Saturday, February 23, 2008

our domain

Aha, they've finally printed it: girls are more technology-savvy than boys. Especially in the blogging department, where the numbers are very feel-good towards me and other teenage girls.

The only area in which male use surpasses female is that of video posting, and that's not because women lack the technological talent, but because video posting is more about impressing others than expressing oneself. Teehee.

Check out the Times article:

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain - New York Times

To all my female blogging friends, blog on!
And thanks once more to Dad for showing me this article.

Friday, February 22, 2008

deer


The deer! They escaped from the crazed hunters in the South Mountain Reservation! Well, three of them did, at least. I'm so happy. My mom is too. I pointed them out to her from our landing window. They did look pretty huge to me from there, although they do appear admittedly small here. I fixed the photo, though, so that it's brighter and better quality, and you can see them better. This is all in my backyard (and my neighbors behind the fence and to the far left). Doesn't it resemble a wonderland?

Their new names are Sleepy, Dopey, and Grumpy, after my three favorite dwarves. Not counting Kai.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

books and movies

Don't worry, this time there's a reason for the title of the post being "movies."

BOOKS:
-The Hotel New Hampshire The end, even if it wasn't ugly or big or violent enough, even if it didn't have enough fatalism or barbells or did "not merit so much as a moan from Screaming Annie," despite all these supposed flaws, it was definitely right.
-1984 Just started this one, as opposed to just having finished the previous book, but I'm convinced that it's got just the right amount of confusing to make sense. (I wonder if I can say "just" one more time in a single sentence.)
-Discordia: The Eleventh Dimension I read this all today. It was pretty short and very difficult to read but easy to get through, if you know what I mean. This book was written by my the mother of one of my mom's favorite old students; the mother's name is Dena K. Salmon (how cool is that?). Actually, it hasn't even been published yet; what I got to read was a sort of pre-edition, a draft, a mock-up. I liked it very much all the same.
-Jane Eyre Look, maybe there was a rather interest-renewing murder right where I left off, but Brontë is going to have to try just a little harder to keep my attention span on its toes. I have to abandon this one until there's really no reading material left, at which point I will finally burn it and make a beeline for that great used bookstore in Princeton.
-The Mayor of Casterbridge Tom...Tom...Wake up, man. Where'd you go? I thought you'd changed. I thought this novel, maybe, was going to get the plot going before the last three pages. It did, too, and I was so proud, even optimistic for once in my life. Unfortunately, though, I have hit a wall. Hopefully, this dull and wordy section is just a bump in the road, as there were many of in Tess. So to be fair, and also because I otherwise love your work, once I finish 1984, I'll give this one an honest second chance.

MOVIES:
-JUNO Yes, I saw this a while ago, but I finally ripped the soundtrack from my mom's officemate's CD to my laptop, and I can't stop listening. Unfortunately, I can't transfer the songs to my iPod either. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
-27 Dresses I have to say that my least favorite dress in the whole thing was that of Katharine Heigl's character at her own wedding. I'm sorry, but the overly heavy overcoat-like layer of embroidery just does not do it for me. I prefer the Southern Belle dress; at least that one's got a sense of humor.
-South Pacific I'll admit it, I've seen it roughly a quadrillion times, but my grandmother and I, what with the combination of my deep and unnatural mind-craving to hear the earworm My Girl Back Home and her slightly nauseating nostalgia for the flick, we just had to watch it.
-Schindler's List Sorry, sorry, the list is getting long, but believe me, I'm omitting some. (Obviously I've had nothing to do over President's Day weekend but sit around like an oaf, eating and watching movies.) All I can say is that I'm honestly not as much of a night person as the me that watched this movie until 2:30 in the morning without having had any coffee whatsoever since noon that morning--and I'm especially not the me who cried like she was mourning the death of her own mother watching the part at the end where Schindler's Jews today put stones on his grave. If you haven't seen it, you're either living under a rock or you're full of pitiable ignorance. Or, of course, both could be the case.

I'll try to make links out of these tomorrow, but right now, I've got a dystopia and a Winston to catch up with.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

movies

Hello losers, winners, and those of you in 2nd place...and apparently, thanks to Megan at http://lablover12.blogspot.com/ , hello to President Bush and his FBI. (Shout-out to Mike at the White House.)

Sorry I haven't posted for almost a week; there just hasn't been too much going on. But a great artist, especially a great writer, can make something out of nothing.

This week turned my crew for the school play into something dismal. What used to be a seemingly vital job--props for Macbeth--has become basketball with the gym teacher. "If you want to join the guys," he says, and play basketball for an hour, the other two girls in Props and Painting and I are welcome to do so. Otherwise, we can just sit there and watch the kids who are actually in the play rehearse. It's only kind of amusing, because the director guy yells so FRICKIN loud whenever he gets a touch angry about something, and then everyone is completely stiff.

It's embarrassing.

Monday, February 11, 2008

hebrew stuffings (no sausage allowed)

YAY.

Contrary to popular opinion, one really can get what one wants through incessant whining and complaining.

For example, I've missed the past two sessions of Sunday Hebrew school purely of my own accord. The first time, I coaxed my mother into letting me stay home because the day before that had been Groundhog Day--February 2nd--and my argument was that it was a "holiday weekend" and we should "celebrate," and that in addition I was "tired" because of the party I'd gone to the night before. Seriously, I'm good. Then yesterday, my mom let me miss it because she said she'd rather just not wake me up and not have to listen to all my lamenting. She let me stay home and sleep. How cool is that?

