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.

EEEEEmpulses

rhuefhiwu!!!! Anni Rossi!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! SO COOL!!!!!

I can't tell if it is a violin or a viola. It is a bit big for a violin, so probably a viola. Who knew violas could sound so nice? (I used to be a violinist so I reserve the right to make fun of the viola. Really it usually sounds quite nice.)

Bits and pieces... um something something semblance of a whole?

It's like "put together to create" or something like that.

I am thinking about the Walker right now, obviously. Y'know, since on the one wall it says that. I like the Walker. Most of the time. You have to be in the right mood to appreciate some of the stuff there.

I biked there this summer with my friend Ella. There was an exhibit there called "Live Forever" by a woman called Elizabeth. They were very pretty portraits of people. And they were good likenesses, but they weren't, like, uber-realistic, so it was all very organic and natural and pretty.

Also there is a sculpture there that never fails to freak the hell out of me. It is right by one of the entrances, and it is one of those mascots, y'know? Like football game ones, that freak me out anyway (Who's REALLY under there?), except it's sort of sprawled on the floor. It is SO scary. It looks like any second it's going to stand up and start murdering people.

We also sat on a bench facing the big windows in those couches with the headphones and listened to... John Cage, was it? Whoever it was, it was weird and hilarious. This dude telling the funniest stories. One was where he was visiting his aunt and helping her do laundry and she said "I love this washing machine more than I love your uncle." And then there was this really long story about a lady and her four cats and a chihuahua and how they all somehow got poisoned by shrooms. Or something like that.

I cannot remember some things well. Also there is a painting there that is just black. Also there is a talking dolphin. It answers questions.

You win, Bridget

Not that you were aware that we were fighting. It was more of an internal conflict whether to copy you or not in the whole new school resolutions (Although I won't do the alphabet because that doesn't work and I don't have that many things... more like just general ideas.)

'Kay, so...

MUSIC- I intend to listen to more music than ever before. I now have headphones for my ipod gift, which is just a magical box of treasures. It's so fun to just put it on shuffle and see what comes up. I also am going to practice guitar like a maniac because I truly enjoy playing and want to improve so that the band formerly known as Con the Church Man (You know Gaia, you said that that should be the name... I just said it would be a cool band name. Or maybe it was Bridget?) can be cool and we can just play together and sound nice and write songs or whatever.

ART- I am truly no artist, and don't intend to be, except in the performing variety of course. However, I am fascinated by photography and such. I'd like to take more pictures, master photoshop (Just to tweak colors and crop, really) and post the results on my fancy new tumblr.

SLEEP- I intend to get more of it. No unnecessary internet trawls that keep me up half the night. I get too tired in the morning. On that topic, I'm cutting down on internet time as well. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because it gives me less time to do other things.

SCHOOL- Sure, I got A's last year, but it was easy and I didn't have/want to try hard. This year is harder, yes, but I also intend to not slack off, and truly put in more effort. I also intend to participate in clubs and knock off a sizable chunk of service hours.

So yeah, should be fun.

I got a tumblr... why?

Oh, I suppose there is a reason. I mean, I have wanted to get into photography more and post more pictures. But I don't quite feel like doing it on here, where they might get cut off and the quality might be lame.

But mostly because I was reading Cody Weber's and it made me feel all emo and inspired. Cody Weber/Wren/Saturnine Films is a youtube atheist (also musician, poet and photographer) who I follow. He has a very dramatic and poetic life.

Click here for drama

Oh, yes, I suppose you'll be wanting the url for mine now.

Click here for not drama

I'm sleeepy

And I would love to shut my computer and close my eyes but right now it's 3:24 AM and I am immersed in paranoia. Yes, sleep deprivation comes in stages. The giddy, the scared, the confused. It's a lot like life because it is.

Youtube is helping me.

And now it is a useless piece of plastic. Damn.

