07/23/09 It's Thursday?

The familiar call of "It's Thursday!" is no more. As of today, the garbage and recycling pickup changes to Thursday. I'm not sure if "It's Wednesday!" will catch on, though.
Anyway, I forgot to mention something nice that happened yesterday. So, somehow or another, Mom's saddlebag came off her bike while she was riding home from work. Once she got home and found out about it, she and I went out looking for it before mutual. We drove to her work and back, but he didn't see it, and it kind of wasn't looking great. So, she dropped me off at the church, and went out again with Joe. While they were looking, a lady came by who had found our address on a note to our neighbor, which was in the saddlebag. Anyway, she came by and we weren't here, but then she came by again after Mom and Joe got back. Mom was very happy. So, things worked out well and Mom got to make a new friend. Yay.

Anyway, today went fairly well. I worked a little with scouts, read a book I got from the library yesterday. It's one that Miriam had read, called "The Goose Girl". Odd name, but it's pretty well written, and I really like it's original magic system. When the world was created, everything spoke with each other. Over time, though, some of those languages were lost. However, there are still some who can speak them. Some people can talk to other people, easily capturing the attention of others and making them more inclined to see their point of view. Then there are those that can talk with animals, although different animals may not speak the same and it may take time to determine the various ways in which they communicate. And lastly, there are those who can talk to nature. And it talks back, sometimes. They can't control it, exactly, it's more like suggesting that it do something, which it usually does. Anyway, I thought it sounded cool.

So, I'll have something to read now. That's nice. I like the name of the next book, though. Enna Burning. Fire manipulation? Sounds fun... XD

-sighs- I can't really think of anything else. I pulled some weeds today. That was fun. There was this weird plant with these little ball things where the flowers should be. And they each had a spike in the middle. Kind of hard to explain, but they didn't look like buds. I don't know. I was a little wary of touching it at first. I'll probably die now. At least then I won't have to worry about what to write.

I guess I'll leave it at this. Maybe I'll read some more. Reading is good. And I gotta say. Rationing the last book was a horrible idea, even if it /did/ prolong the reading material a couple more days. Yeah. So, I gotta go.

07/23/09 The game losing catch. XD

Sometimes, when you can't make the game-winning hit, it's good consolation to be able to make the game losing catch. It's called a fumble. And when they need one more run and they've got a runner on third. Two outs. Dropping the ball isn't an option. Or, at least, if you want to win. For a wiffleball game, though, last night's activity was pretty intense. First, neither teams are scoring much, then the other team gets a ten or fifteen run lead; then we catch up in a single inning, pass them, only to lose because the ball slipped through my hands. -sighs- All my dreams are gone. XD After that, we had soft pretzels. They were good, but I wasn't sure if I was going to eat one. Luckily, they were small, and didn't have the salt on them, so I decided I'd risk having one. It was good, and mom didn't seem to notice, so until she reads this, I think I'm safe.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is because I've been writing to Andrew and he keeps requesting blog posts. At first, I thought he just wanted /something/ from me, but I've been sending multiple page letters every week since then, so maybe he's after the witty and spiritually uplifting words which sprout with such irregularity here at the Asylum. I dunno. It may be that my letters are too dull. Should the monkeys move to Canada? Needless to say, no letter could henceforth be considered dull after such an event. Still, translators are such a hassle these days. It never makes sense when you switch the selection back to english...

So, here I am, on an epic quest, to come up with something to write about. Quite frankly, though, I'm not sure what the difference is. Coping something over to a letter, when said copied things would probably have been covered beforehand... Not to mention my blog posts don't make nearly as much sense... I'm so confused sometimes. May be I should write a bunch of fiction about myself, like saying I'm thinking about joining the swim team, or that I had a dream I was a rabid humming bird, determined to conquer the world.
I could write book reviews, but that's so much work, you know? And then I'd actually have to find books regularly, instead of following my slow, but relaxing search for enjoyable literature. Goodness, there seems to be no end to the dilemma. Unless, of course, I write to Andrew, and keep a blog, and then simply send both to both– with minor editing, of course. But you get what I mean. That would accomplish the same amount of work for only twice the effort! Wait...

So... What do I write, who do I send it to, and when do I write it? These questions make little sense to me. Then again, I'm mostly stalling right now and not really thinking about what I'm saying, so what surprise is that?

Alas, I fear I have but one thing to say... I'm going to be a monk, now. With a trenchcoat. That's important. No more of this confusion. Nephi never had this problem. He had his two plates, but they were for two different things. If letters, journals, and blogs, all have the same thing to say, you're repeating yourself over and over again... At least the scripture notes are simple. Outline and insight– That's it!

