My last word on procrastination

This morning I've decided that I'm not going to procrastinate stuff anymore.......

*Edit* Well, how do you like that? I say I'm not going to procrastinate and then I get distracted and get back to this post hours later?! This is for real. I started writing this earlier, but then I remembered that I had to do some SAT studying. For those who don't know, I'm taking my second ever SAT test on March 14. Little more than 2 weeks away.

Q, you are right. SAT = death. Well, maybe not completely right. It's like a slow death, of the brain...

No, no, I'm just kidding. I'm really good at math. It's only the tough, advanced math concepts that give me some trouble. Where on earth is anyone going to use coordinate geometry in their life, answer me that. I'm sure not going to use it! And doing arithmetic with negative numbers, don't get me started. You have to remember that if you multiply two negative numbers, it will turn out positive, and if you multiply one positive and one negative number, the result will be negative. I've got a good handle on reading and writing, but I need to study hard for math. Plus I should work on my essay writing.

Anyway, I was going to talk about procrastinating. I've developed a small list of things that I will stop not doing.

1: Making headway in my Imazia book. I need to show some progress, man! And that stupid schedule didn't turn out to be helping matters any. Instead I'm going to promise myself to work on my novel for 4 hours a day in two 2-hour shifts. Now I'll just have to figure out where to put those 2-hour slots...

2: I will try taking walks as much as I can. If I can't get out during the day, the least I can do then is to do a hundred jumping jacks. I tried that today. It sure gets your heart pumping like a Jumanji drum, don't it? Know what else I did today? I helped my brother tie a thick stick to a rope that we attached to a tree and we called it a swing. It's actually quite fun to use. Our own private swing. I wish we had a tire swing. I love those. Or better, I wish we had a huge trampoline, like some of our friends have...

Oh, I'm going off topic again, aren't I? I'm stalling because I'm not sure what else I don't want to procrastinate. My list isn't very big. Many of the things I don't want to leave off are small things, like doing the dishes more, cleaning the birds' cage, that sort of thing.

I think in order for me to achieve these things and not put them off anymore will be for me to end a few activities, if only for a few days. I talked about them in last post, you remember? First, I'm going to take myself off reading good books for a week or so. If I can keep my nose out from between the pages of an awesome fiction novel for several days, I'm sure I can get some pretty productive work done.

Second... yes, I'm sorry, don't give me that look. I have to say it. I'll need to stop blogging for awhile. Hey, at least I'm warning you, aren't I? Having my mind on my blog is not helping me. It's lots of fun talking to friends online, but I need to take a break, okay? Just give me that. So, I'm not going to be checking out any comments you leave this post. I'll check them later. And any new posts you guys put up I'll have to read later, too. Hopefully after a week I'll have some good material to read.

I'll miss you, guys. Good luck on your 100th post, Jacoby. Perhaps you can write on my book club blog while I'm gone. I'm not going to be reading anything, after all. Wish me luck!

By the way, here are some more funny procrastinating pics.

Promises and Procrastinations

I feel like I've got a lot to write about. I'm kicking myself because I wanted to write so much yesterday, and all I wrote were a couple of book posts on my other blog. I wanted to write about what a fun Sunday at the beach I had, my take on how the Oscars went, maybe a post about how much I remember loving Dashner Dude's Journal of Curious Letters and how I can't wait for book 2. (James, if you're reading this, you are allowed to skip all this and scroll down to item number 3. What do you think?) I also know you guys are probably wondering about my Imazian story and hoping I'll write more about it, eh? No? Well, if you don't, that's fine too.

The problem is, my biggest flaw is that I'm a huge procrastinator. It's easy for me to let certain things slide, and then I regret them later. What is the biggest cause of my procrastination? The books I read. I love to read, that's all, and some of the books I pick up are too good for my own good. I must keep turning the pages or I won't know what happens next, gosh darn the consequences.

Um, you probably won't like this, but I also think that maybe -- only maybe -- the second biggest culprit of my procrastination is... blogging. I'm sorry, but seriously, I spend a lot of time with blogging on my mind, and I fear it's almost too much. I check my emails all the time (that's how I get comments. Do you know how to do that?), I'm always going up to my dashboard, seeing if any of my friends have come up with something new. It's madness!

Speaking of which, I got my MAD yesterday. It's a pretty good issue. I like the cartoons the best. Also the fold-in. How many of you guys get MAD? None? Well, it is a bit of a stupid magazine, so I can understand, but I like it's brand of humor.

Okay, that was off subject. Sorry about that. So how am I gonna make my conscience feel better? Well, I think the best thing for now will be to write about each of the things I mentioned as brief as I can. So here I go:

1 ~ Sunday at the beach was so much fun. I relaxed and read my book Join Me (got nearly half way through), I ran into the ocean and swam all the way to the sandbar (though I only stayed in for, what, a minute? It was pretty cold!), I played Acey-Deucey with my friend Anna (Acey Deucey is a variation on the game Backgammon, BTW. It's named so because the most special roll of the dice in the game is a one and a two. An Ace and a Deuce), and there was this live music thing playing where my young brother, Adam, dressed up like Elvis and sang Blue Suede Shoes.

He was reeeally good! Everyone on the beach heard him and loved him. Well, except those people waaay in the back, near the shore, they couldn't hear him. But everyone in the near vicinity thought he was awesome. I'm sorry to say I didn't get any footage of him doing it this time, but if you want to see the next best thing, my brother sings the very same song in this YouTube vid. It's the most popular vid on our channel!

Also near the end of the day, my parents introduced me to their friend Mike, who I thought was nice. We got talking and they (my parents) said how good my twin sister and I are on computers. Geniuses, whizzes. (I'm so modest!) So Mike says we're probably good at hacking and stuff, and I jokingly reply, "No, we use our powers for good, not evil." He laughed at that. Powers, yeah right. But he thought it was a good slogan for us. I suppose it is. Hmm... Maybe I'll put it in my title. "I promise to use all my powers for good, not evil." What do you think?

2 ~ So later that night, I was excited for watching the Oscar awards. My mom told us that the Jo Bros would be interviewed by Barbara Walters. That was sooo cool to watch. These guys have really come far. It's amazing how none of her tough questions seemed to phase them. I loved seeing the pictures of when they were younger. Alright, enough Jonas talk.

I watched all of the Oscars show, if you'll believe me. Stayed up to watch all the awards handed out. I recorded everything in my notebook as it was happening. Which famous celebrities came out to announce the nominees, which films got nominated (I didn't write down names of the people who worked on the movies, only actors. Directors and costume designers and all those people in the background, I don't much care about them. Also, I don't much care about the foreign films or documentaries, so those are the exceptions), and which films won.

My sister has already said this in her blog, but I was a bit personally offended when the movie Wall-E won only one Oscar and Slumdog Millionaire won eight. What on earth does Slumdog Millionaire have over Wall-E? For those who have seen this multi-Oscar winner, it might not be a mystery to you, but for me, who has not seen it, it is. So there.

