1) I had no social life
2) Books and video games seem to be my lifeline
3) I can’t draw people, but I can draw Pokémon pretty well
4) One small group of people can occupy 2 lunch tables at once (Unfortunately, this includes my table)
5) Tess and I have moved lunch tables a total of 6 times in the course of this school year (See #4)
6) Listing things are fun
7) The first 10 elements of the Periodic Table of the Elements are Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon
8) Being a wizard would be so cool (Yes, I just realized that)
9) Vivillon’s Pokédex number is #666
10) Being a twin rocks
11) I should start charging people whenever people mix my twin and I up
12) I make terrible puns
Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers by Emily Dickinson
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.
Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadences, —
Ah, what sagacity perished here!
Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.
This is on one my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson. I like it because many lines of the poem describes synesthesia, a “neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway”, according to Wikipedia. (Basically, 4% of the worlds’ population can see sounds or taste colors or something like that. Fascinating.) Many people think that Emily Dickinson was a synesthete (a person who has synesthesia), but there were no brain scientists then (and synesthesia wasn’t even known to have existed) so no one could really tell.
Challenge Week Five: Media and a Memory
Photo credit- http://cartoonwallpapers.info/pokemon/deviantart-more-like-mega-latios-and-mega-latias-spoilers-by.html
When I was little, my mother didn’t let my sisters or I interact with electronics. This led to endless hours outside, in our spacious backyard, throwing the frisbee to our dog, pretending pirates with a chicken on our shoulder, accidentally falling into our small pond next to our porch, etc. Then came along the television. After begging our parents- I think I was three years old then- into letting us watch the bright, cartoonish shapes dancing on the television screen. I was mesmerized. Whenever my mother brought us to her friends’ houses to gossip and drink wine while shoving all of their children into their TV room to watch Dora The Explorer. All of the other kids multitasked and colored pictures, played on tiny electronic games while watching the TV, and there was I, my doppelgänger, and my ginger sister sat, intently watching the screen like it was an unfinished puzzle.
After all those hours in front of the television, one show struck me as intriguing. I think I was five or six then, and I had recently started watching Cartoon Network. I loved all of the cartoons, especially Pokémon. I was fascinated with the idea of a magical land where ten-year-olds embark on a never-ending journey to catch and battle monsters with superpowers. So, of course, I became obsessed (That obsession continues even to today). My mom got a bunch of Pokémon cards at a garage sale and gave one to my sister or me whenever we did something good, as a reward. I remember my first was a Charmander, a fire lizard/dragon creature. I loved it.
Whenever I went to Target with my mother, our first stop would always be in the game section to check out the latest Pokémon stuffed animals and toys. By my seventh birthday, I had already had 178 Pokémon cards (including 13 holo cards,4 legendaries, and 2 in different languages. I was so proud), a stuffed Torchic, Manphy, Piplup, Pikachu, and a Pikachu alarm clock. (My new addition is a Bulbasaur I got in London. (Bulbasaur is a word, get over it, spellcheck.)) I couldn’t do anything without them. They were my everything. Well, that, and my sister, Tess. But still.
Dancing with the Planets
I drew this on my iPad about a month ago, and worked so hard on it that my fingertips started to turn violent red and blister. I couldn’t pluck my double bass for a week after, but it was worth it.
Graffiti Park- My Favorite Place in Austin
Graffiti Park, also known as Hope Outdoor Gallery, is located at 1100 Baylor Street, Austin Texas. It lives up to Austin’s motto, ‘Keep Austin Weird’. The ever-changing concrete walls of this graffiti gallery overwhelm you with modern art. Sure, you’ll find a random tag here and there, but this place has vividly detailed graffiti, from a Pikachu to a gangster giraffe.
It’s not much of a park (more like an abandoned yard), but it has space and a lovely view of a castle-looking building behind it. The park is apparently a public space that is open to any and all graffiti artists who want to make their mark on Austin, and it is a safe haven for them to create without the threat of the law.
As you browse all of the graffiti, you kind of feel like you’re being swallowed whole by the extremeness of the variety of colors and masterpieces on the walls.
This is my favorite place in Austin, mostly because I’m artsy, and have a thing for graffiti.
The Lair of the Opera Ghost
Your footsteps echo off the jet-black stone walls. You stare straight ahead, afraid to look back. Every dozen steps you stop suddenly, listening for voices, movement, anything. But then you go back to walking down the narrow tunnel, afraid how far down you are. You long for a flashlight. You can’t see where you’re going, only focusing on that dim light that seems to be moving, just barely out of your grasp. The walls are damp. There are small puddles that get your feet dirty, but that doesn’t matter. The cave is getting darker.
You are running now. The darkness is looming, and you don’t want to find out what happens if it catches up to you. You turn a corner, then another, and another. You can almost taste the light, you are getting closer and closer. Finally, as the tunnel is getting narrower and narrower… You catch up.
You blink and instinctively raise an arm to defend yourself. As your eyes adjust to the cruel glare, you look around. There is an enormous lake, an island in the middle. A rickety boat with splintery oars is beached a foot from the black water. You get in the boat and start paddling towards the island. The dark water seems thicker than actual water, like blood.
You have reached the island now, and hopped out of the boat. You look around the island, it’s bigger than you expected. Stalactites and stalagmites around the edges look like teeth and the cave in the island is the throat. You move towards the dark path and, with wind pushing you back, make your way to the tunnel. It looks just like the entrance, but much shorter. You come to a small room. A dark crimson rug, a blood red throne with a scarlet cloth draped on it, a black organ, but what is the must curious about the room is the papers scattered across the floor. On closer inspection, they look like sheet music, crumpled.
