The Topic of Great Randomness

[marina salem]

Speaking of computers...I just got my baby back yesterday. And now it will actually load up (which, you must admit, is rather helpful), only they ghosted it. Now I have to redo all my settings, and restore my files and documents from Mozy--by the by, they offer two GB of free backup space online, which in this instance is a complete lifesaver.

I'm so glad I haven't bought an iPod yet. Pretty new Nano came out recently. Mayhap I'll get the purple. Too bad the red only comes in eight gig.

Speaking of Nano (though this is completely unrelated in almost every way)...NaNoWriMo is coming up in November! For those who live in ignorance (as I did a couple years ago), it's short for National Novel Writing Month, where you sign up to write 50,000 words in the month of November. It's awesome fun, but I don't feel like explaining it all, so check it out.

Oh, yes, and I'm also sick as a dog (where does that phrase come from?). I really do think I will get a nosebleed next period from all the sneezing I've been doing. You didn't need to know that but I'm telling you anyhow. Have a wonderful day, and may your camel spit nothing but dates.

[EricG1793]

Anyone concerned about their computer data (who isn't?), I highly recommend this product:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-External-Drive-...d=1222896186&sr=8-21

It comes with a mini operating system embedded to the hard drive. You can download a program to your computer that automatically syncs files on folders you select. I tell it to sync My Documents and Desktop, which is where ALL of my personal data is contained. Every so often (it depends on when I add a new file I want to be backed up), I plug in the hard drive, tell it to sync, wait a minute, and that's it. I have it set to ask me every action it does (the sync goes both ways; if there's something in the hard drive's sync folder, it'll add it to your computer, as well as adding new/updated stuff from the computer to the hard drive).

I think I can set it to sync itself periodically, but I don't want to keep it plugged in all the time. But it's a really convenient way to back up my stuff, and there's several times the space I need in order to save all my stuff.

Marina: Apple sure is shooting out the iPods like mad, it seems as though they JUST came out with the last Nano.... As with all technology, you buy it, next thing you know, you're outdated, and it seems especially bad with iPods.... At least I've had my laptop for a year and 10 months and I'm still up-to-date....

---

For the past week or so, I've been sick. It must be the allergens in the air; many, many, many people in the area are sick in the same way I am. I had a dreadful headache on Saturday, sore throat, ear ache.... NOw I just have a really runny nose.

I've only done a few simple things to prevent germs from getting to me. Washing my hands after lunch, after last block, and using the sanitation wipes provided in all computer labs to wipe off my desk, keyboard, mouse, and monitor because I can't stand dusty monitors. That's it; not an outrageous extent like I expressed the last time I talked about this.

Homework situation's calmed down. We only had two section review for homework this week, and one of them's not due until Monday. The first draft of the Chromium essay has been pushed back to next week, not tomorrow. No English, no Theater, except for a permission slip to watch Shakespeare in Love, rated R.

[Emi]

Thanks Mona and kk!

kk: I hope your computer comes back fit as a fiddle! haha. You're lucky... no homework?!?

marina salem: Nano! I'm going to try to do that this year. I hope hope hope I win this year as a opposed to last year. How are you going to prepare? Outline or writing from scratch?

I got my new phone yesterday! It's the enV2!!! I'm so happy. I love it. Oh and the bank situation got settled. Thank God. Haha.

I hope everyone gets better (who's sick). I just got over my sickness a few days ago.

[kk]

Emi: Not only no homework, but no school in general. Being homeschooled, all of my stuff is on that thing. The textbooks, solutions, assignments, writing projects, etc.

My computer hasn't been shipped to the factory yet; it's getting picked up tomorrow. I miss my computer; I'm even beginning to miss my schoolwork! That's pathetic...

[Zirsta]

kk: you're home schooled? I have a friend I've known for practically my whole life who's home schooled, but now she's in North Carolina for the next 8 months. Actually, I start to miss assignments, but generally only in the summer, but you've had your computer down for how long? 6 days? Hmm...

[Mona0622]

Marina Salem: I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year.

I'm not really going to have an outline, but most of the story is planned out in my head. I'm going to write down the character's names, so I don't change the names part way through. I haven't decided if I'm going to do a romance or an adventure yet. Which do you think would be better for a first try?

