I’ve been working on some banners, and I’ll probably add them in a little bit. I’ve also received some more hosting applications, and am working on setting those sites up.

Meanwhile, I have to work on my water skiing team’s website as well. I can’t neglect that just because I’ve gotten back on Clompish.

Anywho, I had a retreat for confirmation over the weekend. We just got back today. it was fun, but I ended up coming down with a really horrid cold Saturday morning and into today, as well. I still feel like crap.

Even so, I still enjoyed myself. I developed a fondness for playing hockey with a lot of the guys from my youth group, went tubing, and did many other fun things.

It was strange; my cabin mates and I were very weird. One of us was either covered in chocolate, or another was bleeding, or someone was trying to sleep on the bathroom floor because they were annoyed, and were then moved into a wet shower.

The camp we went to had a very nice little Coffee Shop, Main St. Cafe, and General Store. I got the coolest mini buttons (that I put on my favorite pair of Converse) and an amazing plaid hat, plus all of the water, ice cream, hot chocolate, and other food that I bought.

My youth group is crazy, yes. I love them anyway

I’m going to finish setting up hosting and work on the possibility of a new layout. I missed you all, and am thrilled to be back.

This will be short, I want to get some stuff done besides blogging now that I’m back.

Be patient as I return comments, emails, etc.; I have a million to clear out. -_-;

Have a great day everyone

Now, you all know I’m not a huge fan of talking about my life in blogs, mostly if I’m just ranting and fearing boring you guys. But then again, a blog IS a blog… journal type thing. (: I just need to vent today.

One of my friends, Kyle (you all know him, he’s been like my brother for the longest time) is kind of… well, I think middle school is making him change in ways that everyone, or, mostly me and my close friends and his old friends, is not enjoying.

He’s getting all full of himself and maybe he IS just joking but it sure doesn’t seem like it. And Lauren, who was going out with him for a long time, is kind of… well, he betrayed her, so to speak.

I don’t want to rant, or judge him harshly (trying to be a Christian through this all) but it’s really annoying. He kinda called me and basically said that he’s embarrassed to be my friend (although he did call back later saying he didn’t mean it like that). It just makes me sorta sad, to see how social pressure, social status, etc., etc. is changing one of my really good friends.

Maybe he’ll realize it in a bit. I guess a good friend would understand and come running back to him. I don’t know—it’s just hard.

You’ve all had friend issues, I’m sure. I’d like to hear them (: maybe it can make me feel better right now~

Love you all, my visitors who stuck with me through my computer crash and now this painfully short and Haley-self-centered blog,

Hales out.

I have to make this short; it’s a shame, for there’s so much I want to say for once!

My computer crashed. I have to re download everything, including paint.NET, all of my browsers, etc. I lost passwords and a lot of content as well, so your patience is appreciated.

(: I’m back on and working, though, so don’t worry. It’s all fixed & good, I just lost quite a bit.

I don’t want to leave so quickly but it IS Ash Wednesday and I do have church later.

Have a wonderful day everyone~

Yeah, it IS a high school test that juniors and seniors take. It has to do with getting into the college and/or college courses of their choice, I believe.

And yeah, I’m a bit over halfway through 7^th grade.

Your point?

You see, I’m not, as one friend said, a super genius. I’m just your average seventh grader who happened to have a great opportunity, to take this test so young, and made the most of it.

Nothing was at stake for me when I stepped in that hot, bleak room full of high schoolers. For them, this test had quite a lot of pressure with it; for me, it was only to see what I already know and what I need to learn.

A bit of a preparation, so to speak, for when it really counts.

I think if it would have meant more for me, I would have been freaking. It was so stuffy and hard to breathe in there, plus the fact that there were people everywhere who felt the same way. Just not a good atmosphere; no wonder people can do badly on tests they know by heart just because of the situation!

But the worst part was the time frame. “You have 45 minutes for this test… five minutes until the end… 60 minutes…” There was a giant clock on the wall and I found I was almost paying more attention to that than I was to the problems in the test booklet.

Like I mentioned, this test wasn’t going to be affecting me in any way. I found I finished before many of the older kids, and I think part of it was that I really could rely on the fact that nothing bad would happen if I, say, FAILED. Everyone else couldn’t, and I’m sure that pushed them to really review their answers and make sure it was to utmost perfection, whereas I could rush through just a little bit more than them.

