%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   Nothing official here; just come chill! |
|
Welcome! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to my little Den! Here you'll find all sorts of things- mostly blog challenges, but mixed in, you'll notice:  I'm a bit of a fangirl  My life is very busy I enjoy using emoticons  I don't tend to swear, but stuff happens. |
| "If I ruled the world, I'd __________..." Fill in the blank with some whats and whys. Funny. Apparently 4th grade just recently did a similar writing prompt. Went to see my 4th grade teacher today since the kinder teacher wasn't there yet when I arrived, and she went into the next-door's teacher's room, where that teacher had put up someone's writing about what they'd do if they ruled the world. That student wrote something about being able to ride to school on unicorns, and sleeping in later.  For me, though, I'm going to do the practical stuff: 1. I'd make teleportation a real thing. Plushie portals need to exist. This world is a big enough place as it is, and airplanes take way too long to get from point A to point B, so we need plushie portals. Speedy transportation across countries, and you'd need a permit in order to use them/have one installed in your home. That way, bad people would not be able to use them for their foul plans.  I would put the world's top scientists and physicists in charge of creating this portal, and they would work together with architects to install them in homes.2. There'd be no such thing as too many plushies. Plushies would also be personally inspected by any members or potential members of a Cute Society or Plushie Appreciators- Me, Kit, and shadowfanglerz make up the foundation of this group. Anyone else who wishes to help can apply for employment. Plushies would need to be tested, and pass a cuteness, huggability, and squishiness test. In other words, the basics of how a plushie should be. The bad people would be making plushies in prison, instead of license plates. My theory- creating soft, cute, and cuddly creatures for others to love might soften them and make them better people.  3. Children would get a say in important decisions affecting them. Education, for starters. While they might request no homework, and that probably wouldn't happen, they can share what they want in certain situations. For example, the classroom I'm helping in this week is testing two reading pilot programs. I'm not sure the teacher likes either of them, but if the kids have to go through with it, I believe they should also get a say on which one they like better- which is more relevant to them, and which is better at hitting the standards. They are the ones who have to do the homework and the reading, after all. Plus, they're the next generation, and if we want humankind to exist for longer, we'd better start thinking of them. While we're on Education, I'd make learning Chinese a priority in K-12 public schools in English-speaking countries, in addition to English and Spanish. Kids need to start early if they're learning languages, or else the neurons in their brains don't make the necessary connections in the critical early stages, and those potential connections will be cut off, which makes it much harder later in life to learn languages. US kids are especially behind when it comes to multilingualism, I've found, unless they come from a non-English speaking background. As for ideals.... Hi-5 and Delta Goodrem would come perform for me. I really don't think that needs explanation. Though, if I were to elaborate on that, I'd add Slash to the list, too. Maybe just all of Guns N' Roses. Kit and I can have private concerts.  And then I'd get Slash to teach me how to play guitar.  I like Kit's idea of disarming the entire planet, but, unfortunately, where there's a will, there's a way. Anything can be turned into a weapon- rocks, sticks, your arms... If I were to give that idea a go, though, all explosives would go into a huge, quarantined vault place to be destroyed- hopefully in a safe manner. Finally, I'd create/get ahold of some small, secret island in the middle of nowhere, equip it with wi-fi, and disappear to there. A select number of people would get to live there- probably the foundational members of the cute society/plushie appreciators. And for those who visit for performances and stuff, they will be contracted to secrecy as to where this place is, so nobody will come find us out of displeasure. As for today's song, I chose "Chained to the Rhythm": [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] If you listen close enough and think about it, this