inquisitivity

Ramblings

2008-09-30T17:49:00.000-06:00

Mood: rather nice
Listening to: Llegar a Ti - Jaci Velasquez
Reading: Brisingr (for fun), The Screwtape Letters & Paradise Lost (in school)

¡Hola! Quiero hablar en español, pero probablemente tú no me entenderás. Me gusta mi música en español, y me encanta leer mi Biblia bilingüe. :)

Well, life is busy. Busy busy. Being a senior is fun, but the workload... stress about college applications... scholarship applications... yeah, I'm afraid it will get even more overwhelming in October and November. I'm just trying to keep cool and enjoy Homecoming week with Powderpuff and school spirit and the dance this weekend.

I bought Brisingr (you know, Inheritance Book 3, Christopher Paolini...you know?) the Saturday it came out, over a week ago. Now I've read about 170 pages. I usually read a lot more quickly, but homework and stuff. So far I'm liking it, at least it's better than Eldest so far. I'll see when I'm done... (which at the rate I'm going, could take a month! xP)

Sorry, this post is kind of random and disjointed. But I have a lot of random things to talk about.

Now I am going to add a couple of things to my About page. :) ¡Adios!

Breaking the Monotony

2008-08-29T22:47:00.002-06:00

Mood: lovely
Listening to: D.C. R.E.T.O.
Reading: (in school:) The Inferno (Dante), Surprised By Joy & The Pilgrim's Regress (C.S. Lewis)

I lied. And broke my promise to blog this summer.

Yes, summer is over, my senior year of high school has begun, and my, what a summer it was. I had so much to do that I actually forgot about my website, and here it has sat, unspoiled, for two and a half months.

First, my favorite events of the summer.
1. Mission trip to Guatemala!
2. Church youth conference!
3. Family trip to the mountains for 4 days.

Now, my favorite new things from the summer.
1. Wall•E — the best Disney/Pixar movie ever!
2. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox — what I thought was the best AF book so far. I definitely liked the time travel element...made my brain hurt trying to figure it out. And I liked how it tied the whole series together.
3. D.C. R.E.T.O. — a Christian, Spanish, rap/hip-hop/dance/techno music group. YES! Discovered it while in Guatemala...search them on Youtube to see some music videos.
4. Beijing Olympics — a big historical sort of event, fun to watch, cool that China won more golds than the US, fun to root for Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin. :)

Hopefully I'll blog more often from now on, but that's not a promise!

P.S. Yay for Sarah Palin. Too bad my 18th birthday just misses the election cut-off by 6 weeks!

Going Out on a Limb

2008-06-13T22:36:00.003-06:00

Mood: spiffy
Listening to: Prince Caspian soundtrack
Reading: so many to choose from; I can't decide

Okay. So I'm deviating from the norm with my latest website addition: I've put two of my school research papers on the Writing page. What inspired me to do this? I'm not quite sure. Maybe that I spent so much time on them, I felt like someone other than my parents and my teacher should read them...heh. Call me a nerd, a geek, or whatever you prefer, but the fact is, I'm just academically inclined. I enjoyed learning about the topics of those two papers, especially the Scopes Trial. (More on that later, maybe.) I'm sure that whoever reads my papers will learn something they didn't know before and maybe gain some appreciation for the subjects. I won't die if nobody reads them; I'm just saying that they're there :)

Go to the Writing page and scroll to the bottom, or go directly to: Dred Scott v. Sandford or The Scopes Trial

Summertime Is Here!

