Boom Flash

Yep, that's thunder and lightning and I don't get to watch it with my full attention because I'm studying. Suddenly raindrops, billions and billions of them! It's going to be hard to eventually sleep with all this racket. I may just pull an all-nighter. I gave you a bonus post when you thought you wouldn't hear from me until next month.  This is my Christmas gift for you. You can even open it early. Bye until January, for reals this time.

Why This Can't Possibly be Appendicitis

But first, the word of the day is agrarian. I'm not sure why. It's just the first word that popped into my head. I won't even bother to define it because I feel like my stomach is trying to commit suicide. It hurts like it did when I had appendicitis. There's the reason that this can't possibly be appendicitis: I had it before.  I got my appendix removed, so unless I had two appendixes (appendices?) and they just didn't tell me, this can't possibly be appendicitis.  I'm drinking a Sprite and hoping that it will help even a little bit. I have to study because my finals are both tomorrow. I need to be able to concentrate and this pain is making it very difficult.  Not that studying really helps since I have test anxiety and forget everything that I studied anyway.  At least if I study before the test, when I forget everything, I at least know that I know it and just can't remember. This is me signing off until January. I'll be back if my stomach doesn't explode or spontaneously combust or eat itself.

Magically Delicious

I just called the post that because I'm eating Lucky Charms. The word of the day is ephemera. It means something transitory or short-lived.  I just think it's a cool word. I stayed up until 4:00 in the morning studying. I feel pretty accomplished.  I also watched Let Me In, and it was amazing! Seriously, 10 out of 10 stars.  I don't even know what to say about this movie other than watch it! I don't want to give anything away at all, so I won't say anything else about it.  After Let Me In, I decided to watch Let the Right One In, since it's the film that Let Me In remade.  It was atrocious. I couldn't even make it through 20 minutes before I turned it off.  This could just be because of the fact that it wasn't originally in English, but I think it would have still been pretty bad even if it was. Let the Right One in gets 1/2 out of 10 stars, only because I would feel really mean for giving it 0.  If you want to watch a fantastic film that wasn't originally in English, I highly recommend Au Revoir Mis Amis. It is an amazing movie about the Holocaust. Another one that I give 10 out of 10.  So that's all I have to say. I'm going to go study some more so I will be prepared to rock my finals.

I Stumbled Upon this during a study break and immediately thought of the TASG so I'm sharing it with you now. I can't find any way to embed the video, so here's a link. Creep with Dolls. Enjoy.

New Design

The word of the day is revamp. It means the same thing as overhaul. Did you ever watch that show Overhaulin'? I love that show. I love hearing all the stories they tell the people about what happened to their vehicles. Anyway, as you may have noticed, I revamped my blog yesterday. I finally figured out how to use my own artwork.  I think it's looks awesome personally. What do you think? I am also going to make a banner for the top, but I haven't had time yet.  I am studying today, which brings me to my next point. I am going home on Tuesday.  I won't write any blog posts while I am home. I am really looking forward to spending time with family, so I am not going to hole up in my room, which is where I can get the neighbor's wi-fi.  I hope you won't miss me too much. I will be back January 3rd.  If you are bored, read my old blog posts, or comment on stuff, or read the other blogs on my blog list. They are all very entertaining.  I'll miss you guys. Hopefully I'll have some great stories and pictures to share when I come back. This is just a warning. I will be posting on Sunday and Monday, but I'm telling you now so you can come to terms with the fact that I won't be around for a while.

An Old Friend

The word of the day is arachibutyrophobia.  Don't even try pronouncing that one.  It means either: A. the feeling that somehow, somewhere, a duck is watching you, B. the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, C. the fear of getting bitten(bit?) by a spider, D. the fear of Spiderman, or E. none of the above.  So, which one do you think it is? Leave your answer in a comment and don't cheat and look it up. That's no fun.