whole video is a dig at Trump. At least, that's what I learned while I was in Australia- they have a "Top 20s" show on Saturday mornings, called The Loop, and they played this song, and explained it afterwards. It's all about brainwashing, in a sense, and people accepting things for what they are, at face value without really thinking about it. And technically, that's what today's 30DBC entry is, isn't it? If you ruled the world, you'd want people to like you, but taking away what they believe in doesn't quite do that... As for why I like this song, it's fun and catchy, and I like the lyrics at their face value. At least, what I thought the lyrics were. Apparently, it's "dance to the distortion," not "dance to the disco show"  I just looked it up.  As said previously, I'm not very political, even if I do have my views, and I'm not a very big Katy Perry fan, but I feel that this song packages the message well, and I really like the video. the futuristicish feel of the place, plus the 1950s costumes blended quite well together, and the rides in the video reflect the message well. |
| What do you think are three things we're going to be hearing about a lot more as 2018 rolls on? Hmm I read a couple entries, and there’s a few I might steal, here. Sorry Cinn and Kit. 1. Youtube challenges Even I’m getting on board with them, to an extent. The spicy noodle challenge- I have the pack in my pantry at school. Haven’t tried it yet because haven’t felt the need to, but yeah. People come up with all sorts of crazy challenges to post onto YouTube. I'm not posting anything though. Some are fun, some not so much. Others are just great for discovering new channels/vlogs you might want to follow. I’ve found a couple new channels that way- The fitness marshall, for starters, popped up when I discovered Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish Challenge”. The challenge itself wasn’t anything ridiculous- just choreograph a routine using her song- but the guy who runs the channel made it rather entertaining (and ridiculous) to watch. As someone who used to play tennis (yes, fo those who didn’t know, I started in 4th grade and quit in 10th grade), that video was amazing, especially since I wasn’t too particular about the sport. 2. Trump How do people not talk about him?  Not to get political (because I’m not one who enjoys politics, end of story!) but he’s seriously ticking off whatever higher powers that reside up there. Look at the California wildfires. First it was NorCal, and then SoCal, and it was close enough to us where Mom was concerned about needing to evacuate.  I was lucky enough at school that we were close enough for the ashes but not enough so that evacuating was even a worry. Not to mention the hurricanes and earthquakes from before, too. In fact, 2017 saw a record high of insurance claims from natural disasters  . The teachers at school were talking about Twitter, today, actually, and one had mentioned she was a Twitter-lurker and while she followed pretty much everyone under the sun (Christy Teegan, some other teachers (and one she planned to unfollow), and Fergie, to name a few) she refused to follow Trump. And apparently Trump has blocked Christy Teegan so she can't retweet/reply him, so now she gets to rant about him all she wants on Twitter and he can't see it.  I'm telling you, this guy isn't very smart. 3. CG How can I not include him? We’ve been texting quite a bit recently, and while, no, we’re definitely not official yet, I mean, he said he wishes I could’ve stayed longer, and it was nice that I could go to Taiwan with everyone.  That *is* progress, even if it’s slow. Slow and steady wins the race, does it not? Plus, I DID add him on my second Facebook. He still reminds me to eat (even after that plane ride), and we were chatting on Wednesday morning for about 20 minutes, about school and the Christmas present our family got him and his bros, which was nice, because I'd just woken up and he was quite responsive, until he had to go to bed. I would've went back to sleep as well, but the alarm ended up going off for school, so there went that. Annd my song choice for "Soundtracks of Our Lives" is[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] You're probably surprised it's not Hi-5. I am, too, actually. I had a Hi-5 song all picked out and ready to discuss, but since I mentioned this song in the post earlier, I thought it'd only be fitting to attach it.  