oh captain, my captain

i couldn't sleep and was sick of studying biology, so i decided to start working on my iranian film paper. it's about the movie offside, which was actually pretty interesting. it's basically the iranian version of bend it like beckham - and, as i've been learning in my seminar, the "iranian film version" of anything should automatically be read as "the secretly super-political film version of"featuring iranian people.

the movie is about a bunch of girls who dress up like boys to sneak into a soccer game, because girls aren't allowed in the stadium. well, iranian girls aren't, anyway. if you're foreign and you go to iran to support your team in, like, a world cup qualifier or something the iranian government still has to let you in. anyway, while writing my essay, i kept using the word "matchgoer" and getting annoyed when the little red line of spell-checkiness inevitably appeared. i was convinced it was a real word. like, heard-it-in-conversation-read-it-a-million-times-all-over-the-place convinced. so i googled it. and this was the result. why, yes, the first six or so of those links would be liverpool-related. i guess this is what happens when i try to do homework late at night on a game day (which we won, for the record. 3-1, no less, after spending the first half down a goal to napoli)

captain fantastic scorer of a hat trick as a substitute stevie g thanks you for your time with his wonderful fuck-off-napoli celebration:

while our blood's still young

today's title comes from sweet disposition by the temper trap as covered by ellie goulding. it's amazing. if i had any sort of singing ability or musical talent, i'd hope to make music like her or grace potter, even though they're completely different. i love her original songs, even if i still don't know how to describe them. girly techno indie electro pop? i'm not really sure.

so, in nail polish news, these are the ones i've picked up lately:

take the stage

bring on the bling

rising star

barefoot in barcelona

for audrey

curry up don't be late

nevermore

there's one more, but the nicole by opi site is down, so i can't post it for you. it's this really fun green called fell from the tree, though. nail nights are going to be a lot more fun now, i'm thinking.

i have a bio test tomorrow. i'm not looking forward to it at all. i hate genetics. i hate reviewing for it even more. i've been taking periodic breaks in my studying all week just because it's so hard to focus on it. i hate science.

i've come to the conclusion that the postal system hates me. i managed to send out letters filled with glow sticks and nothing happened, but my latest batch of letters got returned to me because they didn't have enough stamps. i don't get it - it was just paper. not a surprise in site. and they were brand new stamps, so it's not like they're the old ones where you have to put two on. and i even double checked the addresses after that first time. what did i ever do to the post office workers to make them hate me so much?

this song worries me. enrique, i expected better. if you insist on singing songs with stupid lyrics, please do so in spanish:

random thought: listen to this song (on youtube) and die on the floor by franz ferdinand (in itunes) simultaneously is kind of amazing. maybe i should try mashing them up in garage band. i'm thinking i'll need help with that. it's probably going to turn into a hall-e or munchkin project.

and since this post now features talk of both enrique and mashups:

there, i'm done now. time to go back to biology.

want to live in a fantasy?

surprisingly enough, my silversun pickups kick hasn't ended in the twelve or so hours since i last posted. this post's title comes from:

so right now i'm midnight munching on one of the two dishes i actually know how to make from scratch - stuffing. yep, glorified bread and seasoning is my specialty. i'm sure you're all surprised. i even got fancy and added broccoli to it. this whole quest i'm on to attain a few basic survival skills seems to be going well.

like s-la, five is my new favorite number. it's nice to see your hard work pay off, you know? or, in my case, it's nice to see my serious dedication to caffeine in all its many forms pay off. it's all the same in the end, right?

i watched the espys on espn for the first time ever. yes, i was only watching for the usmnt. and, yes, i'm aware that the link i just posted leads to stu holden's twitter (look, i'm even linking it again - just click it already) and not the usmnt's website or twitter or blog. the twitter is better, okay? it's got pictures.

i've got a highly shameful confession to make now...i'm in love with the twilight movies' soundtracks.

take a deep breath and reread that sentence. yes, i said the soundtracks. there's no need to worry for my soul/sanity/sudden loss of intelligence. look, i can even form semi-complete sentences! capital letters, sadly, are still beyond my power.

some of you might already know about my sad, sad predilection for indie-but-not-really bands. i try and try to hide it but...well, i figured now was the best time to come out about it. hopefully these two songs will sway you to the Dark Side:

i picked these two songs because they're from bands that i've previously pimped on this blog, but i've actually liked a lot of songs from these movies. just the songs, though. oh, and the unintentional humor. watching kristen stewart try to show emotion is definitely better than 99.9% of the shows on tv right now. however, i would like to recommend recasting taylor lautner and foot-face pattinson with a pair of soccer players. none of them can act, either, but at least their abs look better. feel free to make player suggestions in the comments and make them spanish because the fewer players they have for euro 2012 the more like germany is to win.

and -- oh, fine. i've tortured you with enough horrible twilight-related things. here, have another poem:

That crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,

Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.'

