Thursday

It happens to be. So it's time for another Thirsday Thirteen. How about...Thirteen Things I Do During The Day, Which May Or May Not Be Educationally Relevant.

1. Read good books of all kinds, but mostly fantasy, and primarily Diana Wynne Jones when in that category.

2. Write books, poems, short stories, journal entries, blog posts, post it notes, math problems, ideas, thoughts, lists, and other assorted scribblings.

3. Draw people, bouncy balls, and other shadow-casting/shiny objects. This is definitely educationally relevant, but it's also fun. Notice how often that happens?

4. Watch TV shows, but only if they are good ones.

5. Read Manga, which belongs in a seperate category from reading books, because Manga isn't just words, it's also images, so it's more like Read/Watch Manga. Perhaps I'll use 'View'. View Manga.

6. Watch Anime, usually online because Netflix is slow and boring. Currently watching: Ranma 1/2 (or re-watching, as the case may be, and is.)

7. Clean my room, which is not done very frequently, but is now occuring at the slow slow rate of our friend the limpet.

8. Eat. This doesn't seem very important, but it takes up a large portion of my time, so I thought I'd mention it here.

9. Listen to music. Unlike most people, I actually listen to music without doing anything else, sometimes. It's more than just background noise, people.

10. Watch movies, as we own some very good ones, and quite a lot of enjoyable ones. I think we have several hundred.

11. Go on Myspace, email, instant messenger, or other forms of communication, including, shocking though it may be, the actual physical presence of another sentient being.

12. Read fanfiction on fanfiction.net, which does not occupy much of my time, but as it does occupy some of it, I thought I could add it to the list. It is sometimes good, as compared to the rest of the fics out there, which cause people to gouge out their own eyeballs and eat them.

13. And finally, I, Chloe, your beloved friend and/or relative, spend large quantities of time missing you, and you, and everyone at camp, and everyone at the conferences, and my family members who live far away, and the family members who live in the same house as me, but whom I never speak to, as I am a recluse.

Brava, me. There's probably other stuff, too, but how am I supposed to know what I do all day? It's not like I pay attention or anything!

C.B.P.M.

Pixelation

Heeheehee. I'm so productive, I pixelate drawings in my spare time. Not that I have any other kind of time, but whatever.

Yay!

Hello, Again

Unfortunately for my avid readers *hem hem* I have not posted anything. At all. Since we got back. I do have a couple of blogposts written down, but unfortunately again, they are written down in my notebook, which is in my bag, the location of which i am unclear on, and I am too lazy to find it and type the aforementioned blogposts into life.



So you're getting this, instead, until I get my lazy butt back in gear.



Mom tagged me for one of those blog tagging games that happen so often, and I'm going to be a kind and merciful daughter and obey the rules of the game. The rules of the game stand thus:



Thou shalt Look into Thy Documents and open folder the sixth containing Photographs.



Thou shalt count to Photograph the sixth in said folder.



Thou shalt taketh this Photograph and post it on thy Blog, in all its heavenly dimensions.



Thou shalt then write, using the Keys supplied for thee on thy keyboard, a Short Story detailing the whereabouts of the contents of said Photograph, and explain to all who may read thy post how this Photograph came to be taken by thy heavenly hand, or by the less heavenly hand of another.

This being done, Thou shalt then Tag another, and so continue the traditions of the ancients.

So here's the picture, have a nice day.



















This was taken out my dorm room window at the Summerhill School in England, and shows a firepit, some logs that may be used for chairs or balancing acts, some buildings, and the skateboard ramp. Also, a tree.


I taggeth all who read this. May your eyes be scorched by this Tag and may thou not rest until ye have completed the task now laid before thee. Ye Evile Godde of Blogges art satisfied, and I go in pieces.


C.B.P.M, ano domini 2008

Hello, World!

Here I am, finally on a computer after about five days of Living and Learning. The conference was great, of course, but also very tiring. After flying on two different planes for a whole day and then driving for two hours, I found myself at the YMCA, and promptly stayed up all night with some people I knew, and some people I got to know. Then a few crazy days that don't actually last as long as you think they do, a couple of funshops, a few talks, and drawings all over my hands and forearms, and I caught a plane to New York city. Of course, I'm not actually seeing much of it, apart from JFK and this hotel, but stil, now I've offically been to New York.

In a few hours time I catch a plane from JFK to Dublin, then a connecting flight into Milan itself. I don't know exactly when we arrive, but I know it's going to take a long, long, time. Once in Milan, however, we'll be picked up by the Baldos, and driven away to begin our wonderful European vacation. Should be fun, huh? I bet you're all really envious. I know I would be :D

Anyway, I don't have much else to say. Can't guarantee many (or any) blog posts while I'm in Europe. No computer with me, and not a lot of time for typing on one anywho. But I can promise I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Maybe I'll write some stuff down in a notebook while I'm there, and just post that. That might work. Anyway, don't expect any consistency. I'm going to Europe, dude. I don't have enough time or energy to be a computer geek in Europe.

But no matter. Farewell, and I hope you have an awesome time doing whatever you're doing. See you all in October!

<3

NBTSC and Me

It may or may not have come to your attention that I have not been blogging, checking my email, or doing anything at all much for the past week. I have a really really good reason for this, which I am going to explain to you now. I was at NBSTC, or Not Back To School Camp, a summer camp for un/homeschoolers. It is run by Grace Lewellyn, author of the Teenage Liberation Handbook, or TLH. It was some totally awesome fun, but no internet for the whole week. This concludes my apolegetic phase, and I'm moving right on in to the part where I talk your ears off or your eyes out about what, exactly, I did.