3 ~ Well, let's see. I finished Dashner's first 13th Reality book a few months back. It's almost scary how long ago I read it! But I think I can still remember how good it was. It was all about this kid who recieved mysterious letters containing very unusual riddles that he had to solve for something really important. I loved the riddles. How the heck did you come up with them James? It was so fun trying to figure it out for myself, but I guess Tick was smarter than me in that case.

There are funny characters, Tick has close shaves in Alaska, he makes a friend from Italy. He even involves his dad in the whole adventure. How many parents of book characters can say that? I'm also fascinated with Quantum Physics, and it's cute how it's referred to as the Kyoopee (did I spell that right? I forget now). I also liked that another friend Tick makes was from Florida, and he and his two friends keep in touch through the internet and it's so much fun. The best part was when they went to that other Reality though, and actually did some world saving stuff.

I cannot possibly wait to have Dark Infinity in my hands so that I can read it! I believe I'm about as excited as when I was waiting to buy the 7th Harry Potter book a year or two back. I was in Israel at the time and we bought it the day after it came out (yes, Harry Potter books I will buy. I've got all 7 stacked in my room). I remember holding it so reverently and wondering what kind of story would be revealed in its few hundred pages. *sigh* I think Dashner's book is going to hold the same feeling for me when I get a hold of it.

BTW, I saw that the countdown has now changed to days until Maze Runner. I can't wait for that to come out either. Please tell me James. Is this review worthy of an ARC? Or will I have to wait almost an entire year until it comes out? Go ahead, be cruel.

4 ~ I don't know about you, but I don't think I have the energy to write about my book here. It'll probably take too long. I know I have a lot to tell, so it's best if I save it for another post. Sorry to disappoint you.

Good. I wrote about everything I could. I'll write again soon. I hope. Don't miss me if I don't. (Sorry about not having any cheerful pictures to look at while you scrolled through this long post.)

*Edit* Oh, by the way Q, thanks a lot for your email about my Imazian character post. I liked your advice and I'm going to think about what you said. If you have any tips for me in the future, I will highly appreciate them.

Welcome to Imazia!

This is going to be a lot of fun for me! And you, I hope. What I'm going to do here is tell you how some of my characters came to be, plus a little about what their role is. Most of my favorite characters live in Imazia, my majikal country. That's because their names are mostly plays-on words, which is so much fun.

1 ~ Magenta Carmine Roberts --- My main characters full name, as those who've read my past posts know. She is called Maggie throughout the book, since it's short. I didn't come up with her middle name until probably the last year, Carmine. You know it's a special shade of red? Look it up. Don't ask me why I picked Roberts. I could have given her any other surname. It's just a name that seems to go smoothly with the rest of the name. Whether you say Magenta Roberts, Maggie Roberts or Magenta Carmine Roberts, it gives a very nice ring to it, don't you think?

2 ~ Mark Simon --- This is Maggie's crush in the story. I named him Mark because a long time ago I once had a dream of meeting a really cute guy and I woke up somehow knowing his name was Mark, even though it was probably never said so in the dream. That's a bit of an embarrassing story to share, because it makes me sound like such a hopeless romantic, but that's where I got Mark. My dream boy turns into Maggie's dream boy. Simon I got too just because it sounded good next to Mark.

Alright. My next characters are all from Imazia. These are the good ones. Trust me.

3 ~ Diggory --- A talking mole who is the first Imazian creature Maggie comes across. It's a perfect name for a mole (note the word dig inside it). In the beginning I also meant it as a reference to the boy Diggory from the Chronicles of Narnia. Remember in the Magician's Nephew? Well, if you don't, that's okay. He's a little gruff, speaks with a Hagrid-like voice.

4 ~ Mac and Dameon Nuts --- Twin brown squirrels who are friends of Diggory and like making mischief. Mac is a bit of the dominant twin, more daring and reckless, while Dameon is slightly more cautious and sensitive. I knew I wanted twins in the story, and talking squirrels sounded really cute to me. They take mostly after HP's Fred and George Weasley. (They and Diggory are the only ones I base after Harry Potter, don't worry. I'm not that much of a cheat.)

I remember coming up with their names one day when I was shopping, in

line at the supermarket, I think. My favorite type of cookie is

macadamia nuts and white chocolate. We weren't buying cookies, but the wonderful play on words just hit me and I loved them right away, because they had such good names. Macadamia = Mac and Dameon.

5 ~ The Warlock --- My villain. His title alone just makes you hate him, right? He basically wants to take over Imazia. The picture I basically paint of him is a classic bearded old guy with a long nose in dark robes. Is that too cliche? His unique and most frightening feature is his two different colored eyes. One blue and one green. Like Erec Rex, I guess, except it's not a dragon eye, he was born with different eyes. I gave him weird eyes because a couple years ago, when I took a trip to Israel, I went to someone's house and their huge cat had two colors. I'd never seen anything like it. The cat was very nice, but I knew that two eyes would make the Warlock sound a lot more evil.

6 ~ Gris Feldgrau --- The Warlock's young right hand man, er, elf. Did I mention that all the people in Imazia are elves? He does most of his dirty work. Gris is grey in spanish, and the word feldgrau means "field grey." I didn't give Gris a last name until relatively recently. It all suits him perfect. He may work for the Warlock, but he's only there because he's trapped under a complicated spell. You know the story of the swan princess? Well, Gris turns into a raven by day, and by night he can either stay raven or turn back into an elf at will. This is good for the Warlock because then Gris can fly across Imazia and spy on stuff, for example, the strange human girl who has mysteriously appeared.

7 ~ Flora Sunnair --- A girl elf as old as Maggie who has long, wild blond hair. I really like her because, like Maggie, she's kind of an alter-ego of myself, except she can do majik. She leads Maggie on a long journey across Imazia so they can find the Great Unicorn, who will apparently whisk Maggie back to Earth. Flora is a little unpredictable in her moods, but she and Maggie manage to become friends along the way, after Flora starts teaching her the art of Majik and they save each other's lives. BTW, Flora's long lost brother is Gris. Shhh!

8 ~ Bina --- An albino squirrel who is Flora's companion. She isn't sooo important to the plot, but she is a fun love interest for Mac and Dameon. Her name is great because it sounds like albino and it's like my name without the "ett" in the middle. See?

The rest of my characters are in groups. They're more like minor characters, but their names are really cool. For instance, to make the long journey to the Unicorn, Maggie and Flora ride a couple of talking horses named Naylah and Whinnis. They don't say much, but still.

Also the Warlock has an army of gnomes at his disposal. My gnomes are short, stocky creatures with hard, grey skin, almost like they're made of rock. My formula for gnome names is a body part and something rock related. So far I have Boldaphist (boulder + fist), Slabak (slab + back) and Lymeer (limestone - stone + ear).

