VoicePost 221K 1:09

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iambickilometer and I met up, along with Art and two of his friends, in San Francisco. I now present to you– Pokerface.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's my BIRTHDAY!

God I feel old. Sixteen's supposed to be this fabulous year, right? It kind of sucked. Oh well. Onwards!

ITT: awesome sparkles and the codes for them, because that's what I want for my birthday.

Tried a new restaurant today with Ben. It was good to see him, and we have a lot of fun. Food was excellent, too. Then we came back to my house and he beat me at Mario Kart. I'm out of practice!

First college trips tomorrow; I'm going to St. Louis and then on Tuesday to Chicago. Should be.... not particularly fun. But on the fun side, I am working on the arrangements for my dad and I to go spend ten days in Poland in August, which will be *awesome*.

Got my grades; they were good. Somehow managed to pull off an A in Chinese, mostly probably because the final was easy as hell, although my working my ass off second semester probably helped too. Got the highest score on the math final, with over a hundred percent, but that was because my teacher decided to make it out of 124 points instead of 135. Whatever, I'm just glad that class is done. My China/Japan teacher is keeping the three manga panels I drew and laminating them as an example, which I think is hilarious because they're actually terrible. I can't foreshorten so I just.... didn't. Still no word on APs, how agonizing.

Decided I'm reading War and Peace this summer. We'll see how that goes. Anyways, will update after Chicago!

Wow, actually, it's been a while. I'm definitely going to update more now– finished my last final exam yesterday! No grades yet, but surely you shall be hearing about those soon-ish. AP grades are the third week of July, and oh TRUST me you will hear about those. If they're good, there will probably be sparkles.

No, so I saw Star Trek for the second time yesterday. It's so. freaking. good. I've been working on a bit of fic (Smoke's seen it) that'll probably go up later today. Indoctrinated Erin anyways, she thought she was a proper nerd but hadn't ever seen Star Trek. What the hell. About 75% of my time now is dedicated to thinking about Star Trek though, which is probably bad. Also bad that everyone that's seen that movie with me came out, looked at me and said, "You're Bones." Literally, that was the first thing Heather said to me after the first time. But I'm okay with that.

I had my first flight lesson today! My instructor's super nice (and actually really adorable... albeit married and too old for me) and we're going up in the air tomorrow. He though I was 21 and smart, one of which is totally false and one of which is partly false, since I don't know a godddamn thing about airplanes. Twas fun though, and I'm looking forward to learning!

Thursday went to a Twins/Red Sox game with my mother, which was... interesting. Redmond, Gardenhire, Varitek, and Frankona all got thrown out in less than 20 minutes and 1 inning. Can they even *do* that? Plus, that umpire was SO biased for the Sox it was ridiculous. But cool to see and fun, even if we lost (3-1). Beckett pitched a great game.

Tonight my Euro class is havin' a party at Ms. Helbrecht-Wilson's house. It will be hilarious and fun. I believe we're playing Risk and watching WW2 movies. I'm going to make cookies, though, so I'd better get a move on and get to the store. Also, wash my car. He looks disgusting.

ETA: Helbrecht-Wilson thing is actually tomorrow, but car is washed and cookies are made. Also fic is posted.

OH MY GOD EURO AP EURO AP EURO AP I NEED TO STUDY

I'm only on, like, the freaking wars of religion. I have SO MUCH WORK TO DO

In other news, the English Civil War is like a messy divorce. See my study guide:
( cut )

GUYS I HAD THE BEST IDEA EVER

What if, what if, what if at the ending of Naruto, instead of, idk, defeating Akatsuki and Naruto becomine Hokage (ie the good guys win), Commodore Perry's black ships arrive in Konoha? It could be HILARIOUS.

...okay I know that was random, but.

So I've been baking a lot recently... I made Subaru cookies for my Euro class yesterday, and am going to make chocolate-caramel cookies for Robotics in like... five minutes. Awesome, am I right? And... that's what's up. Oh! And I started Neverwhere. It's really good so far... I can definitely tell that Good Omens is a truly collaborative work.

Did nothing exciting today except fall down the stairs. I whacked my temple on a corner, though, and now I have a lovely bruise blossoming there. It's directly opposite my bangs, though, so I've got some cool symmetrical composition going on. Someone should paint me. I'm a little dizzy, too, though. Whatevs.

I tried to make plans for tomorrow, but apparently EVERYONE's out of town. It's been a fail weekend, except for starting Neverwhere. I've only read the first 100 pages or so, but it was excellent. Oh, and I also had to watch a movie for China/Japan that was excellent– it's called "To Live". Check it out, but be warned that it's sad I am not even embarrassed to admit I cried– wait, maybe I am a little.