Let's see...hung out with more than half of the campers, learned the names of almost all of them, ate vegetarian food, served other people the same, swam in the creek, walked around in my bra and pants, went to bonding night, the trust circle, prom, the graduation ceremony, the intention circle, meetings every morning and every night, workshops, and unisex late night parties in the girls bathroom, made new friends, learned new things (for instance: chocolate is made by separating cocoa butter from cocoa mass and mixing them back together in a certain way with a few other ingredients), hugged everyone I could, slept in Forest Dell, got a hug button, got an oh, James button, pushed people's buttons, and talked, and talked, and talked.

You may be wondering what kind of camp I was at, where girls can wander around shirtless and let boys in their bathrooms and learn about chocolate and get mysterious buttons. Well, and unschooler camp. True, boys are not, technically, allowed in our bathroom, but the staff didn't mind when one of the boys came in and sat on the counter and talked with us. As for the shirtless thing, as long as the bra stays on, it's fine. After all, bras cover more skin than some bathing suits. Talk to me about hug buttons, or the intention circle, or Bean's chocolate workshop, or feeding about sixty-five people cornbread and chili in under an hour, or about the totally awesome costumes Bitty and Arne wore to prom. Ask about my recent promotion, or Advisee groups and what the hell was up with the Nathen pose, or why Madelyn and I are planning to build a Tupperware castle next year. Ask about the mosh pit at seven in the morning that woke me up, or Grace belly-dancing in one of the Talent Shows. Ask about Dave Thomas's sandwich song, or why he's called the Dish Queen, or the time he called himself Bitty and got thrown in the creek as a sacrifice.

Ask about camp, and you'll hear so many stories of fun, and learning, and growth, and healing, and inside jokes, and new talents, and old friends, you'll really wish that you had been there with me, just to experience that.

But here's the best part; there's always next year. If you're under eighteen, come and be a camper and you'll have the most joyful time of your young life. If you're over eighteen, don't sweat it. Come be a staffer - they have almost as much fun as we do. But even if you can't make it, we're always sending our best wishes to you, and hoping you get at least a little piece of the energy and experiences we get every single year.

For more information, or to sign yourself up, go to the website and look around. (If that link doesn't work, sorry. I'm afraid I've been having recent difficulties getting to the NBTSC website. Google it.)

NaNoWriMo...

...Is actually in November, but I don't care! I am going to write 50,000 words in 30 days anyway. (NaNoWriMo is a...a...a thing that challenges writers and non-writers all across the globe to do just that thing. For more information, see the NaNoWriMo website.) Right now. Not set to any one month!

Actually, I'm too impatient to wait to start until November, but whatever. Now, some might say this is a little nuts of me, once they take into consideration my busy schedule at this juncture, but whatever! What's a little inter-continental travelling got to do with writing, anyhow? To them I say "You are probably right, but I'm going to drive myself insane ignoring your advice anyway!" I fully intend to write my 1,667 words a day until I have 80,000. And yes, I know I said 50,00 before, but that was in a month. I'm going over a month. I am not constrained to society's expectations! I am free and unfettered!

Actually, I'm just too lazy to write the number of words per day required to make 80,00 in a month. But, again, whatever. In case you are interested, which you are probably not, my book is about a girl who goes to learn Alchemy at a prep school and gets involved in a battle between two schools of Alchemy that have existed since basically forever. There's magic. And school. And neon green lab coats. And zombies.

Anyway, it is 5:05 AM and I am going to bed now. I have the sneaky suspiscion I'm supposed to wake up before ten in the morning a few days from now, and I'll never do it if I keep going to bed at ungodly hours such as this one. No offense to the hour.

Postsecret

They would find it less appealing if the kid who was a jerk to them in first grade was killed by a truck at age thirteen.

I am secretly proud of myself for recognizing his photo on the news six years after I last saw him, and I will continue to be proud, regardless of how bad I feel for his parents. (I would feel bad for him too, but Dumbledore advises me not to, see left-hand side of blog.)

West of Bathurst on grading papers.

T.A. Barbara of the webcomic West of Bathurst has this to say on grading papers, and on the quality of the papers themselves.

"See this pile of essays. Observe it closely. No strings attached...no trickery of any kind. What follows, ladies and gentlemen, is genuine magic. This student argues that 'To the Lighthouse" is concrete proof that Virginia Woolfe suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This one spells Byron's name 'B-I-R-U-N' and asserts that he wrote, and I quote, 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'. This one has submitted a paper that consists of only three paragraphs, but is two thousand words too long. This one cites 'The Family Guy' as a legitimate secondary source. This one is wrong. This one has plagiarised. This one writes off-topic. This one does not know what a comma is.

"Average mark if I follow the guidelines of our University's English department: seventy-two. As I said, genuine magic."

Ah, It's a sad state of affairs...

Friday Fill-Ins

1. You know you're old when you stop having fun doing something stupid for the hell of it.

2. My heart is divided between West of Bathurst and sleep.

3. Free time is what I need RIGHT NOW!

4. I have felt the sun inside my head, I have known the depths of my inky black soul.

5. Gah, won't these people stop expecting me to be what I'm not just for them?

6. Live life as soon as you can! (you don't know how many more chances you'll get)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to possibly reading fanfiction or drawing or writing something, tomorrow my plans include going to the health club with mom, and Sunday, I'm going to the club again with both mom and MJ.