Of course, I don't go to the night sessions on Wednesdays because first of all they are completely pointless and I usually end up getting bullied, and second of all because they start at 7:30, but my sister's play rehearsal starts at 7 on Wednesday nights. Convenient, nu?

Now I'm going to miss this Sunday too because Hebrew school is actually canceled on account of President's Day. (Four-day weekend too...whoopee.)

By the way, my aliyah is so long that even the tutor couldn't get all the way through it. And I've got one and a half weeks to learn it.

At least I'm doing OK with my Torah portion.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

what a pain

Because this is going to be a rambling and self-centered post, posing my question first is probably the best idea, as you won't want to read what the post is about, so: what allergies do you have?

And now on to the post.

I have the most annoying allergies. I'm lactose intolerant, plus I break out in horrible hives all over my body if I have any kind of ibuprofen, so I can't ever take Advil or Motrin. This sucks even more than it normally would because as my dad has recently been discovered to have liver problems, my mom won't really let me take Tylenol. Also, using a lot of conditioner--which is actually good for my hair and is the only thing stopping the terrible frizz I usually have--gives me weird red bumps on my scalp, and wearing jewelry that's not gold gives me the same thing on my back or wrist, depending what jewelry I'm wearing. Rings are the worst (don't need to explain), but I figure I can avoid any earring problems by only wearing gold ones, which is pretty damn inconvenient because good gold earrings are about 40 bucks a pair. Ugh.

Friday, February 8, 2008

giants victory=dress down? ok with me

First of all, I just want to say that this whole day, even if it is a dress-down day and therefore something I'm thankful for, reminds me too much of Headmaster's Holiday for me to completely appreciate it. Headmaster's Holiday is the Monday after the Superbowl that Delbarton boys have off from school--I guess getting a hangover warrants a day of vacation. This isn't like that entirely, though, although the reason is basically the same. This is a the-Giants-won-the-Superbowl dress-down day. One is allowed to wear:
  • blue and red
  • red
  • blue
  • Giants jerseys or tees of any color
  • school uniform like any other day

It's generally assumed that one will wear jeans.

I'm actually really glad we had this today...it only happens once in what seems like a very long while, about two months.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

the miracle worker

Sorry, I forgot to tell you about Saturday. I'm not going to blab on and on about my sister's friends, one of whom stayed with us until 4:30, or the party I went to that night with my friends from my old school (well, the girls' school I went to last year). Instead, let me talk about The Miracle Worker.

On a whim, my mom took me, my sister, and my sister's best friend to the nearby Paper Mill Playhouse to see the aforementioned play. Reviewed by the New York Times as being "profoundly moving" and "unforgettable theater" by Time magazine, it's the amazing and sometimes hilarious true story of Annie Sullivan's work with Helen Keller when Helen was but a troubled and tantrum-throwing child in the 1880s. The acting really is brilliant, and I'm not a sentimental person, but I'll say it: this account is touching. Check out the link I've provided--it's work your time, and you just might get sucked in.

By the way, my excruciating stomach pain and fever have returned to finish with me. I type this from my bed, just after having been sent home from school by the (albeit extremely weird) nurse.

Monday, February 4, 2008

pie

I could really go for an apple pie right now. Fresh, hot, crisp, juicy. Know any good recipes?

I made the most stunningly cool drawings for my French homework; this class and teacher are going to worship me. I can see it now--a roomful of seventh- and eighth-graders bowing down to me, the Goddess of Art and All Things Beautiful and Brilliant, as if I am some kind of Allah or something. Plus, of course, the round little teacher left speechless.

Just kidding, I'm not really that egotistical. Only about French. Believe me, I've suffered a blow since getting back my Algebra midterm and discovering I may have a stalker or two.

love,
love me do*

P.S. what do you think of the fact that this has been the first December in 130 years that NYC hasn't gotten any snow?? I think it's pretty insane.

*that's a bad Beatles pun right there if you get it...if you don't please just ignore my quirks

Friday, February 1, 2008

it's finally february...

...and I have a restaurant to crush.

Usually, St. James Gate is a perfectly respectable place to dine--they have good food and a much better ambiance since smoking in New Jersey's public places was outlawed. But I just don't know what happened tonight at this Irish pub. Maybe it was just the waitress.

When I finally got my coffee--unfortunately my first caffeine of the day--after roughly 15 minutes of waiting impatiently, the milk that came with it, not to mention the coffee itself, was almost impossible to make out. There was close to none in that little tin pitcher thing they bring. I mean, what is it, the Depression again? Time for ration tickets and "organizing" more food by way of trading your gold watch? I can't get an effing decent cup of joe because it might deprive the soldiers or something? That's just a disappointment. (By the way, I'm still feeling sluggish; that pathetic excuse for a cup of coffee was not only cold, but severely lacking in jolt).

At last the waitress deigned to come by again, once the large party of young and annoyingly boisterous table of people next to us who had come fifteen minutes after us and gotten served already. We immediately ordered. Luckily, after 25 more painful minutes of waiting, my potatoes and vegetables came, along with my mom's wings. During that waiting period, I had taken my sister and her two rather giddy, gossipy friends--who came with us and are sleeping over tonight, ugh--to a store up the street, No. 165, to pick out what they wanted to buy after dinner.

The food was good--my tongue is still scorched from that unfortunately too-hot bite of mashed potatoes--but the waitress never did bring my potato leek soup, water, or the burger my mom ordered exclusively to be brought out sooner so it could be taken home for my little brother. But at least we weren't charged for those.

Finally we escaped to shop at No. 165 (no website and thus no link, sorry). I needed something for my friend's party tomorrow and ended up getting boots anyway, so it was a good deal. Never have I been happier to get out of an eatery in my life.