Thing(s) of the Day: Pogo, pus recent news

I stumbled across these cool videos a week or two ago and decided they were too cool not to share. This guy, Pogo, takes sounds clips from movies and strings them together to make these whimsical melodies. Admittedly, not the kind of thing I habitually enjoy, but I especially like these two (he's done some nice Disney ones as well.)

Mostly I like this one because, you know, Lord of the Rings. It's awesome already. Plus, I find it vastly entertaining that Sam and Elrond scream on the exact same pitch. Anyone else amused by this?

And as for this one, it's got this darling intricate melody that is incredibly catchy, yet I can never seem to remember it later. And by the way, A Little Princess was one of my all-time favorite books when I was a wee lass just learning how to read. A Secret Garden as well. Ah, childhood. Strange to think back to a time when none of the books I read had crazy fight scenes or kissing or anything in them. And now they all do. Lol.


In other news (several things):

(1. I have recieved a very nice financial aid package from St. Olaf, including their highest piano scholarship and second-highest art scholarship, huzzah! *mops brow* Great heaping load of stress off right there, thank the Light. And as for the li'l bro, he got accepted for the Piano Academy there this summer even though he's technically a year too young. They really liked his audition tape. So yay.

(2. My mommie more or less required me to apply for the Great Conversations program at St. Olaf, which is basically a combination of core classes for your first and second year in which you read/analyze/discuss great works of art and literature, beginning with the Ancient Greeks and Romans and progressing as far into the present day as the professors feel like going. It's extremely comprehensive, as well as extremely hard to get into, because if I remember correctly, there's only forty spots. You write an essay, and that's all they have to go on to evaluate you. I wrote a crappy essay, my mom edited it, I wrote it again, she made more edits, and we worked it along until both of us were fairly happy with it. Apparently it was good enough, because I made it in. XD Thanks, Mommie.

(3. I just found out that an art piece of mine won some Grand Award thing in the Shawnee Mission district art show. Tomorrow I have to go to the awards ceremony, and it's gonna be on TV and stuff. I think that means I have to look pretty or something. Crap. *shambles into the corner, muttering to self*

(4. So my chamber choir always has their progressive dinner thingy the night before State every year, mostly to discourage kids from partying late, since we have to ride the bus at a ludicrous hour of the morning. We went to three different houses and ate them all out of house and home. I sat at a table full of boys at the second house and we had a heated discussion about whether the Avengers movie is going to suck or not. (I, personally, fear the suckage. I mean, the Iron Man movie was lame, Thor was reportedly lame, Hulk = whatever, Black Widow didn't even get her own movie, Captain America had a weird ending... basically, the precedents are not good. We shall see.) Anyway, after the dessert course, we did a scavenger hunt that led us on a merry chase all up and down my choir conductor's neighborhood. We had to cross a creek in formal wear. It was bloody brilliant, although I did accidentally dip the hem of my dress in the water when I was leaping from rock to rock in the pitch blackness, since I sort of forgot my flashlight. Whatever, I found out this morning that my team won. Peachwave gift cards. Heck yeah. Although I have massive cramps in both legs because we RAN THE ENTIRE TIME and I am woefully out of shape. Like woefully. As in, borderline extremely fat. At least, it feels that way to me.

(5. Got up at five a.m. this morning to get on a bus and go to Emporia with my chamber choir for State (our performance time was 8:40 a.m.) We did really well at District - got a I rating with like 74 points out of 80. Today at State, we got a I rating with 79 points out of 80. So that was cool. Although I'm totally dying right now. I'm so spoiled - I'm hardly ever out of bed before eight anymore. Yes, I know I'm spoiled! Quit smacking me! I WILL MAKE YOU BLEED!! Ahem.

(6. At the used book sale last week, or whenever it was, I was fortunate to encounter the entire Star Wars: Jedi Academy book trilogy, which I immediately snapped up, because they were like fifty cents apiece and I can never find all three of them in one place. Just finished the first one, Jedi Search, last night. Ah, more nostalgia. I love Han and Chewie. That is all. I remember when I watched the movies with my parents for the first time, and every time a new character came on the screen, I would be all like, "Is that a good guy or a bad guy? It's a good guy, right? What are those little hooded things? Are they nice? Why do people always fall down when that black-cape guy is around?" Imagine me saying all those things in my reedy small-child voice, and you can probably imagine my parents repeating over and over, "Just watch the movie and see!" Oh, right, book sale. In addition to the aforementioned Star Wars books, I also picked up a copy of Divergent, because I decided I liked it enough to own it; Delirium, which my book-buddy friend at school is currently raving about; I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, which Lady Arin has been bugging me to read for ages, and I finally read it! There, happy? I'm sorry, but I think I missed my window. I probably would have enjoyed it far more if I'd read it when I was fourteen. Now I was like, Holy crap, this chick is such a fifteen-year-old girl. So. MUCH. I swear, she uses the word "totally" like twenty times a second. But granted, there were a few funny parts.

