Not Quite Brain Crack

It's Friday and I don't have school! So in addition to actively thinking about my application essays (read: not doing,) I'm vaguely wandering the internet. Oh other hobbies. Why do I have you when the internet exists? For power outages, I guess.

I've been thinking about a lot of random things lately. It's not to the point of brain crack, because they're not really ideas, just vague thoughts. I wanted to get them out of my head, so I figured I'd put them on here. If you don't want to read them, skip to the last paragraph. Or just stop reading now. (You shouldn't skip them. It would hurt my feelings.)

I want to start pretending to be an anti-hipster, and say things like "My favorite band is The Beatles. You've probably heard of them, they're pretty mainstream." and "I like them better now that they're not underground. This way I can talk about them with everyone!"

I've been adding a lot of things to my bucket list lately, and totally ruining my accomplished to not ratio. I need to start doing more things on there.

I get my wisdom teeth out on the 20th and I can't wait because I've been taking ibuprofen pretty much daily for a month.

The upside to this is that I can now spell ibuprofen without having to look it up.

My high school's marching band is doing a sci-fi show this year, so I've been surrounded by nerd conversations for a good while and I'm not sure I can acclimate back into not nerdy society when the season ends. Maybe I just won't. (I'll give you a link when I find a good one that doesn't loudly announce our city name in it.) Our last show is tomorrow, so I should have more free time after that. I will try to update every week.

Googly eyes are awesome and I should glue them to things.

I should pledge Lust for Love, because it looks fantastic. You should too.

How awesome are the Proclaimers? Very super awesome.

I have a new lamp that's shaped like the robots from War of the Worlds. It has so much potential, but I'm ashamed to say that I've done nothing with them.

Shake-a-Booty is my new favorite song ever.

My hand currently says "I'm awesome," because Hank told me to write it. You should all go do this right now.

I've started a book review blog with my sister. It's called Two Sisters Book Blog. I'm heading there to review Daniel Kraus's Rotters, which I finished yesterday. Go check it out.

Irresponsible uses of my time

I'll be honest with you, blog. I don't know how often we'll be able to see each other this school year. Today is almost all the way through the second week and it's the first day I've only had a little homework. (This is partially due to my mishearing the instructions for my Lit homework and reading 129 pages of A Tale of Two Cities last night, rendering myself unable to speak in modern language, when I was supposed to have those 129 pages read for Tuesday. Cheers to accidentally being ahead.) And when I finished my homework, what did I do? I'll give you a hint. I did not start working on my college applications, and I did not start working on my birthday wish list. No, I caught up on my YouTube subscriptions. And then I read GraphJam. I'm not used to having to spend my free time responsibly. Actually, I don't think I've ever used my free time responsibly. I did start a spreadsheet to keep track of my college applications. And now I'm going to stop stalling and work on my birthday list. But I will update when not overwhelmed.

Maddie Goes on Lots of Trips

I realize I said I was going to keep this more up to date, and well, it's pretty obvious how that turned out. But I meant to, I swear! It's been a rather hectic month in the life of The Cactus, as I would call myself if I were inclined to being pretentious. I was in Georgia for a week, during which I went to Six Flags Over Georgia with my cousins, (Go Batman, go Batman, go!!) got my senior pictures taken, and toured Emory and Georgia Tech, both very good schools.

After that, I was home for a week, and then off to California, for a maternal family reunion and early celebration of my grandmother's birthday. As she pointed out, it was the first time all of us had been together since the last reunion, ten years ago in Germany. While we were in the bay area, we drove up to Berkeley for a tour, and went home through San Francisco. Something about Berkeley just appealed to me, and I would love to attend school there. It doesn't hurt that it's so close to San Francisco. Despite being a fan of heat and humidity, (I know, I know. Completely crazy.) I love the weather there, the fact that it doesn't get too cold, despite what Mark Twain says about it. The City has unmistakable character and charm.

After I got home from California, I was home for just about twelve hours before heading up to the mountains for leadership camp. It was a fun weekend of hiking, leadership and yelling. The week after was band camp, five days of surprisingly exhausting conducting. School started this week. Here's to hoping senior year is good and fun, despite being hard. And here's to hoping I remember to update when I say I will.

Part Two

So, I was one of the many that went to the midnight primere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two. Aside from being the end of an era, it was an amazing experience. I'd never been to a midnight premere before and it was just fantastic. I'd come in rather late to the community of Harry Potter. I'd been to the midnight release of the last four books, but other than talking to my family and friends about every tiny detail, it wasn't quite life changing, at least not completely. I learned about Mugglenet during the countdown to Goblet of Fire, but I never really realized that there was a community attached. I stumbled into wizard rock not long after I stumbled into nerdfighteria, around April 2010. I wish I could have been part of all of it from the beginning, but I'll just have to bide my time until I can go to a HP con.

