Tonight is the Minnesota caucuses for the state congress race and governor's race. I'm going to caucus for Matt Entenza; he's a good friend's father and a good candidate. He's a black horse, though, so that should be interesting and exciting and challenging. I'm excited, too, because I can vote in the straw polls, since I'll be 18 by November. It'll be the first time my vote counts.

Also: This is an interesting article relating to the 2011 budget, which Obama just published. I don't want to promote an agenda here (although I have them and will be happy to share), but it's worth considering in terms of international relationships, hard and soft power. Also, despite an overall increase to NASA's budget, the Project Constellation was cut, which is disappointing, and much of the "increase" involves private-sector incentives. Confusing.

Anyway that's all for now, but here's something to brighten the outlook!

I'll do a personal update soon.

I have not been online recently, and apparently this is justification for ALL KINDS of self-destructive behaviors. I'm going to take a moment, display my full hypocritical side, and nag for all I'm worth.

IAMBIC: EAT SOME GODDAMN FOOD. Just because you're now living in a commune does not make it acceptable for you to look like you're taking cocaine. Just because you write as beautifully as a mad poet does not mean you have to waste away like one. DO NOT LOOK LIKE JOHN KEATS! HE DIED OF TUBERCULOSIS! I expect three (3) meals a day. These should include five (5) vegetables, several fruits, and protein. Are you getting your protein? I can't come cook for you, but I will BOMBARD you with recipes if I hear one more time you haven't got a square diet. I don't think you understand, I'm Jewish and maternal-y. I will send you POW care packages. It will be embarrassing.

SMOKE: GO TO SLEEP. Did you know, you die faster of sleep deprivation than of starvation? I bet you did because you're ABOUT TO ACHIEVE THAT. Sleep! The internet will still be there in the morning! As you should know, "if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything." HEED RUGEN'S ADVICE! DO NOT BE AS WESTLEY IN THE PIT OR INIGO WHEN VIZZINI DIED. NOT OKAY. Again, just because you can write like Poe doesn't mean you should hold his hours. I will not leave cognac and roses on your grave, I will leave a note that says "YOU STUPID IDIOT I MISS YOU" and cry over it. SIX (6) hours a night minimum, and up to ten (10) is preferred. Don't make me come out there.

These cross-apply. And both of you should be drinking more water, probably, and using less caffeine. Do homework, even when it sucks. Do not smoke, do drugs, or have sex, at the very least don't have it without protection. Drink in moderation. Just because I disappeared is not an excuse for subjecting one's self to Guantanamo-type torture.

On a scale of sparrow to velociraptor, this is like extinct-eagle uncool. That is all, thank you.

Can we just take a moment to talk about my extreme crush on Conan O'Brian? And or just how awesome is Conan O'Brian.

Thanks.

(Also I've made a couple of icons recently, wtf is up with that?)

I started this a while ago and finished it tonight. Not that I'm caught up on Hetalia, anywho.

Title: Yellow Lines
Fandom, Characters: Hetalia, Denmark and Sweden
Rating: G
Time: 1940
Necessary Background: In WWII, Denmark saved all of its Jews, mostly by sending them in secret rooms on boats to Sweden. Sweden was technically neutral, but collaborated with the Nazis while hating them. The Nazis conquered both Norway and Denmark, while Finland was fighting Russia.
Note: I haven't written much recently. Let me know what you think, not only in terms of characterization but dialogue, pacing, description, literary devices, etc.

( It's been a while )

I'm just going to keep a list here of books I've read this break, to keep track. Feel free to ask me about any of them or recommend something. I counted last night; I appear to have 50 books on my to-read agenda. Oops.