Guess who rocks?!?! My dad's cousin Tad!!!!! He's this way cool music critic writer. WAY COOL. And so we were talking for a bit at the family reunion this summer about how much I would like to broaden my musical horizons and listen to way cool stuff more but am held back by shortage of funds and direction and loss of my computer, which I can at least use to access pandora.

He remarked in what I assumed was in an offhand and purely speculatory way that he could send me his old ipod, because he had a new one now and the old one had like 4000 songs on it or something. I said that would be WAY COOL, but never thought this would actually happen (he lives in New York).

BUT IT DID GUYS IT SO DID. There is everything from Deerhoof to Ella Fitzgerald to Killing Jake to M.I.A. to Kiss!!!!

Unfortunately I must return to my title, since I am currently at my dad's house with no headphones (I had my brother's for a minute but he took them back) or any means of connecting the delightful machine to my computer. But still it's WAY COOL RIGHT GUYS.

On another note, I was absolutely giddy in A.P. Euro today because Mr. Bell was being hilarious and lovely so my notes are now a tad... ridiculous. A quote- "TWO POPES OMG WHAT DO WE DO?!?!?!OMG WHAT IS GOD TRYING TO SAY WHAT IS GOING ON WHAT IS REAL ANYMORE?!?!?!?OMG COULD THIS THREATEN MORE THAN JUST THE CHURCH’S POWER?!?!?!?!"

I was giggling the whole time.

What's your favorite Vivaldi Four Seasons Season?

Mine's Autumn. Or maybe Summer. It's a toss-up. Haha, Season's season.

My interesting observation about the school year so far: It favors schoolwork much more over socializing. Yes, very few friends in my classes. Just enough that I don't go crazy from loser loner-ness, but not any more than that.

Oh well. Hee I had Four Seasons stuck in my head all day except all weird and mixed up since I have no idea what order everything goes in. I was enjoying it. I just love that part that goes all... uhh... DoooOOOooo dooOOOooo DOOOOO! Obviously that's not very helpful but it's the best I can do. Go away.

Farm Fest, '09!!! Jak se mas?

Haha, I bet you are so dumb you don't even know what Farm Fest is. Either that or it's just a bizarre family ritual that I hardly ever think about, much less talk about, until labor day weekend rolls around, so I never would have mentioned it ever unless you asked. So here's the story- My maternal grandparents moved onto a farm when my mom was in like second grade, and raised their children there. These children are comprised of my aunt Mary Beth, my aunt Carol, my mom, my aunt Nancy, my uncle Frank, and my uncle Scott. So yeah, like, big ol' Catholic Czech family (We are verrry czech. This farm is in a town called NEW PRAGUE.) Um so, this farm was sort of this huge thing and kinda taken for granted by everyone, but all in all a cool place to grow up and learn life lessons and shit, and I had some fun times there too. BUT THEN! My grandparents were getting older, and a decision was made to move into town. They have a nice little house now, even if it is in one of those creepy cookie cutter neighborhoods where all the houses look the same. BUT THEN! My uncle Frank decided to buy the farm. Actually just the house and the buildings and some of the land around it, not the actual field thingies. So every labor day weekend we celebrate the farm by camping out there, playing capture the flag, and sitting around talking by the fire. Also, the adults enjoy getting their drunk on and making me get them beers. Do you know how to work a keg? (Well, maybe you do.) I do, anyway.

SO! This year was sort of hilarious with a bit of hysterical drama, so I feel I ought to mention it. It started out the same as any other. Sitting in the garage, chatting, eating bars and the like. There's always a pack of small boys running around. My mom's friend Kevin was there for the first time, since he had proved to be impervious to our weirdness at my brother's graduation party, where he spent the whole time playing tag, hide and seek, ghosts in the graveyard and capture the flag with us kids. We were just starting out on the first game of capture the flag when things started to get weird.