2008-06-12T14:06:00.004-06:00

Mood: calm and free
Listening to: Tell Me What You Know by Sara Groves
Reading: Dreamrider by Barry Jonsberg

Summertime is here, happiness and cheer, fun for all that children call their favorite time of the year! Yes, Christmas carols are still fun to sing in the summer. :)

Hm. For the first time in months and months, I am able to breathe freely. Final exams are over, no more homework or papers to write, and yes, I have entered the domain of seniorhood. At the top of the high school food chain now. :D

I'm not going to waste a moment of this summer. I want to spend every second doing something important, fun, helpful—something edifying. I have more than enough books to read and stories to write, art to create and ideas to devour. Simply put, I am going to get reacquainted with myself and with God this summer. :)

Some thoughts. In the spirit of up-to-date-ness, I saw Prince Caspian for the second time a couple weeks ago, and enjoyed it much more than the first time. :) I also got the soundtrack and have been listening to it voraciously. "The Call" by Regina Spektor is a lovely song that I have grown very attached to, and I also adore "This Is Home" by Switchfoot.

The album by Sara Groves that I'm listening to for the first time right now is surprisingly beautiful. The lyrics are very poetic and insightful. I think I'm also going to grow attached to this album. :)

And as for what I'm currently reading, I actually finished Dreamrider last weekend but it's the only thing I've read lately. It's interesting: I usually don't go for the sort of contemporary Teen Fiction genre (except for Artemis Fowl), but this book sparked my interest because of the concept of lucid dreaming. I didn't really like the author's style, with short sentences and simple wording, but I appreciated how complex and interwoven the story was. It was sort of an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. I liked it, but it won't necessarily be going on my list of favorites.

That's all for now; I promise to update my blog more often this summer! :)

Prince Caspian Analysis

2008-05-18T20:48:00.003-06:00

Mood: content
Listening to: BT - This Binary Universe
Reading: nada

Alright—this will be a long one!

Well, I apologize for briefly turning inquisitivity into a Prince Caspian blog. What can I say? Narnia has been part of my life for years now. :)

I saw the movie! And it appears that I was wrong about a couple things in my last post. The Caspian/Susan romance was not cut out of the movie. The kiss at the end was a glaring screenwriting glitch and a ridiculous Hollywoodization - it had no basis, because Caspian and Susan had not interacted very much before it! But I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. It can be shrugged off. (My friends thought it was cute. xD)

The theme of faith was not as strong as I would have liked. It seemed like the character of Peter really ruined things...thinking he could do everything without Aslan's help (until his night raid on Miraz's castle failed). And why would Peter be enticed by the White Witch, when he himself had watched Aslan defeat (or eat) the Witch in LWW? Besides, I thought the White Witch scene was really unnecessary and overdone, especially with the hag's incantation...it made me really cringe and sort of squish back in my seat, because I didn't like it at all...until Edmund saved the day of course. :)

I did like how Trufflehunter was always the loyal badger and the true Narnian. His character didn't meet my hopes of sort of embodying the faith theme, but they did a really good job of making him the same lovable character that he is in the book.

I loved the scene where Lucy was dreaming, and how the trees parted for her and she walked through them and talked with Aslan. It captured some of the emotion from the scene in the book, but not quite enough...partly because it was a dream! Which brings me to my next point...

I decided on what I think is the key difference between the book and the movie. Book: Pevensies see/speak with Aslan before the battles. Movie: Pevensies don't see Aslan until after the battles are over (except Lucy). I feel like that single change gave the second half of the movie a completely different dynamic: the characters were sort of at a loss, the conflict seemed unguided, Aslan wasn't important enough. It kind of mixed up the whole structure of the story.

But all analyzing aside, I was extremely pleased with the movie. My expectations were met, if not exceeded. Cinematography, music, acting, costumes, computer-generated imagery, nods to the book (like Tarva and Alambil, Bulgy Bear, apple trees), everything...it was all great.

Favorite shot: Miraz's view through the telescope, watching Edmund, Glenstorm the Centaur, and Wimbleweather the Giant approach. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. :)

And of course, Skandar Keynes was quite impressive as Edmund. But maybe I'm biased. ;)

Some Thoughts on Narnia

2008-05-10T22:35:00.007-06:00

Mood: just peachy
Listening to: Cities by Anberlin
Reading: The Chronicles of Narnia

Well, it has been some time since my last post. Almost a month. It's been a busy month. I had my AP exams last week—Spanish Language and AB Calculus. Phwew, am I glad those are over or what!

