Under the Skin

Sometimes I come across literary characters that I just can't figure out. I have decided to name a "I Can't Figure Him Out" of the week. This week's character is *drumroll please* Sir DeBracy of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. He's just so...hard to figure out. First he's all for killing anybody in his way to marry Rowena, and then just like that, all of the sudden, he feels for her. Because he sees her tears! Yeah, he's got bunches of rogue appeal, and his acts of sacrifice in the end are perfectly beautiful. But I can't figure him out! Any opinions? Don't know who DeBracy is? Go ready Ivanhoe. It'd be worth your time in so many ways. Yes, it is very thick reading. And it's not the curl-up-in-the-corner type of book at all. But it's very good really.

I am not much of a critique of the following: 1) photography. I recognize that photography is an art. I just don't understand it. I don't know what makes a good photo. And I don't understand what's going on with it all. But I admit, there is an artistic aspect. I just don't know what it is. 2) Fashion. Let's just let it be about me and fashion 3) Movies. I don't know. I can't say much more than I like or don't like it. Needless to say the one page critique of the movie of Cyrano de Bergerac written entirely in French was not my best piece of writing in French class. That was just...rough. On the other hand, I guess if I had extremely developed feelings towards it, I'd become frustrated by what I don't know how to say. Anyways, I found a list of what TV guide finds the 50 best movies of all time. I will list those that I have seen, and say yeah or nay. This will consist of do I like it or do I not like it. Why some of them seem to b...

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean...

Hey everyone! Inglemoor High School started 1 hour late this morning due to flooding. It was a nightmare trying to get home last night and a smaller scale nightmare trying to get out of Inglemoor today. However, we're alive. Firstly, the snow began on Saturday. It was pretty nice to tell you the truth. By Sunday, it had begun to rain. And then it rained. And the snow was gone. And before you knew it, the portables were flooded, they were doing something bizarre to save the planetarium roof, the puddles were rising, every river in Western Washington was on flood warning (not exaggerating), the dike in Chehalis broke, the entire downtown city of Woodinville was underwater as was part of Bothell, I-5 down in Chehalis was closed (and as such, the detour from Vancouver, WA to Seattle entailed going to Portland, east to La Grande, up to Yakima and over through Ellensburg, and then everything was a complete mess. That's the flooding story in detail. Agenda of the Day: I'...

So, if out of state people have heard about the floods in Seattle, here's what's going on. Yes, it is flooding here. We are all safe here, and we live on high ground. However, want a local coverage: http://www.komotv.com/ # click on the movie. It will illustrate it pretty well. Yeah, we do live in Woodinville, which is mentioned (it's under about four-feet of water), but we are not at all flooded at our house. A little soggy, but we're okay.

So, this Friday marked the last day of NaNoWriMo. And I made it. 50,000 words, as I realize the rest of the year where I don't if I even acheive 10K, is no small feat. But, once again, my friends, I celebrate my success of having made it. It was tought in some parts and I'm not going to pretend that there weren't times when I wanted nothing more than to quit. But once I got to a certain level, I just knew that I'd come so far that I couldn't quit then. NaNoWriMo went out with a bang this year because the day after NaNoWriMo marked the first day of snow of the year. A nice pile of snow was accumulated by this morning: I'd say perhaps even a half-a-foot. Sadly, the stupid trademark of Seattle (rain) has caused it to melt into yesteryear. I did not cheat very much for NaNoWriMo. My characters can sing songs, can't they? Of course they can. They can speak in foreign languages so then I have to translate them or make the rest of the dialogue tell you what it says...

I am a big heroes kind of person. So, I have made a slideshow. With my historical heroes. Just so you know, there are some people I revere, but did not make it through all the hero stamina tests in order to make it into my slideshow. These are people that I find showing courage, faith, compassion or some other value I find highly important. If you have any questions about why someone's in the slideshow (or for some people, who they are), email or comment and I'll blog back why. So, let me know what you guys think of it. It took me a little bit to get every little piece right and work out the bugs, it being my first slideshow I've made of this type. I like doing it though, so maybe I'll make some more some time. I'll definitely post them if I do. I was having all these issues trying to get this thing up here, before realizing that I'd saved it as a MPEG2, which isn't compatible with blogspot. So, yeah. But I've converted it to a .wmv. If anyone wants me t...

