First post in a long time

Sorry I haven't posted in, you know, forever. I can't even remember when I last posted but I'm guessing it was before my Christmas exams. My exams weren't amazing, I was very ill for most of them and that definitely affected how I did. I was a bit disappointed but I'm sure it'll all work out alright.

In other news, JOHN GREEN IS COMING TO IRELAND FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY AND I HAVE TICKETS!!!!!!! I'm so insanely excited, it's going to be amazing, tickets were only 12 euros and that includes a signed copy of the fault in our stars. I can't believe that he's actually going to be here. He's also going to Wales, Scotland and England methinks.

In christmas news I got a new phone, I was desperately in need of one, I had to remove my old one from my pocket piece by piece and then reassemble it. It's a sony experia tipo, I've never owned anything touchscreen before so it's quite awesome. I also got some comics and The Hobbit which I'm reading at the moment.Speaking of the hobbit, I'm going to see it in the cinema with my friends tomorrow, should be good fun.

Anyway, my eyes are going funny from looking at the computer screen :)
DFTBA
Adam

Happy New Year's Eve

I still have not gotten the grade on my research paper, so that's still giving me a bit of anxiety. This is the first time that my school district has ended the first term before Christmas break.  Last year we had a week and a half for break; this year we have two weeks and a half. That's nice.

I got a few awesome gifts for Christmas, including a Harry Potter music book, Doctor Who hoody, the Avengers DVD, and some blue High Top Chuck Taylors. I also got the new special of Doctor Who.  And, yeah, I would at least like an explanation of what happened to the inside of the TARDIS (please and thank you, Moffat).

I absolutely love Chuck Taylors. I have black, purple, and blue pairs, and my get a different color from my boyfriend. If I hadn't just dropped my Ipod Touch, giving the screen cracks for a second time, I would go out and buy myself a pair with my Christmas money, but instead I plan on replacing the Ipod.

As for New Year's Resolutions - I want to actually spend more time on my homework, stop procrastinating, and jog more on my own. I also want to go see the Hobbit. I can't believe I haven't yet.

Next term/semester will be great.  I'll have 3/4 of my classes with my best friend - that's including lunch. Physics, Spanish 4, and World history will all be easy enough, I hope.  Orchestra will be the same as ever, with the added bonus of having to practice and practice for my solo at Districts Music Contest.  I should be getting the musical for the musical we are doing this year, Brigadoon. It will be another fun year in the pit for me.

DFTBA
Kate

I will have to split and run

Back to post, busy but still willing, able, and alive!

I'm Back!

Ok so I was supposed to post yesterday, but my sense of what day it is is completely out of wack because of the holidays. So I'm posting now. I missed posting so many times... sorry about that, it was partly school and a bunch of other things I won't get into. I'll try to start posting regularly from now on. 

Sooooooooo lots of stuff has happened for you guys and for me since I last posted. On account of my bad memory and limited time right now I'll just write out what I can remember.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you're enjoying your breaks as much as I am.  I was so happy I got to see Deidra again for the break. She got me this epic Harry Potter themed tea cup that she painted herself, and a book about mermaids which is awesome cause I love mermaids and selkies but I can never find enough books about them. As for New Years resolutions, I think the main on for me is to spend less time online and improve my grades.

I got to see the first part of The Hobbit twice already in theatres. It was pretty gosh darn great and after seeing it the second time I think I have most of the Dwarves names straight in my head... probably. Radagast the Brown was probably my favourite character, but Bilbo was good and I also liked Bofur and the there's Gandalf of course.

And I really want to keep typing but it's my mom's birthday today so we're going into town to celebrate, like right now lol.

