easter egg hunt, and I remember that I always got the least. Or maybe they purposely put out three eggs for each kid. Oh well. I was never good at finding things. I'm still not very good at it.
I like the Easter events on RuneScape. I actually like all the holiday events on RuneScape. It gives me something to do. Now that we have the computer downstairs fixed, I can go back to playing the fun games. Like Lego Star Wars and Star Wars Battlefront. Those are awesome. Forget RuneScape.
Too bad it's Monday. Mommy left for Africa on Saturday, and now we have two weeks, in the house with Daddy. Ugh. At least last time we were in a car on the road.
What to write about? 10 minutes left. WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE 10 MINUTES LEFT WHEN I GET WRITER'S BLOCK???!!! Maybe I should just sit here and do nothing again, but Daddy said 30 minutes, no exceptions. I could bore you with my descriptions of my family life, but nobody wants to hear about that. Nobody actually wants to hear anything about my life. I don't even want to hear about my life, it's so boring.
I guess I'll go now. It's not my fault that I've taken a picture of all the interesting things already. And I'm not going to do something again. So buh-bye now.

A Plant

This plant is, like, ancient. I've got no idea when we got it, all I know is that it's been in this house since I can remember. And it never stops growing. We water it every couple weeks, and two months ago it was touching the ground.
Plants go through phases where they look like they're dying, but they're not really. This one had all the bottom leaves turn brown and look like they're about to break off, but it was only the bottom that was really dead. So we cut that off.
There are times when I'm sitting in the chair right next to it, and I'll start fiddling with the leaves, and before I know it, one of them will have torn in half. Ouch.
Moby was messing around with it one day and he pulled a stem out. Totally out of the pot. I knew he'd be in a lot of trouble if he got caught, so I put it back in so that it looked like it never came out, being the nice sister that I am. The only problem we'll have is when it starts turning brown cause it's really dead. What to do then?
This is just one of the ancient things we have around. We also have this black bird "statue" that has birds all stacked up on top of each other. It moves too. Let's see...
We've got this large bottle that we use for coins for charity, no idea how long that's been around, this large, bamboo is it?, basket that we use for baby books, oh! and we have this octagonal table that my dad's aunt gave us. That thing has been around, probably since my parents were married. There's probably a lot more ancient stuff around this house, I'm just not really wanting to think of it all. It is Friday, after all.
Yesterday's Lost was absolutely wonderful, and much much better than the week before, which was horrible. This week was crazy, and they writers did something really weird this time. A mystery was solved which we all kind of knew the answer to anyway, and we found out how evil one of the characters really is. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!
Agh, 6 minutes left and I don't know what else to write. Hellllp me. Oh wait, yesterday I had a lot of fun on the trampoline. But that's not news, cause I always have fun on the trampoline. We played Jackpot and Monkey in the Middle, and we stopped playing MITM cause Moby wouldn't quit purposely throwing the ball over the net. Sometimes he acts like such a little kid. Oh wait, make that always. He's not even up out of bed yet and I woke him up an hour ago. Oh well, he'll have to suffer the consequences of working late.
Time for me to go. See ya'll next week!

