So the promised snowstorm has officially started around an hour ago, promising anywhere from four to twenty inches where I am. I'm excited and it really cheers up my mood. It's strange that I'm feeling both a little cranky and nervous, given that Christmas is only a few days away, but:
We'll be seeing a friend (and her family) of my mom's, who has a daughter a year older than me. The last time we saw each other was easily ten years ago and I'm a little antsy that we'll be too different to get along, or that she doesn't remember me.
I admit to being a little too slack about Christmas presents this year. I still have no idea what to give some people.
SAT-season is suddenly much closer than before. I have to check the registration dates. This is making me very on-the-edge.
But I'm trying not to dwell on that too much. The holiday season is officially here and with luck, all the snow falling right now will remain on the ground until at least Christmas morning. ^_^
I think I may officially take credit for being the first Youtuber to combine Phantom of the Opera with a Susan Boyle song. I uploaded a music video to Youtube last week using "Wild Horses" from her debut album and I was pleasantly surprised when it climbed quickly to more than 100 views within three days. Although I have 112 subscribers at the moment, not all of them are active (some of the accounts have actually been deleted, but still makes up the subscriber count) and because I joined Youtube later than some of my fellow PotO fans, I do not, by any means, have a huge following.
Anyway, views were climbing nicely and I'm sitting at home all happy, and then they taper off a little, which is fine by me. Then, all of a sudden, literally overnight, the view count for this video skyrocketed into outer space. It increased from maybe 175 views to more than 700 views. WHOA. Now someone tell me, how on earth did that happen in 24 hours?!? I've experienced surprising increases in views for my earlier videos, but nothing like this....
So part of me is really surprised, but overall I'm extremely flattered.
But wait. I checked it again a while ago and although the view count on my channel and the actual video page are different (800-something vs. 995), the view count for this vid has increased at least a further 100 views. Well, jolly good!
However, one thing that strikes me as strange and a little suspicious is that the number of channel views I've received so far has stayed the same for the past 24 hours. Of course, I'm not going to make any naive assumptions, but every time I've uploaded a new video, my channel views would increase by at least 50 views. Over 24 hours, the view count for this vid has increased by AT LEAST SIX HUNDRED VIEWS and....not a single channel view for me?
I'm not trying to appear shallow or superficial, but I can generally expect a noticable increase in my channel views after uploading something new. All I'm saying is, this breaks the trend, and I'd really like to know why.
Which made me wonder if my account has been hacked somehow and computer trolls or robots are artificially increasing my video view counts for that one video. But I sincerely hope not, because I've poured all my life-spirit into that Youtube channel, and to start over from scratch would be psychological torture for me.
Edit: I went through a rather frustrating process to change my Youtube password, just in case...I've also posted a question asking about this online, and the two people who've answered so far reassured me that it's normal and to be expected. This is definitely strange...but I more positive that nothing seriously wrong is happening.
I mentioned doing my own version of The Twelve Days After Christmas to The Phantom of the Opera...I just uploaded it to Youtube about an hour ago. I was surprised how fast I was able to make it, once I planned it out. Generally because of schoolwork any music video of mine can easily take one or two months, but since a) I was really excited about this and b) I'm under deadline...need to finish before the holidays, I was able to create the whole vid in 2 days. I'm proud of this one ^_^
Feel free to yell at me because it's 12:25 am here and I still have to do English homework for The Scarlet Letter, but I couldn't resist telling someone about this.
For the first time, I'm going to attempt, and hopefully succeed, at making a Christmas-themed Phantom of the Opera video. Backstory: when I was in 8th grade choir, the 7th grade Boy's Choir performed a HILARIOUS parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" in their holiday concert. Ahh, good times....they got a standing ovation at the end, and I still can't hear the song today without laughing for tears.
Luckily, the song was a bit more popular than I thought. SO, I just got a rendition of it off iTunes and I'm SUPER excited about this. Some parts of it will be difficult, but I think I can pull it off!
Here's the parody, called "The Twelve Days After Christmas"...with some ad-libbing by the Husband in this video. Enjoy!
I've been unable to download purchased items from iTunes for a long time and it's been making me SO frustrated lately like you can't believe. I've looked at all the troubleshooting links in Apple Support, emailed them three times and called them three times. And now I'm starting to realize how often when I or my brother asks my mom a question, she doesn't answer the question itself but says something else. I'm sure she doesn't do it on purpose, but it makes me so mad because it gives me the impression that she's avoiding the question.
