Late-night post

I figured that, since I'm already on the computer, I'd blog before I got distracted.

I had a good morning. I listened to the garbage truck roll down the street - trust me, it's a lot more peaceful than it sounds. It was kinda cool to listen to it come down the street from a room other than the living room. I started my library book, too: Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly. I think I'm gonna like it. Not sure if I can finish it in time for when it's due back to the library, but I'll try reading a bit of it every day.

After I got up and ate breakfast, I finished the essay chapter in my GED book (I start the social studies unit next) and re-read a chapter of my Japanese book. I should be back to where I was in no time (I took a break from the book and I'm out of practice).

The rest of the day wasn't as nice, as some family drama decided to invade. Lovely. I re-read a bit of The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology, though, which took my mind off the drama, but now I'm back to being stressed. I'll probably have to practice my martial arts later so that I can get my frustration out. I find that katas - patterns of stances, strikes, blocks, etc.; which are designed to be an 'imaginary battle' - are good for relieving stress. I can't remember my red-belt kata, which is annoying, but it doesn't bother me too much. I always hated that kata.

I do have something to look forward to, though. My grandparents gave me a $25 Chapters Indigo gift card for my birthday, so I'll probably be going to Indigo soon to buy a book :) I might buy Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce, but I'll browse the shelves at Indigo in case something else strikes my fancy.

I have to go to the library tomorrow, because I have an overdue DVD; and I have four things to pick up: the 2010 Griffin Prize Poetry Anthology, Canadian GED for Dummies, season two of Primeval, and a DVD called Monty Python: Almost the Truth. That makes me excited, too :)

Blaaarrrgggh

I couldn't come up with a clever title, so there you go.

My teeth on my right side are hurting a bit. I think it's from chewing a very tough candy, or from brushing too hard. Or maybe both. I'm trying not to poke at my teeth too much, but I'm like a little kid picking at a scab :p

I think I might refine a short story I started a while ago and try sending it in to a magazine. I sent a short story to a magazine for a theme contest, but it didn't get accepted. I still want to put my writing out there, though. It can't hurt to try, right?

Actually, I managed to remember to work from a writing prompt in the special issue of Writer's Digest that I got from Indigo. One of the articles is a year's worth of writing prompts, and the idea is to do one prompt a week. I got kinda lazy and only did a handful (some of the prompts just didn't spark anything), but a few days ago I wrote a few paragraphs. Pretty awesome, I think.

I did some GED work today. Actually, I think I got a fair bit done in the essays chapter. I'm doing exercises on paragraphs, and I wrote two practice paragraphs, did a quiz on which sentences in the example paragraphs were unnecessary, and an exercise on finding main ideas in paragraphs. The only one I'm unsure of is the main ideas practice, because there weren't any answers so I was like, "Wait, did I get that right?"

I watched the first two episodes of season four of Doc Martin and worked on my Ravenclaw scarf this afternoon. I probably should finish the Calorimetry though :p

Knitting plans and Venn diagrams

I can't seem to remember to post. Maybe I should mark some blogging days on my calendar...?

Anyways, yesterday I was having a hard time drawing a Venn diagram. Venn diagrams are two overlapping circles, and you use them to show similarities and differences - you write similarities where the circles overlap, and differences in the parts that don't overlap. Well, I can't draw circles for the life of me, so yesterday I thought, 'forget it, I'll try again tomorrow with the compass from my math set'. So today I got out my compass. First I looked in my nice, newer math set, but I didn't have the kind of compass with the bracket for holding a pencil, so I had to use my cheap, purple plastic math set. And guess what happened?

The pencil wouldn't fit.

Yes, my purple compass's pencil bracket wouldn't open wide enough for the pencil that came with it to fit in it. So I tried with my double-pointed compass, but that didn't really work (I think they're more for lines and triangles in geometry), so I decided to use just the pencil and wing it. And it turned out okay. The circles weren't perfect, but the diagram worked okay, which is what matters.

I have some diabolical knitting plans (hehe ;P), but dinner's ready so I can't list them right now. Basically, I want to finish some stuff and start some stashbusters.

Bye!

'Nother recap

Sorry for not posting. Still a bit busy.

Mom and I made some progress with cleaning/organizing yesterday. We went through a storage tub of books and magazines and put some aside for a yard sale, then we went through the cookbooks. We still have to clean off the dining room table, though - hopefully in a week or two, I'll be able to do my GED work at the table.

Speaking of GED work, I haven't done that in a couple of weeks, and Mom got on my case about it again. The only places I can work are in the living room (which is noisy) and my room. My room is the basement, so I hear everybody's footsteps, which is rather annoying. Plus, my table is a tip, and it's cold down there, AND I have two storage bins (one for yarn, one for blankets) to work around, AND there's a cat tunnel thing I have to work around. So yeah, GED stuff can wait a bit. I can't take the prep courses until the fall anyway!

