Something About Gummy Worms

So I'm Back

2004-08-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

I know that it's been a pathetically long time since I last wrote, and normally I would apologize for that, but this time I won't. I wouldn't really say that there's much point in apologizing for something that you don't particularly regret. Also, a month and a half or so isn't really that horrendously long.

The first part of that month I spent at a family reunion in Wisconsin. I'm not really sure what most teenagers seem to have against family reunions, but whatever it is I don't particularly share in it. I mean sure, sometimes I don't get along all that well with my mom, but that doesn't mean I don't love to hang out with my family. Plus, I hardly ever get to see my cousins, and they're some of my best friends in the world. Sometimes I think that teenagers are always huffing and puffing about how horrible their life is just because we're told that that's the normal thing to do...

Anyways, this family reunion of mine was held in Wisconsin, home of bratwursts, strange accents, and fish-tasting water. So that was fun. On the night of the huge reunion party, I was hanging out with some of my cousins talking about how my gay uncle had just come out (we actually got in a fight about it, seeing as they're diehard Republicans and I'm...not, but I digress) when this peculiar looking red-faced man who I had never seen before in my life walks up and starts grinning away.

"Hullo girlies." he says. We all just sort of smiled weakly at him. My younger cousins were probably extremely confused by his drunkenness, but then again, Wisconsin is overrun by loud drunk Germans (my dear family chief among them) so perhaps it was a familiar sight. So Drunk Uncle #1 is just standing there grinning, and swaying slightly and he says, "Just call me Uncle Ferg. Uncle Fergie loves you girls." here he swayed so viciously that I debated inside on whether or not I had to grab his arm and hold him up, or if it would be acceptable to simply let him fall. I was deciding on the latter wholeheartedly when he stumbled away.

We all sighed with relief, had a quick giggle, and returned to our card game. Then the game was interupted by a dog who crashed through the table we were sitting around, sending everyone flying. 'Uncle Fergie' was, of course, the brilliant one on the end of the leash. So now I'm just thinking that I want to run away from here, because the waiters are sending us all dirty looks, and some of the other plethora of Drunk Uncles are starting to look our way too.

"Whoopsies!" grin, grin, grin, "Molly's a little tipsy," hehehe "Aren't you a little confused there Sally?" Then he sort of blinked and cocked his head around, and we're all sort of slowly backing away from this obviously dangerous nutcase. "Hey girlies, want to pet Dolly?" he asked.

We just sort of shook our heads and ran, hoping that if we ever saw him again he wouldn't remember us. Hopefully he won't. That story seems kind of boring in retrospect. Ah well, you win some you lose some.

So anyways, had fun at the family reunion. Partayed with some of my cousins. Then I left for a month of camp in Wyoming. Now, I know that summer camp in general, I've always considered sort of stupid. But I love my camp more than anything else in the world, and I've met some of my best friends in the world there, and had some of my best memories, and the most fun. I don't know. I've never really been able to explain how I feel about my camp to my friends at home.

They just sort of look at me, wearing my same worn out camp sweatshirt to school practically everyday, and then when I try to tell them how amazing it feels to stand on top of the peak of a mountain and watch the sun rise they just sort of go "Yeah, woohoo, Cowboy Camp in Wyoming." So they don't understand what camp means to me, and sometimes I'm kind of glad that they don't.

During the school year when I'm feeling stressed about something, or I just get too tired of juggling everything, I'll pull out my scrapbooks and my camp CD and just lose myself for a little while, and let me tell you, nothing feels better than that.

So I had a great summer, and now I'm back at home, trying to get used to the feeling of typing again fast enough to get all of my long-postponed summer homework done with in the few few days I have before school starts up again. Freshman year of high school....wow.

Books

2004-07-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

I know that I already made one post about the books I love, way back on May 8th, but it was a rather incomplete list, and I figured I'd give you a quick 'Summer Reading' update.

Books I've already read:

1. The Key to the Golden Firebird, Maureen Johnson

This one was quite good. I think it's probably on a level with a couple of the others that I've like recently, namely The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen, and The Year of Secret Assignments, by Jaclyn Moriarty. Anyways, it's the story of three sisters dealing with the death of their father.

The three of them deal with it in their own ways. Brooks, the oldest, falls in with a wild crowd and starts drinking. May, the responsible middle child, pours herself into her work and her driving lessons from her former nemesis, Pete Camp. And Palmer withdraws, concentrating only on her baseball and her latenight roams around the house to escape from nighttime panic attacks. It's a good read, and much better written than, say...The Insiders.

2. The Insiders, J. Minter

Ugh. Well, this book is supposedly Gossip Girl from the male set, but the characters aren't nearly as absorbing, and the book seems to veer more towards 'guilty pain' than 'guilty pleasure'.

If you loved Gossip Girl you can probably eke some enjoyment out of the book. I'd give you a plot summary, but there was so little, and so pointless of a plot, there really isn't much to say.

3. The Clique, Lisi Harrison

This one would be 'Gossip Girl' for the middle school set. A little bit better than the Insiders, but still nothing special. This book falls into the neat foursome created by: Gossip Girl (Rich New York Girls), The A-List (rich L.A. Girls), The Insiders (rich NY boys) as the middle school offering. Read it if you liked the others, if you didn't, leave it.

4. Tell it to Naomi, DANIEL EHRENHAFT

Rather formulaic plot. Boy likes girl, boy poses as female advice columnist, wacky hijinks ensue. Enjoyable enough, nothing great. Nice quick read.

5. Contents Under Pressure, Lara M. Zeises

This is a pretty good one. Lucy's a freshman in highschool and she feels like all her friends are abandoning her to find boys. Her only comfort is found in her perfect older brother Jack, who's finally coming home. But when Jack arrives, he's got his girlfriend with him, and Lucy wants Jack to pay attention to her, not his stupid girlfriend. Then Lucy meets Tobin, the hot junior who seems like he might be just as interested in her as she is in him...

Good light read. Better than the 2,3 and 4.

Books on my reading list:

1. Doing It, Melvin Burgess
2. The Au Pairs, Melissa De La Cruz
3. Summer Boys, Hailey Abbott
4. Away Laughing on a Fast Camel, Louise Rennison
5. The V Club, Kate Brian

There are others, but those are probably the top five on each list.

My Room

2004-06-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the day today cleaning out my room. The poor old thing most definitely needed it, since it looked almost exactly the same as it has since I can remember, just minus the bunk beds I used to share with my older brother.

Some things about that are good, Puff (my stuffed doggy) for instance, I cannot live without. Others (and these are the more plentiful), not so good.

There's a miniature chair in use as my bedside table, my closet is filled with, not clothes...micromachines! I still have those cutesy little letters hanging up over my door. You know the ones I mean, they've got little faces on the end of each letter, and the faces look like clowns. If you don't know what I mean, just head to your local baby store and I'm sure they can explain them to you much better than I can.

It's not only the decor of my room that bothers me, there're also the books. I've got three rather large bookshelves in my room, and then a smattering of stacks all over the room. It's practically impossible to move in this hellishly closet-like room of mine.

Well, it used to be at least. Now you can hardly move in the entryway because it's completely filled with heaping bags to be put out for the rummage collectors tomorrow. And my room is, for once, almost clean looking.

It was very rewarding, and now I can fall asleep (at 1:05, but still...it's sleep) in peace.

Tennis

2004-06-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

I've been taking tennis lessons this past week, and I'm going to take them for another week starting Monday. I've discovered that tennis is actually a very entertaining game. There's something incredibly satisfying about giving that tennis ball a good whack and sending it over to the other side of the court. So I've got nothing against the game itself, it's the tennis instructor who bothers me.

At first it was just the physical thing. "Coach John" wears glaringly yellow socks that are always pulled up all the way to his knees. Whenever he moves his arms you can see his ghostly white upper arms, and he bobs his head when he talks. However, since all of those were shallow sorts of annoyances I was willing to give the guy a break.

Then he busted out the name mutilation. My name is T-Y-L-E-R. And yet, the deluded imbecile is convinced that my name is Tylen. Who in their right mind would name their poor daughter Tylen? (No offense meant towards you if your name is Tylen, you have my sincere condolences.) This is actually partly my fault too. If I hadn't stopped correcting him after the first few times maybe the man woiuld realize that my name is not in fact, a shortened version of "Tylenol".

But on top of all of those slightly forgivable things, he not only mutilates my name, he doles out horrid nicknames. Examples? Well, everyone is either "Dude" or "Sista'" depending on their gender. Other specifics that have come into play are "Pants", "Flippy", "Slapper", and "I am". The man is the devil, I swear. Nicknames are supposed to be endearing and fitting. These horrors are neither. UGH. Oh well, just one more week of Tylen and then I'm free to be Tyler forever...THANK GOD!!