Tomorrow is the band competition at my high school. There is still so much to work on and I'm going to miss the morning practice because of the SAT's. I really hope that we do ok and have no major break downs.

[kk]

Zirsta: Yep! And I enjoy every minute of it!

Well, no; that's not entirely true... Biology class... *shudder* Today the teacher got into many awkward conversations with underaged children about things they really shouldn't know about. It was torturous...

Yeah, as of today (it's Friday, isn't it? I think? Hmmm...), I have been without schoolwork for one week and two days. And my computer hasn't been picked up yet! I'm beginning to get mad at the people who were supposed to pick it up...

[marina salem]

SAT, PSAT, PLAN, ACT, OMG...

I'm taking the PSAT in a couple weeks as a junior, so I'll be eligible for the National Merit competition this year, as opposed to when I took it last year as a sophomore. The school has us take it as sophomores so we "get a taste of what it's like". Big whoop. It's a ScanTron standardized test. They're all almost the same to me. School hosted a practice PSAT last weekend, and we got our scores back Wednesday (why they can't grade 'em that fast when we take 'em for real is beyond me). I had a 70 on Math, a 75 on Critical Reading, and a 73 on Writing for a total score of 218. I hope I do better on the real PSAT. My geometry was abysmal.

On the subject of NaNoWriMo...

As to outlines, do whatever you wish. Last year I wrote a satirical novel without an outline and just wrote it. For thirty days. You should see my school grades for that month. If you don't think you can keep the whole story straight in your head, by all means write some type of outline. This year I'm doing a LitFic that I've had the idea for for four years. So it's not really from scratch, and it's a LitFic, which are usually character-driven, so I'm not too too worried about plot. There is one, of course, but that's beside the point.

As pertains to genres, again, do whatever you wish. It's your novel--you're in control. Probably whichever you think you're on right now is probably your best bet. Remember, you're writing for thirty days. About halfway through November that 50K starts to look impossible. Don't give up, though. You'll make it.

So I don't think any of what I just wrote is helpful, but hey, it's the thought that counts. If you want to buddy me, I'm Defensive_Specialist. PM me there and let me know you're from YW so we can have word wars and egg each other on.

Re: biology...heh I'm in Physics this year. I don't have to worry about that anymore.

[kk]

Today was a good day! I went to church, saw a friend I haven't seen since May, when he moved away ( ), and it was nice. I'm happy...

And I probably need to eat dinner, since I haven't yet...all I've eaten today is...a bit of chicken, a poptart, a glass of water, and a handful of popcorn. So, yeah...

I go now, to eat!

Dai Stihéh! (That is the right phrase, right?)

[Emi]

Blah, I took the SAT's this past Saturday. My brain still hasn't recovered. Haha. I thought it was a lot easier than the last time I took it, so hopefully I get a better score.

I'm coughing to death.... hold on....

Haha Okay I'm back. Gah, I'm not sick again... I hope not. Allergies? Yeah, that's what it is. Haha.

On the topic of Nano, I'm not going to make an outline this year. I made one last year and I ended up getting 20,000. So, I'm going in blindly, so to speak. I hope it goes well.

I'm Fairyworld1217 on Nano... add me if you want.

[Mona0622]

I took the SAT's last Saturday, too. I also thouht that they were easier this time. I finished every single section - a first for me. I only didn't answer 5 questions, but had time if I knew the answer.

The biggest problem with getting up at 6am for the SAT's at 7am was that I was the school then until 11pm because of the band competition.

Emi: I'm also going to go "blindly" as you put it. Mostly because I don't have the time to create an outline. I just need to name the characters...

Oh, by the way, on NaNoWriMo I'm imagine_different_worlds, if you want to add me.

[Hanna - WindShadow]

I forgot to do my weekly message last week... I hope no one said anything to me I would have to reply to, because I'm too lazy to check.

So, I must warn everyone that I won't be able to come on as much; I've got to practice xylophone a LOT because there's a concert coming up at the end of the month! So much to perfect, so little time. Plus, my websites have been really busy lately, so I need to spend extra time updating them.

I promise I will still try to come here as much as possible, but I'm quite sure that won't be very often.

[kk]

Wow...Life...

I found out that my boss (so what, yes, I have a job) is going to pay me for a few months' work, which is around $480...wow...I've never had that type of money in my life! I'm almost weirded out by it...