-- yeats

you think it's endless, endless, endless

today's title comes from sleigh bells' crown on the ground. i can't find a decent version on youtube so you're just going to have to look it up yourself.

my econ exams went well. kind of. the macroeconomics exam was fine, since that's the unit we just finished learning. microeconomics wasn't that bad, either...not until the free responses, anyway. even after travis and i murdered a tree printing off past free responses to study, this year's was still a mystery. i put down a few nonsensical terms and busied myself drawing pictures. lots and lots of pictures. my personal favorite was a goldfish rendering of the high school cafeteria map in mean girls - i made the asians sushi rolls.

at least our teacher fed us. it figures that my worst exam(s) would have the best food. my favorite parts were the costco box of twizzlers (i still have a bunch in my bag), peanut m&ms, and buffalo chicken kickers for lunch. food just makes everything better, you know? in the mean girls cafeteria hierarchy i think i might be one of the girls who eat their feelings. oh no.

blossom is my favorite. who's yours? also, do any of you even read the captions? can i just start saying strange things in these or trying to brainwash you via subliminal messages embedded in the photo/gif captions or... i'm feeling kind of pinky and the brain today. don't judge.

oh, look, jon stewart has a teddy bear. that's nice. watching the daily show is a horrible distraction when one is trying to complete homework. blogging and watching the daily show, on the other hand, makes any hopes of finishing homework nonexistent, so...at least i can accept my fate? which will probably include staying up to an unhealthy hour finishing it or waking up really early and finishing it or taking it to lit and finishing it?

i don't know, don't expect anything sensible from me tonight. all i've done today is binge on sugary snacks, take two giant tests, and nap. my brain is still warming up. or shutting down. i'm not entirely sure.

in case you hadn't noticed already, my preferred exam time music tends to have a lot of the same songs/genres as my nighttime playlists: quiet or acoustic or old. makes sense, right? who wants to sleep or study or slit their wrists shrieking "why me?" and cursing college board and everyone who runs it to, i don't know, rap or death metal or club remixes? not me. (well except for the title song. but that was part of my special New Music exception). so if today's songs seem sort of familiar in tone, there's a reason...i'm a creature of extreme predictability (or not. i'm not entirely sure about that, actually. the momster says i am, but most other people say i'm not. what do you think?) and i listen to the same playlists while i blog or put of doing homework or pretend to study or attempt to sleep. in this case, the playlist features a lot of someone s-la likes to call "ray lamontage". for future reference, his name is ray lamontagne. you've all probably heard of him since he's awesome and coffeehouse loves him. in case you haven't heard the correct way to say his name, it's ray la-mon-tane.

my favorite:

a cover! we all know my weakness for those (in case you're wondering, the cover songs smart playlist is at 989 songs). the original is (unfortunately) one of the momster's favorite songs, but we've managed to compromise on this version for the car (usually):

and another cover!

give them to the night

today's title comes from sunflower by low. i've been listening to it (and the rest of the album it's from) constantly this week. it makes for good "gee, i should probably study for APs, but i won't, so i guess i'll just listen to relaxing music and not panic instead" listening.

it gets bonus points for having the first youtube result for the song be a skins video, but since e4 (the channel skins is on in the uk) disabled embedding on any video featuring its content, you'll have to make do with the boring one instead.

i've decided that i approve of the alien rat dog haircuts after all, even if they did make cookie and lulu are extra-shivery in the cold. now i have an excuse to dress them up in cute little sweaters! also their neverending search for heat has made them even more cuddly than usual (as i type this lulu is curled on top of both my feet), which is always good. best of all, it's made the daily check for ticks that much easier; i took them for a run in the rain to the canoe launch and was able to pry one off cookie in seconds. shrieky, flaily seconds, but seconds nevertheless.

besides, lulu (the one that looks like a mixture of pinky and the brain) is actually looking sort of cute with her giant head and paws and floppy ears. i'd snap a picture of her, but...well, i already mentioned the sleeping on my feet, right? because she is. and my toes are extremely toasty and reluctant to return to their normal unheated state, so you'll just have to make due with a puppy from cuteoverload.

i don't think you're complaining too much about the lack of lulu. that little dude is adorable.