A Post

2004-06-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

So I finally managed to dig up some time for myself to post, despite all of the reasons why I haven't really been posting which I believe I mentioned in the post below this one. Anyways, this post won't have a single subject I don't think. I'm just going to ramble. As we all know, it is better to ramble in list form:

1. The Lion King:
I went to see The Lion King in San Francisco with my parents and my older brother. The tickets were christmas presents from my grandparents, and my cousin and her family came along too. My dad was the one who bought the tickets, and since he was using someone else's money he got the very best tickets he could, way up front, with special "VIP" passes.
Since we were VIPs we got to go through a special entrance without waiting in the huge line. They gave us free drinks and programs and there were all these couches to sit on in a sort of lounge area just for people with VIP passes.
So we finally went down and sat in our seats, with a perfect view of the stage. I hadn't really been thinking aobut it before, since it had already been six months since we'd gotten the tickets, but now I was starting to get excited. The Lion King movie came out when I was maybe five or six and it was the first movie that I really loved. I developed a creepy sort of obsession with it I guess. I knew all the words to all the songs, could recite practically every line by heart...I even bought a whole lot of these little plastic figurines, and my own toy Pride Rock. I think I've still got Pride Rock under my bed somewhere actually. So it was an obsession for me when I was little (the first of many many many), therefore, I was even more excited to see the play version than your normal person.
Actually, I was a little disappointed by the singing. Two of my very favorite songs, "Can't Wait to be King" and "Hakuna Matata" are sung by Young Simba, and he's played by an eight year old kid, and eight year old boys can't always sing very well. It's not that the kid was horrible or anything, he just didn't really do the songs justice. But anyways, enough about him, I shan't let my one little problem disrupt my happiness at having seen the entire show.
The costumes were amazing. Since we were sitting so close up you could see how they were all put together, and let me tell you, those things were spectacular. I'd seen pictures of them before, but when I saw them on the stage...wowee. Those things are amazing. I won't try too hard to describe them, because I can't really do them justice with my severely lacking skills.
The acting was also quite good, and so was the singing (except for the aforementioned hiccup, but that doesn't really matter). The way the actors moved really added to the atmosphere immensely...
Anyways, I obviously had a wonderful time. There was this annoying fat old drunk man sitting in front of me though, and he kept giggling loudly to himself, it was odd. Another odd thing was how anal the ushers were about not taking pictures. I brought my digital camera with me because I'm still in love with it, but I didn't even take it out because before during and after the performance they were constantly screaming at people. It was annoying. I mean, I know they have perfectly logical reasons before and after...but how come they don't allow photography after? I wanted to get a picture of my family in the theatre...oh well. Onto my next ramble.

2. Music:
2a. Guitar:
I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but I play the guitar. I originally started taking lessons because (a) I got a guitar for christmas and (b) at the summer camp I go to in Wyoming, all the cool people play the guitar and I'm a sucker for peer pressure.
I used to play the piano, but I hated it enormously, and in the gap between piano and guitar I tried out the clarinet and the trumpet too. Neither turned out well, so I was a bit wary about starting to play the guitar. A year and a half later, I'm still not sure how wonderful the poor thing is.
I'm not very good, mostly because I practically never manage to get around to practicing. Oh, I tell myself that I will, that I'll spend hours practicing tomorrow to make up for not having touched it since my last lesson, but I know that I'll probably manage to forget all about it. And as we all know, if you don't practice, you can't get better. I should probably be practicing right now, but the computer was calling to me...
2b. Real Music (much offense meant to my pathetic guitar skills. That is not music. That is a sin.)
I think I own perhaps seven CDs. I've just never really been much of a music buyer. I listen to music in the background while I do everything (on my LaunchCast player or the radio) but I don't really care what it is. Some of my friends are the "Ooh, rap is evil. I can't believe you listen to that." type. Others are the "Down with rock" type. Nearly all of them can come together to make fun of me for listening to country, but I've never seen the point in dismissing entire genres of music.
I like Toby Keith (he's a country singer, my favorite of his is "Should've been a cowboy"), Eminem (come on, you've heard of him), Elliott Smith, Simple Plan, Jessica Simpson, Hillary Duff, Death Cab for Cutie, Fall Out Boy, Nirvana, The Used, Jeff Buckley, eastmountainsouth...I like all kinds of music. My problem is that since I like such a random assortment of music I can never quite find that perfect group. I don't like to buy CDs because I get bored of so much of the same old same old. Bands all have their own unique styles, and I can't stand to listen to more than two or three songs by the same people in a row.
If I were smart I would go to iTunes or Napster or one of those 'legal download' places, and make myself up the perfect cd. That is in fact, something I intend to do one of these days. My problem now is just what sort of thing I should put on that cd. Perhaps if I've got time to modify the layout later I'll add a "listening to" bit off to the side somewhere. NextRamble-->

3. Teen Life:
In seventh grade I developed an obsession with understanding teen culture. Up to that point I was horribly lost among all of my peers. So I started to read teenage books (in place of fantasy and mysteries), I watched teenage shows (I just added them onto Survivor, my first tv love), rented teenage movies (instead of things like 'The Lion King'), wore teenage clothes (instead of my brother's hand-me-downs...somewhere along the line I figured out that I really enjoyed all of it.
3a. Movies:
Luckily for me, they've been making movies for teenagers for a long long time. I've been working my way back in time, with the help of Netflix. The movies from the early nineties were kind of boring, but more recently they've gotten much better. A couple of my favorites: Thirteen, Ten Things I Hate About You, Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, A Walk to Remember...all very good, if sappy/stupid also.
I've also discovered that those 'Brat Pack' movies are pretty darn good. The one that really caught my fancy out of all those was 'The Breakfast Club'. God I loved that movie. There was something so good about that one that just wasn't there in Pretty in Pink, or Say Anything, or Some King of Wonderful...you see, I really have been doing my homework. I'm not sure about Sixteen Candles, it's been a while since I saw that one. Anyways, I finally got around to watching the original Dirty Dancing the other day, and I loved that one too.
One scene in particular is stuck in my head from that one. It's the scene in the dance studio, the "O Lover Boy'" one. Oooh, it gives me shivers, and I don't know why, and that makes the shivers all the better.
3b. Books
Got a whole bunch of new books for my birthday a while back. None of them were particularly good, but they were all passable. I think Contents Under Pressure, by Lara M. Zeises was probably my favorite, which is why I've bothered to link it. Aside from that, I got Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor, Tell it to Naomi by Daniel Ehrenhaft, The Insiders by J.P. Minter...that's all I've got on the tip of my fingers, but there were others, trust me. My family operates under the belief that my life is about my books. It's partially true, I'll admit, but it's not that true.
3c. Clothes, Hair, Makeup...
UGH. That's all I really have to say on this subject at the moment.

It's late...I need to go take a shower. There may be a bit before I can post again. I'm leaving for a month or so in a while, but I promise I'll post a warning before I go and lose myself for that long.

My apologies for the lack of entries

2004-06-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is going to sound stupid, but there are a couple of reasons I haven't been posting much lately, and I'm afraid that they may keep being obstacles.
1. My parents don't like me on the computer during the summer
2. I'm a hypochondriac and I think I'm developing carpal tunnel
3. I'm not around much, lots of vacations and things.

So I'm sorry to say this, but my posting until september will probably be kind of iffy. My apologies in advance.

Hairspray

2004-06-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

I went to see Hairspray last night in the city (san francisco) with a bunch of my friends. One of them got six tickets to it as a graduation gift from her mom, so she invited the other five of us along to see the play and then to sleep over afterwards.

I'm kind of embarassed to admit that it was the first big play I'd ever seen, not counting the ones I see in Ashland during the summers. It was hilarious too. Definitely highly recommended to anyone and everyone, of any age or either gender.

I think the thing that I enjoyed the most about last night was the sitting up and talking with my friends. I don't usually go anywhere on the weekends, just sit at home on my computer and instant message people and generally hang out at home. I think it's a combination of being mildly antisocial (according to my mother), how far away I live from my friends, and the fact that I'm not really in anyone's very closest group of friends, it's just that everyone likes me well enough.

So last night was fun for me, in a way that I doubt it was for everyone else. It reminded me that I can be normal, that I can go out and hang with my friends like a normal fourteen year old girl, obsessing over hot guys and funny lines from the play we all enjoyed.

It's just nice sometimes, to remember that.

Ronald Reagan

2004-06-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

So Ronald Reagan died a couple of days ago, and I don't really have much of an opinion about it one way or another. On one hand, I didn't agree with things he did during his presidency, but that is of course, never a reason to want someone dead.

I think that it was his time though, and that his long long life had finally reached the point where it was just time to go. I went to Aviation Challenge(a camp where you learn to be a fighter pilot, don't laugh, it rocked my socks off) when I was in fourth grade and I can remember my counselor talking about the dangers involved. "You're basically facing the knowledge that it may come to the point where you're going to die, and you know it. Does anyone really know how they want to die?"

"In my sleep, of old age." I said. Yes, I was a wannabe smart-ass even at the ripe old age of eight.

Ahem. I seem to be deviating from my intended subject. I was reading Cecile Duboise's blog, "Sky Watching My World" and she was talking at length about how some liberal bloggers seem to be celebrating his death. I, as a liberal but not particularly vocal about it, kid, thought I would add my own two cents. Those two cents being that death is never a good thing, but dying at such an old age, surrounded by your family is probably one of the best ways to go.

"Selling Son's Beloved Play Station 2 For Punishment!" Ebay Auction

2004-06-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

You get the weirdest things being sold on ebay. There was that town a while back, and then that wedding dress that the jilted man was selling, and now some crazed mother is selling her little boy's beloved Playstation. Poor kid. I'm sort of starting to think that people are starting to write strange stories about objects just in order to get more money for them.