I'm not totally informed about the Katy Perry/Taylor Swift feud, but I *am* a Taylor Swift fan. Not so much of Katy, actually. Love and breakups and cheating exes I can get on board with, but lyrics like "California Gurls" and the "Bon Appetit" video.... no thanks. I'll admit she has catchy songs, and I do like SOME of them. "Chained to the Rhythm" being one, and "Swish Swish," but I do prefer Taylor Swift's music. *shrug* Maybe I'll include one or two Taylor songs later on- the appeal for me there, I suppose, was going through her lyrics and seeing "so this is what it's like to be in love" or "so this is what 15 is like". Mom never enrolled me and sis in group activities like dance or gymnastics or sports, so I never had that idea of what it'd be like at a certain age, and back in middle school, that was very much what I wanted to know. Anyways, yeah, I stumbled on this video after I saw the Swish Swish Challenge from (I think?) the Rybka Twins- it showed up on my suggested videos one night, so I watched it, and then I found this one on the side. I've been hooked since. Haven't actually followed along- I tried it once, and it's much harder than it looks- but I do like watching it for the entertainment value. |
| Tell us what annoys you most about yourself. Hmm, well “most” technically means one thing, doesn’t it? Because I have a whole list of stuff that’d qualify for this prompt. For starters, I’m typically unable to defend myself- physically and otherwise. I’m not one to pick fights, and I’m not quick-witted enough to come up with some acerbic, biting response that’ll leave the other person rolling their eyes and walking away. Sis is great at those, unfortunately. So much so that CG has classified her as a “bully”- we were texting on New Year’s Eve (my time) and he was telling me about the food festival this year where the org has a stall at the kids’ section, teaching origami. That’s something else entirely though. Related to that, I hate speaking up against others, which makes me an easy pushover. And target for mistreatment- look at how things ended with BAMP, two years ago. The girls pretty much walked all over me, while pushing me to be someone/do things I wasn’t comfortable with. I didn’t know how to express those feelings in words back then, and even now, I’m not sure I can, but I know whatever BAMP was turning into was not what it was when I joined. The last session of Jumpstart, I asked to lead a tap dance lesson, since the kids were under an inclement weather schedule and couldn’t go out to play. I had it all planned out in my head, but then the leader wanted to use a video, and show them kids tapping. Which makes sense in a way, but it doesn’t help get their wiggles out. I wanted to teach the kids a short riff of sorts, so they could stomp around on the carpet and get that extra energy out. Turns out, she just put on a video and that was the lesson. Two other big issues that bug me- my absentmindedness and I cannot teach large groups. Absentmindedness: I’m always losing things or forgetting where I put them. I lost the wire to my Bamboo drawing tablet over break. I blame too much traveling, honestly. So many hotels in so few nights in Taiwan, and such a short span of time in Australia, really makes everything blur. There will also be times where I’ll tell myself, “don’t forget X,” and then by the time I remember X, we’re long gone. It’s pretty annoying, because sometimes it’s things like a jacket, or water bottle, or beanie, and I’ll have to head back to my previous class to retrieve it, or rush back to my room in the apartment and miss the bus. Not fun. I’ve also been known to lose things at school, before uni. I think, in the K-2 years, I lost about 2-3 items of clothing per week.  sometimes they’d be retrievable, and other times, not. I also used to leave the required homework books at school when we needed it for homework that night. Those were the days of fax machines, though, so Mom would call one of her friends with a kid in my grade, and they’d fax over the required pages if it was too late and the teacher wasn’t there anymore- we live about 2 minutes from school, so if it was still early, Mom’d drive me down and I’d have to rush back to the classroom and grab the work. As for the teaching part- every time I have had to go in front of a large group and present a lesson I freeze. And, yes, I know this is terrible considering I am an education sciences major. Small groups are fine. So far the biggest “small group” I’ve done is 6 kids, which is okay. I helped them through a worksheet the teacher presented. Then again, I was a TA not actual teacher which could also make a difference because there isn’t the pressure of kids expecting to learn from you? I suppose I don’t like being in the spotlight, which is probably ironic because I want to go back for Chinese New Year and participate in the banquet and be the emcee again. Though, that’s scripted, so there’s a difference there, too. Unscripted, I get super nervous and blank out. So yeah, that’s, what? 4 things about myself I’m not fond about. Fitting since 4’s considered an unlucky number in Chinese culture, and this list of 4 isn’t the nicest one, either.  |
