Inner Workings

Lovely!

2007-11-02T10:11:33Z

By the looks of it, the WGA strike is going to happen. I'm not sure how to feel about this-- I know the writers have every right to strike, and it certainly doesn't sound like they've been treated fairly, but... The Daily Show.

Ah well. I don't really have time to watch TV that much anymore anyway, what with Biology and my mother being never here. I spent the day with her Sunday and then Monday-Wednesday she went to work from 12:00pm to 11:30pm, so she slept in late (later than I went to school) so I saw her for the first time since Sunday on Thursday. She talked to me throughout the ride from school to home, then got in the car and left for Tenessee (my cousin's getting married up there.)

So I'll see her Monday.

What this means: I have seen my Biology teacher, or the Careers teacher I despise, more than I have seen my mother this week. Yes, I like to complain, but in my defense I'm very rarely away from her for that long.

ocyrus_dragono @ 2007-10-17T20:02:00

2007-10-18T00:49:45Z

I imagine I'm probably the last one to this party, but

has anybody read Twilight and New Moon (and Eclipse) yet?

Now that is a good series.

My mom got a job at Publix. She works two jobs now, and picks me up from school when she can. I ride home with a friend the other days. I don't know why she just doesn't ask me to ride the bus. Same issue with thinking I'm still six, I guess. Wow. Such an original teenager am I.

So, on her first day my dad and I went shopping so I could see her or something. I hate shopping with my dad. I go with my mom about every time, but he goes once a year at the absolute maximum. He'll tell me, "What do we need?" while I'm standing there inspecting grape tomatoes. Uh, we need grape tomatoes. I think I can handle this. I sent him off to go find meatloaf and he comes back empty-handed while I'm trying to figure out which box of Ritz are on sale and I say, "Oh, couldn't find it?" and he says, "I found it, I just thought we'd grab it on our way past." I hate shopping with my father, and I love the man. Innocent bystanders must be frustrated just by the aura he gives off.

Oh, yes, i was talking about books, wasn't I? Okay, well, Stephanie Meyers' (and yes, I guess on the spelling of peoples' names, whatsittoya?) first series/ trilogy thingy... well, it doesn't have name, but the Twilight/ New Moon/ Eclipse trilogy, the one all over the NYT bestseller lists, is amazing. Like, awesome. I don't remember the last time I stayed up til four AM reading (actually, I do: Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony takes the cake at 5:30 AM). They've got a good dose of romance, so I suppose don't read unless you're into that sort of thing, but gawd.

Anyway, I got them at Border's the other day where I spent $100 in gift cards and had my mom buy me $90 more as an early Christmas present. I bought them there, along with two of Al Franken's books (also great), America: The Book (FINALLY), The Areas of my Expertise, some book about the crap the news is feeding us, The Kite Runner, a book by the Onion (as in the paper), and Naked Pictures of Famous People, among other things. You're thinking, not I Am America (And So Can You!), Stephen Colbert's fresh-off-the-press book? No. Why? Because I preordered it, and I got to walk by a full-size image of Stephen pointing to a stack of his books my-(race)-friend-style, and not buy them. Because technically, I already owned one.

I still have Worst Person In The World and 202 Other Strong Contenders on my wish list. Not sure if I should go through the effort of getting it. No one seems to be too excited.

Oooh, I love the characters from the Twilight series. Except Jacob Black. I liked him less in New Moon. The end of that book was lovely. I still haven't bought or read Eclipse yet. :-( (I resist the urge to say Edwaaaaaaaaard. Not gonna do that.).

Hah, funny/ scary story-- my mom was watching a report (by Katie Couric, who, funny story, is not Brian Williams. Who is amazing. Even if he does read the prompter like molasses in January.) on Blackwater (not Blackhawk, mom, that's the helicopter) and she goes, "I don't know what those Iraqis are talking about. If they want us over there, they should take it. They want us there, they gotta take the good with the bad."

What.

The.

Fuck.

Seriously.

I want to reread both Twilight and New Moon now. Because I love them so much.

Also, I have midterms tomorrow. What's that? Study? What does this word mean?
And I have like two labs to prepare for in AP Bio.
WHICH I HAVE AN 81 IN YEAH HIGHEST GRADE IN THE CLASS BB.
Yeah.

TV?

2007-09-26T01:17:22Z

Heroes premiere! And Avatar ~~I guess~~.

I love Heroes. A lot. Also? I remember nothing about the season premiere except there were two new people, Matt and Molly are living together, and Nathan has a beard. Oh, and my favorite character attacked his employer.

In other news, I went ahead and took A:TLA off of my DVR. The season premiere wasn't bad, but I don't have time.

I hate AP Biology more than you can imagine.
I also hate my stupid Spanish 1 class more than you can imagine (literally, I spent all block yesterday coloring a sheet of notebook paper with a highlighter. The highlighter ran out of ink).
I hate Careers.
Geometry is tolerable, except for Wednesdays, which my teacher has dubbed FcAt WeDnEsDaY oMg!!!1!1!!

My first thought on yesterday's Countdown was, unconsciously, "Keith got a haircut. Huh." I, officially, am a loser.

The Alpha Dog on the Report was hilariously giggly. Stephen and the viewers.

I miss John Oliver. I miss correspondents. Rob Corddry. I'm going to keep pretending he's back on the show, and didn't just stop by for one piece.

Bolivia. Yay.

In non-TV news, my mother is mad at me because I was dropped off at the barn to clean my horse's stall and ride, and I cleaned all three stalls and didn't get the chance to ride. Whatever.

I question things too much.

I shouldn't have wasted this post. Pretty worthless.

Although, I should state my general need for a good fic. Pundit fandom. A good K/A works. Or whatever.

P.S.- If "the opening 9 bars to Beethoven's 9th scherzo" means nothing to you, I think it's the opening to Countdown. I don't remember exactly. It's a scherzo by Beethoven, at any rate. And it's either the opening eight or nine bars. Honestly? I know nothing about classical music (other than what I learned in 3 years of middle school band- for the record, more fun than it sounds), so there's a chance I'm just spouting something I made up without knowing it. /shuts up

The Emmys, Etc.

2007-09-17T21:27:18Z

I've seen so many entries on the Emmys. Honestly? Didn't know anyone cared that much.

EEEEEE TDS won an Emmy. :-D:-):-):-):-):-):-):-D

TONY BENNEEEEET!! (not so fun as MANILOOOOOW!!) This will rock on TCR this week. Can't wait for tonight's episode. OH WAIT, THEY'RE ON BREAK AGAIN (this time just today). Seriously, ?

Loved the Steve/Stephen/Jon reunion thing, but when you think about it, it didn't make that much sense to any non-TDS fans. And: Conan O'Brien won a writing emmy? I like Conan and I don't know where that came from. Also: just for the record, I'm lame because I didn't watch the Emmys live, and I fast-forwarded through everything not containing Jon/Stephen, so I probably missed a lot of camera cuts to them and other wins I would have liked to have known about (i.e., HEROES? Someone tell me it got something. Masi Oka or Rainn Wilson still should have taken the supporting actor thingy. On that note, is Heroes out of season break? I seriously have no idea. ).

RYAN SEACREST. :-(

WEIRD, SPAZZMATIC SHOTS TO CRAZY DISCO BALL OF DOOM. SRSLY.

Keith is sick and on break (I think? I know he missed Countdown Friday and Sunday Night Football, sooo....), too. Great. ETA: Oh. ~~I feel lame now.~~ <--BTW, that's my stupid layout's attempt at a link. Click it.

Also, my favorite general-PRT fandom fic was updated after like a month's break. May not seem notable to you, but it was first uploaded on my birthday. wEiRd.

Okay. 'Tis all.

Okay. So. 9/11.

2007-09-11T22:28:07Z

Well.

It may sound insensitive, but I put my whole take on 9/11 under a private post. So just because I'm not writing about it doesn't mean I don't care. I just... I don't know. It's too personal in a lot of ways for some people, although the tragedy as a whole is that of a nation. I didn't know anyone who died, and in some ways I don't want to sound, I don't know, overly dramatic over something that claimed so many friends when none of them were mine. If it makes sense.

In much lighter news: (spoilers for 9/10 episode of The Daily Show and 9/10 of The Colbert Report)

TDS and TCR returned from yet another two-week break yesterday. Not much I want to say, other than Rob's re-introduction was great. When I heard his voice I thought, at first, well, it isn't John O. (damn), and then I was trying to scramble to place the voice. I kept coming back to the name Rob but I was picturing Riggle, so maybe my mind had some take on who it was. Anyway, I was grinning through the whole segment and during the commerical break when I began to form coherent thought, my first one was, This is your cue, Ed Helms.

TCR: I love Brian Williams. If we can safely categorize Mr. Olbermann as being not-really-kinda-realish-news (analysis), saying he's not really an anchor, then Brian Williams is easily my favorite (real) anchor.

My mom got me a surprise random present, which turned out to be a Stewart/Colbert '08 bumper sticker. :-)

Volunteering and (Special) Comments

2007-09-05T20:52:00Z

On Tuesday, yesterday, when I was supposed to volunteer, I went in to the office and they said I hadn't yet been cleared. There's two women who work up there and one of them is the biggest biotch ever. Seriously. You can't imagine. More on bitch later.

Anyway, I go over to the guidance office to check that they hadn't cleared it, and the lady's like, we have to do a background check and that could take two or three weeks. And I'm like WTF?! Why did no one tell me this when I gave it to you, first off, and secondly, I'M A MINOR. MY BACKGROUND IS LITERALLY: I STARTED SCHOOL. I APPLIED TO VOLUNTEER. ??? And she's like, um. So, I ask if I can go see the teacher I was going to volunteer for, to tell her I can't come, and she's like, yeah, but you have to sign in in the front office. So I go over there and ask which sheet I should use to sign in on if all I want to do is go down there to tell the teacher I can't come and SooperBitch hisses, "You can't do that" and I cut her off to say, "But the people in the guidance office said..." and she cuts ME off and goes, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT." And I'm like, fuck. you.

So I went outside to wait on my mom and I keep looking down the hall, wondering if they would notice if I walked by the office and just found the teacher. But my mom was on her way, so I didn't. One of the vice principals walks by (this is at my school from last year, mind you) and they're like, "(My Name, because yay paranoia!), what are you doing here? Am I going to have to call the cops?" (that's in jest) and so we talked for like thirty seconds. then my mom picked me up and I got to a computer to email the teacher to tell her I wouldn't make it. The first two sentences of the email were, literally, "The ladies in the front office are bitchy morons. Therefore, I will not be in to help you today."

So TODAY, Wednesday, I walk in to see one of the OTHER APs, one that said they could help me. I greet this lady in the office who was holding a desk for the SooperBitch, and my mom makes some hinting comments on SooperBitch's SooperBitchiness, and the lady that's normally there and the one that isn't are both discreetly nodding their heads. I was kind of inside-smiling.

Then the AP comes to see up and she's like, "No big deal." And she signs two papers and lets me in.

When I got to the teacher's classroom she half-whispered at me, "So, they're not being bitchy morons today?"

I get The News Hole (the blog for Countdown) syndicated into my F-list, and when I read that there was a special comment I was so happy. It was a lovely speech, IMO. I haven't watched half of last night's Countdown yet: I just DVR'd it, woke up this morning and fast forwarded to the SC. (every time I read that I see "Stephen Colbert," "South Carolina," and occasionally the SportsCenter logo thingy, and I think, wait, what happened?) Anyway. Kinda makes up for the Labor Day non-Countdown. Definitely better than the Chertoff SC, and I thought that one was good. I get so excited when I hear one's coming up.

I have Geometry homework. I have an AP exam/test thing tomorrow. And I'm talking about nothing important.

Last TDS/TCR two-week break I only religiously watched TDS/TCR, but watching Countdown as well eases it. ME? WHINEY? WAT? NO WAI.

ocyrus_dragono @ 2007-09-03T21:05:00

2007-09-04T01:46:17Z

I have a sore throat.

My friend with the homework I need did not email me back, making me feel pretty much like shit.

My sister-in-law just stayed at my house for like three hours, effectively trapping me in my room as I didn't want to come out and infest her one-year-old (my beautiful niece) with my funky throat shit.

I have AP Bio homework up to my eyeballs, including the stuff I could have done without the worksheet in my locker.

Countdown, to my knowledge, didn't even air today. Whatever.

Jon and Stephen are on break.

