Recent Randomness In The Life of Me

Jack and I have been volunteering at the local Republican HQ the past few Mondays. It's kinda nice to know that we're doing something to help and it'll look great on a college app, so here I am. Yeah, I'm actually there right now. Normally I'd be working but there's a surplus of volunteers today and we only have three phones so some of us are taking shifts. Nice thing about this place? It's a short walk away from Dairy Queen and the used bookstore. Win.



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Speaking of volunteering, I applied to be a junior volunteer at the Institute of Texan Cultures. It looks like a ton of fun, you get to puppet shows for little kids and be in skits and stuff and be a "gallery host". Not entirely sure what that is but it sounds like fun too.



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Baby it's cooold outsiiide! Well, cool. This morning we woke up to a beautiful 65 degree morning. I enjoyed it as much as I could but I know it's a fall-se (talk about a lame wordplay) alarm. It'll be hot again before two days are past. Nature always does this to us....teasing, taunting us with promises of fall weather in September and not letting us have it until mid-late October. :(

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Oh. My. Gosh. We have a book called Kings and Queens For God. It's a nice book and everything, but does anyone want to explain to me why Queen Victoria is portrayed in ELIZABETHAN costume?!?!?! This irritates me in every imaginable way. I think I'll sue.

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Anybody got a homecoming or something that I can crash? I really want an excuse to wear a pretty dress...

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Since everybody else was flipping out about it a got myself a copy of The Hunger Games. W o w. Now I desperately want to read the next two books, but there's just one problem. I can not afford them! Keep in mind that this is new to me. I never run with the crowd where literature is concerned. I don't have to worry about buying the same thing that everybody else is buying. I usually get classics that can be either expensive or cheap. I'll just have to wait for chance to find Catching Fire at the library...

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Moving on from books to movies, I saw Devil. It was really really good, I'm working on a review for Katie-Isms. But I've never seen a horror/thriller/whatever you want to call it movie in theaters before, so I wasn't prepared for all those terrifying trailers. I was more likely to have nightmares from the previews than the movie itself. *shudder*

Babysitting

Braden took out a box of action figures and plastic bugs of all shapes and sizes...an epic battle was clearly about to take place.
On Team Braden: The Sandman and Wolverine
On Team Katie: Aang (the Avatar) and Iron Man
The Sandman attacked first, but Aang blew him away. He died (went back into the box) and was replaced by The Hulk. The Hulk, however, turned against Wolverine and suffered for it. Because there must always be a team of two, a motorcycle joined Team Braden. Wolverine took care of that too; he seemed to be picky about partners. Then along came something I cannot name, being quite ignorant of all things anime. After a couple of pathetic attempts at fighting, it curled into a ball an Aang blew it away. During all of this Iron Man had been blasting people here and there for good measure, but generally he was just enjoying the show; Aang and Wolverine clearly had things under control. Wolverine was then joined by a Transformer of some kind, which after much epic fighting, killed Iron Man.
A moment of silence for Mr. Stark, please.


Happily, someone just as excellent was there to help Aang. Twirling a blue lightsaber, Luke Skywalker joined the fight. Wolverine and Iron Man had taken out the Transformer and a dinosaur (an allosaurus, to be precise) took its place. However, on the way to battle Wolverine was accidentally killed by the dinosaurs claws (O, such bitter irony).
Then the rules were changed; teams of three were now allowed. Aang and Luke recruited a big ugly purple lizard (fire-breathing, but I hesitate to call it a dragon). Two more dinos joined the one; another allosaurus and something bigger, meaner and nameless. Aang took on the two smaller enemies and vanquished them, while Luke, ever the expert at handling big monsters, neatly skewered the big guy with his lightsaber.
The enemies were dead....but they had backup. In came a ninja, a dragon and a stormtrooper.
Intense struggle ensued. Aang bravely fought the dragon's fire with wind and water. The lizard and Luke did what they could to help, and the ninja and stormtrooper supported the dragon. Eventually, after much effort, Aang defeated the dragon. A general brawl followed between those who were left, including some fighting amongst the enemy. It didn't last long, though. By general assent, the battle concluded.