Hehe. I find it immensely hard to believe that the Prince Caspian movie comes out this Friday! And I am going to see it on Friday evening. I really am too excited to express! When it comes to the book-to-movie changes, I am worried about some minor things. But guess what? They cut the Caspian/Susan romance out of the movie. Yes! Overall I'm feeling very optimistic about it and I'm quite sure it will be mostly excellent.

Today I read the Prince Caspian book for, oh maybe the 5th time or so. One of its themes that really struck me this time was the theme of faith vs. skepticism/unbelief. I hope that in the movie they capture the essence of Trufflehunter the Badger's character, which is his unwavering loyalty to and adamant belief in Aslan and Aslan's might. Trufflehunter's confidence as opposed to Nikabrik's skepticism. Of course this is one of the Chronicles' many parallels to Christianity.

The Narnia books are definitely theologically rich. There are lines, images, and ideas from the books that are very personal to me regarding my relationship with God. One of these is one of the scenes that, I think, is an iconic image from the Prince Caspian book: the scene where Lucy hears Aslan calling her name in the moonlit night, and she follows his voice...weaves through the dancing, wading trees...and finds Aslan, who is gentle, warm, and powerful, and who lets Lucy rest by him and partake of his strength. I found this drawing that was concept art for the movie, however I don't think the scene will happen very close to the same way in the movie. Nevertheless, this picture really captures the essence and emotion of that scene. (By the way, I found it on NarniaWeb.com)

Prince Caspian Promo

2008-04-11T16:28:00.006-06:00

Mood: relaxed
Listening to: Once soundtrack :)
Reading: still The Great Gatsby for school

Well, here's a video I made about this Prince Caspian thing I have. Do watch!

And now for my thoughts about something else: American Idol. I am shocked, indignated, and infuriated that Michael Johns was eliminated last night. x( Enough said.

Once

2008-04-05T22:33:00.004-06:00

Mood: charmed
Listening to: 30-second iTunes clips of Once soundtrack :)
Reading: The Great Gatsby (for school)

Okay, so tonight I watched this movie called Once. It's this independent movie with a cool story behind it — the guy who wrote all the songs, Glen Hansard, ended up playing the nameless "guy" in the movie. And he had never acted before. The nameless "girl," played by Marketa Irglova, had never acted before either.

I don't know the whole background story. All I know is that the movie was almost magical because it was so ingenuous, unpretentious, and un-Hollywoodized. The story is cute, with a lot of quirky, semi-awkward moments, but with a definite emotional sweetness to it. The characters are just everyday people, and their lives go on, but there is an unseen depth.

The true soul of the movie is the music. The music brings the depth of the characters' souls out as they play and sing. The music has a sort of blunt roughness, but it really is beautiful. It's honest and vulnerable. The song "Falling Slowly" won the Academy Award for best song this year. It deserved the award! I think that I am quite definitely going to have to buy the soundtrack. :)

Art At Last!

2008-03-27T18:32:00.001-06:00

Mood: fruity
Listening to: Everything by Lifehouse (you must watch this video!)
Reading: still nothing (gah)

Ahhh... spring break has given me plenty of nice, empty time to do things that I have been wanting to do for weeks but school hasn't allowed me to do. One of those things is getting my website portfolio up to date. I have been working on taking pictures of all my old art to put them on here.

So there you have it, five (5) (FIVE!) new pictures in the "Full Compositions" section of the Art page. They are all about two years old. Go on! Go look at the shiny artworks! And tell me what you think!

More updates in the other sections, too. The last two photos in the Sunsets/Clouds section of the Photo page are new. And a new poem, which is really two years old but new to sagraco.com, on the Writing page.

If you are reading this please comment and tell me how you like the new items.