The quirky stuff:

My family was busy working at the apartment we own (we're the landlords, but I don't know what the verb for that is), and so we just ordered Hardee's for lunch. I was reading the cups and bag because I love to read while I eat, and this is my source of amusement for the weekend:

(quote on a Hardee's cup): "Now Hardee's has thrown down the burger gauntlet." -NBC Nightly News (now, I don't watch NNN, but those of you who know the littlest bit about Brian Williams, do you agree with me when I say this was almost certainly in jest? I wouldn't put it on the cup, is all I'm sayin'.)

(...and a quote on the Hardee's bag): "There are some who say less is more but the good folks at Hardee's aren't among them." -MSNBC (okay, so the odds of this being from Countdown are very slim, but if they are then my day just got a whole lot brighter, and if it isn't then it's still pretty ridiculous. A ton of crap isn't any better than a pound of crap, no?)

I was watching something on the History Channel the other day-- it was either about clocks or inventions, but probably clocks. My family was all sitting around the dinner table talking, and I hear something in the show that struck me as pretty ridiculous, but I wasn't sure if they said it or not. I cut off my parents mid-conversation and go, "Did you hear that?" and they're like, noooo... So I find the remote and rewind it (thank you, DVR!) and this is a paraphrased but more or less accurate half-quote:

"Our ancient ancestors relied on the sun to wake them every day. But as time went on, they needed a more reliable device."

LOL HISTORY CHANNEL YOU CRACK ME UP. I LURVE YOU.

DAMMIT! SOLAR ECLIPSE! HOW AM I GONNA EXPLAIN THIS ONE TO THE BOSS?!?!

PS- Remember my Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony entry? I said Minerva (the new genius) would be mindwiped? I just finished rereading. I was wrong.

She seriosuly gets on my nerves.
A lot.

Also, the cliffhanger I talked about? Not so much.

PPS- There was an article in my local big league paper, The Orlando Sentinel (TCR fans will remember it as the publishing paper of Captain Coconut) published a small article on Stephen and his cast. I don't know the date, but it was a short, five-paragraph article on the cast and the Yellow Ribbon Fund.
Addendum to PPS- I would have died if KO signed the cast. Srsly. Ded. It would have been ugly. In a happy way.

Arrgh

2007-09-01T14:22:17Z

I forgot my AP Biology homework at school.

I'm debating whether or not I should email a friend (my only friend also in that class) to ask her for the homework, when I just emailed her like three days ago to ask if I should email the results of a quiz to my Bio teacher.

I seriously hate me some days. Most days.

But I'm excited for Tuesday, which is when I'm going in to help my old English teacher. It helps with community service hours, because I'm looking at Ivy League schools, so I need a crazy good record and crazy scholarships. Both of which require community service hours.

But what I'm really going for is the Bright Futures scholarship. I have no reason as it doesn't apply if you go out of state. And for the record, we have no Ivy Leagues in the SERIOUSLY educationally challenged state of Florida. Just in case you didn't know.

Harvard should start a traveling university. Like a circus. Only with Socratic-method obsessed professors instead of clowns with big feet.

It makes sense, though. We're a state of northern retirees. Why would we need schools?

At least, that seems to be most of our governors' (past and present) stance.

I was watching Tony Snow the other day. By the way, I only just learned today he's resigning. Why am I hearing that now? Because when Jon and Stephen are on break, the only way I hear about news is from KO. And he a. only does five stories an hour and b. IS COMPLETELY OBSESSED WITH THE CRAIG THING LOL. But seriously. Only heard about that today form Crooks and Liars. I'm so oblivious. ANYWAY, the point of this story was to tell you (me) that as my grandfather and about ten other family members and friends have died of some form of cancer or another, every time I see Snow with a little less hair I feel like crying. I don't like him, I don't like what he says or who he is or what he does, but no one deserves that. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The same goes for all the people out there with cancer.

~~me=lameandsentimental~~

<lobotomy/> YAY THREE DAY WEEKEND.

ocyrus_dragono @ 2007-08-25T15:32:00

2007-08-25T23:18:31Z

School started last Monday.

I've been bogged down with two AP Bio tests so I haven't posted, but I miss my old school. A lot. It's pretty sad, actually. I miss all my teachers, even the ones I hated, and I miss having seven classes a day instead of four, and I miss all my old classrooms, because I keep calling the buildings at my new school the wrong names, and I miss not having AP Bio. Woe, melodrama, etc.

Also-- TDS and TCR are on a two-week break AGAIN. Last time I had Washington to interrupt it, so it wasn't so bad. But as often as it seems they've been on vacation lately, KO was off last week AGAIN. Now that gets annoying. On a related note, I do not like Amy Robach. At all. By the way, it struck me as odd that they would put KO on vacation the week before the NBC showing of Countdown (which is, by the way, pretty amazing). Like, dedicated viewers of NBC are going to be all like "who's this Olbermann guy?" and it seems like they might check the show out on MSNBC. So. Y'know.

I went scalloping again last weekend. It was a pretty normal trip, but to go there you have to drive through Inverness, Florida, which TDS fans may remember from this Ed Helms bit. While driving, we passed this huge billboard that, and I shit thee not, said in huge letters "GOT COOTER?" I'm so sad we didn't take a picture but it was late and dark and the highway and my parents would probably think I was simply looking for sexual innuendos in road signs, which is entirely untrue.

That is all.

School. Again. Great.

2007-08-15T02:56:12Z

It's back-to-school, my fellow Floridians! Or at least those of you in my county. Whatever.

I went to my new school (I IZ A FRSHMIN BAYBEE!!1!) to pick up my schedule and such today. I'm not lying to you, this school is massive. And not only is it massive, it's so spread out, and all the buildings are identical. There's a central courtyard sorta thing going on, and when you stand in the center of it and look around the buildings around you are all literally the same shape, size, color. There's a small number on the corner of each building and that's it. There are four buildings which are long and thin.

BUT as a freshman I have a building where most of my classes are supposed to be. However, lucky me, as I have some Honors and AP classes, this more or less doesn't apply to me. IN OTHER WORDS... I have two classes in the freshman building and that's it. My other two are elsewhere.

My schedule:
AP Biology (God, this teacher is so tough. Or she makes herself sound like it. I'm not sure I'll survive.)
Spanish I (I'm excited about this, actually. I live in Florida, where it's kind of lame of me that I don't already know it.)
Personal Career Choices (I am actually guessing on the class name. It's seriously abbreviated on my schedule. I've heard everything from "It's a PE course" to "Community Service class."
aaand Geometry Honors (Yay math! Seriously, I like math. *geek*)

School starts Monday.
I felt like saying that so maybe I'll start believeing (holy f*ck I forgot how to spell believeing... or believing? Thank you, Merriam Webster, it's believing) it.

Today I got to the school at eightish (morning.) and got a nametag with my name and a last name on it (not my last name. Duh.) in the cafeteria and then left to the auditorium where I took a seat next to some superbly obnoxious preppy girls who screamed and giggled and yelled at people onstage. Some guy came up and talked about thank you's to people who helped put the orientation together, and this took about four years because some of the people wanted to say stuff and let me tell you, this guy loves to thank people. Anyway, after that we went to our homerooms (which, as it turns out, was the last-name-not-my-own on my nametag). We stayed in there for awhile and got schedules before leaving to go tour the campus with this really nimrodic teacher (who was subbing for my homeroom guy) and two equally silly bimbos called "student mentors." Anyway, so after that we eat lunch (pizza. I personally didn't actually eat, but sssh. Iz a sekret.) and then go back to the auditorium for some time-burning, before they let us go look at out classes.

I found my career lady first, then my math teacher, then I walked and walked and walked (okay not really) to my science teacher (who quite threateningly informed us that "This is a college sophomore class, and I'm going to treat you like college students." I don't mean to downplay the melodrama-- and mind you, i'm sure I won't survive the class-- but, just sayin', I've heard that spiel about twelve times.). Then I walked and wlaked to my spanish teacher who wasn't in her room. Then I eventually found my mother, and she made me walk it about four more times.

By the way, it is damn near impossible to find a freaking staircase on that campus. I hated that. And three of four of my classes are upstairs. Of course. Yay.

PS. I haven't watched last night's Countdown yet. I feel like crying. That's so f*cking lame, but I feel like I'm losing a grip on summer vacation when I can't watch the three shows I watch a day.
And it is, indeed, getting to be three. Beginning to think about abandoning Avatar.
WHAT ME NEVER.

John Oliver's 21 Questions

2007-08-10T18:14:50Z

John Oliver's 21 Questions with the Daily Intelligencer can be found here. Seriously, seriously funny. Makes fun of British food, which I seem to remember him doing before. Every time he mentions something about English cuisine I picture him gaining thirty pounds every time he's in America. Which amuses me. Yeah. Even if you think you've read it before... read it anyway. It sounded familiar to me, at first. From April of this year. 'Tis all.

The Beach, Etc.

2007-08-08T03:29:00Z

Okay. I've been thinking for like the last week that I have stuff to write about. Didn't bother doing it until now, so I've forgotten what all I wanted to say.

My grandmother came to town last Wednesday from Georgia where she lives. She didn't bring her husband (my step-grandfather) with her. He mostly stays at home all day anyway.

I can't remember what we did Wednesday, but Thursday I was eating lunch with a friend so my mom went shopping with her while I ate. Anyway, on Friday we took a trip to this beach that we hadn't tried before (because when you live in Florida you kind of just pick a beach at random and go to it, or if you're impressing someone you go to a nice beach {for future tourists: New Smyrna's absolutely lovely, but that's where all those shark attacks were going on, sooo...}). It's called the Indialantic (stupid name, especially if they're referring to the Indian Ocean with the India thing) and it's about a half hour (very rough estimate) south of Cocoa. Or it could be north. But I wanna say south. Anyway, the beach was an incline into the water, like a steep riverbank or something, and then about three feet into the water there was about a foot drop off. It was terrible, and there were so many shells that you would boogieboard in and you would have shells covering you in your swimsuit. And you'd get all cut up. My mom has a cut on her foot. The ocean over there is gorgeous. When I think of the Atlantic I typically think of this grayish sea, but it was a lovely blue, green in the shallows as the sea usually is. The hotel we stayed in was nice.

We left on Saturday and I made friends with this nine (or ten? She wasn't really clear. She said, "Almost ten, my birthday's soon" and when I asked her when it was she said July 16 or something. Sometime in July. It was weird.)-year-old near the pool. Her name was Amber and she was talking about how her dad set some hog traps before they left and they had to get rid of the hogs before they could come to the beach, etcetera. It was almost comical.

So then we left and got home and took showers and my two uncles came over to see my grandma and we all ate Chinese food together. Yay. Then my grandma left the next morning.

Oooh, I can talk about Countdown now. I'm waiting for my dad to relinquish the TV so I can enjoy TDS with DVR assistance (I like it better with the DVR so I can pause to do whatever.). My point is that I'm kind of burning time. I could work on my summer reading assignment. Whatever.

So I missed Friday's Countdown due to being at the beach (and I could have DVR'ed it, but at the time it was set so I set each episode to record individually, simply because I thought that if I tried to get the series I could only tape the live showing, which doesn't work as my dad hates it when I try to tape anything in primetime), so I missed Friday but Thursday wasn't bad. Certainly liked Worst Person. I'm talking about the "Worser" person, the anti-Bill O'Reilly blogger. It's really lovely to know KO has boundaries. ~~There are times he reminds me a bit too much of Bill.~~

I've watched the beginning bit of the Chicago union (and because I'm a senile moron I've forgotten the acronym) forum, the one from, I think, Soldier's Stadium (maybe? I kind of suck). It amused me that KO didn't appear to know what to do about the laughter accompanying his jokes. Now, as far as the acutal forum (repeat of I suck statement), I liked it, or what I've seen of it, although the first question asked to John Edwards (it was about how he would assure the American people that mass road closings would be worth the trouble to create a stable infrastructure in roads and bridges) was a considerably ridiculous question. If Americans are honestly willing to complain about that, they need to start watching the news. Or listening to, I don't know, people. On time for work, safety for the nation. WHICH COMES FIRST, CLASS?

Also, Chris Dodd scares me a bit. WhenIampresidentIwillrebuildmajorroadsandbridgesandtunnelsandcreatefortythousandjobsforAmericans!!!111!!1

I'm also greatly amused by the fact that most of them say "When I am president."

Also, why was TDS and TCR on break yesterday? The fandom has been doing mass headscratching. Hopefully someone will explain it???

I've missed John Oliver lately. I don't know why, as they've been using him half to death. It's like they came back from break and there was a Johnsplosion. Yeah.