To be honest, I was surprised when I read the questions and problems. You would think that a high school ACT test would be harder than a 7^th grade WKCE (annual state test), but the English, Science, and Reading sections were about the same difficulty. The only thing I actually felt was harder than state testing for my grade was the math section.

I have not yet learned trigonometry. And most of those questions on the math part of the test were about trigonometry. Just my luck. It was fine, though; if I looked at what I already knew and used common sense, I actually think it wasn’t that bad.

All in all, ACT tests: not as big of a deal or as difficult as everyone says.

If you were a visitor of Clompish back when it was still Essence of Insanity, you know I offered hosting for a while. It was so unprofessional and not very user-friendly, as well as very stressful; long story short, I stopped the hosting section after a short period of time.

After quite a long revamp (I didn’t want to mention that I was revamping it to you all, as I didn’t know when it would be done) Hosting @ Clompish is up on it’s feet…er, domain, and ready to rock and roll.

I’ll be accepting applications until I run out of time and motivation—probably won’t be for a while, promise. So, if you’re looking for free hosting with a server that has 99.9% uptime check out Hosting @ Clompish or just click the link in the above navigation.

Nothing much has been happening in my real-world life. The band I manage is going awesomely, we’ve started practices for our schools annual Variety Show, in which I am the technical manager .

And, ironically, the band I manager is performing in the Variety Show that I am technically managing. LOL.

Today I was thinking about the word “emo” and remembered something my mother told me a few days ago—emo comes from the word emotional. I found this weird (although it makes sense with the whole “emo” “emo”tional thing) because emos now-a-days are thought of to be indifferent to most things.

Maybe a bit depressed (these are all stereotypes, of course), and saddened—but still, for the most part, indifferent and kind of blandly living in this world.

It was just something to think about. Labels and slang terms are so… various these days. There’s wangster and emo and scene and all of these different names. It’s kind of weird to think about, and I realized that this is one of the reasons English is so hard for immigrants to learn—we have words that make no sense, plus tons of slang and that jazz.

I mean, think of coming to an English-speaking country and having to learn “here” and “hear”. Or, figures of speech such as “knock on wood” or “on the ball”.

I feel bad for those forced to move to an English speaking country. Or, even those who willingly come.

Languages, languages… they make life difficult.

Last night I had to go to the mall to look for a skating outfit to wear in the number that three of my friends and I are doing this year. I’m not a girly girl at all, and skating “dresses” as they are called (although some say costumes ) really aren’t my favorite thing. I skate because I love the sport—not because I love the frilly, prissy stuff.

Luckily, we were able to choose our own outfits, so we didn’t have to shove ourselves into anything we detested. We managed to find some pretty cool (and fairly unusal—why we liked them) things that we’ve compiled to make the ultimate skating attire. Amongst these is a skirt that I seriously love (and I hate wearing skirts, so this says something). I like it because it’s so wacky—it alternates between lace and a spandex-like material. On and on. It looks really strange, but…

Along the way to finding wearable things, I got a bit sidetracked. Firstly, I love plaid, and the large abundance of it in that particular store was taunting me. I found quite a few Converse, as well—as most of you know by now, I live for those shoes. There were some really neon and bright leggings, and those distracted me too. I was just not able to focus on our real mission—skating. (I don’t like shopping all that much either, and I think that was a contributing factor).

The final thing that really caught my eye were these lime green sunglasses. The eye pieces were pretty large, and they were just wacky. I convinced my mother to let me get them, so obviously I was happy.

I wore the glasses to school today, but tired of them after a few classes, so I let one of my not-enemies-but-we-really-aren’t-friends-either wear them.

(→↑ There’s a picture of me with the glasses up on my forehead. They look even cooler over your eyes, but I love them either way.)

And after that, things just got bigger and bigger…

Soon I had about five or six different people begging me to let them wear the glasses, and a few more commenting on my bright blue plaid boots that I was wearing (trying to butter me up so that they could wear the stinkin’ neon frames).

It was actually really funny; not too long after everyone was loving them, I was offered ten bucks for someone to take them off of my hands. I refused, as I really like them… but the fact that someone was willing to pay money for them was kind of funny (they weren’t really that expensive in the first place. Just cheap, plastic sunglasses).

I actually have a list of people who get to wear them tomorrow. Or, I’m beginning a list. Presently my friend Mitch gets them from the start of the day until lunch, and Derek gets them after that.

It’s just crazy. I never knew sunglasses could make you so popular…

We always miss him when he’s gone but he brings back some really cool stuff to remember the trip by, and generally we’re able to stay in contact despite the various time differences. This time he brought back fancy little charms for our cell-phones, some Irish truffles and food, and these adorable little candy leprechauns for me and my sister.

