First there was light...

... then there were totally bad-ass dinosaurs that roamed around on a big continent and ate each other and stuff. But they got pwned by a meteor. The End.

Hello dear readers! Do you remember the time I told you I was going to a dinosaur-themed restaurant for my joint 18th birthday party with Anna? We had an adventure, let me tell you.

Two days ago, on Thursday, Anna and I went to a magical land called US Toy. Not Toys R Us. US Toy. There we got dinosaur rings, squishy dinosaur friends, kazoos, penny whistles, black and glow-in-the-dark face paint,* and futuristic glasses.

Yesterday on Friday, Alysa and I put everything (except the paint) into fun-colored bags. Then people started arriving at my house, since we agreed to meet there and carpool. The restaurant is in the outskirts of Kansas City, so a lot of people didn't know how to get there.** Plus, we wanted to be environmentally friendly.

Anna was the first to arrive (besides Alysa, who just came home with me after school), then Kristen and Libby. We played with the extra kazoos and were generally public nuisances:

After we had sufficiently annoyed my neighbors (and everyone arrived and were sorted into cars) we left! There was a BIT of trouble getting there; Libby took the wrong exit to the highway and I followed her (even though I felt it was wrong, but I thought she knew better than me). And we ended up on a highway under construction, with one lane, during rush hour, going west into the setting sun.

Fortunately, Kristen's carload took the correct route and arrived on time. *whew*

When we got the T-REX CAFE and sat down, Anna and I told our friends "We are NOT telling them it's our birthday party, okay? We don't want them singing to us." Everyone agreed and nodded. We ordered our drinks, we ordered our food, we played with our dinosaurs, and took pictures:

The food was good, the company was even better. I love just spending time with my friends. Then we ordered DESSERT! Chocolate Extinction was our poison. It was huge, it was chocolately, it was caramely, it smoked!***

Oh my god it was so delicious. It was like a chocolate party in my mouth. But when they brought it out to us, they came clapping. "Happy happy birthday, from all of us to you, something something something, something that rhymes with 'you!' RAWR!" It was the Rawr at the end that made it okay that Kristen and her carpool had told them it was our birthday party.

After I took Sarah and Alysa (who were in my car) back to my house so they could drive home, I went over to Anna's house to watch My Neighbor Totoro. This movie was a huge part of both of our childhoods (though we grew up not knowing one another), and she just got a DVD copy in the mail.

Well my dear readers, that is all that I wanted to share with you. May you live long and prosper.

With dinosaurity,

Maggie

In place of Reader Palooza today, I am going to impart CRUCIAL INFORMATION. I have re-edited the Cake-Making video and it is being uploaded to YouTube. I will post a link when it is finished, AND I will update the link on the other blog that it is mentioned in. Aren't you glad you stayed to see this information?

*The black facepaint was so that I could dress up as a lion for school Friday. Alysa was a panda, Anna was a frog, and Kristen was a black sheep.

**Myself included. I'd never been to the shopping center before. I had to rely on other people's directions, which caused some problems. Just... keep reading.

***I suspect dry ice.

I have an idea...

... let's be as weird as we possibly can.

Last year my friends and I begun a tradition. These are the steps for this tradition:

Step 1: I am an excellent procrastinator. I'm actually procrastinating right now (I have a Government article to analyze). The first step is very simply for me to not be doing my homework.

Step 2: Within regular intervals, I will use the time I am wasting to write a Note on Facebook. This note is to be formatted like a questionnaire. I will find random questions on Google, and answer them.

Step 3: I tag my friends. My friends read it and comment and make me generally happy (because I like reading comments).

Step 4: They copy and paste into their own Note, write their own quirky answers, and tag me and other friends.

This is our tradition. I started to title mine with Chapter numbers after a conversation with Alysa.*

One thing that it is imperative to know is that we DO NOT take them seriously. In fact, my most recent note, Chapter 21,** is the weirdest piece of fiction I have ever written in my life. I'm pretty sure none of it is true.

I bring this up because I think it is interesting to see how I have grown in the past two years (which is roughly how long this has been going on). Also, because I am vain and like rereading things that I write, which is what I was doing that inspired this here lovely blog post.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I had an okay birthday. It was very much like any day at school. The REAL party is on Friday, when Anna and I are having a joint celebration at the T-Rex cafe. Yes, it is a dinosaur themed cafe. No I have never been there. YES I am so totally unbelievable excited.