Because I'm charging the iTunes purchases to my mom's credit card and paying her back in cash, this has been the source of many intense arguments between me and her. And these are made even worse because I see plainly how she doesn't give a Hoover Dam about my opinion and contorts the argument so that I can't convince her of anything. And for some reason, I have to tell her something 5 times before she even realizes it.
For example, I was about to call iTunes Support for the second time and she said something about how I should email Customer Service instead of Tech Support, and I told her that as far as I was aware, there was no distinction/difference between Customer Service and Tech Support for the Apple Company. I know she heard me. So I called, and when I got no real results and my mom ordered me to call again, she mentioned that I should call Customer Service. I told her for maybe the third or fourth time that there was no difference between Apple's Customer Service and Tech Support, they were one and the same.
And when I was about to call for the third time, she said that as soon as the person on line picked up my call, she wanted to talk to them, presumably about asking for a refund. But I knew that she didn't have as intimate an understanding of the issue, so I explained the issue to the other person, not her. The Apple expert on the other end, like the one before, said that the servers were down at the moment and they were trying to fix it, so just keep trying. I was mad that I hadn't gotten any real results so far, but I kept it cordial and thanked them for their help. When I hung up, my mom was mad, of course. She asked me why I hadn't given the phone to her. I told her that she didn't have as thorough an understanding of my problem as I did (She is not very tech-savvy and had just gotten an iPod as a birthday present from me and my brothers). She ordered me to call AGAIN and ask about a refund.
By that time I was just really sick of her stubbornness and life in general. She knew that I was working on another email to Apple Support explaining the situation. I told her that I would ask about the possibility of a refund in the email, and she said that was different than telling them in person. I became extremely annoyed and I said that IT DOESN'T MATTER. EITHER WAY, THEY KNOW WE ARE ASKING FOR MONEY BACK.
J f-ing Christ. What's wrong with her?
Anyway, I just REALLY WANT MY PURCHASED STUFF.
Seriously, why doesn't iTunes have the capability to rip DVD's to one's iTunes library? Because the thing I want most from the purchased-but-not-downloaded list is V for Vendetta. I already have the physical DVD, but decided to get the movie for my iPod as well, because even though it costs more in the long run, it makes much more sense than packing the DVD with me when I travel, then looking around for a DVD player when I arrive at wherever I travel to. Certainly the average person understands what I'm saying, right? (Because apparently my mother doesn't. Of course, I don't expect her to. She doesn't sympathize with a lot of my viewpoints these days.) I have the DVD and the software to rip it to my computer, but iTunes doesn't want to make it a new addition to my iTunes library. Why on earth did Apple design it like this?
Ah. I remember. So they can benefit the most. Because we can't rip DVD's to iTunes, any movies or videos we want to get on our iPod have to be purchased from iTunes.
Of course.
SCREW THE ENTIRE F-ING WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EDIT: An iTunes expert went into my account and removed the defected file that was clogging up my download queue. So I can successfully download stuff from the iTunes Store again! YAYYYY! And regarding my mom.....well, I guess all moms are like that. =D I love my mom. Really, I do.
A couple of days ago on Youtube, I saw trailers for V for Vendetta on Youtube. I remember the TIME magazine article talking about it when it came out in 2005, and all of a sudden, I got a mad urge to watch it, which has been nagging at me all day until late last night, when I watched it online.
As my history teacher said, "You have to go back into the past in order to understand the present."
So, a bit of background that will make sense later on...
In 1605 in Great Britain, a man named Guy Fawkes was part of the Gunpowder Plot, a group of conspirators planning to start a full-scale revolution by blowing up the House of Parliament. On November 5, before the planned explosion took place, he was found, captured and executed. Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 to this day. And you can also give Guy Fawkes credit for making "guy" a word in English.
That's all historical fact. Now THIS movie takes place in a dystopian, totalitarianist Great Britain in the future. You have the secret police, news anchors that actively lie to civilians, propaganda, all those things. If you've ever read 1894 or studied dictator-run regimes like Nazi Germany, it's pretty much the same thing. About 400 years after Guy Fawkes's failed attempt to bring order to Britain, a man, fresh with fury about his torture at a detention center for "untouchables" many years ago, swears vengeance against his torturers and promises to, once and for all, defeat the corrupted government by finishing what Guy Fawkes started.
That would be when you toss in the pretty lady. *laughs* And no, she generally does not look like that in real life.