You quickly loose interest in these papers and walk to the throne. The dark red seat looms over you. It looks so grand, it’s a wonder why someone would just abandon it. The lit candles on the cave walls flicker, and for a moment, you think you see a shape, sitting on the throne. Sudden wind whips your clothes, and the candles blow out.
In the sheer darkness, you can see only one thing. The scarlet cloth that was on the throne almost seems glowing. You reach for it, feel its soft fabric. You spread it out on the grand seat, seeing that it is not, in fact, a scrap piece of cloth, but a cape. You notice a white object on the throne, under the cape. A mask. You turn back to the cape, puzzled. Why would anyone leave these fine things here?
The roaring wind is all you hear now. Whipping the cape in your hands, almost as if it’s playing tug-of-war, the wind is almost knocking you over.
Your strength gives out, and the wind takes the cape and blows it into the lake.
You turn back to the mask, and it almost looks like it is laughing at you.
Photo credit- Photo Credit: silkway via Compfight cc
My Drawing of a Seedot
This is the Pokémon Seedot, which I sketched using the app Paper 53.
Here is a bit of info on one of my favorite Pokémon.
It is a grass type Pokémon and is a common sight in the forests of the Hoenn region. According to the Emerald pokédex, “It hangs off branches and absorbs nutrients. When it finishes eating, its body becomes so heavy that it drops to the ground with a thump.” It is no where near legendary and is literally just an acorn
Why Canada is so Cool
Some people don’t know this, but Canada is awesome. Like my older sister, Kenna, refuses to believe that Canada even exists. But people like me think that Canada is cool. Donut shops everywhere, wild beavers, moose hockey, crazy Canadians stealing your maple syrup. Oh, Canada.
Anyway, here are some reasons that Canada is pretty much the coolest country ever
1) A study called ‘Sorry, I’m Canadian’ showed that 90% of Canadians aged 18-25 will apologize if a stranger bumps into them.
2) Canada has more lakes than any other country- about 30 million!
3) Canada has the 3rd best air quality in the world, with the average of a relatively pristine 13 micrograms of PM10 particles per cubic meter.
4) THEY USE METERS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
5) Hollywood loves making movies in Canada — big movies — while passing the settings off as New York City, Wyoming, ancient Persia, the bow of the Titanic… Basically anywhere else but Canada.
6) Canadians are apparently hilarious — sometimes even unintentionally. This even created a string of sociological studies.
7) The Canadian chocolate is much better than the fake stuff that Americans usually eat. The Canadian bars are fattier, but it’s still honest-to-goodness chocolate.
8) No national symbol is as ubiquitous as Canada’s maple leaf.
9) Their 1 dollar coin is called a Loonie! (The 2 dollar one is a Toonie)
10) Their adorable terms and phrases make you want to cry. While you’ll be hard-pressed to find a real-life, toque-wearin’ local who’s ever called someone a “hoser” or told them to “take off,” Canadians do call their napkins “serviettes” in polite company. Nowhere else will you be called a “rink rat” for loitering at ice arenas. Or be “given the gears” if you do something dumb. Or get asked, “What do you pay for hydro?”
Canada has been ridiculed through our generation and more generations to come. But Canada has survived, and thrived throughout the mocking of our generation. Canada is cool, guys.
Snow Day
As soon as I wake up, I go to my window.
I had heard the sleet hitting my windows all night. I couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of the first snow in ages.
My window reveals a roof covered in white, all sparkly and clear. I open my window and run my fingers across the frozen roof.
I had hoped for snow. I got ice.
My breath hangs in the air like an unanswered question, and I finally close the window after the icicles on my neighbors roof start to drip.
I am cold now. My pajamas are not made for cold weather. I grab my enormous blanket from my bed and walked out to Tess’s room.
She was still asleep, but not for long. I sat on her bed and stared at her.
She woke up.
I told her about the ice and showed her the window that displayed our trampoline, covered in white, and sitting in a field of ice that is our backyard.
We wanted to go outside to try to find the icicles that we loved so much. I wrapped my blanket around my sweater and put on my shoes. I opened the door and go to our rock garden thing that has been covered in ice.
The frozen grass crunched beneath my feet. It was a satisfying sound.
The rocks were covered in a thin layer of ice, and were slippery. The frozen rain were in puddles I could slide on.
I lost the feeling in my toes when I decided to go back to the house.
My Winter Break in a Nutshell
So far in this Winter Break, I have…
1) Watched The Time of The Doctor on Christmas Day while sobbing and eating the last of the Jammie Dodgers.
2) Unwrapped all of my presents, which include a hamster (I named him Hellfire), a Slytherin necktie, a Doctor Who Monopoly board game and these amazingly soft blankets that feel like clouds.
3) Became one with the couch. After all of the excitement of Christmas, my mother left to California to visit family and my sisters and I were isolated at my fathers house with no internet or cable. Mostly, I played games on my iPad on the couch while watching TV. It was multitasking.
4) Beat my 3DS game by becoming the Pokemon League Champion! I could’ve never of done it without my Froakie, which evolved into this wicked ninja when I was done with the game.
5) Questioned this reality after watching The Matrix
6) Beaten my record of most bad puns made during a school holiday that is not summer with 48 this break. (9 of which were bread puns, such as my dreams are crust)
And that was my break in a nutshell.