So see you all later, I'll be back next Friday if I remember what day it is again.
DFTBA
Kayla

Merry Christmas to you all! (yes its a bit late but better late then never)

I had a really good Christmas this year. We had the family over (just my fathers side because our family is to massive to have both sides over at once) and I was surprised that I actually enjoyed myself. Since most of my cousins on my fathers side are much older than I am, I've always felt lonely at gatherings of his family. So I've never been able to fit in with them and all their children are much younger than me, so I never fit in with them either. But I had a really good time with them at Christmas, admittedly I didn't talk to them very much, but I enjoyed their company all the same. My only really complaint about the day was that their children were all really noisy and that it was really hot. But beyond that it was pretty good.

My job search has been going well, I've got an interview for one next week, I'm hoping that it all goes well and I end up getting it. It's only a small job at Mc Donald's, which might seem crappy to some people but I've never had a job before and actually having my own money for a change is really exciting for me. Okay, I would rather have a job at a Library or a bookstore or something but I guess that you just take what you can get.

Well I hope that you guys had a good Christmas and that you have a happy new year

DFTBA

Expectations

     Aaaand just on time. While being a relaxing break, it has been quite a busy one. Last Thursday I was away from home all day on account of spending the day and night with Kayla and our friend Heather, and I blanked on posting. Guess my mind was hoping for an apocalypse. That was a joke. Glad we are all alive and not facing zombies or aliens or something ridiculous like that.

     Christmas was a-MA-zing! Spent a relaxing Eve watching Misfits and then going out with the family to look at the lights around town. They were a bit disappointed, but I really liked it. Living on campus doesn't really let you absorb that Christmas-time tradition. I ended up staying awake until 4:30, sending messages to all of my tumblr followers and many facebook friends. And then my mind was just everywhere and wouldn't let me sleep.

     I got exactly what I had asked for, including some things that surprised me. I have a gift certificate to get a new, bigger fish tank and new fish. My younger sister got me some t-shirts off of dftba.com, and my older sister got me pajamas and fuzzy socks. Kayla, my best friend in the world, got me not one but two beautiful pocket watches. And then, what really made it the best Christmas ever was finding out that my older sister is pregnant again! I am so excited, I am going to be an aunt again. She is due next August, which is the only downside because that means I have to wait so long.

     And now to spend the rest of the break relaxing. Which means more sleep, movies, and tv shows. I saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower last night, and it was really good. I hope to see The Hobbit once I return to Thunder Bay. I started watching the show Misfits and am already more than halfway through the third (of four) season. 

     And I will try to talk about it without spoilers, but I might slip up. About the Doctor Who Christmas special. I have many mixed feelings about it. The actual plot of the special was kind of meh, it really got lost among all the new changes and the companion plot. I felt that the instant relationship between the Doctor and Clara was too quick, and was all too similar to that of Amy. And the TARDIS, my baby, what happened there? I wrote a tumblr post about my feelings of it, but suffice it to say I really don't like it. 

     Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you have eaten enough turkey and stuffing to last for another 364 days. My toes are freezing and I am itching to watch another movie because aaahhh freedom and time. Enjoy the rest of your holidays and don't forget to be awesome.
-Deidra

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Today has been nice. It snowed yesterday for the first time this year, so we cleared it off the driveway this morning.  The rest of the day, I sat around reading with a mug of hot chocolate. It was delicious.

My week has been pretty boring. I did some homework, read, played some Arkham City, and watched Young Justice reruns. Whenever I have time to do things, I don't. Thus, nothing ever gets done.

I've been obsessing over Young Justice lately. All the hiatuses are killing me slowly. Any of you guys a fan? We still have a couple of weeks until we can watch a new episode, and I'm really freaking out. I don't think it's healthy to love a cartoon so much. But come on - Nightwing.

My friends and I had a Secret Santa gift exchange. That was fun. I got a Tim Hortons gift card. I gave my person a Tardis mug and a Sonic Screwdriver. She was delighted.

Now that I have spoken about my week - New Year's resolutions, anyone? I won't be posting until after New Year's, so I'm going to ask now. I would have to say mine are to pull up my grades, stop obsessing over Batman, and stop procrastinating.

I should be going now, so again, merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!