Also, the John Hodgman bit was nice. The William Jennings Bryan (Brian? What is this thing called history of which you speak?) thing was hilarious. It's the sort of thing I can watch multiple times and laugh every one of 'em.

Which reminds me. Whatever date the Hodgman bit aired I lost most of TDS. Why, you ask? Is your DVR broken? Did you forget it was on? Did the world suddenly end?

Answer: My father deleted it.

Yeah.

You wanna know why?

Let me explain.

I came out of the office at about 11:10 to get some water and make sure TDS was recording, which is something I have never, ever done before. So I look and the little "RECORDING" light on the DVR isn't on. So for a minute I think what day is it? and is there a rerun tonight? And I know there isn't, so I take the remote from Dad (I asked, yes) and look at it and it was set to record, but it was deleted. TCR is still scheduled to record, as is that night's Countdown.

I turn to Dad, half-disbelieveingly, and say, "Did you-- did you delete my recording?"

"Yeah," he says, like it was natural.

"Why?"

"Cause something else was recording." (now, two things can record at once on a DVR, but you have to be watching one of the channels. Therefore, if I was recording TDS and my mom was doing something else, Dad couldn't have watched his show. The only problem with this theory is...)

"Nothing else was recording at 11:00 when TDS came on."

"Yeah, it was. The little box thingy came up and it said that something else was recording," he answered, rather lamely, in my opinion.

So, I quickly set TDS to record the remaining twenty minutes, because I can see this is going to be a discussion. "Why didn't you at least call me out here?"

He goes, "It takes you like forty minutes to come out. I had like forty seconds to decide."

"Why didn't you delete it and then call me out, then?"

He's got no answer for this, which is basically what I expected, as his defense is asinine in that it's entirely nonexistent.

This quickly escalates to the point where I call him an ass and he sends me to bed, etc. The next morning my mom wakes me up and I'm sure she'll be mad to hear I fought with him, and she's like, "I heard what happened. He shouldn't have done that."

I'm like, "Yeah," because it was pretty doucheish.

(I just remembered: am I the only one who thinks that if Tucker weren't on MSNBC he would consistently be the Worst Person?) ~~moving on...~~

My mom says, "I was really going to hold his feet to the fire for that. I was about to get him, and then he told me you called him an ass. You can't do that. Say it under your breath instead. He got off easy because you had to say that."

That's about what my mom said. It kinda felt good. Calling him an ass and all that.

Well, it's about 11:00. I'll leave for now and flip my TV to TDS.

Fox News

2007-07-27T02:01:47Z

In the words of Stephen Colbert, "Oh my f*ck."

My mother really is quite sad.

I came in to her office in her workplace today (my family owns the business, therefore I roam about quite freely (like a Canadian moose), it's not like, y'know, I just kinda showed up) and she was watching something on her computer, something playing quite loudly and all shouty and stuff and I looked over her shoulder-ish and you know what it was?

No, not a porno video, but that reminds me that i have something else to say.

No, not people being tortured, although I was about to be.

Take a guess. A wild guess.

It was, and prepare yourself, Hannity and Colmes.

That's right.

Yeah.

The very same Hannity and Colmes from Fox News.

I don't think you understand.

My mother.

Was watching.

Fox News.

Watching.

Fox.

News.

Holy f*ck.

I don't have any problem with a conservative bias, nothing at all, but when any view is screamed at you like you're a pile of obnoxious dung (and no, I don't scream at dung, but whatever) then, you know, it loses all manner of intelligence or worth, and I really think that there's a lot of things the people over at Fox News say that doesn't truly line up with the average conservative citizen. I know Bill O'Reilly, at least, says some pretty outlandish things, and I also know that if the equal-but-opposite-version of those things were said by the liberal version of O'Reilly, I wouldn't stand by it. Also, I think that i listen to the other side when they try to get a point across, a feature which I haven't heard from Fox.

You know, I'm not really astonished by people watching Fox, but there's something about it being my mother. Like watching one of your heroes go to a hotel with a whore. Like, you knew people did it, and although you never understood it, you always thought whatever, at least they're not out murdering people, and you never thought that they'd do it but suddenly you realize they do.

It's really weird. I was so... disgusted. My mother didn't seem to understand why.

I dunno. She doesn't seem overly partisan to me.

It makes me wonder how I aqcuired my liberal bent. You know, kids are typically raised to their parents' views. I wonder if that's merely because I wasn't raised with political discussion flying around the dinner table. My parents didn't talk about their views. I remember once, when I was young, my mother loosely explaining the political party system to me, and when I asked what party we belonged to (and I used "we", as a family, rather than "she", representing herself and only herself, excluding me) and she answered Republican. That's about the extent of the politics I was raised by. I wonder if that was a good thing. I truly think it gives the kids a chance to learn what they like, becaue I have found one or two kids at my school who seem so bent to their parents' views, politcally, morally, intellectually, spiritually... the list goes on. I was raised in a family that did not tolerate argument but encouraged talking, civil, open discussion. I think that's taught me that although it's okay to share ideas, it's not okay to force them, and I think in a lot of ways that anti-argumenting rule (and by argumenting I mean my parents forcing their equally conservative but sometimes differing views on each other) allowed me to grow up without much pull towards my parents' bias (I refer to it now, the bias, not in a negative way, but stated as fact. We are all biased, even centrists, in some way.). I think if I had heard them talking forcefully to others about conservatism I would have thought it was necessary, expected. But political discussions, when there rarely were any, would be typically just that: a discussion. I think it taught me that, as I said, I was allowed to share views, but I was also allowed to question views: even my parents', just as they questioned each other's.

My mother says by age 30 I will associate myself with conservatives, and label myself a Republican.

I disagree. Raised in the Bush era, I doubt I will ever gain a rightwing bent.

All right, now that that's out, remember a few hundred words ago I said "No, not a porno video, but that reminds me that i have something else to say."? Now I'll finally finish that point, and return to my typically rather ditzy tone.

Okay, so I was on the hated Motherload on Comedy Central, watching the newest John O. segment (the one about the CNN-Youtube debates about the drinking kids and John O. pretends to be Demteri Martin and presents Political Trendspotting and where John and Larry and Jason and Sam come in and hump the ottoman? yeah, that one), and when it was over my mom comes in and she's like, "What were you just watching?" and it was like, greeaaaat. First I was a little annoyed she would not trust me enough to feel that she has to stand at the door and watch me. Then I noticed the complete lack of logic could only bring on a statement like that. Here's why:
a. I stay up about two to three hours after my parents go to bed.
b. I'm often at home by myself to clean the house.
c. If I were watching porn, I think I would find a better time to do it than when they were both awake and at home.
d. If I did watch porn, it probably wouldn't be of people in business suits. In fact, I daresay it would somehow involve PORN OF SOME KIND WTF.
e. No offense, TDS correspondents, but you don't appear to have the best figures in the world (although has anybody else noticed John O. is about as fat as a beanpole? Seriously. Watch him when hes humping the doorjamb. Also, if you watch his legs the whole time in the Language Burier segment where he was teaching English, there's one point where his pants make him look rather bowlegged. It's quite silly. And I am not an obsessive fangirl, no no.)

So I had to briefly think whether I would like better to say, "Mother, I have a confession. I am so completely turned on by people three times my age in business suits humping ottomans that I can't resist the temptation to constantly be watching it, even when there's a chance you may walk down the hall and glance in and see me." or "It's a satire news show. They were making fun of our lack of culture and intelligence."

So. Anyway.

I had something else I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember what. I'll add it later. I'm so lazy I don't think I'll bother to spellcheck. Maybe I'll use the time saved by not spellchecking by picking out an icon OH WAIT THAT DOESN'T MATTER SINCE YOU CAN NO LONGER SEE MY ICONS. Thank you, beautiful but impractical layout. You're like a hunky magazine underwear model. I'd like to see one who can count to twenty without taking his shoes off.

EDIT: I remember the other thing that I wanted to talk about which was, basically, HOLY CRAP HAVE I SERIOUSLY BEEN ON LJ FOR A YEAR?! That's seriously amazing to me. You can't imagine. I still feel like such a stupid n0ob without friends. I'm lurking in about ten comms, I should start commenting now. Especially in the TCR and TDS ones where I would love to have someone listen to me squee every time John O. pops up on the screen. Speaking of, his latest segment on the London flood was hilarious for all the wrong reasons. I loved the laugh after he "swung over to the minute hand". His most obvious break yet, methinks. Pretty bad budget they must give TDS, to have a graphic like that.

Mood Theme yay

2007-07-25T06:07:09Z

Making headway on the mood theme (which, by the way, is not normal and therefore not of only one person but a medley of 98% Stephen Colbert and the other 2% Keith Olbermann and Anderson Cooper. They'll be sharing that with Jon and maybe John (Oliver) soon.) I was going to use accomplished for the mood on this entry but I realized I don't have one yet. So I'll use happy, which is way more adorable than anything I could come up with for "accomplished."

P.S.- The John Oliver segment on TDS about Demetri Martin and the CNN- Youtube debates was f*ing amazing. IMHO.

EDIT: All right, so I quite obviously have this new layout for my journal which is, obviously, a lot better than the tan brownish thing I had before, but what the f*ck is up with not being able to see your damn icon? You don't understand how much that's going to annoy me.

By the way, I'll change the mood to "devious" just so you can see the lovely John Oliver. I might post an entry about him soon. I'm very much in love. Such a fangirl am I.

EDITEDIT: Decided to stop using the theme until I've finished it. What can I say, I like to change my mind.

Dreams

2007-07-24T15:05:14Z

Okay, so dreams are a really weird thing to talk about, I guess, and I don't usually talk about them anyway, but since I've had three of them in the past week, I'll do it anyway.

Dream 1: All right, this was about a week ago, and I was in a big building that had a lot of hallways and stuff, and I kept walking down the hallways. I remember passing security checkpoints a few times, so I think that I thought at first that I was in an airport or something, even though the small hallways were more of a office building sort of thing. Eventually, and the details on this are a little fuzzy, some guy led us through a room about the size of an average bedroom or larger, and over to an elevator. I turned around before I got in the elevator to look at the room, and it was pretty messy, although I don't remember any of the things in it, other than a box. The box was at my feet, and I looked down at it and on it, written in black marker, was "Haanity." Like Sean Hannity, only spelled with a double "a" and without the other "n." ~~(there are two "n"s, right?)~~ So I think I woke up about now, and this is weird, but for the life of me I couldn't remember whether Hannity and Colmes was on MSNBC or Fox. I know that's rather stupid, but I thought for awhile Joe Scarborough (and I'm almost sure that's spelled wrong) was on Fox. But I say that because if I was in MSNBC studios and had to end up in an anchor's dressing room (that's what it was, I remember seeing a door out to the side with what looked like a bathroom, like a place to put on his makeup before the show, although I would imagine they have a separate room for that... shows how much I know about broadcasting), why the hell couldn't it have been KO's? And secondly, I've never even watched Hannity and Colmes. I've never even seen a clip from it, aside from TDS and TCR's mockery. Seriously. Was this supposed to be an omen? You know, "WATCH HANNITY AND COLMES!!!" It was really, really weird.

Dream 2: This is the bazooka-wielding Japanese guy dream from the scalloping trip. This is kind of a long one, but I won't go into detail.
Okay, my family was on a trip or something (presumably scalloping, although my father was with us in the dream) and when we got home I looked at the front door and saw something amiss with the lock. I didn't say anything, but when we got inside I went to the back door and it was like that, too. So I told my mom that there was somebody in our house, and she's like, "No, that's impossible." So somehow I got back outside (this part is really fuzzy) and I don't know where my parents are, maybe still in the house. Somehow I know by now that there is a Japanese guy with a bazooka in my house, or at least a Japanese murderer, because at this point I distincly remember knowing what I was calling 911 about other than my locks being funky. The guy may have already bombed a car, I dunno. Anyway, I call 911 (I have a cell phone, I guess, although mine is never with me in real life), and the thing with the insurance happens, it goes kind of like this:

911 Operator: Hello, this is 911 (in the same way you would say, Hello, you've reached Steve, how can I help you?). Would you like coverage? Available is: (amazingly long list of health insurance providers)

Me: Um, what is (name of insurance company)? What coverage?

911: Health insurance coverage.

Me: What? There's an emergency! There's a murderer in my house!

-conversation drifts off-

Okay, so after this I distinctly remember two police cars pulling up on the street in front of my house and the Japanese guy leaning out my parents' bedroom window with a bazooka and shooting both the cars. I don't remember how I knew the guy was Japanese, and not Chinese or Taiwanese or Vietnamese, but that's what he was. He might have actually been Korean, in reference to the VT shootings, but I guess I thought he was Japanese (my bazooka guy, not the VT guy.) I don't know.