With much adultliness,
Maggie


PS! I've told you that seniors get to dress down on Fridays, right? And that we have themes? Well the theme this Friday is animals, and I don't know what to do! Halp!


Reader Palooza!

Alysa: Funny story about Dave Coulier (aka: Uncle Joey). Apparently he went to college with the father of a girl in my advisory, and they sometimes go to dinner. CORRELATIONS. *does the correlation dance* There is a dance for everything.

Hannah: Lanyards are fun. I have some from camps that I went to, and from Wrockstock! And I'm starting to think that most colleges have Potter groups of some sort; I see them everywhere. Additionally, I want to reciprocate the wonderful praise you gave me in your blog. Every bit of it. (Except maybe the parts about sharing a birthday with Jason Derulo. I don't think I will reciprocate that.)


*We were talking about how one day these questionnaires will become our memoirs.

**If you haven't already added me on facebook, feel free to do so. Unless you are a creepy stranger who just stumbled upon my blog; I won't add you, you're creepy, stop reading my blog. But for the rest of you, I like to think that I have interesting mini-blogs on my facebook. And it is a good way to stalk me, if that so pleases you. (SERIOUSLY YOU STRANGER, GO AWAY)

Swine Flew...

... feral pigs flying planes.

Today I visited University of Arkansas.* On Sunday, my mom and I drove the four hours to Fayetteville and had dinner with my Uncle.** This morning we drove to The Event. Because we were there for an Event, along with 300 other people.***

At The Event we were given lanyards that said "I am not a student here," people talked at us, we clapped when it seemed appropriate, about 4 parents asked many questions, they gave us lots of handouts and brochures, and we were smirked at by big college students, who probably have only a faint memory of going through this same process. I metaphorically bite my thumb at them.

I didn't have a ball at this Event, to be honest (which I always am). For whatever reason I just couldn't picture myself actually going to school there, and am thusly crossing it off my ever-dwindling list. I think my dad is disappointed; U of A gives me a lower tuition rate because of some Things, and they have a lot of money to offer for scholarships. So if I were to go there, it probably wouldn't cost much. Which would make him happy.****

The highlight of my day was when my mom and I were walking to the buses so we could start homeward, and I saw this:

There were some other things, too: reminders for Quidditch practice accompanied by chalk broomsticks and snitches, and propaganda for Dumbledore's Army with a beautiful stick man wearing a blue wizard hat.

Completely unrelated to this, I discovered recently that I have the same birthday as Stephen King. Which is meaningless, but nevertheless fills me with a sense of pride. As if I have done something noteworthy. "Why are you smiling like that?" "Oh, just that Stephen King-- you know, the brilliant author--- and I have the same birthday." "My, that is impressive! Perhaps some of his brilliancy is in you!" -brushes imaginary lint from shoulder-

Weird.


With potential brilliancy,
Maggie


Reader Palooza!

Deanna: I like your irrelevant comment! It conjures up an image of some of my rather goofy teachers doing the same thing (since I don't know what your teacher looks like), which is hilarious, of course.

Hannah: I ALREADY RESPONDED. Good day.

Ruth: They probably print copies of the students who they didn't like and use them as dartboards in the teacher's lounge. Actually, that's weird, and I have no idea why that occured to me.


*I believe this will satisfy your curiosity, Hannah.

**Random Trivia: I share a birthday with this particular uncle. And The Wordsmith has the same birthday as my grandpa. These are things.

***Or perhaps it was 500. Or maybe one thousand. For all I know of numbers, it could have been two million. Whatever, I go to a small school.

****Although since I plan to study engineering, I basically need to go to a state school. And they will be comparitively cheaper than other schools. So he can't really complain that much.

Let them eat cake!

