I want to quickly talk about what happened today. It was my last official day of junior year (finals next week, but still... ) and some friends and I had the most amazing experience. It gave me chills. We had finished school for the day, were saying goodbyes, and then Elizabeth, Ana and I decided to walk to Starbucks. We had some time to kill since I had an hour and a half until I needed to pick up my brother. It was a nice day, a nice walk- nothing spectacular. Elizabeth asked all about Jr. year and Ana contemplated if she would return next year (she's an exchange student from China). We rounded the corner, and were just across the street from Starbucks when we walked by a woman, sitting, holding a cardboard sign. About five feet later something in me screamed "GO BACK"- so I did. Elizabeth and Ana caught on to what I was doing and didn't miss a beat.
Her Sign
Now, I'm very much of a people person. I have no issue starting conversations, but as we stood in front of this women I realized that I had no idea of what to say. I mumbled something about her sign and feeling like I needed to talk to her.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, has an unusual way with words and people. She walked right up to the woman and said "I feel like you need a hug". She was shocked, of course, but accepted the affection. The woman put down the sign and on the back was something so simple and heartbreaking: God please give me the strength and the trust that i need We talked for a bit. She told us her story and how she has been running into trouble with her abusive ex-husband, and is going to court tomorrow. As the conversation progressed, it was clear that she's a Christian. She explained how Francis Chan (who's one of my favorite, as well) has been a light in her life, how his sermons gave her the strength to get out of the relationships. The way she talked about God was so raw and open. She obviously isn't in the best part of her life, but she's managed to hold onto hope, even though she's felt bitter and angry. She knows that God's grace will cover her.
We offered to buy her lunch. She declined, but asked for a soda- diet pepsi to be exact. When we gave her the soda, she held up a pack of cigarettes. "I've got five left in here. It's the last five I'll ever smoke." Her voice was a voice of conviction and bravery and uncertainness and the brokenness. Before leaving, we prayed together. We went our separate ways, one to a support group and three to a cup of coffee.
Sometimes it's important to talk to people. It's hard, I know, and sometimes it's just not the right time, but sometimes it is. Sometimes someone needs reassurance that there's a light at the end of the tunnel or something like that. Sometimes you just need a diet soda and a prayer.
Last night, the very last episode of the Avatar franchise aired. The very last episode of my absolute favorite series... ended. I was so excited and so sad and so not ready for it to be over. But all good things come to an end, I suppose.
I had always intended to do a post about ATLA and LOK, but I never had the time or motivation. Well, now I do, and it's time to say goodbye. Perfect timing.
Here's a little history of how I even got involved: back when I was younger I saw a promo for Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was showing for the first time that night. I thought it looked kind of cool, and a little while later I was watching it. I don't remember much, I don't think I even watched the whole thing. The point is, I saw it, and I remembered it enough so that when the movie came out it 2010 I wanted to go see it (also, judging by the preview, 12 year old me thought it would be awesome. I did think it was awesome).
Unfortunately, I liked the movie so much I had my dad buy the DVD. Whoops. Now that's sitting in a box somewhere and I will probably deny that I own it. I am kind of thankful for it though, because if I hadn't seen the movie, I probably wouldn't have watched the show.
Now, fast-forward a few months. My brother was sick, we were trying to find something to watch, and so we checked out Nick... and there it was: ATLA- The Southern Raiders. Sure, my first episode of it wasn't from the first season, and I didn't even see the first half of the episode! But it became a weekly event where my brother and I would watch ATLA re-runs (which were not shown in any specific order that I know of) on Saturday mornings.
I didn't watch it in order the first time I saw it. Or the second, or third. I started randomly picking them and eventually was able to piece together the whole show. Eventually Mom decided to watch it since Dante and I loved it so much, so we watched it as a family, in order.
Never had I seen a show with such amazing characters, plot, depth, animation, emotion, or music.
The characters felt like old friends once I finished the series. I loved them so, so much. If I was sad, I would watch it. If I was lonely, I would watch it. If I was happy, I would watch it. I would watch it and watch it and watch it, and these characters became real to me. Y'all know how much I love FMA, right? And how much I love the characters? Well, it's like that, but x10, or x20, or x100 (being in the fandom for 5 years probably has something to do with that haha).
The heroes were well rounded, the villains were well rounded, the random side characters got their share of development, too. It's rare to see such excellent characterization in any show, let alone an animated kids show!
