Go to my Tumblr!!!!!

I put up a bunch of new pictures! And they're really pretty!

Yes, I think it's high time that I posted

It has been a while. The reasons for this are 1. I had (have) a lot of homework and 2. I was writing a novel, which is now finished. Had I been asked while all of this was going on, my reasons would have been 1. I HAVE A LOT OF FUCKING HOMEWORK SHUT UP and 2. I'M WRITING A FUCKING NOVEL SHUT UP. That said, I do have a lot of thoughts to share if I can remember them (I might not... Think Anna think!)

Um, okay, let's see... Well, I was listening to Panic at the Disco the other day, and I realized that they are not as bad as I had previously thought (I went through a period of obsession, then intense music snobbery, then reconciliation). Their newer CD... can't remember the name of it... has lots of cool experimentation and sounds really cool, plus the lyrics are wonderfully bizarre but also applicable. Like "I don't love you I'm just passing the time/ You could love me if I knew how to lie/ But who could love me I am out of my mind/ Throwing a line out to sea/ To see if I can catch a dream" It sounds better in the song, but I can't remember what it's called right now.

Segway into romantic thoughts. I'll be quick. Team Anna's romance started strong early in the season with a respectable homecoming win. But the team's inability to take it any further and follow up the victory, caused by their crippling shyness and awkwardness in the field, has condemned them to a hopeless season.

Wow, these thoughts are not so profound. I had some, I really did! But I forgot them. Well, I guess I have a bunch of thoughts about the novel I just wrote. Truthfully, it's no good. It's simply written too quickly and without enough thought. Just about everything I did with it was for the sake of the word count I needed. Still, I would definitely not say it was a failure, because it was an interesting experiment. I had never written so quickly and so diligently before. I discovered that I can knock out 500 words in one sitting, sometimes even more if I keep myself focused. And there was something really cool about being in a state of constant creation. I thought about my novel constantly, which is good, even if I was just figuring out the logistics of getting my 2k for that day. I finished early, too.

It's weird, though. I usually write so much more methodically. I spend a long time just thinking about what I'm going to write before I write it. Still, the idea is still about half formed when I start writing. And when I do write, I'm very careful about it. I pay close attention to sentence structure and how it all flows on the page. I mean, I write the story, but I make sure it reads well, or at least I try. I did the exact opposite with the novel. I had no ideas, I just made it up as I went along, writing as quickly as I could and paying absolutely no heed to the structure and flow of it.

I also used description a lot more, though it came out a little lopsided and awkward because I'm not used to describing things in detail at all. Really I'm just not good at it, for some reason I'm bad at finding the words to associate with the pictures in my head. I can usually come up with a detail or two, which is nice and helps bring in some symbolism. But I think I'm also vague because I don't actually like much description. As a reader, I mean. When I'm reading something that describes everything in excruciating detail, I have trouble pulling it all together and picturing it. I much prefer a quick sketch of things, with only important details mentioned. Of course, sometimes I don't even do that. I don't know, maybe it's the whole midwestern thing. Too polite. I don't want to force anything on people, I guess I sort of want them to feel that it's their story somehow, and not mine.

OMIGOSH.

Where the Wild Things Are is SOOOOO GOOD. SOOO GOOD. If you haven't seen it yet, I will see it again with you. Really. It's SOOOO GOOD.

I get the coolest ideas in the shower

Social experiment that should be tried at Breck!!!! Cleverly titled, "The Island", in this experiment people from various groups who don't know each other very well would be put in a group. This group would only be allowed to talk to other people in the group and teachers. And then we see what happens.

Issues this would address:
Friendship- does it mean sharing interests with someone, relying on them, or something else entirely, like a comforting habit?
School groups (psh, cliques)- Most people have at least one thing in common. Can we go from there and use forced social interaction to create new groups? How did the old groups get there in the first place?
As you get to know someone better and understand their reasoning behind their actions, etc., do you like them more or dislike them more?

...It sounds cooler in my head, I guess. Once I think about it a bit more it'll translate better.

The threat is not real, people, but it might be, so...