other than my acceptance of hairless rat dogs my beloved pets, nothing much happened today. i went to school, got tacos and starbucks, came home, read, wrote, and blogged. i'm so interesting, i know. i guess being boring is better than having something horrible happen, though, so there's that.

besides, the national's new album high violet was officially released yesterday. and we all know what that means: i had to go on a mass deletion spree from my iTunes to make room for all the glee songs and an official studio release of high violet there are finally high quality versions of their songs on youtube (and in my iTunes library). this is one of my favorites (and is probably going to be the first single from the album, so i guess it's their favorite, too)

here's little faith, too:

i'd post another one of my favorite songs from this album, but it's not available on youtube yet. it's called england, though, if you want to get it.

anyway, it's getting late and i have to be a good little girl and actually make it to an AP exam on time for once (this is my last shot! ever!), so i guess this is where i'm going to leave off. expect lots of depression and whining about hand cramps tomorrow.

i've been reading some texts in my dreams

today's title comes from gypsy part of town by gogol bordello. i'd post it for you, but i'm on a terrible school computer (it's a pc - blegh). travis is here printing econ free responses...again, because apparently the 600 sheets we printed thursday weren't enough. oh well, at least we recycle.

i have coffee. it's not even starbucks coffee (well, it kind of is, but the kind you grind at home, not the kind they make for you). it's even better, though. like, i'm not a big fan of going to, say, a restaurant and ordering the most complicated, picky dish on the menu with very specific cooking guidelines. doing that always makes me feel bad for the waiter, and then i overtip out of guilt, and then i see s-la and feel guilty for overtipping (she's my consumer conscience, it's great). i feel the same way about ordering something really complicated from coffee shops (except the drive-thru ones in ashburn and frederick, because we go there pretty regularly and they should be willing to suffer for our continued patronage...also, i like the word patronage. it makes me feel powerful and tyrannical and a little like kurtz in heart of darkness, all "exterminate the brutes"...only in this case the brutes would be bad coffee makers, i guess), so i actually like making it at home in the mornings, since then i could have my half teaspoon of raw, not processed thankyouverymuch, sugar and my coffee piping hot (and not left out and starting to cool) and just a splash of half and half. a splash, which indicates just tipping your hand for a second, not just dumping in milk.

...yeah, i'm a little compulsive. don't judge me. judge robert downey jr. instead.

this just in: travis doesn't like poor, abused robert downey jr. i know, i know. get the pitchforks ready. we're about to burn the witch.

why should we even care?

today's title comes from iron man by black sabbath. here, enjoy it:

if you haven't heard by now, i went to see iron man 2 at midnight the day of/after my ap lit exam (which was ridiculously easy, i felt so smart...look for that to change on thursday when i have to take two econ exams). i liked it even more than the first one but my appreciation of these movies has always been based on how long robert downey jr. is on screen, so it was definitely worth going to the midnight showing, even if i did have to suffer through school on four hours of sleep (and not one drop of caffeine until i cried to an unnamed school official for coffee - did you know that officially teachers can't provide us with anything caffeinated because it's a "drug"? those fascists). luckily we weren't doing anything too strenuous in class on friday...or anything at all. we mostly spent the day playing board games in various parts of the school. i'm guessing the last few weeks of school are going to hover somewhere between "easy" and "laughable" or the hard work scale.

oh, and a little thing called prom happened yesterday. it was...like every other dance i've been to, actually. the only new additions to the formula of bad music + good dinner + fun group + pretty clothes and nails and hair were the limo and meggo. and even meggo doesn't really count, since s-la and i have both tagged along to her dances before. at least i sort of managed to dance with my shoes on for a little while? i find that impressive. so does robert downey jr.

after, however, something wonderful happened. i learned how to take out my contacts. and it neither ripped in half nor mysteriously popped out while i kept stabbing my eye with my finger. all the credit for that goes to s-la. so, who knows, now that i've figured out how to touch my eye without horrible things happening maybe i'll even start wearing them regularly. maybe.

an alternative name for this holiday is gratuitous rdj gif day, just so you all know

today was mother's day. it was pretty uneventful. i presented the momster with her prezzie, she flapped around a bit, we went out to eat, the end. i'm mentioning this because it's sheer lack of drama fills me with glee. i learned long ago in middle school to include a handwritten disclaimer with all of her cards and presents banning overly emotional displays of affection between us, since hallmark hasn't seen fit to create a card with that addendum. they should really get on that. would any of you want to be cried on and called pumpkin for, like, an hour? i don't think so. this way is so much better.

anyway, i'm still pretty tired/operating on a sleep deficit, so i'm going to cut this post short. look for longer blogs this week, though, since things are finally winding down in school.

