M-I-shell

Wondering about the title? Well, one of my friends little sister who has the same birthday as me, (and the same name as my older sister) gave me a necklace, and on the necklace it had the letters M-I and then a little shell bead. I wish I was that smart when I was little. We had about the last half of the alphabet in those letter beads, so I never really managed to spell anything. Not like I could spell anyway. At one point I just strung them all on a string and wore it around my neck, because the chances of anyone paying enough attention to my necklace to actually see that it didn't spell a real word were very small, and the only people who would notice were all of my little friends who didn't know how to spell either.

Everything is so much easier when you're a little kid. Like writing, for instance. I would "write" pages and pages of this cool story, and then I would read it to someone. The only thing was, I was reading it from memory, because I hadn't actually "written" anything. Its called, lets make little squiggley lines across the page so that it could maybe possibly pass as writing if you were a blind person.

I did not, in fact, burst into Amy's room at three in the morning. About at that time were were in the middle of 10,000 BC which is the most historically inaccurate movie I have ever seen.

This is what it was like the whole time,

"Oh look, a snow storm! wait, is that bamboo? and....and ferns? AHH WHAT ARE THOSE BIG DODO BIRDS!, Hey look, sand dunes!"

Right after that we watched Stardust, and at lots of Moo Tubes. Off brands always have better names for everything.

Stardust was a pretty much all around amazing movie. Every three seconds, I was like, "OH MY GOSH its what's his name from--!" It had Ben Barnes. I'm not a fan of him, but he did good acting in this movie, even if he did still have the terrible hair.

At one point I got to sleep, and at another point, about two hours later, I had breakfast.

Yeah.

-Michelle

On Writing - Practical Things

Rather a generic title for a post, but the simplest things in life are the best. Incidentally, writing is also pretty cool, too.

Michelle and I are writers of the decidedly amateur persuasion. The problem with being an amateur writer is that you can never be sure when you graduate from being amateur to being "professional", or some other word with a similar meaning, like "freelance," "self-employed," and "full-time," all of which are thinly veiled titles for the same general meaning: poor. In the words of Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and Through Painted Deserts:

"Writers don't make any money at all. We make about a dollar. It is terrible. But then again we don't work either. We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck's book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealousy, or worse, our laziness. We then lie across the couch facedown and mumble to God to forgive us because we are secretly afraid He is going to dry up all our words because we envied another man's stupid words. And for this, as I said, we are paid a dollar. We are worth so much more."

I have the feeling that this will become more true to me with every passing year. I want to end up having writing be a big part of my life, and hopefully a part of my livelihood, and as far as I've heard, the first step to supporting yourself with your writing is accepting that you're going to face rejection first and then crippling poorness because no one ever pays you what your writing's worth (well, it may not be worth anything at all, but the time and labour you spent on it is hopefully pretty valuable).

I probably shouldn't start talking about writing on such a dismal note, but probably the purpose of this post was to build up to this, a post by John Scalzi, who's a science fiction author and has a blog filled with delightfully scathing messages to the bigoted, unwashed masses of people who have nothing better to do than sit around reading blogs that do nothing but intellectually punish them. Don't worry though, he's pretty nice, interesting, and helpful most of the time. And he does book reviews too. But the best thing about his blog is that in it, he talks about writing in an honest, say-it-how-it-is manner that sometimes hurts. But it hurts so good.

It's like midnight. Michelle's in the process of having a birthday/costume party, and since the caffeine and sugar is beginning to flow like the promised land, it's probably time for me to go to bed and think about how at least I can get a full night's sleep, suckers. We went to Skies tonight. It was totally awesome. But I'm tired now so I'm going to hit the sack. My next post is going to be about NaNoWriMo, methinks. Unless something extraordinary happens, like a fourteen-year-old girl dressed up as Robin bursting into my room at 3 in the morning, yelling something about holy bedclothes, and running back out. Then I would be inclined to write about that.

-Amy

Family and dogs. The both rock.

Well, I'll tell you what, my family is pretty rocking awesome.

I have a sister that just got married, a sister who is pregnant, a brother whos wife is pregnant, a sister in France,

...

and some other siblings who do a lot of cool stuff that I can't think of.

Well, today I learned that Mark read Twilight so I didn't have to. I'm very VERY greatful. Thank you Mark.

Today I'm going to tell you about our dog. Our dog isn't much different than every other dog, except that shes our dog.

Shes a border collie and she is in love with everyone. Thats what I don't get. I'm a cat person, and I'm used to animals not loving you unless you love on them, and they usually still don't love you. They just kind of use you.

Because heres what I'm betting is going though our cats minds all the time, "Gosh, that lame guy stepped on my tail again, and now they won't empty my litter box. that little girl will not let me be and she keeps picking me up and throwing my in the air and freaking me out of my mind. I had to run away, but she knows my hiding places. I'm going to try to get her to pet me, now that shes has books on her lap. Ha!"

Heres what goes though our dogs mind, "Oh master master master! I'll follow you to the ends of the earth! You can throw me off a cliff-- Oh a stick, a stick, a stick! Will you play? Fetch? Fetch? Look, theres the girl! She pets my face. I like her. That lady gives me treats. Oh theres a new person! They smell weird. I like them, though."

Its so weird. I hardly ever see my dog, Rayn, and I saw her today and she ran up to me with a stick and her entire body was shaking from her tale wagging.

I threw the stick a couple of time, but I couldn't help feeling guilty.

And thats why I'm a cat person.

Sightreading Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Yesterday, Michelle and I made jewelry. It was, without a doubt, the most awesome jewelry ever, because it was made with those little plastic beads that you put in a shape and melt together with an iron. And I forgot to wear mine to school today! On Wednesday I'll try to remember. Michelle, in keeping with her new Robin girl identity, made three really big yellow 'R's, two for earring and one for a necklace. They were totally boss and she'd better wear them when she has her costume party thing.