Taking into account that you probably don’t care about my hair in the slightest, I’m still going to say something. Yesterday I went in for some scalp treatment thingeh at this hair place. My mom and sister have gone a few times, and I ended up tagging along. They were supposed to make my hair all clean and my scalp free of dandruff and all of that jazz, but I think they left some weird product in it and it’s all greasy. I’ll just have to shower.

Anyway, I revamped the layout yet again. Basically I changed the header image this time. It’s the header that’s got me in a funk—I can’t find a style or anything that is pleasing to me in the slightest. You can expect a few more tweaks and swaps before I settle on something that I really like.

I’ve found gradients and drop shadows really make layouts seem more professional and the sites that use them seem more organized. It’s always the layout that gives the visitor an idea of the webmaster/mistress’s level of care and effort.

So I was in the car yesterday with my mom and sister and I was called emo. That’s one label I really don’t like; for one, it can mean so many things, and two, most of those things aren’t really good (depending on your perspective of course). People commonly think of emos as dark, depressed, semi-gothic, and people who would like this page.

A lot of people who might be emo are thought to cut their wrists and cause themselves pain and harm, as well. I don’t understand how I even fit any stereotype of being emo at all; I love bright colors, have no desire what-so-ever to hurt myself in any way, and just am not a depressed person on any level.

I mean, omigosh, I wear Converse. T_T I must hate life.

The reason I was referred to as emo was because of the type of music I like. Last time I checked, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace were NOT emo, however.

It’s a wacked up world… and remember that stereotypes SUCK.

So here we go. Yet another look into the mind of a 12-year-old girl named Haley. (Another thing about this so called dictionary is that there is no large abundance of words. It isn’t exactly alphabetical, either, and is written in third person.)

Rawr: noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, interjection. Basically, every part of speech. Rawr is used to express anger, love, hate, depression, emotion of any sort. Used as a verb (rawring) and adjective (rawringly) rarely. Often interpreted to mean “ily” or I love you in dinosaur—this meaning is presently unconfirmed. The perfect word when you have nothing else to say and just want to break the silence. Written on the heel strap of Haley’s favorite pair of Converse All Stars.

Moof: noun, interjection, verb. Moof is an expression of indifference, ranging from extreme “I couldn’t care less” to “Yes, that’s mildly interesting.” Used at many of the same times that rawr would be an acceptable word to choose. Does not imply extreme emotion.

Omigosh: interjection. Omigosh is a word used when you find something hard to believe. It is one of the forms of the written out version of “OMG”; a few others are oh my gosh, omiGod, omigawsh, and omigawd. To be used sparingly—can portray the person who says this word as immature, concieted, overly preppy, and many other things that omigosh has really nothing to do with.

Doorknob: noun. Doorknob refers to a moronic, idiotic, stupid, dumb, or otherwise annoying person. Often used to describe immature male classmates. Rarely meant with affection, unless you are speaking with your unbiological brother who has a knack for driving you crazy.

BFFLUSSH: noun. Best Friends For Life Until Something Stupid Happens. Enough said.

That’s about all I have so far that aren’t incredibly easy to understand right away. I use all of these words quite often; in the halls of my school I find that doorknob is the most commonly spoken.

I wanted to mention that I’ve taken a liking to drawing smiley faces with squarish mouths such as ] or [. My favorite version is one I drew in the middle of math class earlier today that had waffles for eyes. That just goes to show you how my mind could not focus on parabolas .

Anyways, I’ve revamped the layout. It’s still the same colors and same basic styling, but I fancied it up a little bit with a header image, new sidebar, and some nice drop shadows. I’m quite proud of the drop shadows, to be honest—they aren’t images at all, merely CSS styling. :o

I’d love to hear of any bugs, suggestions, issues, opinions, or other comments on the layout. Even if they aren’t going to praise it—honesty is best.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day~

The movie Avatar is amazing on quite a few levels. It is rated PG-13 due to intense battle scenes, language, warfare, and some smoking.

It’s nearly three hours—a long time to be sitting still watching a film. Even with this fact, it is still highly rated by many and the tickets have been sold out in my Cinema even up until weeks after the movie first came out.

Avatar is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a distant moon in the Alpha Centauri-A star system. It is about a… clash, so to speak, between the moon’s native Na’vi clan and humans who have traveled all the way from Earth in order to mine the moon’s precious minerals, in a hope to stave off an energy disaster back home.