they told me you missed school today

and they would be right, although i'm thinking that the stereophonics didn't write handbags and gladrags specifically for me.

in other words, the momster did something kind of crazy today. after lunch (and also after the calc exam which i sadly couldn't skip even though i should have since it, like all my exams but one, was held at an unearthly hour in what i hear is termed "the morning"), she called the school and told them we had a "family emergency" so i could get out of class. and then we went shopping and to final fittings of my prom dress since she was afraid i was getting too stressed. it was pretty awesome, even if her shopping habits manage to horrify me (don't ask how much she spent on foundation because it is not a pretty number). also, i finally got her a mother's day present, so there's one thing off my To Do list. oh, and then i went to godiva and had one of their dark chocolate raspberry drinks. it was almost as good as a frappucino.

oh, and then we went to borders and i picked up city of god, one of the books i was too broke to buy on my borders trip with s-la last week. i can't wait to start reading it. since i pretty much failed at leaving breakfast at tiffany's for after AP exams, i think it'll become my reward book, along with the tin drum, which i borrowed from sarah, even though i sort of already started reading that.

anyway, it's late and i have to be up early for the lit exam tomorrow, so i'm going to cut this short and leave you with music:

while the limousines wait in the street

today's title comes from chelsea hotel #2, originally by leonard cohen.

i'm pretty annoyed with blogger today. originally i wasn't going to post at all - i was just going to edit my last post with more hints about the blatantly obvious, really children songs on my summertime sleep playlist but when i tried to go in and edit it, the post disappeared.

seriously. the stupid post self-deleted. methinks lulu gave it her suicidal tendencies. i always knew that dog was evil. luckily i was able to find it saved in my drafts, so it's back up but all your comments are gone. oh well, such is life in moscow i suppose...although i still kind of want to do this to blogger:

i kind of want to do that to all of you, too. it's nothing personal, it's just -

none of you have heard of dorothy parker. none. not even sarah bitch-don't-even-try-i-will-always-be-better-than-you-in-english stucke. how could this happen?

for future reference, this is dorothy parker. begin with wikipedia and let google and your friendly neighborhood library or bookstore take you further, okay? and you should definitely read her work. it's so awesome that i named my first laptop - which most of you knew by her nickname, dot - after her. that's right - when given the option to name one of my favorite inanimate objects after an author i chose dot over j. k. rowling, tolkien, c. s. lewis, any of the mitfords, or even t. s. eliot. in other words: start reading.

here, i'll even give you a place to start - the same place i did. in other words, this is the portable dorothy parker:

even rory gilmore loves dorothy! if that's not an endorsement, i don't know what is.

oh, and another little thing happened today. namely, the ap gov exam. it was...easy, actually. and this is coming from someone who was too distracted by the momster/giant x-men marathon on tv yesterday to study. of course, it was only easy once i, you know, showed up (7:53 a.m. - it's a good time) but, eh. life can't be perfect all the time. i had a few dumb moments during the test, too. and by "a few" i mean that i completely lost my head during the free responses and forgot little things like, oh, i don't know, the english language.

i know, i know. be ashamed of me. i am. i forgot how to spell suppress and amendments. i also forgot some other important things like basic sentence structure, paragraph organization, and the word reminded. and for that last one i mean i wrote "retanded" instead of reminded and then spent a good ten minutes staring at my paper going, "gee, i wonder what that was supposed to mean". hopefully the ap readers aren't expecting me to know basic english.

anyway, i'll just be posting two songs tonight. or, technically, one song sung by two different people. the first is the original version of chelsea hotel #2, as sung by leonard cohen, that i mentioned at the beginning of the blog, and the other is regina spektor's cover of it:

under marble movie skies

Today's title comes from Daniel by Bat For Lashes. I probably blogged about it last summer since her album, Two Suns, was one of my favorites last year.

In case the capital letters weren't enough to give it away, I'm blogging from my phone. It's been a while since I did this, but I felt a pressing urge to blog triggered by Lulu's attempted suicide that wouldn't let me wait until I got home.

Caught that, did you? Yeah, my genius of a headphone-eating dog got her leash tangled around the backseat of the car and then she jumped...and didn't quite hit the ground.

That's right: I am the proud owner of the only dog in existence that tried to hang itself on Route 7.

Don't worry, she's alright. I did a quick dive to the backseat and detached her from her leash, but not without flashing possibly every car on the road today. My life - it's occasionally horrible.