1. Unseen Academials
2. Shakespeare's Kitchen
3. Tales of the Black Widowers
4. Anansi Boys
5. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
6. Equal Rites

( Also, a to-do: )

Fashion Day by Day in its admittedly temporary comeback:

( I can't type with this bracelet on... )

I'm such a badass

So today in English we were discussion Hamlet, and I was going off on this (very intelligent, if I do say so myself) exposition on why Hamlet treats Ophelia so awfully in the "get thee to a nunnery" scene and how it ties into the disconnect between soul and body and the "rotten state" of morality thus far. Meanwhile, I was playing with a stapler, because I like to have something to do with my hands. Then OW,I stapled myself in the finger.

Me: "OW!.... hot damn." *pulls staple out of finger. Blood wells up*
Camille: Oh my god, are you okay?
Me: Yeah I'm fine. Okay, remember that Hamlet believes that (etc etc etc)
English Teacher: *cracks up*
(I BLEED ON THE TABLE)
People: DUDE GO TO THE BATHROOM
Camille: *Attempts to wrap my finger in kleenex*
Me: Guys just let me finish! This is more important!
David: You have lost all your credibility.

So I finish my thing, after many interruptions, and everyone starts talking. My English teacher's like "that was such a me thing to do", Thomas is wiping blood off the table, etc etc. So then I went to clean it off. But I think that's awesome

TLDR: I analyzed through my own bleeding finger. I am a hardcore English student.

ETA: I stapled my finger again on Friday. orz

I don't get calc again :(

I think I'm getting a B+ right now in that class, which makes me sad. I got an A first quarter! Bet I can bring it back though, with the exam.

I only have exams in two classes, actually. Calc and Econ CIS. (Damn, I do quite suck at econ though). I have projects and papers in most everything else.

Speaking of which: I freaking love Hamlet. He is a snarky bitch, and the fashion motif and the saying/words and the learning– it's awesome. Surpassed Macbeth as my favorite Shakespeare already.

Also I just want to hear back from UChicago and Georgetown. It's nine days until Georgetown though, and UChicago is "mid-December". Agonizing.

I'm never going to get into Yale if I get a B in calc. They would scorn me.

First on-snow ski practice of the year is tomorrow! It's not too cold, either– 22˚ today. I hope we get to free ski tomorrow, I haven't been on snow since last January. It won't be pretty.

I've been in a poetry mood recently– I wrote a poem, edited one right down, and have fragments of a couple more that look promising. I miss original, creative writing. Sometimes in class I get all twitchy about it and spit out a couplet in the margins, but it's bad for focus.

Also I miss diet coke. Quitting an addiction sucks.

GROUP A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France

GROUP B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece

GROUP C: England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia

GROUP D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana

GROUP E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon

GROUP F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia

GROUP G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal

GROUP H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

It's like the colonies versus the colonizers. It'll be an interesting world cup for SURE– I can't wait for July 10th England/America. I expect revolutionary war songs. I feel for North Korea, except for not, because fuck them.

Hetalia, in retrospect, makes all of this more interesting.

This is why no one lets me have free time. Ski practice was cancelled tonight and I had marginal homework. Between 5 and 8 I:

Created a secret society
Planned a prank on the sophomores
Executed the preliminary steps
Secured a sponsor
Curled my hair.

Guess I'd better go apply to Yale and write a definitive article on Lithuania, since it's only 8:15.

Sometimes I forget how awesome I can be.

Can I burn all my college prep books and college mail? I just want to.

May also burn my calc book right now if this doesn't start making sense

I'm warning you Isaac Newton

When did I stop using punctuation?

I should keep a valid lj. I really should. I think about it sometimes.

This week and some in sum:
Debate tournament in Chicago starting tomorrow
I don't understand calculus
or economics
at this point all British scientists should be taken outside and shot
I'm talking to you, Isaac Newton and you, Adam Smith
I seem to have a pretty good grasp on Shakespeare though
and Estonia.
My Chinese class can go to hell
so can Erik
broken finger is still broken
but with the addition of shinsplints
I've decided to write a screenplay
I've almost applied to Harvard and Yale
waiting anxiously to hear back from UChicago and Georgetown SFS.