Natalie Portman (Padme Amidala from Star Wars) plays Evey Hammond, a young woman from a family of activists who, having broken curfew, is about to be assaulted by Britain's secret police. V happens to come across her, and he saves her. From this point unravels an chain of events and deception that threatens to pull apart a nation.
My opinion? Not quite as fantastic as The Phantom of the Opera (indeed, I don't think anything can be better than PotO in my opinion), but still all-around awesome and a force to be reckoned with. Hugo Weaving (who also played Elrond, Arwen's father, in Lord of the Rings) does a GREAT job as V. Because he wears his full-face Guy Fawkes mask 99% of the time in the movie (he goes unmasked for, literally, about 7 seconds total out of his screen time), Hugo Weaving had to rely on his voice and body movements to express what V was saying. And even though V does go unmasked for a while, the audience never sees his face, so facial expressions are out of the question......and as much as I hate to bring the somewhat obnoxious and shallow fangirl perspective into it, he has a sexy voice. I just kind of melted at some of his lines.
Which brings me back to the screenplay. This is one of those films where you can find an answer to pretty much all of life's questions. V is, in a way, God. Subtle wisdom rolls off his tongue like it's nothing. Some of his lines zip by the audience, but five seconds later come back to their ears with so much truth in them that they start nodding in agreement. Here's two of them:
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof."
"...A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. A symbol, in and of itself is powerless, but with enough people behind it, blowing up a building can change the world."
Plus, although this is more of a futuristic thriller than a romance, there are several very dramatic scenes between V and Evey. I'm a pure romantic at heart, so I swooned during the sweeter moments.
They also managed to slip some very cool scenes into this movie. One of my favorites is when Inspector Finch, the man overseeing the investigation into V's scheme, explores the ruin of Larkhill and finds the connection that ties together all the events of the movie that take place over centuries. This scene is intercut with shots of V setting up thousands of dominoes (22,000 of them) into his personal symbol, then knocking all of them down with a flick of his finger. (As a side note, these extensive domino structures and their falling-downs can be seen on Youtube. It will probably blow your mind.) Even though I had already seen several videos of this kind of huge domino-setup, this was the first movie I'd seen with this included, and it was beyond cool.
I was skimming through the Wikipedia article on this movie at the same time and I read that many movie critics noticed many similarities to The Phantom of the Opera, both the novel and the movie. Both the Phantom and V are disfigured and wear masks to hide it. They are motivated by revenge and didn't expect love would come their way. They both have a thing for black, sword/knife fights and swishy capes. And Evey is Christine: Both women get a glimpse (or two) of V and Erik's home, which are both underground, and are forced to stay there for a period of time. In addition, Evey calls V a "mask-wearing genius", which is similar to what Christine says to Erik in the novel.
I also love the references to the number 5 and the letter V. Watch this movie closely, and you will see dozens. A lot of these are presumably details from the original comic book V for Vendetta is based off of, but it's still pretty cool. When V introduces himself to Evey for the first time, he performs a monologue that is saturated with the letter V. He holds two of his knives up in a "V" position before throwing them in one scene, and at one point, leaves an either accidental or intentional "V" mark on the walls of the subway after a fight takes place. In addition, V is the fifth-from-last letter of the alphabet, and E (for Evey) is the fifth letter of the alphabet. When V was held and tortured in the institution, he was held in Jail Cell 5. Because they used roman numerals for numbering cells, He was therefore in Cell V. _________________________________________________
Sorry about that, I know it was long! Anyway, a great movie, well-liked by critics and casual filmviewers alike, and well worth watching.
4.V OUT OF 5 STARS
Some more pictures for your viewing pleasure...
(a random promo shot I found...It's cute that Natalie Portman is around 5' 3" while Hugo Weaving is a whole head taller than her...no wonder he got picked to play Elrond in LotR.)
My English teacher wasn't here today, thank goodness.....! Her class is just SO INTENSE, you cannot believe it. It's incredible. Even though she wasn't here today, we were still in her presense. Read "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and "analyze the hell out of it", like my friend's mom would say. Read it we did, all 10 pgs of it in 12-pt Times New Roman. Analyze it I can't.
Okay. I admit it. I ended up Googling for the analyzing/symbolism.
I tried. I really did. But all that stuff about consorting with the Devil didn't really stick in place until I read it online.