Proof? I decided to pick up a Calculus review book after all. Of course, since my dogs had just demonstrated a strong desire to play My Chemical Romance and cry tears of emo blackness before killing themselves (I might be hyperbolizing. Might) I had to wait in the car with them while the Momster headed into Borders to pick up our books. Before she left I asked her to check if they still had copies of Fight Club since I still don't own it. What did she buy instead? Three Calc review books (three!), Calc flashcards (and considering the giant flashcard project we have due on Wednesday, this is highly, highly ironic), and Garnishinh For Dummies.

...no, I'm not kidding. Garnishing. Not even Cooking For Dummies. What are we going to do with a book about garnishing food? We can barely work the oven!

My life is occasionally ridiculous. At least I get to comfort myself with frappucinos.

Oh, and I made a new sleep/nighttime playlist for the summer. It's 33 (hopefully familiar) songs long. Anyone want to guess what's on it? Whoever gets the most gets...well, I don't actually know since this is the Internet and all. But something good. Really.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Fort Evans Rd NE,Leesburg,United States

waiting with the wind against your face

today's title is from what? two posts in one day? looks like may is off to a good start california summer by vampire weekend.

i'm sitting here, getting crumbs all over the keyboard, while munching on one of the cupcake's the momster surprised me with. it was really pretty looking before i started eating it - all chocolate fudge swirling frosting and a little cherry on top. i was going to take a picture of it but i forgot because i was a ravening beast consumed by hunger feeling mildly peckish. peckish. isn't that a great word? it makes me think of all sorts of lovely things like charles dickens and shepherd's pie and england and hippogriffs. i think i'll start using it more often.

i'm listening to this really great song called don't be the one by lissie and george stanford. i'd post it here but it's impossible to find on the internet. even the lyrics don't exist anywhere. but it's so amazing that i thought i'd mention it anyway - if any of you feel like listening to pretty folk duets, shoot me an email.

you know what's really cool? synesthesia. i really wish i had it. i think it'd be really fun to see different letters or sounds or smells as colors. that wasn't completely random, either. here, i'll explain my thought process to you:

TEN MINUTES EARLIER:

Rachel places her cup of milk and cup of cake on the coffee table. No, that isn't right. Let's start again:

Rachel places her cupmilk and cup of cake on the coffee table. That's not it either. One more time:

Rachel places her cup of milk and cupcake on the coffee table. Then she flings herself onto the couch dramatically. This is accomplished by flinging her hands out to each side and sighing while she sits down. One of her hands nearly overturns the cupcake. It wobbles precariously, about to fall - but, no. The cupcake is safe. 

"Woe," Rachel says. "Woe is me. I'm on my deathbed.  My deathcouch. Alas and alack, that I should meet my demise on such an unpoetic piece of furniture."

"You're dying?" says Character Who Only Exists For Exposition. "You look very healthy."

"How can you say that?" Rachel says, with more dramatic flinging of the hands. 

The cupcake wobbles some more. It can tell that this is going to be a very long scene. Cupcake hopes that it's getting paid overtime for putting up with this sort of abuse. 

"I'm dying. Dying. My life is almost over. I'm nearly eighteen. I'm going to have to be an adult and make money and have a job or at least go to college and not have a Momster getting me surprise cupcakes while I'm out walking the dogs. I'll be too old for that. I think I feel a wrinkle forming."

Rachel flaps her hands around. This time the cupcake doesn't escape unscathed, although Rachel does stop flailing long enough to suck the icing off her finger. 

"It's not the end of the world," Character Who Only Exists For Exposition says. "According to movies all you do in college is get drunk and become an underdog who morphs into Amanda Bynes and steals Sara Paxton's boyfriend through sheer pluck and cleverly timed bouts of clumsiness. You even get your own soundtrack!"

"But I'll have to do my own laundry," cries Rachel. 

"You already do laundry. You're doing laundry right now," Character Who Only Exists For Exposition says. "Maybe you should quiet your fears of leaving childhood by doing something impossibly juvenile."

"You're stupid, Character Who Only Exists For Exposition," Rachel says. "Go away now. No, wait - Your name is sort of weird. Are you Native American?"

"Why does everyone always ask me that? I'm Canadian, geez." And with that Character Who Only Exists For Exposition disappears in a cloud of Deus Ex Machina. 

Rachel sighs dramatically and waves her arms around some more. Then she looks back at Poor Abused Cupcake and Innocent Cup of Milk. 

"Well, it wouldn't hurt..." she says. 

FIVE MINUTES LATER:

Rachel is still blowing bubbles in her milk. Poor Abused Cupcake wants you all to know that this is because she is five years old and easily amused. 