I think I woke up right about now. I don't entirely remember, I just know I was hiding throughout all of this.

Dream 3: This was a good one. It took place at my school (old school now, as I'll be a freshman next year!) and I was in science class to start. I hated my science teacher, so I probably wasn't paying attention. I remember leaving this class and going down to my English teacher's room and I talked to her throughout the rest of the five minute class change, so I was going to be late to my next class, which is fourth period. I remember telling my English teacher that I had "either writing or politics" next (it must have been the first day of school, for me not to know my next class but to know who taught it and where it was. Also, for the record, "writing" isn't actually a subject at my school. We have Language Arts/ English and Reading. Period. Of course, for the record, politics wasn't a class, either.) Now normally this would have been Geography/ American History, and I'm headed in the right direction. I even pass right by my geography teacher's room, and I see him picking up the doorstop and going inside (the break being over, and he usually stands outside with the door open-- actually pretty realisitc). Then I go to the next door over, which, and I'm not lying to you, says, "Mr. Olbermann" on the door. Now I normally would have done a fangirl dance, but in my dream this all seems pretty normal. I open the door and there's a really small class in there of about ten people, and, yes, Keith Olbermann sitting over to the right of them. Nobody really seems to be doing much of anything, although I kind of remember KO being occupied with something. Nobody's swooning over Keith, either, and neither did I. He looked up and said something to the effect of "you're late," which was pretty obvious, and I said, "I was talking to Mrs. (English teacher). She said to give you this." (obviously something about an excuse for my being late). I handed him a manilla envelope (ooh, the mystery!) and he opened it and looked at it and I think I went and found a seat, and he looked over at me and kind of smiled while frowning in the way people do when they find something silly and says, "And why did she send me this?" and I go, "I haven't the faintest idea." (which is definitely something I would say.) He gives that "whatever" look like he does on Countdown and rips the thing in half and flings it in the air like a script. And of course I choose now to wake up, as opposed to him actually teaching me anything about his writing or politics (not necessarily his, just politics), both of which I would be happy to be taught by KO as I like both his writing and his general knowledge on politics (and history).

In other news, I'm thinking about making an anchor mood theme, using Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and then KO. Maybe include Anderson Cooper. Of course this raises the problem that I have no idea how to make a mood theme. How do you know how large a picture is? Whatever. I'll google tutorials or something.

Scalloping

2007-07-23T01:04:13Z

We left Saturday morning for the west coast (that's the west coast of Florida, Gulf of Mexico) and got there pretty early. Both my uncles were there-- that is, my uncle Paul and his wife, and my Uncle Damon and his three kids, who, because I don't care that much about them, will be called B, Z, and J, by their first initials. My mother and I went; my dad stayed home. Basically we got out of the car, loaded our stuff on the boat, and cast off.

We headed down the Homosassa River to the ocean and headed south, probably about 1 or 2 miles, though again, I suck at distances. While we were dropping anchor somebody spotted a jellyfish, which is not good. At all. We scallop every year, and one year they were so bad you had to swim with a partner so one of you could look down at the seagrass beds for scallops and one could be looking into the current for the jellyfish. And that same year, we threw out a tow rope and dragged some snorkeling people (from our party) along behind us (going slowly) so they could look for a good place to drop anchor and scallop, and the propellor chopped up the jellyfish so tiny bits of them were hitting the people behind the boat, effectively stinging them on every available surface of their body. ANYWAY, this year they weren't qute so bad, about normal. The scallops weren't that great, so we were quickly getting back in the boat to find a new place.

We headed a little west (maybe?) and dropped anchor; nobody saw any jellyfish. The scallops were great here, I was literally getting six at a time and my mom had to open my bag my hands were so full. We limited out (the maximum number of scallops you can get per boat is ten gallons) in probably forty five minutes, although B, Z, and J were essentially worthless as far as collecting scallops goes. We sat for two hours or so and cleaned them, so they were ready to be cooked.

Then we motored back down the river to the springs to enjoy the cold fresh water. It was really great.

We went back to our hut thing that we were renting and my uncle Damon and B, Z and J left. They took a lot of the scallops.

We went to bed and slept. I had a dream this night that a Japanese car bomber lived in my house. It was weird as hell. I called 911 to tell them (in my dream) and before they asked me for my emergency they asked if I would like to buy health insurance. Obviously whatever part of me creates dreams has a really nice sense of humor.

Okay, day two found me waking up late. My cousin and her fiancee were there. We ate breakfast and went out. The sky was pretty dark, but somebody had been watching the Weather Channel and said it should move south, so we half-drifted down the river to give it time to move off. We went out, and headed north. Nobody saw jellyfish, so we got n. Turns out, there were jellyfish, and my mom got stung on her shoulder pretty bad. It was weird, there would be one drifting by, and then another right after it. Then there would be a five minute break, and then two more. Jellyfish travel in pairs since when...? Anyway, the scallops here were completely average. I did bad today, for whatever reason I just wasn't finding any (well, I completely filled my bag, but it seemed like I didn't do as well.) Anyway, we limited out in one or two hours, cleaned scallops, and went in. We loaded the cars and left, then went to a car wash to rinse the salt off the boat.

That's about it. We got about a bag of scallops out of it, and they're delicious. I had a ton of fun, too.

In other news, I'm thinking of starting to do my own recaps of TDS and TCR. If I do that, I'll make those entries private, just so no one's F-list is bothered. I don't know why I bothered saying all this.

Not going to bother spell checking this. Evil me.

EDIT: I HATE EVERY F*CKING ASPECT OF THE MOTHER F*CKING *SS SUCKING ITUNES. RAAAWR. I JUST LOST TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS WORTH OF THE DAILY SHOW. I HATE ITUNES. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Random Things

2007-07-17T04:40:43Z

A lot of little things have been going on. Decided to write them all down because some of them make me uberhappy.

Arranged in orderly list form. Spoilers for the 7/16 episode of TDS on numbers 6, 7, and 8. Spoilers for 7/17, 7/18 and 7/19 (TDS and TCR) in the edits after 10.

1. Installed new windows in the house (took 3 days, most certainly did not make me uberhappy and was, furthermore, not at all fun.)

2. Mourned over a lack of TDS/ TCR.

3. Watched my first full episode of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and have considered taping it forever and ever amen. (is it bad I watched my first on Friday the 13th? Creepy.)

4. Was sick to stomach. Did not make me happy.

5. FGKLJNMDFGRT COMPLETELYFREAKEDOUTNEWEPISODESOFJONANDSTEPHEN FTW!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!11oneelevenonethousandyone!!!!!!!!11111 (seriously, I was talking to Jon in high-pitched squeals in the opening bit of TDS.) As a relatively new it-getter, this was my longest break evar. Nearly died. I have heard rumors of a past three week break and to the old fans: I mourn for your past breakyness. I feel selfish with all this. Hope they all had a great two weeks.

6. JOHN OLIVER YaY!!!!!111!!!1!!1!!!!!11 (the "And how about 'I'm allergic to penicillin'" was fantastic.)

7. Was I the only one who slept through the TDS interview? What he said sounded interesting, but not the way he said it. The guest, for the record, was Josh Rushing.

8. Second rate toss nooooo. JOHN OLIVER MAKES UP FOR YOUR (FEW) MISTAKES, TDS!!

9. YaY Stephen ish back!

10. GENERAL FANGIRL SQUEEFULNESS. And I would give my soul to Viacom if:
                                   a. there is a John Hodgman bit sometime this week (2nd favorite correspondent FTW)
                                   b. there is one amazing toss
                                   c. Stephen says something on the Michael Chertoff bit. SERIOUSLY, Stephen, does Keith have to spell it out for you? He even gave you a mini-rant! ~~(because in my mind all of my fandoms are connected)~~
                                   d. there is one AMAZING, Martin Short-ian level of memorable, interview on one of the shows.
                                   or
                                   e. Stephen suffers one character break of Filliam H. Muffman proportions.
                                   EDIT: Aaaaaall right, it is now 7/17 and we have: c., the Chertoff bit (stomach-o-meter yay), and kind of e., a character break ("flap-jacked diplomasmy?" Really, Stephen? What a beautiful break. He looked/ acted like he'd done it before in the IHOP bit, too), although it might not have been Filliam H. Muffman proportions. As a sidenote, anyone else a little annoyed over TDS doing the exact same bit about the pipe fittings and the new surgeon general that TCR did, only with actual pipes? It was a wee bit annoying. So, Viacom, we need a and b (and maybe d?) before you get my soul. Come on now, Sumner!  All right, must go watch the Countdown.
                                   EDITEDIT: Now 7/18 and can we consider the Mellencamp interview to be d.? I very much think so. It was a bit like Tom Robbins for awhile, and then that whole... well, whatever the end was. And a SECOND John Oliver/ Olivier bit kind of makes up for the current lack of Hodgman. Although I'd still love to see my hobo expert. Also, I have a fetish for Aasif. He's nearly as funny as John O., without the shoutingish awkwardness that sometimes comes with John O. But I still have a crazy strong fangirl crush on John Oliver, so Aasif will have to do with third, behind Hodgman. (also, I know there's people who don't like John O., but you have to admit that when he's funny, he's damn hilarious. Or I think so.) -end of fangirl stupidity spiel- Shall shut up and go watch Countdown now.
                                EDITEDITEDIT: 7/19, the last day of the week, and the toss was, I'll admit, pretty good. So, basically, only a. is left but WHATS THIS HOMFG THERES ANOTHER JOHN O. SEGMENT?1!11?!?111?! WHY DOTH VIACOM REWARD ME SO?!1!!!!!1!!!1111! And Aasif again, too? For the love of Bejeezus, Comedy Central, out of FOUR DAYS TDS airs, THREE of them involved John O. WTF?! Admittedly, this is all a very happy headscratching, in that the third time he came on I was about to have a John O.rgasm (copyright me, 2007. Or maybe a Johrgasm? Jorgasm? Somebody come up with something), but this is really weird. You know, I was reading Wikipedia (-cringe-, I know) the other day and it said that although Dan Bakkedahl was originally hired to replace Stephen as a correspondent, for all intents and purposes that duty's fell to John O., namely because, well, more or less everybody loves him. I know Wiki isn't a good source for reality or sometimes even Wikiality, as they contradict themselves muchly, but I'd never heard this. I knew 4/5 of TDS fans liked John (and the other 1/5 hated him passionately) but I didn't know he was considered Stephen's replacement. Whatever. In other news, I've already done my Countdown-watching for the night, and the top sound byte was the Simpsons creator on TDS talking about how he had to take down the fake Simpsons newsreel because the Fox viewers might mistake the cartoon news for real news. Now, I read somewhere that the Countdown has a staff of only 10-12 writers (which may very well be wrong), and chances are it's one of these guys who found it, but when you think about everything KO contributes himself (or at least I seem to be under the impression of such), the chances seem just as great that, and here I go intertwining my interests, KO is an it-getter. Yeah. Just like when the idiot from the Report was one of the worst people in the world. So why don't you all run along and entertain yourselves with that notion? (and he seemed pretty comfortable in his Report interview...) PS- Am I the only one that thought that that was an amazing Special Comment?

11. Also, getting kind of tired of waiting for the new Avatar season. Would I dare abandon a fandom? -shifty eyes.-

Will have Washington pictures posted soon. Maybe. Probably not. Okay then.

P.S. Love!icon.

DC-- Introducing: The Longest Entry Ever

2007-07-08T02:35:30Z

It's all behind the cut. Only read if you have a few weeks to spend at the computer.

Note: I have a LOT of references in here to pictures. They're not in here yet because I'm tired and a procrastinator and I'll do it tomorrow. Maybe. EDIT: pictures added October 6, 2007. I have more, I might add them later.

Just for the record, this isn't entertaining because I can't write. Mostly it's so I can look back and remember the trip, not really for anyone to sigh at my descriptions of places or things. That's not to say you aren't welcome to read it!

Day I (with some pictures!!) Sunday, July 1st, 2007

The plane left at about 7:30 am which required waking up at about 3:30-ish. This is my third time riding on a plane, so I'm not nervous but I'm not exactly in my element. No major problems, but the airport was packed and security was hellish. We ate a granola bar before we got on the plane (because when you wake up at three you don't want breakfast) and we were the first ones boarding, more or less. We sat in the very back row (this is my parents and myself, when I say "we") and I got window. Taking off was fun (regular travellers roll eyes) and the rest of the ride was uneventful. Didn't see much land, but my dad would every few minutes go, "I think that's Chesapeake Bay." Flew over heavy cloud cover a lot of the second half.