So anyway, I have to do an annotated bibliography that's due on Thursday. The idea is fairly simple, but it's going to take me several hours to do just one, and I have to do two of them. The basic idea is, you comb through a bunch of analytical essays about a certain "classic" book assigned for reading by your half-mad English teacher. The essays are uberlong and all written by scholars, so good luck with understanding what the heck they are saying. After you're done, you want to start off your annotated bibliography with an MLA citation of the article, and right after that you dive in with a summary of what the scholar was doing in the essay, which should be one paragraph. In the second one, you write about what kinds of theses the essay could support and for what use students can put it to.
See, it sounds very simple, but I'm positive in real life it's harder than that. I'm about to find out very soon.....
I haven't been blogging for a very long time...anyway...
Junior year...well, I don't know what to say about this school year. It's drastically different, in ways I can't even explain. But I'll try my best, and because of time reasons, I'll have to condense it:
English Honors, Spanish 5 Honors and perhaps Biology Honors promise to be very tough subjects, especially English. Normally I don't have a huge problem with English, but I can't analyze. "Find 4 examples of satire in Babbitt." Um. I can't find any, I understand the plot when I'm reading, not the satire underneath......you see, readers, I'm going to be analyzing so much this year that my brain will start leaking out my ears or something similarly gross.
My History class=20 people. Math=TWELVE people. These two classes are TINY for my school. There are 400 people in my grade alone. Naturally, because the classes are usually twice this size, nobody talks in those classes. I never understand that, personally.
Choir class during school is a salve to me. The boy that I like is in that class, plus plenty of friends, so it's a real cool-downer.
Is it normal that on the first weekend after school begins, your only homework is to read Obama's recent speech on education and comment on it in a blog?
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now off the top of my head. More to come later, perhaps..
Oh! The drama teacher in my school who's running the fall play and spring musical (I'm doing both this year) mentioned a PHANTOM OF THE OPERA field trip. Holy COW. Oh Em Jee. This is like a dream come true!!
Only thing is, after a major argument with my mom last night, this trip is probably out of the picture. She's not allowing me to go on the annual chorus trip, this year to Canada.
Well, I've been pretty busy creating icons and computer wallpapers as of late. Most of these are Phantom-of-the-Opera related. Take a look (click to view in full size):
I'm very old-school, so I do the bulk of the work in Microsoft Paint and use the program GIMP for embellishing, like that red supernova in the wallpaper directly above this. Aren't they purdy?
Anyway, tomorrow is the surprise birthday party for my friend. She loves Marilyn Manson's music to death. I have two of his songs on my iPod, but generally he's a *tad* too extreme for me (for those who've never heard of him, he's either gothic rock, industrial, metal...along those lines). But I took some time off my own Phantom obsession to create a computer wallpaper for her. The lyrics are from his song "Coma White":
Birthday friend and I were doing a Google Image search because she wanted to change her laptop wallpaper to a Marilyn Manson pic. At the time I had absolutely no idea who he was. Well, I did, but a very minimal idea; I was a little creeped by his gothic persona. However, we did manage to find this absolutely beautiful black-and-white picture of him performing, which is the same picture in the lower right corner.
Party's tomorrow....I made her two CD's full of New Age and symphonic metal and a few other things. The food will be awesome...We're meeting at a Japanese restaurant.
I have maybe 8 days until school kicks back in again, which is sad...I would have appreciated 2 more weeks at least. But lots of European countries have even less summer vacation (and therefore their education is loads better) than we do, so that's great in its own way.
Guzzling down those yogurt drinks from the Asian Supermarket like there's no tomorrow....my eyes have been INCREDIBLY itchy lately. And I'm also periodically dodging centimeter-long ants that seem to be magnetically attracted to my desktop computer.
I guess I should really keep doing thebloggingthing =D
Actually, not a whole lot is happening, other than I'm dreading school. NOT because of work and tests and all that, but because I STILL have to finish my summer reading books! Cr*****p... Babbitt and Bartleby the Schrivener. Yewww. Usually I don't have a problem with reading, but if I'm required to, I get annoyed >.< Sooo jealous of my friend Edbert....HE doesn't have to do any summer reading!!
Phantom pic of the day. Whee!
Random off-camera Emmy Rossum during The Final Lair scene.
Nah, maybe not. I'm not a huge Justin Timberlake fan. Anyhoo, I've been on vacation on the West Coast for a while, going back the 17th of July and then 2 days-ish and I'm going to Asia for a month. If someone wants to advise me on how to survive the reading of Babbitt, which is very slow and potentially boring, feel free to drop a comment. >.<
Thinking about Phantom vids. Might make attempts with the songs "I Don't Care" by Apolyptica, and a few others.