In lieu of the traditional Motivational Monday prompt, welcome to your first curveball of 2018  . Tell us about a New Years' Resolution you're glad you didn't stick to.Honestly? I almost never make/made resolutions. And when I did, yes, I hardly stuck with them. Most of the time they were rather superficial and generic, like, “be nicer to my sister” or “be nice to people” in general. That’s actually the only recollection I have of resolutions. As for one I didn’t stick to, if there was one, (and I’m making it up here) I’d say staying off my phone. I hate to sound like a technologically addicted teen, but my phone is very much my lifeline. I’m not yet at the point where I’d say it’s my whole life, and I hope I never do, but there’s so much of me ans my life on the phone, that staying off it isn’t the best. I think 90% of the time I’m on WdC these days is on my phone, not to mention texting CG or taking pictures of stuff around me. Plus I have Gems of War on it, and the Kindle app. I suppose the few things the device cannot do are give me food (though there’s apps to order food delivery ) and think for me. I do get bored kinda easily, though, which I suppose would be a byproduct of being hooked on tech- shorter attention spans, and the want for instant gratification. So my phone gets me information at my fingertips, entertainment, shopping, and food (to an extent). On top of being able to communicate with my friends, long-distance and short. Why would I take a break from it, aside from the fact that having your nose always stuck in your phone isn’t the best look for you? Or the best for your neck. To be honest, I don’t know why I would pull my nose away from the screen, aside from fatigue. It’s 11:09 pm here as I’m writing this, and I’m contemplating staying up the extra 52 minutes just to ring in the new year. My phone would keep me company until then, since Mom’s already hit the sack. I have plenty of games- Gems, Candy Crush, Backgammon, Battle Ludo, and Animal Crossing, just to name a few- to keep me awake. I might get more texts from CG about sis. and if that all fails to keep me entertained until 12:01 am, I’m reading Divergent on Kindle right now. Plus I’m back in the US and there’s a few episodes of The Next Step I need to catch up on, on Hulu, so now’s probably the perfect time to do so. On my phone, since my computer is busy mining for GPs. |
| If you had to be a member of an outdoor species during the Fall and Winter, what would you be? Would you be the kind of bird that migrates to a warmer climate? Would you be a bear, curling up nice and snug through it all? Would you be a squirrel, hiding food here and there and occasionally poking your nose out of your tree? Whatever you choose, tell us how/why you reached your decision. I think the easiest outdoor species to be would be a bear. As said, you just curl up and sleep through the winter. I'm not fond of the cold weather- living in California probably has something, or many things to do with that, but regardless, cold weather is not for me. While flying, as a bird, would be cool, I'm not a particularly active person, either, which means flying south during the winter, for who knows how long, and then flying back for an equally long time when it's summer again probably wouldn't bode well with me either. I wouldn't say I'm weak but I'm definitely not strong, and I don't have much endurance. Only thing about being a bear, is you miss about half a year because you're sleeping through it all. With that said, I wouldn't be a game-y animal either, because Fall and Winter- that's hunting season, isn't it? I don't want to be hunted for my meat.  Looking at my plushies, though, I'm also thinking a bunny. They burrow during the winter, and they don't sleep the seasons away, which is a plus. Thick fur should mean I'm not as susceptible to the cold, either. Plus, bunnies are cute. Not to say other animals aren't, because I think you could argue that most animals, in plushie form, are cute, but bunnies have a certain charm that makes humans go "awww," and it's always a nice thing to elicit a positive reaction from others! |
