So long

We're going offline here, because blogger is getting a bit annoying and there are better sites out there to host your blog on.  Seriously. So come find me on LiveJournal, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience. ___

Breaking…Down?

Caution:  This post contains spoilers for the Twilight series, including Breaking Dawn.  It also contains a bit of rantiness, so be warned.   Just finished Breaking Dawn this morning, and I need somewhere to rant about it.  I get the feeling that the friend who lent it to me wouldn't be too happy if I went and said all of this to her face, so I'll just type it up instead.  She's the type that's completely obsessed with the series, and I'm a bit more cynical. From the beginning, I didn't expect much from BD.  The whole series, while okay, hasn't exactly been placed on my favorites list.  I dislike both Bella and Edward (Actually, Alice and Jake are the only two characters in those books I really like), so it's hard to get into the story.  I could go through the character/storytelling flaws of the whole series here too, but that would take awhile.  So we'll save it.  Back on topic, I hated the first chapter of BD.  The first sentence, really.  To me, it was almost beyond pathetic, but very Bella.  She's not a very strong character, so again, I didn't expect much different from her.  But still…the drama!  I don't really hold with that either. The first "book" of BD, book Bella, as I call it, wasn't entirely interesting.  Sure, it had some fun moments (I probably liked all of the ones that everyone else hated), but as a whole my brain was yawning as I read it.  I seriously had to take a break at one point because it was getting too ridiculous for me.  Bella was totally obsessed with Edward, he was being a "gentleman" as always and, well…not much happened.  Book 2, book Jacob, was much better.  I've always loved Jake best in the series, so it was great seeing stuff from his POV.  He's a lot more interesting.  I disliked the chapter names, but whatever, that's a small complaint.  I liked how he split off from Sam's pack to protect Bella.  That was really cool.  And I was glad Leah came with him, and Seth.  I admit, in this book, I was thinking that I might maybe actually like the ending of Breaking Dawn.  Sure, Bella was being a bit stupid, but that was to be expected.  Jake's coolness sort of made up for it and, well, I was actually interested.  Until I reached the end.  I was totally disappointed that Stepehenie Meyer made Jake imprint on Renesmee (What sort of name is that, anyway?).  I liked the Jake who was in love with Bella, not the Jake who liked Bella's kid.  It would have been much better that hadn't happened. Book 3 came, and by this time I just wanted to be done.  Sure, there was excitement; there was fighting and sex.  Yay.  But I just didn't find it so interesting anymore.  Bella was too…predictably written.  Of course she wouldn't succumb to the newborn hunger, and of course she's better than every other vampire out there without even trying.  Nope, sorry, don't think it would work that way.  That part of Bella irritated me so much more than everything else put together, and when she said that the vampire world was the place where she belonged (after a long, boring, self-pitying monologue), I almost put the book down right then and there.  But I'd told my friend I would read it, so I just kept going.  Anyhow, Aro, Marcus, Caius, and a whole shitload of other vampires show up; they're outnumbered and out-talented by Bella and the special vampires around her (haha), and they're, of course, evil.  Right.  And then Renesmee, Bella's I'm-much-better-than-regular-vampires-because-I-have-the-best-of-both-worlds(like-Miley-Cyrus/Hannah-Montana) daughter manages to convince everyone that she should be allowed to live.  And the Volturi decide not to take anyone for their own benefit, hurrah.  The main conflict has been resolved peacefully. Then, of course, there's the happily ever after, in which we have lots more sex (well, implied sex, at least), a happy Charlie, a happy Jake, a happy Renesmee, and even a happy random-other-vampires-who-hook-up.  Absolutely ridiculous, and altogether too predictable.  Don't we even get a bit of angst at the end, Stephenie?  And I still ship either Bella/Jake or Edward/Jake.  Or something other than Bella/Edward. tl,dr; Edward is not Prince Charming, Bella shouldn't live a happy little fairy tale life with no problems, and Jake should be free to love who he wants to. The end.

In honor of our country...

...I decided to post again.  It's been forever, hasn't it?  And I don't have much time now, so this isn't gonna be all that pretty or special.  Just thought I'd say hi. After our vacation, I was intending to post about our trip and show you some pictures, but that didn't go so well.  My USB cable for my camera is currently misplaced, so I have a hundred pictures sitting on my camera waiting to be moved or something.  So...we'll just skip the vacation for now.  I had fun.  It was cool.  Since it is the third of July today, I wanted to say happy birthday to America!  Eh-happy early birthday.  But I don't know if I'll be able to post tomorrow, so it's either early or late. I don't know about you, but I can't wait for the fireworks!  I'm just a slight pyromaniac.  But tomorrow promises to be fun, if very hot.  If you live in the US, I hope you have a fun fourth! If you're from Canada, happy belated Canada day; if you are from anywhere else...happy random day in July. I think that about covers it so, until next time... Caryn

On Finals, Vacations, and Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Currently Reading:  Runemarks, Joanne Harris.  YA Fantasy.  7/10 for being a pretty good read but not altogether original. Estoy:  Blasting Panic! At The Disco and wishing the weather was more summer-like (It's snowing). Once again, I'd like to apologize for not keeping up with this.  No excuses.  Especially because hey, it's summer now! I got out of school on last Thursday after going through the grueling Finals Week, and boy am I glad.  I passed all of my classes (phew!) and even managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA.  I want to be one of those students—the ones who have all A's for all four years of high school.  I think I can do it.  High school is, in my opinion, not all that much harder than middle school.  It might be tougher next year with AP classes, but that remains to be seen. Before I have to worry about increased homework load, I have 3 whole-ish months of vacation.  My mom and I are leaving really soon to go pick my sister up from college and then go camping for a week, so this is the last time you'll be seeing me for awhile.  Don't worry, I'll post tons of pictures and tell you about the trip when I come back. Maybe. Well, that's all I wanted to say.  My summer hasn't been extremely exciting yet, and I don't want to talk anymore about school.  Besides, the cookies I just made need to be taken off the baking sheet.  Until next time… xxx Caryn

I Stand Corrected...