My Azula costume... she's probably one of my most favorite characters ever!
There are so many layers in ATLA, and every time I watch it I get something new out of it. I'm not saying that kids shows can't be deep or have good meaning, but a lot of them don't, so it's refreshing to see something so amazing made so that kids can understand it and teens and adults can enjoy it, as well.
The music THE MUSIC is just beautiful and amazing and sooo perfect. So much effort went into ATLA and it's been a HUGE part of my childhood :')
When I found out that there was going to be another Avatar series, I flipped. I was sooooo happy that we would be having 12 more episodes of Avatar awesomeness! Ha. Ha. Ha. Little did I know that this so called "fun mini-series" would become a 3 year ordeal that would become one of my favorite shows.
remember when this was
all we had of Korra
You can imagine my excitement when Nick called for 3 more seasons! About half way through season two, I got a little disappointed with the writing and plot direction (which was something I could forgive for season 1, they only had 12 episodes to work with, after all), but I still loved it. Season three's writing proved to be a huge improvement from seasons 1 and 2. The writing was better, the villains were darker, the over-all plot was much more enjoyable and intense, and the characterization was fantastic. We got to see sides of character that we had never seen before, new and well developed characters entered the mix, and friendships developed between old characters. Something that I really enjoyed about seasons 3 and was the lack of romantic sub-plot between the Krew. I think that was a let-down for the fans during season 2.
Fan-made trailer for the finale
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you Avatar, thank you Bryke, and most importantly, thank you Fandom for such an amazing 5 years. ATLA was a real treasure of my childhood, and LOK was a wonderful part of my high school experience. I'm sure our fandom will last for quite a while, it was still going strong between ATLA and LOK, so I don't doubt that there will be plenty of fanworks for the years to come, but it's still sad to see such an awesome series end, Good bye, Avatar, goodbye. *and then I sob for about 10,000 years*
So, life has been insane recently.
More like this week has been insane every day from 8 to 12:15. Oh, the things I do for community service hours. I have 13 kids from the ages of five to 10 in my VBS group *dies*
To be honest, I haven't really enjoyed the experience at all. The past two years working there have been great, but this year we are majorly under staffed and it is chaotic. Ugh.
Fortunately that only happens in the mornings and my afternoons have been pretty enjoyable :)
On Monday I watched half a season of Clannad (review to come soon!). On Tuesday I learned how to make Jam and went to farmers market (so much fun!) Yesterday I went over to my BFFs house (I made brownies with her brother and then washed all of the dishes???) Thursday was another relaxing afternoon- a lot of Clannad! On Friday I began cleaning out the sewing room and organized my fabrics. One step closer for my cosplay room to be complete!
In a few weeks my family is taking a trip to Mexico! It's not going to be quite the adventure trip that Europe was, but I'm sure it's going to be fun :)
Unfortunately, in the midst of all this fun, I found out that one of my best friends is moving.
I'm trying to stay positive about it and all, but frankly it sucks. I'm so glad we got to go to school with each other this past year, though. That was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I have so many great memories with her :)
Yep. That's about it.
Well, other than Stargate. I love SG-1 so much and I always think "there is no way i can love this show more", but then we watch the next episode and it's amazing and praise the lord for this beautiful show.