Okay, so the title is the repetitive line of a French Christmas Carol. It translates to "Winds of winter, winds of winter." So, here in Seattle, we're bracing ourselves for ANOTHER wind storm. According to weather.com, Woodinville (which is where I live) is currently experiencing 28-36 mile winds from the SSW. Clallam Bay has undergone 90+ mph winds this morning. The wind storm isn't supposed to be as bad as last year's mayhem, but it shall be an adventure. However, the scary thing about last year's mayhem, we had sang the Vent D'Hiver song in French class the day before the evening's wind festitivites. Therefore, we can basically blame it on my French class.

Hey there! I don't have much to say aujourd'hui (that's French for today, but I think it has the most amazing sound to it--much better than today, but I thought I'd check in with you all. So, today, I did the regular Saturday stuff (namely the day of violin lessons), and then Caleb and I ran a day of fun in downtown Woodinville. One of the things that we did was we went through the turny door on Red Robin. I have never been to Red Robin, but I saw that they had a turny door, and I think it's a pretty awesome door. So we just went straight through and back out. Once we were out of it, I realized the door was still going. It was an automatic turny door, and I we had been pushing. Whoops. Anyways, I also thought I'd let y'all know, that my parents didn't name me Hannah when it was a popular name. It wasn't like Muriel or anything. It was, in fact, #30 in 1990 when I was born, and #29 in 1991 when I was almost born. AND! Hannah spent some time...

So, recap for those who don't know what this was. Gallaudet University is a college in Washington DC that is for the deaf. It was made as an act of congress in the time of Lincoln. Anyways, in 1988 with the choice of a new president of the University, the students wanted change. The board's choice of president was not only hearing, but could not converse in American Sign Language or See Sign. The students said that she could not have the student's interests in mind if she couldn't even converse with the students, and would need a translator to speak to them at any time. The students also found the continued choice of hearing presidents a mark of paternalism towards the Deaf Community. They demanded a difference, and protested and disallowed anyone from entering the university or attending classes until a change was wrought. Eventually, the board of trustees complied with their four demands (that the chosen president resign, a deaf president by chosen, the board o...

Okay, that sounds sort of wrong. But let me explain. So, at Inglemoor (or at least the IB faction thereof) there aren't really problems with drugs. Except occasionally Ritalin abuse, but that's complicated and quite rare. There aren't many who are highly sexually active. However, some IB-ers drink. And they are very open about it too. And state it as normal behavior. I know that some of my friends drink. I'm not going to name them, because even though I discourage the behavior, they're still my friends and I don't tell everyone on earth who is drinking and who isn't. They know that I won't drink--at least I think they do. They've never asked me, but I'm kind of a notorious goody-goody, Molly-Mormon (which isn't a bad reputation to have, may I remind you). So, today in French class, the subject of Scotch came up (because that's the French word for that type of tape. Just plain "scotch.") I was sitting with two boys w...

Last night was homecoming. Last Friday we had the homecoming game (which we won 42-7 by the way, against Garfield...and their touchdown was scored through us letting them foul their way across the field and they were all really dumb fouls too). So yesterday, my date for the night, Brayden, and I opted to not attend the dance. Instead we attended the Museum of Flight in downtown Seattle and then walked around of the pier for awhile before going into Bellevue, eating at a Southwestern grill called Manzana and then traipsing around Bell Square until returning home. It was a great event and I have many memories, but they aren't coming onto the screen right now. Maybe later today it will show up and I'll type some more.

Fair. They went as I expected. The interesting things here? We've been having very UN-Seattle-ish weather lately. So, yesterday we had a wind storm (not half as bad as last year's, but there were still some lines down and power out and trees across roads and closed bridges and such). However, I still had school. Last night, a power line fell at the front entrance and lit the grass on fire, but they'd fixed it by this morning. What's that like? Then, today, we had thunder, lightning, hail and hard rain. All of these are not common in Seattle. We have rain, but it's all misty-ish. Lightning, thunder and hail are all anomalies in Seattle. My bacpack was all wet, and therefore so was everything therein from walking from class to class. Furthermore, you couldn't get from one class to the next without getting wet up to your knees. But it was thoroughly enjoyable. So a friend of mine asked what "steps" means in Irish dancing (It's a long story)...