-Kira

Puff Levels Have Been High

I would like to confirm that I'm not dead, I have only been absent as many other things have been out bouncing around in my mind.

I unfortunately have to be quick with this post, and I promise a longer one next week.

First off, I never balance NaNo and school very well.  My grades all dropped, but not severely.  I usually write during class instead of taking notes, and I only do some of my homework.

Finals were last week and I am stressed about my grades right now.  I really need an A in my American Lit class and I am right on the edge.  As long as I get an A on my research paper I will be okay.

Sorry, but that's all I can write for now.
DFTBA and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year
Kate

Tis the season

I really love the Christmas. I find it's always a nice season, theres just something about it that I enjoy a lot. Things like putting up the tree, the decorations, the many (many) Christmas specials on T.V and the general Christmassy feeling in the atmosphere. I really like the Christmas season.

Something that people usually associate with Christmas is the cold and the snow but we don't get any of that since it's in the middle of summer but a lot of our television and movies come from America. So when we think of Christmas it's usually a mixture of Winter and Summer imagery. Speaking of which my family is supposed to be going to the beach this Christmas, so that should be pretty fun.

Since me and my girlfriend are both broke, we both decided to make stuff for each other. She is a musician and I'm an artist. She's going to write me a song and I'm painting her a picture. I'm painting a picture of the two of us as anime characters since she is a really big fan of anime.

Anyway it's getting late and I really have to get to bed

Merry Christmas everyone

DFTBA

So...Midterms

This right here is my attitude towards my math midterm:

I mean, how bad can it be? It definitely can't reach the level of horror that was my chemistry exam. I took that this morning. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I failed the whole thing. Maybe my math one will be like my physics - so easy, I'm worried I screwed the whole thing up.

Katie, this may be extremely late, but happy birthday! Campion, nice to hear your show is going well. Good luck finding a job.

Random book recommendation: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's strange, but really good. A friend gave it to me for my birthday to continue our tradition of giving each other strange books. I gave her Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Well, I'm off to finish homework. Have a good week, everyone.
-Kira

Home.

     So I am home for the holidays now. Wrote my last exam on Tuesday morning. Very easy, I must say. Mostly because I actually studied. I think in total I spent 8 to 10 hours. Most of that was spent reading the six chapters, but that is only because I had never read them before. And then the rest was going over notes and rewriting the important things so that I would remember them.

     And now that I am home I am insanely bored. My parent's both work during the day, and my sister has school until next Friday. None of my friends from around here are home yet, so I can't even go and visit people. I spent my first day wrapping my Christmas gifts, and of course I hurt myself doing so. I was working on the floor in the living room, and I got up to grab a pen. I forgot that I had left the tape dispenser right beside me and when I put my hand down to push myself up I sliced the side of my hand on the metal cutting thingy. It wasn't deep or anything, and it's mostly healed now, but I mean really. Only I would hurt myself trying to bring Christmas cheer to my loved ones.

     That pretty much sums up the excitement of the past week. I did get an early gift from my family, a This Star Won't Go Out bracelet and Nerdfighter crest pin, which was really cool. Happy belated birthday Katie, sounds like it was a good one. Good luck on employment, Campion, and glad to hear that your show is going well. And as always, don't forget to be awesome.
-Deidra

My week

At the moment I'm very proud of the most generic title that I have ever come up with. I wasn't able to post last week because my internet was down, one of the problems with living out in the country is that our internet out here is terrible. My week itself was alright, I already have two shows recorded for my radio show, not sure if it will be any good but it was fun to record and we are putting quite a bit of effort into it so I hope that it turns out well. The first two films we reviewed were Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Brave. The first two games that we reviewed were Halo 4 and Spyro the dragon. Fortunately the show is pre recorded, since in the first recording we had to re record the various segments several times. And then it took several more hours to get the thing edited. The second session went much better though, it only took us two hours to get the whole show recorded and edited.

I've also been looking for work, applying for various jobs and just trying to find something that will give me an income. I haven't found anything solid yet but hopefully I will soon.