I loved the movie, and not just because I have loved all of them. It hardly dragged and the battles were suitably intense. I would've liked to have seen Teddy, and Dumbledore could have explained more about sending Harry after the Hallows. Snape's memories seemed a little gapped and Percy returned without fanfare. I know they can't fit in every tiny piece of the books, but I was disappointed about a few things. Matthew Lewis was wonderful as Neville emerging as the badass we've always known he was. I can only hope that I will never stop loving Harry Potter, and neither will the world around me.

I'm Back!

Hey there blog. Long time no see, huh? I meant to give an explanation for stopping BEDA, and I guess it's about to turn into an excuse for not writing anything on here for seventy seven days. Here goes: I stopped writing for BEDA because I was very busy and got tired of boring, uninformative posts. I'd rather write something substantial when I think of it, instead of writing basically nothing for the sake of a deadline. Now I know for next year, I guess. (I doubt this will stop me from trying again. But you never know.) After I abandoned BEDA, I got swamped with homework and finals. And after a while, I forgot that I had a blog. Clearly I'm very responsible and have a good memory.

Here's a list of some of the things I've done since my last post:
Finished my junior year of high school
Jumped off a 60 foot cliff
Driven to Arizona in an unfamiliar, manual car
Seen wild horses
Floated down a river in 120 degree heat
Gotten lost in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Finished watching the entire series of Buffy
Become addicted to The Mountain Goats
Spent time with my cactus brethren
Redrawn and colored about a quarter of the octopus puns
Walked for eight miles down train tracks
Stood right next to the tracks as a train went by
Started filming/vlogging about my adventures
Found several new webcomics to follow
Learned how to scan slides into a computer
Bought my tickets for the midnight release of Deathly Hallows Part 2

In about a week, I leave for Georgia to visit family and get senior pictures. After that, I'm going to California for a family reunion. Then it's band camp and school starting again. Hopefully I'll manage to keep my poor blog somewhat up to date this time.

Dentist

My dentist has this new fluoride. Instead of the foam in the trays, this new stuff gets painted on your teeth. You can't eat for half an hour and it comes off when you brush your teeth that night. As much as the foamy fluoride sucked, I liked it better than the paint variety. It makes my teeth feel disgusting and everything I eat with it on tastes slightly off. On the plus side, I have no cavities for the seventeenth year running.

The Other 4/20

As a high schooler, it's hard to go the entire day of April 20th without hearing about pot. Sadly, it's easy to go without remembering Columbine. The shooting occurred twelve years ago today, and many ignore, or don't know about it, even here in Colorado, not too far from the town. I find this to be a disheartening fact, and would simply like to say that I haven't forgotten.

Blerg

Obscenely busy day, for a day with no pit practice. Too much homework.

Giant Balloon

I am currently the proud owner of a huge balloon. It's larger than my microwave and I have no idea what to do with it. At the moment, it's tied to my phone. It has enough helium to hold my phone up on its side, but not to lift it into the air, which disappoints me. It's a glaring emerald green because I took it from the Wizard of Oz set after the last show. It was difficult to take home, because it block my rear view mirror until I shoved it down into a seat. It's pretty useless. Mostly I just enjoy the novelty of having a balloon that's larger than a small child.

This is what I am counting as my post for today

Today, I was an accomplice in the murder of a pineapple. Today, I played music until my lips hurt and then kept playing because the musical wasn't over. Today, I rode in a trunk. Today, I got a giant green balloon that is larger than both my dogs together. Today, I climbed two ladders in heels to try to open a trapdoor in the dark. Today at twelve o'clock in the morning, I was at Applebee's with the rest of the pit, having difficulty figuring out the check. It has been a very enjoyable day.

A Day Late

Yesterday was a busy day of shopping, playing, and frantically trying to blog from my friends' phones at Applebee's at 11:30. I didn't manage it, but I did try, at least. So I'm counting this as my post from yesterday. One of my favorite parts about productions is the after party. It's usually after the last show, but because the last show is on a Sunday, we had our party last night.

Late post, long day

In chemistry today, I found a note that said "Mainstreamers! You suck at picking music! Independent FTW!"

I responded by writing "Dear Judgmental Person, Using chat speak phrases like "FTW" is very common and what you may call "mainstream." Love, Do Better At Pretending to Be Superior to Us All

Performing Today

So not much posting time. More free time than I've had, though.

Today was long, and

Full of injuries, but fun.

Frozen Peas Make a Good Ice Pack

Currently holding frozen peas against lips. They hurt from playing so much. And there's another long rehearsal and competition tomorrow.

Tired

Today begins hell week for the play. That means rehearsal until nine, daily, with opening night on Thursday. It also means short blogs to follow.