... Cake or death! Err, cake please! Very well! Give him cake. Mmm, this is very nice cake!*

Yesterday was picture day. On Fridays, seniors at my school get to dress down instead of wearing the uniform. Usually we have themes. On the first day of school the theme was camo, one day it was soccer moms, another day it was tweens. But since yesterday was a day where we needed to look our best,** they said, "No, you cannot have a silly theme! And we know about the plot to wear wigs, so don't try it!" How did they know about that plot, anyway?***

So instead of dressing as stupidly as possible and trying to outdo last year's seniors class (they were goth on picture day), we tried to get away with having our hair and makeup as ridiculous as possible. Several girls made liberal use of Bump Its, others had ridiculously high pigtails, and one girl had little buns all over her head. I saw more blue eye shadow and heavy eyeliner yesterday than perhaps the rest of my life combined.

The sad thing was that many of those lined eyes were not the eyes of seniors. Nor were all the bumped-up dos on the heads of my classmates. I saw freshmen, sophomores, and juniors galore with eyeliner that made me stop and gape, wondering... Why?

The reason hair and makeup was our theme is because it is RIDICULOUS!

On a less confusing note, I finished editing the cake-making video. I told you about that, did I not? Well, here it is.**** Be warned, Anna and I (and The Diva) are very, very weird in this video.

I tweeted about this at one point, but I feel it is a point worthy of reiteration; I noticed while editing the video that I worked in elements of my blog. Just watch and you will probably see.

That is all for now, my dear readers of blogs! I should probably get some homework done, since I leave tomorrow to go on a COLLEGE VISIT! -does the college visit dance- There is a dance for everything.


With collegerliness,
Maggie


Reader Palooza (the name that Hannah picked, since she was the ONLY one to comment on my last blog. -gives stink eye to everyone else-) (Except I'm really not that upset. Since it's not BEDA anymore, nobody is keeping up as regularly) (Let's move on to the response, shall we?) (Yes, we shall):

Hannah: We have a project like your senior project, too! There are many similarities between our schools. Hmmm... But our projects are on a smaller scale, and we do two of them. The first is our sophomore year, and we have to write a three to five page paper and give a presentation on something under a given topic. 

My junior year the project was in essence the same as the year before, but as juniors we were expected to put much, much more effort into it. I can definitively say that last year's Junior Project was the hardest I have ever worked on a project in my life. But I loved almost every minute of it, being the nerd that I am.

That was a long-winded response. Congratulations if you have read to this point!


*3.14159 X 10^kajillion awesome points if you knew that reference.

**And get pictures that will go on our student IDs, which I guess we need to be serious for. Who knew?

***That was a real plot.

****Right now as I am posting this blog, the video hasn't finished processing. Of course, the quality may never improve, since this is the first video I have edited with my new software and I probably made MISTAKES.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition...

... If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men... controls on government would [not] be necessary. And in other news, I have no idea what to put as my title and subtitle. -Psuedo quote from The Federalst Paper No. 51

Hello, dearest readers of blogs!

There are several things that I wanted to blog about today, but I cannot have all of them in one blog, because then it would be too long. That, and I need to go do my homework. Again. It just keeps coming back, I swear...

I have not blogged since Sunday! This is a catastrophe! But I hath been very busy. I thought that my senior year would be easier in terms of workload, but so far it is not looking like it. Poo.

In happier news,* I got Adobe Premiere! This means that I can edit Agent Ninja Face's** videos from my computer, instead of sporadically going to Anna's house and editing on hers. She doesn't like editing as much as I do. I love editing videos. So much. And now I have my own shiny software! -pets the software-

Ahem. Yes. Can I just say thank you for sticking with me, even though I am incredibly weird and often creepy? Thanks. =D


With editing capacity,
Maggie


PS I'm going to start responding to some of your comments, methinks. I want to give this segment a name, but I am not creative when it comes to these shenannigans. Shennanigans? Shenanigans? Meh. What about Crazy Commenters! Or... Reader Palooza? Edible Enterprises. Wait... that doesn't even make sense. Please help?

Hannah: I hadn't bowled since my freshman year (so three years ago). It was fun, but my forearm was sore for a few days afterward! And I feel like I've been to an arcade or something where they accepted good grades as entrance. Also, it's probably best that your school doesn't require service for graduation. I mean, it's an excellent idea, but the options are so narrow that it is difficult for everyone to be happy with it. I am much more of a "behind the scenes" volunteer, so I don't particularly love the service that I have to do.