…Because when I said that Prince Caspian, the movie was like Prince Caspian, the book, I lied.  Inadvertently, of course, but it was a lie nonetheless.
I re-read Prince Caspian the day after I saw the movie, and was quite amazed at all of the differences I found between the original writing by C.S. Lewis and what had happened onscreen.
As I believe I mentioned in my last post, the movie gave a bit more introduction to the characters than the book had, which I actually found nice.  On page 3 in the book, the Pevensie children are already back in Narnia.  I guess Mr. Lewis didn't feel like waiting to get the story started.  The beginning of the movie, in its deviations from the story, may almost be seen as symbolic for the rest of the screenplay versus what really happened in the books.
The four Pevensies, though they knew they were back in Narnia, had no idea of where they were.  Things had changed so much over the time they'd been gone—what was it, 1300 years?  I'm not sure¹—that Cair Paravel was actually on an island.  The siblings were quite a bit disoriented, and they didn't run across the dwarf for a while after they had arrived.
Trumpkin² is quite another story altogether.  In the movie, he had been caught by scouts after Caspian had run away from his castle.  In the book, he was caught as he was out looking for whatever help might arrive after Prince Caspian had used Susan's horn.
In fact, quite a bit had happened in Narnia before Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy arrived by Lewis' tale.  I can see that this might be a logistical nightmare for the screenwriters³, but I'm sure it could have been done.  In the book, Prince Caspian wasn't chased upon leaving the castle.  No one actually discovered that he was gone before his horse (which he did actually fall off of after a small fiasco involving galloping at high speeds through the woods and an inopportunely placed tree⁴) returned to the castle riderless.  And then there was no talk of kidnap spread by Miraz.  He simply told his armies to go attack Narnia.
Dr. Cornelius, Caspian's tutor and a half-dwarf, made himself scarce when Caspian's horse was discovered.  When he found out that Miraz was planning to start a war with the Old Narnians, he rode off as quickly as he could to find Prince Caspian and his people.  The King (as he became recognized by the Narnians) then decided to make for Aslan's How⁵ to set up a defense there.
Miraz and his men quickly discovered Caspian's location and arrived.  The armies were stronger than Caspian expected, and though the Narnians put up a brave fight, they were outnumbered by too much.  After a major battle had been lost, a council of war was called and it was decided that Caspian would wind the magic horn of Queen Susan.  It was then, after much of the fighting had been done, that the Pevensie children were actually called into Narnia.
As Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and Trumpkin travel toward King Caspian's camp at Aslan's How, the movie gets the general idea of what happened.  Lucy actually was almost killed by a bear and saved by Trumpkin.  I'm fairly certain that the movie cut out quite a bit of the traveling, actually, because how much do we want to see of people tramping through the woods⁶?  In the book, Lucy saw Aslan telling her to follow him, but the group ended up going the other way.  However, book-Aslan didn't want the children to go down the gorge as was suggested in the movie.  He wanted them to go the other way.  Trivial details such as this don't exactly make or break the story, but I am always happy to point them out.  In the end, Aslan eventually leads the group of travelers to Caspian's camp an all is happy⁷. 
When they reach Aslan's How, Trumpkin, Peter, and Edmund are told by Aslan to go meet with King Caspian.  Lucy and Susan stay with the Lion in the woods and awaken the tree people.
The group of men⁸ arrive in Aslan's How not a moment too soon.  At the time of their arrival, Nikabrik (a dwarf) and his "friends," a hag and a werewolf, are trying to convince King Caspian to call upon the White Witch for help.  As Nikabrik begins to call upon the Witch; Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin all jump into the room and, along with Caspian, Trufflehunter (another dwarf), and Dr. Cornelius, kill all three conspirators.  A quick note—the hag and the werewolf were very well portrayed in the movie, and their lines came almost exactly out of the book.  They did a fantastic job on that!  But now back to what happened in the book.
Kings Peter and Edmund become acquainted with King Caspian, and unlike in the movie, there is no animosity between them.  They all work together.  What happened then in the movie is pretty constant with the book's plot—Peter calls for a fight with Miraz; Miraz is goaded into accepting by his own men; Miraz ends up dead after the fight by the hands of one of the men who motivated him to accept the challenge.  Then comes the great battle.  There is no fantastic collapsing ground in the book, though that scene was very exciting in the movie.  Without that, the battle seems to be going a bit poorly for the Narnians until the trees come to attack.  This causes the whole Telmarine Army to flee back to Beruna's Bridge.  The bridge had been removed from Beruna by this point in the book, but again, I see how this could have been a bit of a problem in movie-land.  In the book, though, the Telmarine armies simply surrender instead of whatever else it was that happened in the movie.
At this point in the story, we cut to a random scene of Aslan running through the towns that they Telmarines have built in Narnia and freeing the true Narnians from the Telmarines.  Susan and Lucy are still with him, having been kept away from the battle because they're girls.  I must say, I like the movie version of this part better, in that the girls get to fight and there are no random deviations from the main plot.
When the main battle is won by the Narnians and all the Narnians have been freed from Telmarine rule, Aslan then comes back, recognizes Caspian X as King of Narnia, and then everyone has a happy little feast.  Oh, and Reepicheep, the cute little mouse, gets his tail back.  As in the movie, the Telmarines are offered a chance to go back to their world; some are skeptical of the deal once the first men disappear; and Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy prove that everything is safe by going through the barrier themselves.  Then we have ourselves a happy little ending.
The scene in the movie involving an attack on the Telmarine castle never happened in the book.  There wasn't much of a problem with it except for that, though⁹.  Well, that and the fact that I don't think griffins were ever mentioned by C.S. Lewis in any of his Narnia books.  I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.
So ends my corrections of my last post.  Sorry about the misunderstanding.

Caryn

¹ Actually, they never specified in the books, but I'm sure the movie people wanted something a bit more concrete than "a long time."  Things like that, I don't mind quite so much since it didn't drastically affect the story.
² Yep, that's the dwarf's name.  You learn something new every day, eh?
³ And I'm not yet sure if this is a good excuse for what they did
⁴ If you get my drift…
⁵ The place where the stone table was buried.
⁶ Actually, if by people you mean "Peter," then I'm not minding so much, but that's just me.  And probably most other obsessive girls in America, but that's missing the point.
⁷ Or as happy as things can be in the middle of a war that's going badly, I suppose.
⁸ How very sexist of C.S. Lewis—though I suppose that's just how things were back then.
⁹ But you know, I did always feel that that scene was a bit off.  Now I know why.  I wonder why they put it in?  We may never know.

Prince Caspian

When talking about a movie such as Prince Caspian, it is hard to know where to begin.  The epic battle scenes?  The superb filming?  The characters?

Maybe it would benefit us all if I just decided to start at the beginning.  With a warning:  This will have major spoilers.  If you don't want to know what happens, I'd advise you don't read this.  Are we good to go?  Then lets dive right in.

I'm sure I won't want to waste your time with the plot, since I have quite a few things to say as it is.  And really, you should already know the plot.  If you're reading this currently, I'd expect that you've seen the movie already.  If you haven't yet seen it, I would advise that you go to the nearest theater now and get a ticket.  If you really insist on reading this anyway (you dedicated fan!), here is an excellent synopsis courtesy of IMDb.

