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I am back from TX and my grandmother's funeral. It was a week of great epicness, stress and hardship. To say the least. When's the last time you spent 15 hours in the car? Also, I am completely emotionally exhausted. It feels like something has broken inside of me. Excuse me, I'm going to hide in the corner and try to fix it.

Other than that, though, it's good to be home. I went almost hyper at choir today because it felt really good to be surrounded by happy chattering kids. I was about ten times more social than usual, and it was really fun - I could get used to it. :) I hadn't seen them all for a week and it just felt good.

Oh, I am going to Shurt'gul's house tomorrow. We will chortle and eat of the finest pickles and happiness. Yay!

More to come.

I'm not dead . . .

Am I going to start posting only once a month, or something? This is what Facebook does to you.

The trouble is that I really have very little to blog about. I like using my blog for special things, but my life has been happily routine lately: wake up, do schoolwork (Biology, Math, French, Lit), go to choir, go to art class, go to bell choir, get hyper in a certain boy's presence, go home, spend time with my zany family, and hole up in my room for the rest of the evening with a laptop, an mp3 player, some books and my manuscript. Rinse and repeat with mild variations (Tae Kwan Do and church on weekends).

This month I am attempting to complete NaNoWriMo. The objective: Write 50,000 words in a month. The average is 1700 words per day, which actually isn't that terrible if you're in the right mood. And you get A LOT of moral support from the world. I must have been on YWS for about 2 hours yesterday, racking up my word count with Shurt'gul and others, and it was fun.

I have a little case of writer's blues. This is not the same thing as writer's block. Writer's block is when you can't write, but writer's blues are when you can write, but you get depressed and mopey about what you wrote afterward. Which, by the way, is deathly annoying. Oh well. I haven't been in the best of moods overall lately, anyway.

I watched Finding Nemo last week. It was the first time I've seen it in several years, and it's still just as good - gorgeous animation, lovely music, a great story. It's also right up there with The Lion King and Bambi when it comes to pulling on heartstrings. If there hadn't been so much Pixar humor and chase scenes interspersed, I probably would have cried. A guy losing his wife and all but one of his kids, and then the remaining kid getting kidnapped in front of his eyes, is automatically very sad, no matter how many colorful cartoon fish you use to gloss it over. Poor Marlin.

I think Marlin deserves an AMV from me, don't you? Now if I only had the resources!

. . .

*rubs knuckles together* Bwa ha ha ha ha.

OVER A MONTH!

. . . since I last posted! I'm a bad blogger. =.=

Wow. It's been so long since I blogged, it actually feels kind of weird to be writing this. I'm going to have to adjust myself again. I guess I'll follow the standard formula.

I turned fourteen Monday. It was a lovely birthday. I recieved: 2 novels, 1 videogame, 1 dress, several birthday cards, 2 CDs, and 1 immensely helpful drawing book.

Fourteen is a strange age in my opinion. I dunno why. You have thirteen, which is the first teen year, and fifteen, which is the first high school year, and fourteen is just there to fill the space. I'm sure my opinion will change in the months to come, though, once I actually have got some experience being fourteen. =P

At the beginning of 2009, I expressed a hope in writing another book by the end of the year. I don't think this will happen, but at least I am well underway now. I'll write a synopsis sometime, but I think that it deserves its own post.

Lately I've been entertaining myself with this fanfic: Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness. Let me just say that this is the best fanfic I have ever read, really, ever. It follows the same series of events as Deathly Hallows, but instead of telling them from Harry's point of view, it shows the story through Neville's eyes instead. Truly, very interesting. (A word of caution - it's rated M for mature themes and violence. Neville has a much more personal view of the fear and horror overtaking the wizarding world, making this very much a darker read than the original book).

Well, that's it for tonight! ^^ Sleep well.

Chasing Cars

Mine. ^^ It was ridiculously easy to make. It's an easy song, after all . . . medium tempo, no funky rhythms, general ideas. But AAAAAAA THE LYRICS, I love them. :D I know it's a love song, but they fit kind of well with Link and his sister Aryll, don't they? Just my speculation.

Yes, I cut out a verse. ("I don't quite know/ how to say/ how I feel . . .") I thought it was a little too lovey-dovey for a brother and sister relationship, and I was running out of clips anyway.

This might be going on YouTube depending on whether or not Shurt'gul is okay with it and I feel brave enough. YouTube is infamous for gobbling up and deleting videos like these which they feel to be infringing. Personally I think it's within fair use and that AMVs actually help the music market, at least in my case, because it was AMVs that first led me to an interest in popular music.