(7. Other book stuff. Recently finished both Hamlet and Lord of the Flies for English; enjoyed Hamlet quite a bit, but not so much the other. Lord of the Flies just reminds me of the mutated love child of Lost and Peter Pan. It's rather frightening. But mostly just gory. Gorier than I tend to like. Not a huge fan of skulls splitting open and brains spilling out, thanks very much. However, I am also simultaneously in the middle of Incarceron (borrowing from my school book-buddy) and A Game of Thrones, which I like so far. I've had a few spoilers on account of my brother having watched several episodes of the show at my grandparents' house, but it's still a rich read. Dawww, Bran! *huggles the little climber* Dude, I really want a direwolf as a pet. Especially one that would defend me from jerkwad snotty princes. That would be freaking awesome.

(8. I am amassing a list of things I need to read/watch/play/do before college this coming fall. It's gonna be a super busy summer if I even attempt to get through it all. The list currently includes: finish all three Tomb Raider games (probably too ambitious, but oh well); finish Twilight Princess; play through Portal; have Firefly marathon with Brenticus; watch every episode of Teen Titans ever created; watch Aladdin; play Assassin's Creed (probably just the first one - there's no way I'll have time for all of them); paint up the spare Nerf guys I have lying around in my room; oh yeah, clean out my room so the bro can live in it; SEE MILADY; play more Skyrim (although that's quickly losing its glamour - plenty of better things to do); take another crack at Myst V perhaps; write second draft of Erimon Hill (hopefully BEFORE workshop, but seriously, can I make that happen? Probably not); read moar Shakespeare (specifically Macbeth, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet... that's my own personal list); sell a bunch of my old crap; get a new computer; work at the Taekwondo studio and earn some actual monies; watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; go see shiny new movies coming out (Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit Part I, and others); catch up on movies I missed in the theater (John Carter, Sherlock Holmes 2, and whatever else); eat lots of Peachwave, cuz I doubt they have those in Minnesota; get my Ipod situation fixed (we don't have Itunes on any of our computers anymore); prepare for my graduation showcase/ceremony in early August; and basically hang out with my family and high school friends as frigging much as possible. *gulps down some air* Whew, I thought I was going to asphyxiate there for a second. See how much stuff that is? I could not sleep a single minute this entire summer and still not get around to it all. Ack, so much stuff!

But first, school. I am so done with it, guys. Please. Take it away.

Commander Kip
"Are you guys done yet?" "Shut it! This is going to take HOURS. HOURS... and HOURS."
Normal is overrated!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone sketches

Hokay, so, first off: remember when what I said about "so little homework lately"? Yeah, that's gone now. I don't know why teachers think it's a good idea to pile on the homework for fourth-quarter seniors. Surely that must know that no one's going to do it. So basically, real life is eating me right now and my posting schedule has been subsequently lame. I apologize. Here's a little thingy to keep you satiated in the meantime. Sketchies of Karou and Akiva!

 These three are my faves (the rest are more or less crap) - Karou with the paintbrush in her hair:

 Akiva, in all his kohl-ish glory:

And some kissing, because that one scene was super hot.

Awright, I dunno what they did to Blogger, but clearly they fixed something that wasn't broke because my formatting is all jakey now nothing is working the way it should and I want my mommy and what was wrong with the old version? It should not have taken fifteen minutes to make those pictures and text sit where I wanted them.

This is stupid. Maybe I should boycott. Just, you know, 'till they put it back the way it was.

Back to the ever-present schoolthings...

Commander Kip

"Hey, we were calling to wish Grandpa a happy birthday!" *long pause* "...Oh. *another pause* ... That's today?" "Yes, Mother, it's your husband's birthday. Can we talk to him?" "Oh, sure, here he is." "Hey, Grandpa, happy birthday!" "Oh, that's today?" "Um, yes." "Good thing you called - I forgot all about it!"

Normal is overrated!

You may have noticed that I tried something

and I'm not sure I like it. I *ghasp* changed my blog. The background, heading, color scheme, all of it. I was going for summery, but somehow ended up with Eastery. It would appear that I accidentally matched the color scheme to that heinous watercolor in the last post. Bad. Bad bad. So this look will quite possibly not stick.

Really, the reason I changed it was because I was tired of my old background, although I loved it, and also my dad taught me some cool things about Paint.NET that I wanted to test out. Hence my fancy new header. I'll stick it up here so there's some record of it when I inevitably change it again: Certainly more professional that the last, and far more legible-er. But not really the colors I want on my blog at present. Ah well. Try again.