Though the opening scene of the movie wasn't exactly ever written into the books, there was nothing that I found objectionable about it.  It gave a nice bit of introduction that the book did not exactly provide before diving in to the story.  Harmless things like that I don't mind being added to movies that are based on books.  It's the more annoying unnecessary things that can ruin a movie that has strayed from it's book.  But more on that later.

Narnia—the entrance into Narnia—was absolutely breathtaking.  Apparently the film was done in New Zealand.  Well, I want to go to New Zealand for my next vacation.  The scenery was so beautiful.  It almost made you believe the movie was filmed in, well, Narnia!  I could gush about the lush scenery and the fantastic sets for a whole post, but that's unadvisable.  This is going to be long enough as it is.

I can't really say how well the movie followed the books, since it's been awhile since I last read Prince Caspian, but I think they stuck to the plot fairly well.  As I said before, there were some deviations.  Some I minded.  Some I didn't.  Overall, I'd give them some Caryn points for sticking to what I remember of the story, though.  Let me know if I'm mistaken.

The characters were, of course, all fantastic.  The actors had obviously matured from the last Narnia, but they still seemed to fit the films.  After all, it was a year later in their world, too.  Lucy, played by Georgie Henley, was cute as ever.  Anna Popplewell made a very pretty Susan.  And even Skandar Keyes has matured into a fairly cute little Edmund, after all.  Sorry though, dude, you're still not the highlight of the film.  That title might belong to someone else.  Prince Caspian, played by Ben Barnes, made a nice, tasty Telmarine.  I mean, check it out!  What, you ask, could possibly be hotter than Ben Barnes dressed up in battle gear?  I'm willing to admit, there's not much.  But, there is darling William Moseley (aka Peter).  Ah, he's just adorable when you stick him by that stone table and put a confused sort of smile on his face!  Sadly IMBd doesn't even seem to have stills from my favorite part of the movie!  *Finds William Moseley Fansite*  Ah, much better!  Readers, prepare for a barrage of William Moseley pictures.  Let's see…here's him talking to our favorite Telamarine Prince,  him in the railroad station, here's one I'll call "frightened," (Goodness, he does look a bit like Ed Speelers there, does he not?  More on that man later...)  "expressing his brotherly love for Edmund," another one of him and our favorite Telmarine Prince (ooh-la-la!), the promo poster for some place other than the U.S., just him alone in that sexy promo pose, on set but not on camera, with a face that seems to read "C'mon" (I'd be answering, "Hell yeah!"  But that's just me), one I'll call "manly" (I was going to call it "sexy," but that could apply to any of them), "pensive" (Not to be confused with Pevensie…), yet another of him thinking (he seems to think more than most guys…), "firelight," after arguing with our dear Prince and searching for truth, "'I'm not lost!'", him wearing some too-awesome battle gear, here's after just having entered Narnia, another from the same time period because he's just too hot, "looking for Aslan," (oo-er!) and even one of him hugging Lu.  *is jealous.*  Then, for some reason, being hugged by Susan *is even more jealous*   And, last but by all means not least, off set but sexy as ever.

Sorry for the little gallery of William Moseley photos.  There's what, 20 some?  Wow, I may have gotten a bit carried away.  And sadly, I still haven't gotten my William Fix.  But now I've wasted too much time being a little fangirl instead of discussing the movie.  And now I've almost forgotten what I was going to say.  But only almost.

As with most movies, there are parts of Prince Caspian that were slightly reminiscent of some other movies, but not in too major a way.  The gigantic battle where the Telmarines came to Narnia was, of course, a bit like a scene from The Lord of the Rings.  However, since The Lord of the Rings had pretty much the best epic battle scenes ever seen in a movie, anything that comes now will probably remind people of it.  After all, battles can only be done so many ways!  In The Lord of the Rings, however, the troops were mostly gathered on dry, barren, forsaken land.  The land in Prince Caspian was still beautiful, forming a nice juxtaposition with the troops.  So I didn't have much objection there.  When Peter, Prince Caspian, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy had just found the stone table, the lighting system reminded me a bit of National Treasure 2.  I'm not sure how common things like that were ,though.  When Aslan called the waters of the river to wipe out the Telmarines also made me think of The Lord of the Rings, but the way the water formed into a man quickly changed that opinion.  Lastly, the White Witch—when she appeared, entombed in ice—made me think, not of another movie, but of something I've read.  She was exactly how I imagined Circe to look in The Sweet Far Thing when she is trapped in the well.  Quite amazing, is it not?

Though in the book, I didn't think Prince Caspian or Peter really wanted to work with the Witch.  Probably just a snippet added for cinematic reasons, don't you think?

Something else that was added for cinematic reasons would definitely be the little romantic sub-plot between Susan and Prince Caspian.  Yes, she's pretty.  Yes, he's hot.  Does that mean they have to fall in love with one another?  No.  That really bugged the crap out of me, but then again, I think every Disney movie has to have a little love.  Otherwise it couldn't be Disney.

On the other hand, the costumes for the movie also amazed me.  I mean, they were awesome!  Not so much the pretty dresses, but the armor was to die for!  I would so love to wear this stuff.  Yeah, it's no doubt very heavy, but gosh!  If I ever do become an actor, I'd want costumes this cool.  Yes, I am aware that the three nearest people are men.  Does that mean I can't want their clothes?  They're not the only ones, either….I would kill for Eragon's pants.  Or hell, the whole outfit!  And the armor.  But I digress.

I thought that, overall, the movie was done fairly well.  There were no major plot holes as seen in Eragon, it wasn't overly cheesy, and there was even a bit of deeper meaning to it.  I've written enough for today, though, so how about I explore that another time.  I would give Prince Caspian a 9/10, which means you should definitely go see it!

This has been Caryn…
Out!

At The End

Currently Reading:  Teen, Inc. by Stefan Petrucha.  8/10 for being a funny and pretty deep story disguised (or written) in the form of YA fic.
                  Obsession, Deceit, and Really Dark Chocolate by Kyra Davis.  8/10 for being funny and a satisfying read, but only as deep as the shallow end of a pool.  Warning:  this is an adult book.  Enough said.

Estoy:  Okay¹.