Listing the week's events and you're responses and opinions to them, keeping in mind the audience to whom you are addressing– it's simply too much. You write about the same thing, but you have to rephrase it each time. You may as well start fresh...



So... uh. Not sure how this'll work out... but I also realized that snail-mail is too slow. I gotta send e-mails or something, but they're too long to read at a computer screen. A brief summary? Now you're writing it four times... Writing what you did in a given day, knowing that you're going to be writing it four times, four different ways, is a little daunting. This being said... I think I'm going to go... uh... write a letter?

PS: Just out of curiosity, what am I writing this for? If the blog is for everybody else, letters are just blogs with personal notes thrown in, and journals are for your personal insights, feelings, and what not, would it not make sense to start with the blog, hack it to pieces, and distribute it to all the other factions? At which point, the scripture study would pick up the randomly felt stuff during the day, which doesn't relate much to any given event.

So, if I understand what I just came up with...
Blogs: Raw data. What you did, what you thought, maybe a fancy story at the end.
Letters: Raw data + personal notes.
Journals: Your reaction to raw data.
Scripture study/ Testimony journal: Thoughts, feelings, promptings, and all that good stuff.

So, the last one has nothing to do with the other stuff, although you might have an experience which can be written in it which will also be in the others.
But the blog goes first, and promptly explodes. Right? That makes sense? I dunno, but I'll figure that out later. I have to study Mount Rushmore. Or some other monument, given I find something else I like better. Later today, I might post again, bearing in mind what I just rambled about. I also decided I'm not going to post in the morning-midday. If this system is going to work, my best bet'll be around five. Most of the day will be gone, so I'll know whether or not I have something to write about or not, and I might have an idea of what's happening later in the evening. I'll probably try to add reviews the next day about what /actually/ happened.

Complicated... Too complicated... -thud-

07/01/09 JULY??? Say not so!

Too hot. Too soon until Christmas. Too many things to keep track of. On the bright side, though, I might actually get around to working on my writing projects. Not the ones I blog, but still... Anyway, I'm happy. I finally organized my literature junk. Apparently, I once wrote out a plotline for a roleplay-starter kit, complete with storyline and a couple pre-made characters. And oddly enough, it had absolutely /nothing/ to do with any of my other plots. I think I designed it to be reused. Most of them weren't. Kinda felt like there shouldn't be backtracking in roleplaying. Which reminds me, I have another project I forgot about. I have to archive the graveyard of all my dead characters so I don't forget about them. That'd be sad.

But that's not the point! The point is... What is the point? Why am I here? I cleaned out my stuff. I'm almost done with the individual folders. Pretty soon I'll know about everything on my account... But, the computer is still full because I'm not the only one that needs to do spring cleaning- Ooh! Clorox music! Good commercials, eh.

Today, the Young Men will have a planning meeting. We're supposed to have ideas. Great... Building a monkey bridge between the basketball hoops in the gym? We could have the walk of faith! And first aid training...

Right, I'll work on that. But first, I need to take a shower!

06/30/09 Wow... That's kind of wierd...

So, this is painfully overdue, but I'm not quite sure I'll do a huge recap. A little at a time, perhaps? Anyway, I was working on archiving my old blog posts, and I noticed a couple things. First, I could easily have been described as annoying on several occasions, second, I had a knack for forecasting the future, and thirdly, Andrew went into the MTC on the anniversary of my first post on blogger. (By the way, the title of said post was 'The beginning of the end'. Are we worried? Nah, of course not...)

So yeah, I seem to have a phobia that everything I know is going to be destroyed. When I do something on the computer, I almost always want to have half a dozen backups. When I do anything on paper, I almost always want to put a copy on the computer. You know, it's a good thing I'm good at getting rid of junk, because otherwise, this habit of mine could be dangerous.

Anyway, today's fear is that my blog will die and that I need to preserve a record somewhere so I can count it as an informal journal like I have been for the last few years. Archives... Yay!

... I just noticed something else. Remember that time when I kept watching Chronicles of Narnia everyschoolday for an entire year? I think I posted more on my blog back then... Strange.

I've got plenty to talk about, and yet I don't really feel like spending time doing it. That must be irritating. This whole using a blog for a journal thing is kind of falling short of Church standards. Luckily, I have a personal journal that I neglect, too. Plus, letters that I've written to Andrew. Between the three of them, I might just have something. Sorry, unborn generations, you'll get no information from me. I lived, I died. Nothing ever happened.