I think I might write my senior speech on marriage
using the analogy of a time machine
badass y/n
first quarter grades rocked
except for economics....
dammit Zalk.
I love Thanksgiving
got new skis
want to learn to fondant ice a cake
Bad Romance has the coolest music video ever
I overanaylze Lady Gaga's societal implications
and may write a paper about it
and I may submit a Poland thing to our lit mag
I may publish my paper on Lithuania
for real
if I can make it not suck
I think that would be awesome. Since I'm
you know
17. And.

If you are interested in any of the above disjointed thoughts, ask questions.

From the prompt "chandelier". Feel better bb~

Title: Unexpected Green Thumb
Fandom: Count Cain
Word Count: 370
Genre: gen/horror

( Halloween is approaching, after all. )

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got posted, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know. Forced into this by Smoke, by the way. With a gun to my head.

And to catch up on one:
01. Comment to this entry saying 'ICONS!' and I will pick 6 of your icons.

02. Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked!

( Icon meme, from xturncoatxiii )

I don't think it's ever too soon for Billy Mays jokes. Anyway-

LIMITED TIME OFFER

School starts on Tuesday and I'm going to be doing even less writing than I already am (I do do some, just... nothing's ready to be posted). So, in order to get it out of my system, I'm going to comment-box fill prompts for the next two days. From... now, until let's say 10 PM my time (CTZ), post one prompt in every comment (comment as many times as you would like) and I will write fills. Nothing under a hundred words, no less, but it would not be amiss to expect exactly a hundred for some. Comment box'd, so not exactly my most polished or edited work. Forgive errors, either grammatical or stylistic.

GOGOGO.

I went to Poland, it was cool. Am back. School starts on Tuesday. (Senior year omfg, I am not a senior). Took senior pictures today! We'll see how those go.

The main point of this entry: I wrote two things in Poland. They're kinda... different, though. I don't know what I would label them. They're kind of stream of consciousness, I guess, and kind of personal journalism? It's conversational and switches between fiction and reality and it's all me, narrating, so let me know what you think of it, I guess? What you think it is. Does this even count as creative writing? Am I just a total tool who talks to her computer screen pointlessly? Let me rephrase that question in a more constructive way: Is this something I should pursue?

I guess I would really like criticism on this.

The first is "Poland (#1)" and the second is "Warsaw, you know, rises". As always, anything original is copyright me, whether or not it's worth stealing.

( These also tell you much about how I saw Poland! )

"Post a single sentence from each WIP you have (or as many as you want to pick). No context, no explanations. No more than one sentence!"

He loosens his tie and pulls off his black Versace suit jacket, slinging it over his shoulder, and grins.

This is largely practical, since she never answers questions after they are asked.

Look, I’m just going to take a moment here to defend the South.

“Your language makes no fucking sense.”

She made it five steps before she turned around and retrieved the coffee.

Denmark and Sweden are sitting across a table from each other, and both look tired.

But these are the future memories, not memories of the past.

The doors to St. Mary Magdalene’s Church shuddered, splintered, and shattered. Screams, smoke, and sanguine slaughter.

The sky looked like latex, and they were probably too late.

Guess the fandom!

My day has been awful and it's not even over. I'm going to whine about it on my lj, because goddammit, that's what an lj is for.

So I stayed up until two working on my goddamn flight homework.

At flying, I spent an hour and a half (most of which was even after my lesson was technically over) arguing with my flight instructor. Apparently he's a pre-1850s, extreme capitalist who, essentially, doesn't believe in any of the things I believe in, including that every human has the basic right to health care and education. He doesn't believe that imperialism is a bad thing. He doesn't believe in any kind of welfare. He thinks a private police force would be not a bad idea. To finish up, he assigned me three more chapters of homework.

And then on the drive home some Somali woman on her cell phone in a fucking black Range Rover nearly wiped my car out of existence.

Goddammit, I need a nap. Public Service Announcement: I'm fucking cranky right now. I'm damn near cantankerous. And Erik is coming over later. Fucking– bitch– arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.