     Today—or yesterday, technically, but today works just as well—was the official end of my track season.  It's sort of weird for track to be over now when it's been going for what, 7 weeks?  Yep, for 7 weeks I have not come straight home after school.  Instead, I've had practice for 1, 2, even 3 hours!  The only days I didn't have practice were meet days, and there weren't many of those.  Seriously, even on our early release days we had to go back to school for practice.  It's been quite a season.
    I was in long, high, and triple jump this year.  While I didn't do my best at yesterday's meet, which I was kind of disappointed about, I haven't had a half bad season.  My highest jump was 4'2"², my longest jump was 12'5", and my best triple jump was 24'6".  I know these numbers may not seem all that great, but keep in mind that I'm just a freshman.  I'm hoping to do better next year, of course.  I've decided, though, to stay in shape this year and I started my new tradition of after-school runs (I'm planning to go in the morning on weekends and once school gets out).  I didn't run all that far, really, but I ran enough to make me breathe harder and also to make my shins hurt like hell.  I don't actually think I could have gone much farther because my shins were that bad.
    I was actually lucky that I was able to go running today, considering the weather this morning.  I woke up and, no joke, it was snowing.  Our weather has been doing that a lot lately—it'll be nice for a few days and then it'll snow for a few.  It's really annoying.  It is not meant to snow in May!  I mean, I don't expect the weather here to be like it would in Hawaii, but I'd be fine if it was just a bit warmer and the snow was only rain.  Thanks to the snow, we had maybe 5 track meets canceled.  It sure made our season seem a bit shorter, and I wish we'd gotten to have more meets.  But so it goes.  Anyhow, I'd best be off now to enjoy my free time.  Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

 

¹  That's all there is to it.
²  Which I actually did better than last year, but I hurt my back right at the
beginning of the season, and it's still getting better because I didn't want to take time off. =]

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Insignificance

Insignificance is a big word.

On Sunday, it

signified my feelings,

my hopes, my thoughts. 

The skills I had,

at first appearing

promising, were reneged.

The fact that I had

work and a life

that I needed to

get back to was

nothing.  It didn't

matter how hungry

or tired I was. 

I was expected

to be better than I

could be.  What ego

I had was being

lessened by the minute.

Your contempt made me small.

You must be bigger to overcome it.

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Good Vs. Evil

Currently Reading:  The Hollow People, by Brian Keaney.  Young adult fantasy/science fiction.  8/10¹.

                           Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire. Adult        fiction.  9/10.

                            Spud, by John van de Ruit.  Young Adult fiction.  7/10.

Estoy:  Getting tired of school and the weather…

 

Okay.  I am back.  After a fantastic month-long² hiatus, which I do apologize for.  I wish I had a really good excuse for such a long break, but I don't.  Yes, I'm in track now, but I still do have free time.  Just not as much.  So I haven't posted partly because I'm lazy.  Sorry.  I'll try to be more faithful about posting from now on.

 

"Danger is the price of freedom, and without the possibility of doing evil, you can never do good."

Excerpted from The Hollow People³

 

I found this quote to be absolutely beautiful and so, so true.  It's sort of how radicalism seems to me:  in order to make a big change in society, you're going to have to act differently and break a few social norms.  I know, that's sort of the meaning of radicalism, isn't it?  Ah well, I thought it was deep. 

I think, though, that there are a lot of people who don't appreciate things like this.  Perhaps that's the reason for society being the way it is today.  People don't question things enough and push the social boundaries.  That's why change is so slow to come. 

I'm in no way saying that this quote excuses the behavior of some of the more radical people out there, like Hitler, for example.  I believe he took change a bit too far.  On the other hand, though, is it right for us to blindly call him evil?  Yes, he did some bad things.  A lot of them, in fact.  And on the badness scale⁴, they rated pretty high.  But how do you define evil⁵?  Is someone evil because they've done something bad, or because they've sinned, as religion puts it?  Everyone is a sinner, if you choose to see life that way.  Does that mean that people are inherently evil?  I can't say that we are.  I still believe in humankind too much to say that.

But what about people like Hitler, who killed masses of people "for the greater good?"  As I said before, perhaps he is not actually evil.  I mean, he may have been seriously deluded, but can we call him evil?  It's an interesting question.

"For the greater good…" That reminds me of Harry Potter.  So let's take a moment to dissect the much-used literary theme of good vs. evil, especially as it pertains to those books⁶.  As Rita Skeeter uncovered in Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore was, for a time at least, a friend of Grindelwald.  The two had planned to rule the Muggles "for the greater good."  I'm not sure if this was considering the good of the Muggles or themselves, but the question is: does this feeling of superiority and actions that might follow because of it make the pair evil?  I think we can all agree that Dumbledore wasn't evil⁷, but what about Grindelwald?  And for that matter, what about Voldemort?  Both killed Muggles and were regarded by many in terror⁸.  This can clearly be established as a "bad thing."  But, were the two evil?  Even I'm not sure how to answer this.  Maybe evil is simply a concept that is different for each person and therefore can never be widely defined.  Perhaps evil is not marked by bad deeds done, but instead by when you lose touch with your heart and soul through greed.  Or it could be that Gregory Maguire gets the last laugh—

"It's the ones who think they're better than everyone else that you have to watch out for."

Excerpted from Wicked.

 

            If you ask me, that could apply to Hitler, Grindelwald, and Voldemort.  And even those "popular" girls at your school.

            Either way, I hope I gave you some brain food for the day and inspired you to challenge other people's ideas.  It's about as radical as I have the courage to get right now.  Until next time…

xxx

Caryn

 

 

¹ I have changed my system of book ratings to be out of ten, in case you actually noticed and were wondering about that.  Not that you were.  They were out of five before, but I don't feel that allowed for as much depth.

² Or thereabouts.  I didn't keep track, exactly.

³ Two points if you noted that I'm reading this right now.

⁴ Of my invention, that is.

⁵ I've been questioning the concept of evil a lot since I read Wicked. 

⁶ Because who doesn't love discussing Harry Potter and relating it to everything in life?

⁷ If you think he was, tell me; that'll make for an interesting discussion.

⁸ Or "Teror," if you're extremely special like that.  Two points to those of you who get it.

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Take Five, People, That’s a Wrap

Estoy: Okay, but suffering from a bad case of "the Fridays¹"
Currently Reading: Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Adult Fiction. 5/5, but there's a definite reason that it's adult.