It was only about two hours and we touched down a few minutes before schedule. The runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport was hellishly (I make up my own words) short. The braking was wild.

Anyway, arrived at airport and the hotel came with a shuttle bus and picked us up. We went back to the hotel (which was actually really nice) and dropped all our stuff off in a vault that kind of looks like a broom closet (not actually a vault, but pretty high-class for a coat room) and we sat around figuring out what to do. I don't remember this so well, but I imagine we caught the metro (which we could not figure out for like a half hour) to Union Station (pictures of this beautiful building following shortly) and caught the trolley tour, because we're crazy good tourists.

Union Station Pictures:

This is a statue in front of the station. Union station is directly to the right of where this was taken.

Yes, I am an non-photographer, how could you tell? Exterior of Union Station. The statue is basically at about 10:00.

This is a very dark picture of one of the guards on the interior of Union Station. The shield in front of him is called a vanity shield, because orginally he came without one, and no clothes, either, so the sculptor had to put them in. I'm no artist, but that sounds difficult. Used this picture instead of the brighter ones because you can clearly see the bird that somehow flew in. On his head. See, that's funny to me.
The trolley took us to the Lincoln Memorial, where we got off and like good tourists shot a picture every 3-4 steps. The Lincoln Memorial was definitely among my favorite things in DC. No tickets. If anyone's planning on going there, don't miss this one. Beautiful view of the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool from here (though, for the record, you can see the Monument from a lot of places in Washington).

Lincoln Memorial:

No, I do not know anyone in this picture. The Washington Monument is behind us, or, more specifically, the reflecting pool of the Washington Monument is directly behind us.

This is a moving place. Even with screaming toddlers and noisy people on cell phones. The words above Lincoln's head say, "In this temple/ as in the hearts of the people/ for whom he saved the Union/ the memory of Abraham Lincoln/ is enshrined forever."

Washington Monument:

I do not know anybody in the picture (I won't post any pictures of myself online, so don't bother looking for me). This was most likely taken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I don't remember, these were only posted about three months after having actually gone to Washington. Also, the small spots in the reflecting pool are ducks. If you can see this image large enough (I don't think it can be seen in this version), the White House is a little bit visible from behind the Monument (at least, I think it's the White House, it could be the Capitol with the dome completely obscured). By the way, we are technically on the Washington Mall right now. The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Korean War Memorial are out in the trees on the right side of this picture; the FDR Memorial is roughly at 2:00 (not very close, but within walking distance).

We hopped back on a different trolley that took us to Arlington, one of the few major things to do in the area that we didn't. We did not get off here, but took this trolley back to the Mem'l (Lincoln) and caught the next trolley and we went past the Cherry Blossom-on-the-Potomac area (making up names for places now) where the FDR Mem'l is (didn't stop here right now but we did go back, more on it later) and eventually ended up in downtown Washington (I know I'm not giving this much detail, but I don't remember these first few days that well) where we walked about two or three blocks to Ford's Theatre.

Now Ford's I'll describe to you because we took no pictures of it and since it wasn't at all how I pictured it I think some of you might want to know, too.

Ford's, for those of you who don't know/ fell asleep in fourth grade history, is the place where A. Lincoln was shot by John W. Booth while watching the comedy (I think?) My (Our? Sorry. Maybe I fell asleep in history.) American Cousin. Now the theatre was about half the size I pictured it to be. It had a very small entry room, about the size of two largeish closets, where the rangers now have a desk. (Rangers= National Park Service Rangers. The NPS owns the place, I think?) If you enter through the door on the right of the double closet room, to your left is a spiral staircase leading up and a small doorway leading down to the basement/ museum/ bookshop. There is a door directly in front of you, and when you go through it you are on the ground floor of the theatre and there is a section of chairs to your right and two to your left. There is a ceiling relatively close over your head, as it's the bottom of the balcony above you. There is only about fifty feet (very rough estimate, I suck at distances) between where you are and the stage. If you walk out a little more you see that there is a small window (actually large by window's standards, small by theatre box standards) on either side of you above the balcony. The one to your right is adorned with two American flags and the picture of George Washington. The ranger informed us that this is what it would have looked like on the night of the shooting. (Obviously this is the presidential box). I am about 80% sure that there are two balconies over your head, but that makes the theatre sound larger than it is. The top is just benches and stuff, and I'm almost sure the lower of the two isn't tiered at all. It's really a small theatre, at least I thought so.

That's about it. I don't consider Ford's a must-do, but it's weird to know that you are sitting looking at where President Lincoln was shot. I swear, I could see Lincoln slump in the chair, and I could hear Booth's gun. Maybe I'm just a freak. Whatever.

I did get some pictures of the outside, apparently, so scratch that:

This is the outside. I just noticed all those people lined up; I have no idea what they're waiting on. That isn't Ford's. Do you see the streetlight in the picture? (Not the traffic light, the streetlight) Okay, well right to the right of it on the white wall is a sign? It says Ford's Theatre, and I mention it because we've got a picture of it, too. Also, to the right of that is a door, in which a man is standing? That's the entrance.

I didn't think I had a picture of this. At any rate, that's the presidential box. The two (I knew I had that right) balconies can be seen. The white lump is somebody's hat. This still doesn't do that much justice to the size of this theatre.

Left Ford's and walked a little to the International Spy Museum where we briefly asked about tickets and stuff and then we left. Nothing important happened there.

We went back to the trolley stop to take the third trolley line, which is the loop past the National Cathedral (really a cool building, maybe not a DC must-see but def. worth your time.) We went down Embassy Lane or whatever and our tour guide would go OnourleftistheembassyofGreatBritainonourrightistheembassyofZimbabweonourleftistheembassyofRussia etc, etc. It was quite funny. (BTW the embassy of Canada is like huge and it's only the 4th largest there. o.O They even have a fountain representing Niagara Falls.)

Rode past lovely Dick Cheney's abode which was flanked by trees and security guards and all manner of ostentatious self-protection. In fact, I couldn't see it at all. Sorry for all those disappointed. I wouldn't be, but whatever floats yer boat.

That was about it for Day I. Not much was done. Basically rode back to the hotel and slept for awhile.

Day II Monday, July 2nd, 2007

Started off by going into Crystal City shops (stayed at the Crystal City Marriot, and below it is a bunch of shops above the metro but still underground) and eating breakfast at a place called Philadelphia Mike's, which was pretty good and served us breakfast like every day. Navigated the feared-by-tourists Metro (my Dad found it especially daunting) and made it to the National Air and Space Museum. For those of you who don't know, this is the most popular of the sixteen (I think? I've heard eighteen and fourteen. Nobody knows!! -creepy music-.) Smithsonian museums.

Entered the back way (didn't know that at the time) and went through the second security checkpoint in as many days. The security guys here were really nice. Actually, they were everywhere, especially at the National Archives. (Where I had one direct me to a game and explain how to play it and everything. Thank you, Mr. Guy!) There was one moody one at the Holocaust Museum, but whatever. ANYWAY, that put us more or less near that gallery thing with all the hanging planes (sorry to those of you who have never been, I suck at describing things). We went and bought IMAX tickets and wandered around looking at stuff, but reading about it is damn near pointless because they literally try to cram as much information into you in one exhibit as is physically possible. I got all excited over the Command Module Columbia from the Apollo 11 flight because I did a report on it for a twentieth-century project I did (one of those year-round projects that seem like they'll never end). It looked NOTHING like I imagined it, but whatever. We wandered around and went into IMAX after awhile. The first one we watched was about Fighter Pilots, and it was really cool. It was a little gushy at times, but good. The second was Adrenaline Rush, which in my opinion was a little lame. It was about basejumpers and parachuters. They tested Da Vinci's parachute, which was really interesting, and SPOILER SPOILER it worked. SPOILER SPOILER.

We looked at almost everything in the Air and Space, but like I said, it's really for people who love heavy-duty learning. And it's not that I don't like learning, or I'm all that stupid, but this museum, guys, is packed. You couldn't fit a needle in there. You can't read on the dimensions of Amelia Earhart's plane (second story, fyi) when you have people pushing you and tugging you. I think it would be a fascinating museum if it were dead empty, but otherwise it's kind of easy to get bored, especially if you came there to learn. Now, it's another thing entirely if you came there to look at stuff, because they have some really cool planes. But as far as learning, this Smithsonian was too crowded. On the other hand, I'm not that interested in Air and Space, so I think that I didn't have as much enjoyment as some airplane geeks will. Do I recommend it? Well, it depends on what you expect and what you like.

We stopped for lunch in a cafe outside the museum (but still on the property, it was part of the food-courtish thing) and I ordered the most disgusting vegetable panini ever, which my Mom had to eat. My parents ordered a chicken salad, which they took to mean a salad with chicken, but was actually a chicken salad. So they had pretzels in their backpack, so they had pretzels and chicken salad (the chicken salad kind, not the salad with chicken kind) for lunch. yeah.

So there was a huge ticket fiasco over the ride thing and in the end they refunded them. Okay, so the AnS museum has two rides, a Simulator and an Interactive Thing (fyi the Simulator sucks, don't waste the money) and the line for the Interactive was like two hours and we didn't have that much time to spend because we still had to go to the International Spy Museum that day, so we decided not to ride it. My mom was shopping for a souvenir for someone back home, and when my dad and I found her we told her what happened and she nearly blew a gasket, what with losing all the money and all. So she said that somebody had better go get her a refund, which she didn't expect to happen as my dad and I are both notoriously quiet and get nervous when the word conversation is mentioned. But I've grown up since I was six (the age my mom thinks I am) so I got us a refund, and she was all amazed and proud and happy. I tried to tell her that it wasn't challenging, even for me, but she just kept gushing. Whatever.

We spent most of the day in there, but then we ran out to the International Spy Museum. We were able to get tickets and go right in, if I remember correctly.

Now, it starts by giving you an alias that you're supposed to memorize (this isn't necessary, future visitors)and you go in to some sections on disguise and weapons and stealth and escape and a bunch of other stuff and it shows you all this stuff like a buttonhole camera and bugs the size of a pinhead and an umbrella gun (which made me squee because I'm a secret Mythbusters junkie) and these four sections or so are really cool. Then for about the next ten rooms or so you keep expecting to come to an exit sign but it is elusive and you begin to feel like you're in a neverending tunnel, albeit a very interesting tunnel. Okay, so the three of us were walking along noticing that no one was around and one of us checks our watch and realizes they close in ten minutes. We've been in here for like four hours, and do you know what they said the average museum visit is? Two hours. We're all like WTF? because not only is no one around and we now have the place more or less to ourselves but we've been in for like four hours and we have no idea how much more is ahead. So we just kind of walk through stopping at stuff that looks interesting (for the record, this isn't like a white-tile-and-glass-museum, it looks like an underground spy headquarters-ish type of thing. Obviously for the kids) and skipping down stairs and stuff. then we come to a security guard who tells us the museum is closing soon, and my mom's like, well, we're near the exit, right, because we've been in here for like four hours? and he's like, ummm, no, there's another floor. So we run through the museum and get to the end where there's a mini-theater and since we're the only ones in it we (or I) vaulted over chairs and stuff. After the Smithsonian, when you're left alone in a place like the ISM you start playing around.

But it really was interesting, and I learned a lot. (Dare I say more than at AnS?)

Then we caught the metro back to the hotel and ate dinner there. I had a pizza. It was okay.

Day III Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

I'm starting to remember more. We woke up kind of early-ish today, went by Mike's for breakfast, and then went to the Bureau of Engraving. Once again we exited the metro station by the wrong escalator and therefore had to walk an extra block or two. (For those of you going to Washington, check what street you need to go to and where the escalator puts you, because you can't imagine the frustration after walking two blocks and passing a metro sign, especially after having been walking all damn day). And when you have the same building down all three blocks you have to walk, it seems longer. The Department of Agriculture building is the longest f*cking building I have ever seen. Anyway, we finally got there (this is just to get our tickets, mind you, and the ticket kiosk is about 1 block away from the tour entrance, so you can't imagine how many maps we had to consult to find it) and the damn line is about half a block long. We have a staff-led Captiol tour scheduled today, and so we HAVE to be at one of the Senate Office Buildings by 9:30. It's about 8:30 now. So i fall into one of my sulky pessimistic moods and walk around saying, "We're not going to get a ticket. It's first-come, first-serve, we aren't going to get a ticket. We'll be late for the Capitol." (as I later learned, being late was most certainly not the most embarassing thing that could happen involving a Capitol tour.)