My mom said that I look like I'm in love when I talk about stargate lol
(I made a page with all of my cosplays, and it's going to be updated with each of my costumes... check it out!) Oooh look what I finally got around to! I guess I've been building up to this for the past... 4 posts or so? Well, here I am, finally posting about the big day :p Who all went: Dad, my mom's parents (Grand and Big-C), my brother (Dante), and my aunt's exchange student (Peter) Yeah, so I'm calling peeps by what I call them irl bc that's easier. Sunday morning we started getting ready, so that we could try to be out of the house by 8:15. I made last-second finishes to my costume (oh, the curse of a cosplayer XD) and did my eye makeup as I waited for the glue to dry. Then I helped my brother get his costume on... lots and lots of safety pins! Once my grandparents arrived we all piled into my dad's car and were on our way! Dad and Big-C sat in the front and listened to a church service. Grand sat in the back with me (she borrowed one of my Doctor Who shirts for the day), and Dante sat in-between us so I could paint Aangs arrows on him. We got to the restaurant where we were picking up Peter, so Dante and I walked in looking like crazy people in half cosplay! I had on super heavy eye makeup and nothing else, and my hair was back and I had a wig cap around my neck, no armor... just a black dress over my red shirt and pants (I looked like some sort of failed punk band :p)
Omg it's my face AAAAAAA
After the looooong drive up, we got to the con center, and I finished putting on my costume. Finally we were there! We turned in our registration and the fun began! When we got our wrist bands the volunteers were so excited about Dante and my costume, and they asked for pictures and, yeah, it was pretty cool! It would be fun to work at something like that, then you could see everyones costumes! Once we got to the main room, (after stopping for quite a few pictures- there was one girl who even did a selfie with us! Yay cosplay selfies! Haha ok moving on... Unfortunately, I missed the first panel I wanted to go to- "Cosplaying in Character", which probably would have helped a lot for my Performing Arts final. Oh well, since I missed it, I had the oppurtunity for something else totally awesome to happen! When we got to the main room, I see someone with a cosplay that looks familiar, and then I realized she was Toph (also from ATLA) and it was amazing! She ran over to us and we went all crazy fangirl, and then we were just like "CAN I HUG YOU OMG" and it was the best thing ever :D Quite a few people walking by got pictures of us, and then we all went to the photo studio together to get our pictures taken.
AAAA I"M SO PROUD OF OUR COSTUMES :D
After taking the picture, we parted ways, promising to meet back up again. My group took off to look around the Dealers Room, and I made a bee-line for my favorite artist, Yuumei. I was so excited to meet her! She's had a big impact on me and my art, and she was such a sweet girl in person, as well. She's used her talent and difficult past to really reach out to so many people, and honestly, it's really brave that she does that. She also has brought awareness to the pollution problems in China, and advocates to fix it. Haha when I found out that she was going to be there, I ran around my house like a crazy fangirl screaming all sorts of crazy stuff :p. I planed to spend only $10 to $20 at her table... obviously that didn't happen. I spent at least $40! Oh, well, it was worth it :) seeing her work on my walls makes me really happy. Then it was time for my first panel, which was on writing villains. It was very helpful, and the director really made us all participate, it was so much fun! Haha we got a little side tracked and started talking about FMA, and then later on he gave me some tips on my villain. He also talked a bit about world building, so that was cool, too. This summer I'm going to post all of my panel notes from this (school) year, so if y'all are writers, you may be interested in this one.
After the panel was finished, I went out into the dealers room and looked around, bought more stuff from Yuumei, and went upstairs to have lunch with my group. The food was really good (i got a burger), but a bit expensive (con food always is). I realized that eating with armor and collars and 3 lbs of vinyl is HARD. So I took it off and realized that the con center wasn't 150º, but more like 70º. Yeah... it was quite a relief. It was really funny to see all the characters from different fandoms eating together! Before I headed down to my other panel I ran into Toph again and we took a picture:
Azula and Toph have lunch together... because why not
The next panel I went to was on creating a web comic. It was really helpful, because I'm interested in starting one (I'll have more info for y'all later). Here's their site: Captain Quail. They write a Star Trek inspired comic that has birds instead of people. It's pretty funny! During the panel they wrote/drew a comic that was directed by the participants, so that was pretty fun!
When the panel was over, girls dressed as Anna and Elsa (who I had pegged as "MUST GET PIC WITH THEM) came up to me and asked for a picture, so we all posed and someone took our picture for us ^.^
My group was almost ready to leave, but we all decided to walk through the dealers room one more time. I went to a table that was selling posters and figurines, and got into a conversation about anime with one of the people selling posters as I bought a FMA wall scroll. I went by two steampunk booths- I bought a pin that reminded me of Winry (for my pin collection), and a rose hairpin (which I wear almost every day now lol). Of corse I stopped by Yuumi's table one last time and got one of her smaller prints.
Some Cosplayers I ran into :)
Not the best pic but oh well :p
We ended up talking to a guy dressed as Buzz Lightyear and his daughter was dressed as Neytiri (I think... well, she was the blue chick from "Avatar" (the movie)).They were really fun to talk to! Father/daughter cosplayers, he got her into it. He made his Buzz costume back in 2001 or so, and it's really cool! Each button will actually play a different sound clip, just like Buzz's in the movie! It's also made almost completely out of cardboard- true cosplay dedication!