Music I Heart

2008-03-20T17:23:00.002-06:00

Mood: content & relaxed
Listening to: Opposite Way by Leeland
Reading: nothing really

Greetings friends! It's almost spring break—just one more day of school, then off to a whole week of freedom. :)

Lately I've discovered a whole bunch of exciting new things in the realm of entertainment. Let's start with the music I'm listening to right now! Leeland! They are such a great band, with good messages to get out there. So go and listen to their new album, Opposite Way, and be amazed by the great sound and worshipfulness of their music. I have been listening to this album ever since I bought it last week—can't get enough! They have some really funny videos on their YouTube, so go there and be amused.

On to more new music. Allow me to introduce Son Lux, because you have most definitely never heard of him before. His name is Ryan Lott and his first full album just came out, called At War With Walls & Mazes. The music is electronic with some nice touches of piano, brass and string instruments. It's totally random at times, which just gives it a really unique sound. The lyrics are sparse, repeated phrases or lines, and there are very subtle hints of the Christian faith (he is a Christian, I found, but that was actually hidden deep in his blog xD). I really like the song "War," because it has cool imagery and new ideas. Here are the lyrics (it's the song with the most lyrics on the album):

We were at war with walls and mazes, torn up and tearing inside
You wooed us out to open places, trading our death for your life
You raised the sun (Son?) to warm our faces, astonishing us with light

I realized that this song basically defines his pseudonym/ musical pen name, Son Lux. Think of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and His rising from the dead astonished us with Lux (a sort of Latin word for light). Cool, eh? :)

Now for more new entertainment that was just recently discovered by me: a TV show on Fox, New Amsterdam. It's about a NYC detective with a secret...he's 400 years old, and only finding "the one"—his true love—will make him age again. It's a cool concept, and I like how the character is so nonchalant about his immortality. I also like the flashbacks, which have a lot of history about the United States or just New York.

I have a thing for the idea of immortality in general...not like I want to be (it would be awful, to say the least), but I like stories about it. That's partly why I love the movie The Fountain so much—with the Fountain of Youth/Tree of Life and everything. Heh, you should watch The Fountain too, because you probably haven't. :)

Well, I hope you found this post at least remotely interesting. Aloha!

Layout Launch, Leap, and Lost

2008-03-02T21:29:00.001-07:00

Mood: accomplished and satisfied
Listening to: The Everglow by Mae
Reading: Walking on Water (almost to the end)

Can you believe it? The new layout is finally here! I have been working on this for so long—I started working on it at the end of January. :) The image header took probably one hour. The coding was the killer. It took probably two days to figure out how to make the footer stick to the bottom of the page, and three more days to make the layout look right with the Blogger codes. After I perfected the coding, I just meandered through rewriting the content. :D So here you have it, the finished product. It should be tidier and easier to navigate than Golden Horizons. I hope you like it! I'm so glad it's over xD

Hm. Now, for the next section of my alliterative title. Friday was a leap day! I'm sad that I forgot to post a blog on that day. For some reason I feel like if I don't create real evidence and proof that I did something on February 29, then it never happened. It's like the lost day.

Speaking of Lost!! The episode on Thursday (Feb 28), called "The Constant," was definitely one of my favorite episodes of Lost EVER. It was about Desmond, who is of course my favorite character. I liked it because it was all wrapped up into one episode—the question that was introduced at the beginning was answered by the end. And it was about time travel—and there's nothing cooler than time travel. Duh. :D So! Watch Lost, because it's the best show ever xD

Inaudible Fireworks

2008-01-01T00:36:00.000-07:00

Mood: celebratory and refreshed
Listening to: OneRepublic
Reading: Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle

Well, I stayed up till midnight as usual, anticipating the turn of the new year, but doing nothing very exciting except for flipping through the channels to watch snippets of celebrities and crowds screaming in Times Square. Of course, that all happened two hours previously, and the shows were just being re-played for each time zone. Hmm, that means 2008 hasn't reached the west coast yet. Too bad; it's been a great year so far. I think...