Maybe I should try selling something completely normal and make up some incredibly bizarre story about it. I could sell...let's take a minute. I could sell my lariat. Let's see, in selling my lariat I could say that the man I fell in love with was a world-class cattle roper. Three months ago he left his prize rope with me as proof that he would come back after his roping tour, but he never returned. Then I saw him on tv in a rodeo last week, proposing to some rodeo clown. Now I'm selling his rope on ebay!! Okay, bad story, but my rope was the first thing I saw.

But you see my point. Was it really necessary for the aforementioned crazy woman to put up the entire long story about her thirteen year old son's horrible weekend antics? I think not. Wouldn't it have been just as effective to just sell the thing online without the entire story?

The other screwy thing about the story is that the poor kids parents seem more concerned with the cost of the wine/beer than they do with the fact that their 13 YEAR OLD is drinking said alchoholic beverages. Oh well, people be screwy. Ebay seems to attract the screwiest.

Three Years...and it's Over

2004-06-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I graduated from middle school. Two days from now I turn fourteen. Neither things seems real, but if it did seem real, the first thing would be infinitely more important to me.

When I got to my school in sixth grade, I was still the little girl who wore her brother's hand-me-down pants, and her dad's hand-me-down shirts. I didn't own a single sweatshirt, and I didn't own a single pair of long pants. I was a weird little child all right.

I'm not saying that I'm not weird now, because I am. The difference is that now I'm happier, and middle school was what made that change for me.

There's something horrible about being labelled the 'smart kid'. 'Gifted' is even worse, because it sounds like you're trying to make yourself sound even better. And that's what I was all my life, I was the gifted kid. Even after I switched to a magnet school, I didn't really fit like I felt in. I'm not particularly a fan of being around all the smart kids, all the time. I wanted to just be normal. I wanted myself to be stupid.

But now I'm glad as heck that I'm not stupid. Because for three years, the fifty-one other kids in the graduating eighth grade class, have been there for me even when I didn't need them. There's something immensely comforting about knowing that no matter what's wrong, or what's not wrong, there are kids who will listen to you, who will do anything to help you.

At graduation on Friday it didn't seem real. There we were, walking towards Founder's Oak in our dresses and our suits, trying to keep from laughing. We chose "Can't Touch This" as our graduation song. In case you don't know it, it goes do do do...can't touch this...do do do. Well, I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but it's not exactly a traditional graduation song. So we were laughing together, and joking around, and we were still a class, totally and completely together. I was sitting next to one of my guy friends, because we were lined up by height instead of last name, and we were making fun of the head of school's famous hideous hats. I went up and got my diploma, but it was just this little piece of paper, it didn't really mean anything to me.

I hugged all of my teachers, and I said goodbye to them, but it didn't feel real. I took pictures with all of my friends, ran around laughing and ogling one of the few hot upper-school boys my school has to offer as he walked around on the lawn outside. We all ditched our shoes because everyone knows that the fun in wearing fancy shoes is taking them off, and we were running around campus barefoot like we've been doing for three years.

And I kept thinking, this is it, we're not really a class anymore, but I didn't really feel like that. We were still there, still the same as always. I don't think it had really sunk in for anyone at that point, that our three years were over now.

So I said goodbye, I went out to lunch with my mom, I opened my graduation(/birthday) present, a digital camera. I waited for it to hit me. It still hasn't hit me.

Then yesterday was the Graduation Party. It's the eighth grade version of Senior Grad night. We swam all afternoon, shoving each other into the pool, playing Marco Polo, Sharks and Minnows, sitting in the hot tub talking. We were wrestling on the lawn over chips, and playing 'drinking games' with sprite and root beer. We were still as stupid and immature as we always are when we're all together just to have fun. And it was fun, as much fun as we always have. That made it a little sad, that this was the last time for all of us, that there wouldn't be anymore all-class games of duck duck goose when we were supposed to be clearing trails, no more faux-rebellions meant to get us out of math, no more sitting on the picnic tables and talking. But it still didn't seem real. We were all there, and we had one last night to make perfect.

At night we had a dance, switching from our swimsuits to our clothes and dancing to those horribly loud songs where you can scream whatever you want and still look like you know all of the lyrics perfectly. Not everyone was dancing, some people were just hanging out in the Barn, talking and laughing.

So we danced our hearts out, and talked our lungs out, and when it was time for slow dances everyone poured back onto the dance floor. I don't think I've had more fun at a dance/party in years and years.

And then it was time for that very last song. At first everyone was dancing with their partners, but then we all sort of spontaneously merged into the compulsory huge circle. All fifty two of us, standing on that dance floor with our arms around each other, just like who knows how many classes have done before us. People started to throw all of their glow necklaces up into the air like mortar-boards, until we were dancing on a floor that glowed green and red and purple and blue beneath our feet. The song ended, and then everybody burst into tears.

I couldn't make myself cry, no matter how many sobbing friends I hugged and comforted, no matter how many time I watched someone dissolve into tears. It was finally starting to sink in though. It was the last time, and the last time, for a class that has been through as much as we have, who haven't been apart for more than a few weeks in
years, is devastating, it's the end of the world. It's the end.

Fifteen kids aren't coming back next year. Fifteen kids who have changed my life, I might never see again. Fifteen kids I love. Fifteen kids I know better than I know myself. Fifteen friends I'll never forget.

And so it's over.

The -ennifer bit just got married, but not to the B- bit...

2004-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

So Jennifer Lopez just got married...again. This time it's to Marc Anthony, someone who I've only heard of in connection to J-Lo, so I can't really bring myself to care about either of them. You know, it's just kind of sad, to see someone as talented and beautiful as Jennifer Lopez dashing from man to man, engagement to engagement, marriage to marriage. For a moment I'll be young and optimistic and hope it works out, even though I know that it probably won't.

At the least maybe we'll be spared more annoying media floodage about her for the sixth months it takes for this marriage to fall apart. Ugh.

My birthday's in two days. I'm gonna be fourteen.

My Dog

2004-06-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like writing about my dog, hence this post. My dog's name is Rosie, and she's a spaz.

A couple of years ago my cuzzies were visiting from Wisconsin. Since they live in a land of no hills and no beaches we were taking them through berkeley on our way to the beach. Unfortunately, Mummy Dear decided that she simply couldn't live without going to look at some antique tablecloths or some other such crock, so we had to stop the car.

As Dad drove the car around and around looking for a parking space I spotted a roadside animal shelter. There were all of these adorable puppies barking and yipping around in a little pen. This was during my Animal Planet obsessed period, and only a few days before I'd watched a show about the San Francisco SPCA (cool place, if you go to their site read about Maddy's Adoption Center, it's also a cool place). So I was all hopped up on puppy love, and when I saw all of those adorable dogs in their pen I snapped.

There was one dog in particular, a sort of border-collie looking brown dog with black and white bits sort of scattered about. She was the most animated, adorable little thing I had ever seen. So instantly I started begging, because I wanted that doggy more than anything.

My mom said no of course, and dragged me off on Mission: Tablecloths, much to my despair. I whined for the first 10 minutes, cried for another, and then pouted for another. And yes, I was a very immature little girl. She obviously refused, and we finally returned to meet my brother and dad. And there they were, my dad handing over a check with the adoption fee for the little puppy. Ahhhh...that was one of the happiest moments of my life.

Since we now had a dog in the car we had to scrap the beach mission, but come on, it was well worth it. In the car on the way home we decided to call her Rosie (this annoyed me greatly, because I was lobbying for 'Buff' but in retrospect, it was a blessing). So Rosie came home with us that fateful day sometime a couple odd years ago.

At the time we had two other dogs. Sumner, a doddering old terrier who smelled like dead pigs, and Alex, the dog we inherited from my great great grandma, who was as weird as they come. Alex was so fat his puny little legs hardly touched the ground. But anyways, once we brought Rosie home we had three dogs, which made for some wild pee fiascos.

But at first Rosie was the perfect dog. She didn't seem to know how to bark, she was house-trained, she was obedient, she loved people...then something changed. One day while my mother was making the rounds of the nursing home, Rosie freaked out. She started barking her head off at the vacuum cleaner, she piddled on the floor, she was basically a bad, bad dog.

Ever since then, Rosie's been a bit odd. She got better for a while when I was doing Agility with her, but then we stopped and she went back to her spazzing. She barks her head off at the neighbor dogs constantly. She runs and hides in the closest available dark space whenever anyone comes to the door...she's a weirdo. But I love my doggy.

So that's the story of Rosie. Enthralling, eh?

Letters to myself

2004-06-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

So today was the last day of regular middle school. I opened my locker for the last time, I ate lunch for the last time, I went to all my classes for the last time, I hung out with my advisory for the last time, I did so many things that I've been doing for three years now for the very last time. There won't be any more stupid rules about "PDA" or going to your locker at lunch time, or being unsupervised, or going onto the upperschool campus. Because I'm not really a middle schooler anymore.