Nick: Your comments are always so POSITIVE and happy! I love it! =D

Katharine: I like to think that my school is the coolest school ever. But I think it's just because I go there. #notegotisticatall #twitteronblogspot? #weird...


*Not that schoolwork is unhappy. I am supremely nerdy, and therefore actually enjoy most of my homework. For whatever reason, though, I still have trouble making myself start my homework. It's a disease, procrastination is.

**This is the name of the production "company" that my friends and I make our videos under. It is very unofficial and sparkly. The name comes from a time when Anna and I were on Mystery Google (do you remember that?) and typed "Paging Agent Ninja Face, over!" again and again, hoping to get each other's message. Anna called me in a tizzy when she got a message that said "This is Agent Ninja Face, over!" She thought it was me, but I reminded her that I wasn't responding, I was paging. 'Twas a triumphant moment, that was. (Scroll back up, punk!)

Who looks stupid now?

... You do!

Good day, my dear blog readers.

I just called the Jazz museum. I sent a couple emails, but they aren't getting back with me about booking a show, so I thought I would get even more PROACTIVE. Of course, it's Sunday, so I had to leave a message.

Aaaaaand I just realised that when I left the message I forgot to tell them I can't talk during the week until about 5:30 in the evening. You know, because I have school and odd jobs and such. Oops.

Last night I went bowling! Do you want to hear the story? Of course you do! -beams-

My dear friend Alysa was going to come over to my house after her cello lesson, and we were going to bide time before we left by playing John Williams stuff together. We both love A Window to the Past.

But she ended up not being able to come. And I was a sad Maggie. And the world took a moment of silence. Sort of.*

Another dear friend, Anna, had been at a circus class type thing. I'm not actually sure exactly what it was... But she learned some interpretive dance and got her face airbrushed.** She came over after that class, and we drove to the bowling alley together.

When we got there, another dear friend, Kristen, was chatting with five freshmen. I shall give you their bowling names: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Ewok, Dobby, and Pterodactyl. 

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Pterodactyl is the one who messaged me on YouTube because she and Ewok recognized my school (which we filmed at) and a local shopping area, both of which were featured in our You're My iPod music video. SO. MANY. TIES. -does the tie dance- There is a dance for everything.

But I digress.

Soon afterward, Sarah (surprise! Another spectacular friend) and her seester Pips Queak joined us. And then The Wordsmith came. I would have brought her myself, but she had a soccer game and needed to shower before she came. She wore this shirt.

We played two games and had lots of nerdy fun. Afterward we got ice cream. YUM I LOVE ICE CREAM.

Good bye, blog readers. Until next time!


With bowling balls,***
Maggie


PS The video that I told you about where The Diva sticks a quarter up her nose? I finally started editing it yesterday. Except I'm not finished yet. So perhaps next weekend? Heh heh... so busy...

*One thing that sucks about my school is this: people who live all over the city go there. I have friends thirty minutes in one direction, some friends twenty minutes in another, and still more friends twenty minutes in still another direction. It does make it hard to coordinate stuff outside of school. But that is all beside the point. Scroll back up!

**She kept the paint on all night.

***We had fun with that last night. So. Mature.

I have a dream...

... that I need hair extentions to go to a dance. My dreams are stupid.*

Hello dear readers! How are you today? Good, I hope.

I have been velly velly busy. Doing what, you ask? Well...

We have to do a certain number of service hours at my school. This summer I had to get 30 hours. Which I did! Except some of them "didn't count." Poo.

So this week and next week (at the least) I have to go get a few hours in after school on Thursdays and Fridays.

In addition, my mom informed me of this MEGAWESOMEFOXYHOT leadership camp in February where I would get to do math and science and leadershippy things for a WEEK. Suffice to say, I really. Really. Really want to go.

But of course life is not so simple. The camp is in the one week in the whole year that my school sets aside for Service Week. Service Week is when all the juniors and seniors do 30 hours of service instead of going to school. And we HAVE to get 30 hours in. Or we might explode.

Clearly that is a complication. But I talked to the service planner person thing, and she told me that I can write a proposal to the administration asking if I can take that week to, instead of doing service, go to a very educational, incredibly beneficially, potentially-good-reflection-on-the-school camp. At least, that is how I need to frame the proposal.