The main character, James Sully (Sam Worthington), is one of the earthlings. He is an ex-marine and finally makes some headway with the human’s mission to get the Na’vi clan to move out so that the minerals beneath their home can be mined.

Or rather, his Avatar does. The atmosphere on Pandora is deadly for humans, so they devise a way to turn themselves into genetically engineered hybrids that are made up of human DNA mixed with DNA of the native Na’vi people. These hybrids are called Avatars, and are controlled by human minds when they enter a certain chamber and “dream” of what their avatars are doing, so to speak.

The creator of this movie, James Cameron, has been working on it for over ten years, since about 1995 or so. He needed to wait until technology caught up with his imagination before actually creating the movie. These many years of dedication and hard work have greatly paid off; he is now incredibly rich and the public has now been given a wonderful movie to enjoy.

A mark of how dedicated Cameron was is the fact that he actually invented a new language that was to be spoken by the Na’vi clan at some points during the film. He created it entirely—it is a complete, full means of communication that does not lack in many ways, if any.

The actors in this movie had years of training to actually be able to physically do everything their characters do; it is not all animated. The cameras had a green screen type of thing built into them, so that as they were filming the actors, they looked like their animated characters but it was really them doing all of the movements.

This 3-D wonder (also released in 2-D) is really a state-of-the-art creation. While not all are as fond of it as some, there are very few who can actually think of many bad things to say about it.

I was completely transported by this movie; I felt as though I was really on Pandora.

Avatar receives 9.5 out of 10 from me, and I definitely recommend it to everyone who enjoys adventures and fantasies.

Fact is, some psycho mom made her 12-year-old child kill his hamster with a hammer because he received bad grades.

I was nearly ashamed to be human when I found out that someone of my same species had done such a terrible, cruel thing. Who would ever make their child murder their beloved pet because of something like grades?

Sure, a kid gets a bad report card. Some punishment is in order—not many parents find that acceptable (even though grades aren’t actually the best way to measure a student’s understanding; there could very easily be something else going on in the child’s life that effects their grade but doesn’t have anything to do with understanding of the material).

Back to the point: this is one of the sickest things I have heard of. It’s on the same level as the girl who killed and, God forbid, ate her cat because Miley Cyrus quit Twitter (see Miley Save Fuzzy for more information on this).

Luckily, this horrible mother has been put in jail and is no longer caring for her son, which is only in the best interest of her child. Imagine how emotionally scarred you’d be if you had to take a hammer and smash your pet to death. This kid is my age, and I can’t even bear to think of how I’d end up handling it.

He’s going to need counseling for sure—as humans, we are born with a natural affection for animals. Those who are cruel to animals have generally had a bad experience with them previously, resulting in their horrid treatment of them.

As many of you know by now, I’m quite an opinionated person. I try to be understanding of other people, but this… this woman does not even deserve to be called human in my book.

She put her son through such a bad experience; he’s going to remember this years and years from now. It’s a sad truth, but memories like this don’t just go away.

It’s bad enough what simply happened to the hamster—it was just an innocent pet that did absolutely NOTHING wrong. It’s even worse that she forced her son to murder his pet, and put him through such a thing.

That’s animal abuse, and child abuse. She is simply an unfit mother.

I don’t want to come across as a cruel or malicious person myself, but I kind of want to know what the mom would think if SHE was smashed to death with a hammer. Or at least, she should be hit with a hammer so she understands some of the pain she was putting not only the hamster through, but her son through as well. (It is just as painful to kill someone you love as to be killed.)

I am still not able to fully believe what happened, and am really beginning to loose faith in humanity.

There are many good people in this world; it just seems like the idiots have the upper hand.

I’m returning comments shortly and appreciate all of them, as always.

Of course, it isn’t only the rating that matters. Georgina gave me a thourough review and pointed out quite a few spelling and grammar errors (I’ll admit I rather fail at spelling). Along with this, she gave me a few other tips and mentioned a couple of things that I should change to make Clompish a bit better quality.

I’ve already gone through and made sure to change every grammar/spelling mistake that I am aware of; if you discover any others please contact me and I’ll really appreciate it. I’m going to go through and do a bit of a content clean, as well, which is something I’ve been planning to do since even before I applied for a review.

There were a few overall stupid things that the review showed me, like using textarea instead of code on one page, and just a few others that slipped my mind. I’m changing them now, but am really quite pleased with where Clompish stands right now.