We also watched five episodes of Robin Hood. It was pretty crazy, but weonly did it because we haven't been able to watch any all week because our evenings are taken up with the Olympics and Sundays are all free except for church. Michelle thinks Allan-a-Dale is a dumb character but he's still my favourite. It's the eyes, I tell you! Besides, he's so endearing.

I have a choir performance in a little less than two weeks, and it's hard to imagine that we'll be ready for it in time. I think that happens every concert, where we're not ready until the end of the last rehearsal, after working feverishly and being ranted at by our teacher a few times, and even then we still only grab a hold of the performance by the skin of our teeth. I've never really thought about that saying, the skin of our teeth, but it just occured to me that it's really weird. People don't have skin on their teeth. Not even metaphorical skin, or anything that could possibly be mistaken for it. How odd.

-Amy

M is A

Well, if writing out 'M is A' on the desk with fake stamps doesn't mean you're bored, I don't know what does.

M is A stands for Michelle is Awesome, BTW, I would have written it out, but there weren't enough stamps.

I'd just like to say that Robin Hood the show is really stupid in an amazingly awesome way.

Thats all.

My Uncles thoughts on animals

So my aunt and uncle come over, and my uncle keeps on talking about animals.

All evening, it kept on coming back to llamas...

"I walked out in the yard yesterday, and I see out cat. Just lying there. Dead. Frozen. It broke my heart to have to pick it up and bury it."

"I wouldn't eat a llama, but I would really have it as a pet."

"I was thinking about llamas. The first thing I thought was, 'it would be a heck of a job to bury that thing when it dies'"

"I'm not burring another cat, but llamas would be nice."

"Our dog ran away, he went to the people that gave him hamburger. I'm not taking him back, hes a traitor. But the other dog stayed. But who knows, when we move he might be gone for good. And when hes gone, I'm done with animals,"

Then dad says, "You say that until I talk you into taking one of the piglets,"

"No, I'd never take a pig... I'd take a llama though,"

Everyones intention when blogging (FTF Disney Villains)

Its pretty typical that if a blog doesn't have a real cause, and not that many followers, at some point they are going to make a blog about blogging.

They are probably going to use a bunch of weird similes that no one understands and say something like, "Blogging is like eating hot chocolate on a summers day."

Well, that would be an OK simile if they would explain it, but they never do, because they think that (1) after all this time of blogging, that you will know their thoughts by what they type. (2) they don't want to make it as plain that they are trying to say that blogging is a complete drag (3) or they want to seem like they are saying something smart sounding.

Thats most peoples intention when they say something confusing. They purposely confuse you so they can seem smart.

It usually works.

There are two kinds of people who open up blogs.

No bodies that want their "awesome" ideas to somehow be public.

And people who really have nothing better to do. They are always better because they just write stream of consciousness, which is always fun to read.

Anywho, favorite thing february.

Disney Villains

On Wikipedia there is a list of Disney Villains. I'm only going to list the ones that I have heard of.

Captain Hook (Peter Pan)

Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians)

Edgar (The Aristocats)

Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)

Hades (Hercules)

Hopper (A Bug's Life)

Jafar (Aladdin)

Lady Tremaine & Stepsisters (Cinderella) (Who knew knew that was her name?)

Madame Medusa (HAHAHA I get it now.) (The Rescuers)

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

Percival McLeach (The Rescuers Down Under)

Prince John & Sir Hiss (Robin Hood) (Sir Hiss? HAHA! Hes not real, is he?)

Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) (Queen. Wow. Original.)

Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)

Scar (The Lion King)

Shan Yu (Mulan)

Sid Phillips (Toy Story)

Stromboli (Pinocchio)

Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove)

Disney is the bestest

Amys apologies for not posting.

I don't know her excuse.

Dr. Teal

Some days, you just can't do anything right. Especially on the days that start out with your choir teacher telling you in varied language and contemptuous tones exactly how impossible it is for you to get anything right today. If you could do anything right, you would be able to sing this half-step scale with absolutely no mishaps, and since you can't, it must be assumed that you didn't turn on your brain this morning.

Hey! It's cool how Michelle has so many cool things to wrote about. Her Favourite Things February is a pretty nice idea. I probably don't have enough things I'm a fan of to do something like that (I can be pretty boring). But my cool thing to write about for today is ice dancing! I know a lot of people wouldn't describe it as "cool", but seriously, look at those couples! They're moving exactly together while zooming around on ice with blades strapped to their feet. What's not to admire? It seems like ice dancing came along when some ballroom dancers decided that they were pretty bored just dancing around on regular floors, so why not do it on ice about three times faster? They have cool costumes, too. The only thing I don't understand is how it became an Olympic sport.

I'm planning to finish Dune tonight and tomorrow write a review of it. Let me just tell you now - it's not going to be very favourable. The premise is fantastic. The execution is not.

-Amy

10 points on how to become President of the World

Well, I said I would do 'how to become president of the world,' and I'm going to.

There are a couple of crucial things:

Before you run for President of the World, you must,

1. Have lots of cool friends and relatives (that was for you, two faithful followers)

2. You must have appreciation of the things of the earth. Fruits, vegetables (you don't have to like flowers or plants, but if you do, its extra credit, you can put it on your resume)

3. You must like doing some kind of athletic thing, swimming, gymnastics, skiing, lazing, good stuff like that. (if you like basketball and football and such, then thats extra credit also, feel free to put it also on your resume, but they probably won't care, because they will probably think that you are just boasting, because most people can play basketball, football, baseball. I mean, this is America? Aren't those like, "The American past time"? Yeah?)

4. You must like colorful stuff. Watermelons, crayons, tigers.

5. Coloring books are essential.

6. You have to have gotten real battle wounds from those terribly wonderful games like "The Hat Game," and "Take down" and "Red Rover". I have traumatic memories of that game. One of my hug cousins ran at me, when I was about seven, and I think I held, but it pretty much killed my wrist. I was out of the game, and my aunt got me ice and asked me, "Does it feel like a bone wound or a skin wound." I said skin because I really had no idea of what she meant. I was seven! My wrist hurt! Thats all that matters! Who cares what kind of wound it is, its red! Extra points if its bleeding!