| You've won a competition! Well, for the purposes of your blog entry, anyway. You and up to four other people of your choosing are going to spend ten days in a place of natural beauty of your choice, anywhere in the world! Where do you go? Who are you taking along? What's it like when you get there? Do you see any interesting wildlife? Any stories about your adventures that will be told for generations to come? Five of us, going somewhere in the outdoors, for ten days? Ummmmm is there an option to decline this prize? No? Okay, fine. Let's see...Sounds like the perfect time to get away from everything and everyone, and move to the Australian Outback, like shadowfanglerz and I always joke about doing. So, naturally, she's going to be one of my top choices of who I'm dragging taking with me to endure spend those ten days. And her boyfriend, and then Kit  , and with her, Fivesixer  . So that's my four people sorted. We probably won't get internet or anything there, but hey, dropping off the map for ten days might not be as terrible of an idea as it sounds, especially if you've got nosey family members who want to know where you are at all times. Also, just putting it out there, it's gonna be summer when we go. I'm not planning to freeze into a human popsicle in the Aussie desert in the middle of winter. Just saying.When we get there, it's going to be lots of red-orangey sand everywhere  . We'll probably see some kangaroos, dingoes, and bilbies when we camp out, and if we're lucky, maybe even an emu. Yes, I know Australia is known for its deadly spiders and such, but those are in Sydney- Queensland. Where we're going, it's probably too far from Sydney for there to be a huntsman spider lurking around or a Sydney Funnel Web waiting to catch us unawares. So we don't need to fear those. Though wolves might be an issue, unless someone I brought along is secretly an animal whisperer and knows how to make sure the fiercer animals don't get to us. Adventure stories... I think living in the bush with your two best friends and their boyfriends for ten days would be a story in and of itself, to tell the next generation. but I would definitely bring a bunch of battery packs and my phone and its charging wire with me, so I can take pictures of the various wildlife and plants we'd encounter. Alsooo if we were to move around through the Outback (it doesn't specify if we're staying in one spot or not, and the Outback is pretty large!) we might get to see Ayers Rock again, and take some pictures of the other, various wildlife we meet along the way. |
| I remember that in school we did arts and crafts with Fall objects, like conkers and acorns . Have you ever been all artsy and crafty with nature? What did you make? And if not, think up something you could make with natural Fall objects. At first thought, I would’ve said no. Despite me loving arts and crafts and drawing and making stuff, I don’t think nature and I mix well, as I’ve previously mentioned in my entry about camping. So I went to pinterest to find some autumny crafts, because where else would you find ideas for something like that? Anyways, I saw Twig Ornaments then remembered I have, actually made naturey crafts before. See, we have a planter full of Jasmine vines in our backyard at home, so that’s pretty versatile in terms of things you can make out of them. We were studying the Greeks in 6th grade, and our Social Studies class/classroom was right next to another Social Studies classroom, so we always had this little rivalry going on between the two classes, and one day was the Greeks vs the Romans. My class was the Greeks and we got extra credit for bringing in materials that might be representative of Greek life, so what Mom and I did was, we took some of the vines, and we wove them around each other into wreaths for your head. They turned out pretty well, actually, and I more than likely have a picture somewhere on my Facebook if I were dedicated enough to look. Which, unfortunately, I’m not, so you’ll just have to imagine it. But, hey, I’m pretty sure I reused that craft (not the actual wreaths because those would’ve been long dead and brownish black, instead of green ) in 9th grade for our Greek Mythology project. So yeah, wreaths make a nice craft for nature if you’ve got vines and such at your house that you can spare. |