I guess it’s a good thing—it’s my website and I should make it something that I’m happy with.

In other news, I’ve re-discovered my extreme addiction to smilies, commonly known as emoticons or emotes. etc., etc. They’re just so adorable. -hug-

Last night I slept over at a friends house. We had fun messing around on the computer, eating so much popcorn we could explode, and watching extremely funny videos on the internet.

We were also listening to the radio, and I was spacing out a little bit until the name “Breaking Benjamin” was mentioned. I kept listening, and heard that even though that station had never played them before, they were going to experiment and see how many people called in after playing one of their songs saying that they liked it.

They played Give Me a Sign at exactly 7:12 PM, and mentioned the band name at 6:41 PM. It may be a little weird that I remember those times, but many of you know by now that BB IS my favorite band.

Of course, my friend and I called in. I told the person that was talking to me the exact times that I said above, and he said he was impresed. I also told him that I love Breaking Benjamin to death, and it’d be great and I’d be really pyshced if that station started playing them. I hung up a bit later, and my friend and I continued to listen to the radio between laughing at things that weren’t even funny.

Maybe a minute or two after I hung up, I froze at what I was hearing.

The radio was replaying my entire minute and fifteen second long phone call to everyone who was listening.

We have them every once in a while so that the teachers can get caught up and everything, besides just their prep. hours and staying after. (Face it—not even the teachers exactly enjoy staying later at school…)

To be honest, it was almost a wasted day (not that I really mind). At my school there are eighth hours or periods every day, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays each period is shortened by a few minutes so we can have homeroom/teamstudy, also referred to as the only study hall you get in 7^th grade. It being Wednesday, we had the usual eight periods, though, even with early release.

Spanish went normally in first hour, and reading was the same in second.

Third hour, when I usually have math, we began the process of tie-dying shirts

At my school each grade is also divided up into four different houses; in 6^th grade the houses are 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6/7 (crossover house with both 7^th graders and 6^th graders), and in 7^th grade it’s 7C, 7D, 7E, or you could still be in 6/7. The method of houses is just to “organize” the students, so to speak, so that the teachers aren’t confused and everything is just more neat (with over 1,000 kids, it’s to be expected).

I’m in 7C, and as everyone would say about their house or team and such, it’s pretty amazing. We do quite a lot of fun things, like having parties, getting candy, and though we get swamped with homework, the actual school day is quite fun.

My house purchased white t-shirts for everyone and we got to rubber band them and then send them off to be dyed with our house color. (Each house has a color at my house, as well—perhaps I should have mentioned that to begin with.) We are planning on wearing the shirts for school spirit days, pep rallies, and we might just have a few 7C-is-awesome-so-we-are-wearing-these-shirts-and-you-are-jealous days .

After you finished dying your shirt, you went and sat in the Village Theater (auditorium—my school is set up like a town or small village) and watched a movie until the day was pretty much done and over with.

Basically, I love my school and my house, even if my district, DCE, stands for Doesn’t Close Ever & Doesn’t Care Either (we rarely, if ever, have snow days or anything, but they do care… sometimes.)

Anyway, I have confirmation later tonight at my church. I always love confirmation, though I’m not sure just why…? It could be because I get to see my friends and surf down the stairs on 2-by-4’s, or because I just love my church and God as a whole. Whatever.

I’m still sad about the Breaking Benjamin thing, but I guess I can see where my parents are coming from. Either way… I still have my iPod to listen to their songs, so I’ll just have to make my little nano do.

I’m getting sort of sick of this layout but am not sure if I should change it. At the least I’ll wait for Georgina of Heartdrops.org to finish my review (although she can take her time; she’s busy & I’m patient). If you guys have any suggestions as to what the next layout should be like, or if I shouldn’t even change it in the first place, please tell me. Like I said… I’m at a loss .

Take care everyone

With that said, moving on.

I can’t go. To the Breaking Benjamin concert.

My parents told me yes a few days ago. Y-E-S. A definite sign of “we are taking you to this concert.”

And then last night they change their minds—“Haley, we are worried the environment at the concert might be a bit overwhelming for a 7^th grade girl.” (Year 8 in the UK— Jorja)

Apparently, there might be some people (not only the band) crowd surfing. According to my parents, some people might be smoking pot as well. People will be pushing, I guess; it’s general admission so we wouldn’t have actual seats.

They wouldn’t believe me when I said I could handle it.