The last characters I'll mention are a pack of wolves who somewhere in the middle of the story trap Maggie and her friends in a cave. The leader of the pack is a fierce wolf named Alphawere, named for being the alpha male and for "were" as in werewolf. He has a great group of comrades, such as Baine, Padder, and Omegar. (He's sort of at the end of pack. Get it? Omega? I hear wolf packs have those kind of social ladders. He's like the one that eats last, the one who trails behind because no one really cares about him.) Alphawere also has a mate named Bayda, which is obviously perfect. Alpha, Beta?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, this was a very long post. I am sooo sorry. It's my honesty post all over again. Dang it! I didn't mean for it to go on and on like that. Hopefully you liked getting to know my beloved characters and you won't steal them away from me for your own selfish purposes. They are mine, you hear?! If you use any one of them, I promise I'll sue.

He he, so moving on. I'll bet reading about these characters revealed about as much of myself as the truth thing did. Do you think these characters will make it into the published world? I sure hope so. I suppose I'll have to tell you about my story as a series some other time. It would just take up a bunch more space here.

BTW, how do you like the pictures I put up? I just decided to search all of them and they all were so very appropriate. The ones of Mac and Dameon, Gris and Flora are especially majikal. I'm so glad I found them. Good ol' Google Images!

Guilty

Okay, this will be an ultra short post.

I didn't keep my promise to myself to write today. I didn't work on my story at all. Didn't look at it, or even think about it much. So for that I feel a little gulty. But I'm not too glum. Don't feel bad for me. Tomorrow I'll share some more of my self-created universe with you. I'll reveal some characters, how I created them and what their purpose in my story is. Maybe also different ideas that I had about my book as a possible series.

Of course, I'm not saying anything to you now. You'll have to wait for tomorrow. I don't mean to make you suffer and I hope you don't lose any sleep on this. This is not for revenge or anything, I just want you to know what's coming next. Hmm, here's some food for thought. If information is revealed about the future, is it better or worse that you have the knowledge? Or would it be better to know nothing at all and just be surprised? Well, too late for you. See ya!

Improv Class

Before I start, I just want to thank you guys for showing interest in my book. I thought it was funny that a couple other people started talking about their work soon after I did. I should share my stuff a lot more often. Besides, it feels good sharing with you. Maybe next time I'll tell you about some more of my characters. Just remember not to copy anything from me. (Except for J.N., he's got dibs on imagic. ^,~)

Anyway, I wanted to blog about what happened last night. Remember from Inside my Head? I talked about this improv class of which I knew nothing about? Well, I took it. And it was so much fun!

There were 14 kids in all, including me and my sibs, and to introduce each other we played a game where we say our name, say a funny adjective that has the same letter as our name, and then make a wild motion. Then we go around and repeat all the names we hear and copy the motions.

It's very effective, and fun. I learned a lot of peoples names by hearing them as Saucy Sam, Energetic Eric, Robotic Robin, Notorious Noah, Artistic Ariel, Radical Rebecca, Jumping Jordan, and a bunch of others. I was Brilliant Bettina, in case you were curious. ^,~

There were a bunch of games we played to exercise our improvisation skills, like the Mirror Game. I partnered with Saucy Sam, who is tall with curly hair and blue eyes, but he's 13. He's still really funny though. And a game called This is Your Life, where one person is the main character who knows nothing about his life except for what other characters tell him. Like, we have to establish a relationship with him right away so he can react to us. I pretended to be a girl's grandmother.

Oh, something incredible happened at the class, I almost forgot. Before class even started, like early yesterday morning, I kind of had a premonition that I would see a friend or two from my old rehearsals of the play High School Musical. The play wasn't so good, but I made a lot of friends there. I played Taylor (even though I'd reeeallly wanted to be Gabriella) and I was good friends with my understudy, Lexi. I also liked the guy who played Chad, named Eric. Anyway, I was thinking what if I saw a couple of my friends at improv class, but then realized that chances weren't high. Still, soon after we arrived, I saw Lexi come in and I was really surprised and glad to see her. It's good to have a familiar face. Plus there was Energetic Eric, but he wasn't the Eric I knew. I liked my Eric better; Energetic Eric didn't want to participate much. He just wanted a chair to sit in, so he wasn't that energetic. Even so, that's a whopper of a coincidence, huh?

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this Improv class. We only have 8 more sessions to go. I definitely have to learn to improvise while keeping a straight face, because some things are funny. Keep watching, er, reading! Especially for Imazian updates. I think today, because of you guys sharing your stories-in-progress, I'm inspired to write some more today. But I'm definitely going to share more with you later.

The story of my story

Today marks a very special anniversary, for me personally anyway. This was the day that, 3 years ago, I got the idea for my own imaginary world and caught the writing bug. It all started when I was sitting in the car coming back from the beach with my family, and I had only just recently finished reading this big omnibus with all the books of the Chronicles of Narnia in it. I was 14 years old at the time. I thought the series had been really cool and I started fantasizing about magical countries.

When we were nearly home, I suddenly got a burst of inspiration and I knew that I had to write my ideas down before I forgot them. At first I thought of a round continent divided by colors, with 7 human girls who were actually princesses in that world. I started making up names that reflected their respecitve colors (from Rose to Violet), but then I thought it'd be too girly and confusing, and besides, I figured I had to write one book before I started thinking of a series. So I started thinking of the name of my magic country. I started toying with the letters in the word Imagine. Imagic, Imazine, imazi... finally I decided Imazia would be the name of my world.

I don't know what happened to me, but I was suddenly writing in notebooks like crazy. I took out as many self-help story writing books from the library as I could. I wrote outlines, thought about characters, wondered what they were supposed to be doing there. A few days later my heroine, Magenta Roberts, was conceived. I largely based her on the girl I'd previously wanted as my orange girl, Tangy or something like that. Her name was perfect to me. (Duh, pink's my favorite color.) As Magenta (or Maggie as I like to call her) grew in my mind, I then started basing her on myself, or a version of myself I wish I was like. She became my alter-ego. She could do things I wished I could do, like go to Imazia.

Characters started springing in my head like wild-flowers. I had a whole bunch of talking animals and mythical creatures at first, most of which I took out, but I still have a mole, twin squirrels and an evil pack of wolves as well as a Unicorn (central to the plot) and elves and gnomes and other stuff. I'll probably tell you about them some other day. I especially loved giving my characters great names. I wanted my villain to be so evil that he didn't even have a proper name, so I called him the Warlock. His servant, Gris, I named for the spanish word for gray/grey (I can't tell which spelling is right for the color), because I knew that his heart was mostly black, but there was a hint of good in him.

My plot was always changing for me. Right now, I'd say my story is pretty unrecognizable from the original idea I had, but that's a good thing, because it's so much better. At first Maggie was 14, like myself, then when I turned 15 she became a year older too. I stopped there, however. 15 sounds like a good even age. (even though it's an odd number!) Now I can hardly believe that 3 years have passed since that magical, or majikal, night, or that my story is comprised of nearly 68,000 words now. Granted, I haven't been working on my Imazian story for a few days now, but it's still fun to reminisce about my humble beginnings.

I hope you have enjoyed this post about my novel-in-progress. It still needs a ton of work. I'll need a lot of support to keep this thing rolling. If you want to know more about my story, I wish you'd comment, or email me. I think it would be better to email me, because if you want to know something I don't necessarily want to be blabbing it out to everyone. Like any writer, I am very protective of my work. But I need more feedback than just from my family. Who knows? Maybe you guys will be able to help me with some parts. Just show your interest, okay?

