HELLO. July 14, 2009

I know it sounds like I’m making excuses for lack of entries but my internet was down for a little while because the modem we had was a little too old to work anymore so we had to get it replaced, which took long enough for me.

Anyway what I’ve been up to lately…

Another book I’m reading! The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. I’m not quite halfway through the book right yet but I’m really liking it.

And a book I’ve been writing lately is an novel inspired by the Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. And I don’t plan on considering on publishing this one but it’s fun to write anyway. But it’s also quite difficult to write considering I, being the person I am, automatically started writing this from Viola’s point of view in first person. This makes writing it extremely difficult due to all the sub-plots and dramatic irony and you know, scenes that happen with Viola not even there! So, I think I’ll have to go with alternating points of view.

Shakespeare was truly genius.

Anyway, volunteered at a library program yesterday and had to get up early for another one today. It was actually a lot of fun but I had to have a nap once I got home. I recognized this one girl from pathfinders. Not exactly pathfinders, but a flyup because she was only in brownies. Friendly person, (not saying a name) she told me at the flyup that I should be a brownie leader. Which, you know, kind of made my day.
And just something I thought I should say, if you have no idea what the heck I’m talking about with all this ‘pathfinders’ and ‘brownies’ talk, check out this website (the Girl Guides of Canada website) to figure it all out. Easier than me explaining everything. The age groups have changed a little over the years for girl guides and the sort. (I was reading some old guiding book from, like, the seventies recently and it shocked me how different it really was, and honestly, I felt a bit envious in a way that there were actually you know, patrols that would be filled up fast. They treated girl guides like it was the most popular thing around. When today, people see girl guides as those little kiddies who just hike and sell good cookies. Too much work for kid’s today.)

Yeah, so I made this new goal to watch the sunset as often as possible and it worked out for about 2 days last week and so now I’m trying to revieve this goal. But it is setting about … now.

So I got to go.
Bye!

Sincerely,
Alex Violet.

Today was a good day. So far. July 2, 2009

Today I was volunteering at a scavenger-hunt library program and led a group of four kids (ages 9-12) around the library trying to find puzzle peices with riddles on the back that would hint where the next peice is. It was not so bad. Once we were finished, we got to make dragons and stuff out of play-doh and I made a big purple dragon with a red tail and a little green baby dragon. It’s pretty cute, I’ve got to say.

When the kids had all left all the rest of the volunteers and I just stuck around, talking and playing with play-doh.

I told them about my grade 9 clay art project where we were supposed to make mugs.

The teacher had shown us the 3 different ways to make them, there was the coil method (you roll it out like a liccorice and then make it a spiral coming up to form a mug), the slab method (roll it out w/ a rolling pin, then mold it around from there) and the pinch-pot method (where you just take a wad of clay and pinch it into a mug).

While everyone else decided on the easier and faster slab method, I decided I’d play expert and went for the difficult and time-consuming pinch-pot method. Which, I must say, made me in way over my head.

I was doing horribly one of the days we did it when the clay was stiff since it had dried a bit overnight. I added water to it, which made it muddier. I added a handle. It fell off.
Being a very muddy mug, it refused to stay put and slowly slid down into one of those soup bowl things.
And then it became a dog-bowl type thing.
I added two handles. One fell off. The other almost did.
So, once I got around to the painting, I focused more on the inside of the bowl and getting the entire outside of the bowl, I only belatedly realized that the outside only got one coat of it, so it totally ended up horribly.

So I sort of abandoned it in the art room…

It brought my art mark down to an 80%, which I wasn’t so upset with since an eighty is still good, but my mom was sort of peeved since art for me is like … popcorn and butter, peanut butter and jelly, math teachers and homework, scouts and camping, mold and wet paper-machet, … and words and reading.

But, I mean, who cares? I still won the art award for my whole grade!

Today was a good day. So far.

Question of the day: What is the most fond memory you have of failure?

The Mediator: Shadowland – Meg Cabot June 22, 2009

I have a feeling that this summer will consist mostly of reading.

I read another book for the gist of today so far, it’s the first one in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. One of the girls who works at the children’s desk in the library reccomended it to me and as soon as I finished Palace of Mirrors I started on this one. And I finished it about a half hour ago. And it ROCKED.

So you can tell I really need to:
a) Get started on those reviews I promised!
b) Read the next Mediator book
c) Find my list of books I’ve read so I can update it. And once I do that, I should copy it out in like, 19 places so I won’t have to worry about loosing it again. I think maybe I should put it on this blog somewhere…

Anyway, I do recommend this book. It’s about a 16-year-old girl who can talk to ghosts and found out she’s moving to a place with some really old buildings (old buildings = more ghosts). And at her school she’s seemingly replaced a popular girl who’s commited suicide over the holiday. And one thing’s for sure, Heather will not make room for anyone.
Compared to Twilight, this book has less romance and more action, and clearly more books in its series. (Notice: I’m not saying it’s better or worse!)

It’s times like these that I figure I should start a book club.

Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix. June 21, 2009

I have not been able to put down this book, “Palace of Mirrors” by Margaret Peterson Haddix. My mom got it for me at the library about a week ago, but I was too busy with exams to get really started on it. But today, I’ve been reading it most of the day, and I’m about 3/4 of the way through. I may not be a speed reader, but that’s alright with me.
I’ve been looking for some good summer books to satisfy my boredom. Does anyone have any suggestions? (I’m 14, & have already read Twilight. Before anyone knew what it was, I might add!!!)

Of course I don’t really expect you all to respond! lol. I haven’t got any readers yet!

I have got to really stop trying to write something out of nothing. It’s not very entertaining. C’mon! I want something great to happen!

Happy Father’s Day, guys.

Sincerely,
Alex Violet.