| You've decided that someone's got to find Bigfoot (or Nessie), and it might as well be you. How will you go about it? Do you find them? If so, how does the meeting go? Write a creative/interesting/entertaining entry to this prompt, and you will earn yourself some raffle tickets as a bonus reward! "Pluuuushie party!" The two familiar words rang through the plushie portal, reaching from England to New York, then Texas and California, before making its way down to Australia, as plushies from all over the world took the call and dashed to England, where Nellie Bear and Gwen, the Pink Fluffy Unicorn stood, assembling their friends as they arrived. "Guess what everyone! Today we're gonna go find Nessie!" Gwen exclaimed, bouncing on her hooves. "Nessie? Who's that?" MIffy looked around. Her friends were all there. "Do we have a missing plushie?" "No, no no! Nessie is Aunty Vanessa!" Hummy, the Texan bedtime bunny drawled. "But why do we need to find her? We know where she is, most of the time- working at the restaurant." A wave of confused murmurs rippled through the assembled international crowd. "Nooo no no no no!" Nellie flopped her arms around to calm down the crowd. "Nessie, as in the Loch Ness Monster!" "The Loch Ness M-M-M-Monster? Oh, d-d-d-dear!" Baby Piglet trembled next to Eeyore and Pooh Bear. "I don't see this ending well," Eeyore moaned in his usual fashion. Pooh nodded his assent, while Owl flew up to Nellie and Gwen. "Now, you see, the first thing we must do is gather supplies. Do we have hats? Nets? Binoculars?" He rattled off a list of items to the frazzled pair. "You know what? Let's go! Gwen's human says it's about 7 hours from here because of the Scottish HIghlands, but no matter, we're plushies and we can quantum our way there," Nellie beamed. "Just close your eyes and imagine, really, really, hard that you're by Lake Loch Ness. Ready? Go!" She squeezed her eyes shut, and disappeared with a flash of light. Charlie Brown and Show gasped, and the puppy dashed over to where Nellie had just been standing. "Whoa...." "Forget it, Charlie Brown, we're not going-" A blinding flash of light stopped Show's scolding. Nellie opened her eyes, as Gwen, Miffy, Charlie Brown, Owl, and Hummy appeared before her. "I wonder if anyone else is coming," she asked her five companions. "Well, when I left, it looked like most of your audience wasn't quite convinced," Owl remarked to the bear. "Although I suppose you could wait a while to see. Wouldn't want anyone being left behind." "Okay, that's a good idea, Owl! We can just sit here and wait to see if anyone else is coming. Otherwise we can go-" A flash of light stopped Nellie, as Fraidy tumbled down to the ground. "Fraidy! You came, too!" Charlie Brown licked his feline friend. "Is anyone else coming?" He looked around, noticing the absence of his bestie. "Is Show coming?" Fraidy shook his head. "She's busy telling everyone off for wanting to go find Nessie with you. I don't think anyone else wants to come." "Oh, okay," Charlie Brown hung his head. "Maybe I should go back to be with Show." Fraidy licked his friend back. "It's up to you, Charlie Brown. We'd love to have you with us, but if you think you should be with Show, we won't stop you." Charlie Brown sighed. "I want to be with you, but I want to be with Show, too. And I also want to find Nessie. So I guess I'm staying with you," he nestled against Fraidy, who gently plopped the puppy on his back. "Let's find Nessie!" Gwen cheered, as she and Nellie marched off, with the other plushies trailing behind. "Are you sure this is the right way?" Owl asked the pair. "Have you consulted a map?" "No need! The lake's right there, silly," Gwen giggled. "Net? Binoculars? How will you catch Nessie?" Nellie gasped. "We're not catching Nessie. We just want to see them. Seeee?" She waved her human's smartphone. "Dragon taught us how to use her phone camera, and we're gonna take a picture and prove that Nessie is real!" Splash! A torrent of water caught the plushies' attention as they were drenched. Nellie looked at the smartphone. "Uh oh," she rubbed it on the grass, attempting to dry it off. "I hope it still works. Dragon said to keep it dry." "Keep your eyes on the water, everyone," Owl instructed. "You know, you could just shoot a video. Then when the monster comes, you'd get it all on film." "Great idea, Owl!" Nellie beamed as she attempted to work the smartphone camera. "There!" The crew settled down as they waited for the monster to show again. "Look! Look there!" Hummy exclaimed, pointing an ear at the lake. A large, green creature slowly emerged from the water. Charlie Brown leapt off Fraidy's back, dashing to the lake's edge. "Hiiii! Are you Nessie? We've been looking for you for a long time now! My name is Charlie Brown, by the way. Wanna be besties?" The creature stopped moving, the water dripping down its body. "Hello little one. I am Nessie. I only come out for the pure of heart." Nellie gasped. "Is that why I don't see you on Dragon's camera