Hmm. Can't get "The Siren" by Nightwish out of my head. Kinda funky but a great song.
I finally finished my "Last Song I'm Wasting on You" vid. Anybody care to see? Here ya go:
[Listening to "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park....Just realized it fits with Michael Jackson. RIP]
Up and Coming Phantom of the Opera videos:
Fanmade movie trailer to the 2004 movie "Slow Me Down" by Emmy Rossum (Christine Daae in the movie) "Cursum Perficio" by Enya [<- This will take a while... >.<] "Dead Boy's Poem" by Nightwish (Highly recommended band!) "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun
Listening to: "Eye of the Tiger" (Rocky theme song) Reading: Thirteen Reasons Why Mood: Wishing the day were a little longer. Thinking of: Phantom of the Opera music vids.
Well, school's finally out and I, thank God, at last have some real time to be working on my Youtube videos. Here's a taste of what's coming up:
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA MUSIC VIDEOS TO: "The Last Song I'm Wasting On You" by Evanescence "Dead Boy's Poem" by Nightwish "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun
My state of mind is a little calmer, unlike that insane abyss of total chaos. Literally. There are two choices....either he decides to take me back (in a friend way), or he doesn't. I'm bracing myself for the second choice.
"Cursum Perficio" by Enya. One of the most *extreme* Enya songs, I love it because it sounds so incredibly evil during the first part. 2nd most-played on my iPod.
"The Poet and the Pendulum" by Nightwish. One of my favorite bands. Metal. From Europe. They dip into many genres....this song is the second-longest in my iTunes library at 14 minutes. Epic, very metallish, spazzy at times and just great!
"Cloud Nine" by Evanescence. An awesome Woe Is Me song and one of my favorites off The Open Door, their second album. Great to blast really loudly when you're feeling hurt, or guilty, or like nothing.
I developed a very special bond with a classmate of mine several months ago. He was more than a friend and despite his obstacles, he was very purpose-driven and understanding, but we were not going out because it hadn't progressed there. Due to some mistakes I made, I think our friendship/bond is over for good. And although I wrote an apology, I don't think he'll forgive me this time, because it was one time too many. He thinks that I made him feel inferior on purpose, although I never meant to hurt him at all. We're in the same ____ class and it will be very difficult to keep on going when we're so close to each other. I actually cried a while after--it was almost impossible to handle at that moment. Now all those positive, happy love songs seem to be mocking me. I can't accuse him because it's against my nature. He won't forgive me this time, even though I'm sitting here waiting for him to come back to me.
Although most of the blame lies on me, it's not all my fault. He is VERY perceptive, yet sometimes jumps to conclusions too quickly and he accuses me of some things that aren't true.
I hurt him unintentionally, and it turns out that his words hurt me in return. Ah, karma.
So after I read his response, I felt-100% real-- like my chair started spinning sideways into the ground.
It's more than just a friendship, but now it's pretty much gone. he's ready to say goodbye to me for good and I feel like I can't coax another chance from him.
I feel so bad for hurting him like this. But I never did it on purpose. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. Over and over again.
I've been a bit broke lately as to music I was lusting after. Finally, I decided what the heck, and bought "Jai Ho" from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and the album Inside Out by our very own Emmy Rossum from The Phantom of the Opera fame.
There's actually not much to say about Jai Ho. We almost unanimously like it, right? Sweet song, driving, inspirational, joyful.
About Inside Out:
Her style is VERY different from the classical/opera music she grew up with. And don't be expecting anything similar to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack, because this is its polar opposite.
Okay, so what is her style? She said that her songs were pop, but not bubblegum-pop (meaning not Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera stuff), that her songs were similar to Annie Lennox's style. Those who have heard of Enya, raise your hand. Emmy Rossum works the same way, using lots of voice layering. The effect is very much the same, and quite laid-back and relaxing.
Anybody who has seen the music for "Slow Me Down" probably noticed she over-pronounces her open-mouth vowels like "ow" and "ai". My educated guess is that she just does that naturally from her classical-voice training. Old habits die hard.
Some of her songs lack substance and seem to search in vain for a theme that's deep. And there are always those that rock! <3
Four out of five stars.