7. You have to, at one point, own an exotic animal. When I say exotic, I mean not a dog or cat.

8. You have to know how to have a good time, and you can't be too critical. Good at exaggerating. But just too a point. No, you can't eat the earth. You couldn't even eat pluto. Or a quarter of the earth. Or even you're house. Or your car for that matter.

Well maybe your car.

9. You have to like sour candy. Have to.

10. You have to be awesome.

Well, I think I hit all of those nicely.

I'm the perfect candidate!

VOTE FOR ME!

Favorite Thing February Flop.

=(

Yes. I've flunked.

BUT to make up for my lack of posts (sorry, I've been really busy this weekend), I'm going to write all the ones I missed, because they are just too awesome to pass up.

Heres what I missed,

1. The color purple in all situations

2. Significance of the numbers in Harry Potter

and 3. How to become president, (what you've been waiting for, the only tips you'll ever need to know) I'm gonna do this one later.

Starting with purple. Purple is the color between red and blue. Though it is between red and blue, the boy and girl colors, it is considered a more feminine color, and when genderized (genderize - to give an object a gender. Example - "the letter 8 is a boy."), it is considered a girl.

Purple is the color of many things. clothes, books, furniture, accessories, walls, people.

There is also the song "Start Wearing Purple."

Lets not get into that.

Purple is also the color of the Luisburg Barracudas. Yes.

We won the finals.

Anyway, Significance of numbers in Harry Potter. You might think this is very random, and that only a true geek would look into this. Well, both of those are true. I am a true Harry Potter Nerd.

I was actually going to do, "The significance of the number 14," for the 14th, but really, theres nothing interesting about 14. "Uuuh...Its after 13?" Yeah. Lame. So I just guessed that you would all like it better if I did something truly interesting.

So I stumbled across this forum where there was a thread about "significance of numbers in the Harry Potter books," and it just about blue my mind away.

They opened with this,

Dumbledore's pocket watch had 12 hands. The number 12 is also "running bits". No. 12 Grimmauld Place, 12 Christmas trees in Great Hall, 12 OWLs, many important events happening at "midnight", Sirius being imprisoned for 12 years, etc., etc.

That's a lot of 12's to be more than just coincidence. Is there a significance to the number 12?Are there any other numbers that stand out as potentially significant?

The number 13 is also prevalent throughout the series.
-Trelawny's reluctance to sit down to Christmas dinner because it would make 13 and whenever 13 dine together, the first to rise is the first to die
-Harry recieved his first ever birthday card when he turned 13
-The "villain" of each book makes an appearance in chapter 13
-In OOTP, there were 13 people eating when Harry first had dinner at Grimmauld Place. Sirius was the first to rise. Guess who bit it.
Thirteen is not considered a very lucky number; quite the opposite, actually. Rowling doesn't seem to be going against this shared logic in her books either. With the exception of Harry getting his first birthday card, bad things tend to involve the number thirteen.

Well, the number 12 has to be significant in relation to something, not just anything. What I mean, is that the number 12 is mentioned a lot, and in different circumstances, yet the only way to figure out the significance is to match potential meanings of 12 (and there are a whole lot of them) with parts of the story. If the meaning of 12 resonates with the story, we might be able to make a case.

Personally, I feel like 12 is a very difficult one, because there are so many 12s:
12 Apostles
12 months in gregorian calendar
12 signs of the zodiac (both the western and the chinese)
Shia Islam awaits the 12th Imam
12 tribes of Israel
12 things on a dozen

hen, when I read OotP, I got so surprized!!!!
No. 12 Grimmauld Place !!!! 12 doors in the circular room of DoM!!!!
There were 12 Death Eaters who came to get the prophecy from Harry!!!

Harry's wand. The core contains his initials H P .Holly and Phoenix feather and is eleven inches which was his age when he bought it.

Nicholas Flamel died right before his 666th birthday.

We see the three and four a lot. The four houses with one founding father no longer in the foal. Three is company in the HP world. With Harry and friends and Draco and friends. I found this on runespoors which I thought was interesting.

From..
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by Newt Scamander

Runespoors
Once a favorite pet of Dark Wizards. The runespoor has is a snake with three heads. Runespoors rarely live to a vast age, as each head contains an independent brain serving a different purpose, and they tend to attack each other. The right head is the planner, the middle head is the dreamer, and the left head is the critic.

There are also twelve main subjects taught at Hogwarts:
1. Ancient Runes
2. Arithmancy
3. Astronomy
4. Care of Magical Creatures
5. Charms
6. Defense Against the Dark Arts
7. Divination
8. Herbology
9. History of Magic
10. Muggle Studies
11. Potions
12. Transfiguration

Yes, there were 12 doors and 12 death eaters at DoM.

JKR sometimes use the word "dozen" instead of 12. I don't know if it is intentional or unintentional.
Any other 12?
Book 1: DD uses "Outputters" for 12 lamps in Privet Drive.
Book 3: Aunt Marge has 12 bulldogs.
Book 3: Harry and Hermione travels with Time-Turner and must return by the time clock strikes 12 (midnight).
Book 4: Yule Ball, there were 12 tables in the Great Hall.
Book 5: Harry's disciplinary hearing was Aug. 12.
Platform 9 and 3/4:
People say that 12 x 3/4 =9
Why does JKR like 12??? I really want to know.

Also note that 6-2-4-4-2 spells magic on the phone, all parts of 12. I've noticed 7s too, but don't remember where. How many of the order flew Harry to #12?

12 uses of Dragon's Blood - the 12th of which is oven cleaner

Harry gets a letter stuck in each of a dozen eggs in SS

12 foot mountain troll!

In COS when Fudge comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban, he mentions that the order has the signatures of all 12 governors.