Anyway, I hope that you guys have an awesome week
DFTBA

Typing This While Typing A Report

Sorry I didn't post last week. It was my birthday, so my friends took me out to dinner.

Really, really don't have time right now. I have a report to write. Just stopped in to answer Adam's question about San Fransisco - my favourite part was Alcatraz and just spending some time in the city. It's a really nice place. Sorry, no time to elaborate.

Generic reference to scarcity of posts

Hi, sorry I didn't post last week, I had a nice long post written but I forgot to save it and then my computer crashed which was just lovely :) Anyway, I was off all last week for a study week. I have two exams this week, one tomorrow and one on Thursday. I'm a bit nervous but I know I've studied so it should be grand.

Happy Birthday Katie!!!!! :D

So I got everything arranged for my summer trip to San Francisco, all that's left is to do my interview at the U.S. embassy which I've been told is fairly straightforward. I think it's just a formality really.
I'm so excited for it. I've never been outside Europe before so it'll be really awesome. Even just the experience of living in a foreign country with my friends is going to be pretty epic. We've started making a list of things we want to do when we're over there, otherwise we might miss something. We've got things like golden gate bridge, alacatraz and other San Fran touristy things. Going to see a baseball game, Comicon, eating at Macdonalds (probably just the once :P). I can't remember who said they had been to San Fran before but whoever it was, anything you did there that you really enjoyed?

Beyond that, I'm just trying to get in the Christmas spirit, have to do all my Christmas shopping yet.

DFTBA
Adam

A Special Day

Hi! 

I didn't mean to miss last weeks post, it just happened. I had a very busy week last week. The Intensive went well, and I think I have a greater understanding of poetry. I really like the three poems I picked to recite (if I do) for the competition. I'm wishy-washy on whether or not I want to participate in the competition because many of my classmates are either more experienced or better at speaking. In general. Even though I find it very unlikely that I'll win the school-wide competition I might just do it to  say that I did it.

Monday was normal, Tuesday I was sick, Wednesday I went on fieldwork to Connecticut, and Friday was my last day as a fifteen-year-old. Exciting. I really loved Wednesday because we went on fieldwork (which is a field trip, but more work involved) to Connecticut and visited the Pequot Museum. The reason I loved it so much was because I have a lot of fond memories. In elementary school (from kindergarden to fifth grade where I went) we would visit the Pequot Museum every year. I haven't been since then, but everything is the same and I love that. Every detail of that place is tucked away in my memory.

I can't say my last day of being fifteen was anything special. It was the most normal day I could have ever had. I ran late in the morning (putting on my shoes while waiting for the bus), took a nap and listened to music on the first bus, listened to music on the second bus (my battery on my iPod was extremely low so I was doing everything to make it last until we got to school. It almost didn't make it!),  went to classes, did some homework I didn't finish at lunch, talked about weird/ gross stuff at lunch, sat in the corner for the last class of the day, and made someone feel extremely awkward. Extremely normal.

I told my mom I wanted nothing for my birthday but to lay around and watch t.v. and spend the day with them. We did just that. On top of her and my sister and grandmother still getting me gifts. It was nice, but I was serious about the no gift part. I didn't do any homework and am logging on to the computer for the fist time today. I feel very relaxed. The things I got?

1. Pete Townshend's Autobiography Who I Am. I'm not normally a fan of autobiographies unless it is some dead historical figure, but I was really excited about reading his because I really love The Who.
2. Cupcakes from my favorite gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free bakery.
3. A fifteen dollar gift check to the local book store, which can potentially but me two books If I chose carefully.
4. New fuzzy slipper socks.
5. And bag of candy.

Deidra I hope that you do continue to write and read more of your poetry. I wish I could do the same!

Kate congratulations on your NaNo novel! My friend almost finished hers, but she had to drop out on the last 3 days to finish work. She was so close too!

I think that's basically all I have to say. So have an awesome Sunday and next week!