If that by some miracle WORKS, then I have to continue getting hours in after school. Because I can't just NOT get 30 hours of service. That's a gaping hole that would show up on my diploma. Or something.

That is what my life is like. Also, I joined art club and we played competetive pictionary and got leftover food from cooking club.


With much servicing,
Maggie


PS
One or two of you asked me how I landed the job of booking the Triple Rainbow Awesome tour stop at Kansas City. Twitter, my friends. Twitter.

PPS
In addition, I want to thank all of you who comment. It really means so, so much to me. I think that Katharine leaves a comment on every single blog of mine, which just makes me smile SO much it hurts. But in a good way.

PPPS
Tomorrow I'm going bowling with the freshman nerdfighters! We've created a facebook group and are now officially the "Nerd Herd."


*But rather telling, methinks. I have officially decided that I much prefer having long hair. -is wistful-

It's Labor Day...

... so here I am, laboring at my computer to bring you a blog. The things I do for the interwebz...

I'm going to blog today. HELLO!

I just feel so HAPPY right now! =D

I've discovered that there are SO MANY freshmen Nerdfighters at my school! And one of them is in my ADVISORY (homeroom)!!

I've actually made a facebook group to gather all of us together, and we're planning a Nerdfighter gathering. We're going to go out on the lake, and then go bowling. I'm so excited that I could CRY.

In addition to THAT awesomeness, I get to book the Triple Rainbow Awesome tour stop in Kansas City! I'm trying to find out if our Jazz museum will let them play there for a reasonable fare.*

I think we will make Gengar cookies for them when they come. -does the Gengar dance- There is a dance for everything.

And one last thing. Anna and I filmed a video! We have not edited it, nor is it likely that we'll have time to any time soon. But within a week I should post a new video. It's a response to Mike and Kristina's internet cooking show. Do you remember that? Anyway, I might actually post two videos. We did a ton of weird shennanigans that I might put into a "behind the scenes" video. I'll put the clip of The Diva putting a quarter up her nose in that one!**


With much, much happiness,
Maggie


*Did you know that Kansas City used to have a mob? As in, The Mob. And it was because of The Mob that Kansas City became a center of Jazz. FUN FACTS YAY! 19th and Vine is less than a 10 minute drive from where I am sitting RIGHT NOW. (So many all caps. Just preparing for the concert, I guess.)

**The REALLY funny part is that she was dressed really nice when she did it. Wearing fancy-schmancy clothes and jewelry while sticking US currency in your nostril... You'll just have to see.

I used to feel so alive...

There was a time in my life when I felt alive. Things had meaning; I was indescribably happy, or perhaps just sad. Things were going spectacularly. The world was mine. But now... now all I feel is the desperate call of survival.

There are people who say I've become a zombie. That all I do is go through the motions of each day, seeking out only what will keep me barely alive and functioning. Maybe they're right, and I should just eat their brains. Then they will stop reminding me of what I don't have anymore.

Life was so much better before all this. Sure, it's kind of nice to not worry about my future, or about the next bill I have to pay, or about having my heart broken. But... there was something more to life than that.

The other day we were driving together. Remember that emotion? I can barely recall... I think it was love. It's hard to think that I could have felt anything, now that I can't feel a thing. And who can feel anything but disgust for someone like me?

I have become a useless limb, lying lifelessly next to a very much alive body. The body can feel nothing but contempt and hatred for that limb, which cripples it and makes it foul.

I should have seen this coming. There were so many signs. Just last week it culminated in my gut, and I exploded. The horrible sensation of nothingness was beginning to take over. My jaw became slack; no emotion except hunger would ever be seen on my face again.

Maybe there is hope for me yet. I don't just feel the hunger of survival-- I also feel the pain of solitude. I feel the yawning gaps in my life where I once was happy, sad, in love. Maybe there is hope for me...

No. Who will love me? I have no feelings. You have moved on already, pushed away by nothing else but me. I used to think that you were the only one for me. I see now that I was wrong.

Life was so much better. But now I am a zombie, and there is nothing more for me.*


With no emotion,
Maggie


*Blog post inspired by my friends' writing assignment: to write something based on a song.

The Object of the Game...