Aluminum Foil

Is it aluminum foil? No actually, it's not. It's a ginormous chocolate bunny rabbit wrapped up in aluminum foil. It was three dollars at Wal-Mart. They were having an Easter candy sale, and almost all the good stuff was less then three dollars. Except there was this foot-long solid chocolate rabbit for fourteen dollars, but nobody could ever eat that.
We may not celebrate Easter, but who says we can't eat the Easter candy? Candy is good. I got Reese's eggs, Dove truffles, and this chocolate rabbit. They were selling Pez and Pez dispensers too. Some people wanted to get Fun Dip, but that stuff is just pure flavored sugar. Pure.
The problem with candy is that it is so good, but it's not at all good for you. And then you have the vegetables that are nasty, but very good for you. Why can't they ever make the good stuff taste good and the bad stuff taste bad? I guess it's because you can't get everything good.
I also like potato chips and onion dip. Now that is a totally horrible-for-you snack. Lets see, it's got sour cream, potato chips, onion dip mix, what could get worse than that?!
I'm tired again, which is weird because I went to bed at midnight. Oh well. What may be a part of it is that Sham sleeps in my bed every night, and she wakes me up at exactly 6:11 every morning cause she's hungry. And then she needs to go out. I don't know why it's at that specific time, but it always is. She nips really hard.
Guess what tonight is... LOST!!!!! Hahahahahahaha!!! And in this one, somebody is going to die. Only I hope it's not Claire. If I'm going to be able to watch this, I need to take another nap. And tonight I need to really try to go to bed at 11 or 11:30 so that I won't be tired.
I cannot believe that my mom is leaving for Africa on Saturday morning. And I'm not going. Grrrrr. Not fair.
What else do I write about? I've still got 10 minutes. Of course, I could gripe about how boring my life is, but that's not interesting at all. I could gripe about how my brothers and sisters make random comments about me when I didn't even do anything. Moby: "Nobody likes you." Maryam: "You're mean." AND I DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!!!!! Agh, I hate being the oldest. Not to mention that I can't relate to either of my parents.
I need a good book to read. I just finished The Butterfly Revolution, and I thought that it was kind of like Animal Farm. Those books freak me out. I hate reading about dictatorships and stuff like that, cause I'm scared it's all gonna happen to the US. And I'd rather it not.
I'm so tired. I'm about to fall asleep right here on the chair. I think I need to publish this and turn in for an hour. I only have five minutes left anyway. Yep, I think it's time to go. Bye bye.

Another iPod!!!

Except this time it's smaller, and colored. Yes, it's the brand-new iPod Shuffle. Okay, so maybe it's not all that new, but in my standards it is, because I've been walking around with a long iPod for 3 years. Let's see how I ended up with this.
Well, when I was 10 or so, I needed something to carry music around in, and, unfortunately, what else is better than the company that does all the advertising? Apple. They advertise iPods a lot. You almost never see any ads for mp3 players. So anyway, I bought mine, took it home, installed it, registered it, put music on it, and I was listening to it 24/7. Well, almost. So then I went to Africa, and I was allowed to bring it, but only for the plane.
After we got back, I barely ever used it. I was so used to not listening to music. I just sort of, gave up. But then I saw my Dad. He won two iPods by doing some sort of survey or something for his job. He won a black iPod nano, and an orange iPod shuffle, this one. Now, when my friend's dad comes over, he's always trying to make a point about how you shouldn't have more iPods in the house than you do people. So I'm thinking, "You have two iPods, so you can't really talk." So two days ago he brings back up a topic which we've been discussing for awhile. Or I brought it up. He says that if I give Moby my iPod for Quran, he'll give me his orange one. So I go and erase the music on both of them, and give Moby mine. So now I have an almost brand new iPod, which I listened to for the first time yesterday.
The thing is, I'm a neat-freak. If this iPod gets all scratched up, I'm gonna be way mad. Oh well, too bad. Nothing good lasts forever.
My left pointer finger is very tender. Yesterday I was playing the guitar, and trying to get the D7 chord, and boy oh boy, that chord is tough to get to. You've got to squeeze your fingers together, and the whole note is on skinny strings. Skinny steel strings. Owwy wowwoww!!! I thought callusses were supposed to form, not tender fingertips, although I can kind of feel some callusses.
I'm tired. I stayed up till 1:30 last night watching The Kingdom with my parents. It was a good movie. Kind of scary. But kind of weird too. It was kind of like Rendition, but then again, not really. They were both about war. And trying to solve a mystery. And suicide bombings. Ouch.
I cannot believe I still have 11 minutes left. Why do I have to do this for half an hour?!!! There's not even anything left to write about. Nothing! Oh wait, I know!!
My brother has recently gotten into the Harry Potter books, when before, every single person, including him, thought I was crazy for liking them so much. And now I think I should hide the Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows until the movies come out so that he has to wait. He never liked them before, even after seeing the movies. He only liked it after my dad made him read the first one. He hates reading, so he was moaning and groaning the whole time. In a month, he has almost finished five books. In a year, I'd read them all about three times. Which is why I got banned from them. =(
We finally got our hard drive for the other computer that broke. Now we just have to fix it, DADDY!!! And then we have to install everything all over again. Annoying, but hey, at least we'll have a computer.
I'm really wanting to go somewhere fun today. I don't know why, because I usually despise going anywhere. But I guess today is different. Maybe it's because Daddy's on spring break.
Time to go, publish this post. It's getting too long. And now I have to sleep for an hour cause I'm TIRED!! Then I'm gonna read The Butterfly Revolution. Tata!!