A Short Explanation of an Unusual Possesion

Among all the random stuff in my room, gathered from seventeen years of garage sales and thrift stores, there is a jar of sand. A few months ago, I decided to start collecting sand from beaches that I visit. I found a decorative jar that my mom gave me a long time ago and put it to use. So far, there's a layer of black sand from my hourglass that I accidentally broke, a layer from California, and a layer from Florida. At the top are two paper drink umbrellas. I'm hoping to fill it completely in the next few years.

Book

Today, I finished reading my last library book, The Last of the O-Forms & Other Stories by James Van Pelt. It was a collection of mostly sci-fi short stories, and I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I did enjoy it though, more than I'd thought I would. My favorite story was "Do Good," about a vice principal who keeps seeing ghosts around his school.

Well,

I honestly cannot think of something substantial to post today, and it's only the eighth day of BEDA. So here's a question: If you could have any one super power, which one would you want to have? I'd want to be able to fly.

A 50 Word Story

The octopus floated lazily around the ocean. Someday, he decided, he'd use his eight arms to do something productive. He could volunteer at a soup kitchen and serve eight people at once. Or he could be an amazing drummer in a band. He thought the sea horse was starting one.

Inspired by 50 Word Stories

It's a long way until summer

The longest part of the school year is always the few weeks between spring break and the end of the semester. Last week was spring break, and so it begins. Every day starts to drag on. Everyone contracts senioritis, not just the seniors. No one wants to do homework at this point in the year.

Unfortunately, I have to take big important tests soon. The ACT, SAT and AP tests are all coming up. I'm not looking forward to any of them, just like I'm not looking forward to the homework assignments or the tests or the finals or anything else before summer break.

Bumper Sticker

I love getting stopped at lights behind cars that are plastered with bumper stickers. I like reading them, even the stupid jokes, and the "Honk if.." stickers. They add color and personality to the outside of your car, even if they're a little tacky. The best bumper sticker I ever saw said "Somebody told me you're paranoid."

My Sister Writes Long Blog Posts

Yesterday, my sister published a post complaining about my comment that her posts are too long. I would like to say that her complaint post is a lovely, short length, perfect for light reading.

The Wizard of Oz is following me

Our school is performing The Wizard of Oz as our spring musical. I'm playing in the pit orchestra, so naturally, the songs have been stuck in my head. It wasn't until after a couple weeks of rehearsals that I realized how often the Wizard of Oz shows up in different adaptions and parodies.

The first was Tin Man, a SciFi (sorry, SyFy) original mini-series. Only the first episode really followed TWoO, but it was an interesting story nonetheless. The costumes were very well done, as were the sets, which is typical in SyFy movies. There were a few plot holes, and more clichés than any one mini-series should have, but I liked it anyway.

A few weeks later, I was watching Futurama, when I came upon the Wizard of Oz episode. It was a typical enough episode, just with a Wizard of Oz theme. The next week, my sister and I were watching Scrubs and ended up seeing my dad's favorite episode, the Wizard of Oz one: My Way Home. JD just wants to go home, Carla is looking for the courage to be a mother, Turk needs a heart for a transplant, and Elliot is pretending to be smarter than she is.

This past week, I was in Florida with the music classes at school. In Disney's Hollywood Studios, (I think, all the parks run together in my mind. Except Animal Kingdom, for some reason.) my group of friends went on the Great Movie Ride. One of the rooms you go through is a Wizard of Oz room. We had to sit and listen to the entire Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead song, then our guide had an exchange with the Witch of the West. Later on the same trip, the choir was performing in Downtown Disney, and one of the songs they sang was Over the Rainbow. I'm getting tired of the Wizard of Oz already and it's not even close to the performances.

Lit Con

Today, I spent all day at the Colorado Teen Lit Con in Denver. This is my second year going, and I love it. This year, I went to a local author panel with Alane Ferguson, Carrie Vaughn, Ronald Cree, Sarah Ockler, and Traci Jones. All of them were wonderful and amusing to listen to, even though I have yet to read any of their books. I also went to Katie's (of Katie's Book Blog) talk about how to become a book blogger. It was interesting, but it's more of something that my sister wanted to do. That last session I went to was a discussion about how YA books can be used to ask essential questions, such as What does it mean to be human? It seemed to be geared more toward teachers looking for suggestions, but I enjoyed it. I ended up there when I couldn't find the room for the Blue Spruce Nominee Talk.

The keynote speakers this year were Rachel Vail and Pete Hautman, both of whom were entertaining and hilarious in completely different ways. Rachel was animated and dramatic, acting out her speech at the podium. Pete had a dry, witty sense of humor like Garrison Keillor. Both of them were lovely and I'm looking forward to reading their books.