The End. 

did you like my story? i know, i know, it was a masterpiece. i even used capital letters! and i almost managed to reread it for typos, but i got distracted by my cupcake and the prospect of blowing even more bubbles in my milk. i forgot how much fun that was.

i think that's all for this post. i'm going to bed in like two minutes - i need all the sleep i can get, since tomorrow is going to be one long study marathon. oh, i can't wait until AP week is over.

200! (stay tuned for the spartans)

so, i made it through 200 blog posts. i feel accomplished.

i put off writing this post for a few days because i wanted to blog about something really interesting for my 200th post. then i decided to look back at my 100th post for inspiration. this is my 100th post. clearly the bar isn't all that high. also, i'm still waiting on my purple grape suit.

i did get this today, though. it's my second romper! i'm kind of in love with it.

i like it, but not as much as i like the books i got with s-la yesterday after a busy, busy day of learning things and laying under trees in the school parking lot waiting for the momster to drop off my smoothie (i've been rediscovering my smoothie love with the warm weather - they're yummy and they make me feel healthy...ish). it was painful having to narrow my to-read list down, but eventually i settled on breakfast at tiffany's, everything is illuminated, and prodigal summer (which was written by barbara kingsolver!). and then i got locked out of the house and went home with s and learned that nbc has other funny shows besides 30 rock and the office. it was exciting.

today has been less interesting. i spent a few hours studying in the yard, enjoying the sunshine, and getting bitten by bugs. having deemed my suffering to be great enough for one day, i came inside and played with makeup. specifically, this look. after a few unfortunate mistakes i managed to work out a very toned down version for school and a slightly toned down version for everywhere else. i love looking at fun makeup but i'm just not enough of a risk taker to actually wear it, you know?

anyway, here are my songs of the day:

here's a warning for this video. if you haven't heard already, it's pretty graphic. the song is pretty good, though, and the video is interesting (although i did have the worst desire to laugh while watching it. because, on the one hand you have a hypothetical police state attacking people to the tune of techno hip hop, but on the other hand...gingers):

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

was it love or fear of the cold that led us through the night?

today's title comes from mumford and sons, specifically, this song:

it's not my favorite song of theirs, though. actually, i'm not really sure i have a favorite. it could be this one:

or this one:

but this one is mark hoppus's favorite, so i guess i'll post it, too:

in case you couldn't tell, you're meant to listen to all of these. why else would i go to the trouble of posting all these videos?

i just got back from dinner and starbucks with the momster. i don't know if i've mentioned this already, but the illustrious momster has some odd taste in drinks. her two most common orders at starbucks are a "grande double shot caramel machiatto with no whipped cream, extra foam and no caramel on top" and a "caramel apple spice latte with no caramel". occasionally she likes to change things up a little and get something even more ridiculous sounding. today it was something like a triple shot bold blend latte. i accidentally grabbed her order instead of my own (a relatively tame double shot peppermint mocha) and pulled this face:

it was like drinking petroleum. i had to chug my piping hot drink just to get the taste out of my mouth. seriously, that much espresso is just unhealthy (except after an all nighter - then it's a vital component of staying awake). actually, i ended up with a venti triple shot mocha the morning of the SAT way back in - geez, sophomore year. two whole years ago. wow, i feel old. i'm mostly mentioning this as advice to gina, who's taking that oh-so-wonderful test tomorrow.

you know, it's strange. the juniors in my yearbook class are starting to brainstorm ideas for next year's yearbook theme. cory (the last third of gina's and my amazing design team) already came up with one, actually. it's a pretty good idea, but i was listening to her talk about it today and mostly going, "wow, how are you okay with coming back for another year? i'm so ready to be gone."

because i am. ready to graduate, i mean. you should all know by now that senioritis has hit me hard. i mostly just vegetate in class now except for calc because then driskill would sneak up and kill me and i really, honestly don't see the point of 99.9% of the activities we do (do an egg drop project, you say? take an open note quiz? define the same stupid seven terms on every vocabulary list this quarter. ha, i don't even think the teachers care anymore). it's just strange to take a break from wanting to move on and think, "look how long it's been." nostalgia, it's a fun word. the last four (really, six if you have a paranoid/ocd brain like mine which began chanting 'you've gotta get into a good college' the moment it entered middle school) years have been defined by a set of specific goals and challenges and plans and deadlines and they've all passed, for better or worse. sure, there's a few left - scholarships and prom and beach week and that one last field day - but for all intents and purposes school's already over.

pretty strange, huh?

anyway, this post has gotten too emo, so here's two tiny things to make you laugh. (and if you were wondering, i'm blogging from my phone and posting gifs is easier than pictures on the app i'm using since all i have to do is copy and paste a link to my photobucket instead of actually uploading a picture):

la lala la

did you know that barbara kingsolver researched for twenty years before finishing the poisonwood bible? that's a pretty daunting number. so is 433. as in 4 minutes, 33 seconds of silence. this was a buzzer club question a few weeks ago - none of us knew the answer. it popped up on a blog i follow today and i thought i'd share the link with you.