Tomorrow, I get to participate in the horrible thing called the PSATs. Preliminary Student Aptitude Test. Now, I'm pretty so-so about the test itself--I did the practice test and basically, I'm not worried. I'm just worried that the actual test has got to be harder than that thing was. Otherwise, I'm got a 1500, which just isn't plausible...I'm not that smart. The other thing is, I don't think my school can do math. "The test will be begin at 7:15 am and is 2 hours 10 minutes long. Students will be done by 10:30." Okay, I realize that we get 6 minutes of breaks. And I realize that they have to read the instructions. But collectively, that can't be more than 30 minutes right? By the aforementioned logic, there will be ALMOST TWO HOURS OF THEM GIVING US INSTRUCTIONS. Can someone explain this to me? (And I hope that it doesn't last until 10:30, because I told the German club that I'd practice the dirndl dance for Oktoberfest wi...

So, I am an IB Diploma candidate. What does that mean? In my senior year of highschool (next year), I take a higher level test in my first language and the literature thereof (that's English), a standard level or higher level of mathematics (I'm going the standard route), a higher level test of two areas of history (for me, that's History of the Americas and History of the 20th Century, with a Pre-IB course of World History), a standard level or higher level of the experimental science of my choice (I chose Higher Level Biology), a standard level or higher level of a second language of my choice (I will test in standard level French next year) and test in the higher level or standard level of some other subject (I chose standard level psychology). These tests are on a scale of 1 to 7, with 4 being a passing score, and with a needed cumulative score of 28 (or something like that). I will also write an extended academic essay on a subject of my choice (yet to be chosen). ...

So tonight I was at a stake dance and they played one of my favorite songs played, and I'd like to dedicate a little thing to the people it made me think of. Would you dance If I asked you to dance? Would you run And never look back? Would you cry If you saw me cry? And would you save my soul, tonight? Would you tremble If I touched your lips? Would you laugh? Oh please tell me this. Now would you die For the one you loved? Hold me in your arms, tonight. I can be your hero, baby I can kiss away the pain. I will stand by you forever. You can take my breath away. Would you swear That you'll always be mine? Or would you lie? Would you run and hide? Am I in too deep? Have I lost my mind? I don't care You're here tonight. I can be your hero, baby I can kiss away the pain. I will stand by you forever. You can take my breath away. Oh, I just want to hold you. I just want to hold you. Am I in too deep? Have I lost my mind? I don't care You're here tonight. I can be your...

So, I haven't blogged in awhile. So, I have decided to not compete for Miss Teen Seattle, because I do not have that kind of motivation for that kind of time. I have further taken a job at Evergreen Diabetes and Endocrinology where I am a medical filer/clerk whatever my title is. Basically, I file records, perscriptions, lab reports, etc., copy down dictation of letters from this doctor and such. I got the HIPAA schpiel and the accuracy schpiel on Thursday, so now I'm trained. Don't get me wrong, they're both important things, but it's sort of over-emphasized after awhile. Anywho, I'm reading Ethan Frome for English and I don't know if I've read anything more depressing before. This guy has a thoroughly sad life. Yeah. So, social life: Do I have a social life? Well, a few weeks ago, I attended Brayden's sixteenth birthday party where we played around the world pingpong, bunco, and Xbox golf, and Brayden has now asked me to Homecoming. So, I...

Okay, so today, I was going about my business, doing my hours upon hours of homework, when along comes a letter from the Nationals Miss Teen Seattle. Somebody has nominated me as a candidate for Miss Teen Seattle. Yes, that's like Miss America but tons smaller. Whoever wins Miss Teen Seattle, goes on to nationals. There are some pretty extreme prizes, and just some interesting things on your college application. Therefore, I figure, it wouldn't ever hurt to go to the interview. Caleb doesn't think I have a chance. Beth and my Dad think it's worth a shot. I've been nominated, and invited to attend an interview, so why not? Who knows? I could be the next Miss Teen Seattle. So the interview's on a Sunday, so I'm thinking I might call and see if I can get a different time (which they give me the option of doing), but I figure. Why not? It could happen? My sister's friend got invited to one of these things. She said she was just going to the inte...