Found some more "neat" numbers (I'm in the process of rereading GoF).
- Mrs. Weasley buys harry 12 rolls of parchment with his dress robes
- The Bulgarians want to add another 12 seats to the topbox
- There are 9 in the Weasley family (Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Bill, Charlie, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley)
- 9 people go to Platform 9.75 to see them off (Ginny, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione)
- The Beauxbatons Coat of Arms = 2 crossed wands emitting 3 stars each = 6 stars and 2 wands...6x2=12
I mention the 9s, because in LoTR Tolkein makes a Fellowship of 9 very deliberately. It's a good number for a fellowship.
Well, that's it for now. Certainly is fun to find these. :dance:
EDIT: forgot one. The sorting hat's song has 9 stanzas/verses(?) of 4 lines each = 36 lines which is a multiple of 12.

ss:"On Friday, no less than 12 letters arrived for Harry";"You're worth 12 of Malfoy"; Flitwick told me that I got 112% on my exam"
COS:"But when I was twelve I was just as much of a nobody as you are now.";"You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry...She bought you twelve years of borrowed time..."
POA:::"Harry was trying to remember page twelve of his book: A charm to cure reluctant reversers";"the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse."; Black was in Azkaban for 12 years; Buckbeak had a 12 foot wingspan
GOF:::"the bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the top box";the dementor in the maze was 12 feet tall

Wow these people are really nerds.

But its so cool!

-Michelle

Kaitlyn is the Coolest!

I'm writing this for Kaitlyn, because she is the coolest. She came to my house to give me about five amazing presents, including an amazing picture book that she wrote that is 63 pages!

Kaitlyn is like the fur of my cat,

the doctors pinstriped suit,

the cart of the Mario,

the super of all heroes,

the wool of every cloudsheep,

the color of every hot air balloon,

the red of every heart,

the happy of every birthday.

You're the happiness in every story,

the every sound of Yoshi,

Thank you for being my friend,

thank you for the presents,

Happy Valentines day.

That was not meant to sound like a "Heres a poem for valentines day because I love you,"thing, I hope it didn't.

It just happens that my birthday is on valentines day, and you happened to give me those awesome things.

ITS MY BIRTHDAY EVE!

-Michelle

Longest Post EVER

Ok, good plan Amy, letting me tell everything about the movie!

OK, so I'll have to recap from the book from my point of view so you all get it (BTW, this post is a big pot of spoiler soup).

So, Good things about the movie: The acting was pretty good. Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth) was not an amazing actress, and she doesn't really look like a 27 year old. She had amazing eyes though. Logan Lurman was a good 'I'm trying to be cool about all of this, even though its creeping me out and I don't know what the heck is going on' which, as we all know, is a resipe for someone making a complete fool of themself. Sean Bean was good, good as you can be when you are only in two scenes, but most of the acting was Brandon T Jackson, who played Grover. A lot of people were really annoyed that he was a black kid, but he pulled off Grover perfectly. I'm really, really happy they didn't make him the pathetic cry-in-every-scene character.

Uma Thurman did a good job of acting too, that whole scene was very good. Here clothes were the bomb.

Amy said that Matt Damon was an extra in the lotus casino, and you saw like, the back of his head for one second. I doubt it was him. I looked it up. I didn't find anything. Plus, everyone thinks Matt Damon is cooler than that, he wouldn't eat those nasty lotus flowers!

There were a lot of random scenes in the trailer that were not in the movie. (BTW, Annabeth and Percy did NOT kiss, like they totally did in the trailer)

The CGI was very good for a low budget PG movie, the fighting scenes were AMAZING.

Camp half-blood was very cool, I loved it.

I liked Luke and I very much liked Poseidon. I LOOOOOOVED how they did all of the water stuff. Like how it healed and all that. It gave me awesome-spasms.
The scene in Lotus Casino was all around amazing acting. First with the being drugged, and then Grovers funny satyr dance, and then them fighting and taking the awesomely sweet car.

All in all, I liked the whole movie, so I just need to touch on a couple little things they could have done that would have made it much better.

Things I didn't like about the movie: I liked how they didn't really add anything. They took out a lot of stuff (which kind of totally messed up the story, and they in no way set it up for a sequel) The first two thirds of the movie was so fast I could hardly process it, and I have read the books. I can't imagine what it was like for people who haven't (probably easier to get because they aren't constantly thinking, "but what about--!" and "They skipped the part--!" and "I can't believe that they--"). I didn't like how they didn't have any Luke-Annabeth thing going on like they were supposed to, that was a big part of ALL of the books. I didn't like how there was no Clarisse. Another thing I didn't really like wash how they kind of revolved around the three pearls thing, when in the book, it was a very small part of the story, (someone gives the pearls to them, right?" it wasn't like this big quest) I also didn't like how strange Annabeth and Percy's relationship was in this movie. First she saw him and she was like, "you whimp!" and then he like beat her, being totally show off-ish and stuff, and then she has to say, "I know I have strong feelings about you, I just haven't figured out if they are positive or negative yet," And then Percy is like, "Well tell me when you figure out." And then Hades like comes out of the fire, and blahdy-blahdy-blah, and then shes like, "I've never gone on a quest before, so I'm coming with you," and then they are like, ok, and so then I guess they are friends or something. After that it was ok, it was just before they left that it was weird. Other than that, it was all amazing.

All in all they chose good scenes to take out, but a tip, if you're going to make a movie from a book, people, DO NOT take out anything that has to do with not-really-seeming-important-but-kind-of-ends-up-being-in-the-end (like the Annabeth-Luke thing).

BTW everyone, I heard that instead of having his age be 12-16 like it was in the book, they were going to have it be 16-21. I don't know if that is true, but Grover did say at one point, "Yeah, its like the highschool, without the musical," which implied that they were in high school, but I don't think that he was sixteen, though he could have been since at one point he was driving (who cares, its life and death here, does it really matter if you are 16 or not?). If it were up to me to figure out how old he is supposed to be in the movies I would probably say like 14-15. But it's hard to tell, and if they really wanted, they could probably make it seem like he was 14 or 15, and make it seem like all of the books were crammed into 1-2 years, because this first movie was only over a time of like, what, 16 days?