What did you do today?

Testing, testing...

*taps microphone*
I heard from Ella about a way to schedule your posts ahead of time so that they're posted automatically at a certain time. So I'm testing it here, because it would be reallly helpful with Katie-Isms.

EDIT: IT WORKED!! Woohoo!
Now, my blogging friends, if you haven't heard of this before, here's how it's done.
When you're writing a post, before you publish it click on "Post Options", to the left of where you put your labels. There'll be an option that says "Post date and time". Just enter the date and time that you want it to be posted, and hit publish. It's that easy! Just make sure you've got the right time zone.

The Case For Muffins

In a magical land called TrueGirls Online, there is a hot debate that's been going on for the past four years or so. Muffins...or cupcakes? I've been a loyal Muf-fan from the start. I present you now with the reasons why muffins are just so much better than cupcakes.


1. Health. Muffins are by their very nature more wholesome and much better for you than cupcakes. In times like these, who doesn't prefer the healthier choice?

2. Versatility. Cupcakes are only a dessert food. But a muffin can be enjoyed at any time of day, whenever you want! Muffins, especially mini-muffins, make great snacks, and fresh out of the oven they're a lovely breakfast. Also, cupcakes pretty much only come in as many flavors as regular cake. It boils down to three main flavors; chocolate, vanilla and yellow, with various kinds of frosting. But muffins come in too many flavors to count, and people are inventing new kinds all the time!

3. Sincerity. What do the Cupcakians usually do to promote their cause? They post pictures of gorgeously decorated cupcakes. Cupcakes with flowers, cupcakes with butterflies, cupcakes with cute faces. But what is it really? Pure aesthetics. Pretty colored frosting, often topped with an inedible decoration that you have to remove before enjoying your dessert. In short, cupcakes are shallow. They present an elegant frosting facade, but underneath they're no different from your average small piece of birthday cake. The frosting doesn't even always taste good, and often will dye your tongue nasty colors.
Muffins are plain, granted. But the point here is that they aren't presumptuous like cupcakes. What you see is what you get; they are really sincere. They long with all their muffiny hearts to be appreciated and enjoyed by you. They don't show themselves off like cupcakes... they show you their true, humble little selves and invite you to enjoy them as they are.

4. They're the original. Think about it. Why are cupcakes called cupcakes? They are cake in a cup, shaped like...muffins! Muffins were there first. Cupcakes are merely copycats; fakes; imposters. Muffins are real.

5. Well, duh! They're just plain delicious!

And be sure to check out this video on the subject.


So, I've explained the muffin cause to you...where do you stand?

Glasses!

I CAN SEEEE! Everything is so much clearer! I can read the clock on the microwave now! WOOOO!
































































Yes, I know, the first one is awfully blurry. But T-Man is in it!

I've Been Bad...

As far as blogging is concerned, anyway. :-P

So, update on life. Yes, Max is doing great. He's smiling and it's darn cute. Head over to Nine Texans for pictures. Speaking of Nine Texans, I think I'm officially a ninja now...that's me there with the sword in the header.
Are ninjas allowed to wear glasses? Because I picked out frames today! They're purple and I love them. ^_^
I have some of my senior year books. Not looking forward to American Gov't and Economy...British Lit should be fun, though. I've already read at least a third of the books. *nerd* What scares me is the 1500 word papers. It's a huge jump from the lengths of everything else I've written during high school.
I'm taking dual-credit Intro to Chem with St. Philips for the first semester, and Health with MODG in the second semester.
So yeah, cool stuff.