School has started to get monotonous. It always does. I'm going to have to start looking for the simple pleasures in order to keep myself satisfied. I'm sick (I developed a cold in the space of an hour and a half last night...it was a bit on the weird side), but I'm going to be still be happy. Yes I will. Seminary has started again. I do like seminary, but it's a little frustrating that more than half the class shows up more than halfway through class, but it's out of my control. My mom says I just need to let go. It will be difficult, but I shall try. I'm having a great time as my Grandma's visiting this week. She lives in Michigan, so I don't really get to see her very much, so it's exciting.

I have received my school schedule. It stands thus: 1st Period: American Sign Language 1, Renee Boulac instructor 2nd Period: IB Pre-Calculus, Michelle Gruber instructor 3rd Period: IB English 11, Tim Curtis instructor 4th Period: IB Psychology, Leila Starwich instructor 5th Period: IB History of the Americas, Sarah Hollenbeck instructor 6th Period: French 300, Jenny Hallenbeck instructor 7th Period: IB Biology, Beth Stewart instructor Yes, I have two Hallenbeck/Hollenbecks, and yes they're back-to-back. But one's a Mrs. and one's a Mme. (Madame). I'm excited for all but two classes. The two I'm not excited for: Pre-Calc, because I don't really LIKE math, and French 300. I love learning French, I love Mme. Hallenbeck, and I love languages, and I think that French is an extremely linguistically important language for English-speakers. All the Latin in English comes through the Normans bringing us French. All that Spanish you think is similar to English, is ...

I haven't been very good about posting, so I should probably say something. So, here I am in Utah, taking Beth down to college. I'm at my Grandpa's House, typing away on my little laptop (I love this thing. I bought it and I've not been sorry yet). I know that Beth has decided that I'm glad she's going, but I'm really not. I'm going to miss her being in Young Women's with me. I'm going to miss seeing her in the halls at Inglemoor High School. I'm going to miss playing the piano while she sings just for the hey of it. I'm going to miss being with her. I really while miss her. Recently, my cousin, Julie, posted her typical day. So, I figure I should do something similar. So, here it goes. Even though school doesn't start until next week, I'm going to predict my school days as well as I can. I don't know what classes are what periods and such, but I'm going to do my best at predicting. You see, they handed out the...

I have milked a cow. It was amazing. I have always wanted to milk a cow. And now I have. Did you know that you don't pull? Anyways, whenever I was writing a character who was milking a cow, I've wanted to know what it's like. Now I know.

I'm back from Girl's Camp! It was awesome fun. I served as a YCL which was absolutely amazing. They might be airheads and flirts and twitterpated, but I love my girls! And besides, not all of them were airheady, etc. Just some of them. I got very dirty, but I loved it a bunch. Oh, I also fell down a ladder. That was great fun. I slip while climbing down it, and thereby twisted/messed up my ankle, skinned my shin all the way down the ladder and bruised my shin and knee. It was pretty amazing. Camp started at 1:00 pm on Tuesday and I did this at about 8:30 am on Wednesday. So, it was pretty early in camp. But I decided that I was going to go on the hike with the girls on Thursday. And I most certainly did. Any questions? If so, I'd be happy to answer them.

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This week is the official week. I am to be a YCL starting this week at Young Women's Camp. Yes, the name KitKat has been done away with. I don't actually know why. You see, the Church Young Women's Camp Manual calls us YCLs. That is an acronym for Youth Camp Leader. The Bothell Washington Stake has called them KitKats (Kounselor in Training, Kounselor Already Trained) for as long as I can remember, and probably before as well. However, they have randomly decided that we are now to be YCLs once again. At this camp, I will be YCL-ing nine 2nd years. I have devotionals and certification all ready. I am to be teaching them about starting fires with the aid of matches and extinguishing them. Young Women do not need to start fires without matches until their 3rd year. My YCL colleagues, Emily and Audrey, will be teaching clouds and water purification respectively. Stars will be taught by an adult, and first aid by the camp nurse. I'm a little bit nervous in some w...

So, I'm trying to fix a little bit of a problem with scheduling (but the counselor hasn't emailed back yet), and I'm getting ready for camp. I feel like I'm a bad kitkat, because I feel like I should be doing more...but I don't know what I should be doing. Anyways, today was interesting in Sunday School. I was the only one there. So together, my sunday school teacher and I discussed the disciples coming into their faith after the death of Christ, Peter healing the lame man and the day of Pentecost. It was actually really spiritual, but it was a little bit awkward because I was the only one. We discussed how the disciples are representatives of Christ, and that they could be understood by everyone in the city of Jerusalem, even though it was Pentecost and most of the Holy Land was gathered in Jerusalem, and how this translates to today and the apostles being representatives of Christ. My teacher also told me about how she recently met a Hawaiian woman who witnes...