Thirty seconds later and the line has moved five feet, which is pretty fast. In the end, we get our tickets, and we make it to the Capitol South metro with plenty of time.

I don't know how many of you have been to the Capitol South stop, but the stairs are hellishly long, and for whatever reason instead of taking the escalator I decided to beat my parents, walking up the escalator, by running up the stairs.

When I got to the top (my foot hit the pavement the same second as my dad's) I thought I was going to die. I'm not overly fat, but I'm not in shape. We walked up a big but not steep hill and I stopped panting about when we got to the top.

At the top of the hill we were at the corner of an intersection. At about our 10 or 11 o'clock is the Capitol; At 2 o'clock (barely visible, because it is a little way down the street) is the Library of Congress' Thomas Jefferson building, and at 1 o'clock and even less visible is the Supreme Court Justice Building or whatever it's called. The street is pretty sunny but it has some small shade trees, planted probably not long ago. Everyone walks in this city, btw. Walks, takes the metro, or occasionally a cab.

Anyway, we walk down the LOC-SCourt-Capitol street and shoot about a thousand pictures of both the building on our right (LOC and S Court) and then come to another corner (this is about two blocks down). We take a ninety degree turn to our left, turning to six o'clock, and end up at the Russell Senate Office Building, or the goal of all this metro riding and walking.

Pictures:

One of the pictures of the absolutely gorgeous Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress. I don't think we have many pictures of the interior, but it is probably one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

I don't know anybody in this picture, but the girl (or guy?) in the foreground looks a little freaky in that lighting. Anyway, this is the Supreme Court building, which i think had a different name that I don't remember. In both of these pictures the Capitol is basically directly behind us, although in this one it may be at more of a 5:00-ish angle.

Quick note: I was told by everyone to beware of the hot weather of Washington. My God, maybe it's because I'm Floridian, but that is the most perfect, cool, mild weather I have ever experienced. A bit of news, Washingtonians: your summer is our early winter. I say all that now because this was one of the warmest days I felt in DC and I don't think I broke a sweat, except for the stairs thing. (EDIT: I was talking to some people from Washington and they said I was lucky. So, never mind, I suppose)

So after all my worry of being late, we pass through Russell SOB security and go up to my senator's office and they inform us that we're about a half hour early, so we go down to the cafeteria and I get a smoothie and read the Onion, which I found on the Metro this morning (I find so many newspapers on the Metro. I swear, if you take it to work every morning you don't even have to bother buying it. In the topic of papers, the Washington Post doesn't print its weekday comics in color like the Orlando Sentinel does, which annoyed me beyond belief.). I, officially, am in love with the Onion.

Anyway, we go back upstairs and then the tour starts. there's a group of about twenty or so of us, probably less, although it seemed like by the time we were waiting for the train to the Captiol we had doubled in size. Hmmm. There were two tour guides, a girl of about twenty or thirty who had done this before and a guy in his twenties or thirties who was doing this for the first time ever. He was considered a senior intern but he was new to the tour guiding stuff. His name was Ernesto, and you're thinking, Man, I hope he spoke English, but he was among the whitest guys ever, in a cool nervous way. You could tell he was new because every time he said something he would turn his head back and forth between what he was talking about and the group, and he spoke quietly, so at best you could hear him half the time. You'll see later why I described him so much.

Anyway, we go down into the basement of the ~~Capitol~~ (EDIT: Russel Senate Office Building; remember, we're not in the Capitol yet) to the Statue of Freedom (I think? Kind of embarassed that I don't remember). It's nineteen feet tall, and is a larger copy of the statue on the top of the Capitol dome. We approached security, and things got interesting.

My parents had a bag with them, and the security guard, who was obviously in a slightly sensible but pretty fed-up mood, asked if it had food in it. My parents said yes, because they don't lie when they don't have time to think. The guard goes, "You can't bring it in there, then." And everyone kind of freezes. My mom's like, "Can I leave it here?" and the guy says no. I'm through security and so one of the guards makes me step away so I don't hear the rest of this, but eventually we're waiting for the train and the younger tour guide (younger meaning inexperienced) has volunteered to carry the pack for us until we get to the Capitol, where he says he'll give it back. He says this all very surreptitiously. The train, by the way, takes us from the SOB to the Capitol. Anyway, while we're waiting the security guard from before comes up and goes, "Did you take the bag back to the office already?" in a voice that obviously said he knew where the bag was. The tour guide's like, "I--it--what--I--" and being young and inexperienced, and the guard goes, "You can't take that bag over there." And he made it sound a little more menacing. So after forty seconds of debate among my family and the young tour guide and the girl tour guide, we all decide that the young tour guide will bring the bag back to the senator's office. So he strides away (he's coming back) and my mom is absolutely mortified, because although she's not shy like my dad and I she knows when to be embarassed and she practically insists that we stay behind and wait on the guy, so we go back to the Statue of Freedom to wait and every fifteen seconds my mom goes, "I'm so embarassed, oh my God."

The guy comes back and she keeps saying it and that seemed to make him nervous (everything did, but he was a little more endearing when he was nervous) and he keeps saying it's really no big deal and she keeps insisting that she's absolutely mortified and finally we go back through security (where the now highly annoyed security guard informs me that I'm not allowed to have my tour sticker on my pant leg, it must be on my shirt, because they get paid waaaay too much to have to look down three feet) and the wait for the train is now considerably longer and so my mother, who could have a very revealing conversation with a broomstick, gets this guy to talk about who he is, where he's from, what he's doing, how long he's been an intern, how long he will be an intern, what he does as an intern, what he likes doing as an intern, and on and on and on. He's a little more relaxed now, and addresses me once. I have to hand it to him, people rarely do that. He glanced at me very rarely during the tour, though, which was annoying, as with a group of three people I think you should be able to make eye contact with all of them. I don't think he looked at Dad either, maybe because we're so quiet, and when Dad does say something it's usually pretty meaningless. Anyway, we get into the Capitol and let me tell you, the entrance hall once you go up those steps and stuff is amazing. It's painted everywhere, by some guy whose name escapes me, and it's reallly pretty. Capitol tour is definitely a must-do.

Pictures (I have about 57,018,385 pictures of the inside of the Capitol, but I'll only post two of the entrance hall):

This is honest-to-God a gorgeous building.

I'm not sure where in the entrance hall this was taken or who the statue is of. I'm pretty sure my mom took the Capitol pictures.

I don't remember the exact details of the tour, but the guy told us about how Virginia has three statues in the Capitol instead of two (statues of famous people, e.g. Virginia's are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert E. Lee). The dome of the captiol is amazing, a really pretty chandelier in one of the secondary dome things, and then in the main dome a bunch of paintings depicting colonial life from Columbus and Jamestown (I think? Or maybe the pilgrims.) to the Declaration of Independence and stuff. Pictures of all this:

This is one of the two other domes in the Capitol. I'll try to find it on one of the exterior pictures of the Capitol (and let me tell you, there's about 5,000 of those).

The main dome of the capitol... the picture is deceiving, but this is extremely high above your head. I'll try to help the picutre make sense: if you look at the inner circle of ladies in pretty dresses, George Washington (who is, coincidentally, not a lady in a pretty dress) is sitting at a pink clothed table at roughly 7:30 or 8:00. See him? Okay, now the rest of the figures in the inner circle are the states. The ones facing away from you, with their backs turned into the picture, are the states who took a long time to return to the union after the Civil War. I don't know which ladies are which states, but that's how it is. I don't remember what the outer circle is a picture of. This does make me lame.

Dome, zoomed-out. On the far left of the picture you can see the gray circle of paintings around the wall (under the molding under the windows)

A close-up of that picture. I just noticed how pretty that molding is. Anyway, the painting depicts scenes from American History. Every now and then the painter drew himself in. I think he's in this one somewhere but I don't recall where. /Gonzo Also, I think the painter died or something happened to him at about this point, and the tree represents where someone else started drawing. This could be a fact my brain made up, but I remember SOMETHING significant about the tree.

I. Do. Not. Know. Anyone. In. This. Picture. Anyway, this is one of the pictures along the bottom of the dome. The dome is a gigantic room, by the way. Anyway, we took pictures of I think every one of these pictures, but I uploaded this one because the artist kept drawing, as I said before, himself into all of these. So someone told him to cut it out, and in this picture he drew himself as a woman to disguise it. He's on the balcony in this picture. Also, he typically is looking in the opposite direction as everyone else (in most of the pictures in the Capitol). Try to spot him/ her in this picture. It's there.


Remember those statues all the states have? Well, they have them from large activist organizations as well. This is from a women's rights group (I don't remember the name). Susan B. Anthony is in the middle, and I want to say one of the others is Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but I have a pretty basic knowledge of history and I honeslty don't recall what the guide said. Now, the story goes that the lump of rock behind Anthony is supposedly reserved for the first woman president. Our tour guide, an intern at Mel Martinez's (R-FL) office, made a stupid comment about Hillary Clinton maybe getting the spot, if she ever gets elected. I'm not counting any chickens, my friend, but in case you haven't noticed there's a great majority of your party who doesn't like any of your candidates, and as much as I'd rather see another one of the Democrats get elected, there's a good deal of people who think all of your candidates are, in short, kooky. He then proceeded to make a comment about how he's supposed to be bipartisan. I hate to say it, but if he works as in intern for a Republican, he's probably conservative, and there isn't anything wrong with that. There's really no reason to pretend like you're something else, so long as you don't make stupid, possibly aggravating cracks like the Clinton thing. Twit.

We went through to the crypt, which isn't actually a crypt but was going to be, and then the young tour guide left us rather lamely. That's it for the Capitol.

One of our thousands of Capitol pictures:

This was taken from the front lawn, as we were walking out. If the Capitol weren't here, this would be a long-distance shot of the Library of Congress. The Russel SOB is at about 10:30, kind of behind the Capitol. The Capitol South metro is at about 2:00-ish. I love the single American flag almost in the center of the dome. It would look nicer if this picture were centered.

We wandered around in the gift shop for a few centuries, then left (we had such a hard time finding the exit, it was rather sad) and found ourselves on the main front of the Capitol (which I think is the West Front?) and we took some pictures. We were walking more or less off the grounds in the direction of the Russell SOB and passed a grotto thing built by somebody the guide mentioned during the tour and we stopped by there. There was a water fountain that we drank at that had Washington water that tastes like dirt, in the same way North Carolina water is more or less useless for rinsing out soap. Anyway, we left there as they were rehearsing the concert for tomorrow, 4th of July, but we didn't bother stopping to listen. We went back to the Russell SOB and almost got lost (that place is huge and all the corridors were identical) so I asked some guy, "I'm sorry, could you tell me where the elevators are?" and he ignored me and kept walking. If my parents caught me doing anything like that to anyone, ever, I would seriously regret it. So I shouted after him, "I'll take that as a no!" and my dad got mad at me.

So in the end we got the bag and headed out, and the next stop was the Library of Congress. There's a fountain outside called the Neptune fountain, which is basically a bunch of naked people getting sprayed with water but is really pretty. By the way, the Library of Congress is another must-do for any Washington tourist. The tours are 100% free.

So we took the tour and let me tell you: that building, inside and out, is amazing. Whether you give a flying crap about libraries or books or architecture or art or not, you really have to see it. It's lovely. One of my favorite buildings. The Main Reading Room is very handome as well (it was in National Treasure, but as no photography is allowed in the Main Reading Room I have no pictures of it.) I won't go into great detail about the interiot or exterior of the building, but the main hall thing before the Reading Room has two staircases on either side, and carved into them are smalll angels representing different professions, and the whole ceiling is painted beautifully, and the whole thing is really cool. I don't know how to describe it without making you scoff, but it's worth seeing.

Okay, after that we were really hungry, having not eaten since breakfast, and we heard from someone at the LOC that the Supreme Court Justice Building thing had good food in the cafeteria, so we went over there and that's a cool building too, but it's very stern, if this makes sense. A lot of cold marble and towering arches without the decoration of the LOC building. We were going to look around this building but our feet were killing us (Dad's diabetic and has naturally sore feet, my mom has a bad heel spur, and I'm just whiney) and we had tickets to the Bureau of Engraving for a certain time so we had to be there pretty quick. (By the way, the lunch there was surprisingly good. My Philly Cheesesteak- my favorite sammich ever- was pretty darn good. Or maybe I was hungry.)