Bedtime Stories review

Alright, I'm back from the theater. I just have to say that I enjoyed watching Bedtime Stories almost as much as I did Yes Man. (Note the keyword: almost.) I thought it was very funny, and the stories were really good. Adam Sandler is such a good guy in this story. The kids were also really sweet.

The only bad thing I have to say about the movie is that I seriously did not agree with that mom's "green" values. Wheat germ cake or whatever that was? It looked like grass! And she didn't let the children watch TV or play video games or do anything that kids are supposed to percieve as fun?

I think this is a scheme by the movie-making people to dissuade people from being healthy by teasing the characters that eat tofu stuff and drive Priuses and showing how much fun the characters that eat junk food and watch TV have.

Being a vegetarian, I completely resent that. Vegetarians are not restricted to eating tofu and wheat germ or soy milk or whatever. Helloooo, we eat vegetables! Colorful, full-of-sun-energy vegetables, and fruits! Plus, no one says we have to swear off junk food. Everything in moderation, right? Anyways, I don't like whoever decided to put those subtle teasings in the script. They are trying to hypnotize you into buying their junky brand products. It's all a big conspiracy. Stop the madness!

Speaking of madness, I hope we get our new issue of MAD magazine soon. But that's off the subject.

Bedtime Stories was honestly a lot of fun to see, when you choose to overlook the evil hypnotist plot underneath it. (I'm just kidding!) I gotta tell you, the audience was really responsive for this film, laughing in all the right places. I had a lot of favorite parts in it. Like when Adam Sandler is at the party and supposed to do the theme presentation and a bee stings his tongue, so he has to speak in gibberish, just like in the story when his character speaks in an alien language. Also he was so scared because in the end of the story he thinks he's going to catch fire, and then... Oh, but then that would spoil the punchline for you guys.

Just keep this movie on your films to see list, in case you haven't already. Oh, but then maybe some of you have, since our theater gets popular movies a few weeks after the other theaters do. Anyway, I guess that's all I have to say in my review. Thanks for reading. And watch out for conspiracies!!!

Inside my head

Okay, I realize that I haven't blogged here since Valentine's Day. Well, I blogged about how much I loved New Moon, but that doesn't count. I've got a bunch of thoughts chasing each other in my head that I need to get rid of. I wish I had a Pensive to get rid of my thoughts the right way, but I'll have to do without it. Here are some thoughts that are foremost on my mind:

• I am spending way too much time thinking about Blogger. It's almost like I'm addicted to it.
• Having said that, I'm really expectant and excited about Dashner's promise to tell the rules about how a huge fan can get an ARC of Maze Runner.
• I am also thinking a lot about another particular blogger's promise concerning today. He's supposed to come back from Cali today and, if he gets his own back, will send me the prologue I've been waiting ages for. (Though if you do not happen to get your computer returned to you, Jacoby, I will totally understand.)
• I'm very guilty with myself because I haven't been writing an awful lot lately. I've missed, like, 3 entire Writing Days now. I'd wanted to write my book on Valentine's Day (you know, 14), but I can weakly excuse myself because it was a holiday. But I have no excuse for not writing yesterday. I haven't used Write or Die in a long time. I wonder if that will help give me a jump-start or something.
• On the 19th, 2 days from now, I'll be starting some sort of improvisation class. I'm looking forward to it sooooo much. Has anyone heard of the show Who's Line is it Anyway? Well, I know it probably won't be like that, but I hope it's gonna be lots of fun. There'll be loads of kids near my age there, so hopefully I'll make plenty new friends. Basically though, I don't have much idea of what to expect from this class. Still, I'm very impatient for it to be the 19th already! If I had a time machine, I'd use it right now to fast-forward over these two insignificant days. I know, I know, I shouldn't call them insigificant. I can't predict anything about the future. But why can't I get to the Improv class right now?!
• Also on February 19, I plan on writing a special post about the book I'm writing. It'll make a very good story.
• In less than 4 weeks, I'll be taking the SAT test again. I took it before back in November '08, but wasn't happy with my scores. So, until March 14 comes around, I'll be studying very hard. Especially on my math. That was my downfall in the first test. My sister and I are studying with the help of a huge SAT book borrowed from the library. We're not taking any classes or bothering with any tutors. We're doing this ourselves. I think we do much better work when we're teaching ourselves. We make a good team. I think I'll set a new timer to count down until test day.
• As soon as I'm finished with Erec Rex #2, I still have a ton of books that I really want to read. I'm not sure I'll know where to start. But never mind. I don't need to worry about books here when I have another blog just for that.
• Tonight is movie night, and we plan on seeing Bedtime Stories. I hope it's a good one. I wish Coraline would come to that theater, but it only shows films that are very close to coming out on DVD. If I saw it at any other theater, the tickets would be a lot more expensive. I should consider myself lucky that I go to a theater that only charges 99 cents on Tuesdays.

If I came up with another thought bugging me, that would make 10, but I've got nothing. Too bad. Still, I feel a little bit better now. Thanks for listening to my ramblings, friends. I know I'm totally thinking me me me, and I feel a little selfish and self-centered after writing this post, but hey, isn't the point of keeping a blog to be a bit of a vain idiot? ^,^

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, you guys know what day it is. Hearts and cupids and people buying candies and things for their loved ones. I know, all mushy stuff. But this year I wanted to send the friends I've made on this blogging adventure a V-mail, a special valentine message, from me. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't show their email address in plain view, so I've only managed to throw V-mails out at J.N. Future Author, Q and the author Kaza Kingsley. Brian, LouMac, and even the Dashner Dude (if he ever reads this!), if only for today, I hope you'll give me your email addresses so I can send you your personal message.

In the meantime, we just put up the new Leslie and Kyle episode! It's so funny. When Annette and I showed our mom, she laughed a lot. We hope you do too. The video is still processing right now, but I hope you see it sometime during the day on YouTube. When it's all ready, I'll put it up here.

*Edit* Alright, the Leslie and Kyle episode is good to go! Here's the link. I hope you guys like it.

Before I go...

Alright, I promise to make this super short. My sister and I have finished making the Leslie and Kyle special, so you'll all be able to see it come Valentine's Day! Which is in 2 days. Yikes, I need to be making Valentine cards! Also, I put in a little S.A.T. study, and I started New Moon. I'm on the 4th chapter. Yay, a 1/6 of the way through. But why did Edward have to break up with Bella??

Tonight my family planned on going to the President's Day festival, but right now it's raining. I hope it lets up. I want to go on thrilling rides and stuff. Annette and I want to go off by ourselves and have our own fun time while Adam sticks with our parents. It'll be a relief for them not to have to wait for us to get off a ride, or to have to go on with us. I'm bringing the camera, so I hope I'll take many pictures. Annette says the view from the Ferris Wheel should be awesome. Please rain, stop it! I want to have fun!