(heartless (kanye west cover) - the fray)

yesterday was fun. it probably shouldn't have been since now i have a ton of homework to finish before tomorrow, but i don't really regret it. i should probably get over this whole procrastinating thing before college.

speaking of college, what's with all of the tiny schools no one's ever heard of still sending application emails? deadlines have passed and i'm clearly not interested. i still don't know how exactly they all got my email (i never checked that box on the sat that says it's okay for collegeboard to send out your information) but it's really annoying. i hate that i can't check my email without deleting thirty billion college emails first.

(stateline - butch walker)

this poem has been on my mind lately. i've always been a big dylan thomas fan, but i always stayed closer to refusal to mourn the death of a child by fire in london and things of that sort than poems like this. i suppose it's because when i first started reading his poetry i thought this was more literal than the others. and, like all little teenies making their first forays unaccompanied into the wide world of poetry, i was in search of something a little more ephemeral. it's always more gratifying to one's own ego to try and wrestle with the 'big' topics and forget that, to quote l. m. montgomery (again), 'all things great are wound up with all things little'.

(the little things - colbie caillat)

i've managed to work out some this weekend, but i'm thinking the bulk of getting back into shape is going to have to wait until after midterms. sadly, i can only study (or read, for that matter) when i'm munching on something. let's face it - i'm a grazer. and it is horrifyingly easy to go through an entire pint of ice cream while reviewing econ. at least the shape of the output and total revenue curves of a firm in the short-term will always be grouped together with the taste of half-baked ice cream. i just hope my stomach doesn't pull that embarrassing grr-argh-i-am-godzilla-feed-me routine during the exam. those things are long and we can't even eat in that classroom because of some stupid kid with peanut allergies. in other words, i won't even be able to have breakfast/graze during the two hour long economics exam.

if i had a kid who has one of those obnoxious food-in-class-preventing allergies, i'd at least have the decency to home school it so the other kids didn't have to suffer. geez (oh man).

(typical - mutemath)

anyway, here's your poisonwood quote of the day. i've been picking these by random - letting the book fall open and typing whatever i highlighted in round one, which was the fun stuff, not the colonialism or adah-related quotes. today's quote could kind of fall under any of those topics, though, so i guess you lucked out:

stories from sat-subject-day (it's the new saturday)

so last night lulu (short for lucifer, even if her papers call her chocolate chip) ate my headphones. she didn't swallow them, so at least we don't have to take her to the vet again, but my poor headphones are lying in a mangled little heap in my trash can - but not for long, since the cleaning people are puttering around upstairs and will probably be emptying it out soon.

i took the SAT subject tests again today. lit had more olde english. u.s. wasn't bad. i got to realize that i've forgotten all world history halfway through that exam. also, the room i was in had the most annoying motivational posters i have ever seen ('failure to plan is planning to fail'. 'destiny isn't a chance it's a choice'. 'the longest journeys begin with one step'. 'it's not where you're from, it's where you're going', which is actually not that bad since it was ella fitzgerald who said it, but the rest - and the whole wall was full of them!) and pictures of really creepy cats all over the walls. not the cute kind i've been posting, but like, chubby, furry ones with crazy eyes. it was quite disturbing. that so wasn't the worst part, though.

to start with, i forgot my wallet at home since i got mi madre to drive me (thereby not having to find a spot in county's tiny lot to park). luckily, i didn't need any id since the proctor knew me (and has been the proctor for every AP test i've ever taken, what's up with that?) and the other proctor-people roaming the halls said collegeboard would take that as confirmation. so at least i got to take the stupid test. what joy.

and after the test (see above for commentary, i'm not a big fan of being chronological today), i tried to call the momster to get a ride home. of course, since loudoun county high school is like nine thousand years old, there wasn't any reception in the building. not even right next to the windows. so i stepped outside - where i miraculously had all five bars, not even six inches away from the inside of the school - and called. the momster left the launching pad. and i tried to go back inside - out of the snow - to wait. only to find out that all the doors were on, like, automatic lock since SAT testing was still going on. so i got to huddle in the snow while i waited - here's the view from my cozy little niche of death, doom, and post-testing depression. it was cold.