So, since today was the last day of middle school there was lots of letters. First we wrote letters, letters my social studies teacher swore up and down that he would deliver to us in eight years, when we're in our fourth year of college. I wasn't really sure what to write, I mean, what can you write to your older self without getting confused/embarassed? That's actually the reason I keep my various journal things, I want BigTyler to know what TeenTyler was like so many years ago, and why she turned out just like she did. But anyways, we only had ten minutes to write the letter, so I wasn't sure what to say to myself exactly. What I ended up with isn't really the sort of thing that could bring a nation to its knees, but it might make BigTyler smile a little, right?

Then in English we got back these little 3x5 cards we wrote to ourselves at the beginning of the year. They were supposed to have our goals for the year on them, but evidently I was already jaded and bored with English, because mine was incredibly boring. Pity about that.

So since neither of the letters I wrote/read today were very fulfilling I've decided to start a new tradition. My birthday is in one week, and on/around(today) my birthday I'm going to write myself a letter. Then I'm going to stick it into my Memento Box and open it next year on my birthday. Then I'll write a new letter to myself, and put them both back into the envelope. I figure this way, I might actually get a pleasant surprise some time when I read that letter.

Maybe by next year I'll have changed a lot, maybe I'll be exactly the same, but at least I'll have something to measure it by.

Layout

2004-05-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately in my quest to define my writing style in order to make my blog more interesting to the lonely internet wanderers who stumble in here, and I've noticed that layout has a whole lot to do with the enjoyability of the blog.

The layout I've got now is just one I downloaded off of some generic free blog layout site. I picked it because I thought it was nice and plain and generic and that I could find a prettier layout once I had found out whether I meant to stick with this blogging thing or not. But then I ended up tweaking so many little things to make the layout the sort of thing that I could deal with that now I don't want to change layouts until I find one that I really love. Hence the relative boringness of the design.

Also, there are some thing that I can't seem to be able to figure out. I've tried delving into the BLOGGER help bits, dubiously helpful though they seemed, but I can't figure out how to do things like create an 'About Me' page or how to have only half of a long entry visible and then the rest of it hidden behind a link. Oh, and another thing. I can't figure out how to make each individual post have its own title as opposed to only the last post on each day. This little problem of mine has probably contributed to quite a few confusing entries, and for that I apologize.

I'm sure that more research shall yield these wonders to me, and I shall go off now and attempt to get these things right. Much love and all.

P.S. I'm afraid that I am, at the tender age of thirteen coming down with carpal tunnel. Now that would be depressing.

The Mall

2004-05-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

So today I went to one of the scariest places on earth, the natural habitat of thousands of American teenagers...the mall. I actually like malls, desperate as I am to avoid/completely fit into the teenage stereotype. I find that it has a happy little place in my teenage head. Some things I like (malls) and some things scare me (thongs).

Anyways, the mall. I had to buy something to wear for graduation, and my expedition yesterday to a variety of department stores closer to home proved entirely fruitless and rather demoralizing. So the mall was my last resort, mainly because She Who Provides Transportation and Unconditional Love aka my mother, has a hate for all things that could be considered stereotypical teen things. She thinks I'm losing my individuality as I progress through the hallowed institution that is middle school. I don't believe her, but getting to the mall is still a thing of great difficulty.

I brought my friend along for moral support. She's also my cousin and so she's known my mother just as long as I have and understands my pain. Plus, there's something embarassing about shopping with just your mother, this way, if any of my friends from school spotted me I could say that my mom was supposed to just drop us off and came in because she's nosy and irritating as opposed to me shopping...with my mom.

So I found a dress at Macy's after only a bit of shopping and I took the oppurtunity to poke my head into some of the teenager-y stores in the mall. Some of them scare me a little bit. Hot Topic scares me a lot. There's just something about that uber-consumer 'punk' original/mass produced type store that gives me the heebies. Not to mention that I saw an eight year old wearing a tube top with the Playboy bunny on it today. That's just skeevy. Then I saw that very same shirt in Hot Topic. That's just creepy.

Of course, my aversion to Hot Topic could have something to do with my not being able to understand that sort of punkiness in general (that's the subject for another post however). The other stores were much more calming, so I poked my head into most of them.

Wet Seal, Forever 21, American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch...they all had cute clothes that I wouldn't mind wearing, and none of the prices were too disgustingly high.

It was a fun day, all in all.

Raising Helen

2004-05-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

I went to see Raising Helen

It was pretty good. I know Kate Hudson might not exactly be an Oscar-caliber actress, but there's something about her that I just love. But besides my Kate Hudson love, it was an enjoyable enough hour and fifty-nine minutes of my life.

First, we have Helen Harris (Kate Hudson), beautiful young woman with a successful career in fashion. She's the rising star at a modeling agency, the boys love her, and when she can manage to dash in, so does her family. But obviously this wouldn't be an acceptable plot for a movie. Where is the conflict?

So director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Princess Diaries) kills off Helen's sister and her husband, leaving Helen entrusted with the care of the three kids, much to the disgust of Helen's other sister, Jenny (Joan Cusack).

Then of course, Helen can't be left without a man, so we bring in 'Pastor Dan' (John Corbett) to play the role of wise man who helps Helen to grow up, and to raise the children she's just inherited.

All in all, while the movie was entertaining, it was just a formula dramedy. The problems that faced Helen seemed to just melt away (after Helen got fired from her job at the modeling agency for having the kids she quickly found a new job at a used cars sales lot, and then later got her old job back with no effort on her part), which made the entire movie, which could have been much deeper than it was, seem a little shallow.

Grade: B

P.S. In the interests of my teenager-dom, I enjoyed the actress who played the angsty teen character, Audrey. I hadn't seen her act before so I looked her up on IMDB to see what I could learn. Her name is Hayden Panettiere, and at fourteen she's carved out quite the career for herself. She's been acting since a role on "One Life to Live" in 1994, and since then she's managed to rack up a series of roles. The only ones I've actually seen is "A Bug's Life" where she was the voice of Dot, and as the daughter in 'Remember the Titans', but I have a feeling we're soon to see much more of her. She's a voice in 'Racing Stripes', and she's also set to play something or other in 'Ice Princess'. Anyways, I thought she did well with the role of Audrey, managing to combine teen angst/sexuality and grief very well.

There's Something About Gummy Worms

2004-05-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

Ahem, I've realized that the title of this blog might not exactly make much sense. While this causes me personally no pain, I figured I might as well explain the title.

See, I have this thing about names. If you go back in the archives a little bit I'm sure you'll find at least one post that's all about names. So when I decided to start writing a blog the first thing I thought of was what I wanted to name it. The first title I thought up is one that I still like, 'The Adventures of Angst Girl and the Lover Boys'. The problem with that title though is that my life doesn't really have many Lover Boys and I'm not horridly angst-filled.

So that name was out, and I turned to brain storming. I finally hit upon using 'Gummy Worm' in the title, because I have an incredible love for gummy worms. My first few ideas for a title were along the lines of: Gummy Worm Angst, Gummy Worm Punk, Angsty Gummy Worm Punk, Gummy Worm: Punk Angst, Teen Gummy Worm Angst, Gummy Teen Angst Worm, Teen Angst, Gummy Worms, Angst and Gummy Worms...my list went on forever.

A note: I don't actually think of myself as a punk, I just found the combination of punkiness and gummy worms amusing.

So I finally settled on 'There's Something About Gummy Worms' because it didn't really say too much, but it was a catchy sort of title. So no, it really doesn't have toooo much to do with what I write in here, but I think it fits all right.

SUMMER...

2004-05-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

...is almost here!! My eighth grade graduation (whooppee) is on the fourth, and after that, it's middle school no more. My birthday is the eighth so we've got a couple of good things lining up here. On that note, it might be a bit before I post much because I've got to study for finals and go to all the graduation stuff. This is my apology in advance. Summer is coming...

YM, Seventeen, Cosmogirl...Teen Girl Magazines

2004-05-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Teenage girls are famous for constantly reading magazines, taking quizzes, and generally obsessing over the glossy monthly delights. Last year when I decided that it was time for me to become a teenager I subscribed to YM, Seventeen and Cosmogirl, the big three of the teen magazine world.

They're mindless reads, but there's never been anything wrong with mindless reads and they're enjoyable. In the year I've been a subscriber it also seems like they're starting to cover more important world issues, like the forced sex slavery of girls in North Korea, or the importance of young people voting.

Some people criticize the editors of these magazines for putting in information about condoms and STDs, but I think it's a good thing. Kids have sex, and the more they know about it, the better it is.

I must say that I look forwards to getting my three magazines every month in the mail. I love looking at the clothes they've got, although I would probably never the exact things, they're still mostly the sort of thing that I think is cute and it's still lots of fun. So I'm not sure what the point of this entry was, but I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy my stupid teen magazines and I'm not afraid to show it.

LAUNCHcast

2004-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not much for downloading music, so when I discovered LAUNCHcast a couple of months ago I was in heaven.

With Launchcast you essentially rate a whole lot of songs and they customize a radio station for you to listen to based on your preferences. I've got everything from Willam Hung to Death Cab for Cutie, to Hillary Duff, to Toby Keith playing on mine.

The best part of this all, is that the basic service is FREE. You have to ignore a commercial every once in a while, but it's not too horrid. Anyways, it's a very nice service.

Hello, My Name is Unique

2004-05-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

I must say that I have never read 'Psychology Today' before today. I can't say that I plan to continue reading it either, but this article is pretty darn awesome. I stumbled across the Hello, My Name is Unique">link on , and I've always had a thing for this sort of thing so I figured I'd take a peek.