... to be as strange as possible. At least, it is when I play Apples to Apples.

Hello, readers of blog! Long time no... blog! Bah dum, chh! (That didn't even make sense)

Today I went for part two of my dentist-cavity-fixing appointment. Thing. Since I get so stressed about the shot, my mom pressured me into getting laughing gas. Haha. Ha...

I expected to be able to tell you wild stories of how I stumbled blissfully into inanimate objects, laughed my ass off, and was generally loopy. But I think I might be immune to the gas. I just felt sleepy, but that could have been lack of sleep and the fluorescent lights. And I still cried when they gave me the shot.

But that is not what I wanted to blog about. I have HAPPIER tales to tell!

I have probably mentioned that I went to piano camp this summer. At camp, I met another girl from Kansas City. She's 13, and reminds me strongly of The Wordsmith. We are very good friends now, and tonight my sisters and I went to a Game Night at her house! 'Twas much fun. We played Scattergories, Banana Grams, Hearts, and Spoons. And we ate brownies and tea. I mean really, it doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Whilst my sisters and I were driving to her house, we got a little bit lost. So I stopped at a stop sign at a lazy intersection while The Wordsmith called and asked for directions. When we were sitting there, another car pulled up to the adjacent stop sign. I figured they were confused, since I was just sitting there when I should have been goin; the guy kept looking at us as if confused. Then The Diva said, "OH MY GAWD!" and hit my arm. The guy drove off as she said that, still looking, and he was laughing. "Oh my gawd, Maggie, that's Mr. Bertalott!"*

Mr. Bertalott is a theology teacher at our beloved Academy. And he is a little creepy. Juuuuust a little.** So THAT was fun!

I did more fun stuff today, but I won't go into all that.***

This weekend there is an Irish Festival going on downtown, and on Monday the Renaissance Festival starts! And on Tuesday I have four tests! Definitely not summer any longer...


With much sillynezz,****
Maggie


*I have not changed any names to preserve the privacy of anyone. His name is actually Bertalott.

**ONLY A LITTLE BIT.

***Just know that my advisory (homeroom) spent well over an hour examining, debating, and arguing over a silly band. And now we are making a sweat shirt based on it. This is what intellectual, mature high-school girls do at an academically rigorous school.

****That was a strained attempt at a joke about silly bandz. Geddit?

The Hogwarts Express left yesterday...

... I was not on it, but I am not so sad anymore. Magic is everywhere, all you have to do is look.

Woah, hello! It's September 2st!

I feel like it's already been a week since I last blogged, but it's only been a DAY! =O

School is now officially in full swing. Already had about six test and quizzes, and I have four more on Tuesday. Yaaaaaaaaaayyyy....

Who am I kidding, I love school.

There is one thing that I have noticed that I do not like, though. I don't remember if I told you guys this, but this year we are on a different schedule. In previous years, my school has had a wonderfully crazy, random schedule. Every single day the classes are in a different order, and you never had class with the same group of people in one week. This is scary at first, but it is a spetactular way to meet everyone in your grade. I kid you not when I say that by the third week of school, I knew almost everyone in my entire grade.

This year, we are on really boring block schedules *spits out phrase block schedules* This basically means that every. Single. Day. I am in the same exact class with the same exact people. And I've noticed something.

Every day I sit in the same spot. Perhaps not the exact same seat, but in the same specific area of each room. The last three years, since there were different people in each class, you moved around constantly, and I liked that. I hate feeling confined to the same seat, but already people have sort of sifted into their various positions in the classroom. Me no likey.

That's really all. It is an observation that came to me today. I was holed up in my room doing homework (since the downstairs area is FULL of distractions, and I had a paper to write). My cat decided to come be a distraction, though, and I succumbed to her will. So this realisation came to me while I was lying on my bed petting Maud and getting sleepy (it's dark outside because it's raining).

I find that I am most philosophical when I am falling asleep. Another observation.


With much love for thee,
Maggie


Something I learned today: My World Faiths class, taught by one of the most incredible people I've ever known, is one big, extended discussion on the things that fascinate and confuse us. I realised today that basically what we do in class is talk and share cool or intriguing life experiences. I LOVE it! And it makes me feel so much better about religion, which is something I've been uncomfortable with for several years.