Today I saw an old friend, or rather an old acquaintance.  He is a friend of my best friend and we have run into each other a few times.  I hadn't seen him since last year.  It was nice to see that he isn't quite as awful at talking to girls now.  Last time I saw him the conversation went almost exactly like this.
Me: Hi John.
Him: I have a cactus. (He was holding a cactus.)
Me: Oh, well that's nice.
Him: I wanted to get a plant to make my dorm room cooler and cactuses are hard to kill.
Me: That's true. See ya.
Yep, that was it. Today I was waiting for my ride after class and I was reading my book when I heard someone say my name.  I looked up and saw John.  He asked if I needed pushed anywhere in my wheelchair and I told him thanks, but I'm just waiting for my ride.  He asked if I've had an MRI or anything to find out what's wrong.  We talked some more and exchanged phone numbers. He told me I could call any time I want to talk.  I might call and see if he wants to hang out some time.  I really like hanging out with H, but I don't want to annoy him by asking him to hang out with me all the time.  I get tired of being by myself all the time, so it would be nice to have another friend to watch movies and play cards with.  He's a really nice guy too.  I am running low on friends at the moment. I have H and Jessica, and now John. Also, my new roommate is my friend but I don't want to be clingy and annoying and make her hang out with me all the time.  I consider you guys who read my blog regularly my friends as well, but I can't exactly call you to come hang out, since you don't live in Seattle.

Here's some random pictures of me from last year.

 The time a dragon almost ate me in a toy store.

That's not a smile, it's an expression of pure agony.

 Me taking a picture of myself, obviously.

Not trying very hard to not fall off a log.

I didn't fall off the log though. I have astounding balance.

That's all. I have to go take a nap now. I'm tired.

OCD and Laundry

But before my riveting story about my OCD, here's the word of the day. It's lacuna, meaning a blank space or missing part.

I'm not sure if I told you this, but I have obsessive compulsive disorder.  Because of this, it takes me a really long time to fold laundry.  I have to do it in the same order every time and I have to fold everything the exact same way every time.  Everything has to be perfectly lined up.  I always fold my jeans first, then long sleeved shirts, then short sleeved shirts, then tanktops, then underwear and socks. I fold my towels last.  When I say that everything has to be perfect, I mean that it takes about two minutes to fold a shirt satisfactorily.  I fold and unfold everything multiple times until it's just right.  Some people who have OCD feel like something very bad will happen if they change their routine.  I used to feel like this when I was little.  Now, if I change my routine, it makes my head hurt and I can't think straight or pay attention until I fix whatever it was.  I am a picture straightener and a germophobic.  I wash my hands and use hand sanitizer so much that my skin gets really dry.  I wash my hands and use sanitizer at least twice an hour.  I used to take two showers every day, but now that my legs are paralyzed, I am lucky to take one.  After I set my alarm clock before I go to bed, I have to check it about 5 times to make sure that it is set for the correct time and AM not PM.  This might just seem overcautious, but I set the alarm, check it 5 seconds later, set it down, pick it up and check again, about five times.  The weird thing is that when I think about it, I know that this behavior makes no sense.  My clock will not change itself 2 seconds after I set it down.  That doesn't happen.  I know that it is silly and ridiculous, but if I don't do it, it makes my mind foggy.  When I was younger, I had to put things into my laundry basket three separate times.  After I changed, I had to separate everything into three piles and then put them into my laundry basket one pile at a time.  I am not sure why I did this, but I felt like something very bad would happen if I didn't.  It had to be three, no more, no less.  If I only had one thing to put in the laundry basket, I would put it in, then take it out, then put it in again two more times.  I never told anyone about this.  I guess that even then I knew it was kind of crazy and that it didn't make sense.  I got over the laundry thing, but there are other things now.  This next part will probably sound really crazy, so let me explain something first.  Part of OCD is the routines that you have to do, but another part is in your head.  Sometimes you think thoughts that you don't want to be thinking but you can't help it.  I don't hear voices.  I'd like to make that clear.  Sometimes, I will see a complete stranger and feel the urge to hurt them.  When this happens, I have to just keep walking and try to think of something else.  The feeling goes away after a little bit.  Back before my legs were paralyzed, when I was able to walk to class by myself, I had to walk across what I call the skybridge.  It is a pedestrian overpass that goes above the road.  Multiple times I have thought of jumping off it.  This is really frightening, because I cannot stop thinking it and I just have to walk in the middle and get down the stairs as fast as I can.  Don't worry, I don't want to kill myself.  This thought just comes into my brain sometime and it's hard to ignore.  It completely terrifies me because I'm afraid of heights, and the skybridge is really high up.  At first, I was scared to even walk across it.  I definitely do not want to jump off it.  (I have learned that this is an actual thing that happens to people and not just me.  It's called l' appel du vide.)