I wonder if I'd be a different sort of person if my parents had actually named me Tyler. Or maybe they'd have named me something completely different. I think a good name for a kid means that there's a good story behind it. This means that I feel very, very, sorry for any child who has been cursed with the name Espn (if you are such a child you have my sincere condolences).

I think unusual names are so cool partly because if you've never met a boy named Lander before you won't have one of those (Nikki is a bitchy girl/Jay is a stoner boy) associations. Come to think of it, Lander is kind of a cool name. Names are fantastic things, don't you think?

The Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

2004-05-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, teenagers do have opinions on important current events. The abuse photos that are currently plastered everywhere haven't escaped our notice.

I'll admit that now when I see an article about the abuse scandal I glance at it and then skip past it. I know what it was that happened, and I honestly don't care what people say to try to make it seem smaller, or what they say to make it seem worse. The government is trying to smooth over the scandal, yes, but our government has shown us time and time again that they're at least mildly deranged. I read those first articles, and I looked at those first pictures, and the things that other people are saying now isn't going to change my mind.

Those photos depict some horrible things, and the soldiers who did those things were wrong, and they should be punished. We said when we went to Iraq that we were going in to free the Iraqi people from an evil dictator who was abusing them (and creating WMDs/owning lots of oil). Now our soldiers, those same people we sent in to liberate the Iraqis are becoming perpetrators of that same horrible abuse. It's wrong no matter how you look at it, no matter what war can do to a person's head, no matter who those people were or what they did.

I read an article in the paper this morning about how parents and teachers aren't sure how much they should expose their children to those pictures. Honestly, I don't know. They say that kids grow up too fast, and yeah, I'm not the same little kid who had nightmares after watching 'The Mask' seven years ago, and sometimes I wish I still had those nightmares, instead of the ones I've got now.

But that doesn't mean that I wish I didn't know the things I know now, the things that made me grow up. Kids my age are going to know about horrible things regardless of whether they're getting all of the facts. We spend hours on our computers, and these days if you get within ten feet of the internet you're going to see those pictures. So whether or not my peers know the entire story, they know what happened. We're still kids, but we're not still naive, we're not still young and stupid. Now we're young and jaded.

So if parents are worried that exposing us to those grisly pictures is going to harm us, don't worry about it. We've already seen those pictures, and most of us already know what's happened. The least you can do now is make sure we understand. It. Was. Wrong. People do horrible things, and even if you think we won't understand, we deserve to know.

Getting People to Read a Blog

2004-05-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've realized that it's a very difficult task. First of all, you've got to have something interesting to say. I wouldn't call what I have to say boring, but it's not exactly revolutionary speakings. At the moment SAGW doesn't really have much of a purpose, it's just my general ramblings. I don't suppose there's much wrong with that, but I want my writing, pointless though it may be, to reach someone. Therefore I think I'm going to try some different things to get a couple of readers in here.

The Weblog
Review seems like a good starting off point. The name pretty much says it all, they review weblogs. Well...it's worth a shot, I'll head off and submit this little place right now.

ETA: Nevermind about that, the Weblog Review is (understandably) full at the moment, so I'll keep checking back, and in the meantime I'll continue with my happy little pointless ramblings.

Randomosity

2004-05-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

I was just glancing at the page, something that I actually don't do all that often because I make most of my entries using the "Blog This!" thing, which means I don't actually look at my blog very often. But I digress. It would appear that there was a five day gap in my posting. I can't really think of a reason for this off the top of my head, but I can make an attempt:

1. Every moment of spare time I had on the internet was essentially spent voting for Boston Rob to win the second million, as I explained in my Survivor Finale post. It was all in vain, obviously, as Rupert ended up with the million predictably enough, but perhaps my votes helped get Rob into the Final Four. Now, normally I'm not this obsessive about Survivor, but at the moment I can't help it. I don't know what it was about this season that made me want to watch Survivor more than ever, especially when lots of people are saying that this was one of the worst seasons ever. But it did, and the main reason was Rob, so I felt that it was sort of repaying him for making my watching enjoyable. Rupert on the other hand...ugh. That man needs to stay off of my screen, as long as he does so I'll be just fine. Rob is welcome back whenever he wants, as long as it doesn't get TOO creepy.

2. I had a guitar concert thingy. And yes, I do play guitar. I originally started because I have a thing for cowboy music. Now I'm more into rock et roll, but "I Should've Been a Cowboy" is still one of my favorite songs. Anyways, I had a big concert/recital thing to go to on Thursday night, so I was out all of that night. It was an enlightening experience to say the least. At my puny little school we lead a rather sheltered existence I'd say, and listening to those kids talk about things that are just kinda freaky things at public schools (ie kids getting so drunk during school they have to be taken away by an ambulance or walking in on girls snorting lines of coke off the bathroom floor) would be cataclysmic, expulsion and assembly inducing, counselor hiring events at my school. I decided earlier this year that I wanted to keep going to my school instead of switching to a public school, and I still wonder if I made the right deciscion sometimes. I think I did, but there's still that little seed of doubt.

3. I had to go to the concert at my school. Well, I didn't actually have to go, but at my school these things count as huge social events and everyone comes to them, and they're fun, so I came along. The middle school bit is about twenty minutes long, and then there are maybe three and a half hours of high school stuff, which ranges from boring to spectacular. I definitely like the singing better than the dancing or the band stuff, but it can't be helped I suppose. All in all I'd say I had fun.

4. This reason is the one that's the most troubling for me. I tend to go through temporary obsessions that fade away soon after, and I don't want this place to fall victim to such a fading. It may turn out to be inescapable, but I really hope that everything's okay. This post is my proof to myself that I really am still capable of writing long-winded entries in here.

So there you have it, the reasons I haven't been very active in here lately. Happy now?

A baby named...Apple?

2004-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe someone would name their child Apple. I kind of pity her, for all that she's going to have a rather fantastic life with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin for parents. Because honestly...a fruit??

Survivor Finale

2004-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

So Amber won, and although I still wish Rob had, I'm fine with her winning. With a jury as pissy as the one last night, it was only to be expected.

And of course, Rob proposed. I must admit that when he first started my instant reaction was to scream, "Don't do it, Rob!" and clutch a pillow, but moments later I was swooning. I can't help it. It was too sweet.

About this pathetic twist of ours however...Rupert MUST NOT win!!!! Everyone vote Rob M.!!! He's my personal favorite and I think that he's got the very best chance of winning over Rupert. I know it's giving him another mil, his 250 k, two cars and a hot girl, but please. Can't we all just understand that Rupert is pure and unchanging EVIL??? Take, for instance the (a) 'Little Mamas' (b) that hideous shirt he's selling on his website that has a picture of his ugly mug and then 'Got Fish?" UGH (c) this stupid twist is obvious just a ploy to give him the million, as brought to us by Sue Hawk (d) He's full of himself (e) he thinks he can conceal the fact that he's full of himself by pretending he's not (f) he's ANNOYING (g) you can just tell how obsessive he is (h) he's a horrible player...must I go on?

Rob on the other hand is (a) a good player (b) deserving of the win (c) cheated by a stupid pissy jury and Shii Ann's strange need to have the UTR strategy come out on top (d) hot (hee, I can't help it, I'm only thirteen) (e) the one thing that made this season interesting...see? VOTE BRob!!!

Tyler

2004-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

I'm thirteen years old at the moment, which sounds even younger when I write it down. Thus, I've only barely managed to escape from under the evil label that is 'tweens'. Honestly, what's up with that freaky name? Do they think it makes us feel good? Anyways, no longer a kid, or a tween, I believe that makes me an incredibly young teenager. Pity about that. Actually, it's only a month or so until my brithday, which means I'm almost fourteen, which sounds just as sadly young as thirteen.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Contrary to what my distant friends seem to think, no normal person who lives around here calls San Francisco 'Frisco', 'San Fran', 'Franny', 'The Big City', or any other strange names. It is simply San Francisco. Anyways, I live in a suburb about an hour out of San Francisco. My town is filled with people with waaay too much money, and, according to its official website is "known for its small-town atmosphere and its outstanding quality of life." It's a nice place to live, and it's the only place I've ever lived, so I must say that I like it, bubble-like qualities or no.

I'm only a couple of weeks away from graduating from the delightful experience that is middle school, thank god. I actually like school quite a bit, but I'm feeling kind of burned out at the moment. Anyways, I go to this puny little private school that has a huge-ass campus up in the hills. It's very liberally-leaning, and the classes are small and all of that. It's also an insanely expensive school, but my parents both went there and they want the best for their little darlings (that would be my brother and me).

My mother is constantly accusing me of being antisocial because it would appear that I live on my computer, in front of my tv, and among my darling books. I'm the first one to admit that I don't get out much, a problem which I can conveniently blame on my discomfort with: asking people if they want to do something with me, talking on the phone, inviting myself places, and making other people bored. I don't know, it just seems sort of dangerous somehow.