even though you're here?" The creature nodded. "Whoa, that's sooooo cool!" Gwen squealed, galloping to Charlie Brown's side. "So there's no way for us to prove you actually exist," Owl asked. The creature slowly receded back into the water, "I only come out for the pure of heart," its voice repeated. "I cannot be found by those who are not." Owl shook his head. "Preposterous." "Oh well," Hummy shrugged his shoulders. "That was fun, though! Byeeee Nessie, it was nice meeting you!" He waved a paw, and the other four plushies followed suit. "Time for home, I guess," Miffy observed, once Nessie was no longer visible. "I suppose so," Owl agreed, as he squeezed his eyes shut and disappeared. "I'll see y'all back in England!" Hummy called, as he, and everyone else followed suit. WC 1026 |
| I once went camping in the Fall (it was a school thing). It wasn't the best experience I have ever had. Do you have any camping experiences, either good or bad? And if not, what do you think it would be like if you went camping? Just- before I start, I'm using the Microsoft Edge browser today to get more Bing points for an Amazon GC I'm about 1000 points short of right now, so I can buy a T-shirt I really want, because they don't accept Paypal. Anyways, I'm saying this because I usually use Chrome, and when I go to copy/paste text, it gives me a loooong list of options of what I'd like to do. On Edge, I got "Ask Cortana," "Select All," and "Copy". I was curious what would happen if I asked Cortana so I gave it a shot and here's what happened: https://snag.gy/XEPd1T.jpg A side panel opened and gave me that. Looks like Cortana's never been camping. As for me, though, no I haven't been camping, either, but we (me and sis/the family) had a tent, once upon a time. I honestly don't know why we had a tent, but I do remember standing there in the living room and helping to assemble it- the tubes that go into the sleeves on the outside for the tent frame were black, and the plastic connectors were white. And I think the tent was either black and gray or dark, dark navy blue. Don't ask me how I remember these things, I just do. *shrugs* And by "once upon a time" I mean before moving to the US- so I must have been anywhere from 3 to 5? Anyways, we never used that tent outside, but by this stage I'm pretty sure sis and I had grown out of our playpens, because I know the tent ended up in the corner of the bedroom- at that time, we all shared a room- Me, Mom, and Sis- and I also had my own bed, so I was definitely probably 4-5. Sis and I got to sleep in it at night, but she ended up waking up and being scared, so Mom took Sis and put her on the adult bed to sleep with her (Mom) instead, and then I remember waking up the next morning, or maybe some time in the middle of the night, and Sis had magically turned into Nellie 1. Mom put her there in case I got scared, I guess, seeing that Sis was gone. I don't recall being scared that Sis disappeared, maybe because I could see her (maybe? ) but I didn't mind having Nellie's company instead (no offense, Sis! ) so if I did end up waking in the middle of the night post-Sis-became-Nellie I likely fell back asleep.CHP (The Honors Program here at school) has a yearly camping trip thingy and they've been trying to get me to go for a while now, and every time I've said "thanks but no thanks." I'm not much of an outdoorsy person anymore, honestly. I get sunburned rather easily, and I have a low tolerance for the cold, which means sleeping outside would not be a pleasant experience for me. Even in a tent. IF I ever went camping (you'd literally have to drag me there, most likely with me kicking and screaming kidnap ) I'd imagine it to be cold. Hopefully the daytime activities would be more pleasant, and before the night really sets in, there'd be a campfire and people would be toasting marshmallows for S'mores (though I've heard that's only an American thing?  ) and maybe roasting sausages on the fire? More than likely, though, there'd be some protein bar thingy people would be eating and I wouldn't know that we should've brought something like that and it'll turn out to be something I don't enjoy eating. Sorry, I probably sound extremely pessimistic here, with my imagined camping trip, but like I said, I'm not an outdoorsy person, so don't try to make me be one! Footnotes |