The girl was really excited to be at the convention, and it was really fun to talk to someone so young who had already been immersed in con culture for almost their whole life :)
Thor! He's friends with Buzz, and his costume was just as amazing! he was telling us about how he made it... really impressive! haha this is one of my favorite pics (I feel like I perfected my Azula stance/face by then)
I wandered around some more, and ran into Princess Bubblegum and Jack Frost cosplayers. We all fangirled over each others costumes for a good five minutes before we calmed down enough to take pictures. Cosplay selfie! It was the perfect ending to such a fun day :D
Con Review
I had soooo much fun at Kraken Con! The panels were easy to find, the venders room was well organized, and not overly crowded, there wasn't too much of a bleed-through with noise from the video games and anime screening. There was a cafe' on the upper level (though it was a bit over priced :/ ), and instead of badges they had wrist bands, which I really liked, because then I wasn't having to deal with an extra thing around my neck.
For such a cheap convention, I would say that it was extremely well done. My only complaint would be the heat. There was air conditioning in the building, but it wasn't turned on until about three. Hopefully next time they'll turn it on earlier.
PS: I lost my camera charger, so art is still on hold :/ I might be able to find my old camera... idk we'll see what happens. Wish me luck on finals!
Lol that title sounds really deep. This post is not very deep. It's about something that a girl at school told me at lunch the other day, and it was something that was very interesting, and very true. It's also about feminism. Mostly about what she said. *I also have some questions/comments/disclaimers at the very bottom of the post that I'd like y'all to read :p * --------------------------------------------------------------------
Feminism: The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. (Dictionary.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Let us look at various instances in my life and my rambling, that all leads up to something that Audrey said to me. Something that I had always known, but something that I never knew. It was like when I woke up in a cold sweat a few days after I turned sixteen and whispered to myself "oh. my. god. I'm 16. I'm the same age as Zuko." I knew I was 16, but it didn't hit me until I related it to something so important to me. -------------------------------------------------------------------- As my friends and I were eating lunch on Thursday, we overheard someone at another table make a joke about feminists. I honestly don't remember the joke, but it was kind of funny, and the person telling it started with "Don't be offended. This is just a joke." She continued on, and I half listened, too involved with eating a somewhat messy sandwich to really care that much. Hashini, one of my very best friends, looked over at Alana and I shyly and said "I've hear 'feminist, feminist, feminist' all the time, but what is a feminist?" Alana said something along the lines of "Extremists who burn bras and hate men."
I knew feminists have a bad name from the crazy extremists, but, come on, we're not all that bad. Oh, wait, I never told my friends I'm consider myself a feminist because when I bring it up, they look at me like I'm crazy. I remember not wanting to mention anything at school that could sound vaguely feminist, because so many students at my school refer to feminists as "feminazis". Sexist jokes litter the side comments in lectures. Encouraging the boys to to better in class "so that they can support a family" is an underlying theme in the school. My history teacher said that "feminism is useless and only hurting feminists cause.*" I dare you, Mr. History Teacher, to tell that to Malala Yousafzai, who was shot because she believed girls should be educated. Tell that to the woman who used to cut my mom's hair, was kidnaped as a child because her necklace hung outside of her abaya. Tell that to the poor girl in Steubenville, who's rapists were pitied by the news, their futures mourned, while she was shamed because she couldn't stop them. Tell that to my friend who's pastor told her "Your parents wish you were a boy", even though that was not true. Tell that to the women all over the world who are treated as less because of their gender! Maybe the US no longer needs feminism on a grand scale, but much of the world still does. Until you can tell me that in ever nation across the planet women are safe, allowed to learn, and treated equally and with respect, I will not stop being a feminist.
I go to a Christian school, and, honestly, I believe Christians more than anyone should be the most likely to support equal rights. Of course, it doesn't work like that. One time in class, some guy made a really sexist joke. I was too slow to react, and then someone else chimed in with "Oh, don't say that in front of Lexi, she's one of those feminazis." Tell me- how many feminists have killed by the millions simply to make their point? None.
I stayed silent about my views on feminism, because I see the flaws in the system and realized that it is not the best word to attach to my name. So I was ashamed.