Anyway, sadly I had no party to go to like previous years. I just stayed up with my mom while my dad went to sleep. xD Last year I had my own party, and my three friends who attended surely remember the crazy fun time we had. Hats, noisemakers, sparkling cider, the whole thing.

So, it was a quiet evening, watching people hundreds of miles away smiling, and complete strangers waving at the camera and screaming. 100th anniversary of the Ball Drop, cool, now it's eco-friendly. All the familiar and unfamiliar faces happily anticipating the Ball Drop.

But when midnight struck, I abandoned the TV and my mom and I ran outside. We stood on the front porch in the freezing, crisp air; some of our neighbors were outside too, and noisemakers could be heard in the neighborhood above, as well as somebody playing Auld Lang Syne in the neighborhood below us. The sky was clear, and the stars were unusually clear; I could see the constellation Orion.

And then there were the fireworks! Far away, on the tip of Pikes Peak. Just seen, not heard. There were huge red ones that turned the whole mountain red, because the fresh snow reflected all that fiery light. Those were the best ones, where the firework would briefly illuminate the snowy mountainside, and then it would fade back into the blackness of the night.

Then I thought, they should show videos of this on national TV! Our little city tradition. Pikes Peak is America's mountain, after all! The whole scene inspired a sense of pride in the city that I've lived in my whole life. And it's such a beautiful mountain! And all those neighbors, people I don't know, but residents of the same city and taking part in the same tradition. I just love the sense of unity! Humanity all over the world is celebrating the new beginning that is 2008! I could even imagine the planet shining as fireworks move across the time zones, and out in space the aliens can hear a joyful burst of sound, Earthlings shouting Happy New Year!

And the man in the moon wishes he had hands so he could shield his perpetually open eyes from the blinding light.

I did it!

2007-11-30T22:26:00.003-07:00

Mood: accomplished
Listening to: Newsboys - Adoration
Reading: Hamlet (for school...)

Yes, the word count is official at 51,011 words. I did it! I slogged through annoyances such as school and homework, and managed to come out with more than was required of me. I actually finished yesterday — one day early! Funny thing is, my novel is not finished. I will have to keep writing to the end. I want to finish it before the end of December...before the end of 2007!

Thank you. Very much.

I'm tired.

Oh my.

2007-11-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Mood: silly
Listening to: Desperation Band - Everyone Overcome
Reading: Read? Are you kidding me? I don't have time to read in November!

Okay. So right now I feel kind of dumb. Because nobody knows about this blog. Therefore, I am now going to email my friends and people to tell them about this blog. Thank you.

NaNoWriMo

2007-11-03T23:52:00.000-06:00

Mood: caffeinated
Listening to: The Christmas Sessions by MercyMe
Reading: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Well, November has begun, and I am over 5,000 words into my awkward but super exciting novel! Yes, it's National Novel Writing Month, and I am diving into this high-energy endeavor for the second year. Last year I attempted a Christian fantasy novel, but it kind of lost its steam after 12 chapters, and yes, sadly, I gave up at 30,585 words.

Not this year! No, I have actually been taking down ideas and plot points and characters notes since MAY! Over-excited? Over-planned? Over-obsessed? Yes, yes, and yes, but I was ready, and I'm starting my novel with a bang! And I have plans far enough into the plot to last me to 50,000 words, if not more.

I'm just surprised at how long my initial scenes are stretching out. I didn't think about how I actually have to write a /lot/ of stuff before even the introduction of my most worked-on character. Oh well, I will reach him eventually. Hehe.

Wish me luck!

As for my "currently" notes above, yes, I had a cup of coffee at 10:00, and now it's almost midnight, and I still have probably enough energy for 1 or 2 hours of gleeful late-night weekend writing. And yes, Halloween is over, which means that the most wonderful time of the year has officially begun, which allows me to turn on the Christmas tunes without my parents giving me odd looks. And as for The Scarlet Letter, that's required reading for my American Lit class, and I am actually enjoying it. Funny how some of the typically boring old classics are actually good. (Except it interferes with my precious writing moments! Gah!)