New layout~ and headliner thing. It matches my icon! This makes me irrationally happy.

ETA: Goin' to the opera tonight to see Faust with Erin. Should be pretty good.

ETA2: Finished Guards! Guards!. It was good, but I still think Small Gods was the best.

Finals are over. My English final was the easiest thing ever, if I get less than a "brilliant!" I shall be quite put out. So small update.

I finished Small Gods last weekend, and it was AWESOME.

So yesterday I went to the bookstore and picked up Legal Drug 3 (ahaha I love Legal Drug it's so full of badly-concealed gay), Interesting Times, and Good Omens. Then I worked on my chinese project with Michael. It's about Genghis Khan, and let me tell you, that man pwned some noobs. And he was apparently a pretty nice guy; he didn't rape, torture, or burn to the ground, and didn't let his soldiers either. And then I fell asleep last night at like eight, and woke up this morning at nine, so I feel pretty awesome.

Now I think it's time to talk about VidMo. ( Buckle your seatbelts, children )

:Happiness is falling asleep at six o'clock, waking up at nine, and then reading Neil Gaiman until three.:

I also learned two other life lessons today:

1. Never let anyone else do anything important;
2. Natalie will never, ever learn to call me back.

Happiness is also a friend texting you at one because they thought of you.

December post is still coming; things shall be explained and there shall be sense.

So what if I'm a Jew, my grandmother's a Catholic. I'm doing the Christmas memes.

( Meeeemmeeeees )

So, news post. Let's see.... Halloween was fun, got to hang out in SanFran, see Art. My Sarah Palin costume was quite the success. I didn't get to see Iambic though, that was a great tragedy, but hopefully we'll arrange the same thing next year and get to.

Um... November was stressful as hell, lots of debate tournaments I did badly at, but I got a couple of funny stories out of them. We were this one really kinda illegit tournament, because most of the judges suck, and Erik, the AWESOMESAUCE AMAZING CRAZY GOOD debater on my team, that always wins first speaker, was like, "I probably got horrible speaks". So when they're giving out the Varsity LD awards, there're cute blue mittens for the 1st place speaker, which is usually him. And so I'm like, "Erik, if you win, I want your mittens," and he was like, "Fine, 'cause I'm not winning." And I was like, "Believe in me who believes in you," and he was like, "*self-deprecating laugh*" So we go through the speaker list, and then they're like "AND first speaker, from the BLAKE SCHOOL, is..." and I'm like, "OHOHO" and they're like, "ERIK!" And so he goes up is like "wow" and gets the mittens and then WON'T GIVE ME THEM. But I finally got them last week. Ohoho. And then at Glenbrooks I watched his round seven against the reigning Tournament of Champions champion. Going in he was like, "I'm going to lose I'm going to looose" and I was like, "You're gonna pwn, believe in me who believes in you" and he was like, "You always say that when I think I'm fucked," and I was like, "Yeah well you're gonna pwn." And then he was like, "PLEASE don't watch this round" and I was like, "PSHT." So he was negating, and it was literally the funniest round ever, like I've never seen a debate round so funny. In the middle of his first speech, he's responding to some argument about stigmatization when he breaks from debate-speed: "Astohisargumentaboutstigmatizationthisdoesn'treallyexistImeanwhenyou'rewalkingdownthestreetyoudon'tjuststopandgo, 'Dang, there's a felon!'" and then everyone started laughing, it was so random. And then during cross ex the aff cracked a Minnesota politics joke, but the judge and Erik didn't get it, it was just me and him laughing. Then Erik started his next speech by singing: "You know that song, "you don't know whatcha got till it's gone"' and it was very funny.

And so at the end of the round, I was like, Erik DEFINITELY won, and then the judge was like, Erik won! And I was like, "See I told you." So then the schedule comes out for doubleoctofinals, and of course Erik broke, and so we're all like, "Who's he debating?" and it's the SAME GUY, but now Erik's AFFIRMING. So he lost which was a bummer but it was still funny.

Oh so then Thanksgiving was cool. I went to Boston, saw my family, hung out with Smoke, ate food.

Oh wait what was that last one? I ate food. No no before that. Oh yeah I HUNG OUT WITH SMOKE. It was epic, because we were IMing and I was like, so you should come see me, and she was like, haha that'd be funny, and I was like, yeah I'm in Boston, and she was like WAIT I LIVE HERE and I was like, orly? I thought you lived up in P-town and she was like no. So we wandered around Harvard Square and talked for like three hours, it was awesome. Yeah.

So now it's December. The epic n00bness that occurred during December later, after I get back from correcting the epic n00bness with Erin. That girl is a SAINT.