Songs you MUST get if you're interested:
"Been Too Long" [This is THE BEST song on the entire CD. Just beautiful!!]
"High" [Cute love song, awesome lyrics]
"Anymore" [Very personal lyrics, no voice layering unlike all the other tracks.]
"Slow Me Down" [This songs lacks a bridge, which annoys me. Otherwise very good.]
How recently did he go blond? Again?? I've gotten so used to seeing pics of him with black hair. Holy cow! ^_^ Back to the days of the "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)" music video. I'm a fan of his band, but apparently I'm a little behind the times.
Update, just in case anybody's been not-following band news like me. 30 STM's been working really hard on their new album, tentatively called "This is War." Includes a song with Kanye West, surprise surprise, and the band also advertised on their Twitter account asking for any nearby fans in their current Los Angeles base to come on down to record crowd sounds. Guess that means yelling your head off in excitement at being that close to the band and those yells being recorded. Album is set for release later this year. Anyone excited? I am =D
If anybody ever thought that appearance and talent always went hand in hand, you were wrong. There are actresses and actors that are so damn beautiful that you want to swoon on the floor every time you see them on the screen, who act out their scenes with such passion that you're reduced to a tearing lump of matter and who have fan bases made of of everyone from frantic, slightly insane teenage girls to older ever-admiring adults.
Susan Boyle is a bit on the old side. Also a bit on the odd side. She has wild hair, a double chin and isn't very fit for swimsuit modeling. She lives alone in her cottage with her cat. She also has one of the best, most amazing voices on earth. Sensitive, sparklingly brilliant and strong, her voice carries us all to heaven on wings of gold. The moment she stepped onto the stage of BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT, everybody immediately assumed she would be one of the people to be laughed at, mockingly ridiculed and booed off the stage. She was ambitious, she was honest, she was awkward. Simon Cowell looked like he was about to kick her off the stage. The audience's mind was already made up as they sat there with their arms crossed shaking their heads in smug disbelief, convinced she would fail to impress.
The assistants pressed the Play button for the audio track.
And right then and there, my readers, Susan Boyle proved her audience wrong.
Amanda Holden's mouth dropped wider and wider in complete awe as the audience went wild, their beliefs defied in front of their eyes. And not without reason...
I've laid it out, guys. Susan Boyle is the Goddess of Song. My personal Angel of Music, if you will, for all those Phantom of the Opera fans out there. Unlike a goddess, she defied the consensus of beauty even though thousands of people her age are defying their years and looking 30 instead. She's perfectly ordinary: she has that little bit of awkwardness we all have, she feels happiness and hope and rejection, and I think I can safely assume we all shared that crazy feeling of total ecstasy when Susan was cleared for the next round.
It doesn't matter that there are many other strong contestants out there also vying for the number one spot. Susan Boyle is on her way, ladies and gents, and rest assured, she won't be easily forgotten.
Let's see. AP US History Document-Based Question (Essay) due Monday, along with a persuasive speech that I basically have to memorize cold. omG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Along with math homework and a Spanish chapter test. ¿Ayudame?
My spring break is here (thank God, I made it through a whole month and a half of solid school!) and I am officially CALIFORNIA-BOUND! That is, tomorrow afternoon. I still have to pack (a daunting task), do some schoolwork and clean my room (even more daunting).
that and if all goes well in 24 hours I'll be doing karaoke! First time. =)
My facebook friend tagged me in a note asking me how many good/classic books I've read, out of a hundred total. Turns out I only read 16. OUCH. Some of the books on the list ("Yes" means I've read them):
Lolita The Color Purple 1984 (Yes) Great Expectations (Yes) Oliver Twist A Tale of Two Cities Catcher in the Rye (Yes. Ugh. See earlier blog entry.) The Count of Monte Cristo The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Yes) The Kite Runner
So anyway, I knew the plots of some of those books, and I was checking them out in greater detail on Wikipedia (I'm an addict to Wiki), and started wanting desperately to check some of those books out. Especially Lolita and The Color Purple. Despite all the issues pro-censorship people love to point out, especially in Lolita (sexual abuse in minors, kidnapping; racism in Color Purple, etc), they sounded really good.
There's a reason why they're famous and why they're regarded as classics. Speaking of which, I'm also feeling a dire need to check out some other, lesser-known novels of a slightly more grownup nature [this is a total euphemism]. Unfortunately, this goal will have to wait...