Well, hasta la vista. Here's a cute button for NaNoWriMo:

Reflections on Madeleine L'Engle

2007-09-18T22:56:00.000-06:00

Mood: sad, but hopeful
Listening to: Sound of Melodies (album) by Leeland
Reading: nothing really

Today I found out that Madeleine L'Engle died on September 6. It was an odd surprise because a girl in my art class was reading a magazine and said loudly with a small amount of astonishment in her voice, "Madeleine L'Engle died!" Most of the people in the class said, "Who's that?" But I gasped more loudly than I realized. "No way," I said in disbelief. Nobody noticed that I was instantly subdued...nobody heard me say, "That's an emotional thing for me..." I got quiet and thought a lot about Ms. L'Engle while I was working on my art picture.

My favorite, most beloved author. (Although I still can't decide between her and C.S. Lewis. The universe and time travel vs. the alternate world of Narnia...hmm.) When I read A Wrinkle in Time for the first time in 5th grade, a permanent affection for her beautiful works was born in me. Her books have always challenged me to think about the grandness of the universe, and about the place of humanity, and me personally, inside of it.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet has always been my favorite from the Time Quartet. The courage required of Charles Wallace to undertake a quest to save the world from deadly war. The countless connections between history, now, and the future. And of course Gaudior the unicorn, and little unicorns hatching on their unicorn planet. And that unforgettable image of the entire universe in an eternal, beautiful dance and song of praise to the Most High God.

My thoughts now are, that Ms. L'Engle is witnessing and participating in that dance now, as she has been taken by God to live with Him forever. She's finally seeing the seraphim, the cherubim, the Mrs. Whatsit creatures, and all the stars known by name that she once wrote about.

Now I feel like I want to read every single book she ever wrote. I find it kind of disappointing now that I actually did start reading Walking on Water this summer, but set it down after Chapter 1, where my bookmark still remains. I guess I'm not the biggest fan of nonfiction, but I'm sure it will still be good, so I am going to read it. :D

So, I was sad for a while about her death (which was by natural means, by the way), but now I feel hopeful, and grateful to God for heaven...for eternal life.

I could write SO much more about these thoughts, but this post is getting too long. :)

Here's a good article about Madeleine L'Engle.

Jesus and Socrates

2007-09-17T16:58:00.000-06:00

Mood: content or generally happy (or both)
Listening to: All Of The Above by Hillsong United
Reading: Big American Lit textbook. Like three thousand pages big.

Have you ever read a novel in Spanish? Well, neither have I. But today in my Spanish class, we started reading a novel called El Alquimista, which means The Alchemist. Bwahaha. Spanish, however, is not the topic of this post.

WARNING: this post may contain analysis of historical literature and complex philosophical ideas! (or, beware of Sarah's overactive mind)

Like I said before, I just finished reading tonight's assignment in the American Lit book. It was a section of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, and he was talking about his Endeavor to arrive At moral Perfection. (Yes, I find it amusing that he capitalized random words all the time.)

Then he listed 13 virtues that he wanted to obtain, none of which mentioned any religious ideas, until the last one. It said, "13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates."

At that I sort of laughed. How odd, I thought, that he grouped Jesus and Socrates together. And that he put imitating them so low on the list. To be honest I know very little about Socrates, but I can assure you that Jesus was a far more important man than he was. Jesus taught eternally valuable ideas. Socrates didn't even believe in God. I don't quite see how they can be grouped together.

Then Franklin went on to say a couple of ideas that I found interesting and amusing. "In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. You will see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility."

I thought it was...curious. Make of that what you will.

