mosh pit of pictures, videos, updates, and rainbows.

starting off this post with an obviously controversial piece of work by banksy. seeing that it's been way too long since i last published a blog post, this one might be horrendously long because i'm going to include all the links/pictures/etc. that i've been wanting to post on my blog, but have been too lazy to.

links:
- zoomii: an incredible online library. a "real" bookstore.
- whichbook.net: amazing book-choosing resource.
- fuzzmail: specifically the "what is fuzzmail?" page.
- driftless farm house: beautiful architecture.
- nobel prize winners hate school: lovely school-hating quotes by nobel prize winners.
- portfolio of jesse van dijk: wonderful project.
- flock: my new, awesome web browser.

pictures:



comic from garfield minus garfield. funny stuff:
videos:

remember bill o'reilly's freak out? well, there was a remix.


awesome street style soccer. beautiful.

updates:
1. i got my permit!
2. my hair is gradually fading from blue to purple.
3. i've gotten better at my anatomy (drawing).
4. i'm still struggling through my novel.
5. the winners of the writing contest on wordclay will be announced on monday (the 30th).
6. i'm in the process of starting a comic.
7. i failed at the artist's way, again.
8. i failed at convincing my parents to switch my school, again.
9. i will be leaving for oregon in a week.
10. i win at life.

a piece of advice:
do not engage in a challenge with your friend to drink an extra-large coke during a movie because then you will have to piss at least three times during the duration of the movie and the people that you have to pass by to get to the aisle will ask you after the show if you are alright. and you'll miss a lot of the movie.
just a tip.

clocks and watermelons

well... this is going to be quite the post. first off, updates:

1. 13 days of school left until the end of the school year!

2. with the combined efforts of myself and my dad, we have gone back five generations into our family ancestry and learned that i have roots in spain, poland, germany, france, england, and russia. pretty cool stuff.

3. editing my novel - am in the process of transfering it to the program ywriter (free program used for writing novels) but am usually editing about a page or two a day with all my homework/bullshit/stuff.

new quotes that i like:

"You see, Elaine, the key to eating a black and white cookie is that you wanna get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet still somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie, all our problems would be solved." - seinfeld

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - albert einstein

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - groucho marx

"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - douglas adams

hot library smut:

i want a library like this in my dream house - spiral staircases, the works. that would pretty much make my life.

and pretty much the best decision-making tool ever:

so yeah. my life has been filled with bullshit, drama, crushed hopes, breakdowns, break dancing, clocks, watermelons, bob dylan, etc. this menagerie of randomness is nothing more than a release of some images that float through my head on a daily basis.

and, by the way, it's almost summer here even though we had snow earlier this week.

plans/planes.

as the school days start winding down into the lemonade-scented oblivion called summer vacation, i am estatic to tell you that i can graduate next year as a junior! my academic plan for the upcoming 2008/09 year is as follows:
- take financial literacy, computer tech., and .5 credit of u.s. history during the summer
- english courses: a.p. language and english 12
- history courses: government (.5 credit)/psychology (.5 credit)
- math course: 1060/pre-calc.
- science course: physics OR physics with technology
- CTE course: photography
- electives: creative writing (1 credit) and drawing (.5 credit)/painting (.5 credit)

after graduation, i'm planning to do unschooling for a year while living at home. i started making a list of things that i'd like to complete/explore during that time:

1. working on a farm: there's a handful of organic peach farms in northern california that i'd like to take a look at. i had been planning on doing this for the upcoming summer vacation, but if i wait a year, i can do it for a longer period of time without the looming expectation of school.

2. writing: i'd like to at least finish editing my novel from nanowrimo and possibly complete a collection of short stories that i could submit to magazines, etc. i have finally broken through that dry spell of no creativity at all (and just in time to illustrate a children's book for creative writing) so if it keeps up, i should be able to keep writing and improving.

3. start a baking business. my great uncle and great-grandfather are/were bakers so i guess it runs in my genes.

4. traveling. i-to-i has a fantastic program in south africa to work with lions... but unfortunately, the age requirement is 18. i'd love to find another program that resonates so deeply with me and have another experience like the bali trip last year.

psst... do you like my template change?

reflection post

as i head in to the final quarter of this hellish school year, i have some reflections:
one no one ever has to put up with bullshit. it is your own fault if you are not strong enough to speak up against injustice. people have enough power within themselves to change their reality, but most people just like riding on everyone else's coat tails. so, listen up, world: only you can change the things you see need to change.

two take everything one day at a time. if that's too far ahead for you, if you don't feel you can go a day at a time, take it an hour and a half at a time. say to yourself, "i can survive anything for an hour and a half" because you can.

three define everything yourself. do not give in to social standards of 'beauty' and 'morality' because they may not be right for you, as a person. you only need to live up to your own standards, yeah? if you solely live up to other's standards, you will never be happy with yourself.