| Write a blog post sharing how much you enjoyed the participation in "Game of Thrones". Also mention any suggestions. Game of Thrones.... where do I start? Maybe, and just putting it out there, Gaby ~ Quiet contemplation  , I *did* volunteer to help but never got a response back. Plus, Kit and Fivesixer were helping out, so I thought it'd be a fun thing to help volunteer. But, after swearing up and down that I'd never, ever do it again, two years ago, I decided to give it a go after seeing Ԝ€ß☆ԜiʈCH  was looking for her lucky 13th player. I was promised I wouldn't have to play unless absolutely necessary, and I think the situation kinda has turned into that. Though, I'm kinda glad it did, because it's been a wild, fun ride.And like I said, Kit and Norb were doing it. So I hopped on the bandwagon. Anyways. The play. Like I said- absolutely insane. I was surprised to see Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕  , Elycia Lee ☮  , Storm Machine  , and Shanachie in the fields, helping their teams with the battling. Aside from that though, there were so many new aspects that didn't exist two years ago, and especially with the Wheel of Torture, I was glad I got the first few weeks to just stalk the forums and figure out what on Earth was going on. If anything, though, for suggestions, I would have to suggest taking out elements, because, seriously, this world does not revolve around GoT, and with so many different aspects of the game, we (I, at least!) did feel somewhat pressured to stay online as much as humanly possible so I could do stuff for the team. And real life exists! It's 11:54 pm here and my phone is hooked to its charger so I can write this while sis is in the shower. And when sis went to get coffee with some random freshman guy who wanted her advice, I was sitting in a corner of Argo Tea, on my phone, madly typing out words for the House of Black and White. With 34% left. This morning, the first thing I did was write "Invalid Entry" . Also while on my phone, hooked to the charger. Then I pounded out some poems before we went grocery shopping. Seriously, my waking, free time has become consumed by GoT. And I'm not blaming anyone, because I know I have a competitive edge to me if I believe strongly enough in the competition- and I should check that, but sometimes I don't. And there's some other real life stuff that needs getting done, ASAP, that isn't, because of GoT. Like I said, my fault because bad time management, but yeah, still, the game was so complicated this year I'm surprised I didn't explode from confusion or something. Then the House of the Undying.... that was fun, the round-robin-esque way of writing stories, but when someone's tag stays unanswered for a week+, it's disappointing to see your story all sad and stagnant because whoever got tagged isn't online or doesn't like doing these types of writing activities. So in that sense, I wish there was some regulation there, like anything left unanswered for a week goes to someone else at the judge's discretion. Or the team captain's discretion. Red Wedding was interesting at first, and then when the judging came out- I won't say I wasn't wholly disappointed at some of the decisions, but I do respect the judges. Though, an appeals process would be nice too. I know some people I battled were definitely good competitors, but others... I won't say they were bad- and mine weren't great, but sometimes I do want to point some things out, that the judges may have missed too.The writing challenges- they had fun prompts when I was around. I enjoyed writing for them. I particularly liked the non-pink, unfluffy unicorn prompt, considering I have a unicorn T-shirt too. Annd the reviews- honestly, I can't say I got that many reviews to start with, and secondly, I'd say about 90% of the reviews I got just re-summarized my piece to me. The reviews should help the author, should they not? I wrote the piece. I know what it's about, and I definitely don't need it re-summarized back to me! Now I'm left wondering, though, if those reviews were all taken out, how many reviews would be left? More work for the judges, but I think it evens the playing field more... otherwise everyone can go "Your story was about a girl, who meets a boy. And then they fall in love. And they go on their first date. And they watch a movie, called such and such..." and that'll probably get them at least halfway there. Add in a template, maybe another 300 characters, and a closing, and then it's more or less 1000 characters.Annnd Sis is pretty much hinting that I need to go shower because she wants to sleep (doesn't wanna turn off the lights before I come back? Dunno. ) so that probably means real life has to come first (as it should, but somehow it doesn't when it's GoT?) and I'm off to go shower. It is, after all, 12:26 am now. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
PassKey Override Available