A Little Intro

2007-09-09T20:21:00.000-06:00

Mood: I wish I wasn't a procrastinator
Listening to: Swim EP by Jeremy Larson
Reading: Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Hello! So I got this bloggish thing. I have tried to keep a blog before, but it takes a lot of dedication. Nevertheless, I'm trying again. Hopefully this one will become a success! With the assistance of people who read it. Like the Home Depot slogan — "You can do it, we can help!" You have to be my Home Depot. Thanks. I'm starting to ramble. I do that a lot...

Gah! Must...concentrate...

OKAY! My goal for this blog is to share things that I find genuinely interesting, cool, or funny. I'm an inquisitive person—I appreciate learning and knowledge in general. Yes, I'm one of those nerds who enjoys school! Nerds unite! :P

So, I hope you'll enjoy my little bits of the world, like science, history, entertainment, Christianity, and anything else I can think of. Until then, hasta la vista, baby.

Chalky White Pills

2007-07-01T13:28:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been summer for exactly a month now. Also, today is the first day of the second half of the year.

I've had a pretty nice summer so far, haven't been extremely bored yet, there's enough to do around here.

Except that I got sick a couple weeks ago. It was terrible. I was coughing a /lot/, and I wasn't hungry at all, so I actually lost a couple pounds (hehe...the only good thing that came out of it). For a week I just stayed home, lying around and not feeling like doing anything...staying in my pajamas all day. xD

After that week I finally went to the doctor and discovered that I had bronchitis. He prescribed this pink liquid medicine that tastes like bubblegum. I took that for a week, and it didn't help at all really. So he prescribed a stronger antibiotic...little chalky white pills.

The thing is, I can't swallow pills. I don't know why, I just can't...maybe I'm afraid, or maybe I'm just a wimp. Sometimes I try to—I stick them in my mouth and tell myself, I can do it, just do it, just swallow it, but after several seconds it starts dissolving in the water and it's all bitter and gross tasting so I spit it out. :P

So what I had to do with these pills was eat them with yogurt, chew them up and try to ignore the bitter taste, and cover up the taste with more yogurt.

But they worked. I'm all better now! All alive and healthy and all that great stuff that we usually take for granted. Really. To all who are reading this, be grateful that bronchitis didn't take the fun out of your summer for three weeks!

Summer Soon

2007-05-08T15:46:00.000-06:00

Hmm, it's been a while since I last blogged! Strange that nothing blog-worthy or even remotely interesting has happened.

Well, I have less than a month left of school. Last day is May 31, I think. I can't believe it's almost summer. I won't know what to do on the first day of summer. Except that I know I'm getting my learner's permit on June 4. And then my dad is going to continue teaching me to drive. :D

Yes, I know I'm starting the process of getting my license a bit late. I'm 16 and a half. It's just that I felt no need to get my permit the moment I turned 15. Just now I'm realizing that if I don't get it soon, I won't get enough experience in my remaining years of high school. Besides, now I have all summer to learn how to drive.

Well, just letting people know that I still update my blog. :)

Repusking

2007-03-30T20:38:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm feeling quite dandy. I don't really know why.

I had a dream last night, where I was at school (in art class, with a substitute teacher), and somebody said the word "repusking" in some sentence. Of course, this is not a real word. Who ever knew that your brain could invent words and make other people say them in a dream?

It seems like a combination of "repugnant" and "musk." Kind of like smelly. But the person in my dream said, "This is strangely repusking of [somebody's name]." In that context, it sort of means "This strangely reminds me of [person]." It was kind of like an insult to that person.

But I really don't know. It was just some kind of brain spasm I guess.

So what does repusking mean to you? How would you define it? :D

Movies and Wisdom Teeth

2007-03-28T20:32:00.000-06:00

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry about that.

I'm on spring break, and last Friday I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Apparently the surgery went well, but I'm still in pain now. Thank goodness for pain killers. xD

I've seen a lot of good movies recently. I saw "The Pursuit of Happyness" in theaters a while ago. I would recommend it to everybody—it really makes you think about how good you have it, and how nothing should be taken for granted.