I also haven't knit in a few days, which is a bit odd. I started a dishcloth for one of the HPKCHC assignments (which I probably already mentioned), and it's nearly halfway done, I think.

I watched the season finale of The Vampire Diaries last night, and it was EPIC :)

ETA: I moved my 'Links' box up below the 'Books I'm Reading' box, and added a link to this blog's commenting guidelines. Please read them before you comment. Thanks! :)

♪Hello, it's me...♪

I've had this song stuck in my head since last night - I was watching Glee, and the theme for the songs was the word 'hello', and this song popped into my head...






I used to think it was a Neil Young song, because the first line sounds a lot like Neil Young :p

I did a bit of writing today. I might do more tomorrow. I did no GED work, though :p

And I went to the library to take back The Manga Guide to Physics and pick up Ponyo and Patti Smith's Horses album. I thought I was gonna be fined for The Manga Guide to Physics, but I wasn't! :)

Blah, punctuation.

Normally I don't mind punctuation all that much, but today I totally screwed up a practice test on it. I think I rushed through it, because when I was checking my answers I was going, 'oh yeah, I should've gotten that!'. I got most of the exercises right, though.

Also, when typing a song name, it's proper to put it in quotations. But I like apostrophes better for song names ;p

I think I'm going to paint my nails bright orange soon. One of my nail polish sets that I got in my Christmas stocking has a bottle of bright orange. It'll be a nice change from hot pink or blue.

I've got an idea for NaNoWriMo '10 already. Crazy, yes, but at least I'll be prepared. I was going to work on last year's NaNoWriMo novel today, but I forgot. I think I'll write some character outlines for my '10 novel later.

I am DONE with Usage!

I've finished all of the exercises and mini-tests in the Usage chapter in the English section of my GED book! All I need to do is go over noun cases again, because I only got six out of ten right on the practice tests, and read through the glossary at the end of the chapter. Then it's on to 'Mechanics'!

Also, I can kinda play this song on my keyboard...






I know it's not as elaborate as 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but I'm still pretty proud of myself :) It took me a little while to figure out which chords I needed to play, because the first time I tried playing it, I was playing the wrong chords! I still need to play it along with the CD to make sure I've got it right.

I watched a bit of It Might Get Loud while I was doing my GED work. I love that movie.

Oh yeah, I also picked up season one of Mad Men, a Hayao Miyazaki film called Whisper of the Heart, and an Elvis Costello compilation from the library. And on our way back from the library, Dad cranked up the radio 'cause they were playing AC/DC, and then he cranked it even louder - so loud that the back of my seat was vibrating! It was really funny.

edited to fix grammar

Rain, Little Women, and the bones of the wrist and hand

Yesterday morning, I was watching Little Women and working in my anatomy colouring book (hence 'the bones of the wrist and hand'), and the satellite signal cut out because of the driving rain. I was slightly annoyed - I missed one of my favourite parts of the movie, where Jo and Friedrich go to the opera and kiss for the first time. But the rain was oddly calming. When it started thundering, Mouse ran downstairs - she doesn't like thunder much. I had to wipe one of the windowsills upstairs, because Mom had opened a window.

I got to watch most of Little Women, though. I love that movie. I tried reading the book, but I couldn't focus on it at the time.

I also wrote in my journal yesterday. I've been trying to write in it more often, but I forget because I have a blog.

I got some GED work done yesterday, but for the most part it was an epic fail. I hate nominative, objective and possessive cases...

Vampire Diaries is on tonight. Yay! :)

Finished, and started

I finished the dishcloth and started another one, with the same colour yarn, same needles and same pattern. I think I'm going to use up a partial economy skein of Bernat Handicrafter and just make dishcloths to my heart's content. After all, it keeps me from going crazy.

So lately I've been addicted to Kristin Chenoweth's rendition of 'Hopelessly Devoted To You', from the first season of Pushing Daisies...



I prefer it over Olivia Newton John.

So it's eleven days 'til Easter Sunday, and I've got this feeling of impending doom. But then again, I feel that way about most holidays. At least now I'm no longer at a young and impressionable age, which means I can be snarky if I like. I like that.

At least some people I like will be there for Easter dinner. It's going to be at Uncle Brent's, so Justin and Breanne should be there. Plus, Glen (my mom's cousin) and Maxine (his wife) are coming, from what I heard via eavesdropping (hehe...). I haven't seen them in a while, so it'll be nice to see them. And it'll be nice for Grandma.

As for the rest of my extended family, I honestly couldn't care less. Uncle Brent, while I like him, can be very Jekyll and Hyde at times. Grandpa is a jerk, period. Aunt Patti didn't put my name on our Christmas card, just my mom's name, my dad's name, and 'and family', while my brother and sister got their own cards - if she addresses me by my name, I plan on saying, "Wait, what did you call me? I thought my name was And Family - after all, that's what you put on the Christmas card." Petty? Perhaps, but it's about time I stopped letting myself be a verbal doormat with my relatives.