But I guess God did not want that. I looked at Hashini and told her "Not all feminists are that bad. I consider myself a feminist, but I don't really like telling people that, because of the... misconceptions and extremists attached to the name." Because, let's face it, there are the extremists that Alana mentioned. After I said that Audrey (who is someone that I really admire, she's in our performing arts class, and is an amazing actress/singer/person) turned around from where she was sitting and said something relatively profound to me. She turned around and said, "But if you hide that your a feminist, then you can never make the image of a feminist better," Woah. That wasn't some "be yourself and support what you want" crap, that was actually pretty insightful. And she didn't stop there.
"If feminism is seen as something so bad, then there are more people, louder people giving it a bad name then there are people who are doing the right. It's like being a Christian. Do you hide being a Christian because of the negative stereo types? Of corse not! You do your best to show people the good in Christianity. Just because you're Christian doesn't mean that you're... oh, I don't know, an over-zealous 'dirt-bag republican' that everyone makes us out to be. You need to treat feminism in the same way. Don't hide your beliefs because people have a negative view of them. Instead, change that view, be the good that people see in it. Be the one who people look up to and say 'That's what a real... whatever... looks like'. There's no use hiding yourself, that doesn't help you or anyone else."
Beautiful
(I give some credit to myself for paraphrasing her)
She has a point, though, and not just about feminism. It really applies to many other aspects of life (like how she mentioned Christianity). I just thought I would share with you.
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*In some ways he is right. Like the extremists Alana mentioned. People see them and distance themselves from feminism. I see his point, but in the context of the time, he was wrong.
I realize that feminism is a mix of good and bad. Feel free to ask me questions on any of my beliefs. I'm not exactly going to walk around with "feminist" painted on my forehead. Nope. I'm not going to be a crazy internet activist, either, because that would get me no where. I'm just going to continue to support the girls all over the world who still are not treated equality. Also, hating men is not feminism, that's sexism.
Obviously I paraphrased Audrey, but I do remember quite a bit of what she said, and I did my best to keep it to that.
My post on Kraken Con will be up soon. And hopefully my FMA/FMA:B comparison will be up by mid-June. Sorry, but school's busy, and it doesn't allow for me to write a full-blown comparison on two shows. I'll try to get my art up on time (May 1... I'm doing two months/one post), but I can't find my camera's charger!
I'm thinking of changing my blog's name. Idk what to, but I'm not sure if I want to. Any suggestions?
Also, I may change my internet name to ShaakThusa, because that's more... me. (mash-up of Shaak Ti and Aithusa, my two main internet names. Obviously I would still just be called "Shaak", but still)
Let me know how you like the Verdana font, I find it easier to read, and I hope y'all do, too.
And a page just shared this on facebook, and I feel like it's relevant.
The other day we were asked to write a rap/poem/song/story about the Endocrine System. So Anne and I wrote a rap! Actually, it's a parody of Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us"... yep, so here it is :p
"Endocrine System"
Endocrinology, listen up!
Where it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn’t.
Learning ‘bout a system that’s controlling all the hormones
Like the Pituitary, Pineal, Parathyroid and others
They’re up! Brain base, respectively, center of the brain, right around the throat
Somewhere above the thymus and thyroid. Endocrine, yep, yep, we’re not androids
Yup. Throat, location, this here is our thyroid, close above the thymus,
And they’re all near the head
Going down, I shed my skin and see my adrenals on my kidneys, and then, for the Women there’s the ovaries
And yet I’m not done.
Pituitary glands control all else,
The pineal glands always help you to sleep really well.
Pancreas, regulates sugar in the body with insulin
Parathyroid controls the growth of the bones,
The thymus creates T-cells so disease leaves you alone
Adrenals pump the adrenaline, rapid heart and breathing
Got ducts? They’re the E-X-O-C-R-I-N-E glands,
Endocrine go straight to the bloodstream, can they be ductless? Yes they can.
Ovaries and testes are located downstairs,
They control reproduction and they work together as a pair
Ducts
Not like duck duck goose,
The kind with glands and duct duct juice
Spread it across the body
Ducts out here,
Now there’s the Exocrine,
Pumpin’ substance to the outside,
And the Endocrine, which keeps it all inside
Wait ‘till we go back, this is the body
These are the glands and all of their functions
So we put them in a song it’s the endocrine system
It’s the endocrine system
Wait ‘till we go back, this is the body
These are the glands and all of their functions
So we put them in a song it’s the endocrine system
It’s the endocrine system
Thursday, February 20, 2014
So I found this "about the blogger" thing on Tumblr, and I figured this would be fun to do while I procrastinate on the FMA review (jk, im working on it, but i don't have a lot of time. Expect it around mid-March.)