Clips are from Gamespot. Ughh, now I wanna play this game again . . . maybe I'll work on polishing my old file. Considering our TV's new - situation - that should be interesting. (More on that later).

EDIT: It's on YouTuuuube! Watch in full screen please? ^^

Labor Day weekend!

I'm usually pretty good at entertaining myself over the weekends . . . but Labor Day weekend was rather more fun than usual. I had this person over. (I happen to be quite fond of her).

Awesomeness ensued. The weekend was spent playing Majora's Mask (clinging to each other and squealing when that moon got a little too close), writing, and discussing the finer points of telepathy and pickles. Oh yeah. We also made this.



I'm Link. Mary is Tetra. We've actually been planning this for about . . . well, a while. Whether or not we will ever actually finish the movie is anyone's guess.

Harry Potter Characters - My Favorite 10

The following are my favorite HP characters, from lowest to highest. Oh, come on, we've all got a few. :P

(links are to pictures)

10. Ginny Weasley - Why's she at the bottom? Well, to be honest, I didn't find her quite as interesting as the others. She just simply didn't have the dynamic character development they did. One moment, she's an annoying little sister and then BANG! She's suddenly a beautiful, tough young woman. I enjoyed the change, but I wish we could've seen more of it, since Ginny's mostly off-stage in the early books. She starts getting a hand in the action around Book 5, and even more in Book 6, when Harry falls quite madly in love with her. *snicker, nod* I see her as kind of a female version of Harry, who could have had all the wonderful character development he got, but just wasn't lucky enough to get the spotlight.



9. Professor McGonagall - I place Professer McGonagall on my list simply because I think she's a really good teacher. She's restrictive, but also fair and sympathetic, and even participates in a little mischief sometimes (Order of the Phoenix). It's hinted at that she might have motherly feelings for Harry, and is obviously very proud of his accomplishments ("Potter is in my house!") Her performance in the final book puts the icing on the cake in my opinion - how she fights relentlessly to save Hogwarts and protect the students, and perhaps most of all, her reaction to Harry's apparent death.

8. Hermione Granger It's "Her-my-oh-nee," for final clarification. And who doesn't love Hermione? Aside from the name, she's just a really unique character. She starts out as a self-conscious and bossy young girl and gradually mellows out, turning into a kind, gentle friend and Harry's chief voice of wisdom. She's got a lot of qualities I associate with myself, including her greatest fear (failure, as demonstrated by her boggrat in the third book). Really, I think any teenage girl could relate to her easily - but she never loses her uniqueness, ever, and holds out strong to the very end.

7. Ron Weasley - Ron is a true adolescent boy - awkward, blunt, and witty. If Hermione is the voice of wisdom, then Ron is the voice of reason, bringing in plain logic in difficult situations. He's Harry's true best friend, that person you share all the inside jokes with, and all the fun times, as well as the occasional fight (book four, book seven). He struggles with being "ordinary" and feeling inadequate for it, as well as being overshadowed by his older brothers. These bottled-up emotions are all manifest in the seventh book in his Horcrux vision, when two grotesque representations of Harry and Hermione abuse and diminish him - a truly stirring scene, considering that Ron is usually a comic relief character. His relationship with Harry, and how much they need each other, clearly shows the relationship between the ordinary and the extraordinary: one can't exist without the other.

6. Lord Voldemort - Does the fact that he's so high on the list speak badly of me? Oh, come on, it's not my fault that he has virtually all the most spine-tingling lines in the series! Just imagine how darn fun he must be to write! *envies JKR* One of the most fascinating parts of the story is when we get to see what he was like as a young child - an ambitious, intelligent, polite boy with a whole lot of potential, who had all the wrong attitudes and made all the wrong choices. In addition to this, there's his crippling, borderline-psychotic fear of death, which ends up being his downfall in the end. He's just overall very fascinating, with strengths and weaknesses and motivations that make him a great character. After all, villains are characters too, right?

5. Neville Longbottom - He started out as a shy, clumsy boy with a big family to live up to and not a lot of talent to do it with. In the beginning it seemed he was going to be another comic relief character, and although he did play this part well, in later books he blossoms into something more serious: a true hero. His parents' backstory and his relationship with them add to his appeal, as well as his connection to the infamous prophecy. Had it not been for Voldemort's on racial prejudices, Neville might have ended up as the one with the scar on his forehead instead of Harry. Although he doesn't know this, Neville develops a fanatical devotion to Harry and the cause, becoming the leater of La Reistance during Harry's absence from Hogwarts. His crowning moment was in the final book when he destroyed the final Horcrux - Nagini the snake, Voldemort's last link to life.