So yes, I'm a mite antisocial, although I wish I wasn't. I find things to occupy my time though. I love to write, always have. I just did NaNoWriMo for the first time this year, and I got through the 50,000 words easily enough. I also love to read, Teen Chick Lit is my current love, although I'm also a fan of the stuff like Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Anne McCaffrey etc. I've also got a "Don't Let Tyler's Reading Become too Shallow" list which I make myself read a book off of every one in a while (the latest two were 'The Fountainhead' and 'Catch 22' which were both tolerable).

I've also got an obsession with tv. The O.C., One Tree Hill, Everwood, Survivor, Dawson's Creek, Friends, Will & Grace, * Simple Rules, My So-Called Life, Degrassi: The Next Generation...I love them all. My obsession with Survivor has currently escalated to the point where I'll even watch Endurance, the Discovery Kids version of the show. I didn't used to be so obsessed with tv, when I was little I spent all my time out in the backyard playing games like "Jungle Boys" and "Squirrel Brothers" and "Bad Teachers."

I like to think that I have a nice quirky little personality, but I think that everyday I'm sliding closer and closer to being just another annoying teenage girl. That was actually my goal once upon a time, because I was so tired of being different, but I wonder if I'm giving up something bigger than that.

A note: I know absolutely nothing about being a teenage girl, try as I might. Makeup? No. Boys? DEFINITELY not. Clothes? HA! No. Hair? God no. Bitchiness? Well...maybe.

So that's me. Tyler. I guess I'll figure it all out one day.

Mika Boorem

2004-05-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Mika Boorem has either a fascinating or an unfortunate name. I'm still on the fence with that one. But I do know that she's one of those people you look at and look at and look at and just know you've seen them before.

This case of 'I know I've seen her' struck me when watching the trailer for 'Sleepover' when I went to see '13 Going on 30'. I was sure I'd seen her before, and now I've realized why. I first saw her in 'Blue Crush' sometime last year, and then, earlier this year when I went through my Dawson's Creek rerun faze, I noticed that she played Harley for a while during the sixth season.

I'm glad that she's still doing things, because she seems like one of the better actresses at that age. Alexa Vega too, (I think that's her name) I only saw the first of the Spy Kids movies, but I thought that her acting was pretty okay for such a kiddy movie.

I'll probably end up watching Sleepover too, just because it looks kind of fun/frothy.

Flavia Bujor

2004-05-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

So I bought Flavia Bujor's book, Prophecy of the Stones.

After a few years of starting stories that never got finished, Flavia Bujor decided it was time she completed something.

So at the age of 12, she decided to write a novel. She was 14 when the book was published.

I was interested because I love to write, and so seeing a girl around my age get published is always interesting. And at first, as I read the book, I thought 'okay, so maybe this isn't the greatest...but it's translated. That's gotta take away some of the quality.' But then I kept reading, and it didn't get any better, and, in fact, the story just kept getting worse.

Normally I can ignore less-than-stellar writing when the story is good, but in 'Prophecy' there wasn't any good story to rely on. The characters were all flat and two dimensional, and seemed to posess a strange propensity for falling madly in love with someone three minutes after meeting them. The obstacles placed in front of our three heroines, Jade, Amber and Opal, were quickly surmounted, and things like Death being on strike seemed incredibly contrived.

The one part of the story that I did enjoy was that of Joa, the sick girl in Paris who was seeing the story through a dream. She was the only character who was actually interesting in the entire story, and then probably only because she only appeared once every so often.

Well, it was an enlightening read at least. The thought that such horrid crap can get published solely on the weight of the author's age is either disheartening or quite encouraging.

My Birthday

2004-05-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

My Birthday is June 8th. That is one month exactly from today. In one month I will be 14. This makes me wonderfully happy.

I like books

2004-05-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

I love to read. I've always loved to read. At the moment I am immersing myself mercilessly in YA chicklit type books. The results of my frantic reading:

1. The Gossip Girl Series, by Cecily Von Ziegesar:
These books tell the story of a group of wealthy teenagers growing up in New York City. Advertised as "Sex in the City for the teenage set," the Gossip Girl books are quick, fun, guilty pleasures. Since I'm thirteen I don't even have to feel overly guilty about these books. Anyways, our story is told by 'Gossip Girl' who runs a website which details the escapades of our young heroes and heroines as they live their rich, beautiful lives.

The Alice Series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor:

The books in the Alice series tell the story of Alice Mckinley, growing up with her father and older brother, Lester. The series opens during Alice's sixth grade year, and the latest book chronicles the first half of her sophomore year of high school. The books are engaging, but still nice and frothy, reads that show an understanding of teenagers by Naylor. The interactions of Alice and her friends are truly enjoyable, and the books hold your attention all the way through.

The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen:
I'm using The Truth About Forever even though I haven't actually read it. It's the most recent book from Sarah Dessen, who is, coincidentally enough, a fabulous writer. Two of her books were recently made into a rather horrible movie, How to Deal, but the movie in no way approached the books. My favorite of her books would have to be This Lullaby, although from the excerpt here, The Truth About Forever looks quite good too. Dessen's books deal with important and not-so-important issues in a beautiful and easily relatable style. Definitely fun to read.

Sloppy Firsts and its sequel, Second Helpings, both by Megan McCafferty:
Easily my favorite books, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings (along with the not yet released trequel, Charmed Thirds) tell the story of miserable high schooler Jessica Darling. Jess's best friend, Hope, has just moved all the way across the country, abandoning Jess to the mercy of her 'friends', the Clueless Crew, who Jess secretly can't stand. Jess hilariously chronicles her sophomore through senior years in her journals, which tell the story of her sleepless nights, her lack of a love life, and a boy named Marcus Flutie. The books were wonderful, so wonderful in fact, that I figure I've read them each ten+ times in the two months since I discovered them.

Ugh. This is taking forever and I'm supposed to be off to a play at school. They're doing The Importance of Being Ernest and it's closing night and I still haven't been. Unfortunately, my dear grandfather will also be attending tonight, along with She-Who-Possesses-the-scariest-laugh-EVER, aka my mother. Under normal circumstances I would be quite happy to spend time with either or both, especially on Mother's Day Eve, but...that LAUGH..

There's Something About...The O.C.

2004-05-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

So the season finale of the OC was on last night. I thought that the episode was kind of meh in general although there were a few bits that really got to me. Marissa managed to suck the life out of every scene she was in, particularly the one where she was dancing with Ryan. The way she was draped on him with her bony little shoulder blades chopping away at the innocent stander-bys...it just looked so uncomfortable.

Anyways, if you live under a rock and didn't manage to watch the show...Julie and Caleb tied the knot, and the Invisible Daughter actually managed to appear for the ceremony. Theresa thought about getting an abortion, and decided against it. Ryan considered just staying in Newport instead of going to Chino to help Theresa raise the baby, and decided against it. Evidently Kirsten had an abortion some time ago, and wishes she had decided against it. Caleb's going bankrupt, Summer was onscreen for approximately two minutes and Marissa is still incredibly annoying.

I was actually kind of relieved that Theresa didn't get an abortion, because then Ryan would have to live the rest of his life with the thought that his baby may or may not have been aborted, which is just mildly depressing since I think it must be very different to have your friend have an abortion and to have your friend have an abortion to abort a baby you fathered.

One part that I didn't get was how they're going to get Ryan back to Newport for the next season. He obviously knows that the baby might not be his, so he's not just going to abandon Theresa just because it isn't. As he said to Sandy, "I don't want this kid to grow up like I did." (something like that at least). Therefore, their options are pretty limited. I'm guessing miscarriage since we've already ruled out abortion. Adoption is also a possibility, but one never knows.

Commercials: I must say that North Shore looks stupid but yummy. At school today people were saying that it looks like a rip-off of the O.C., but from what I've read it's more an Upstairs/Downstairs type thing about the lives of the rich patrons of a hawaii hotel, and the people who work there.

Back to the Show: Another bit that confused me was the Kirsten's abortion bit. It would appear that Sandy wasn't aware of the whole thing, which suggests to me that the baby wasn't his. Since this is the OC, I'm thinking that means it was Jimmy's...

Anyways, Seth was adorable (as usual) in all of his scenes. He almost brought me to tears in the last two, with him sulking while Ryan tried to say goodbye, and then sailing off into the sunset on his teeny weeny little boat. Well, I'm looking forwards to next fall already.

Tonight: I'm watching Survivor (of course), and then I'm going to watch the finale of Friends even though I practically never watch the show. Luckily, the Friends episode doesn't start til nine, so I can watch them both.

There's Something About...Volleyball

2004-05-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

My school volley ball team had a game today. We won the first match and then lost the next two and the subsequent pity game. We were still pretty excited though, because that first match was only the second one we've ever won. In case you don't get it, my team isn't very good.

We're surprisingly motivated though, especially for a school where the kids are as apathetic as we are by eighth grade. People go around talking about how they wish we had actual uniforms, and practices every day, and a good good team. But I don't think we really need to have a good team, we're already having fun.

There's something about volley ball that's different from most other sports. At the level we play at you don't have to be particularly athletic, you just have to be able to move quickly in really short bursts and react to the ball. I'm actually kind of good at it. It's nice, because I'm really not very good at all that much.

There's Something About...Pool

2004-05-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

So this is kind of random, but what's up with the whole 'pool is sexy' thing. Now, I love to play pool, but what is it about pool that's sexy? I was watching some random bad movie last night, and there was this scene with this girl playing pool and all the guys thought she was so cool/sexy because she knew how to play pool...???? That brought to mind still more 'pool + girl = sexy' scenes and I honestly just don't understand it.

