Sleep

There is a belief, that teenagers don't get enough sleep. And I must say that that is TOTALLY TRUE. Now I don't know all the reasons that cause a person to go to sleep at one in the morning. I would think that a lot of the time is spent wasting time, but then again, I have friends who do a ridiculous amount of stuff after school and when they get home, they have to do their homework.  I really don't know. I just know that I when I ask why people are really really tired, they say "I was up until two in the morning." And then I think, doing what?
I was extremely tired this morning because yesterday I had volleyball practice that went until 9:30pm. I then had to come home and take a shower, so I got to bed at around 10:30, so I only got eight hours of sleep. When I told this to my friends who asked my why I looked tired, they looked at me like I was crazy. I suppose that I was crazy to them. They then proceeded to say that they were lucky if they got to bed at 10:30 on a normal night, which personally, I think is crazy.
Now this is also coming from a person who isn't finely tuned toward the normal functions of a teenage person. I don't have a facebook or a twitter or an instagram or that thing where you put pictures of artsy stuff that's like an instagram but isn't. So I don't know what motivates people to do something at two in the morning that will make them want to climb back in bed and drink lots and lots of caffeine when they wake up in the morning. I don't think it's worth it, because in my mind, sleep=success.
Isn't that true? Don't people tell you to sleep like crazy before the SATs and before finals? And what happens if you stay up until two in the morning studying for those tests? You do really badly.
This is actually another pet peeve of mine. If you are studying something at three in the morning, you're not going to do well the next day, so why would you do it? If you don't know what the Gunpowder Plot was at three in the morning, you're not going to know it six hours later when it's on the test.
I was thinking about this today because when I walked into school, everybody looked like they were a zombie. Next year, it's going to be really bad because it's junior year of high school, the year where you have to take all the AP classes you can take and get straight A's because if you don't, you're not going to get into the college of your choice. At least, that's what everyone says about it. So junior year is really hard. I just don't know what I will do when I'm required to stay up past 10:30. Maybe I'll look like a zombie too.

Doodling

When I was in sixth grade, my art teacher told me that the people who doodle during class actually retain much more information than the people who get bored and daydream. So I took this piece of information and put it to good use, and I've perfected some doodles that I learned over the years. 

It started out by watching ViHart on YouTube. She works at KhanAcademy and makes videos about mathy stuff. Recently, I learned a lot about the Fibonacci sequence in nature from her videos. She also creates videos about doodling in math class. She shows some awesome doodles that she does and tells you how to do them. They look pretty awesome. 

Over the break, my parents gave me a book that taught me how to draw really cute doodles. So I've been practicing in my math class. When Mr. Hallas, my teacher, was talking about e and compounding interest, I doodled until he was done talking. He then told us to work on our homework, and was going around the classroom when he saw my doodles. He looked at them and said he was impressed. I told him that people who doodle retain more information, and he nodded. He then said that he loved people who doodle. 

That was the first time I had heard that from anybody (excluding my art teacher, of corse). 

So I was curious. I went on the internet and looked up some articles about doodling, and it turns out that my art teacher was right. Apparently, when the mind gets bored, it actually creates a bunch of stuff to think about. Like, for example; I hope it'll snow today, then we could have a snow day tomorrow, and then I could just sleep in, and then I could knit and crochet-but what should I knit and crochet? You can pretty much go anywhere with that. So daydreaming will actually require a bunch of brain power and energy. However, if you doodle, you are still using your brain and keeping it awake, but not using it so much that you go off and daydream. Since you're not using all that energy you could be using, then you retain the information that was given to you during that boring meeting or class. 

I'm not kidding. I read this stuff on TIME and The Guardian. So next time you're in a boring class-just doodle! You'll remember a lot more than if you start thinking about that snow day that we need to have. I was just glad that a teacher knows that and doesn't mind.  

Book #1: Fire

As I wrote in an earlier post about my New Year's Resolutions, I have decided that I will read thirty books this year.
The first book of the year, which I finished on Saturday, was Fire by Kristen Cashore. This book was recommended to me by a relative of mine, Morgan, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. It is commonly written on websites and such that it is the second book in the Graceling series by Cashore, but really, it's a companion novel to the first book, Graceling. It's a prequel, really, because there are some characters (mainly Leck) that are in Graceling, which I am reading right now.
Fire is about a girl named Fire who is a monster. However, in this world, monsters are beautiful creatures, though deadly. Fire has telepathic powers, though they are sometimes limited if the person she's trying to talk to has had training to keep monsters out of their minds. She's one of the last human monsters in the Dells, the daughter of a terrible monster named Cansrel, who was the advisor to King Nax. Cansrel was a very unforgiving person and would use his ability of telepathy to influence people to do things that he wanted them to do. He thus had a pretty bad reputation and Fire has to live under the shadow of his reputation, even though he died when she was little. She had lived in the woods with her friend Archer and his father, Brocker for her life, but she came out of "hiding" to help the king, King Nash, to find out secrets from spies from other kingdoms that he captured. While the kingdom is on the brink of war, there is also another problem going on-these mysterious murders that are caused by a man with a white arrow, who's mind is controlled by another person, so Fire also has to find out who that is as well.
Overall, I thought this book was very good. The writing was excellent, the characters all had a purpose, and the pacing was good as well. I also really liked the fact that the prologue tied in really well to the whole story. You don't really know the purpose of the prologue until you get to the end, and I love it when authors do that. I liked all the characters except Archer because even though he's Fire's best friend, he sure doesn't act like it, and he doesn't know how to control himself, and that aggravated me. I must say again that I really really liked the writing. It was written more elegantly than, say, a realistic fiction book about high school. It was written like how I imagine people in a kingdom would speak.
I also really liked the themes in the book-trying to judge people based on their personality, having lots and lots of power and all that you can do with that power, but knowing how to exercise it. That's actually a theme that I really like in general, because I think it's so important. Just because we have power doesn't mean we have to use it, and we also have to decide what exactly to use it for.
Fire was an easy read, and I would probably recommend it for ages 14+. Four and a half stars out of five. I've decided to give five stars out of five sparingly-they have to be really really special to get five stars.

12 Fictional Characters I Want to Meet

Since I like fiction, whether it's in a book or in a movie or in a TV show, I thought that I would make a list of people I think it would be interesting to meet (in no particular order)

1. Gandalf- no explanation necessary. He's awesome. He could probably teach me about the whole coming-back-to-life-after-dying thing, though I don't think Gandalf the White is as cool as Gandalf the Grey. Gandalf the Grey is so much more flamboyant and fun while as Gandalf the White basically has one purpose in his life, and focuses pretty much all of his attention on that. 
2.  Luna Lovegood(and all the other wizards in the world! Except Voldemort...) because she's so absentminded, but totally cool at the same time. I especially like her insistence in the existence of so many weird creatures. I do wish that in the books, she would have gotten together with Neville. It would have been such a cute pair. They did so in the movies, but J.K. Rowling says that there is nothing between Neville and Luna in the books. 
3. DEATH -now don't think that I'm a morbid person. This is an actual character in an actual series, the Discworld books. In that series, DEATH is awesome and funny, and totally clueless. He's a bit sarcastic as well, and I love the fact that in the book Mort, he wanted to take a holiday, so he got someone else to take his place until he got back. Death on holiday... it would be interesting to see him trying to suntan on the beach...
4.  Peeta -yes, I am team Peeta. There's no denying it.
5. Wolverine -specifically the Wolverine in the X-men movies. He's better looking in those anyway. I don't particularly like his outfit in the comics. Blue and Yellow don't look good on him. Also, in the movies, he's has so much more depth than in the comics. And Hugh Jackman...come on now...
6. Sherlock and Watson from Sherlock. If I died an unfortunate death, I'd want them to solve my murder. Sherlock would think that it was a murder so easy to solve, he wouldn't leave his house for it. Then, Watson would stream the crime scene from his computer to Sherlock's using videochat. Then, Sherlock would decide there was something more to the murder and decide he wanted to solve it. However, I don't particularly want to wait until after my death to meet the two, so maybe it'll work out if I was hired by the police department. Or maybe, I end up renting a room in the same apartment building as the two of them. Though, the gunshots and the thought that there might be a dead person's head in their fridge might be a little too much to handle.
7. Elrond-he has an awesome forehead and is amazing
8. The Doctor -specifically the tenth doctor from Doctor Who. As I have written about before, I think I would make a particularly good companion for The Doctor. Maybe he would lend me his sonic screwdriver sometime and I could open a door with it. 
9. Shawn and Gus (from Psych) -don't be an incorrigible Eskimo pie with a caramel ribbon. You know you want to meet them too. 
10. Bernie from I am the Messenger-because he's an adorable old man who loves when people come to his virtually abandoned theater.
11. Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. I would especially enjoy having Mike come out of my closet and entertain me during the night. Speaking of Monster's Inc., I CANNOT wait for Monster's University to come out this summer. 
12. All the characters from Downton Abbey, especially the Dowager Countess and Matthew Crawley, though he dies in season 3. My other favorite character, Sybil, dies as well in season 3, which is sad. However, since I like pretty much all of the characters except Mrs. Crawley (because she's annoying, especially in season 2 when she tried to take charge of the hospital), I'm sure I'll find another favorite character to obsess about. A conversation with the Dowager Countess would be so interesting, especially because she's so sarcastic. 

I Like Beginnings

Happy New Years everyone! 

I like beginnings. There's a freshness to them. Also, they are the furthest point away from the end, and I like that, because I'm not a big fan of ends. The most positive thing about an end is that there is a beginning that will shortly arrive. Beginnings also mean second chances, the ability to try new things, and the list goes on and on. 

This year seems like a fun year. In two months, I will legally be allowed to operate a two-ton metal box commonly known as a car. That might be a positive for me, but I don't know if it will be a positive point in the lives of those that will sit in the passenger seat of my vehicle. Our family is going on a cruise in the Bahamas in June. This trip will consist of 25 SCUBA dives, including one night dive and at least one shark dive. That promises to be fun. Psych will start to air in February, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will come out, as well as Catching Fire and Ender's Game. There will be a bunch of traveling in the Spring for my volleyball tournaments. There will even be a three day tourney in Indianapolis. 

There are also a bunch of things that I want to do myself. I decided that I'm going to dress up for the Renaissance Festival, so I have to get my costume ready. I've got a shirt right now, and that's it. Though my dad says if I go as a beggar, I can just get a brown sack and bunch holes through it. That idea didn't seem too appealing to me. I'm not going to go as a member of royalty or anything, but I have to crochet myself a shawl-like thing 'cause a lot of people that I saw this past year had them. I also would like to get a 5 on the AP European History exam. There's going to be a lot of studying that I'll have to do, but I'm willing to do it-and  plus, I really want that 5. 

So here I come to my New Year's resolutions. I feel like some of them might be a little odd, but if I make them public, I have to do them, or else feel shame, so it's a good thing. 

1. I would like to be able to do the splits 

2. Read more than 30 books

3. Make at least 20 blog posts a month 

I'll probably end up thinking of some more, but these are the three that I have for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to make them all. 

Best Books I've Read in 2012

It's the end of the year, and so I've decided that I'm going to write two posts today. Coincidentally, this is also the hundredth post I've made! This is a list of all of the books that I read this year going from my favorite (#1) to my least favorite (#35).

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2. Divergent by Veronica Roth
3. Legend by Marie Lu
4. I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
5. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
6. Paper Towns by John Green
7. Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. Son by Lois Lowry
9. Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
11. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
12. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
13. Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
14. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
15. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
16. The Road from Coorain by Jill Kerr Conway
17. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
18. A Million Suns by Beth Revis
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
20. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
21. Starters by Lissa Price
22. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
23. Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys
24. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
25. The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
26. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
27. School's Out-Forever by James Patterson
28. The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
29. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
30. MacBeth by William Shakespeare
31. El Principe de la Niebla by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
32. Girl, Stolen by April Henry
33. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
34. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
35. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I hope everyone has had a wonderful 2012 and I hope that everyone has a happy new year!

Wisp

So I'm back from a three day trip to Oakland, Maryland. My family and I went on a ski vacation at this place called the Wisp Resort. We didn't stay there though. We stayed at another hotel that claimed it had "internet." When my dad asked the person at the front desk why we were only getting 15% internet, the guy apparently said "yeah, the internet gets weird in the winter."
Now my ski experience has been limited. I've gone skiing twice before this trip at a place called Boyce park near our house. The last time I went was last year, and the only real thing I remember from it is the pizza and french fry positions of the skis.
The weather was really nice for skiing. It had snowed about three or four inches before we got there and it was still coming down. Friday, it was still snowing, but there was practically no wind, so it wasn't terribly cold.

On Friday, my dad and I got onto the slopes at Wisp. My mother decided that she didn't have the desire to ski so she stayed inside and crocheted all day.  We stuck mostly to green slopes all day, and I advanced to the point where I didn't ski pizza style, but instead did a bunch of turning to slow myself down. I did fall about five or six times and one time, this snowboarder kid (I don't like snowboarders-they're rude and don't know about personal bubbles) ran into me while I was down. I wasn't too happy about that. I DID go on a "black diamond" slope.  It was accidental though. I didn't know that I was on one at the time, and that makes me feel better about falling down half of it.  

Saturday and Sunday, we went cross-country skiing. THAT was awesome. It's like a combination of skiing and skating. We got to ski across the golf corse, which was absolutely beautiful. There was about two or three feet of fresh snow on the ground and the mountains were covered with trees that had lost all their leaves but were coated in snow. There weren't any tall buildings in sight, and it kind of made you feel like you were truly in the wilderness. We went cross-country skiing for two hours each day.
We had to go inside a yurt-a round tent made of felt usually used by nomads-to get our skis, which was awesome. It was a very cozy and I thought that it would be really cool to actually live in one, that is, until I decide that I want to take a shower. The skis themselves aren't like skis that you ski down mountains with. They're very slidy so you can ski across the surface of the snow really easily. My parents had some trouble with snow sticking to their skis-the snow packed really easily, which made it easy to make snow balls. Hehehehe. My dad and I learned that pretty fast.
I'm very glad that there was a bunch of snow on the ground. If there hadn't been, falling down would have hurt a lot. It wouldn't stop snowing while we were there, and all that snow piled on top of snow made a beautiful sight, as I've already said. I don't know why I love snow so much. I just love how it makes everything so serene and pretty. It's snowing right now while I'm writing this, in fact. Maybe it'll snow a lot and tomorrow I can make myself a snow castle and have a snowball fight. You never know.