Imagine if you will…poor schoolchildren being forced by their slightly insane and not even cool teacher to do a stupid assignment. Especially at the very end of the day on a Friday when the week feels like it's been forever though in reality it only lasted for four days. I'm sure that most of you don't have to imagine that; it has probably been a sad reality for you at sometime or other in your life. For those of you who have figured out that I'm not just into hypotheticals right now and that I'm actually maybe talking about my day, that is what I call talent.
So, you may be asking, what is said stupid assignment that us poor school children are being forced to do²? Well, today we were being forced to write a "commercial" persuading people to join the Greek army. Okay, we are studying Greek Mythology in English, and we are reading The Iliad (or a very cheap and not nearly as eloquent copy³), but explain to me how this translates into making a commercial so nonexistent people can join a nonexistent army in order to fight a nonexistent war? It doesn't, as close as I can figure. But if anyone has a good reason for it, drop me a line, kay? Anyhow, it was…well, quite a disaster if you ask me. Our group is slightly grouply impaired, i.e., we can't seem to do anything without arguing. Needless to say, I ended up writing the whole script. While I thought it sucked, my partners were quite pleased. Recording it didn't go too badly, and when we listened to all of the others, we discovered that everyone else's sucked as well. I guess there's really not much you can do with an assignment like that. Also on the subject of exciting English assignments would be our hero essay. Our hero has to be "a realistic person" who can "solve a [world] problem or improve the situation greatly." Again, I'm not quite sure how this relates to English and our subject right now (yes, I realize the Greeks had heroes, but they were hardly realistic. Half of them were deities), but I just chalk it up to the fact that our teacher is slightly insane. I believe I may have said that before. Anyhow, for those of you who either know me personally or at least have been keeping up with the books I'm reading, you know that, while I read a bit of pretty much everything, I love, love, love Science Fiction and Fantasy. So writing about a "realistic person" may not be too easy for me. I mean, no uber technology, no magic, no superhuman powers? Knowing my teacher, super smarts probably wouldn't go over to well, either. Obviously, this is going to be a bit of a problemo for Caryn. I don't know that I'll be able to make it interesting. Creative writing project? Hah. English has a way of sucking all the creativity right out of me.
On the plus side, I do have a band concert in 4 days! On the downside, we have one and a half rehearsals left. And oh yeah, people are still making way too many mistakes with the music. I mean, yesterday, a certain trombonist was say, a note sharp. Let me tell you, that is quite a bit of discord. I don't get it, I really don't. We've been playing for 4 and a half years now. We tune every day at the beginning of band. And we've had the music for probably around 2 months now. Practicing is not that hard! I think our band director is pretty nervous as well, but maybe everyone will practice this weekend! And maybe the sky is not really blue. Ah well, we can still hope, right? Well, wish us luck…we'll probably need it. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Thanks to my State Studies teacher for that one!
² And if you weren't asking it…well, sorry, but I'm answering it anyways.
³ But somehow, it's still just as sexist. And worse, it's illustrated. Tell me, is there a reason why the Greek Goddesses couldn't seem to keep their boobs in their shirt/dress/toga/whatever it is they wore?

V For Valium

Estoy: Sugared out, becoming pink-o-phobic, and fulfilling my position as your resident cynic.
Currently Reading¹: Airman, by Eoin Colfer. YA Adventure. 5/5
Pagan’s Vows and Pagan’s Scribe, by Catherine Jinks. YA historical fiction.
Books 3 and 4 in the Pagan Chronicles. 5/5.

Happy Valentines Day to all who celebrate it, and happy sugar fest to all who don’t really feel compelled but are surrounded by lovestruck ones. I fall in to the second category, personally, but don’t hold it against me. That's the reason behind the title—I almost needed Valium to make it through the day. My school decided to tell all girls to wear pink today and all guys to wear red. I felt surrounded and slightly scared. Needless to say, I wore black. Back on topic, though. In my opinion, Valentine’s Day is nothing more than another time for marketers to make a lot of money. Not that I’m against the idea of it—I do think that love is a good thing, despite the fact that it hasn’t found me yet². However, Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers has no historic significance. And for all of the people I love, I don’t feel I need a day to remember them. I tell them I love them often. After all, they deserve more than one day. I know that for some of you, Valentine’s Day can be painful—Scott likes to call it “Singles Awareness Day”—but there’s no reason you can’t have fun today as well. Instead of focusing on the fact that you don’t have a significant other, take time to realize that you are loved by your friends and your parents. If nothing else, get on a huge sugar high.
I think I did I bit too much sugar-highing today, which is quite surprising. I didn’t really get that much candy…just a box of hearts from one of my closest friends, a bag of goodies and a sucker from other close friends, and candy in Spanish class. However, I’ve already eaten it all and am therefore a bit hyper. And it’s taking me awhile to type this, because my fingers are even more dyslexic than usual³. But I have laughed hard and often today, so that’s something.
DataMatch—ah, DataMatch⁴. I must tell you how this turned out. I’m not sure, but I think I did mention this in a previous entry. If not, go back, read the footnote, and then try to keep up as much as possible, kay? And if I didn’t mention it, I do apologize. Anyhow, I’m sure you’re just dying to know who was on my list. Well, the first one happened to be the boyfriend of one of my friends—Wiley⁵. Well, I wasn’t going to tell him, but as Katie (his girlfriend) was reading my list, he saw. Everyone else in the band found this to be hilarious, but Wiley and I were kind of…not so thrilled. Not that we hate eachother, but we seem to be in a perpetual argument. I mean, of all the people on my list, he is probably the one that I like the most. Not that I would date him, really, even if he wasn’t going out with Katie. My list seems to be filled with nerds, which I guess is fitting. I’m a pretty big nerd myself. My top match in the whole school was sophomore Connor. According to Katie (who is on swim team), he’s a good swimmer and also pretty cute. Not that I’m going to go seek out any person off of the printout.
I suppose I should be off now to do some valentine-y things, so I hope you all have a good rest of the day. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ And Currently Read, since I don’t blog nearly as much as I read. Just so you know that I really don’t read 3 books at once.
² Ah, how tragic, right? No, not really. I am still young and face it, everyone gets their share of heartbreak.
³ Believe me, fingers can be dyslexic. It’s a special talent that mine have.
⁴ For Datamatch, everyone interested in participating fills out a questionnaire. You are then matched with people who have similar interests and given the percentage of things you have in common. Just for the record, my highest was 57%.
⁵ Wiley was the guy, for the record. Not the friend.

In Sickness And In Health

Estoy: Enferma¹
Currently Reading: Ptolemy’s Gate, by Jonathon Stroud. YA Fantasy. 5/5²