It's funny, but it's the 17th Annual Prez Fest, and I'm 17 too. The festival is as old as I am. Cool.

Post #30 and 2nd Anniversary + 10 honest things

Yes, I know I already wrote a ton today, but I realized that today is my second anniversary of being a blogger as well as this making my 30th post on My First Blog... ever! I suppose I didn't write so much in my book, but I don't care so much about that anymore. I've got to come up with a better solution then the 7 thing. Also, with my blog, you could say that whole post might count for something in my Writing Day. And now I'm going to do a lot more writing. So sit tight now.

I thought I'd do something very special in this post. Recently my twin sister, Annette, the Funny One of Welcome to my World, wrote a post called "Honest Scrap", in which she listed 10 honest things about herself. That's because she got tagged by another blogger. I know that there are these blogging games that fly through the virtual world, like you play along and then you send it to your friends by "tagging" them. Usually I don't approve of them, mostly because I never had very close friends to forward the things to. But this one I really like. Here are the rules of the Honest Scrap:

1:I have to list 10 honest things about myself. No hiding anything. Just have to get it off my chest. I've been meaning to write that kind of post for a while.

2:I think of between 5 or 7 bloggers that I "can't live without," (hey, that's what they say), tag them, and that means they have to do the honest scrap too. OR ELSE.

3:I list my "can't live without" friends in link form, so that other people can check their blogs out to make sure they write their scrap. See guys? You're being watched!

So here it is, the 10 things you've always wanted to know about Bettina Levy. I personally think you should take this one in baby steps.

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1: I'm a master at the game Hide-and-Seek. I know it's mostly a kid's game, but if conditions are right, like in a huge house or a big backyard with infinite possibilities for hiding places and with lots of participants (or just Annette and Adam) I love it. It's my favorite game. But what does that mean, exactly, when I say I'm a master at the game? Well, if I'm one of the people hiding, it means that I am very light on my feet and can run very silently in search of a good place. I stay very quiet and very still, and I seem to have an almost feline sense of hearing, so I can sense where the seeker is and if they're close to finding me. And then, when they leave the room, I sneakily dash off to another place and they don't have a clue!

I'm usually the last person to be found, and I love boasting about all the places I hid and no one suspecting anything! And then when I finally get to be a Seeker, I am still a master because I then use my special ears to seek out the hiders and I get them pretty quickly. They are just that much too loud for me. They can run, but they can't hide. Unfortunately, I don't get that much of an opportunity to play Hide-and-Seek anymore, because our house isn't that big. But whenever I get the chance, it's so much fun... for me!

2: I am the biggest fan of stories you've ever seen. I simply love stories. Reading them, writing them, telling them, hearing them, watching them happen before my eyes. This is why I have such a love for books, movies and stories told by actual people. I have a lot of respect for those famous story creators: the authors, the actors, and all the fantastic individuals I am privileged to know who are willing and generous enough to share their amazing life and/or their imagination with others.^,^ I am basically a story buff.

With books, I can remember all of my favorite authors' individual works and all the characters and the plots and how much I loved the plots. With movies, my brain is a network of plots and which famous actors played in them. I love it when I recognize someone in the middle of a film and say "Ooh, I know that guy! He played so and so in that other awesome movie!"

I love animated movies, especially well done ones, because there's an added effect of me recognising the voices alone. That requires some skill. No trouble with my kitty ears! Anyway, my love of stories is the reason I am so attracted to a life of writing. I cannot imagine a better life. I want to write my own books and have other people read about them. I want to offer up my stories to the world.

3: Since I love stories so much, I have a great love for adventures. It's fun seeing other characters go on thrilling adventures, where there's a very serious purpose to the journey, and it's sometimes fun when life and death is involved. That kind of semi-dangerous stuff is fun. I wish very much that I could go on those kind of adventures myself. I want to travel to somewhere I've never been before, or do things I never thought I would do. I can imagine myself thriving in the wilderness, in a forest, or up a mountain, or on rapids.

I fantasize all the time about going on the adventure of my life, wondering where on earth it will take me. But for now, it seems I will just have to continue my training. Scaling those fun rock-climbing walls in theme parks whenever I can instead of actual mountains. Ride the scariest roller-coasters I can find. Work hard at driving lessons, so I can go on all the road trips I want when I'm older. And keep dreaming of going to a fun summer camp with a lake and hikes early every morning, where you spend a long time away from home in a tent or in a cabin, sitting around a camp fire, telling ghost stories late into the night. I have never had this experience, and maybe my image is a little too idyllic, but I still fantasize about it. I dream about other adventures I could be having, but I'll keep that to myself.

4: Like I might've mentioned before, I have an incredibly soft spot for animals. Pretty much all animals in general. I hardly discriminate between any species, though I guess I'm more attached to mammals than say, reptiles and fish. I love all the animals that are popularly known as pets; dogs (my favorite breeds are yorkies, beagles and labradors), cats (I love all manner of kittens, but I like orange ones best, I think), birds (I own two cockatiels, in case you didn't know by now, Sasha and Sammy), and rodents (hamsters are the greatest and simplest pets in the world).

I also like wild animals too. I think they're fascinating. I wish I went to a zoo more often. And you know, I'm not the kind of girl who's scared of crawling things (unless I have good reason to be, like if someone tells me they're poisonous!). In fact, on a number of occasions, when my parents have a frog or a cockroach or some icky thing that's snuck into their room, they call my sister and me. Of course, those animals are hard to love, but I tolerate them.

5: Okay, here's something I bet you want to know. Like, you've seen my profile pic, right? So you're probably wondering, how does that girl stay so thin? Well, beats me, because I sure like to eat. It's probably because I'm a die-hard vegetarian. I've never felt like I had to make a difficult change in my eating habits, because I've always eaten the right way. I mean, how can I live with myself, eating meat, if I love animals? Yeah, so I'm a girl who is content with broccoli, right?

Wrong. My favorite meal in the whole world is spaghetti and marinara sauce. Hold the meatballs, please, just pasta and sauce for me. I could eat it all day. I could eat Italian food in general all day, come to think of it. I wish I could go to Italy. My favorite restaurant ever is the one pictured here. Sweet Tomatoes, home of the best salad bar in the world (that's my tag line). You know, the ironic thing is that when I was little, I used to hate eating tomatoes. Now, I guess you can say I tolerate them.

6: As well as writing, one of my great hobbies is taking pictures. (That is actually me behind the camera. Can you tell?) I have a great instinct for Kodak moments. Especially when it comes to nature and still subjects, or animals. Taking shots of people are fun too, but you know, you need to have everyone's position right, they all have to be smiling to make it work... I love smiling for a camera. I don't see why anyone would make a big deal about it, not wanting to get their picture took. Why wouldn't you? We're making memories!

A picture tells a thousand words. I've taken loads of pictures on a couple trips we've made, like when we went for a 10-week excursion to Israel, or the 2-week trip to Boston, Mass. I like, whip out the camera like a gun and snap shots. It's hard to stop me, especially when there are so many opportunities for pics. I don't take a lot of photos at home though, when everything's normal. That's why I need to travel, see something new, and take memories and stories home with me. I wish I had a better camera, or a Camcorder that takes movies!