I dunno. What /do/ I want to do? Sleep? No. Read? Alright, yes- but what? I should really do something productive, or at least write something... This whole /lazy/ thing just can't last. Ooh! Mom bought strawberries! So, I'll just have some strawberries and do something amazing! I'll be back, guys! It's strawberry time!

05/07/09 Our computer needeth cleaning. It lacketh in speed...

So, anti-climatic as it is, it would seem like ALEKS is acting up again. But, this time it's not its fault. The computer has too much stuff on it, making it slow, making ALEKS unhappy. Not to mention it's starting to get on the old side. But anyway, things are going okay. Not the best, but manageable. Plus, I've very close to finishing the next few generations in a card game I'm working on. And that is good, because it's driving me insane.

I need to get information. A lot of it, actually. I have to look up some stuff for scouts, I have to gather info for another psychology essay, and I have to see if there's any hope of my curse being lifted. Although, by this time, I'm really not excited about the MTC night activity anymore. Now it's just this pressing thing in the back of my head of something that I /might/ have to worry about later. I like Pippin's (no idea if I spelled that right) quote: I don't want to be in a battle, but waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse.

You'd think I'd be used to it... I have to think about stuff. '09 is going by too fast. Almost half over and most of my big plans haven't moved yet. I guess I should go work on that... See ya.

05/01/09 Well, isn't this interesting?

'The Lord works in mysterious ways' is right. I just spent the last month getting more and more frustrated over this computer's bad habit of crashing while I worked on ALEKS, especially since it's been taking a turn for the worse. As you could imagine, frustration easily turns to anger, which is a bit of a pain. But now, after spending some time wiping the emotional slate of stress and anger, I find myself a little amused. I struggled, fought, and got angry about the problem for a month. And yet, today, not five minutes after I decided not to be angry, I felt the simple prompting to try running the online course on a different browser. And, of course, it turned out to be the one thing that fixed it. Now really, could the prompting have come a little sooner? Sure, probably. But it wouldn't have meant as much. It came only after I decided not to let emotions get in the way of the big picture. One of those patience things, you know?

So, the problem now is that for a month, I was unable to do the work I needed to. Twenty days of ALEKS, now that I only have a couple days left to work on them... It's still a pretty heavy chance that I'll pull it off, and yet, I feel pretty good about it. If nothing else, I'll have plenty of time to work on it next month, seeing as I have no more schoolwork to work on except ALEKS. I just hope things keep looking up.

Well, if nothing else, the fact that I posted twice in one day shows that I'm pretty happy about things. I think I'll take a break from ALEKS for a bit. For some reason, I have a great desire to work in the family room... See ya!

05/01/09 It's not supposed to be May yet...

Life is going by too quickly. I should shoot it.

I've got stuff to do, the stuff I do get around to is either taken for granted or disregarded altogether, and I feel like sticking my fist through a wall. I won't, because that would be bad. But I want to. I need to meditate. I haven't done it in weeks. And yet, the little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that the world doesn't deserve to see me happy. It should know that I don't like it. And then, right on cue, there's that happy, little, still-small voice that pops up and reminds me that I should always be happy and that all this is beneficial in the long run. Yeah, it's meaningless to have the ability to reign in your emotions if you don't choose to, but I've almost been enjoying being mad at life. There /are/ a couple valid reasons for me feeling a little irritated. Oh well, fine. I'll meditate, I'll probably even light the strawberry candle. I'll be... -disgusted tone- happy. But this had better mean something!

-comes back ten minutes later-

Dang, I've been putting that off too long. So yeah, things could be better, but I'll be fine. And hey, I'm done with all of my classes except for two, but one of them is having technical difficulties and the other is PE which is the easiest thing ever and you have to do everyday, anyway.

Man, I love strawberries. Well, I'd best get on. Maybe I'll write another letter to Andrew today. Oh yeah... Some things that are hecka old news but I may haven't mentioned. Like, at all. Um, I don't think I talked about getting a learner's permit. (It was all the way back in December, but I really do forget about these things.) I'm fairly certain I talked about Andrew entering the MTC. I should have, at least. The house has been so quiet, how could I forget?

Yeah, generic life changes. Ruth and Tom are moving. It's really sad, but their new house is really cool. (although I did mention that it might be a good thing that Andrew isn't here, because there are /many/ places that he would have liked to climb onto that might not be meant for climbing.)

Yep. Cheerio and all that. I'll go fry my brain with frustration at the computer's crashing tendency, probably have to meditate a couple more times, but for the moment, I feel an odd form of happiness, so we'll try to keep that around. ^^ See ya!