too cool for school--well, weekday school, at least.

So I just got back from my classes at the local state university. I'm really psyched about them. The first one, Historical Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Intrigue, is taught by this really wacky guy who reminds me of the instructors at CTY. His teaching style is quite eccentric. First of all, he's very excitable, and when he gets enthused about something, he starts shouting. Then he goes back to speaking in this very soft, low voice. I find it entertaining. Also, he goes off on magnificent tangents--we went from Lizzie Borden to Galileo and ended up spending 20 minutes on disproving his famed 'the cannonball and feather will fall at the same time' statement. Personally, I was saddened to learn that my teachers had been lying to me about this for the past eight years, but I'd always suspected them slightly anyway, and besides, that's how it goes. The regular people lie to you, and then the weirdos reveal the truth.

The second class, Preparation for PSAT/SAT Mathematics, is taught by this very pretty young teacher who seems slightly anxious. She's good at these specific types of problems, though. She's taught high school math for a while, so it is to be expected. I think it's going to help prepare me for the SSATs next weekend if I do the homework she gave us, and for other tests in the future over the next ten weeks. Plus I have definite room for improvement in math. I can use all the help I can get.

(PS- I have decided I love Jack Johnson.)

savannah outen

I'm trying so, so hard to dash through and write my entire short story. I was on a roll until I looked up "Stop and Stare" on YouTube and found Savannah Outen's video of it. Turns out she's a 15-year-old "online singing sensation" with over 29,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her music video just debuted at the high school where she shot it. She has a single and music video coming out later, as well as singing the Star Spangled Banner at the LA Rangers game on April 27th, my sister's birthday.

Cool, huh. Not that I think she's so great or anything--I mean, she sings pop songs, which I hate--but it is amazing that she really has gotten this far. It's pretty fairytale.

Oh and by the way, if you comment on the snippet I posted just underneath this post, I'll give you the awesome ending I've already written (guess I'll have to write in the rest of the story too).

the new black

Actually I prefer black to the new black, whatever the new black is.

But I wanted to talk about new things, and I figured the stupidity of this title would grab people's attention. I've just started learning Hungarian Dance on the piano, and it's a really fun piece. It turns out that there are all these twists and trills along the way of a tune that's been saturated into tasteless simplicity for countless cartoons and Disney movies.

Also, I'm reading White Noise (link later), which I'm finding to be a serious page-turner, and I haven't even gotten to the plot yet. This kind of addictive quality in a book's beginning really attracts me and is a definite plus.

As always, I'll keep you updated.

tall vs. short

The world's tallest man, as I just learned, is 8 foot 5 and still growing, his physician says. Leonid Stadnik, living in Ukraine, and the various issues that accompany his vast height are described in depth right about here. Now, I find this fascinating, especially things like how his shoes have to be custom-made because of their rough length of 17 inches, or the constant knee pain he suffers from. Guess how much he weighs? His height affects so many different and unexpected aspects of his life. You might think being in the Guinness Book would be fun, but I wouldn't wish this body and all its setbacks on my worst enemy--and that's saying something.

Cool as it is to be tall, shorter stature is also fun. My favorite shortness celebration, tall though I may be, is the song "Short People" by Randy Newman. I don't care if it seems offensive. It's just so funny. If you're a littler person, I apologize, but can't you take a joke?

Thanks and bye for now.

PS: My brother's back to normal.

regrets and updates

Dear browsers,

Sorry sorry sorry for not posting for over a week or responding to your comments or updating any HTML or anything. My life has become completely crammed with stuff between social problems, fluctuating grades, bat mitzvah insanity, midterms, the school play, piano, and the fact that I am now restricted to one hour a day--with supervision--on the computer because I put videos on YouTube, which I was not supposed to do.

My bathroom recently got revamped. My dad got new curtains, a rug, a caddy with frosted glass in the door, a soap dispenser, and towels. The whole thing looks really coordinated because everything is white and therefore matches the walls, bath, toilet, sink, floor, and each other, but also the dark trimming on the curtains, large mounted mirror, and towels all match in this really great way that I just can't pinpoint.

Perhaps the best way to say it is that the perfectionist in me is deeply excited.

Has any portion of your house/tumbledown shack by the old railroad track/apartment/whatever else you've got gotten redone?

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.

PIANO

I need to practice...need to practice...ok I'm getting sick and tired of saying stuff that I don't do so now I'm going to get off the computer so I can practice and thus be ready when the entire middle school sees me perform on March 3rd.

BYE NOW.

RUN FROM THE EARWORM!

No, no, it's not some kind of freaky brain infection, jeez. It's the technical term for a song you have stuck in your head. I found this out about a year ago in some magazine, and for some reason it's stayed with me ever since--almost as if it were an earworm itself.

Right now I've got "With a Little Help from my Friends" going around and around in circles in my head, replaying itself over and over.

ARGH! I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN TAKE IT ANYMORE!

Music vids you have to see/hear

Here are the links of a few music videos to songs I love. If you choose not to play these, you choose to go on my hit list. Just kidding, I am not psycho and don't have a hit list, but really. You don't even have to watch them or like them, just listen to them -- just the first 30 seconds, if you really can't stand it. Believe me, I have taste.

-"Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne
-"She Loves You" by The Beatles
-"Lonely Road" by Everlast
-"Loser" by Beck
-"It Must Be Summer" by Fountains of Wayne
-"I Should Be Allowed to Think" by They Might Be Giants
-"End of the Tour" by They Might Be Giants

Love,
the wild little lady from Austin, TX

apologies

I am sorry to God for taking His name in vain so much.
I am sorry to my mom for staying in my room all the time.
I am sorry to all the hungry people in the world for throwing away perfectly good food.
I am sorry to my piano teacher for never practicing.
I am sorry to my bat mitzvah tutor for never practicing.

And finally...

I am sorry to all you peeps out there for not posting more, and when I do post, not posting about anything much worthwhile to read.

Piano

There is really not that much I can do with the piano anymore. I have been playing for going on eight years. Seriously. For the first few years--I mean, come on, I was five years old, what was I supposed to do?--I was completely furious that I was being forced to play. But then last year I got really into it for some absurd reason that I can't even begin to know what it might have been. So now I am probably the most exhausted person on the planet, so I don't practice so much...about 3 or 4 times a week, basically. My mom is totally attacking me about it, and my dad keeps saying that I have to make sure I don't "squander" the talent I have for piano.

Personally, I think I'm doing fine. Not necessarily well, but decently at least.

Oh who am I kidding--I am not ready for this concert in 2 weeks!! I've memorized it but it's all so sloppy!

love, z-bop