Took the Metro to the Smithsonian stop (Blue Line, not sure why I'm telling you this) for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which as the name suggests makes all our money. First we stopped by the Holocaust Museum to ask about tickets, but again we didn't buy any. Not 100% sure as to why not. Anyway, The BEP was okay. It took you through their factory and you saw the money being printed. It was cool, but a little nervewracking as the low ceilings had alarms on them and, as our rather moody tour guide informed us, if you touch the ceilings you will be escorted off the premises by a police officer. I suggest the BEP if you have time, but I wouldn't go out of your way to do it. It's interesting, not fascinating.

Finally that was it, and we walked back to the Metro, rode to the hotel, and ate there again. I had pizza, again.

Day IV Fourth of July, 2007

Mike's was closed today so we went to Dunkin' Donuts.

We decided that today, to escape the crowds on the mall and generally in Washington, we would head out to the National Zoo (I think this is considered one of the Smithsonian museums-- I know it belongs to the Smithsonian). This zoo is entirely ticket-free, fee-free. You don't pay to get in. At all. MAGIC! (you do pay for food and stuff duh) This is also probably one of the only places we went without a security checkpoint. Literally, you walked into it. If I were a Washingtonian hobo I would spend every day here.

I won't remember all the animals, but I'll remember some:

PANDAS! I got good pictures. I learned today there will be no baby pandas as the female isn't pregnant after all. :-(
Tigers, lions, cats, etc.
Beavers! First time I've ever seen one live, I think. They're kind of weird animals, they didn't really do anything worthwhile
Sea lions- Great favorite with the kids.
Free-roaming white tailed deer. They got to go wherver they want on zoo grounds. There was a doe and two fawns. The doe, who was about four feet tall, bent down and crossed under a rail with about one and a half to two feet of clearance above the ground and crossed the people path right in front of us. The fawns were too skittish to follow.
Otter. And they were sleeping, not moving around like otters always are.
Gorrillas. Never been a big fan of these guys.
Orangutans. See above.
Crapload of reptiles. Funny story: Here in Florida we have a small, probably about three to five inch long lizard we call a garden lizard, and they were in the zoo in Washington. My mom and I laughed. Kids around here catch them all the time. I guess they can't survive the snow or something.
Elephants- I love these guys. I got a good picture of one throwing dust on its back.
Pygmy hippo- My God, this thing was adorable. Another good picture.
Some kind of swimming thing that was called a Calapy or something?- Really cool, I have pictures of it too.
Przewalski's Horse-- I own a horse so this was cool to me. The only truly wild horse left or something like that.

Pictures:

How can you not love that face?

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE? :-)

This is the caspary or calapary or calapy thing. Cute.

Yeah. This is a young one. Cute, in a gigantic, dusty way.

Actual kinda random finger.

(this is still on zoo property)

AAAW.

While we were walking out of the zoo it started to rain and my shoes got really wet and we stopped to eat in a place called California Tortilla which was really good.

After this we went and took the metro to Arlington and camped out on one of the bridges to watch the fireworks. It was a really cool display. I was embarassed, though, because as soon as they started I got excited because I was sitting there waiting for like a half hour, so I hopped to my feet to watch them and my parents did too, and a few seconds later this lady comes up and she's like, can you sit down because we can't see and I was mortified. I felt so bad because I hate it when people do that to me and I hadn't even thought about it and I wanted to disappear. I know seeing the fireworks on the National Mall is probably only going to happen to me once, and I hate to think that this is probably the only time she will be able to see them and I probably ruined like the first thirty seconds for her because I was so arrogant. Gawd.

We've got some okayish pictures of the fireworks, but I won't post them here because mostly you can tell that the person holding the camera was jiggling it a little.

We went back to the hotel and went to sleep. We were pretty tired.

Day V Thursday July 5, 2007

Started the day off at Mike's, I think.

We went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum (which I think might have National in front of the name...?) and bought tickets and saw two exhibits, which doesn't sound like a lot but one of them was the main exhibit which, if you read everything there is to read will take you all day. It's really sad. I won't describe it, but there's a room where nothing but victims' shoes cover the floor, and I don't know why but that really got to me. I recommend this, definitely, but please don't take young kids in here. I agreee that they need to know, but the museum is not the place to take them.

After this we went to the Nat'l Archives, wherein they basically turn you loose. Seriously. You run through security and you're free to go. Now as far as I remember the Nat'l Archives is free as well, and it's really cool.

We spent most of the day in the Holocaust Museum, so we're kind of rushing through here. There was a long line, but like the BEP line it went fast. The second before I stepped into the doors though (the line went out the doors, which is pretty normal) I felt the first drop of a drizzle. My dad looked to me and I to my dad and he goes, "Looks like we just made it."

Now as we were pushed for time we only did about half of the exhibit with the presidents and their schooling, and we had to go on to the Magna Carta and the Constitution and The Declaration of Independence. We stood in line, and they are admant that you do not take flash photographs of the document. Please, if you're going, please don't. Listen to them. The light damages the ink, and when you see the poor state of the Declaration you understand that it really does need preserving. Anyway, my mom set her camera off flash and it automatically shut off (camera buffs groan). She turns it back on to take a picture of, not a document thank God, but the pillars under which the Constitution is situated and her flash goes off. The security guards all turn around in unison and one shouts, "Please remember to turn off your flash! Turn off your flash!" And my mom is mortified again, so she goes over there to explain to the lady that she even got a security guard to help her turn off the flash before she started, and the woman is very understanding and asks if she turned the camera off. Problem solved, but my mom is so embarassed she doesn't take any pictures in the Archives again, so we have 0 pictures of anything in there.

Anyway, as worn as the Declaration is, both them and the Constitution are a must-see. I'm not overly patriotic, but it made me really proud of my country, despite certain people in office. It's weird, that just seeing the founding documents makes you proud to live here, but it certainly did me.

That night we ate at a restaurant called King Street Blues, where I ordered a clam chowder that was delicious and basket of nachos that wasn't really. It was good.

Day VI Friday July 6, 2007

The final full day began with breakfast at Mike's again. We took the Metro to the Smithsonian station and visited the final Smithsonian on our list: The Museum of Natural History.

This is a really cool museum. Not as crowded as AnS. The two exhibits I remember the most are the geology exhibit (a bunch of really amazing looking rocks and crystals and minerals, including the Hope and Tiffany diamonds) and the mammals exhibit, which was more or less a bunch of taxidermically advanced animals (if you catch the drift) but was interesting all the same, like a dead zoo. I didn't get to see all of this. The dinosaurs were pretty cool, too. It's hard to take a good picture of them because the lighting is so dim, but I tried.

We saw two IMAXes, Lions 3d and Sharks 3d. I liked Lions better but Sharks was cool too. FYI: Try not to wait to go to the bathroom until you're on the second floor, because you literally have to walk through the entire prehistoric western cultures exhibit to get to the only bathroom on that floor.

We had a super-expensive and slightly nasty lunch, and then we left, but we actually spent about eight hours or so in this museum.

We then went to Union Station (this is actually when those pictures were taken, but whatever) to catch our nighttime trolley tour which actually started some time before sunset. It was really, really cool. Maybe not a must-see, but definitely neat. Our first stop was at the FDR Mem'l, we stayed here for about a half hour. This was at the brink of dusk, so walking in it was light and walking out it was gray. The FDR Mem'l is kind of misleading because from the road it doesn't look like much but it can be pretty powerful, although a half hour isn't really enough.

This was at the Smithsonian Folk Life festival whichmy family passed through on our way to the Natural History museum. I want to say it's a Pakistani truck, but I'm not sure. Very cool.

One of my pictures from Natural History.

This is from the FDR Memorial. That's his dog. I'm not sure what the words say, some of them were cut off, but I'm pretty sure it's from one of FDR's speeches.

On the way back to the trolley the fireflies were out, which was amazing to me. I haven't seen them since I was little, as we don't have them in Florida. I would catch one and it wouldn't light again. Do they only light when they fly? Whatever.

Stop number two was the Iwo Jima (I think it's spelled Iwo, embarassed I don't know that) Memorial. This is really neat, but in my opinion it's just too large to be moving. There's something about bulky things that doesn't strike me. This isn't to say I wasn't affected; it's still powerful. This is teachnically in Virginia, btw.

Stop three, the final stop, was the Lincoln Mem'l. I took this opportunity to see the Vietnam Veterans Mem'l, as I wrote about it for aforementioned yearlong project. I've never seen it by day, but by night it's powerful. Whether you know someone who died or not, you should probably see it.

We apparently didn't take any pictures of the Memorial in its entirety, but there are plenty on the Internets if you'd like to look.

Had just enough time to go down to the Lincoln Mem'l and shoot some pictures of the lit-up Mall before heading back to the trolley. We were sitting in the very back, the widest seat that could fit five people, and there was a French Canadian couple that hadn't boarded yet so we had to wait on them (but I didn't mind, because they seemed like really nice people and though they didn't seem to understand much English- although I was under the impression that if you lived in Canada you knew a lot of English and French despite your native language- they smiled a lot and even though they were a young couple, because American young couples seem to be generally rather rude, they seemed very embarassed that they held the trolley up, although I don't think we minded. It was a nice night, and our trolley tour guy was kind of interesting.)

The sign is a little distracting, I grant you. This is the Lincoln Memorial.

This picture looks a bit better large (larger than this, I mean).

Washington Monument. Taken from an angle so the dome of the Capitol is visible (background).

Anyway. That night we got back to the hotel at about eleven and went to bed at one or so, so we only ate a banana for dinner.

Day VII Saturday, July 7, 2007

Woke up early to catch the plane and didn't eat breakfast. Caught the shuttle to the airport and checked our bags in, then sat around for an hour and a half to board the plane. The trip home was great, I looked out the plane window during descent and squeed at the first palm tree. Washington was amazing but coming back home is always nice.

Our pilot landed us by jerking the plane down in ten-foot intervals that grabbed your stomach every time. It was kind of funny.

Okay, then. Thank you for bearing with me. I had a great time, and future DC travelers, I hope you do too. I'm going to go sleep now. ♥

PS- TDS and TCR are on reruns this week. D-:
PPS- If anyone out there knows if there's any way to get TDS episodes of previous seasons (basically I want some episodes with John O on my iPod, hopefully classics like maybe the Why War is Good segment and stuff, is what I'm getting at) from iTunes, speak now or forever hold the secret that will make my life happier.

ETA: I spent all day October 6, 2007 adding in pictures. Here are some random ones that didn't really fit in the entry anywhere (move your mouse over the pictures for my comments):

The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument with a FLYING SAUCER!! Not really, just a frisbee I happened to shoot mid-throw. I'm waiting on the fireworks to start.

The beautiful Jefferson Memorial, taken from the trolley as we were passing.

(note: the small object in the air on the right side of the Capitol is the reflection out of the trolley window) The sun on the window is setting, not rising.
(note: you can actually read "United States Navy Memorial" along the base of the wall) I do not know what building is in the background, another pic out of trolley.

That's it for now. If I come back later and feel like posting more I will.

Happy, etc

2007-06-25T17:25:01Z

I just realized after posting this that this one and the previous entry look practically identical. I'll change the mood. And the music (also the same).

My birthday was last Friday. I've already written this entry once. I was at the beach in Brunswick, GA (where my grandmother lives) all weekend. Et cetera.

I finally got an iPod (yes, this is my first one). I spent practically all of last night fixing a problem that came up with iTunes (which I now hate passionately). I have about four copies of my music library on my computer so it might not happen again. It was all okay in the end.

The beach was amazing. Spent most of the day bodysurfing. Walked along the beach to where the tide falls out of the estuary on Jekyll Island (north end, the St. Simons Island-channel side, not that I expect anyone to know where it is) and found a shark's egg/ mermaid's purse. Thousands of fiddler crabs. Of course the waves there are nonexistent so we went down to another beach (unfortunately not sure what beach this was, it was definitely on the Atlantic, though) and bodysurfed. Waves kind of sucked, had a blast anyway.

Spent two days in GA, on the first day (beach was second, sorry for inconsistency) we were antique shopping in downtown Brunswick (which is kind of like the antique capital of the world) and looked for a bookshelf and chair for my room. Found an okay chair (I loved it) with the most hideous pink upholstery imaginable and the most amazing green shabby bookshelf ever. It's actually more of a cabinet sort of thing. It looks like a big green orange crate with two doors. Bought knobs for it, too.

Way excited about upcoming trip to Washington, D.C. Leaving the first of July, I think? at like three a.m. Coming back sometime at the end of the week. Going to have a f*cking blast.