And also, if you want to watch a movie about someone who's way more messed up than me, watch Ginger Snaps Unleashed.  It is seriously messed up.  That's all I'm going to say, other than I feel sorry for Brigette and I liked Ghost, until the end.  Ghost reminds me of Luna Lovegood, and Luna Lovegood is my favorite character on Harry Potter.

And also, H came over and watched a movie with me last night.  We watched the Blues Brothers.  He is so nice.  He makes it really hard for me to be okay with being just friends, but I managed to not try to hold his hand or lean my head on his shoulder.  He wants to be just friends, so I don't want to scare him away.

I'm a pirate!

Recently I realized that when I am in a quiet enough space and using my crutches, I sound like a pirate with a pegleg. I am very pleased with this discovery. Except that now one of my crutches squeaks, and a squeaky peglegged pirate just isn't as cool as an ordinary peglegged pirate.

Since I'm a pirate, I picked a piratey word of the day. It's swashbuckling. I refuse to explain this word, if you don't know it shame on you! Get off my blog this instant! Wait, no, come back I was kidding. Don't leeeaaavvve meee!

If you are still here, then you get to read this next part. It's a movie reviewish type thing. I watched this movie last night called Ginger Snaps. It is a Canadian werewolf movie. I loved it! And there are two more movies in the series, which I am looking forward to, even though I've heard that they aren't as good. Actually, let me clarify, I loved all of it except the end. It left me with a lot of questions which will hopefully be answered in the second one. I really like movies where girls do really bad things like murdering people, but it makes you question something. Another movie like this is Hard Candy. It is about a girl confronting a child predator. I highly recommend it as well. Hard Candy is interesting because the guy ends up finding out that little girls on the internet can lie just as much as men, and be just as dangerous. Ginger Snaps is interesting because it relies a lot on choices, and shows how your choices can change everything for better or worse. It's hard to write about the movie without giving anything away, so that's all I'll say about it. Ginger Snaps gets 9 out of 10 stars. It would have been 10 if the ending didn't leave me with so many questions. I am really looking forward to watching Let Me In. It's definitely this type of movie as well. If you have seen Let the Right One In, it's basically that movie but with different actors, as far as I've heard. I want to watch Let Me In before Let the Right One In, because Let Me In stars Chloe Meretz, one of my favorite actresses. Another movie along these lines that I recommend is called The Bad Seed. It's an old movie in black and white, but it's really good. It makes you think about the nature or nurture debate.

Look at this picture I took!

And look, it's my face!

Goodbye now, I have to go fold my laundry.

Ego Sum Eriditio Latin

That says "I am learning Latin." I am, but so far that is all I've learned. Also, there's some stuff I already knew like cogito ergo sum, e pluribus unum, carpe diem, and memento mori. I haven't learned the sentence structure yet, so the title of this post is probably horribly grammatically incorrect.

The word of the day is bamboozle. It means to deceive or get the better of someone by trickery, flattery, or the like. This word is just so cool. It sounds so much cooler than bamboo and yet it also sounds a lot cooler than puzzle. It is even cooler sounding than bedazzle.

My new roommate is still awesome. Andrew is her boyfriend. I couldn't tell at first and Facebook was no help but yesterday I found out. They are such a cute couple! Andrew is really good at doing accents and different voices. They even let me tag along when they went down for dinner, since I have been living off things that I can cook in my microwave. They are really cool people. I have decided not to change rooms. It isn't really necessary since I'll be getting a narrower wheelchair over Christmas break and that was the main issue.

Here's an adorable picture of a panda for your enjoyment. Pandas are just so cute and better than cats or dogs in my opinion. My best friend's nickname is Panda. She's awesome.

Doesn't it just make you say awwwwwwww?

And here's a video. Don't you just hate it when your shadow rebels? I know I do.