Well, today, I officially, and beyond a shadow of a doubt finished Driver's Ed. Exciting! Then I say Harry Potter 5 for a second time. Now, before you think worse of me, here's my defense. I did not go because I did not think I couldn't wait to see it until it came out on a DVD. I laugh at those who do that. However, I was mean and went and saw it while Beth was away. So, I felt bad, and then she told me that she's preparing to be a college student. She's broke. Therefore, I gave it, bought her a ticket, and bought myself ANOTHER ticket. And I saw it again. It was still good. I have finished Deathly Hallows, so this has been just an all-around Harry-ish week. I am very pleased with Deathly Hallows, and it might have beat Order of the Phoenix out of the number 2 spot. But I think Prisoner of Azkaban might still be better. I won't spoil anything, all I'll say is that I cried about seventeen times. Mom and Caleb lost count after awhile, and decide...

There's a tradition in the Russell family, ever since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out, that Harry Potter books are read aloud to the whole family when they first come out. This is the way to avoid serious argument about who's going to read it first. Yesterday, we began to read Deathly Hallows. Just so happens, that we are at Chapter 10, which is only the product of four hours. Caleb decided that we needed to wait until Beth came home, (which was extremely painful. I kept wanting to know who lives and who dies, and I knew that the answers were somewhere in my house. My mother hid the book). Then when Beth came home, she decided she wanted to go to a dance. But we were allowed to read in her abscence. Now, she has to read to catch up with us, which is taking too long if you ask me. If I were her, I would be reading every minute, wanting to know the next thing that happens intently. But she's not the Harry Potter freak I am. Oh, I've cried four times, I think,...

As a Harry Potter lover, and retired Harry Potter maniac (I still like it, I just don't do the crazy things I used to), this is a happy day. Today, I saw the fifth Harry Potter movie, which was relatively good. Tomorrow, the final installment will happen. Good old seventh book. I AM EXCITED! The movie was not as emotional as the book was. In proportion to how much I cry reading Order of the Phoenix, I didn't cry at all. I'm one of those people who think that everything in Order of the Phoenix was necessary for the series, and that Half-Blood Prince needed to be editted further. I was mostly only sad that Neville was down-played so much in the movie, and that my favorite part in all of the Harry Potter books was cut. My favorite moment in all of Potter-dom, when Ron is ishish, Ginny, Luna and Hermione are all unconscious, the Death Eaters are closing in, and when told that Harry has no one left, Neville pops out, "He's got me." AND THEY CUT IT! I'm deali...

This quote refers to the way that we live on Hatch family reunions. We sit around and eat and play and vegetate. This year, this is how my Aunt Callie described these reunions. I have just returned from this living as white-trash expedition. This year, it was attended by most people, with no Marie (who was teaching classes in Arizona), with no Chris (who was at business meetings in California, much to his dismay), with no Justin, Ashley and twins (who were in Spokane, I think), no missionaries (Sam and Carol), no Caleb (at Scout Camp), no Beth (working at Safeway), and no Tom (my Dad, working in Seattle). Hoop Lake in the Uintas: The water is sick. We called in iron-enforced, but it was a little bit just plain old sick. Slightly brown in color, when a light yellow-brown color issued out, everyone ran for their water bottles. Furthermore, Hoop Lake is well-stocked with rainbow trout, and the fishermen of the family enjoyed being there. I learned how to gut a fish, Clark explained the pr...

Okay, I'm sorry. This is just bugging me WAY too much. Michael Flatley, for those who don't know, is a famous Irish dancer, who used to be on Riverdance. Why are there Michael Flatley fanclubs and such? The guy is a jerk. He was kicked off of Riverdance, because he wanted more credit and more money. Riverdance claims it was because of "creative differences," but his own agent said it was about credit and money. Then he went off and humbly started "Lord of the Dance." Whom did he star as? The Lord of the Dance. The man is an egotistical loser. Just look at him as he dances. What a brat. The smug little face makes you want to puke. Sure, he can dance, but then why doesn't he? I'm not kidding. In Riverdance, Jean Butler dances. I admire Jean Butler, and I love her dancing, and she's practically my dancing role model. But Michael Flatley sits there showing how many taps he can fit into a minute. WITHOUT MUSIC! You can't stepdance, without steps....