four life is too crazy, too unpredictable, too significant and insignificant to take too seriously.

food court musical

i always wondered why people in musicals randomly burst into song and what would happen if someone actually did that.

this video is most definitely worth watching, by the way.
discovered by stumbleupon.

second update post

another quick update as i procrastinate editing my novel and completing that picture i promised myself i would finish tonight:

i need another adventure.
yes, it's true. danya is going through that phase in which she needs to go somewhere outside her town with someone who is like-minded so she can get angry and think and talk about everything and nothing at the same time. this is because she a.) misses her buddies who are in thailand, b.) can't seem to actually do anything at this point in time, and c.) needs be happy and unaware of her problems, even for just an hour.
hopefully, this need will be fullfilled tomorrow, but if not, i will have to lock myself in my room with good books, a lot of water and fruit, and good music for a day.

i am upset with the world.
for some reason, the universe can not seem to stop beating me down and no this is not a sympathy post because if you know me, you know i hate sympathy. i keep disappointing people while trying to make myself happy, i keep getting focused on things i think are bullshit (high school drama, etc.), i think that people around me are not doing the right things (like doing drugs when they shouldn't) but since i'm not sure, i don't say anything and then feel overwhelmed with secrecy and bullshit.
i don't know what is wrong with me, but i just know something's wrong.

anyways, i need to go back to editing my novel. how is your life going?
i hope you're not going crazy, because that's never fun.

genius points

in my math class (which is as boring as hell, but that is a different post), my "table" came up with the concept of genius points. we made a page in my notebook with the words "genius points" in bold with a highlighter-colored rainbow sprouting from the left side of the 'p'. genius points are given out as necessary and can be accquired in a few different ways:

- by being a genius
- by doing something incredibly nice
- by doing something that makes us all laugh
- by helping someone out
- etc.

i know it sounds like a stupid high school concept that is just made to waste time in class (which it is...), but i was thinking about how awesome it would be if we actually had something like genius points in regular life, where you would get acknowledged for doing something amazing (besides the usual 'thank you' or 'good job'). i'm not saying it should be a contest or anything, but i think that people get so beaten down just because they make so much effort but no one notices, and genius points are just a way to acknowledge people's amazing-ness.

stuff post

stuff i've been working on:
- i've been editing my novel and am finding it excruciatingly slow. after writing 50k in a month, slowing down is really difficult. but i guess i really love the premise and have a concept in my mind of where i want it to go, so that's why i'm hanging on and pushing on.
- i reconstructed a shirt that i absolutely love and am trying to progress into actually reconstructing all of the clothes that i never wear. my friend and i agreed to not buy any new clothes because the fact is, unless your clothes are shredded and falling apart, you never need to buy any clothes. you can just keep reconstructing them. and that, my friends, leads to the concept of reusing absolutely everything and never buying anything which is way to complex for my mind at this hour.
- i've been reading and analyzing literature a lot lately but more on that later.
- i've been thinking a lot about my future and what i'm actually going to do when i graduate from high school. i make plans with my friends and i dream up shit that i want to do, but now that it's this close, i need to figure what i'm ACTUALLY going to do, you know? if my grandfather follows through buying my a 1974 volkswagen hippie van, i'm going to try to travel south america with one of my friends, but who the hell knows.
- i'm trying to climb more often and actually went climbing one day at the gym instead of just saying i'm going to climb but not actually doing it. i really do love bouldering, but i'm lazy (and don't worry. i know that's no excuse.), but i need to get into the habit of going at least twice a week.
- i bought reusable pads. i've been wanting to do this for a while but never got around to it. i'm still waiting for them to be shipped, but i'm hoping they're awesome.

books i've been reading:
- the awakening by kate chopin
- dawn by elie weisel
- night by elie weisel
- tuesdays with morrie
- cunt by inga muscio
- trying to read the monkey wrench gang
- trying to read the revolution will not be microwaved
- NEED to read the alchemist by paolo coelho
- NEED to read drop city by t.c. boyle
- NEED to read a tale of love and darkness by amos oz
- NEED to read the little prince by antoine de st. exupery

things i've been thinking:
- people should turn off their fucking tvs and pick up a book. this society would be so much better off if we all sat around reading and discussing literature.
- the world needs public bicycles because cars are bullshit, no matter how much i like them and how convenient they are.
- how am i going to live without my friends for a month? (kate and kristen are going to thailand for their realms trip)

homework i need to finish tonight:
- creative writing story: need to write the last vignette and edit to make sure it doesn't sound like shit.
- english: burn powerpoint of van gogh and the awakening onto cd and print out.
- chemistry: study for the quiz and actually go in early tomorrow because you will fail it if you don't. and danya, you need good grades if you want to go someplace like evergreen for college. so try to get your chem. grade above a d.

yep. pretty much.