Name ➔ If you know me irl then you know what it is
► Will you answer all questions truthfully ➔ yes ► Are you single ➔ single and free! (actually, i'm pretty sure I'm in a long-term relationship with homework right now -.-) ► Are you happy ➔ yep! ► Are you Italian ➔ yes
► Are you German ➔ yes ► Are you Asian ➔ nope, though one time my friend called me "mentally Asian"... I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. ► Are you angry? ➔ no
► Are you Irish ➔ no
► Are your parents still married ➔ yes
FACTS
► Birth Place ➔ The land that was fabled to be the island of the Amazonian women in the far west ► Hair Color ➔ blond ► Eye Color ➔ blue, but sometimes they're green ► Birthday ➔ Feb. 3 ► Mood ➔ happy
► Gender ➔ what do you think
► Lefty or Righty ➔ righty
► Summer or winter ➔ Winter! Though I like summer, the cool winter days are my favorite. Also Christmas. I love Christmas
► Morning or afternoon ➔ Um... ooh this is hard. Morning? Maybe? It really depends on the day.
THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE ► Are you in love ➔ with food! ► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ not really... I believe in "crush at first sight", but you don't really love people until you know them. ► Who ended your last relationship ➔ I've never dated, but in a platonic relationship: me
► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ possibly
► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ not really.
► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ yes
► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ if they're secret, how would I know?
► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ What does that even mean?
CHOICES
► Love or lust ➔ love ► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ iced tea ^.^ ► Cats or Dogs ➔ cats (apologies to my dog) ► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ I am an extrovert. I have many friends that I love to hang with, but a few close friends, as well. I don't think anyone could really have an either/or on this one. ► Television or internet ➔ internet... because then I can watch TV on the internet! ► Pepsi or Coke ➔ Coke (But I prefer rootbeer) ► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ Wild night out
► Day or night ➔ both
► IM or Phone ➔ phone
HAVE YOU EVER ► Been caught sneaking out ➔ Nope... well actually the other day I was going to let the dog in/ go walk around my back yard in the morning, and I set our alarm off. ► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ More times than I'd like to admit ► Finished an entire jawbreaker ➔ Took me 3 months, but yes, I have ► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ yeah i suppose
► Prank called a store ➔ nope
► Skipped school ➔ I'm sure I have (aside from being sick)
► Wanted to disappear ➔ A few times
PREFERENCES ► Smile or eyes ➔ eyes ► Light or dark hair ➔ dark ► Shorter or Taller ➔ taller ► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ intelligence! ► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ relationship
► Funny and poor OR rich and serious ➔ funny and poor
ABOUT ME ► Last Phone Call ➔ Mom
► Last person you hung out with ➔ my brother ► Last thing you ate ➔ potato chips ► Last thing you drank ➔ tea with a candy cane in it ► Last site you went to ➔ blogger (duh) ► Last place you were ➔ school
FAMILY ► Do you and your family get along ➔ usually ► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ nope ► Have you ever run away from home ➔ I planned to once, but doesn't everyone? ► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ nope
Look who's 16! Yay! I got my drivers permit a few days before my birthday, went to winter ball (and brought a picture of Sokka as my date :3) Had my birthday celebration on Sunday (lava cakes and Star Gate-SG1 FTW!) with my family. Monday my cat woke me up at 5:30, just before my alarm went off. When I got to school I tripped on my backpack and did a face-plant in the locker room (oh, what a wonderful way to start my 16th year :p). My friends had decorated my locker and wrote some really sweet notes! Natalia drew me a picture of Ed and Al! After school I did homework and then watched Stargate again. I love that show soooo much! On Tuesday Abby brought me to Farmers Market, and I bought a rock heart and some flowers.
(and now for the deep/thoughtful part of my post)
Last year my parents gave me a pocket-watch for my birthday, and so every night I hear it ticking by my bed. Every time I'm in my room I hear the 'tick-tick-tick'... sometimes I love it, sometimes I can't stand it and have to shove it in a drawer. But, you know what? That thing has been ticking since the day I turned 15. That is about 31,557,600 seconds. That's a lot of seconds...
So my deep thought is that there are a heck of a lot of seconds of one year. Not so deep or thoughtful...
But I could say "live every second to it's fullest", and I intend to do just that. For the 31,557,600 seconds of my 16 year. Yep.