My mother and my older sister, Beth, have decided that I have no fashion sense. This is true. Therefore, they have decided that they need to save me from myself. This might also be true. So, recently, added to by that fact that Beth is downsizing her wardrobe to move to Provo, they have been stopping me in my beloved, everyday activities to have me try on skirts, shirts, sweaters, shoes and other articles of fashion. I have no fashion sense, 'tis true, nor any eye for fashion. But it probably doesn't help that I also hate clothing, hate trying on clothes, hate picking clothes, hate looking at clothes, and hate clothing stores. I loathe them. Currently, my wardrobe consists of different things that I don't even know where I got them. My skirts are mostly all tweed or plaid, gray and kilt-pleated. Apparently this is a fashion sense known as schoolmarm. I do my hair in braids, buns and ponytails. Apparently the buns are especially schoolmarm. Today, I am wearing church clothin...

The Post of Four Subtopics Introduction: I find that I have not written in awhile. Therefore, I need to update y’all. The bad part is thus: being the organizational freak that I am, I don’t know if I could handle a willy-nilly post. So, I will organize it into four bolded topics. Family Reunion I am ecstatic for the family reunion this year. We will be heading to the Uintas Mountains, Hoop Lake to be exact. Sadly, not all of my immediate family will be in attendance. Beth is working at Safeway as a cashier (and yes, she’s learning all of the produce codes), Caleb will be going to scout camp, Sam is still in Russia (which I’m very proud of him for. Он делит правду бога. Спасибо, Сам. The translation of Sam comes out with strange pronunciation, but so be it), Carol is still in Brazil (which I’m also proud of her for. Eu te amo, Carol. Agradecimentos para ser um missionário da irmã), and Dad will be holding down the fort at home. So, it will be just me and Sarah and Mom, but I lov...

I know that it's silly to love inanimate objects, but some of them have life and personality. I'm going to share these personalities with you today. First, my violin, Evangeline. Yes, she has a name, and she picked it. One day, I was practicing, and while talking to her about what we needed to put forth, it came into my mind, and I guessed it must be her name, because it's made sense ever since. Evangeline is happy, and mellow with a soft tone on chords, but loud and unsatisfied with my lack of ability to play her as she could be played. She's absolutely right, so I don't blame her for it. Now, I started thinking that my dance shoes must have had names as well, because I'm come to notice that they seem to have life in them as well. But I internally asked them and asked them, but then I realized that they were mass produced, unlike Evangeline, and thus probably were not made with names. So, I started looking for some good names, and presenting them to the shoes. ...

Now, I'm a younger one, compared to some, but still I can't help but think that the worlds today is changing faster than it has before--on so many different levels. Yesterday, I was a group leader for Activity Days Camp. They have all sorts of different art supplies that I never had when I was in elementary school. Erasable colored pencils, erasable markers, erasable crayons, and crayons, markers and pencils that come out when you twist the bottom. Why didn't they have erasables when I was in elementary school? But even out of crayola, weather people are usually right these days! When did that start happening? And we've triumphed over so many diseases that rarely are diseases at Evergreen contagious, except for the (get this) super developed antibiotic resistant strain of tuberculosis. There are so many advancements, think of the cell phone. I remember how clunky our first cell phone was, and we thought it was high-tech! I remember no-sound, black and white PCs...

Hello again, everyone. School is officially OUT! If you are not in school, this is one of those feelings that you can only remember, and never feel again. The euphoria that is contains is so beautiful, I cannot even describe it to you. And I'm a novelist! It's the feeling that you don't have anything that you HAVE to do. I like doing things, but in school, breaks aren't fun, because there are still obligations. There are no obligations through the summer. It's wonderful. So, this summer, I'm intending to be productive, but still to do as I please. And that's all that there is to id.