Breaking Benjamin is my favorite band. Do they honestly think I am that easily… seduced? “Omigosh, I see someone smoking this strange substance! I’m going to try it too!” No, that is most certainly not me. (And thank you to Rachel for giving me that quote :3)

Truth is, I don’t give a crap whether or not people are crowd surfing. I’m mature for my age, I can handle it. My parents would be there, I’d be fine. They have security guards at these things, too…

You see, what I care about is seeing my favorite band perform live. Not many people ever get to do that in their life, and to be promised it and then have it taken away when it’s just barely out of your reach?

It’s horrible. Horrible.

Last night I went into my room after finding out and just blasted BB’s music, so as to get my point across. I was seriously not happy, and I know it sounds petty, I know my parents are doing it for my own good, but to say yes and then change your mind?

I’d be fine, just FINE, if they said no in the first place.

It’s just to start looking forward to something so much, as I did, and then just have it jerked away?

It’s not fair. Yeah, life isn’t fair. But this… I hate having the disappointment. I was looking forward to that concert so much. I had three different countdowns going, I was ready to yell out all of their songs… I was freaking out with excitement.

And now I get to wallow in my own despair. Not much fun in that, no.

Right now, I’m just so mad and sad and very disappointed. Like I said, just a flat out no from the beginning would have been much, much better than saying yes and then deciding later, after I had time to really love the idea, that it was a no.

This is Haley, really ticked off, saying goodbye before she takes her anger out on her visitors, who are, frankly, amazing.

Now, I know that many aren’t Christians like I am, but I still want to make a reference to the sermon in church today. (I go to church every Sunday, and, contrary to my age’s popular belief, love it.)

The church service was about something I think we all deal with, religious or not—the fear of not mattering.

I’m sure everyone has had a time where a family member or friend seemed to favor someone else; or, even worse, forget about you entirely.

I know that everyone has at least once thought that when the teacher forgets their name or confuses them with someone else, it means they aren’t important enough to be remembered.

It’s just a part of life—we all feel at one point or another that we simply do not matter and simply don’t make a difference to anyone.

Just another drop in the bucket.

The fact is, you are important. You are important to God, whether you believe in him or not (it is a belief of mine that he cares about everyone no matter what their views are).

You are important to your parents, whether or not they show it. Maybe they have a problem that they can’t get over, maybe they are sick or hurting, maybe they can’t take care of you all that well. The truth is, I’m sure they want to. Sometimes it’s just hard to show things.

You are important to your friends. Maybe they can be mean and horrible, and make you wish that you hadn’t tried to hang out with them at all. But if you ever walk away completely, chances are they are going to come running to you after they realize how much you mean to them.

You matter very much. A verse in Luke says something about two sparrows being sold for a penny, and they are so important that if one of them dies, people will know.

And are you not more important than a sparrow? I think you are.

No matter what it feels like, no matter if you are a Christian or not, no matter what you’ve done and who you are…

There is someone out there who really cares about you. You are important. You matter.

I must say though, that the best part was when Simon (famous for his ability to hate everyone :o) stated, “I have a horrible feeling that’s going to become a hit,” in his amazing accent. :3

I didn’t reach twenty comments on my last entry, and, frankly, am too impatient to blog that I just don’t want to wait. It’d take a while, anyways. So maybe we’ll try that comment contest again sometime, when Clompish gets a few more viewers. :]

Today wasn’t the best day, really. I guess it wasn’t, well, the worst but it could have been much, much better. Easily.

In the morning I was so tired that dragging myself out of bed took every scrap of energy I had. My headgear (arg, hate it so much!) was literally killing my molars, and my hair was the worst case of bedhead I’ve seen in a while.

I get to school, and there’s at least something good—I find out that on my last spanish test, I recieved a 51 out of 49. And there was only one point of extra credit offered in the first place. she said I went above and beyond, I guess.

The feeling of joy was erased a bit later when I found out we had a substitute for reading, and there was a problem with my video book review. T_T we managed to sort it out, but that doesn’t mean I was happy about wasting the hour…

The rest of school was okay, but not the best. In world studies we had a quiz on the countries of Asia. I did fine, but it was a bit of a surprise test, to be honest.

Science… well, not much to say here. It’s just science, I guess. Biomes & digestive systems… can’t wait for higher level classes!

After school I have to wait until 3:10 for my dad to come and pick me up to take me to piano lessons (school ends at 2:30). Upon entering the music conservatory, I promptly slid across the floor due to a piece of ice stuck to the bottom of my boot, fell, hit my back and elbow, and just sat there for about three minutes dealing with the pain. My soda also exploded all over me, making life just all the more pleasant.