Take it from one who knows (which would be all of us, in most likelihood): it is no fun being sick. Somehow, I managed to get myself sick, again! I was just sick over Christmas break! Actually, it’s really no mystery how I got myself sick, seeing as how half of the people in school are currently sick³ as well. But still, all those germs floating around don’t make it any easier to get better, either.
Honestly, it’s not like I’ve done that much physically or mentally strenuous stuff while I’ve been sick. I only read one book this weekend. Okay, it was a bit long, but hey, what else was I supposed to do? I had already been kicked off the computer for spending too much time on there and before that I had been watching DVD’s⁴. I didn’t do any homework that I didn’t need to, and I didn’t practice. Heck, on Sunday at my dad’s, I got bored enough to take a nap⁵! And did that help? Erm, no, not really. I’m even wondering at my reasons for doing it.
While I did do a lot of things to get better this weekend, I suppose going to the party on Friday wasn’t one of them. The party—Lara’s birthday celebration, to be precise—was pretty dang fun, though. And don’t get me wrong: it wasn’t one of those wild parties that you all hear about high-schoolers having⁶. I mean, for one thing, this was Lara! I guess some of you may not know her, but Lara follows pretty much every rule there is. Not really to the extreme, but she’s a smart girl and she likes to keep her nose clean. And to tell you the truth, even if I was invited to a party that I knew would be like that, I wouldn’t go. I have a future, people. I don’t want to be pinned with an MIP or some other stupid thing like that. For me, a party is just me and some close friends, food, board games, movies (especially those with yummy guys in them), and some good quality time together⁷! Call me stupid if you want, but I think that must be much more fun than getting drunk and high at the same time⁸! Lara’s party was my kind of party, though. We just hung out, played the chocolate game (no, I won’t explain it here), sang karaoke (I sat this one out), watched Stardust (pretty good movie!), ate pizza (of course), opened presents (it was her birthday), and talked. So pretty low stress, I’d think? Apparently not enough so, though. Either way, I enjoyed it immensely. It was pretty much worth being sick.
That’s all I have for now, so wish me well! Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Enferma is Spanish for sick. It logically follows that saying, “Estoy enferma,” means I am sick. Remember that whole ser/estar thing I was telling you about, though? If you say “Soy enferma,” it means that you are mentally sick, and you don’t want people thinking that. The lesson is, watch your verb choice. Oh, and also with subject-adjective agreement, boys would say “Estoy enfermo” so it is made clear that they’re not a girl. Quite confusing, don’t you think?
² Doubtless, some of you have already noticed that I have read two books by Jonathon Stroud recently. Yes, they’re a series. And this is the third one. So read the other two first. One quick thing I love about these books: Bartimaeus uses footnotes!
³ I kid you not. It’s pretty hard to have a silent time in class these days, because even when no one is talking, you can still hear sounds of sniffling, nose blowing, coughing, and sneezing. On the plus side, at least I’m not the only one.
⁴ Only one DVD, actually, and it was Jeff Dunham. Nothing like a good laugh to make you feel better, right?
⁵ It also was a good strategy to get me away from my dad, though it was perhaps slightly wasted at the time. He was out shopping.
⁶ You know the type—no parents, loud music, alcohol, drugs, who-knows-what going on in the bedrooms/basements/bathrooms/couches.
⁷ Shannon and I were actually compiling this list at lunch—I forget why.
⁸ I refuse to say “crunk…” it does mean something like that, no? And that right there shows how innocent I am.

Veni, Vidi, Vici(1)

Estoy2: Braces-less for the first time in 2.5 years!!
Currently Reading: The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathon Stroud. YA Fantasy, 5/5.
The Golem’s Eye, by Jonathon Stroud. YA Fantasy, 5/5.
Green Rider, by Kristen Britain. YA/A Fantasy, 5/5.

I am glad to inform you that everything in my speck of the world is going fairly well right now. I would have written sooner, only there was really nothing for me to right about! It’s been awhile since finals, and I am pleased to announce that I made it through every class with an A! In fact, I think my lowest finals grade was a 93. So there you go. Hence the title; I felt I was entitled to a small brag. Okay, I’m over it. Unfortunately, every teacher has taken the opportunity the new semester presents to load us up with homework! I suspect it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t all assign it on the same nights, but I swear they plan it so they do. Plus my English teacher³ decided to be incredibly cool in that way he so often is⁴ and assign us a whole packet of work for Of Mice and Men rather than just bits like the other English teachers did. Ergo⁵, I have been rather busy for the last few nights. Actually, I like to do all of the work at my dad’s when I can, to waste time. But that doesn’t make it any more fun.
On a good note, I did get my braces off today. If you read my estoy⁶ note above, you already knew that. Though it was slightly painful at some times (I doubt my gums will ever be the same again) and a bit boring (what, it only took almost two hours…) I am soo glad. I love my teeth now. All my friends did the normal squealy “ohmigod, you got your braces off,”⁷ provided they even noticed that I got them off⁸, and my mom told my band teacher so he felt the need to make a big deal out of it as well. At least he didn’t do it in front of the class, though. Not that I really minded the attention, but it does get old next time. I swear, then next person who says, “Did you get your braces off?” rather than just stating that I did is going to get the answer, “No, I just turned them invisible.”⁹
That’s all from my end for now. Hope everyone else is having a great time. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Well, first of all, I want to point out that I think this is the first time I’ve ever used a footnote in a title. I just thought that was kind of cool. But anyhow, I believe what I just said (wrote, typed, whatever) is Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered.” I mean, dear Bartimaeus mentioned it in passing, and I figured out the gist from the context. But I do humbly apologize if either my figuring skills are off of if Bartimaeus was just messing with us.
² For those of you who missed this the first time, estoy is a Spanish word meaning I am. Actually, it’s one of two…soy also means I am (and no, it has nothing to do with sauce), but it’s infinitive, the verb ser has more permanent meanings than the verb estar from which we get estoy. There are actually some phrases where the uses of ser and estar are opposite from what you’d think they’d be, but I suggest that if you just learned that here, you don’t attempt to speak Spanish without quite a bit of instruction.
³ For more one why I don’t like him, look a few posts down for my famous rant re: book talks.
⁴ That was sarcasm, for those of you who didn’t catch it…
⁵ Therefore, in Latin. My, you are getting an education today!
⁶ I am not going through this again. See ².
⁷ Well, okay, my friends aren’t usually squealy, but there are people who are.
⁸ There were two guys, one of them my friend’s boyfriend and one of them my band friend, who insisted that I’d never had braces.
⁹ I’ve actually already used this one once, but I think it’s good enough for another usage, don’t you agree?

Study Session Two

Estoy: Lethargic
Currently Reading: Pagan’s Crusade, by Catherine Jinks. YA adventure. 5/5 for the witty narrator!