I ended up going home with ten new books, six of which I got for free by managing to go to the right talks. I also got a handful of mockingjay temporary tattoos which I will be gleefully reapplying until I run out. The first one is on the underside of my forearm.

April Fool's Day

Today is April first, making it April Fool's Day and the first day of Blog Every Day in April, which I am attempting to complete this year. Given my habit of procrastination and unreliable work ethic, it'll be a challenge. It should be fun though. Most likely, all my posts will be short.

I can only ever remember pulling one prank for April Fool's Day. When I was little, I would move the silverware around in its organizer, so that it was a mild inconvenience to anyone trying to get anything from the drawer. I never put much forethought or effort into pranks. I was a lazy child.

There are a lot of pranks I've planned but never executed and a lot of pranks that I've dreamed up but have no idea to go about planning. Some day, I will pull all of my pranks. Or so I like to hope.

Life Lessons from Spring Awakening

So I went with some of my friends last week to see Spring Awakening in Denver. It was a fabulous, and the lighting was the best I've ever seen in any show. It made me cry, but I loved that it was realistic. It's always nice to see something like real life and not be babied about important issues. But it brought to mind some things that everyone should know, so I decided to make a list.

1. Everyone gets lonely
Whether you're a teenager in nineteenth century Germany or an adult in the modern world, no one has gone their entire life without being lonely. We usually don't realize that other people can be lonely too.

2. Not everyone solves problems the same way
Whether you let the 'system' overtake you like Moritz, choose to rebel outright like Melchior, or making things work in your favor like Hanschen, everyone has some way of doing things.

3. Adults rarely endorse crazy schemes
"I must say straight away that fleeing to America is hardly the solution" What may seem like the best way forward to a teenager is not always the best way forward from an adult's point of view.

4. Not all stories have a happy ending
In a world full of Disney-ified fairy tales, I think this is something we need to be reminded of once in a while.

Lost

A couple days ago, I finished the last episode of season six of Lost after starting the series about five weeks previously. I had a few glorious hours of feeling done, free from the obsession of needing to know what happens next. The next day I started the series over again.

I just finished episode of 9 of season 1, "Solitary." I love all the small things you notice the second time, foreshadowing and character traits and all that that you didn't see the first time. Part of the reason I started over is because two of my friends in my math class have also just started out from points in the fourth season and we all wanted to talk about it together. One of the downsides of watching a show long after it aired is that it's hard to find someone to talk about it with. Another reason is that I just miss it. I missed my favorite characters that died and I missed having to make lists to keep up with where everyone was and whether they were still alive or not.

One of the best parts about watching old episodes again is getting to see Charlie's back story again. Charlie is my favorite character, hands down. I though he was sweet and had good chemistry with Claire. He and Hurley, and later, Desmond, were great as best friends, and generally made me smile. Others of my favorite characters included Hurley, Desmond, Daniel, Sawyer, Juliet, Sun and Claire. Overall, I didn't think the female characters were very strong. Kate never seemed to act in character to how she had previously been portrayed. Jack always bothered me because as the doctor, he should have refused to take charge and said that he needed to take care of his patients. Because he didn't, we had to hear about him complaining about being in control all the time.

I was trying to find the song Charlie wrote on the island for DriveShaft, Monster Ate The Pilot, on the internet and instead ran into The Oceanic Six instead. I can't stop listening to their song Monster Eats The Pilot. So I guess I found what I was looking for, in a way.

College

It's been a long time since I've had and regularly updated a blog, but recently, I decided to take it up again. I'm pretty sure the decision is a direct result of my recent obsession with watching vlogs. I saw John Green on his Will Grayson, Will Grayson tour with David Levithan in April, and first started watching Hank and John a couple of days later. Since then, my time spent watching things on YouTube has multiplied by...well, a lot.

Today, instead of doing my homework, I've spent the day in front of the computer and trying to narrow down my choices for colleges. All I'd really decided on was that I wanted to go out of state, (probably) and I wanted to study psychology. My mom gave me our copy of Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges so I've worked out a system for narrowing down possible states to look at. In the Psychology section of the book, I find all of the schools listed for a particular state. I then put them into this in groups of five. If any of the schools are listed as rural or having an undergraduate population of under 3500, they get deleted from the list. If all of the schools from a state get crossed out, it gets crossed out on my printed map. If at least one school makes the cut, the state gets a check mark, meaning I'll look at it later.

In total, I managed to cross out fifteen states, seven of which I crossed out because of the weather they get there. I'm a heat and humidity person, so chances are I'll be heading south for college, but I still have no idea.

The colleges in the book are organized alphabetically in three groups; there's a Most Selective group, a Very Selective group and a group that is simple Selective. After the name of the college, it will have the state's abbreviation in parenthesis. I was thrilled to find that, except for Maine (it's ME), I knew all of them. The surprising part about this is that I don't remember having ever learned them.