It may seem like I didn't like it, because I just had to list all the terrible things about it, but I really did, I thought it was amazing. I'll admit I was more excited than I was about seeing Harry Potter just because there have already been 5 Harry Potter movies, so I knew that it was going to be good, and I knew just what to expect, and I knew they were going to leave out a bunch of stuff.

Just found out that on rotten tomatoes PJ only got 48. That. Is. Terrible. Thats two percent worse than Twilight. But then I found out that new moon got 28, so I'm good.

Ohh this is fun, I'm looking up all the Harry Potter movies on there.

HP6 got 83%

HP5 got 77%

HP4 got 88%

HP3 got 89%

HP2 got 82%

HP1 got 78%

This is sad.

Anyway, now that you know all the good and bad things about the movie, GO SEE IT!

I admit, satyrs CAN be kinda cute

Last night, Michelle and I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (hoboy is that a mouthful). It wasn't just any old movie showing, it was the premiere, at midnight, and we rode there in a minivan packed with six other, rather energetic friends between the ages of 13 and 16.

I'll let Michelle do the major recap, since she's the bigger fan of the two of us and I know she's gonna want to. My thoughts on the film, though, are as follows.

It was adorable. I mean, I was already in the mood for something action-packed that happened to star some kids, because one of the previews beforehand was for The Karate Kid which, barring the cheesy title, looks really cool. Besides, the main character is Will Smith's son doing some sweet martial arts. What's not to like? Anyway. The movie started out really quickly, getting the whole I'm-a-demigod-oh-gods-what-am-I-going-to-do thing out of the way in the first ten minutes or so. Half the plot was finding these special pearls that were distributed throughout the US that would enable the main characters to rescue Percy's mom from the Underworld and still get out alive, and the other half was Percy persuading the gods that he didn't steal Zeus's lightning bolt. You'd think that Zeus, being played by Sean Bean, would be made of awesome, but really he came off as being rather petulant and sulky. Maybe on purpose.

What I didn't like about the movie was the mediocre script, mostly. Every other minute, there was suddenly a line uttered that made me think that the screenwriters either weren't getting paid very much or just really didn't care (it's a kid's movie, no one's gonna notice, right? Wrong). The only people who were able to pull off their lamer lines without any mishaps were Percy and Grover, who had enough of the element of humour about them to make it work (another thing that surprised me is that the film opens up with Percy in school that looks suspiciously like junior high/early high, which leads you to assume that Percy's fifteen or younger (he certainly looks it), but then a few days later when they're on their road trip around the US to get these pearls it shows him driving their truck around Vegas. How old is this kid supposed to be, anyway?) Annabeth was a Rebellious Warrior Demigoddess disaster waiting to happen.

Anyhow! The experience was tons of fun, but I don't think I ever want to be packed into a minivan with seven other teenagers ever again. Now, time to reset my sleeping patterns!

-Amy

Postscript - My books-in-progress for this week are Sunshine, by Robin McKinley (great author, but the weirdest vampire novel you'll ever read), and Dune by Frank Herbert, which Mor Mor brought back for me from her house today after I left it there two weeks ago. Can't wait to get back into that book.

Togethersy

Togethersy -pronounced Together z - The act of spending time in union, proximity, contact, or collision, as two or more people. Example: "how about we all watch Jungle Book together!"

Today, while discussing the fact that we had had Jungle Book from Netflix for almost a month, and how I didn't want to watch it by myself, if everyone was just going to be doing nothing, when someone suggested that the family watch the new Persuasion while I watch Jungle Book. Dads first thought was:

"...Well, thats not very togethersy...."

And mom added, "Well, everyone will be happy, and then we can send both Netflix movies back tomorrow, and get the next ones!"

So thats how it shall happen.

Its Sculpey day

Sculpey is the brand name for a type of polymer clay that can be molded and put into a conventional oven to harden, as opposed to typical modeling clays, which require a much hotter oven, such as a kiln.

I have a friend who is like the Sculpey Master.

She made a little frame for me that had watermelons as the border. The only thing that wasn't so cool was that it was a really weird picture of me in the frame, so I changed it to one of my "365 day Harry Potter Calender", the picture of Draco and his cronies in the third one, pretending to be dementors. =D

Probably the most amazing thing I've made with sculpey and kept is this watermelon slice....This one time I made this purple three legged monster with dreadlocks and a really awesomely huge mouth that ate all of the screaming people! But it got destroyed... Speaking of three legged monsters, I was in this clay class once, and my brother challenged me and this one kid to make a three legged monster. He made a weird dog thing with three legs, I made this lime green one with REAL clay once, and I still have it.

Well, time to be Un-Togethersy and watch Jungle Book by myself.

-Michelle

French Superheroes

An explanation:

Yesterday was the super bowl. Good enough excuse to forget about blogging.

There was actually a designated room for the "saints fans" at the place I watched it. It was actually more of a "Saints fan/no fair weather fans/no adults/everyone awesome" room.

We owned.

Anywho, its Ninja day!

"A ninja was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations. The ninja, with their underhanded tactics, were contrasted with the samurai, who were careful not to tarnish their reputable image.

Although shorter swords and daggers were used, the katana was probably the ninja's weapon of choice, and was sometimes carried on the back. The Katana had several uses beyond normal combat. In dark places, the scabbard could be extended out of the sword and used as a long probing device. The sword could also be laid against the wall, where the ninja could use the sword guard to gain an higher foothold. While straight swords were sued before the invention of the katana, the straight ninjato has no historical precedent.

A couple of days ago, I was feeling a little down with my current situation, (not being able to go to Percy Jackson at midnight, but it was soon cleared up) Amy wrote me a little one-page story all about... ME!

Me and my alter-ego superhero side, and all of my super awesome mega cool superhero friends. For a while now, I've had about...seven alter egos. I make them up according to my new talents (like when I pretended that I could yodel. that was a time I will never forget), my clothing, and my likes and dislikes.