My uncle Frank was chasing my uncle Scott off of our team's side when Scott's dog Cupcake (He has twin daughters, I'm pretty sure that name was not his idea.) runs up behind him, sending Frank tumbling. Frank did something of a somersault, sat for a second, admonished Scott, and returned to the game. We were walking back to our side after the game when he stopped, staring at the giant teepee of wood that was for the bonfire later. "Who BUILT that?" He asked, in his big, goofy voice. Frank has such a voice and a manner that it is almost impossible to take him seriously. (He is also a notorious bullshitter.) We were all laughing at him, telling him HE had built it three days ago, but he didn't seem to believe us. In the next few games he just sort of stood around, looking confused. On further interrogation from my aunts, who take things more seriously than most, it was revealed that he didn't know when he had put his shirt and glasses back on, didn't know what time or day it was, and didn't know why we were all there. This was when he was taken to the hospital, where we are told that on the way there he asked the same five questions over and over.

We sort of half forgot about him for a bit. At least I did. There was a humongous bonfire, and we were roasting marshmallows and hanging around. My mom was getting steadily ahead of everyone else in the drunk race, and after Frank came home with a concussion, but otherwise fine, she got veritably hammered. Hilarious, yes, by Giffin the woman was actually hiccuping, but slightly embarrassing as well. Frank didn't remember much about the last few hours, but what he did remember he said he saw in a dream. No worries, though, he just shrugged and had a beer.

Play a mean game of capture the flag? Do you like mosquitoes? Like, all of the mosquitoes that were hiding this year so they could go to Farm Fest? Enjoy Bruce Springsteen and muffins? Think head injuries are funny and weird? Know the ins and outs of a keg? Know what the hell Jak se mas means?* Then YOU JUST MIGHT BE INVITED TO FARM FEST NEXT YEAR!!!!!!

*I admit I didn't know this myself until this year. I know zero Czech. Well, I know a few random words, but have no idea how to spell them. By the way, it's pronounced Yahk say mahsh.

Rawr.

Okay, so, sophomore year, yah?

My backpack is the heaviest it's ever been. Yikes.

Most annoying backpack related thing ever: Parents getting mad at you because your backpack is too heavy and expecting you to be able to do something about it. What, do they think we just fill them with bricks for fun?
I need all the books in my backpack. Do I wish I could carry less? Hell yeah. Can I? NO.
And the worst part is you can't get too mad at them (Well, you can if you want) because you know they're all well-meaning and shit and they don't want you to become a hunchback or anything.

Eh. Eh. Eh.

HIIIIII

A-post-a-month no more! My precious laptop is back in my arms.

So... you'll be hearing from me more while I succumb to the poisons of the internet.

When I think of my titles all I can hear is my own breathing.

I would like to talk to you all about a subject I'm sure we all know well, a subject that is slowly falling behind the times, a subject that you might be thoroughly sick of. I am talking, of course, about the Harry Potter books.

Yes, they're over and done with. Yes, I'm one of those crazy people who rereads them every summer. Yes.

And yet I can't help drawing attention to the supremely rehashed fact that Harry, his friends and his adventures have had a profound effect on our generation. My peers, who now consider themselves far too old for Harry Potter, were at the perfect age when the books began, so that the maturity of the books increased with ours. Had we been too young, we might have been slightly scared of the gradually darker themes, had we been too old, we would have thought ourselves above caring about such silly stories.

The small, dark haired boy is deeply engrained in our culture. Whatever the pessimists say, he will always be remembered. I, for one, intend to introduce it to any children I may have, recalling as I do the evenings sitting on my mother's bed as she read us the earlier volumes.

Now... Who wants to see the next movie and make snide comments about the woeful inaccuracies with me?

*sigh* (Have I already made a title like that?)

ENDLESS picture scanning for my brother's graduation party. Not fun.

My subconscious is a scary thing.

I enjoy things like happening upon cool youtube atheists.

I enjoy things like youtube.

It makes me sad when there are no comments on my blog posts, even though I know it's because people aren't on the computer as much.

I drove for the first time yesterday. It was pretty fun. Very bumpy, since I wasn't exactly driving in the road.

The question is, do you care?

Dear Brain,

You disappoint me sometimes.

Love,
Anna