I just saw the movie Zombieland. (By the way, Gaia, I also saw Fight Club the other day and DUUUUUUUUDE) Now, for some, at the back of their brain they are always planning the ultimate treehouse. Me, I'm always planning and replanning zombie defense strategies. Yup, ever since I saw the beginning of 28 Days Later (Never actually was able to finish the movie, sadly). Considering weapons, rations, and shelters. Sometimes when I meet people I figure out how saw I would be if I had to kill them if they turned into zombies.

This new movie Zombieland only brought these things to the surface. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, of course (You all would probably hate it unless you enjoy the whole zombie thing). Me and the main character share a fear of clowns. Seriously, whoever invented clowns was on sick motherfucker. The only reason I worry about zombies is because out of all the creepy movie monsters, they are the most plausible. Not the old-timey movie zombies who were "reawakened" from the dead by a voodoo priest, but more like the 28 Days Later or Resident Evil zombies, who actually some sort of disease that makes them vicious. Think about it: Vampires- magical (Except for the Peeps series by the guy who wrote Uglies) Werewolves- magical, Lagoon creature-..., Frankenstein- impossible (Although actually, if you had a living brain... never mind) But ZOMBIES, man, ZOMBIES.

So I'd just like to spread awareness. If for some reason there was a zombie outbreak, our biggest disadvantage would be not having a plan. We have plans to deal with natural and man-made disasters, wars, famines, but not zombies. That means that we would be taken completely by surprise, going "OMG ZOMBIEZ!!!" while being eviscerated alive.

I'm not saying we should waste government money on zombie missiles or research or whatever. I'm just saying, hey, make a plan. Outline it in a file, put it somewhere you can find it, and consult it if zombies appear. Things will go much more smoothly.

Before I go, a few of my own zombie theories and strategies. First, I think that zombies will most likely be caused by some sort of parasite. We already know of several parasites that take over their hosts so much that they actually control them completely. Granted, their hosts are ants and snails, but it could happen that a parasite evolves that uses humans as hosts. I theorize that these parasites would enter a host's brain and consume everything but the medulla oblongata, which connects to the spinal cord and controls movement. In essence, the hosts would be dead, but the parasites would be able to control their movements through the spinal cord. The parasite would then reproduce, and make its host seek out other possible hosts to infect, probably by some sort of bite. These zombies would be able to move fairly normally until injured, but their biggest strength would be that they cannot feel pain and they do not stop. These zombies would have to be killed immediately. Their medulla oblongata must be destroyed or at least disconnected from the spinal cord. Any other injury is merely a hindrance and would not stop them. Another strategy is to simply break their back, paralyzing them. NEVER LIGHT ZOMBIES ON FIRE. It NEVER works. All you get it a flaming zombie, which is worse than before.

Anyway, like any of you care. Hmph. See if I let you in my fort when the zombie apocalypse comes.

I expect I shall be considered presumptuous in mentioning it again, especially as in discussing it I shall depart from the methods of other people. But, it being my intention to write a thing which shall be useful to him who apprehends it, it appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation; for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.

-Machiavelli

Something of a profound day

Yes, actually. Quite profound.

At first it was nothing special. I did homework. Then we went to service.

We were helping seniors play bingo. I was paired up with an old man who was disabled. He sat in a wheelchair and looked like he was falling asleep most of the time. I had to put the chips on the spaces for him. Every once in a while, though, he would sort of wake up, and get excited. He might have been a stroke victim, because he couldn't really speak well and he had the sort of voice that people have when they've learned to speak again. Then another old man was placed at our table. He greeted the my old man jovially, and was responded to with what amounted to a string of gibberish. And it was sad because you could tell it was excited gibberish and he was really happy to see this other man. The other man stared at him for a little bit, at a loss for words. Finally, not taking his eyes from the man, he said "You look good."

I'm just going to completely skip over the extremely awkward and embarrassing event in the middle of the day here, except to say I apparently now have a date to homecoming.

Then in biology, Ms. J was talking to David and I, saying she put us together as partners because we would write a really good prairie plot study paper, and pretty much saying we were the only kids in the class any good at biology (This is true.) So I said, "Yeah, I like biology." Because I really do. And she replied "Good! It likes you!" Which was really a great compliment because I think ultimately I want to do something in the field of biology when I grow up. Like, conservation activism, ecology, life systems, things like that. So that's great.