It all started one day when me and Amy were working. I was bored, so I started talking about how I actually had an alter ego for everything! (last night I tried to tell my friend that I was actually a Ninja in disguise, because none of my evil villain enemies would suspect a little girl. What kind of ninja wants to have a little girl alter ego? boring! I told her I had a katana on my person, she didn't believe me. Her loss. She could have believed that she had a friend who was a ninja in hiding, who doesn't want that?) My first was my superhero self, Watermelon Woman, or Watermelonater, or Watermelon Michellon, or whatever name the moment called for. Then there was my super ninja self, Black Silence. Then, my French Zorro/batman ninja villian hero Laque Ilence. Then there was my Amazing Blue Haired One. Then Red neck ruby, and billy bob.

An excerpt from Amy's ingeniousness: "Once there was a girl named Michelle. She liked so many things that she couldn't eve get around to all of them if she talked about them for a month. But most of all, she liked to have fun. In fact, she liked having fun so much that she developed a superhero that she could turn into when she thought that people weren't having enough fun! She didn't have a name fore this alter ego or at least she never disclosed it, so people made up their own names for her. Usually they contained words like, "mega," "ultra," and "watermelon". Michelle's favorite deed as a superhero was to break into stuffy orphanages and liberate the children within. They would go out and go to the movies, or vandalize statues, or swim in rivers until the orphanage officials managed to round them all up. All the children loved Michelle because she sympathized with their plight."

"One day, Michelle was doing school (a pesky but essential part of her mild mannered civilian identity), when she decided that she missed her sister, who lived in France. Living in France must be pretty bleak, she thought. French people are all about romance and amore and nothing about fun, games, or adventure."

Amy gets a hundred Nice Points.

-Michelle

Cold Coffee

I know, most of my post headings seem to be pertaining to beverages, but I just can't help it. At school, most of what I do is drink comfortingly warm drinks. Some other things I did today - swallow my gum in choir class. I even realise that I was chewing gum until about a third of the way through, and hopefully no one else had noticed either, and I knew that I would probably be in major trouble if I ran to the dustbin to spit it out, revealing that I had - gasp! - had gum in my mouth while singing, so I just swallowed it right then and there. That's innovative thinking for you right there, ladies and gentlemen. I also got the oil changed in the van. Valvoline is wonderfully professional, but the nice people come with a price. A pretty fat price, at that.

Anyhow. To business! As it happens, I watched the Superbowl last night. Don't ask why, because I don't know myself. I'm not interested in football and never have been, so I guess I was just curious to watch the allegedly great Superbowl commercials (most of them ended up being subpar) and the halftime show (painful). While the football was on, though, I finished my book, which is called The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. It's a book that was written for a younger audience than myself, I guess, but I had tons of fun reading it and found the prose really clever. It reminded me of a cleverer, more cheerful version of A Series of Unfortunate Events, happy ending included. There are sequels, but since the first book didn't set up for them or end on a cliffhanger or anything, I don't think I'll worry about reading them. My next project is to retrieve my half-done Dune from Mor Mor's house.

Every time I think of the word "cliffhanger", this song pops into my head from Between the Lions where Cliff Hanger is hanging from this cliff with one hand, trying to find a way to save himself, and a chorus of flight-attendant-looking people flies by on a helicopter singing "Cliff Hanger, handing from a cliff/And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!" I always wondered why they never tried to save him.

-Amy

Sharks and Big Guns

I'm happy because my birthday is in eight days!

Yesterday, I had the terrible pleasure of stumbling upon MLIT, and I got severe depression, so I couldn't write a post yesterday.

Today is big gun day, such as tank guns, because evidently, big guns are my Favorite Thing... I think its not so much the guns, more the pictures of the guns and cool stuff getting blown up and such. =)

Nerf guns are kinda big too. And completely awesome.

Yesterday, I was supposed to write about sharks.

Trivial Answer!

"Sharks grow up to 50 feet!" Probably more, since I got that information from a little kids research site.

Killer whales still win all. But I guess they aren't really sharks. I always thought that the white patch was their eye, but I guess not...

Great White Sharks and Killer Whales are the two most common species of sharks to bring their entire body out of the water. Great White Sharks do it when catching prey, Killer Whales do it when they want to travel fast.

Great White sharks are the main species of shark that will kill and eat human beings. Most sharks will only do that if they are desperate.

-Michelle

Kansas: Not Only Tornadoes

Let me tell you a little something about Kansas pride. Kansas pride, once you get past all the KU rubbish, has a lot to do with the weather. Not only is Kansas smack-dab in the middle of Tornado Alley, but it also regularly experiences thunderstorms of epic proportions and, in today's case, large amounts of snow at very little notice. The thing about Kansans, as I've witnessed today, is that they consider themselves extremely capable in extreme weather, and will proudly flaunt their suburban four-wheel-drive trucks, overcoats, and snow boots in the parking lots of the local schools, which will by no means close even though the snow is five inches deep and counting.

But not all of us have four wheel drive trucks. Like me, for example.

I hope I can get home. I was going to write a whole big thing about how I finished series 3 of Robin Hood yesterday and it blew my mind, but I don't really have the motivation all of a sudden. Suffice it to say, I cried my eyes out. Now I understand why BBC chose to cancel the show after the 3 series, but it still was quite an emotional parting.

Now excuse me while I go have a heart attack thinking about how I'm going to get home.

-Amy

"My room is like an awesome apocalypse!"

Everyone was like, "AHAHAHA" and then my room was there, and they were all like, "WOOOOOOW! AWESOME APOCALYPSE!" and it was...good. Kind of the like the big bang theory, except the bang was more of a room shape, rather than a world.

I'm having facebook cravings, thats why I'm writing another Stream of Consciousness today.

Today I was thinking about pencils.

I think in the last year they have come up with new models of pencils that are so new-agey it takes me a moment to figure out how how to get the lead, every time I borrow them from somebody. I used to be up on the new pencil-tech (yeah, I was the first in 4-H to buy the smenciles to hand out, but those mechanical crayon thing still freak me out...) until I was the only child at home, so theres only one person to lose pencils, opposed to like seven, so we don't buy them as much.