~Katie

Sore Hands

     Fear not, I did not die. At least not yet. I missed my post last Thursday because it was such a busy day. I had an early class, the first for that entire week. Then I was supposed to meet with my professor to prepare for a seminar the next day, but he never showed up. Then more class, studying, and a final for my education class. It was very easy but by the time I was finally back in my room with nothing left to do, it was past midnight. Suffice to say, I had no heart to write.

     And since then I have been up to so many things. Friday I did another open mic night, and read a poem I had written for the occasion. Easier than the first time, but still frightening. I hope to continue going out and participating in them so that one day I can read something and not have my voice shake so much. Also it is good practice for teaching. 

     Saturday was the Secret Santa exchange in my house and also winter formal. I received a book, Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf. It looks promising, so I am going to enjoy that over winter break. Formal was really fun. It was a fancy dinner and then an all ages night at the Outpost, which is the campus pub. My house got all dressed up and went to dinner, where we learned that we won House of the Month for the second month in a row. It was amazing. I live in a quiet residence and they have the stereotype of having nerds who never go out and do events. So winning it for the second time is really good for us. The theme was Fairy Tales, and we were seated at the Aristocats table. All of the tables were themed from Disney movies. It looked really nice. I stole a pink bow from the table and wore it around my neck. Then, when a couple of the girls and myself went out to the Outpost to dance I wore it along with my "bow ties are cool" shirt.

     Today I wrote my first university exam, and I must say it was fairly easy. It was for my literature before 1750 course, and was comprised of five short answer questions and an essay. I ended up writing a nine page essay, and then using another nine pages for the questions. By the time I left my hand was so cramped up and sore. It wasn't as stressing or intimidating as I think it's supposed to be. We write them in the gymnasium just like I did in high school, just with a lot more people. I only have two exams for this term (the perks of being an English major) and my second one isn't until Tuesday, so I've got a lot of downtime. Then I get to go home.

     Congratulations Campion on being finished with high school! Let me tell you that you will not miss it. University and college are better in so many ways, the first being that there are a lot fewer stupid people. Since you have to pay to be there, most people are pretty serious about it. Another perk is that you can create your own schedule, to some degree. So, if you want to sleep in you just have to schedule it like that. Good luck on your job hunt!

     Kate, I would really like to know how you can balance school and NaNoWriMo, let alone finish it. I really wanted to do it this year, but it turned out that November was my busiest month, with a lot of assignments, tests, and presentations. I do want to write more often, and am thinking of setting aside a certain time during next semester to do it. Also, try not to hate English so much. It's not as bad as you think. 

     Try not to get too bogged down with work and studying, and take breaks to have some fun. Good luck to all with whatever end of the year things you are facing. Next time I post I will be home sweet home. Have a good weekend, don't forget to be awesome!
-Deidra

Improvement

A huge amount of stress has been lifted.  All of my grades are where they should be, at last, and should be good for the end of the quarter as long as I don't do poorly from here on out.  NaNo is over and I managed to finish with 50,024 words. The choir director asked me to be in the school's musical pit again this year, and I am very excited for that.  Really the only thing that is bothering me right now is a muscle I pulled in the upper back of my leg.

It's getting to be the end of the semester/term and that means finals are coming up. I am a bit nervous for nearly everyone of my finals.  Trigonometry and Psychology should be okay, but I will have to study a bit for those.  In Orchestra we have a playing final, and the party is challenging, but practicing will help a lot.

The subject I am worried for most is American Lit.  I did horribly on the quarter final, and now our teacher is gone for the rest of our class.  At the beginning of the year he found out (and he told us right away) that his wife had a brain tumor.  She started Chemotherapy a while back.  The stress that added to his life made him feel like he was not up for teaching, which I think is completely understandable.  He might be back for next semester's class, but he had meant to retire at the end of the year anyway.

From the looks of our blog it looks like a lot of you are pretty busy with school and other work.  I hope things will get better for you.

Kate