Well, finals week is half over, and I only have one final left to take. Sadly, though, I have two days left of school. Sort of. As you may recall from my previous post *coughcoughhinthint, * tomorrow we have 4^th period finals (which for me is Spanish II), then 1^st period finals¹ and then make-ups. My only final starts at 8:30 and ends at 10:10, so I have the rest of the day off. Which means I get to come home and just chill out and laze around for the rest of the day! Then, on Thursday, we have 25-minute classes. That means early release. And then, of course, Friday we have off. Geez, I wish you’d remember these things²!
Thankfully, all of my hard finals³ are over. Or, well, I think they are. On Monday, we started out with the Health final, and that was fun. The owner of a dance studio in town came in and taught us hip-hop⁴. And although I felt like I was just stomping around the gym, (hey, it was part of the dance….) I apparently did it in style and looked like I was dancing. And I didn’t think I could dance! The only downside to that one is that I’m still sore. After that, science. I’d heard from the upperclassmen that the teacher I have⁵ didn’t really prepare you for the final, but I did fine. See, another teacher in the department writes it, and that teacher does everything from the books. In contrast, my class doesn’t have books⁶. But we had a review sheet, and I think that helped. And I’m sure I passed. I needed like, a 9% on that final to maintain an A, anyhow. Last on Monday was band…and boy, was that fun. Most of the time, we just rehearsed, but every final has to have a written part, too. So we were quizzed. The questions ranged from music terminology to whom it was exactly that Rocky fought in movies three and four⁷. Thankfully, it was graded on effort. Otherwise, I might have failed. I mean, Rocky? C’mon. That is so a boy thing! Then today, I started off the day with Global Studies. My teacher had told us that this was gonna be a reeeaaally hard test…in fact, I almost studied for this one…but it wasn’t. I finished it with like, an hour to spare. In fact, everyone finished it early, and we started watching Shrek. Good times…. I’m gonna miss that class! Second was geometry. I think I did okay on that one, too. I even double-checked my work! Plus, we were allowed a note card. In geometry, if our semester final grade is higher than one of our test grades for the semester, that test will be brought up to equal our final grade. If that makes sense. See, I find that sort of funny, since my lowest semester test grade in that class was a 93. So I’m just hoping I did that well on the final, too. Last was English. I thought this test was gonna be really hard—our teacher is notorious for being extremely picky⁸ and picking trivial questions—but it was fine. We had an easy reading/writing assessment, and then the rest was just a compilation of all the tests we’ve taken before. I mean, lazy much? The least he could do would be to pick different questions. Not that I’m complaining. Easy tests are always good.
Well, that brings you up to speed on my finals week. I hope all of you with other, normal schedules are surviving as well. This is the part of the year I like to call the “doldrums⁹.” It just seems to fit! Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ Aka those good ol’ 7:30 classes that I don’t have.
² Kudos to you if you did! Oh, and in classic Caryn style…2 points.
³ Hard being a relative term, of course.
⁴ Which I’ve always wanted to learn, coincidentally.
⁵ Whose name shall remain strictly confidential,
⁶ What with our school being the poor dump it is and all…
⁷ We had for some reason discussed that earlier in the period….
⁸ If you remember the book talk fiasco and all,
⁹ A bit of weather terminology for you there…it just means “slow” in the context I’m using it in.

Study Session One

Estoy: Stressed/Glad it’s finally Friday
Currently Reading: Nothing new, so I’ll review um, I know! Maximum Ride, by James Patterson. YA Science Fiction. 5/5. I would go 6/5 if I could. Love these books! For those smartasses¹ out there who are saying “Which one? There’s three, O Your Brilliance,” read all of them. But read The Angel Experiment first.

Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this week has been so incredibly slow for me. It somehow feels like it’s been ages since we came back after Christmas. In reality, this is the first full week (we had Thursday and Friday of last week, too). I can’t believe it! So I hope you all had a better week than I did.
Part of the reason this week dragged on so badly is, I think, because pretty much all we did in classes was review². Why would you be doing this, I hear you asking. Well, my friends, it is because semester tests are all next week. Hence the name “finals week.” I guess it could be worse…apparently the tests were not so spread out at one time. Well, here’s how we do it, for those of you who don’t know³. Each final is 100 minutes long, and we have to be in the class for that whole period⁴. So, instead of a normal schedule with classes that are 50 minutes long⁵, we get to stay in one place with one teacher for 100 minutes! Yay! But I’m sort of rambling here. Anyhow, on Monday, we have 2^nd period finals (for me, health) from 8:30 until 10:10; 6^th period finals (my science) from 10:20 until 12:00; lunch from 12:00 to 1:00⁶; and 7^th period (Band! Yay!) from 1:05 until 2:45. And then we can go home. Tuesday and Wednesday are also structured in much the same way. On Tuesday, we have 3^rd period (Global Studies), 5^th period (Geometry), and 8^th period (English I). On Wednesday, we have 4^th period (Spanish II), 1^st period (nonexistent⁷), and then make ups. So on Wednesday, I get to go home at 10:10! That has me excited. Thursday is early release, hand in books for semester classes, etc., and then Friday is no school! So all in all, I think we’re pretty well off. Minus the tests, of course. I should be studying all weekend. But the key word there is should. I probably won’t be. I may do a bit of vocab review for Spanish and maybe some stuff for Global Studies because it’s gonna be a hard test, but that’s probably it. Oh, and I’ll make my note card for geometry. But I don’t study. It’s against my morals⁸. For anyone else who has tests soon, good luck. For those of you who have already taken them, hope you did well. And for those of you who don’t have them at all, I hate you⁹. Haha.
One last note: for those of you who have been keeping up with the Caryn-Gets-Marked-Way-Down-On-Her-Book-Report-That-She-Should-Have-Done-Really-Well-On saga, I have gained back two points. I managed to convince my teacher after he watched the tape that I had in fact, told him the genre of the book and described a main character. However, I still have a lower grade than I would have liked because I didn’t inform him that I was telling him about the conflict and climax, preferring instead to launch right into it with an (in my opinion, excellent) transition. Well, excuse me for trying to make my book report sound a bit more natural and less like just a speech. As one of my friends said, “I was trying to not treat him like the dumbass he is.¹⁰” Well said. Whatever, I’m sure I’ll still pass the class. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn
¹ Be a big boy…you can handle all of the swear words. And good job if you got that quote, though I’m rather mystified as to why you would be reading that section, still. Ah well.
² Okay, not all. But it seemed like it!!
³ For those of you who do, feel free to skip that part.
⁴ Why exactly this is, I’m not sure, but all I know is that we have to be. Leave it at that.
⁵ I think…I’ve never really done the math, and I have no idea what time we get out of classes. At least, not without thinking about it.
⁶ For those of you smart enough to figure out that the little ⁶ there wasn’t part of the time…good job. As I was going to say, I’m really excited about this because we all have lunch together! Usually, I have a different lunch from some of my friends, but not next week! Yay!
⁷ A first period class starts at 7:30, and I’m not quite that motivated, at least not my freshman year. And even if I was, my dad wouldn’t let me take a class that early. I forget why, something about not pushing myself too hard. Ha! As if.
⁸ Okay, not really, but I have never really studied that much out of class. I guess I study in other classes when I’m done with work for that class, but that’s it. I haven’t failed yet.
⁹ Umm, not really, that’s just jealousy speaking. But on the plus side, I do get Friday off! Ha!
¹⁰ The same thing happened to her. For the record (and I’m not meaning to sound full of myself or anything), the two of us are two of the smartest kids in the class.