Have you guys seen those big see through pencils? You can like, see them working! Its fantastic!

My birthday is in ten days!

...

My birthday is in ten days!

So yeah, so far, this year is going to be the best year. Its my golden birthday! 14 on the 14th!

I'm so excited.

In order to make this day more special and golden and happy and delicious and bright, I'm going to plaster glow in the dark stars on every inch of my ceiling! My walls are covered, and my ceiling looks bare, and what have I always wanted on my ceiling? Glow in the dark stars!

Now I'm really telling you, whoever came up with those is a genius and when I see him or her I will give them a big hug and a box of chocolates. Hope they like chocolates!

"Peace? Out!"

=P

-Michelle

(P.S. You ask about the random picture of the guinea pig. Yes, well, do you have a problem with me putting up pictures of my guinea pigs? You shouldn't.

His name is Frank, BTW.

AKA Secret Agent Leviathan

Don't tell the Government.)

Tigers!

Todays accomplishment: if I weren't doing No Facebook February, I would have been on there today, as my brains gruesomely seeped out of my ears. But I am doing No Facebook February, in the time that on any regular month I would have been on Facebook, I instead drew a mural on a big sheet of newsprint on the kitchen floor while I listened to the Wicked Soundtrack.

Amy painted too, but first she had to watch the second-to-last episode of the third season of Robin Hood and have a big emotional roller coaster and grumble about how everything was going wrong and how everyone was an idiot.

Every once and a while when I'm bored, I will sneak over Amy's shoulder when she is watching some random show on the lap top. I happened to sit down next to her on a very spoiler-filled episode of Robin Hood third season. I'm only on the first season. So I had nothing better to do so I was just watching over her shoulder, with no sound, and she said to me, "I'll tell you before there's a spoiler," Well, how could she do that, because shes never watched it before, so up stoles this spoiler (in black pleather, if you wanted to know), and Amy says to me, "Oh....whys he there???" While I scream at the top of my lungs and fall on the floor, dead, hitting my head and rolling around.

Why did I ever look over her shoulder? I'm never, never doing that again.

Anyway, today is tiger day.

Trivial answer! Tigers are one of the four "big cats", though lions are better known because of their amazing roar, tigers are the bigger and faster of the two.

They can be 3.3 meters long. 11 feet.

OH MY GOSH CRAZE!

Wow.

Give me a moment while I try to get over that.

Tigers just got ten times cooler. And bigger.

Ok well, there are a lot of cool pictures on wikipedia about Bengal tigers.

Thats all today, Kids, tomorrow I'll be back to tell you about SHARKS!

-Michelle

Hey doods!

I'm not a lamer. I know how to spell dood.

Trivial answer!

"Doctor Who is the longest running show of ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yes. It started in 1963!

That was before my parents were--

Wait, wait, never mind. No its not.

Did you know that so far (including Matt Smith) there have been eleven doctors? Two with the last name of Baker?

Wicked, I know!

Whoever thought up the whole, "Make him regenerate to a new actor so it can be the longest running show", thing is my hero.

Turns out its three people. I have three heroes!

I don't have much to say about this unless you want a thirty page paper on every character and every episode. Actually, I did make this "TARDIS FILES: Doctor Who, Who Are You: Encyclopedia to THE media" book for Amy for Christmas which was pretty sweet and awesome.

Trock? Timelord Rock? Chameleon Circuit.

Speaking of people like that, Hank Greens brother wrote Looking for Alaska? I refuse to believe. And if it is true, than I will read it, and I WILL like it. I'm determined.

(Speaking of reading, I'm reading the mysterious Benedict Society right about now and it pretty much rocks my eighties socks right offs.)

Well, the Twinsauri parents are going out of town this weekend and the Twinsauri are going to have a party (And no we are NOT going to go to red box again and argue about what movie we want, go to another one and argue for a while again and then finally pick one. THAT was a waste of time. I stand true to what I said at first, WE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE!) So my father just told me that "while we are gone you are going to have to keep the stove going, and I want you to never leave the stove with the bottom door open. I did that the other day and I had a fire going all the way up the chimney. Its super dangerous. Houses burn down like that. We don't want that."

*shaking with fear* "Oooooook dad...."

So anyway, thats all for Streams of Consciousness that I have today, come back tomorrow for a fresh round!

-Michelle

Coffee/Darjeeling

That is the flavour of drink that I'm drinking today. This phenomenon was achieved by me being a lazy bum and not washing my thermos cup between Monday, when I brought coffee to school, and today, when I ran out of time and brought Darjeeling tea instead. Don't try it, kids. It's not fun.

Here's what I love: eavesdropping. Not eavesdropping as in listening to things that I shouldn't be, but people-watching-eavesdropping. for instance, I am writing this post in the coffeeshop at school, and so far I have overheard conversations about people who get offended when someone mentions their race, a impromptu tenor aria, Fight Club (every manly man's favourite movie), YouTube, and the philosophical implications of Looking For Alaska, which is a book I skimmed through without liking much (but really. A dedicated DFTBA listener can't not at least try to read books that Hank Green's brother wrote).

The best thing about peoplewatching is that you don't have to talk to the person at all, but you can observe them at your leisure. I always make sure to make up a background, however abbreviated, for the more interesting-looking people. Of course the background has to involve things like ninjas, car chases, and deadly secrets. It's even better when they're talking with someone else. If you can hear snippet sof their conversation, you can guess at their relationship and what one thinks of the other. For instance, the young man sitting behind me really likes the girl he's talking to, and you can tell that they're not together yet but he's really psyching himself up to asking her out or something. The girl appears to only have a passing interest, but you never really know. Some people are good at real-life acting. Are you?

-Amy

"Be Thou Contentest With What Thou Hasest."

Yeah, I told my mom I wanted an Ipod touch and she said to me, "Be thou contentest with what thou hasest."

I don't know if using "Olde English" was supposed to get the point across better, but it definitely did, because I laughed really hard and then I wrote it on my hand in sharpie so I could remember it.