But, at least buying an iPod will now not be a problem...Wow...I'm still kinda in shock, a little...

On the sad side of life, at the moment: My BFF and I have been told that we are not allowed to IM unless our parents know what we are talking about. So, we can't really talk through IM anymore... I mean, who wants to tell their parents every single thing they talk about? Sigh...

I'm weirded out, happy, sad, and a little bit in shock...and I need to finish the science chapter before next Friday...

My computer finally got picked up by the DHL people... So maybe I'll get it back in a week! Yay!

I'm gonna go do schoolwork, like I should...

Dai, all!

[EricG1793]

In Science today, we discussed the essays we turned in on Wednesday, and then the teacher left for the weekend, and when the sub came in, we had the choice to either do a card game or have a study hall. At first I chose the card game... until I realized it was really complicated and involving the Periodic Table and it involved a ton of thinking, which I didn't have at 1:30 on a Friday before a 4-day weekend.... So I decided to do Study Hall, and I got a pass to go to the library.

This was the first time I'd been in the library other than the two times I've been in there in a class specifically to use the computers. I went straight for the room on the side of the main part of the library, where there are adult/teen fiction, children's books, etc. I found a half-complete Hardy Boys series, mostly books I don't have in my own collection, the Artemis fowl books, the Lemony Snicket books, the newest book of The Last Apprentice, and more. I hated it because I didn't want to read those new books, because if I read them, I kind of lose my motivation to complete my collection of those books! I don't want to read a school copy, but it's there, under my nose!

Then, this girl from my Theater class came in to the room. I said Hi. She said Hi. She asked me if I liked a certain book that she pointed to. Long story short, we went back and forth, "Do you like this? Have you read this series? This is great!" etc. I even came across So You Want to be a Wizard, and she said she's read that series and she's working on A Wizard's Dilemma. I told her about this site. She recommended The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer (I read another one of her books, The Sea of Trolls, and liked it), so I checked it out (my first ever library book check-out in high school! ). I'm going to start it when I go to bed tonight.

I later went to the upper level to take a quick glance at the books up there, and I saw what I think to be more Fiction books.... They could have been Nonfiction, though. I'll have to take another look up there at some point. I don't ever have a chance to be in the library since I don't have a study hall built in to my schedule! And in the mornings, I stay outside until the "bell" (realistically, beeping over the intercom) "rings" for reasons I'll keep to myself, and I only have about 15 minutes after the last "bell", which I use to go to the vending machines and get an after-school snack. Other than that, all classes and lunch. No time for the library, unfortunately.

[Emi]

Eric: You have a two story library at your high school?!? Wow. I'm like wicked jealous... haha.

kk: Congrats on getting paid! Haha. Don't spend it all at once, because then you won't have any money to use for the next few months. And you're computer is getting fixed! Yay! Haha...

HW: Great to see you back on... come on as much as you can!

Mona: I finished all but one section. I was so proud of myself because last time I never finished any of my math sections.

Haha yay, we can go blindly together!!

Pumpkin Fest is this weekend. It's an annual thing my town does. Tonight was a little dull, but I got to see my friends there and stuff. The Haunted Trail wasn't "that" scary. I screamed once only because I was anticipating the kid to jump out at me, and he did... I can't believe I still screamed. Haha.

Tomorrow there's a craft fair and other fun things to do, so I'm pretty excited. I have to work in the morning though, but whatever.

Oooh, we're reading The Alchemist in my English class. It's a new book they're thinking about putting in to the curriculum for the future classes. It's so good. I advise people to read it... It contains a lot of philosophy and stuff like that but it's good. Everyone in my grade (who's in English) says it's a really good book. That's like a first.

Oh! My sister's film club director wants to film one of my scripts I adapted from one of the stories my sister wrote. I'm so happy... I hope I get to be a part of the production. It'll look really well with my college apps.

Speaking of college apps. They're killing me. Haha. The deadlines are coming up and I'm like nearly done the essays. I just need to edit them and what-not. I like have no time to write them!! I can't wait until all of this is over and I'm just waiting to see who accepts me.

Lastly, I saw the full trailer for Twilight yesterday... Let me just say I'm even more anxious now. Haha.

Well, that's all for now.

Dai peeps.