In the blogging world, everywhere but here is pretty fun these days. My friend Anna, who just happens to be an incredible writer, started a blog recently at Ferris Wheel The Monkey Reel, available on my sidebar. No doubt you're curious about the name. She's just a random sort of person, so she gave her blog a random sort of name, among other reasons. You can read about that in her first post. Over at Katie-Isms things have been a little slow. We had a Fairy Tale Novel Week...that was fun. And then suddenly, we didn't really have anything to do. We've posted some poems...by ourselves, being short of eagerly volunteering poets at the moment. But still, go check it out! There is some pretty cool stuff coming up soon. ;)







...er, yes, that's the end of this particular blog post.
Bye!

I Love Pixar.

I have since 1996, and I always will. The thing about Pixar is that they promise you a great movie, and boy, do they deliver. They never, ever disappoint.

Toy Story 3 was no exception. A perfect blend of adventure, emotion, seriousness and hilarity is sustained throughout the movie. Everything about it is characteristic of the creativity and sense of humor of the great minds at Pixar. It's difficult to get away with a threequel, and difficult to make it as good as the first movie. But as always, Pixar succeeds at what they put their minds to.

Mom took all the kids to see it on Wednesday, except Ian. He gave a new definition to the word "lame" by staying behind. Now, this was on the same day that Eclipse came out. Hence, every single teenage girl at the theater beside me was there to swoon over warring vamps and werewolves. But I, with a two-year-old on my hip and diverse siblings making noise all around me, was there for the toys. I'd watched the video of the first one as a little kid, I had seen #2 in theaters and gosh darn it I was gonna see this one if it killed me. So I looked around at my perfectly groomed female counterparts on their way to enjoy what they liked best, hefted the purse that didn't match my shirt, lifted my chin (and my baby brother), and proudly marched in to see what I liked better. I laughed, I cried...well, almost cried. I've been called heartless for this capital offense of only almost crying when practically everyone I know full-on cried. Can I help it that very few movies can make me shed true tears? Last one was The Secret Life Of Bees. I won't lie, I was positively bawling.
But I digress.

Toy Story 3 was a little emotional for me. Andy is seventeen, I'm seventeen. I'm going to college next year. I felt like this movie meant coming full circle for me. When Ian was born in 96, I remember Mom and Dad handing the Toy Story video tape in its shiny box to Jack and I, as a "gift" from our new baby brother. Jack launched into an obsession. We still have the video from his third birthday party the year afterward, when a very excited, very cute (what happened?) little boy ripped off the wrapping paper to discover his very own Woody doll! You could pull the string and everything. "It's WOODYYY!" he exclaimed in that Minnie Mouse voice of his.

In '99, shortly after our family moved to CT, where we would live for six more years (our record for staying in one place) we went to see Toy Story 2 in theaters.

Woody and Buzz always seem to pop up at milestones in my life. Ian was born; we'd just moved; this time around, thirteen years and six kids later, I once again had a new baby brother. I joke that Max should have been born later, or the movie should have come out earlier, so he could "give" us the DVD. :)

What's left to say, but...

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

Randomosity

I've pretty much given up on any kind of Big Worlds Post. You'll live.

Max is the cutest baby e v e r!!! And though he had a rough week last week, he's totally healthy and happy now. :) My genius nickname for him is M&M; he's little, round and sweet, and his name is MaxiMilian. ^_^

Katie and I now have a blog called Katie-Isms. You should really check it out. In fact, you should do more than check it out; you should follow it and leave lots of comments!

I'm DYING to see Toy Story 3!!! Everybody I know that has seen it sings it praises...I will not rest until I've seen it.

Speaking of movies, the trailer for Voyage of The Dawn Treader is AMAZING!! I am so psyched for this movie!! It looks like they've made some plot changes, but I can be open-minded about that, to a certain point. Costumes and sets look great...the Dawn Treader looks great...Lucy is growing up....Caspian has facial hair and it looks awful...Will Poulter is going to be fantastic as Eustace...AND I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL CHRISTMAS FOR IT TO COME OUT!!

Arg.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this sad excuse for a post. Next one will be better, I promise. It will probably include pictures of Max. That's incentive for you to read it right there, yes?
Till then!