Walkie-Talkies

A.K.A. Two way radios, only I'm not quite sure what the difference is. I mean, they both do the same thing, help communicate within a small range, but so what? They're so cool. And there's a fun game you can play with them too.
You take some fake guns or Nerf Guns or something, and then you run around the house trying to follow someone and shoot them, but you have to keep in touch with your partner so that you both know where the person is. And then you can be a double-agent and sneak up behind your partner and shoot them to their fake death. Ouch.
So anyway, I think we were having problems with these before. Or maybe it's because I didn't know that the mike was a teeny hole above the speakers. And the speakers are huge. So I thought that one of the mikes was busted, because one would go through, and one wouldn't. But when my dad got back from his conference thing, he fixed it, somehow. So that's all worked out.
I think we were using walkie-talkies three years ago when we went on another cross-country trip, this time to the Grand Canyon. We were trying to communicate with the people we were traveling with in the other car, and what better way to do that than walkie-talkies? Sure, the voice sounds horrible nasty and staticish, but so what?
So for those of you who don't know how to use them, I'll give you the basics. To talk into the walkie, you press and hold the button on the side, say what you need to, and then let go of it. To wake the other person up or to get their attention, press the button with the musical note on it, which starts up the ringer. It'll really only work well if the volume is up all the way. To turn the walkie on, you turn the dial up on the top left. The farther left it is, the higher the volume. Now, here's the most important part. Say that you're at a big party, where every single person has a walkie-talkie, and their all using them at the same time. How come you're not picking up other people's conversations? It all has to do with channels.
Channels are, well, channels. They change the frequency of the walkies. These ones in the picture have sub-channels as well, so that it makes it harder for other people to find your channel. To change channels, press the menu button once, and then press the + and - buttons to go up or down. Then if you hit the menu button again, you get to the sub-channels. Press the + or - buttons to change that. Then if you hit the menu button again, you end up being able to change the ringer. Use the same + and - buttons. If you hit it again, there's something else to change, I'm just not really sure what. Hit it again, and you're back where you started.
So that's how you work it. It's not hard at all really, just takes a bit of getting used to.
Do you smell Spaghetti-Os? Cause I do. And it's annoying. I keep smelling them, and now I think I'm going crazy. I despise Spaghetti-Os. They are the nastiest things ever. I know they are classic American dinners, but I hate them. The smell gross, they taste gross, they even look gross!
Agh! I need my dad to fix my text messaging plan, and he tried to last night, but the Sprint people put it on the wrong phone!!! Help me!!!! Idiotic people, they only care about getting the money from working late. And now I need to inform my friends not to send my a text, but how am I supposed to do that if I can't text or talk till after 7? Oh boy.
I'm tired. Really tired. I was up late burning CDs onto iTunes, and now I really want to go to sleep. Aghhhhh!!!!!
I think I'll go now. This post is long enough. I've been working almost half an hour, I can stop. =)