On the way to GA we stopped to get some boiled peanuts (which I think is sort of a really Southern thing, not sure) and we bought them from this kind of cute kid who was going to Washington for some award he won for Junior Achievement. He was going to meet the president (sort of a rip-off, because if he had waited like two years he could have gotten a different one), and was raising money with his mom and all. I just wanted to pimp his trip. Yay kid whose name I don't know who is going to Washington!! My point is, if you're going to Florida and you're driving 17, that road that leads into the Ocala National Forest from the Southern side (down Umatilla way) stop at the peanut stand with the gold SUV. They were good peanuts, too. My kid-pimping paragraph is the longest in this entry. o.O?

On my birthday (writing down thoughts in no particular order here) I made dinner for myself and the 'rents. Made shrimp alfredo (way overcooked noodles the first time around) and a Red Devil's Food Cake, which was really kind of good.

Long entry. If I lose it I will be pissed.

I love this icon way too much.

Happy!

2007-06-17T23:51:47Z

I was surfing aol video (which I think is kind of unpopular still, but needs pimping because it does kind of rock, although it can get annoying) and one of the top searches is "Colbert Report." I fucking freaked out. Never knew the show was so popular. As popular as Nicole Richie, also in the top searches! Yay! Made me really happy.

Also, my birthday is this Friday, and that makes me a little happier in itself.

POTC:3

2007-06-03T03:11:02Z

I'm going to update my journal! Fancy that!

Watched Pirates: At World's End today. Three f*cking hours. Then an hour of a drive home. Greeaat.

I've been reading the Jack Davenport boards on imdb (Jack plays Norrington in the trilogy) and everyone over there is fuming about his death, which was really lame (the death). I don't see the point of giving him that basically huge of a role in Dead Man's Chest and then a minute's worth of dialouge in AWE. And damn Bootstrap killed him, which pissed me off beyond belief. The whole plot thing of having Bootstrap go all wonky and evil for, what, the first half of his screentime or something? was weird as hell. All through DMC he was fine and good, and in AWE he was evil for just long enough to kill off the only actual character in the movies, fight his son, and realize what the hell he was doing. ???? ~~(also the kiss bothered me because Elizabeth is just a lame character and a little-- okay a whole lot-- undeserving.)~~ ~~And~~ ~~I like him better sober and with the wig.~~

The ending Calypso scene when she was roaring and then turned into a pile of whatever the hell she turned into was weird (only the zillionth time this has been said). You know how she had that really deep lame roar when she got huge (the hugeness bothered me, too, I wanted her to do something more magical than get big) is something I see future generations looking back on and going, well, that's lame, Mom, why did you ever like this? Kind of like we look back at the silly music in silent movies or something. So. retarded.

I liked the character of Davy Jones in this movie. He took on a lot of depth, but I wish he would have had it in his entrance in DMC.

Hated the end. Mostly because Norrington was dead and nobody cared. Will deserves to be stranded on that godforsaken ship for the rest of his bloody life, stupid characterless pile of ugliness. RAWR IM GOIN TO EAT JOO.

Tom Hollander's character died. Annoyed me. All through that (really dramatic) scene I kept thinking, why isn't the damn flying shrapnel hitting him? and then I realized this is POTC where everything logical is forever abandoned and drenched with gasoline and thrown onto a flaming barbecue. KILL OFF THE GOOD CHARACTER!

Barbossa was back! Made me squeeful. He didn't even die. I was expecting it, after Norrington's death. Eliminated the best character, why not go for the decent one?!

Wanted to bash Elizabeth's and Will's heads open for that stupid marriage scene at the end. I was completely WTFing. I thought they more or less married in DMC. So it rained, okay, so what? For all intents and purposes they were married, and I doubt Barbossa (not exactly a minister) could make the almost-wedding any more official. Ah, if only for the sake of the moment. Thank you, writers.

I don't remember most of this movie because the plot was stupid. So many people working for so many different sides. By the end I was wondering at Davy Jones' evilness. Just me, I guess.

Update on this later, maybe.

Note to self: Must get angry!Colbert icon for posts such as this. Angy!Zuko will do for now.

MOVIES!

2007-03-26T02:52:54Z

Totally watched the Disney Anastasia again today. I fell in love all over again.

WHY MUST THESE PEOPLE DRAW SUCH AMAZING ANIMATED MEN WITH EVEN MORE AMAZING ANIMATED HAIR? I love Dimitri! /fangasm/

YaY.

Reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I also reread RedNovember's Love Thy Enemy. And These Circumstances. I'm happy.

Lately...

2007-02-25T14:43:25Z

We helped my brother move yesterday which was a pain in the butt. Then today, early, we got a call from him and he said my niece, who is like ten months old, cut her finger and that she might have to go to the hospital. Anyway.

I asked my mom for the PnP miniseries, with Colin Firth, who I just watched in Bridget Jones, which I didn't especially like. I have decided, officially, that CF is amazing, and seeing him as Darcy would be awesome. It inspires me to want to have this icon with "Firth-irifc." Anyway.

I saw The Illusionist, which is a really good movie and also makes me want to see The Prestige, which is supposedly freakishly a lot like The Illusionist. I also watched Invincible, which was a football movie and therefore kind of sucked.

I don't really remember what books I talked about last, but I haven't quite finished The Last Witchfinder, I'm almost done with Hiroshima, I've started (but have yet to begin liking) Maximum Ride, and The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore, which started off well but I'm slowly beginning to like a lot less.

So... my school is being psychotic. We had an "FCAT PeP rAlLy" two days ago (the FCAT stands for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, it's some huge test we take every year and we have to pass or else they'll hang us up by our toes). It was terrible. Outside in bleachers, and while the rest of the nation might be freezing its ass off, here in sunny Florida it's pretty damn sunny, and I was hot and the bleachers are like six inches apart so you end up with your knees in the person in front of you's back. And then a group of teachers got up and sang and looked like fools. And some ex-NFL guy gave us a pep speech (he would say, "EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST! SAY IT WITH ME, 'GOOD BREAKFAST!'" and the girl next to me would punch the girl in front of her (who looks anorexic) and say, "Good breakfast, Abby, good breakfast!"). Then, and this really amused me, he brought two of his helmets with him (I'm not even going to bother to explain why) and he had to get someone to carry them on and off the field for him.

Oh, yes, and I've found my newest obsession with The Colbert Report. The Daily Show's good too.

Pride and Prejudice

2007-01-16T22:52:19Z

I finished (re)reading Pride and Prejudice yesterday. Gawd.

Great book. I close it every time feeling like I've left a really awesome friend-- I don't really want it to end but it was great while it lasted. Anyway.

I think I'll go into some crazy speech about how I picture the characters in my mind, for my own future reference. Certainly not for anyone else, anyway.

Darcy is my favorite character. Some kid walked up to a friend of mine in school and he looks freakishly a lot like Matthew McFadyen (who plays Mr. D in the 2005 movie). Anyway, I picture Darcy weird; not really like Colin Firth or M McF. I really want to see the miniseries, they're supposedly godly in comparison to 2005. Love him to death (Darcy, that is).

Elizabeth I am weird about too. She is pictured in spasms as Keira Knightley (JA fans simultaneously vomit) and sometimes like miniseries Elizabeth (I tell you what, I love YouTube for showing me how miniseries people looked). I like her a lot too, duh, who doesn't.

Jane is vividly 2005 version (Rosamund Pike, excuse the probable misspelling). She (Jane, not RP) is annoying, to me; I can understand thinking good (I'm sure that should be well) of everyone, but I think she gets ridiculous.

Bingley is all my own. Hated his weirdo version in 2005. He's a lot more easygoing and not all HUH-HUH FUN-NY I LUV YOU HUH-HUH NERVOUS OK ILL GO OVER HERE NOW BYE LOVE YOU HUH HUH. (the huh huhing being that stupid laugh) He isn't redheaded either, somehow I didn't like that.

Miss Bingley was 2005, I thought she was okay in that version. Whoever her actor was, I picture her to actually be like that in real life.

Tom Hollander was cool as Mr. Collins, and I like him better as a little guy than a big guy as JA described him; therefore Mr. Collins is all TH in my head.

Wickham is weird as hell. He looks like freaking Mr. Darling or whoever Wendy and that whole clan's father was from Peter Pan. I swear, in my mind Wickham just stepped out of 1900 or something. And he looks like twenty years older than Elizabeth.

Miss Darcy is 2005; if I try to picture as "womanly and graceful" she's Darcy's age, and if she's "ten years my junior" (or whatever Darcy said), she's 2005-ish. I think young and quiet is more important than womanly and graceful.

Gardiners are 2005.

Mr. Bennet starts out weird, another one of those stepped-out-of-1900, and changes into Donald Sutherland.

Mrs. Bennet is, most of the time, 2005.

All younger Bennets, sans Kitty, for some reason, are pretty much 2005. Kitty is weird in my head.

Lady C is kind of like a blurry ball of lard. I have no idea who she looks like.

Charlotte is kind of Lady C-ish.

I think that's it... I've started reading The Last Witchfinder, and finished Trouble Don't Last and Snow Falling on Cedars. Anyway.

Everything, Essentially

2006-12-25T05:43:10Z

Obviously, the holidays.

I am thirteen this year and it's the first year where it got to December 21st before I said "holy crow Christmas is in four days." I'm not excited at all, even though it's Christmas eve at, oh, 12:00 am (so technically it's the 25th). So merry Christmas as of now. But merry everything to everyone.
On a sidenote, it seems to me like there is no holiday spirit left in anything. It's only me-me-me. Ugh. Human nature, I guess, but this is why I'm a Democrat.

Books, duh.

Haven't been doing much reading lately. I went through Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson, Whale Season, by N. M. Kelby (or something to that effect), I've started Trouble Don't Last, by Shelley Pearsall. I've read October Sky, by Homer Hickam. I haven't finished anything else (haven't given The Golden Compass a second glance since... well, a really long time.) Starting from the top, I liked SFoC a lot, WS was amusing, TDL is good so far (not as good as Lizzie Bright), and OS was not as good as I've heard before but it didn't torture me and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I talked about The Bronze Bow, but my God. I can't get over my hatred.

Music.

Finally bought my first Five for Fighting CD. Awesome guy. John Ondrasik is like an idol. I got The Battle for Everything, and my favorite song of his is probably a toss-up between The Riddle, 100 Years, and The Devil In The Wishing Well. Also, The Taste cracks me up every time I hear it. True FFF fans are hating me for that statement, but whatever the screaming is in the middle is a bit like a disaster that keeps on disastering. (Also I love the song Nobody for actually encorporating things from The Devil In The Wishing Well, and possibly other songs, into the lyrics. How awesome, though slightly unoriginal, is that? Okay, so I'm easily impressed.)

Movies.

I watched Pride and Prejudice again. The recaps of true Austen fans on the internet of that movie crack me up like whoa. I hate that they take it so seriously. Just laugh, guys, it's a cute movie, if an insult to your favorite author ever. Okay so that could have come out better.
Watched Memoirs of a Geisha, which I like a whole lot better than I thought it would. I have a thing for romance, I don't know why.
Started the first ever Star Wars, no I've never seen it, yes this technically makes me lame.
Also saw Stranger than Fiction, which is a different movie (that involves Will Ferrel, possibly my second least favorite actor. Ever. Period.) Turned out good.
And Accepted, which is funny not at all.
And the Da Vinci Code. Eh. Didn't read the book, but it was okay. Pretty good.

Small Screen.

Oh my gosh the Avatar season finale.
Dear Mike and Bryan:
This is the kind of shit that will make me stop watching your show. 'Kay? I have no problem with conflict, but who the hell is Zuko now anyway? What the hell was the purpose of a metamorphosis if nothing actually happened? I used to like Zuko. He's an ass. I hated that episode. It keeled over and died in comparison to Chapter One season finale.
Sincerely,
Me.
I really hated it. And what was with the Hakota (Hakoda? I don't know, correct me all you want) and Sokka reunion?
Sokka (walking through camp) (in sign language): Hey, Bato, you see Pops anywhere?
Bato (without looking up): In the largish tent at the end.
Sokka: 'Kay. (walks to tent, walks in) Hey Pops, sorry I'm a bit late, I forgot that you wanted skim milk, is reduced fat okay?
Hakota: That's fine, son, just get out there and fight. Thanks for the milk. I made cookies, want some?
Sokka: Duh.
The end.
Also, Aang is a loser.
RAWR. The next season has to be better.
And Azula is an ass. Must run in that whole Ozai- family thing there. I think we should assassinate them all and make Iroh the Tea King/ Fire Lord. Because Iroh is awesome and everyone knows it.

That's all for my bitter rant for now. I have a lot of homework to do over the break... :-( Teachers annoy me.