Yesterday I took a practice test thing in my GED books on run-on sentences and sentence fragments, and I got every question right. I was utterly gobsmacked.

They got my order right this time! :D

We ordered Japanese take-out, and they got my order right! Last time I ordered katsu udon (pork cutlet and udon noodle soup) and instead got katsu don (pork cutlet on rice with egg and onions). This time I ordered something less confusing - tempura udon - and they got it right. I like that their tempura stays crisp, even for take-out.

Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, I did some exercises in the GED book, in the 'English - Writing' section. Because according to the diagnostic test, my punctuation is iffy. Anyway, I had to rewrite run-on sentences. At first I was putting punctuation marks in the book, and then I realised, "oh crap, I'm supposed to rewrite them". So I grabbed some paper. I did 13 sentences, and I got 12 right, so that's pretty good. The one I got wrong was something like "The telethon raised a great deal of money for muscular dystrophy it was entertaining." I thought it had to be "The telethon raised a great deal of money for muscular dystrophy, which was entertaining", but it was actually supposed to be "The telethon, which raised a great deal of money for muscular dystrophy, was entertaining." Grah. Also, I accidentally looked at the first answer :P

My sister is coming up this weekend :) She and Mom were talking on the phone about going to Winners. I might tag along.

D'you know what it's like?

I'm listening to 'All Revved Up With No Place to Go' by Meatloaf. The title of this post is a line from the song.

I'm a little on edge right now, so I'm listening to music that will calm me down. I've had a rotten day for the most part.

It started this morning when I checked my e-mail and got another a message from Stephen (youth group leader) saying that the group was planning a charity potluck for Haiti - which is great, but I wish I'd had a little more notice. I calmed down fairly quickly and proceeded to Facebook and Ravelry.

Then I got an e-mail from the office manager that was sent to the entire youth group saying that there was no meeting, because the sanctuary, where we had planned to hold our meetings (the loft is being rented out on our usual meeting days for a little while). So I freaked out a bit. But I thought, 'well, at least I don't have to worry about missing In Treatment'. I hate to miss the Tuesday episode of In Treatment, because Tuesday episodes are ones with the character April. She's my favourite. April is a college student who has cancer, but won't tell her parents because she doesn't want to burden them, because her brother is autistic so she thinks her parents have enough on their plates.

I'm babbling. Anyway, me and Mom were making dinner (she's making me cook... eep...), and I think she went to check the main e-mail account (I don't know what else to call it... it's the email account that our internet provider gave us, for using Microsoft Outlook) and saw that we were all sent yet another e-mail saying that youth group was indeed still happening. I didn't go. I'm guessing they held the meeting in the foyer.

In addition to that, I took a GED diagnostic test on writing, and only got 31 out of 50 questions correct. I was pretty bummed out. It was basically a test on usage, punctuation, paragraphs, that kind of thing. Looking back, I don't think I did that horribly, considering I haven't practiced that area of writing in a long time. I got over half the questions right, so that's not bad.

On the upside, I made most of dinner and I didn't burn it! :D It was a bean curry thing. It was supposed to be made with black-eyed peas, but I couldn't find any cans of them in the cellar, so we used white kidney beans instead. I can now mince/dice an onion, grate garlic and ginger, and sautee onions in oil in a pan. I think the smell of garlic is finally out of my hands. The night before, we made leek and potato soup, which turned out to be a little looser than we had anticipated, but still pretty tasty. Mom wants me to make Yorkshire pudding tomorrow.

The new HPKCHC class threads are up. I might make an octopus stuffie for Herbology (make something that can be found in the bottom of the sea), and something spider-themed for Transfiguration (make something that scares you).

This is not funny.

We have had meat go missing from the freezer, and our blanket mysteriously reappeared in our laundry room. Allow me to explain.

When my brother, Nathan, moved out, he decided to take our microfiber blanket with him. He had borrowed it, but it was still my parents'. Then, about two or three weeks ago, my mom found it in the laundry room, in a plastic storage tub if I remember correctly. It was matted, and trust me, those blankets never seem to get matted unless they're wet, because I have my own, and I have never seen it dry and matted like that. And so my mom reminds me that she'd noticed that roasts have gone missing from the freezer prior to the blanket's return.

And now our Canadian GED guide is gone.

That's right. Gone. It was in the dining room, where the other textbooks are, but now we can't find it. I'm so pissed off. I'm not really pissed off about the missing meat, because if he's stealing meat it must mean that he isn't eating properly, so if he's eating better because of the meat he's stolen, it isn't so bad. But the GED book? Can't he get his own copy?! I'm really pissed about the missing book because I wanted to use it to study towards the CAAT (Canadian Adult Achievement Test).

I think I'm gonna password-lock this computer, just in case.