I enjoy playing pool, but I honestly don't understand what's such a turn-on about it. Ah well, I guess it's just one of those weird media mysteries...

There's Something About...Sick Day TV

2004-05-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Usually when I'm home alone for an entire day I just sort of collapse onto the couch and watch tv the entire day. When I first started doing that I'd watch Animal Planet all day. My favorite show was "A Pet Story". Those stories were all so interesting to me back then. I watched an episode of it a couple of days ago and I was bored out of my mind. However, I can contribute my lack of stellar taste to my sick state on all occasions.

My second sick day channel was Disney Channel. It is, after all, the ultimate tween tv channel. Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, Jett Jackson, The Jersey...Boy Meets World was my favorite, the only one I still enjoy watching upon occasion. But...I grew out of that one too.

Now I watch anything at all that can hold my interest. MTV, VH1, even E! if I'm desperate. There's usually some reruns of Friends, or Will and Grace or something that I can watch too. Now that my familie's got fake-TiVO I watch whatever I've got taped too. But there's something that seems like such a waste about days like those.

I figure that when I'm grown up, I could theoretically do that sort of thing everyday, but if I do, I'm obviously screwed. I mean, yeah, I'm sick, but I could still do something else. Therefore, last night, when I knew that I wasn't coming to school in the morning I told myself I was going to do something today.

I didn't really manage to achieve my goal. Instead I watched stupid shows about celebrities all day. Kinda depressed me. Made me want to go back to school tomorrow too, because at least I'll be doing something. Maybe not something I love to do, but it isn't rotting in front of the tv, watching shows that don't actually interest me.

Therefore, I'm making a public resolution not to spend the entire day watching tv the next time I'm home sick. I probably will anyways, but at least this way I'll feel guilty...

There's Something About...Ella Enchanted

2004-05-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

I went to see Ella Enchanted today, and let me warn you, unless you are under the age of 12 I find it highly unlikely that you're going to enjoy this movie. My bag of popcorn was my only consolation throughout the entire ordeal.

I liked the book, by Gail Carson Levine, well enough, but the movie version was just sad.

The movie appeared to be drifting between attempting to be a dramatic fantasy/a "funny" fantasy. The male lead especially, Hugh Dancy, appeared to believe that he was starring in "Lord of the Rings." Anne Hathaway (Princess Diaries) did a fair job with what she was given, but it wasn't enough to save the movie.

"Ella" is a re-telling of the Cinderella fairytale. Ella lives with her evil stepmother and her two dastardly step-sisters. At birth an eccentric fairy gave her the "gift" of obedience, and now Ella is compelled to do whatever anyone tells her to do. Ella manages to deal with her problems until her stepsisters discover her plight and take advantage of it, forcing her to steal, be cruel to her best friend etc. Ella embarks on a quest to find the fairy who cursed her and ask her to take it away. Along the way she meets an elf who wants to be a lawyer, some giants, some ogres, and Prince Char. They (of course) fall in love, and all is well until they reach the castle where Char's evil uncle has learned of Ella's secret and orders her to kill Char...enough. I'm already bored just typing it. The plot is predictable enough from here on out. I bet you can guess whether Char ends up dead. You can? How surprising.

Anyways, throughout the movie are random allusion to modern day life, such as mentions of "Medieval Teen", the Prince Char fan club, and the downtown "mall".

The movie wasn't actually horrid to sit through, it definitely wasn't on the level of "Soccer Dog" which is probably the worst movie I've ever seen. At times it even bordered on funny. It's a good movie to take young kids to, my cousins (girl 5, boy 8) both enjoyed it immensely, and while it wasn't a movie I'd have gone to by myself, it was tolerable.

Grade: 5/10

There's Something About...Survivor

2004-04-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

I know that a lot of people think that (a) ASS is the worst Survivor ever and (b) Rob is an annoying asshole. I can't say I really remember some of the earlier Survivor's very well, and this is the first Survivor for which I've been reading the TWoP recaps, but all the same, this Survivor is the best one I can remember.

I think it's mostly because I like Rob so much. I know he's mean-spirited, at times homophobic, maybe lazy, and a wee bit full of himself, but honestly, he's the only one who's making the game interesting. Plus, he's hot. Plus he says 'sweetheart' with a Boston accent. Plus I think he might win, and the person I've wanted to win hasn't won since Ethan did, in Africa.

Anyways, I was glad that we saw the last of Shii Ann last night, because I found her incredibly annoying. Besides that, with her gone some actual gameplay can begin. We all knew that Alicia was going right after Shii Ann, so last week was just a quick switch in positions. Now we actually get some strategic decisions going. As Shii Ann so kindly pointed out, we've got two 'power couples', Rupert and Jenna vs Rob and Amber with Big Tom as a swing vote.

I think Big Tom still trusts Rob, and will vote with him, and therefore Rupert or Jenna should be going home next Thursday. My money's on Rupert. I'm rooting for a Rob/Amber final two, because I (sadly) like both of them, and I think they deserve it. I think I may actually get my wish too.

Random Observations:
-Rupert with his Wife: kinda yucky to watch, but otherwise totally fine.
-"--and then I snaked 'im" Hee.
-While I was watching I told my parents that I would make my family member give me their nice clean clothes...two minutes later, Rob appears wearing his brother's shirt.
-The expression on Rob's face when he heard Jeff say Fafaruh (sp?) was hilarious

There's Something About...Middle School

2004-04-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Middle School is an interesting place. The sixth and eighth grades in particular. In sixth grade you're exposed to post-pubescent kids for the first time, and you realize that you're "teenagers". Well, you realize that you think you're teenagers. Two years later, I can look at the little sixth graders and laugh at their immature relationships, the "I'm going out with so and so."s, "Hold hands with him? Ewww!!" s, and the "I dare you to hug for ten seconds!!!"s.

Eighth graders I fear, have it worse off. In sixth grade there's pressure to "go out" with people, and you get your first dose of that evil bitchery that people have taken to writing books about recently, but honestly, in a few years the things you did in sixth grade probably won't matter to you much, except as funny stories to tell your friends. (And wow was that a run-on sentence). But in eighth grade you're almost to high school, you're at the top of your school, and you're determined to prove that you are indeed ready to go, ready to leave.

Unfortunately, you don't really have much of a sense of just what high schoolers are supposed to act like. In all probability my friends and I will probably arrive at high school next year and realize that they're only as different from us as we are from the seventh graders. And if so, good, because there's a certain underlying buzz to the eighth grade that threatens to drive you crazy after a while.

I go to a puny little liberal Northern California private school that has grades 6-12. There are fifty kids in my eighth grade class, and next year there will be approximately 75 in my ninth grade class. Since there is a high school campus adjoining ours we have a vague idea of what high schoolers are supposed to be like.

One of the things that stands out the most in that idea is that they hate us with a passion for being so "immature." These kids are the ones who are older than us, funnier than us, cooler, smarter, more mysterious. They've got something to them that makes us look up to them. And they hate us for being middle schoolers. It just fuels our fight to grow up even more.

The thing about eighth grade is that you know each other so well that you go out of your way to pick fights, because you just know that there's supposed to be some sort of drama. Only there's not, so you can make your own. Rules that never bothered you so much before are now the bane of your existence, because you can see the high schoolers making out on the picnic tables. You can see the high schoolers walking around without supervision, going off campus for lunch. They look grown up, and they look like they're having fun. That's what we want.

So in eighth grade, you're lusting after something that you may or may not be ready for, you're straining against rules meant for sixth graders, you're trying to figure out just what sex is going to mean to you, and you think you're grown up. We're not, but it's still kinda fun.

There's Something About...The O.C.

2004-04-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

The episode of the O.C. last night showed me just why it is that I watch the O.C. While admittably unrealistic, and decidedly soap opera-ish, the O.C. just has a fresh feeling to it.

I'd have to say that the O.C. is one of the best new dramas this season, and definitely one of the most promising. I have no doubt that starting this summer we'll have a flurry of pilots during the summer, trying to attract that same audience as The O.C. managed to do.

Everyone on OC is so fun to just watch. The boys are hot, the girls, with the exception of Marissa, are stunningly beautiful. Marissa is pretty, but she's too sickly looking to really qualify as beautiful. Most of the teen issues are realistic, though exaggerated. I've noticed that this is especially true about Seth's plots.

Okay, so maybe not the stripper bit, but I thought that Seth and Summer's little drama with her father was pretty realistic. That might just be that anything involving Adam Brody is, to me, very watchable. While I'm talking about Adam Brody, he's making a guest appearance on "Grounded For Life" on the WB tomorrow at 9:00. I've never seen the show before, but I might tivo it just to see Adam. Which is, I suppose, the point of having guest stars.

There's Something About...Tyler

2004-04-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

So a while back...well, a couple of days ago, when I first started this blog, I said that I wished my name was Tyler. Today I decided that there's no point in having a weblog if you can't have what you want. Therefore, my name is now, for all intents and purposes, Tyler. I'm still a girl, and I'm still thirteen years old, but my name is now Tyler. I made my last name "Moss" too, just for fun.