7: Even if I spend a scary amount of time on the computer, my family does not own any video games. We don't have any PS, or PS3 or whatever version is out now. No SuperMarioBrothers or whatnot. No Game Cube, no Wii, and especially no confusing wires and controllers littered around the play area. I don't really get kids and their video games. Spending hours inside trying to get to the next level when they have no idea that they're totally missing out on the outside world.

Of course, I have certainly done my time with games when going to friends houses, but I'm still pretty clueless how they keep track of everything. I very much hate all those battle games, where you're controlling a guy with a gun and blowing tanks and people up and it looks so real. Why are you pretending to kill people? What kind of sick game is that? Still, there are some games I enjoy and wish I owned, like a Karaoke or Dance Dance Revolution, or Guitar Hero, or the Harry Potter video games! I'd love to have those things. But on the whole, my family isn't into the whole buyout scheme. Free online computer games take up enough of my brother's time as it is!

8: This is a little silly, but I have to be honest. The first time I saw the animated movie Happy Feet, I absolutely loved it. All the voice actors and the music and all those cute baby penguins. The movie was great, but for a while afterwards, I found the strangest urge to tap-dance, just like Mumble did. I start moving my body and hear the tapping of my feet and it felt good. Of course, I have no idea how one taps professionally, but I still had fun with it. I guess I don't do it so much anymore, but I remember a couple times in the supermarket when I was just tapping my sneakers and I paid little attention to my surroundings and I think I bumped slightly into a few people. That made me pretty embarrassed, but I still tapped my feet.

9: Now, I hope you don't think of me as

an incredibly girly girl now (since I love pink and everything) but you've

got to know that I have a few slight crushes on certain cute boy actors. I know all the girls will sympathize with me on this one. Forgive my gushing, but all the guys I have pictured here, I think, are so hot! I love guys with cute, boyish faces.

Daniel Radcliffe I love (duh, Harry Potter!) because he's got this incredible smile that makes you think he's about to laugh. Nick Jonas is my favorite Jo Bro because he's the youngest (therefore, closer to my age) and he seems the most sensitive. And he has great curly hair. When I saw Titanic, I fell in love with Leo DiCaprio's portrayal of Jack Dawson. He's so sweet and has the most soulful eyes. Another actor I like from when he was younger is Johnny Depp. If you've ever seen Cry Baby, you'd know what I mean. I don't know about when he's playing a swash-buckling drunk pirate captain, but when you can see his cheeks and he's not trying to play too morbid a character, then I think he passes for cute.

Also, since I wanted to round my celebrity crush count to five, I thought I'd add that when I read the Pendragon books and Bobby started growing older and more mature, I started really liking him. I know, that's silly. Having a crush on the idea of a book character. But he is a celebrity in his own right, and his portrayal in the graphic novel isn't half bad. I just know that if Bobby Pendragon were a real person, I'd love hanging out with him.

10: Finally, you've made it to number 10! Kudos to all of you who've made it this far! The last thing I have to say about myself is that I'm a big fan of word games. Boggle, Scrabble, crossword puzzles, anagrams, codes. I love thinking about words in that way, as well as putting them in the right order, as in actual writing.

Boggle is one of my favorites, especially when my mom or my favorite aunt Lisa plays with me. Racing against time to fill out as many words as you can see. I have some cool tricks under my sleeve for getting lots of words, for example, whenever you see eat, there's most likely ate and tea in it too. Same with rat, art, and tar. Replace r with p and you have pat, apt and tap. And all those triple combos still have an a and a t in them! Also, wherever you can, stick an s at the end of nouns. Longer words, higher score. Oaky, ttha's lal mi ginog ot asy no het sjbceut. I aslo rlelay lvoe dinog tihs, tpynig ni a lgaungae I clal Jumbalayan! Nca aynnoe raed tihs?

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Okay, take a deeeep breath, guys! You all look tired. Don't worry, I will never write that long a post again. I hope you've enjoyed my little Bettina lesson, so if you ever meet me in physical person, you'll know a lot more about me. And now you know what kind of person I am. Unless you just scrolled all the way to the bottom to see who I'm giving this huge assignment to. Well, after you see if you're name's posted here, I'd appreciate if you'd comment and tell me if you accept. You don't have to include pictures symbolizing your honest facts if you don't want to, that's just something I did. I thought it would make the long, dry post a little colorful. And you don't need to write very looooong paragraphs about each thing. Don't make my mistake. But you should express everything as honest and as thorough as you can without boring someone to tears.

Tag, you're It!

J.N. Future Author

The Dashner Dude

Kaza Kingsley

Farworld

The Curly Q

I expect only one person will really take this seriously. I guess I don't have as many friends as I thought I did. That, or my sister took all the good ones! Hmph. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should see her honest scrap. (I think she's in need of a few comments! Don't worry, I don't think hers is as long as mine.) Okay, from now on, I promise to write really short posts, and not keep rambling all the time. I hope you all stick with me. Yes, I am a little insecure when it comes to online friends. I hope these long blog posts haven't turned you off to me!

This might be a long one...

Yeah, sorry for not blogging here for almost another week, guys. I know I keep putting up book reports, so that must make you happy, but I still feel a bit guilty for not writing here. A lot of cool stuff has been taking place in my life. Maybe some bad stuff too, but lots of good stuff, don't worry. Maybe I better tell you the bad news, just to get it over with...

On my writing day of the 6th, I didn't work very hard on my book. Only put in less than 2 hours, and I don't think I did good. I couldn't even give myself the excuse that at least I'd done some writing at all. And on the 7th, somehow I never even wrote at all! Can you believe it? It was the 7th, and I didn't make myself sit at the computer and produce any helpful words for my story. Right now I forget what else I was doing.

Hmmm, but I think in the morning, instead of doing my work, I was having a reading marathon, trying to finish The Hunger Games, which, granted, was a very good book and I was almost finished. See my review of it. It's the last book that I use that rigid form on.

Anyway, I didn't do much else. I don't know why, but I couldn't make myself write! That evening my siblings and I tried hanging out at our outdoor town center, because there was supposed to be this free weekend thing where lots of teenagers come to hang out or whatever. Since we're home schooled, all those teenagers probably know their friends from school, while we know no one. Sometimes I feel funny around people my own age. I feel a lot easier around grown-ups or babies, or even animals, but it's hard for me to get teens, even if my sister and I are 17.

We had pizza (which was too thin and cheesy and will never compare to our pizzas) and I tried flirting at a guy I saw, but I guess it didn't work. My version of flirting is trying my best to make eye contact and smile. But I'm too shy to keep it up. I need more practice. At the same time, I thought the night was a lame, yet maybe hopeful one. I can try better next time. It was certainly better than last Friday, when there was absolutely no one to be found. It was pretty cold then.