The Joys of School

Estoy: Psyched/mad
Currently reading: Every Crooked Pot, by Renee Rosen—YA realistic fiction—4/5
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak—YA adventure—5/5
Well, I’m getting back into the swing of things at school. Yesterday, I gave my book report, and it didn’t go too bad…I just had to cut a bit out to get it under five minutes. When I first got it written, I was really excited…I was sure everyone was going to want to read my book. Unfortunately, it clocked in at 13 minutes—8 minutes too long. Therefore, I had to cut out all of the fun parts as well as some essentials. Eventually, I couldn’t take anything else out, so I had to hope that I talked fast. Well, it worked a bit, but I did have to cut short my “Why I liked (and adored, revered and reread [] multiple times) this book” section. So I knew I’d be marked down for that. I thought I had pulled it off though, I really did. But apparently, my teacher is REALLY DEAF because I know I explained in a lot of detail the main character, and you’d think that saying “this book is the first in the FANTASY/ADVENTURE series…” would count as telling him the genre. And yet, he marked me down for “not doing” those things. In addition, he randomly took 4 points off my conflict and climax portions of the report (all you perverted people out there who are chuckling, knock it off) for no apparent reason. So tomorrow after class…yeah, we’re gonna have a bit of discussion about that. Because I don’t get bad grades, and I’m gonna be so mad if he messes up my GPA. Ugh! Well, that rant has pretty much expired now…(or should I say, “retired?” Haha.) What’s that? You want to know what grade I got? Uh-uh, I am sooo not telling.
Hey, guess what? We’re now dancing in gym class. I know, fun fun, eh? And for those of you who think I should like dancing…yeah, you come visit my class someday and see how you like it. Very few boys in my class can actually dance. Actually, there’s only about two: One of them is Crew (no surprises there, though) and the other one is Sam. That one actually did surprise me a bit. Those of you who know him, you probably know what I mean. Those of you who don’t…well, it’s not like he’s a horrible person, but he just doesn’t seem like the dancing type. I’ll just leave it at that. Some of the guys, however, are really fun to talk to…while they walk around in a close approximation of the dance pattern. But there is this guy in my class who, y’know, wants to know me a bit better than I want to know him. So I kinda dislike dancing with him (I didn’t have to today!), if you know what I mean. Not that I dislike him…but I just don’t like him “like that.”
Oh, and here’s a note to any guys who may be reading this: You all need to learn where a girl’s waist is! Some of you put your hands way too high, which is a bit too close to the boobs for comfort. And sometimes either gravity or hormones drags your hand down to the butt area. Waist, men, WAIST! That’s where it goes in around our stomachs! All of you girls probably know what I’m saying. You guys need to get it, now! Well, on that pleasant note, I’ll be leaving you again, so, until next time…
xxx
Caryn

Guidelines for the Holidays, Part II (on reasons to NOT take the train)

Estoy: The same as I was last time.
Currently reading: See above. Okay, I don’t read that fast, especially when I’m typing.

Due to the extremely long nature of this list, I decided to split it up. So here’s the next segment.

Number One¹: Whatever you do, whomever you’re visiting, and wherever you’re going, DO NOT take the train. Let me repeat this for those you less intelligent readers²: DO NOT take the train. Get it? Got it? Good. My family has been taking it to Minnesota each Christmas for three years now³, and not one of those years has it actually been on time. Also, we’re not exactly close to the train—the nearest depot is a good five hours away. At least, it is with my dad driving. He drives slowly. Anyhow, back to the train: It may be slightly faster than regular travel since it goes 79 miles per hour⁴ and only stops about once an hour for 15 minutes⁵, but it gets old very fast. Sure, the seats are a lot bigger than airplane ones and yeah, they have more foot room, but after five hours of sitting, your butt gets reeeeaaaally sore. The bathrooms on the train are insanely small⁶, the water has issues⁷, and the food is way too overpriced⁸. I had to deal with this for about 18 hours…and if you can do math, then you know that it is fairly impossible for a person to go 18 hours without sleep⁹. Well, not unless you’re a Meth addict, drink way too many energy drinks, or are having a sleepover. But the first two, I don’t do, and the latter is next to impossible on the train. If, by some misfortune¹⁰, you have to take the train, make sure you bring your own pillow. I had mine, but many people on the train were left pillow-less after the attendants at Chicago forgot to give us pillow covers. Secondly, if you’re spending a night on the train, try to be next to someone you now. I was next to a random lady on the way there¹¹, and it’s hard to try to not do embarrassing things when you’re asleep. I think I did okay on that one, though. As I mentioned earlier, our train has been late for the past three years. Third time’s the charm? Not so much. Unless you want to count the fact that it wasn’t as late this year—only 2 or 3 hours—but that’d be stretching it. You know, there’s only so many ways you can amuse yourself if you’re in a small town that you’ve had plenty of time to explore in the past two years. Make that too much time to explore. One year, I think it was last year actually, there was some accident further up the route were an engine braked so hard to avoid hitting a car that it flattened one of its wheels¹². A new engine had to be brought in, which delayed the train. Unfortunately, all they could get was a freight engine, which apparently can’t go as fast as an Amtrak one. The time they got to our station, they were somewhere between 5 and 7 hours behind. By the time we got to our destination, 11 hours. When you get off schedule, you have to yield to everything that’s on schedule and that sets you back even more. And that, my readers, is why, even though flying may be an expensive hassle, it is still better than the train. Until next time…
xxx
Caryn

¹ First, just to get this out of the way, no this was not there to help you with your number skills. Two points if you knew that and are therefore down here wasting your time by reading that last sentence. But, as I was going to say, it is there simply because I felt like pointing out that, since I’m feeling a bit Max-like right now, this is also numero uno! Two points as well if you know who Max is. And if you haven’t gotten many points so far…brush up, my reader. Brush up.
² Which of course we don’t have any of. Right?
³ Ever since flying got to be such an expensive hassle…
⁴ Which is faster at least than my dad drives.
⁷⁹ Okay, now this is a freebie: two points if you noticed this only cause it’s in between 4 and 5 and not because you looked down here after reading the number 79.
⁵ Okay, so maybe for normal people, driving is faster now that I look at it…
⁶ they always make me hope that no fat people are aboard; they might get stuck…that’s how small they are.
⁷ Of course it does, it’s stored in a tank under the train.
⁸ We’re talking like, 22 dollar meals here. And they’re not even gourmet!
⁹ Another two points if you came to the same conclusion.
¹⁰ i.e., your parents make you
¹¹ Because for some odd reason, my dad wouldn’t let Diana (my sister) and I sit together.
¹² I’m afraid the same thing happened to the car…life lesson number 1: do not try to cross the track when a train is coming really fast.