and then i got home and found my headphones. see, we came full circle. look at that narrative style.

i'm listening to Tom Gable = OMG TABLE by the sandwiches. it's accompanied by the cleaning people speaking spanish and the vacuum cleaner's whoosh noise. my favorite drink in the world is too cold to keep my company, but i've got her warmer cousin Peppermint Mocha instead. peppy wants you to know she's just as photogenic as the other members of the starbucks family. see? she takes good pictures. those effects are courtesy of the yearbook camera, which i used during lunch on friday to get stalker pictures of people eating and didn't get to return afterwards - luckily, i remembered to sign it out, so it's okay. i never got to see cory or gina friday, though, so my science lab story still reads like a schizophrenic choose-your-own adventure story. '...and among those devoted few, students show their love of science in different ways. INSERT NAME HERE is one such student. He is so excited about working on his science fair project that he decided to spend his study hall conducting his experiment on IDK LOOK AT THE QUOTES in the technology education lab. "BLAHBLAHBLAH SCIENCE BLAHBLAHBLAH quotes"' so, basically, i'm either going to have to finish this in yearbook on monday or the 'it happened in the lab' spread is going to the yearbook's first game of mad libs.

my song has changed. every band in the usa by the fold. i really hate the original, but i somehow can't get enough of parodies and covers. miley cyrus has great songwriters.

also, i just realized this is the first snow of the season! yay! it makes christmas feel so much closer. i can't wait. i want antlers.

sat today

it was boring and long like standardized tests always are. working on homework now. maybe a movie tonight? i'm not sure which one, though.

here, to make up for cheating you all out of the ahmazing mashups last night (it was late! i was lazy! and had to study!), here's a cause des garcons:

and here's the chinese dynasty song, which got me through both the world history ap exam and sat subject test:

hmm, so i'm going to go finish my related rates project now.

america's next top model and musical musings

without spoiling it, i really wish erin would go home. she's so annoying and full of herself. nicole and laura are my favorites right now. i unironically love this show.

watching jay leno right now to the accompaniment of sat study manuals and a cause de kanye, a mashup of a cause des garcons by yelle and love lockdown by kanye west (just to point out other things i love unironically)

i have 5999 songs on itunes. someone recommend something so i can even this out!

you know, the older i get the worse my spelling gets. i can never remember how to spell rhythm or recommend and sometimes i'll just completely blank on really simple words. the first timed writing i did in english last year, i spent a good three or four minutes trying to remember whether or not grammar had an a or an e in it.

also, i really wish kanye west would stick to rapping. i love his music, but i always find myself liking covers of the songs he actually sings better than the originals. the music is always amazing, i'm just not a fan of his singing voice.

and while i was typing this, i'll share another mashup love of mine. waiting for toxic snacks, which is a mix of nails for breakfast, tacks for snacks by panic! at the disco, toxic by britney spears, and what you waiting for? by gwen stefani. i'm kind of in love with it.

actually, since i'm in a kind of music-obsessive mood right now (see: i need one more song because my ocd makes me hate seeing that 5999), here's the top five songs on my recently played playlist in itunes (not counting the two mashups that just played...so maybe i should change that to the top 3-8 songs on my recently played):

3. soco amaretto lime - brand new

4. there is a light that never goes out - the smiths

5. thriller (michael jackson cover) - imogen heap

6. the girl with the weight of the world in her hands - indigo girls (this is your fault, s-la, i'm in love with this song)

7. where eagles dare - the misfits

8. monkey gone to heaven - the pixies

that imogen heap cover is pretty epic, by the way. i love the original version (that's not saying much, though, doesn't everyone?), but she turns it into something darker and more atmospheric and chock full of creepyperfectslightlyobsessivelove. seriously, youtube this like now. i'd do it for you, but i don't want to have to pause my itunes (girls just want to have fun (cyndi lauper cover) by norman palm...youtube this too) to hunt up links.

...so i'm taking the sat tomorrow

well, actually i'm not all that worried, because it's just the subject test and...i know my subjects? like, i've studied, but i'm not freaking out. so there's that.

okay, so that wasn't completely true. i am freaking out, but not over the sat. related rates project to do this weekend and makeup homework for school and college applications to finish and...yeah. these are the kinds of topics that require serious ellipsis to cover my inner spazzery. just trust me on this.

what's on the ole ipod right now? the tower of learning by rufus wainwright.

i'm watching smallville right now. this show gets dumber every year and i still can't stop watching.

before i go, though, i'll leave you with this, since a little birdie known as bloggy let me know that Certain Persons don't like a band i like to think of as B! and the Guyliners.