Hairclips

So useful, and yet, so annoying. I mean, these aren't the ones that you'll wear during the day; they're more for styling. But they're really annoying, especially when I don't know how to separate layers of hair.
These things were a dollar at Target. Two red, two black, and two white. And I don't really know why I bought them. I don't know how to separate layers of hair; I don't even know how I'm supposed to see the back of my head while I'm straightening it!
The problem with hair is that it's what makes a girl look pretty. If her hair is messed up, so is her image. That's how important it is. Usually it's fine, but every now and then, if you change shampoos or something, it gets really messed up. I guess that's one good reason for wearing a hijab.
My hair is blonde-highlighted, wavy, (although I straighten it), and really dry. Probably from the highlighting and straightening. I have to wash and condition it every night, and it's really annoying. Luckily boys don't have to do that, cause they have short hair.
Oh boy, am I tired. This daylight savings time thing is so annoying. Cause if I go to bed at 11, it's like I'm going to bed at 10, and yet I still wake up at 8:30 no matter when I go to bed. So now I'm dozing off, blinking slowly, and I'm about to fall asleep.
Oh wow I just dozed of there, and my finger started pressing the n-key, and there were a bunch of ns when I woke up. Oh gosh, I haven't been this tired since the day I went to bed at 1 and woke up at 9. I have got to stop flossing late at night. It takes forever!!!
Well, today is Monday. That means a whole week of agonizing school, and then on Saturday, my mom is going to Africa. I wanted to go, but my dad needs me here, and it's too expensive. This week it's my dad's spring break, and ours isn't until April!!!! So tired. So tired. So tired. I think after I'm done, I'll take a 15 minute nap. Just need to stay awake for two more minutes... One more minute.
Agh!!! I can't stay awake. It's so annoying!!! I have to start going to bed much earlier. If I go to bed at midnight, I have to wake up at nine.
Yay, time is up! Time to sleep for awhile. And time to end this.

Lord of the Rings

Possibly some of the best books ever. Only the Lord of the Rings. Those other books I didn't really want in the picture, but I didn't feel like taking them out. I haven't even read "The Art of War." Ewww.
I remember my dad forced me to read "The Fellowship of the Ring" when I was like 7. Obviously, I had no success whatsoever. The first page itself was sooooooooo boring, and there are times I have to read books that I don't understand. Yeah, that was one of those times.
Well, when you're in a foreign country, you get really bored. I think it mostly started when we watched the Lord of the Rings movies in Africa. I had already seen them a million times, but I wanted to read the books. For the first time. So when my mom went back to America, we asked her to get the books. So she got these fancy paperback ones with movie pictures. The text was all the same, though. So I read through them all in about two weeks. I was constantly reading them. And when I was done, they didn't all fit in the box that they'd come in. Cause they'd been thickened out about half an inch each.
When I was done, I read the tale of Aragorn and Arwen over and over again. It was a truly sad thing, but wonderful at the same time. I love love stories. Especially that one.
My dad owes me. He said once that if I read all of the Lord of the Rings books that he likes so much, he'd read all the Harry Potter books that I like. He still hasn't done it. LIAR DADDY!!!!!
Sorry, I had to do that. He he. Anyway, there are plenty of good stories out there, you just have to look hard enough. I was so bored in Africa, and I was able to read a lot of wonderful books. A Wrinkle in Time, Lord of the Rings, Black Beauty, and a few more that I can't remember.
So anyway, let's get into my weekly LOST discussion that I didn't do yesterday cuz the internet was acting up. Yesterday's episode was, unfortunately, one of the worst. It was so boring, and it didn't really answer a whole lot of questions, although it added a bit of backstory. All it gave us was more questions. Grrrr. It did answer one question though, but everyone already knew the answer anyway.
Time to go. Byebye!!!

My Parents' Old Yearbooks

It's so funny that my parents actually want to remember their life in high school. And it's funny that they've lugged these yearbooks all over the East Coast, from Virginia to Florida to North Carolina. I've had a look at these yearbooks, and I've seen my parents' high school pictures.
Let's see, my dad's picture is freaky. He's got long hair, a TIE!, and a weird bowler hat. Ouch.
My mom's picture is REALLY freaky. I mean besides the fact that her face is packed with makeup, her hair is also kinda weird. Her hair is brown, which I can barely remember because for the past two years she's had it red, and the top is curly, while the bottom is straight. It's hard to describe. Like, the top of her head has curly hair on it, and all the rest is straight. Anyway...
My dad went to Santa Fe High School, and my mom went to Springfield Central High School. I have no clue why high schools need to have 3 yearbooks. I suppose it's because there's so many students and staff. Whereas in my yearbooks from elementary school, we have one skinny yearbook. And it's paperback. I wonder how much these ones cost? Maybe they're free. He he.
Some of the yearbooks are from the University of Virginia. I think my parents went to college there, and there's a picture of them on the back of my dad's motorcycle. He used to be a big biker, and his brother still is. My dad probably still would be if my mom didn't freak out every time he rode. Or if we had room for a motorcycle.
I lost one of my yearbooks when I brought it in my mom's friend's car, and then left it there. Her daughter found it, so now it's gone.
So... what do I do now? I mean, besides publish this right at this moment? You know, I think that's just what I'll do.