So I felt pretty frustrated with myself when I got home. I was really down in the dumps then, thinking I couldn't write and I couldn't make any friends and I would be lonely all my life except for Annette. But in hindsight, everyone needs those kind of times. You need to get very low in order to feel the high, happy stuff. Sure, the SNL episode that night was lame, but I was thrilled when they said the Jonas Brothers would be the musical guests next week, and that Alec Baldwin would be hosting. Can't wait for that. Hey, what can I say? I'm a girl. I love Jo Bros.

If you've read this far, then thanks for being such a good friend. Oh yeah, I guess I forgot how easy I am around virtual people. It's physical strangers my age I'm not sure about. Anyway, I bet you guys need a break. Here's an intermission of cute, silly animal pictures I found on Google Images. Just wait a bit while I go look for them...

Now, I'm not going to bother with the entire week I missed, because only yesterday was a really good one. Oh, but maybe I should tell you that a bit early on in the week, I and the blogger known as J. N. Future Author decided to become Team Members of each other's secondary blogs. So now I can put up funny pictures and, eventually, Jacoby will give his own book reviews. When he's not trying to reach his 100th post, that is. Yeah.

So yesterday I was very productive. I may not have written, but Annette and I studied for the SAT for a while, and then we started putting together a new Leslie and Kyle webisode on Windows Movie-Maker. It's a Valentines Day special, which will air on Feb. 14, of course. And no, don't go thinking that the puppets are going to go all mushy on each other. You'll see, it'll be funny and clean. Then I took pictures of the ginormous zucchini, which I saved as a post on Picture Perfect. Hopefully Jacoby will give it the okay soon and publish it.

I've been reading a book called The Last Invisible Boy, which, despite my suspicions, is a pretty nice book. I'll write a review on it sometime soon, since I'm almost done with it. Besides getting stuff from the market, my mom and brother also swung by the library and picked up 4 heavy books I'd had on reserve, one of which is the Twilight sequel, New Moon! I'm definitely going to dive into that book next. I can't wait.

Last night was probably the most fun though. It was movie night again, and there were a load of options this time. We could have seen Bedtime Stories, or Marley and Me, but we all went to see the hilarious Yes Man.

Jim Carrey is absolutely the best. This is now my all-time favorite Jim Carrey movie. So many funny stuff. I don't want to reveal too much, because it's so much funnier when it's a surprise, but it was really awesome. Jim does so much cool stuff when he says Yes to things. I'm sorry to blab this, but he goes to a friend's Harry Potter costume party and it is so funny! For that part alone, HP fans have got to see this movie. Also, in the very end, when the credits are rolling, he does this cool thing where he skates with his body downhill. It looks like a totally awesome extreme sport.

When we got home, I also saw 3 fantastic YouTube videos that I really want to share with you, but instead of embedding them here and taking up a load of space, I'll just give you their links. This is for a song that was in Yes Man that I really liked, Jumper. The next is for a very good trailer of Coraline. If you're going to avoid trailers like James Dashner, than don't watch it, but I really liked it, and I think it's worth watching anyway. I'm subscribed to the YouTube channel ImprovEverywhere, and they came up with this awesome clip. It really makes you feel good.

And now I am very nearly done with this ultra long post. Thanks for sticking it out. Those who've reached this point are my closest friends. I'll try to work extra hard on this Writing Day, but I'm starting to question the importance I put on writing on a stupid schedule. Also stay tuned for probably another long post, although that one has to be long because it's so personal. Don't worry, you'll see. Or maybe you won't see, because you're so tired of reading this giant post. But I hope you'll stick with me, being my closest friends and all. Please? Stay tuned.

George Carlin is Hilarious!

Tonight I saw a seriously super funny DVD! Do you guys have any idea who George Carlin is? When I was very young, George Carlin meant the funny, raspy voice that sometimes narrated Thomas the Tank Engine episodes instead of Ringo Starr, who I liked better (he's a Beatle, for one thing). Before seeing this stand-up routine of his, the best thing I knew him for was doing the voice of the VW bus Filmore in the Pixar film Cars. Not anymore!

This was a routine of his called Jammin' in New York. Trust me, you've got to check this out if you have any appreciation for humor and stand-up comedians. George is hil-ar-i-ous! Of course, you've got to watch out for the language he throws out there, like f... and s... and body parts, but if you tune all that stuff out and just focus on the jokes he tells, he is the funniest guy ever! I'm 17, so I don't mind language like that so much. I don't use it myself, but I tolerate it. It's just words, after all. Words, like anything else. You can percieve those words any way you want to.

But really, after finishing watching this movie, I just felt so good! So energised! You know why? Because I laughed so hard! I honestly can not remember a time that I've laughed so much! At one point I was lying on the floor, tears straming from my eyes, and I was, like, laughing that silent laugh where you're laughing so hard that it no longer comes out! It's a hysterical thing! And it makes other people laugh equally hard to see you laughing your heart out, because that kind of laughter is contagious! Honestly, it was as if I was being tickled inside, except it felt better, oh so much better! I didn't want to stop laughing because it felt so much fun, but finally I felt I had to stop because we'd paused for long enough and I had to see what else the guy did.

George Carlin is soooo funny. I don't think anyone has gotten such a big rise out of me in such a long time. Not SNL's recent episodes, not the comedies I've seen lately. With those I make a little titter, by comparison, or a little smile, signifying "Oh, yeah, I get that joke, ha ha." This guy's stand-up was hilarious. I could have died laughing and been the happiest person in the world. (Wait a minute, what am I saying? That isn't totally true. I still haven't been published!)

He talks on a large range of subjects, like the little things we have in common with each other, (you know how you're walking down stairs and you think there's an extra step? How about when you fall asleep in the afternoon and you wake up when it's dark and you think it's yesterday?) or what's wrong with the airline system, (I don't want to get on the airplane! I'd rather be in one, wouldn't you? And thanks very much for teaching me to use a seatbelt!) and even about the environment. Near the end he sounded almost philosophical, but he's so funny. He was definitly a fun guy to be around.

The only thing that makes me sad is remembering that George Carlin is dead. Hard to believe it was only last summer (or Yellow Season, as I like to call it). I love this guy's sense of humor, and it's incredible how quickly and effectively I took to his jokes. It's all the more unfortunate that he'll never come up with something fresh again. But it also makes me more grateful that we have this kind of material on DVD. To be borrowed from the library at any time. I wish I owned a copy. It would be the best medicine against sickness or blueness.

Everyone who reads this should seriously look into getting this movie and seeing it with a close friend or your family and have a great, fun laugh. If you're anything like me, you will not regret it, I promise. Phew! I've written a long post. I didn't mean to ramble for so long. But if my words somehow cause you to go out and seek this George Carlin routine, then I suppose I've done my job! See ya tomorrow!

My various thoughts

Right now I'm at the library computer, writing this post like I'm hitting typewriter keys. The keyboard is so annoyingly bulky. Anyway, I got 3 new books just now. You'll hear about them in my book blog, I'm sure. I just wanted to catch you guys up on my thoughts.