Oh, man, I'm so tired. I don't even know what this post is, I wrote it over three days and have it scheduled to post on Friday and when I have extra time I add random sentences, because, hey, it wont be posted until 1am Friday morning!
Ok, I'm going to shut up now.
It's been a great week so far :) (And that FMA review /should/ be my next post. And then I'm combining January and February art, simply because I haven't had that much time to draw)
Haha, ok, so I've probably mentioned this before, but one of my favorite Christmas traditions is going up to the Dickens Fair in San Francisco. We had a good amount of people go up this year... Anne and her boyfriend Anthony, Padfoot, Lauren (she's Padfoot's friend, I don't really know her much...), and Alana. Anne's mom drove us up.
Teh Ride Up
A lot of Whovians go to the event, so we decided to dress up from Doctor Who! Padfoot went as Fem!Ten, Anne went as Clara, Alana went as Rose, and I went as the TARDIS (the same dress I made for the 50th).
The ride up was pretty fun. We stopped at Starbucks. We sang a few Christmas songs. I tried to not react too much to Anne and Anthony's "omg i love you so much" attitude. I just can't do the puppy eyes/hand holding/various other borderline PDA! I just... bleh. I just... well, you get the idea. I had to sit with them for over two hours.
You're 15. You can't possibly be that serious about your relationship.
BUT THEN WE ARRIVED! AND THERE WAS GENERAL EPICNESS! AND PADFOOT WAS THERE! I already mentioned that... didn't I. Oh, well, I don't see her that often anymore, so yeah, being able to spend time with her is a precious gift. Yep. I forgot my real camera, so you get a bunch of pic's from my phone (which was dying, so the quality's not the best. Sorry.)
We made it!
We walked around for a while and looked at the various vendors in the isles before looking in any shops. They mostly sold accessories and such. Sometimes food. Yep. Not much to talk about there. We pretty much stuck in a group, but sometimes Anne and Anthony wouldn't realize we moved on and we'd be all like "OMG WHERE'D THEY GO". That happened to us quite often :p
Crowns!
Pretty headbands!
And now for the shops... I was in Steampunk heaven! Soooo many amazing things! Padfoot and I had to go check out the wand shop, of corse. They sell hand-made wands, and the guy even makes some Harry Potter replicas with a secret compartment! I got one of the replicas last year. There was also a super cool mask shop with leather masks. I wish I had gotten a picture of it! My absolute favorite shop of the entire fair, though, was the book store. They sold old books, leather bound books, out of print books, small books, huge books, illustrated books, music books, and tea cups (bet you weren't expecting that, were you?).
There was also a music shop. I got to try playing a violin!
We also went to a few clothes shops. Most places sold hats and accessories, but a few shops were corsets, dresses, skirts, and Victorian-inspired clothes. Yep. Obviously I had to try on a corset, even though I would never pay $400 for one. Oh, well, a girl can dream, can't she?
Padfoot and I tried on dresses at another shop. Her's had a red/green scheme to it, and mine was dark blue with a silvery skirt. With my red wig I looked like Ariel! It was awesome wearing Victorian styled clothes :)
A jewelry shop had these necklaces. We got a kick out of them!
Like I said, Whovians! Isn't that a brilliant dress?
Here are some other random pictures from the fair.
Santa
I think this is where people would paint ceramic plates/cups/ornaments and such
Steampunk robot!
When we left the fair, we went into the city because Lauren and Anthony had never been to San Francisco before. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge and took some pictures... it was freezing, but fun. It reminded me of my Girl Scout Bridging a few years ago, where we walked across the bridge for our Cadettes Rank. Good times, good times.
After the bridge, we ended up getting lost in the city for an hour, and then we went to eat at Togos on the way home. We sang 70's rock, Christamas Carols, and Alana and I fangirld over Peeta and Katniss.
When we stopped on the way home, Alana and I thought it would be funny to take the back seat and see how Anne and Antony would react. We sat down, and waited for them to come out. Anthony opened the door for Anne, and they looked at us with shock and confusion.
Then they both sat in the front and that's when Alana and I decided that we needed to slightly embarrass them while telling them to not forget about us. So obviously we played "Sisters" from "A White Christmas." They started talking to us, so they must have gotten the point :p
Alright, that was a pretty long post. Until next time, my friends! And Merry Christmas!