Another Pirate Book

Here is yet another pirate book. This one is from a series of _____ology books. There's ones about pirates, dragons, fairies, Egypt, mythology, wizards, and more. I've seen them at Sam's Club.
The cool things about these books is that they aren't just for reading. They have all these little pockets, bags, envelopes, and cool things. It's a whole hands-on mania!!!
This one follows the story of a merchant ship. It is basically a diary of the captain, and it contains all the little bits and pieces that he picked up along the way. He is stalked by a pirate ship whose captain is female, only I can't remember who it is. The merchant travels through all sorts of places, constantly followed, and it all ends with his ship being sunk. Throughout the book there are all sorts of booklets, bags, fake coins, and maps. I love the book because it's almost like a real diary, and if I'm ever bored, it's perfect for pretending I'm on a pirate hunt.
I'm so fascinated with pirates. I don't know why. I guess from all the movies and books. It seems like it is such an adventurous life. Although I think I read somewhere that those are just myths, that a pirate's life was really full of struggle, gross food, and lots of fights. Not all the adventure. But hey, we can dream, can't we?
Guess what. This is my 100th post!!! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!! I hope that I get to take a break from this idiotic blogging. It's annoying!!!
You know the worst thing about cold weather? It's getting the sniffles. Right now I have a cold, and it's horrible. I hate them. I like everything else about winter. But in this warm weather, it's cold at night, and I put on two blankets, and when I wake up in the morning, I'm so hot. Agh, it's annoying.
I cannot wait till this weekend. Free time, we're not going anywhere, (hopefully), and Daddy's coming home!!!

Pirates of the Caribbean

Okay, what's probably the most famous modern Disney movie? Not movie, par say, but a trilogy. And no, Lord of the Rings doesn't count as a Disney movie, cause it's not! It's Pirates of the Caribbean. With Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom. That is probably one of the most popular movie series of this age, alongside Lord of the Rings, Shrek, and Toy Story.
What I like so much about these movies is all the different themes. There's romance, action, comedy, and a bit of mystery. For all of you very very very VERY uninformed people, I shall describe each major character.
Captain Jack Sparrow is probably the most famous character. He is played by Johnny Depp. Jack Sparrow is a weird, funny, and according to Tia Dalma, witty person who must always be addressed as Captain or he will get very mad. His desires are first, to get his ship, the Black Pearl back, and next, to kill Davy Jones and save his own soul. Jack is known for using people, conning them, and being sarcastic.
Will Turner, played by Orlando Bloom, is almost like Jack's first mate. He was found as a child by young Elizabeth Swann and her father drifting in the ocean after his ship was destroyed. When he grew up, he fell in love with Elizabeth, but refused to admit it, even though it was really quite obvious. After Elizabeth is captured, he risks his life to save her. In the second movie, he tries to free himself and Elizabeth from jail and the death sentence by getting Jack's compass. In the third movie he tries to help stop the East India Trading Company from destroying all pirates everywhere.
Elizabeth Swann is the governer of Port Royal's daughter, and she was only 12 when she found Will floating in the ocean when she was traveling back from England. After she grows up, she is totally oblivious that Will likes her, but she eventually sees it. In the first movie she is captured by pirates after they see that she has a golden medallion. In the second movie she travels to track down Will after he goes to find Jack. In the third movie she plays a much larger part in protecting piracy from the East India Trading Company.
Captain Hector Barbossa was Jack's first mate, but he led a mutiny and became Captain of the Black Pearl. He found and island which held a chest of cursed treasure, and in the first movie he is trying to get the last piece back that he'd sold. He dies at the end. In the second movie he is only seen at the end, where we see that he has been resurrected. In the third movie he tries to protect piracy.
Now that thirty minutes are up, I'll stop. But for anyone who hasn't seen these movies yet, I highly recommend that you do, or else you're missing out on some films that will be legend in 100 years. Go rent them, watch them, and enjoy them!