The video isn't letting me embed it properly, so if you want to laugh, click the link. Math Teacher Shadow Trick During Lecture

New Roommate

She's pretty cool. She has a lamp that's the same as my hat lamp, without the stylish hat shade. Her favorite color is green like me and she has this cool friend named Andrew, who is really smart and interesting and nice who hangs out a lot.  She likes using StumbleUpon for entertainment just like I do. She also likes the same kind of music as me. She's super courteous and asks before putting her stuff in the fridge and inviting her friends over, which I don't mind that stuff, but it's really considerate of her. All in all, I think she's a keeper.

The word of the day is banter.  It means an exchange of light, playful, teasing remarks. The word sounds cool and I love to hear banter, especially when it's witty.

That's all for today. I'm going to go take a nap now.

Also, I got this Statcounter thing yesterday to get more information about what people view on my page and if they click my links and stuff, but I think it's broken, because it says that I only have 2 views, but the Google Stats thing says that I've had 19 views so far today.

What's new

I have a new roommate. She seems nice. My old roommate switched places with her because each of them had friends in the other's building that they visited all the time and it was about a 20 minute walk to go there.  I will probably be getting a more accessible room sometime soon. I have a meeting set up.

The word of the day is penumbra. The definition of it that I like best is a shadowy or indefinite region. The word just sounds really cool in my opinion.

I would like to talk about my nerdy anti-social behaviors.  I am pretty much on my computer all day long, except when I'm in class or reading a book.  I have lots of things that I like to do on the computer. For one, I like to write a new blog post every day and read everyone else's new posts.  I like to watch movies illegally.  I like to download photoshop brushes and find fun photoshop tutorials. Yes, I am a design nerd.  I also like to find cool pictures, because I really hate having the same desktop wallpaper for more than a week. I usually change it about every 4 days.  I have recently discovered the match color tool in photoshop and have become quite enamored with making my photos look more surreal or stormy or vibrant. I also learned how to create vectors by tracing photos. This is still a slow process for me, so I haven't actually finished a vector yet. I am currently working on making a Converse shoes vector for a shirt I'm designing.  There's another nerdy hobby. I love Threadless.com. I never buy anything but I like to design and critique and get critiqued and score submissions and try to enter contests but never finish on time. Okay, confession time, I like to play computer games.  I like pretty much any type of computer games but my favorites are point and click. These are often escape the room games but sometimes there are other storylines. I'm not sure what I love so much about these games, but I could play them all day. I used to play Runescape. I forgot my password and never made a new account. I like to play pretty much any kind of computer game, so if you have one that you really like, feel free to share it with me.

In case you are not yet convinced of my nerdery, I will inform you that I can solve a Rubik's cube in under 3 minutes. I also have a Rubik's pyramid that takes a little longer to solve. I know how to say hello and/or goodbye in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish. I am teaching myself Latin. I know basic HTML.  I read novels for fun. I also do Sudoku and Kakuro and crosswords for fun, though not as often anymore. I enjoy doodling Mario and Pacman and Zelda. I also enjoy playing all of those. I really enjoy RPG games such as Golden Sun and Final Fantasy. I also like Halo, even though I'm really bad at it. I can play the Legend of Zelda main theme on my flute. I can the main Mario Bros. song on my flute, guitar, and keyboard. I used to collect Yugioh cards but my brother traded them all to a friend for some video game and I was really mad.

In conclusion, I am a nerd and proud of it, for the most part.

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tired. so tired. can nap after class. word of day is traipse. i think that's a word. sleepy.

Happy December!

The word of the day is savvy. It's the only word in the English language with two v's in a row.

In case you didn't notice it's December.  I went back to class today. I finished the first one this morning and I have one more this afternoon.  The driver who brought me to class was really nice and helpful. The one who brought me back was annoyed with my poor steering skills.  Some people are really judgmental. When I got to class, I wasn't sure where to sit so I wouldn't be blocking the aisle and I said that I had no idea where to sit. This one girl just said in a rude tone, "Just sit wherever you want" and then after I parked my chair at the front of the class which just happened to be across from the rude girl, she got up and moved.  I was pretty offended.  Just because I'm in a wheelchair, that doesn't mean I'm not human. It's not like it was my choice to be in a wheelchair.  Surprisingly enough, I would much rather be able to walk.  Hopefully the people in my next class are less judgmental and rude.  I made this awesome student driver sign that I put on my wheelchair. Here's a picture: