Pumpkin Carving Party

Yesterday, I hosted a pumpkin carving party in anticipation of Halloween. I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was about seven years old, and even then, I don't remember doing the actual carving part. I think I decided what pattern I wanted and then let my dad do all the work.
So I wanted to carve a pumpkin this year, and I invited some friends over so I could do that.
28.57% of the people I invited actually showed up. I was a little disappointed of corse, but I was determined to have fun with the two who could actually come. Summer and Akeyo came over at around noon, and we ate. At around one, we started to get around to the carving part. I decided to do a pattern that had three pumpkins sitting on top of one another. Summer wanted to carve a wolf, and Akeyo decided to carve a face.
Considering the size of the actual pumpkin, I noticed that there's not much stuff in the inside. I was surprised that the actual amount of innards that I took out of mine was relatively small.
Summer finished her pumpkin in about half an hour. And when it was done, it looked really really nice. The carving part was all even an smooth. Akeyo's pumpkin is really cool too, especially when you put the candle in it. In this picture it looks especially cool because you can see the candle right in the middle of the nose, and its awesome.

The party was a lot of fun. It got me into the spirit of Halloween.
I just got a message about half an hour ago that said we wouldn't be having school tomorrow because of the "anticipated effects of Hurricane Sandy." I hope it's not as bad as people are planning for it to be. I'm glad they cancelled school (even though it was on a day that I have three free periods). Mr. Maione, the orchestra teacher said that sometimes the orchestra room floods when there's a lot of rain. I dearly hope that doesn't happen, because some of the instruments that are in there would get destroyed. The electric pianos are actually pretty nice in there, so it would be a shame if they were ruined.
But the good part is I get to sleep in tomorrow!! Huzzah!

The Bear Mascot

So I had an experience the other day that made me think.
The WT soccer team had a playoff game yesterday. It's kind of a big deal, apparently, when any sports team goes to the playoff, and it's the only time this year when I've seen that much school spirit in a school so small. In order to get the WT community pumped up about this game, one member of the soccer team dressed up in a bear mascot costume and went around school giving people hugs and high fives.
The thing that interested me the most about this, was that everyone was trying to figure out who was in the costume. For about forty minutes, the whole school was guessing and talking about who they thought was in the costume. I myself was curious about this. I thought it was Matthieu, but apparently it wasn't.
Once we did find out who was inside the bear mascot (the person's name shall remain anonymous) some people were very disappointed. The person who was actually in the bear costume is in a sort of "click," you could say, for guys. They call themselves the E8, which is a name I don't really understand, but I just accept it.  They don't have the kindest reputation, from what I've heard, mostly because they don't talk to anyone but the members of the group and their girlfriends. I don't have much contact with them, so I really can't judge. I'm not saying that this person is bad, but I am just gathering data from what I heard from the people who were around me.
So I thought that it was interesting that we care about who the mascot is on the inside, but once we do know what is on the inside, we are disappointed. If we think that about a person in a mascot costume, then we must think that about a person and the personality of that person. We have one opinion about the person, and then once we know their true colors, we act like we know exactly who they are. Sometimes we do, and sometimes, we don't. I don't know. It was just interesting to me.

Internet, Come Back!!

One of the reasons that I haven't been blogging much lately is because of the internet. More specifically, it's because of the lack of internet. My mother has this view that we in this household are too attached to the internet and we need less of it. So now she's turning it off at 8pm and then only turning it back on when she comes downstairs in the morning at around 6am.
I think that she has part of a point. Not a whole point, but some of it. In this day, we spend a lot of time online. I don't think that I would be so opposed to it if I didn't have work that I need to do.
For example, yesterday, I came home, ate a snack, and then was promptly whisked off to the gym for about an hour workout. I got home at around 6, then had to eat and shower. So then I finally got around to getting my homework done. Homework takes a while. I'm not saying that I need the internet for the whole time that I'm working, but wikipedia is very useful in times of trouble. I was studying chemistry ( I have a test on Friday) when the internet got turned off, and I was very annoyed, because I needed to know what Joseph Priestly did and it wasn't in my notes, so I had to look him up, but of corse, when I got to the internet page, safari said "safari is not connected to the internet." Sink me.
Then, the next morning, the internet was turned on at 6am, and my phone started to buzz. Unless my alarm on my phone is going off, my phone is NOT allowed to buzz. Especially early in the morning. That woke me up half an hour before I would have normally gotten up. Half an hour is a LONG time in sleep land. I could have had a very nice dream during that time. It turns out that my phone was giving me iMessage texts from the night before that didn't get to me because the internet was turned off.  Needless to say, that was not my happiest morning.
The thing is, my dad agrees with me. My mother's the one who's enforcing this rule.
So I'm irritated. I can't blog before 8pm, and 8pm was usually when I started my posts. I'm adjusting my plan. I just really really hope that this will not be a long time thing.

SALTIMBANCO!!!

On Saturday night, my mother and I went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Saltimbanco!!! It was truly amazing.
I've seen three Cirque du Soleil shows that I remember, including Saltimbanco. I saw Totem when I was in eighth grade, and then saw Quidam last year. I love Cirque du Soleil shows, because everything is amazing. The tricks are amazing, the music is amazing, and the costumes are amazing.
So you can imagine my absolute joy when I found out that I would be attending the show showing in Pittsburgh, Saltimbanco.
Have I said yet that it was amazing?
Saltimbanco is about a metropolis. A city where people are happy and everything is colorful. Its a show about the city, but it also pays attention to the individual. They also spoke during this show in a language that I can only describe as a mix of Irish, Italian, and gibberish.
The first act that I really really enjoyed (like, extra really enjoyed, because I really enjoyed all of them) was the chinese poles. There were four poles, standing vertically and about 20 people would climb it and jump from one pole to another. Everybody was really in sync, which I really liked. Another act that I extra enjoyed was the boleadores act. It was basically two people, a man and a woman, swinging around two pieces of string with a ball at the end. They were also in sync, and when the balls would hit the ground, they would make a loud noise, and it was really cool.
During the whole entire show, my mother was sitting next to me, and every time something amazing happened (which was like every ten seconds) she would lean over an say "how can they do that? They're not human." She said this a lot in this act, where these two men lifted each other and made statures out of themselves. I realize that that sounds weird, but there was one move where the smaller of the two extremely buff men had his feet in the air, and his shoulders were balancing on the back of the other man, who was standing on the ground. It looked like a very long human being in the air. It's especially amazing considering how buff these men were and how heavy they must have been.
I really also enjoyed the costumes in this show. They were colorful, the makeup was colorful, and I really want to live in a city where people can wear clothing to make them look like a rainbow.
The show was again, really really good. I now have to listen to the music and memorize the words.

Icons, Son, and PSYCH!!!

There have been three major excitements in my life recently.
1. Icon factory 2. Son 3. PSYCH SEASON 7 PROMO!!!

1. Icon factory is an amazing place where I can get little pictures to replace my icons on my computer. My dad told me about this last week, and I checked it out, and it is awesome!!! I immediately changed practically ALL of my icons on my computer.  I changed the safari icon (a compass) to the TARDIS from Dr. Who, I changed my Spotify icon to Totoro, and most importantly, I changed my 1Password icon to BATMAN!!! I did a lot of other ones too, but now on my dock on the bottom of my screen, I have a mini TARDIS, a TARDIS key, Totoro, a beach ball of doom, Batman, and the little bell from Polar Express. Now anyone who wants to use my computer will be extremely confused and not be able to navigate on my computer. But it is awesome.

2. So I read The Giver by Lois Lowry three times. I read it in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and occasionally pick it off of my bookshelf to skim through. It's an amazing book, and is currently ranked at #5 on my Top 25 Favorite Books list. This book has two "companion books," which means the books, Gathering Blue and The Messenger, take place in the same world and cross paths with the main character of The Giver, but it doesn't really continue the story of Jonas and Gabe. What I didn't know, was that there was another book that takes place in this world, and it came out two weeks ago. It's called Son. I read the free sample that Barnes and Noble gave me on my nook, and it's pretty good so far. I've read some reviews, and they have been pretty positive, so I am really excited to start reading it, but I have to finish the current book I'm working on, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. There used to be a time when I could read five books at the same time, but I really want to finish The Book Thief, and don't really want anything to come in between me finishing it.

3. Today wasn't really the best of days, mostly because it's Wednesday, and I don't particularly care for my Wednesday schedule. Also, I had an English in-class essay. It was lunchtime, and I had just come back from writing a lot about what I think a hero is (that was our prompt), and I came downstairs to grab my lunch. Then, Jacob showed me that THE PSYCH SEASON 7 PROMO VIDEO IS OUT!!!! I was absolutely positively so excited. I have been waiting for this for about six months. And the cliffhanger at the end of season 6 didn't help either. Psych is one of my favorite shows (I say one of my favorite, because, you know, Downton Abbey, Big Bang Theory, and Dr. Who are good too). Though they did ruin the cliffhanger because they showed a clip where Henry was alive and well. Admittedly, I knew he would be alright, but come on!