There's Something About...One Tree Hill

2004-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

I watched One Tree Hill last night. Now, I know that that show isn't exactly quality television, but I like it. Chad Michael Murray (Lucas) manages to become more annoying by the week, and James Lafferty (Nathan) grows more and more appealing. Last night Haley threw a party at Nathan's apartment that flew out of control, while Nathan was stuck at his pretzel-twisting job under some kid he beat up during homecoming...I wasn't sure whether that part was supposed to be a one time only reminder that Nathan has changed a whole lot, or if that kid is going to be recurring at all as Nate's boss.

Dan and Deb had yucky sex, Keith got a job as an auto shop teacher at a high school. Psycho Nicki threw a stool through a window while fighting with Peyton...all in all it was a good but surreal episode. For further analysis I suggest you run off to TWoP and read the recap once it's up.

2004-04-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

"Sex Life of the American Teenager", at first, I thought that the title was of a porn film, because honestly, it sounds like one. Upon closer examination (a quick excursion to the the futon critic ) I found that it was actually...this:
the futon critic )

THE SEX LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER (FOX, New!) - "7th Heaven" creator Brenda Hampton is set to team with 20th Century Fox TV-based producer Susanne Daniels to develop a new primetime drama for the network. FOX has given a premium script commitment to the project, which focuses on the sex lives of teenagers at a Midwestern high school. Daniels, the former entertainment head of the WB, sees the series as a potential companion piece for FOX's summer hit "The O.C." The pair also say despite its title, the ensemble hour is neither explicit nor a heavy-handed morality tale. Among the characters for the series mentioned to Daily Variety: "a devout Christian cheerleader and her boyfriend, the captain of the football team who is struggling with his own sexuality, as well as the sexually active majorette whose drummer boyfriend is also sleeping with the 15-year-old who isn't quite sure if what she's done is sex." Also much like "The O.C.," the kids' stories will be balanced with storylines for the parents as well as "a school counselor who arrives baring collegiate advice and winds up fending off students from the free condom jar."

As an unabashed lover of teen dramas I found the description enticing. After a few more minutes browsing the realms of in-development pilots I found a few others that looked interesting: Doing It, Gramercy Park and Raintree to name a few. It's quite probable that none of these will ever end up on the air, but if they don't I shall be sorely disapointed.

2004-04-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

I watched 7th Heaven for the first time in ages last night. Now, while I don't exactly watch the best tv out there (The O.C., One Tree Hill...) that show is appallingly bad. Either I was delusional when I loved that show (which is probable enough I suppose) or 7th Heaven's quality has deteriorated incredibly sharply in the last couple of years.

I suspect a combination of the two, since I'm sure that even my younger self wasn't devoid of all intelligence where tv was concerned. Of course, when I was very very small my favorite tv show was Wishbone/Power Rangers so one never knows with these things.

Anyways, the episode of 7th Heaven last night was all about the horror that is drinking, and had one of those incredibly contrived series of plots/sub-plots that I think 7th Heaven must be famous for. EVERY SINGLE plot had something to do with drinking (perhaps excluding the freaky plot involving Reverend Camden and WhateverHerNameIs, the freaky mother one). All in all it was the kind of hour of television that makes me honestly question the sanity of the tv-viewing public. The Swan, which I've never actually seen, has a potent enough premise to make me question my own sanity.

2004-04-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or is it mildly strange that both Baskin-Robbins and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream are having free ice cream nights on consecutive days? Anyways, weird as it may seem, it is after all, free ice cream.

If there was a Ben and Jerry's around here I would be sprinting all the way there tonight, but there isn't so I'll have to wait until tomorrow and get my free icecream from Baskin Robins...pity. Anyways, free ice cream...yea, never a problem.

2004-04-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

Pat Tillman was killed on April 22nd, 2004. I'll admit that until Friday I had never even heard his name, but now I'm not sure that I'm ever going to be able to forget about him.

I'm not much of a sports fan, so I have no idea exactly how good he was at what he did. But I don't think that really matters. On Friday my grade was having a day devoted to the holocaust. We had speakers coming in who were survivors of concentration camps, we were talking about some of the most atrocious things that one human being can do to another. All in all, it was a very depressing day. But it wasn't the talk about the holocaust that made me feel the worst.

It was near the end of the day, and my Social Studies teacher, HistoryMan, was about to start the class. When he said he was going to tell a story, there were suppressed groans emanating from the eyes of all of my classmates. Ted's famous for his stories, and his "HistoryMan Lectures" (which range in topic from "happy hands" to the use of the word "shizzle"), so the class is never particularly eager for a story.

But HistoryMan was uncharacteristically serious, so I listened. HistoryMan said that Pat Tillman had died the day before, he told us about the millions of dollars that Mr. Tillman left behind when he enlisted in the army, he told us that Mr. Tillman was one of his heroes, and that he had never heard of a man more emblematic of courage and honor.

Now see, it's not very often that you see your social studies teacher close to tears, and in that instant, I got the closest to tears that I had gotten all day. The holocaust, while a horrible, evil, occurence, is still somewhat removed from the lives of me and my peers. It was our grandparents who lived through WWII, and for us it's just another test in History.

But Pat Tillman is a hero for today, he died fighting four days ago, and that's something that we can all appreciate. His death is a tragedy, as any death is.

My generation is unbelievably cynical. I must admit that I myself can't really think of someone that I admire with all my being off the top of my head. Kids my age were children during a time when the worst thing their parents talked about around the dinner table was the stock market. I don't know if we know how to really deal with grief. We're both so exposed to violence and horror, and so sheltered, that there's a part of us that's not really working the way it's supposed to. (note: this could also be a side affect of being teenagers. There's malfunctions galore situated in that scary little word.)There's a part of us that's always going to want to look at people suffering on the television screen and not feel a thing, because those things used to just be scary movies. I think people like Pat Tillman show that there still is that amazing self-sacrifice present today, and somehow, that gives me hope, and maybe even a hero...

2004-04-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I went to see a movie with my cousin, Gretchen. We deliberated between 13 Going On 30 and Ella Enchanted, and, thankfully, ended up going to 13 Going on 30.

It's been all over the entertainment sections in the newspapers and magazines that I read (EW, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle...even, kind of embarassingly for me, Seventeen and YM) that Jennifer Garner is the next Julia Roberts or Reese Witherspoon. I must say that I definitely find her much more appealing than Julia Roberts, and while I do like Reese Witherspoon it seems that they have different personalities, and therefore are better suited for different roles.

Anyways, I've never watched Alias, so this was my first real experience of Jennifer Garner. When the movie first started I was a bit skeptical, because, as a thirteen year old, I refuse to believe that that girl looked even remotely thirteen, and I know that she didn't act it. I was also sort of afraid that I would feel the same way I did when I went to see Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!, namely that I shoud find it hilarious, but didn't. Anyways, that feeling soon passed and I really liked the movie. It had a good story, and it was different from the other variations on the story (i.e. Big) in that seventeen years had actually passed in Jenna's life, she just hadn't lived them. I think that it gave the story refreshing life, and it made the character interactions much more interesting.

I thought that the ending seemed a bit contrived, but with a premise like the one that 13 Going on 30 operates under I suppose that that's to be expected. For people my age I'd give the movie an A-, and for those older, I'd say a B+.

2004-04-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

As my self-induced Blog-learning-frenzy continued I went in search of articles about increasing the readership of my blog. Now, I realize that this is a bit (read: totally) premature, seeing as this is only my...third post, I believe, but I can't help myself. I flew myself over to Google and began to search. The very first, and so far, best, result to my search was this one. How to Save the World Mr. Pollard's article was enlightening to say the least and made for an interesting read. It was also slightly discouraging, seeing as, at thirteen I think I have probably just entered the most hated, and flourishing, demographic in blogdom, that of teen-girl psycho-bloggers.

As part of such a humongous group of bloggers, I must find a way to (a) distance myself from the afore mentioned psychos and (b) figure out what it is that I want to write about in here. I was considering taking my age off the site, just so if anyone ever does visit here they aren't immediately put off by it, but I think that being thirteen is an important part of what I write. Plus, if I'm not writing about life as a thirteen year old then I have to write about life as a twelve year old, which is just plain bad.

Completely unrelatedly I was also considering changing my name to Tyler. There's something about that name that seems so much .cooler than...say, Nora. When I was little (okay, littler) I wanted to be named Freddy. Of course, back then I also wanted to be a boy. However, just like my age is part of who I am, so, I think, is my name, so I'm not going to go off changing it just yet.

My blogging has only just begun, and I am still an ignorant little blogging newbie. Therefore, I suppose my research will simply continue, Mr. Pollard's article creates an interesting jumping-off point, and I shall continue on from here

2004-04-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since I made that first post I've been poking around on the internet trying to figure out this blogging stuff. My journey started at Television Without Pity (which, if you've never been there, is a wonderful, wonderful place). From there, while I was looking at links and things I came to Damn Hell Ass Kings. I started to read the various blogs that they link to over there, and from there I branched out. So for the past couple of weeks I've been suffering from a renewed desire to start my own blog.

I think I'm just going to use this first blog to test everything out, try and see what sort of thing works best for me. Then I can set up a more permanent blog and start enlightening the world with my brilliance.

2004-04-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Life is good.