4. Molly Weasley - The mother of seven children plus one surrogate child, Mrs. Weasley never fails to impress me. She is a true champion of the home front, loving and fiercely protective. Ever since she met Harry she has been his self-appointed mother substitute, even bewildering/overwhelming him on occasion with her affection. She is also the disciplinarian of her family, notoriously commanding with her sons (a bit less so with her daughter and Harry). She has taken a lot of grief through the years, grief that is peaked in the final book when one of her sons is killed in battle. She doesn't back down, however, proving that she is literally capable of murder when the rest of her family are threatened. ("NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU B*TCH!") A word to the wise - sometimes the gentlest people are the most dangerous - and the most awe-inspiring.

3. Luna Lovegood - Whenever someone claims that they're "actually a lot like Luna," I have to laugh, because no one, and I mean no one, could possibly be quite like this girl. I consider her the ultimate introvert, given that she is completely and utterly housed in her own world. In spite of this, she values her friends highly, in spite of having very few, and holds Harry, Ron, Hermione and the others very close to her heart. She cares little or nothing for what others think of her; she believes in strange, mystical things; she has a blunt, innocent sense of logic that is all her own. She holds no grudges whatsoever and accepts people for who they are. The world would be a better place if more people had Luna's outlook in life.

2. Professor Dumbledore - From the very beginning, we knew Dumbledore was the guy in charge. He knew everything that went on in his school; he knew all the secrets, knew every student by name, and also just happened to be the epitome of goodness. He was omniscient, at peace with life, and pure-hearted, as well as possessing a very humble attitude and a childlike sense of humor. But . . .

As the books progressed, we found out that Dumbledore was in fact not omniscient, not entirely pure-hearted, and definitely not at peace with life. His reputation crashes around his ears in the seventh book when a scathing biography reveals the truth of his early life. Harry's opinion of him is practically shattered; it even becomes apparent that he might have been simply raising Harry for slaughter all along. This is a discovery that we all make - that our parents/guardians/authority figures are not the ultimate good; that they, too, are human. Dumbledore finally does redeem himself to Harry, but not until he has earned it, and the scene is very touching.

Dumbledore's finest moment for me, however, comes in the fifth book, when he watches a screaming, hysterical Harry demolishing his office without making a move to stop him. He then shocks Harry into silence with a quiet word, calls him over to his desk and, through a mixture of firmness and sympathy, slowly wears through his shell. He even takes all of Harry's blame onto himself. Dumbledore, who already has a lot of guilt to deal with, is taking the responsibility for Harry's mistakes because he knows the kid already has enough stress to deal with. That is a true act of sacrifice.

1. Harry Potter - Oh, come on, don't look at me like that, you already knew it was given he'd be at the top . . . anyway. Harry. Yes, he has faults and yes, he makes fatal mistakes, mistakes that even cause the death of friends, but I haven't found it in me to love him any less for it. What makes him such a great character, I think, is the fact that he is such an extreme one. When he loves, he loves with his whole heart; when he hates, he hates with his whole heart and more. Loved ones are ripped away from him but he never stops finding new people and things to attach himself to. The only time he came close to giving up was not because he was becoming apathetic or detached; it was simply because he was in such intense pain he didn't think he could go on anymore. I think I can safely say that I have never felt quite so close to a fictional character before.

Wow. Sorry, didn't mean to write a book. Speaking of a book, I ought to work on my own, but my mind is still annoyingly unproductive, so instead I waste time blogging. Maybe I'll respond to my mom's blog post on an annoying new word that's been cropping up lately. Stay tuned, all.

New computer!

So, the big news today is . . . we have a new computer! It's really slick looking at it works well. The operating system is Windows Vista, which means I get a few extra effects on Windows Movie Maker, not to mention some other cool stuff. I also have my own user account now, personalized, with my own desktop and screen saver of choice . . . okay, I'm bragging now.

About my other blog: I'm still doing a lot of drawing, but for some weird reason I've completely lost the urge to share it with anyone, so I probably won't be updating Reckless Abandon very often. I'll leave it up, though, in case anyone wants to look at the archives.

I am now a Yellow Belt in Tae Kwan Do! I passed my promotion test, with flying colors I might add, so I'm quite proud of myself. My mom took some pictures, so I might post those later.

My dad's in South Dakota at a worship retreat, but he'll be home tonight.