Those are the exciting things that are going on in my life right now. There's another thing coming up, but I'm going to save that one for another time. I'm drumming my fingers together in front of my face and saying "hehehe" like an evil person right now. But you'll just have to wait and see....it's rather exciting!!

The Glory of Autumn

On Saturday, my family and I went to Oakland, Maryland for the town's annual Autumn Glory Festival.  My dad apparently attended the festival once when he was a small child, and remembered really enjoying it, so we decided to go back this year.
The day was absolutely beautiful. The sky was blue, it was about 60 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside, and the leaves on the trees were turning red and orange and yellow. It takes about three hours to get to Oakland, and I thought that I would be watching Downton Abbey during the car ride, but instead, I decided to look out at the beautiful view of the woods that were bright with autumn colors and listen to music. Though I was very irritated because my iTunes on my iPod was broken and I couldn't listen to the music that I wanted to listen to, so half the time I listened to my new purchases, Fireflies of Montreal and Permafrost by Laurena Segura.
We got to Oakland at around noon, and ate lunch at a pizza place that I had apparently eaten at before, but don't remember. The pizza was square and good though.
At one, it was time for the parade!!! I don't really have any memories of going to parades as a child, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It started out with a person, who I think had been crowned Miss Maryland or something, and then proceeded to a marching band. Then there was the army of people with bouncy balls. They were all dressed in a green t-shirt and black pants, and were dancing along to a song that I can't remember the name of. There were about 150 people or so, and they would take the bouncy ball, which, I should note, was probably a yoga ball or something, but I don't know. They would dance with it, and sit on it and bounce up the hill with it, and it was very odd, and a bit unnerving.
The best part of the parade, by far, were the SHRINERS!!!! The Shriners are an organization that help children in need of hospital care. I can't take people wearing fezzes seriously anyway, but after this...by golly, it was so much fun!! There were some Shriners in nice, big cars, waving to the public, but then...then, all of the fun happened. A group of Shriners-there must have been at least twenty- came around the corner in little yellow go-carts, and sped around making figure-eights in the street. They must have practiced a lot, because it was truly really really cool. It was awesome. That was a demonstration, that even 70-year old men (wearing fezzes) can still act like children, and, as my dad pointed out, do it legally.
We also spotted a relative of my dad's in the parade (my great-grandfather lived in Oakland, so there's some family and friends around). Please don't ask me to tell you his relation to me, but I know that his name was Jeff, and he's a nice person.
After the parade, my mother and I went around the antique shops in Oakland. My favorite part of the antique shops that we went in were the hats-I love hats, especially ones from the 1930's.
When we started out car ride home, it was about 7 at night. It was peaceful, and you could see the stars in the sky. We went home after a really nice day in Oakland. This time, I did choose to watch Downton Abbey, but was still thinking about how nice the day had been-the weather, the parade, the Shriners, and of course, the colors and the glory of autumn.

Why Batman Wins at Life

I am of the belief that Batman is the best superhero out there. 

Calm down you Hulk and X-Men lovers! I said he is the best superhero out there, Not the best comic book (personally, I think Spiderman is the best comic book) and I will explain why I think that this is so. 

It's because no matter how minute the possibility, anyone can become Batman. 

There is no scientific phenomenon that allows Bruce Wayne to become Batman. In Spiderman, Peter Parker is bitten by a spider and takes on some of its abilities. In Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four are exposed to some cosmic radiation and something happens to them so they have special abilities.

Bruce Wayne is rich. That's why he can have all of those fancy gadgets. That's why he has amazing technology to help him fight his nemeses. Other than that, if I want to become Batman (which would be awesome), I just have to go get some intense martial arts training, build a lot of muscle, and learn how to have two different personalities at the same time. That's possible. It's just a lot of work. It would be hard. It would be difficult, but it's possible.

We all had people in our lives that we wanted to become. Personally, I wanted to become Hermione Granger and Laura Ingalls Wilder at the same time. But no matter how hard I try, I can't use magic, and I can't travel back in time to live on the prairie. 

Little children want to become Wolverine and Spiderman, but there's no chance. I'm sorry. It's very sad. 

So that's why I say, if you want to become a superhero, become Batman (or Ironman, but Batman's just better). Become rich (or inherit the money), go to all the martial arts training sessions you can go to, and acquire the best technology out there. Then go around and save cities from crime.