I love English, but my teacher's tough. She's a fair grader, but she's into details and she assigns a whole lot of work each time we read this or that. Imagine reading both Othello and Julius Caesar at the same time. No need to imagine...she's already ordered my honors class to do them both. In addition to just reading the plays:
Othello test tomorrow. *frantically goes on Sparknotes.com*
Recite from memory a 25-line soliloquy from either play, complete with props, acting, etc.
Identify around 40 Othello quotes: Who speaks to whom and what the quote means
Othello vocabulary test
Othello character journals analyzing each important character
Answer around 40 Othello reading comprehension questions
Also answer around 30-ish Julius Caesar questions, complete with the act, scene and line number you find the answer in.
I've recently been in the mood to sleep and sleep and sleep some more. With boy troubles and some school things stressing me out so much, I just want to break away from the crazy world I'm trapped in and drift off for a bit to................somewhere. Speaking of somewhere, I just watched The Wizard of Oz yesterday to get into the plot of the school musical I'm in, and it was really good. Sweet and cute, minus the Wicked Witch of the West. (Glinda's preferred mode of travel: iridescent bubble.) So anyhoo, I'm tired beyond belief, but being the hardcore procrastinator that I am, I still have a bundle of math homework to do...........>.<
I might as well do this sooner or later. KEEP IN MIND that bc of my total indecisiveness for certain issues, these are not in any particular order, no matter how I arrange them in blog posts. =) Enjoy the eye candy.
Compare the two photos, these are of the EXACT same person! Only, in the first one he looks all gothic (utmost apologies for my casual stereotyping) and vampirish, and the second one he looks all cute and cuddly....maybe it's the shirt he's wearing. He's an actor and I think he's really more famous for being the lead singer of 30 SECONDS TO MARS, which punched the music industry to shreds with "The Kill" (ever heard the song that goes "Coooome break me down/bury me, bury me/I am finished with yooouuuu..."? That's the one), and, to a lesser extent, "From Yesterday" and "A Beautiful Lie". I love the band mucho, and of course he's a hottie.
One thing I have to make clear, though, is that a lot of female fans seem to be in love with the band because they're in love with HIM, which is pretty much unavoidable for any girl who has seen him half-naked in the music video for "From Yesterday." The guy has an awesome body. Actually, that's an understatement. I swear, a third of the total comments on Youtube vids of Jared Leto and 30 STM are about how gorgeous he is and what a hottie he'd be in bed and all that infatuated stuff.
From the video: I have to confess, I also think that he's one of the most gorgeous men ever. BUT, my affection for him and the band goes much deeper than that. He's incredibly charismatic, outrageously funny and from what I've seen, an amazing actor. Plus, of course, his songs go deep (deeeeep) and he isn't afraid to dive into the occasional screaming parts of 30STM's songs. Recorded or live, small audience or huge audience, it doesn't matter to him. Every single member of the band really FEELS the songs and the lyrics....you can tell. So hopefully, I put myself out there as a fan of the band, not just his body.
Another pic of him: And with the other members of 30 Seconds to Mars:
I love to write. I'm working on a vampire novella (NO! IT'S NOT TWILIGHT FANFICTION!!!) and I write poetry also.
I'm still waiting for a REAL snow here where I live. There's been a couple of showers but nothing really lasting. Grr!
I love music so much. I listen to a lot of different artists: Enya, Linkin Park, Evanescence, Secret Garden (original composer of "You Raise Me Up"), Within Temptation............
My favorite color's purple. I also like gothic clothes and vampires. BUT I definitely don't consider myself gothic in looks or personality =)
I currently have 453 songs in my iTunes library.
I have an 3rd Generation iPod nano, but I'm lusting for a 4th generation Nano bc the design is so much better.
I didn't realize until a few days ago just how much Hans Zimmer's presence lurks in the movie industry. Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3.....all the instrumental soundtracks are amazing and 100% Zimmer-certified. Of course, you also have....
THE LION KING.
God, I forgot just how much I LOVED this movie as a kid. And, of course, amazing music. I was kind of pissed when I found out that the original movie soundtrack focuses more on the songs (although all the songs are great) and cuts out A LOT of the good parts of the movie soundtrack. That really ticked me off. But anyway, I love this guy, he's my hero =D
Hoping to get the music for the Simba/Scar battle by searching for the MP3 on this bootleg album:
Random, spazzy and fun-loving. Very artsy and a PotO fan until the world comes crashing down. Here on earth to have a good time. Thanks for dropping by!