By the time I got into the actual piano room, I was of course late. Then I realized I was missing two of the books I needed, and that was lovely.

Finally my mom got there, and then we went to a meeting she had to go to. It ended up going from 4:30 ish or so until 6:00, and I had homework too. And. nothing. to. do.

So I spent almost two hours sitting on a bench drinking Mellow Yellow and texting people so that I didn’t fall asleep.

Then we leave the meeting after it all wraps up, and I call my grandmother (who came down to our house yesterday) to tell her we are on our way home.

While talking to her I learn that my Uncle Jim has a very bad infection (actually he’s my great uncle) and his cancer is much bigger and worse than we all thought it was. The cancer is blocking off the tube in your liver that releases bile, and… it’s all just a mess, ya know?

Luckily I’ve now finished homework and feel a bit better after talking to a few of my friends (♥ you all) and eating some actual food.

And anyway, there’s always tomorrow… and pants on the ground.

I’m going to be having a comment contest. It’s quite informal, really; the person posting the 20^th comment on this blog will be linked on the sidebar of every page of Clompish for two weeks, and recieve a special banner made just for them, from me.

Please keep comments related to the blog entry or to a comment that I have returned at your site. One-liners and unrelated comments will not be counted or accepted for this contest, and I appreciate your understanding with that matter.

I’ve been lacking some visitor interactive material, so this is what I’ve come up with for now. I’m working on creating a much fancier, more detailed, and overall more interesting contest right now—expect that in a few days, but be patient please :3

Onto the blog.

It’s been decided—I get to go see Breaking Benjamin live in concert on the 21^st.

You cannot even imagine my excitement—I’m going to see my favorite band live, and words cannot express the gravity of what I’m feeling. :3 There’s a few set backs, though… two of my most awesome friends, Rachel and Kyle, cannot come with us. We were all hoping that it’d be us as a threesome, but that plan’s been shattered.

At the least, though, I get to go.

I’ll take plenty of photos, trust me—the way there, the way back, the concert itself… there’ll probably be a ton of images that no one can even tell what they are but look cool, and quite a few out of the car window that just might turn into light textures. (And photos of the band performing just go without saying.) :]

So as to not rub it in anyone’s faces or brag, I’ll be moving on from Breaking Benjamin as a topic now. ♥~

I added one article today, this one being on the topic of homework. It’s one of my favorite articles that I have written, and I urge you to take a look at it.

I’ve been writing more articles and narratives as opposed to poetry and lyrics lately. I’m not sure just why, but it’s not bothering me—I like being well-rounded with my creation of literature and here I’m just taking a few steps in a new direction. (Think of that analogy for a while, keeping up changing directions, and you get zig-zag. Zig-zags are quite awesome.) :3

I also added a banner today; it features a scene of some rock formations much like a solid stone mountains set near a lake. Basically, it just represents nature and has some old parchment style sheet music layered on top as a texture. I’ve actually named this one (it’s unusual for me to name banners) Thundersong. I think it fits quite nicely :]

Pet peeves.

I have quite a few quirks myself—such as my Converse obsession or the fact that I’m constantly listening to music (currently Diary of Jane—Breaking Benjamin), but the things about me that are the strangest to some are my pet peeves.

For example, I can’t stand when someone flips their hair. I understand sometimes people doing this (like in gym, when you’re running and it’s in your eyes) but when you’re sitting in class doing your daily geography or talking on your cell phone, what’s the point? You think it looks attractive, or something? Let me tell you (and I guess this IS only my opinion) it drives some of us n u t s. N-U-T-S.

Or whenever I see someone online talking or commenting on a certain website and they’re using horrid grammer, I can’t stand it. I guess a few “lol”s or “omg”s are fine; I use them myself sometimes and they are quite common and popular—and of course if you’re IMing or texting or whatever, then it’s a great time to let your inner n00b roam free. It’s just when a person is on some formal-ish website or someone’s blog and they talk l1k3 +h15 (yes, that was an exagerration. You get the point :3) that it seems purely inappropriate. Is the owner of the website going to feel like you care about what they have to say if you can’t even talk to them with proper grammer?