For example, yesterday we made great pizzas, this time with cheese, and yellow tomatoes. Since I'm at the library I can't put up the picture I took of one of my slices, but I'll do it later when I get home. They were really good. I appreciate them more since we decided we'd make them only once a month on the first tuesday. Also for our movie night, we'd originally wanted to see 7 pounds, with Will Smith, but it was sold out. Bolt and The Day the Earth Stood Still (TDtESS) were also playing, but it was hard for the 5 of us to decide which to see. Finally, our mom went to see Bolt with Adam while Annette and I saw TDtESS with our dad.

That was a really good movie, in my opinion. It stars Keanue Reeves, from the Matrix and also has Jaden Smith (at least we got to see a Smith) and John Cleese plays a cameo. I don't want to reveal too much of the movie (I want to be like Dashner Dude and not give much away) but it's a remake from 1951 and it was so good that I want to see the original. I've already reserved it.

Today was a Writing Day, but I don't think I did so good. I only worked for a couple hours. Then again, I shouldn't beat myself up. At least I actually did work. Though I didn't put in as much time as I would have liked, I think I did good work on rewriting an action scene. I made it so there's an extra character in it. I'd like to talk about my book more, but I'm just not in the mood right now. I've got two other Writing Days on the 6th and 7th. Maybe then.

My dad has expressed that I should do my writing on another computer, besides the one I usually use. This Dell laptop is really good, and very quick. But we also use the laptop for working on the language program and such. Our Sony, on the other hand, is rarely used anymore. We moved all the pictures on it to the Dell, to save space. It's got a slow connection and it sometimes has a problem with the screen. Like, this jagged line starts dancing in the middle of it if you accidentally shake it or something. You know what I'm talking about? Anyway, despite all it's quirks, I've decided to put my book document on the Sony and work on it there. I emailed it to myself before we had to go to the library.

Besides my 3 pieces of fiction, Annette and I are checking out a huge SAT practice book. The one we reserved was taking muuuuch to long to come in, and the closest test is in March. We'll have to get down to some hard studying. I took the test before in November, but didn't do so good as I would have liked. Annette neither. So we're gonna take it again and see how we do. I'm not sure whether I'll decide to go off to college or not. I don't know where I'd go, except I once dreamt of going to Harvard. You need to be veeeery smart though, and I don't know about that kind of life for me anyway. There're other routes I can take, if only I can decide how I want to spend my future. Besides publishing a novel, I'm not sure what I want to do with my life. I know I'd like to travel a lot...

But I'll leave the future where it belongs. I want to be back in the present. Yikes, I'm down to 15 minutes in my session. So, I had a couple ideas for alternate titles for my blog. I have Bettina's Books, so maybe Bettina's Blog? Bettina's blah blah blog? The Pink Place? Pinky's Corner? My mom suggested Tina the Page Turner. Get it? Tina Turner? Bettina? Forget it. Hmm, maybe something to do with my book? Like Magenta Majik or something? Give me your opinions.

Personally, I'm pretty attached to My first blog...ever. So Ezra, maybe you can change yours?

Jacoby, I just want to say, in the nicest and friendliest way possible, that you're not excused from showing me your prologue. I would still like very much to see it. I think that's everything. So I'll post the pizza picture later when I'm home. See ya!

Edit~~~ I'm home now, so here it is! Don't start drooling on your computer now!

New Picture

Today I decided to update my Profile picture. It's nearly been two months anyway, and besides, my old photo was from months ago, when my family took a trip to Boston. This new pic makes me look a lot more mature. What do you think? (Old one on left, New one on right.)

I'm also debating whether or not I should change my blog title. My first blog...ever? It's been my first blog for a while now. And I suppose it's not even true, because I wrote a tiny blog while working on the Obama campaign. I just didn't think much of it, and I didn't make any friends with it, so it got erased from my short term memory.

Anyway, I see that Brian's brother, Ezra, decided to call himself First Blog Ever, or something really close to that. (Did he get that from me, or is it a coinky-dink?)

So what do you guys think? Keep my first blog...ever? or something else?

Superbowl XVIII and other news

Last night, history was made. Football history. I may not be a huge football fan, but I always look forward once a year to watching the Super Bowl.

It was really good, and I had a lot of fun at the party I attended to see it. Good food (4 slices of pizza. Not as good as ours though, which we'll have tomorrow) and sweet cats. There was a gray cat named Mouse (funny), an orange one without a tail named Spaz, and an adorable orange kitten that didn't really have a name, but we called him Mo. Mo was fun to hold.

Anyway, back to the historical Super Bowl. For those who didn't get to stay up long enough to see it (I know most of you have school today, unlike me, because I'm home-schooled. Ha! Did you see it, Lonnie?), or just plain weren't intrested, it was the Arizona Cardinals VS. the Pittsburg Steelers. Annette and I rooted for the Cardinals, because we used to live for a time in Pheonix, before Adam, our brother, was born. Adam was for the Steelers, because President Obama apparently wanted them to win. Looks like Barack picked the good team. The Steelers ended up winning 27-23. Good thing I didn't put any money on the Cardinals. ^,^

Watching the game was really fun though, even if Arizona didn't win. Both teams played so well, and the whole thing was suspenseful. The commercials were good too. My favorite one was with Mr. and Mrs. Potato-Head driving and Mrs.'s mouth comes off. It was cool when we got to wear 3-D glasses after half-time. A preview for the film Monsters VS. Aliens (Hmm, looks sorta okay) and a commercial for something else, where everyone is dancing, like lizards and monsters from the above movie. There was also a preview for the Pixar movie Up. I don't know so much about that. I loved Wall*E a whole lot, but I think this looks like it'll be so-so. I really loved the musical performances. Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem? Wowee-wow-wow! What a rendition! The music behind her really made it. And Bruce Springsteen? So awesome. Especially all the perfectly timed fireworks and his trick with the guitar at the end.

Alright, I'm done with raving. It was a great night, let's keep it at that. In other news, Feb. 4 will be my first Writing Day, so watch out. The movie Coraline will come out very soon, and for everyone who hasn't already seen Dashner Dude's latest post, Dark Infinity has been moved up a week! So exciting. I commented the Dude immediatly, and very soon after he commented me back, which was really cool and nice. I notice that there will be a Friday the 13th this month. Ooooh! Watch out for bad luck! Just kidding. I don't believe in that old superstition myself.

Side note: How's the grounded status, Jacoby? Owh aubot em rinadeg yuor pgourole, ro yuor oehtr wnigtris? Pesale? Seomimte tihs mntoh, mybae?

Another side note: Recently we uploaded a new version of our language program, which allows the user to mix up the order of the letters. A good feature for checking if you really know your ABCs. We still don't have letter sounds for Greek or Arabic, and we didn't animate Cyrillic yet, so sorry ahead of time. There's nothing wrong with your speakers. BTW, don't try mixing up the numbers. There's a bit of a bug there, so it gets really messy. (Hmm, now that I told you not to, are you going try it anyway? Because you really shouldn't. The effect is not pretty. Really, don't try it! Don't let reverse psychology work on you! Darn it.)

Okay, I'm signing off now. I'll write again soon. See ya!