Guess what today is? The First Official Day of Favorite Thing February!

And today I will be telling you all about....

FLIP FLOPS!

Flip Flops, also known as thongs, pluggers(UK), or jandals(Australia) are an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a flat sole held loosely on the foot by a Y shaped strap, passes between the first and second toes and around either side of the foot. Unlike sandals, flip-flops do not secure the ankle.

They come in many shapes and sizes, colors and consistencies (I had to think of some word that started with c that meaned something like texture). Flip flops are most popular because of how easy they are to slip on and off.

The shoes became popular as celebrities started wearing them and high end designers started producing them. They originally came from Brazil.

In Japan, tabi are a traditional sock with a slot for the band that goes between the first and second toe, which then became known as toe socks.

When I looked on Wikipedia, the biggest thing they talked about were health concerns.

Apparently, "Flip flops do not provide ankle support, and can cause many foot-related problems. Some flip flops have a spongy sole, so when the foot hits the ground, it rolls inward and the sponge allows it to roll even more than usual. This is known as overpronation and causes many problems in the foot. Each time a foot hits the ground, the arch is supposed to be locked to absorb shock, But during overpronation, the arch opens and releases this locking mechanism, leading to problems such as pain in the heel, the arch, the toes and in the forefoot. Overpronation of the foot also results in flat feet, especially if flip flops are worn throughout childhood."

I predict foot problems in America from my generation on.

I guess even little things like shoes can be bad for you. Lets just hope that when everyone figures that out, it won't be like when they figured out that smoking gave you lung cancer.

"Oh no! You let your kids wear flip flops? They have more than a fifty percent chance of getting Overpronation and dying young!" Then all those protective moms are going to go out with those big poster boards that say things like, "in 2010 100 thousand people got overpronation from wearing flip flops. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!" Maybe at some point they will make flip flops that support the arch. They'll be just as much of a hit as those electronic cigarettes!

Well, thats all for now, kids, I'll be back tomorrow, talking about something else amazing!

....stay tuned...?

Thoughts on Cats, and such.

Before I get to talking about cats, I have two things to say. The first, Amy said, "We are watching Robin Hood and eating Jelly Bellies." Its true, we are watching Robin Hood, but I have to say, theres no we about eating Jelly Bellies. That is completely her.

I had one.

And it wasn't even watermelon flavored.

And the second thing I need to say is this: its the first day of February, the best and worst month of the year! Best, because its my birthday month, month of the Percy Jackson movie, month of the winter Olympics, and month that I do Favorite Thing February. Its worst because I'm doing No Facebook February.

Id like to tell you about Favorite Thing February. Each day in this month I put something on the calendar that I really love, for example, on the first its watermelons, on the second its flip flops, and each day I'm going to write something about the amazing thing that is on that day.

Today, though, I'm skipping out because I just happen to have already bombarded you with things about watermelons. So I'll start that up tomorrow.

Hold me to this, Kids.

Ok, So, thoughts on cats.

We Twinsauri have three cats. One is wasting away, one is very energetic and young, and the other is fat and lazy and young.

The first ones name is Ali, tricolor, and she likes to lay on your unmade bed, on the sheets, and cover them with cat hair. She sheds year round. Sometimes I think that she is just going to shed herself away.

The next ones name is Sheba and she is the cutest thing. She doesn't shed very much, but she does have a habit of sitting in front of the sliding glass door, when we've banished her into the cold, and she tries to make eye contact. This is much worse than it sounds. When she manages to lock eyes with you, she will turn her head a bit to the side, and shiver a bit, and then she will give this one desperate meow, that makes you really feel like you're condemning her. And then you start to weigh the possibilities of letting her in, and you start to completely forget that she was drinking out of the toilet, and you start to forgive her for throwing up all over your new carpet. So then you have to open the door, and she comes rushing in, and you get mad at her all over again, because her paws are all muddy, but she knows all your tricks so she quickly skibbles under the bed as soon as she steps in the door.

The third cat is black, and her name is Ebony. It seems to not be common knowledge that Ebony is in fact a word for a black stone, because every keeps on asking us, "Now is the black one Sheba, and the other one Ebony?" And I always want to reply, "No, we're just cool enough to name the black one Dusty Tricolor, and the dusty tricolor one Blackie."

Anywho, Ebony is fat and lazy, and she likes to come over to you when you're on the laptop, and sneekily lay down on top of you're hands, pinning them against the computer, which starts to give you cramps and things, but she is just too pretty to move, and when you finally decide to gently shove her off, she makes a very pitiful drawn out cry of pain, which makes you feel guilty, and try to drag her back onto your lap, which makes her cry out again, and maybe try to nip your finger unaffectionately, and then you really don't know what to do, so you put the computer away and you pick her up as gently as possibly and you go lay her in the most comfortable spot you can think of, which is usually you're unmade bed, and deep down in you're mind you know you are going to have to kick her off later when you get into bed, so you begin to pray that she will get off, and then the thought of cats-reading-minds, pops up, and you begin to apologize.

Its really a terrible cycle.

So all in all, this is just to say, that the Twinsaurus cats, own the Twinsauri.

Better Late Than Never

...the saying can be quite subjective. But it's good enough for my uses, since I'm pretty late with my picture of the Finished Jayne Hat! As you see, the colours are very bright, due to my failure with teastaining. Elise suggested that I wash it with a dark load of clothes to dull the colours a bit, and I was going to try it, but I'm sort of paranoid about some of the knots unravelling in the wash. It could shrink as well, and we don't want that.

Anyhow! As Michelle has said, we're all at odds lately with the recent addition of a blocking program to our computer. Though we've issued a few petitions with the Higher Authority, the paperwork apparently has not all been got through, and the twinsaurus will have to continue to find the wherewithal to post on other computers when the opportunity arises. Meanwhile, we're watching Robin Hood and eating Jelly Bellies at our leisure, and hoping all of you are having the same amount of fun.

-Amy