& to name some of my other pet peeves…
people breathing loudly, your teacher trying to start class before the bell rings (what the heck!?), you’re friends “jokingly” insulting you and refusing to defend you in front of others, substitute teachers who think they know how the class is actually supposed to work, (I’m noticing most of these are about school…), those who just assume things about you because of the kind of music you listen too, people just assuming things about you in general (half the school thinks I’m emo because of my Converse & colored skinny jeans; let me tell you I have no desire to harm myself and am not “in the black hole” of depression at all).

It’s annoying to have family members singing in the car, people chewing gum, people trying to be Michael Jackson, commercials that don’t even have a catchy song or a reasonable flow of events (what were they even thinking?), and there’s a variety of other things that drive me crazy.

I don’t expect you to agree with me on the things that bother me—we are all unique and all a bit weird in our own way, so some of those might be very different for you. :3

I’d love to hear some of the crazy things that drive you up the wall, as well.

Holding the hand that hold’s me down
I forgive, forget you, the end
Holding the hand that hold’s me down
I forgive you, forget you, the end
-& Without You, Breaking Benjamin

Ah, how I love that song. :3 If you read my last blog, you know that I might be able to go to a Breaking Benjamin concert on the 21^st. If you didn’t read my blog… look at the previous sentance. I’m really hoping I can go, and my parents seem to be caving a little bit… I just won’t push my chances. :3 And if I go, two of my most epic friends, Rachel & Kyle, might come with us. That’d make it the best night ever, hands down, no contest.

Anywho, I revamped the layout a bit so that I don’t tire of it as quickly as all the others. I rather like how it turned out—although the image above the sidebar might be changed again. You never know what inspiration will strike.

My sister went to Evercon, a gaming/anime convention earlier today. I had to help… er, anime-ify her, I guess. She ended up looking adorable (yes, she’s older than me, but she can still be adorable!) as most anime characters do. I couldn’t get over how she really did look like someone right out of a Japanese manga. :3

Have a wonderful Saturday & rest of the weekend, ya crazy waffles.

One of my favorite bands, Breaking Benjamin, is touring in Lacrosse, WI, on the 21^st. Lacrosse is only a few hours away from where I live, and I’m hoping to be able to go to the concert.

Tickets are cheap (I don’t know why—the band is amazing; it should be really expensive in my opinion :]) and I could easily afford them with my own money; my parents wouldn’t have to chip in at all (which should score some brownie points).

There are only two problems. 1) the 21^st of January is my mother’s birthday, and 2) it’s also a Thursday, which means school the next day, which means the chances of my parents saying yes are a million to one.

And well, the school problem isn’t that huge. I can live through one Friday on very few hours of sleep,I know I can (heck, I’ve had sleepovers with friends and have had skating or waterskiing the next day. Those two activities take much more out of you than lessons.)

But I’d hate to make my mom drive me to Lacrosse (although it isn’t that far) on her birthday so I could see a concert. Even if the band is the ulta-super-epic-essence of amazingness.

Still… I want to go so badly. The full price tickets are only about $40 dollars, and they aren’t selling out quickly or anything. I guess my parents and I are just going to have to talk and think about it a bit.

I hope I can go. Breaking Benjamin… seeing them live… ahh♥.
& If I went, I could take my own pictures. I could then make them into graphics without any copyright issues, etc. :]

Anyways, I’m excited it’s Friday. :] there’s most likely going to be band practice for Flaming Resistance this weekend (you might have read a few past blogs and would then know about the band I manage—if not, well, I manage a band =P). I always love band practices—they’re just fun.

First off, for being a band made up of four twelve year olds (if you count me, then five) we’re not that bad. I’m not trying to be concieted here—merely stating a fact. Our vocals could use some work, and of course we have to smooth it all out, but for being new & young… well, we’re actually getting somewhere.

Secondly, the band is like a family. There’s Kyle (my complete and utter unbiological brother) who gets along with me wonderfully and is really just a great friend. There’s Patrick (my neighbor) who I’ve known for a long time and we never really fight or disagree past a certain point. There’s Ryan (my fairly new friend) who sets himself up for joking insults and always lets me lean on him when I need too. And of course, there’s Levi, who’s slightly immature but still funny and a decent kid anyways.

Third, I get to see Ben. Ben is Kyle’s little brother and let me tell you all, he’s awesome. We practice in Kyle’s basement and half the time we end up playing videogames with The Lemur (long story… Ben’s nickname).

There’s just so many reasons. I love music, I love the feeling of a family, I love being cared about and caring for others. I love managing, I love feeling important, I love being a part of something not many people my age are a part of. I just love the band.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll get on returning comments soon.

~! until next time.