(Eventually. I suddenly have many things to do, which is forcing me to ignore this debilitating case of senioritis and get actual things done. It hurts me. I just wanna lay around and watch Youtube, now, is that so much to ask? Apparently it is.)

See, even my blog posts are lame. I truly wish to be absolutely lazy these days. Fourth quarter sucks. 'Scuse me while I go cry into my Spanish homework.

Oh, but remind me, when I get a chance, to talk about A Game of Thrones, which I'm finally reading, and the massive-scale Erimon Hill rewrite, which will happen before the workshop IF IT KILLS ME, and some fun things I've found online recently, and also that artwork thing I sometimes do. I have a stack of doodles THIS BIG *holds up hands about a foot apart* to show you people.

I love how I always make lists of the posts I want to do, and then I only do like the first one or two on the list. I suspect this time will be no different. Well, too bad.

Commander Kip
Ooh, cop uniform? Yummey.
Normal is overrated!

HAPPY REBIRTHDAY

It's Easter, you gaiz! I heart Easter. Have a crappy watercolor! It's Stewey from the IUW. 'Member him? The angry rabbit? Well, now he's even angrier. Might have something to do with me dyeing him blue and tying a pink ribbon on his head. Hey, I never claimed I knew how to watercolor. Hence that heinous mess of colors up there.

Also, since it's Easter, have this video.


Usually I am not a huge fan of Christian music as a genre, because many of the songs are very basic in structure, but basically I just like Adam Young's voice. It's, I dunno, clear. And hopeful. It has a simplicity that I find lacking in most modern pop stars. Not a ton of vibrato. I like that. Yay Owl City.

Now, CHURCH! *dashes off to make self presentable*

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

Commander Kip
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

I wasn't planning on this particular Thing of the Day, but there's life for you. Always throwing wrenches and crow's feet and sticky grenades in your plans. Silly life. Annnyway.

My friend from school lent me this book, DIVERGENT, and I started it yesterday and finished it... yesterday. So I wanna talk about it for a sec. (By the way, it's set in dystopian Chicago, and I've been to Chicago, so nyeh. 'S cool to read about a city you've been to. Like when Percy Jackson accidentally blows a hole in the St. Louis Arch and stuff while fighting a chimaera. But that's sorta beside the point.) Point is, this particular dystopian society is separated into five factions, which people sort themselves into at the age of sixteen depending on their personality. However, the protagonist, Beatrice Prior, also/later known as Tris, doesn't fit nicely into any of the factions and is therefore considered Divergent, which is the same thing as "extremely dangerous to the government," because she can't be controlled. Apparently, Divergence is very rare in this society. Now, here's what's funny. My parents have raised me Divergent all my life. They sat me down and gave me a big serious talk about divergence right before I started public school. My whole family is majorly divergent. So reading about this chick who was raised in a theoretical box and whose life is constantly in danger because she's just discovered that she's Divergent is fascinating to me. It's like, whenever she thinks she should just fit in and do what her faction is doing, I'm going, Nooo, that's not the way to do it. Do your own thing, Tris! In fact, I believe that if everyone were more Divergent, the world might even be a better place for it. Instead of hordes of sheepul who do and think whatever theyr'e told, we might have a community of aware people who know what's going on in the world and aren't afraid to speak/act differently than perhaps the government wishes they would. In the book, the five factions are based on the qualities of selflessness, kindness, knowledge, truth, and courage. You have to pick one. You don't get to be all of them. But one of the characters, Four, says he wants to be all of them, and that everybody should be all of them. They can't work as well independently of one another. Here's me in total agreement, you guys.

And get this; just for kicks, I took the faction quiz in the back of the book, which is supposed to determine which faction you would be in, and my results were... inconclusive. I had answers in every category. I can't be classified. I'm Divergent. I KNEW IT! And the really funny part is, Divergent wasn't even a choice in the results. Just the five factions. They didn't actually build Divergence into the quiz. Isn't that interesting? And the even funnier part is, I took the quiz before I actually read the book, and I didn't know what it meant, at first, that none of my answers matched any one single faction. Then I read the book and I was like, oh, I get it now.

So basically, I'm so glad my parents didn't raise me in a way that lets other people put me in a box. I like being Divergent. Yay padres especiales! It's wasn't a particularly well-written book, slightly sub-par to Hunger Games, I would say; but it did make me think. Which is good.

Now I gotta go clean the house and vacuum up some wasp carcasses before the fam gets here for Easter tomorrow. Later, all!

Commander Kip
"What if they solve the case first?" *derpface* "Nah."
Normal is overrated!

My Dog

Just showing the class a bit of blogging.
This is sooooo easy!

Cute DOG!