Hey, I've some interesting news. I had heard of her, but until today, I'd never heard Avril Lavigne sing. I don't know whether or not she's cool or not, but I actually kind of liked her singing. It was a solid sound, and I liked the feeling that she brought. Anyway, today, I went to the first Girl's Camp meeting with my girls. I'm Unit 5 and I have the nicest bunch of 2nd year girls. They're really great. The Girl's Camp Theme is from D&C 25: 12- "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." Therefore, each group has picked a different song and a theme to go with that. We're "You Can Fly," and thus, we are pretending to be pixies. It'll be fun. The only thing that's sort of a little ironic, is when me and the other two KitKats (Youth Leaders) were thinking about themes to present to them, we tho...

So, if you haven't already noticed, I try to be positive, but I always come off as negative for some reason. Therefore, I am trying to change my outlook on life. For starters, I am not allowed to be negative for the rest of the week. If you're a positive personality, you probably don't realize just how hard this is. But I'm determined. To help me in this endeavor, and to prove that I'm not as negative as I think I am, I've made a list of little things that make me happy. I once heard them being called natural highs: *Being able to explain something in scientific terms: it makes me feel confident in my world *Warm socks straight from the dryer *Cleaning out an old file or box *Organizing my room *Learning something interesting about a language *Getting the beats of my hardshoes just right *Feeling my violin vibrato very easily, and on that line, feeling my violin strings ring in sympathy with sounds around me *Seeing a complete stranger wave or smile at me *mo...

Today in Driver's Ed, I was thinking. Well, duh, we'd hope I do that a lot of the time, but here's the thing. They think that by showing us all sorts of graphic movies, that they'll change our driving habits. Now, I've never planned to drunk drive, road rage, and street race, but there has been one time in my life that I just thought, "I will never be a reckless driver." So, I'm a volunteer at a Hospital. When I graduate from high school, I'm planning on going to nursing school, so I just volunteer there to get some idea. But anyways, once, I was rounding up wheelchairs that had wandered from the herd of hospital supply, and I was rounding some up in the waiting room of the ER (or ED as they call it at Evergreen Hospital where I volunteer). In this waiting room, there was a police officer and a man with handcuffs on. I didn't know what was really going on, but from the questions the officer was asking the handcuffed man, there was some rec...

I think that pretty much sums up my life: the life where nothing happens. All the same, I suppose that I should tell you all about it. I don't even know if people visit this thing, but I suppose it could be counted as a journal, even though I don't share nearly as embarassing of stories here as I do in my journal. This week, however, I began Driver's Ed. It's a horrible experience, to tell you the truth. We watch movies...on the weirdest things. Then my instructor rambles for about an hour, and then we watch another movie. And the teacher pronounces "okay" as "o-key." And she says it after about every sentence. Besides, where most teachers will call on you with, "Yes?" or your name, she will say, "What?" in a way that sounds mildly annoyed. Our drive cars are Lancers. They're not that attractive. And all my friends went to Swerve Driving School, instead of Defensive Driving School where I go, so they can't even sy...

Now, I couldn't actually suddenly start talking like a normal human being. I must stay as nerdy as I possibly can, for as long as I possibly can. Therefore, today I'm going to talk about a war that's going on between Celera and the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project is a government run genetic research project, where Celera is a private genetic research corporation. Celera brought research to the forefront, bringing the concept of *gasp* computerizing the decoding of nucleotide bases and therefore genetic code. Celera's system can decode 1000 nucleotide bases a second. The Human Genome Project did it all by hand. Human Genome Project employs thousands of geneticists, where Celera does even more work with very few geneticists. Human Genome Project is nearly entirely government funded, where Celera doesn't take a cent of tax money. But Celera claims that the Human Genome Project should release their data to the public (aka Celera). After all Celer...

So, I've made the unwilling leap into the 21st Century. Journals are a thing of the past, apparently. Now, we have to blog. So, I decided to get with it. Right now, I'm waiting for the world to become interesting. This translates as: school to get out. Yeah, you heard me, here in Washington, school is still going strong. Not until June 22nd are we released into a higher level of living. I say this because I am convinced that school is modelled after Satan's plan (yeah, that's a Mormon, Plan-of-Salvation reference). We do not have any choices. So, if I use my time wisely, I don't feel any satisfaction in the concept. Oh well. So, just to clarify: the title, The phoneme refers to, what a shock, a phoneme, which is the smallest unit in linguistics. That's right, my English teacher. It's not a morpheme. A morpheme is larger than a phoneme. A phoneme is a sound, a morpheme is a grammatical building block. Like unladylike has three morphemes: un, lady,...