A couple weeks ago I saw "The Ultimate Gift." I hadn't even heard about it before I saw it...I've never seen a preview for it. But I'm glad my mom had heard about it. It's about a rich young man who doesn't care about his life. Then his rich grandfather dies, and his inheritance is a series of gifts. It's another movie that I'd recommend to everybody. :D

More recommendations... "The Guardian," "One Night With the King," and "The Island." The Island has always been one of my favorites. I just saw it again on Monday, and I still think everybody should see it. :D

Seen any of these movies? Tell me what you thought of them. (I like comments. ^_^)

Random Fandom

2007-02-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad that it's finally the weekend! Even though it was only a four day week with Presidents' Day off, it still felt really long. Every minute of every class really seemed to drag out to two minutes. Funny how the 10-minute fire drill today didn't seem to shorten my 2nd period class at all.

So, I'm really bored right now. Thinking about somehow making a music video. I've seen some music videos by some friends, and they were really great. My friend Heather had a life-sized cardboard cutout photo of her older brother, and that was the blue man in the "I'm Blue da ba dee da ba die" song. Then Corrie and Sara did "Breakfast" by the Newsboys—I was in it, and that was embarrassing but hilarious.

So, I would really like to make a video of a Mute Math song...probably Chaos or Break the Same. Oh, never heard of Mute Math? Well, psh. They're my favorite band...I love their sound. Go to their myspace page and listen to some songs—Chaos is my favorite. Mute Math is pretty much the best.

That was a random geek-out of band fandom. Random fandom. Ha.

I'm starting to sound like a lunatic, and this blog post is going nowhere, so...bye bye. :)

Oh wait. If you have ideas for a music video, please tell me! :D

My Thoughts on Valentine's Day

2007-02-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

I've had a good week. Wednesday was Valentine's Day. On Tuesday I was a grumpy Scrooge (as my mom put it) about Valentine's Day. Bah humbug.

I just don't like how Valentine's Day is so commercialized, how it requires you to buy candy and cards and all that. It should be a more honest holiday—we should be able to tell people we love them without giving them things. But then, why don't we be honest and tell people we love them every day of the year?

So, I guess the Ghosts of Valentine's Day Past, Present, and Future came to me, and showed me to appreciate the holiday. It's true that the specific day is a good place to begin, to get you to tell your peeps that you love them. Then hopefully you continue it throughout the year—keep caring, keep encouraging, keep laughing together, keep strengthening friendships.

I'm not a Scrooge about it any more. Yes, I did give some cards to my family and friends. :)

Here's a Bible verse, one of the many things that Jesus said about love: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

So, what do you think about Valentine's Day? :)

The Last of the Molehicans

2007-02-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

So, this is my first blog entry. How exciting. :) I don't have much to say, except what I'm planning for this blog. I don't want it to be a really personal diary-type thing, with a bunch of places and names that people can't relate to. No, I'm planning on having a variety of topics—stuff that might actually be interesting, instead of just dull things about my life.

Of course, many of my entries will be related to Christianity, because that's what's on my mind most of the time. Definitely some music, books, and movies thrown in at times. Maybe even some debatable or controversial subjects. I'll probably ask for your opinion on things, so I'm not the only one spewing out thoughts here.

To start things off, some photos.

This is The Last of the Molehicans. Yes, in my Chemistry class we made moles...if you're dying to know what moles have to do with chemistry, then here's the Wikipedia page. So yeah, I gave mine a headdress and turned it into an Indian. :D

So I'm listening to a new band I recently discovered, called Spur58. They're a Christian rock band. I bought their CD today, and it's really good! My favorite songs are "Sleepwalkers," "Always Been There," "Ready to Love," "Kyle's Lament," "Start Over," and...well, psh, all of the songs are good. xD Be sure to check out Spur58's website and listen to them!