Non Sequiturtle

My Other Banjo Is Made Of Book

2010-07-31T00:24:00.006-04:00

So, GSMS was absolutely the best thing ever and a half and I really, really need the forty plus people (including adults) that were directly involved in it to just move to Huntington and go to or work at my school. Except that then we won't have our awesome table in the Summit Dining Hall and I won't be able to wander over to Sarah and KayCee's room in the morning while they're fixing their hair and talk to them and I won't be able to have an insane laughing fit after pressing my face up against the window of the study room and freaking Joey out and I won't get to roll around in the completely non-toy chairs in the Life Sciences Building and mess around on the completely non-toy elevators in Honors Hall and so GSMS needs to just be forever and ever and a half.

Because this post was never for anyone's benefit but my own, I'm now going to make an abridged list of inside jokes with everyone there so that whenever I read this post I'll laugh, even though no one else will.

Alec=Epic Fail.
It was the left side.
THIS is inappropriate.
SUCK IT!
Opop opis gopay.
My other banjo is made of book.
2 meter Mark.
Chanel No. Fish.
I know, right?
One word: Tim.
Fail Boat!
Sara(h) Magnet! Bzzt!
When I grow up, I want to be Chelsea Richmond.
"Tim! I figured out what my favorite part of GSMS is! It was meeting you, because you make me look like so much less of a loser in comparison."
Redundant Katie is redundant.
THAT'S in Canada!
Sweet Caroline, Bum Bum Bum!
NANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uh-Oh, Spaghetti-Os!
You. Ate. The last. Orange skittle.
INCONCEIVABLE!
F*cking Mingo county!
Oh, Okay.
Oh hey ______.
"Yes, Alec, it's you I can't see because a column's blocking my view."
Me: You caught us, Joey, we were over here gossiping about how Sarah's madly in love with you. Joey: Sadface. Sarah: *punch*

I shall add more as I think of them. Maybe there'll even be an explanation some day.

OHMAGAWD WROCKSTOCK

2010-07-12T18:18:00.005-04:00

WROCKSTOCK IS HAPPENING!

MY PARENTS ROCK!

I NEED 275 DOLLARS BY THE END OF JULY!

BUT I ALREADY HAVE MOST OF IT SO IT'S OKAY!

I HAVE A FANGIRL CRUSH ON ALEX CARPENTER WHICH IS PREDICTABLE BECAUSE SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WIZARD ROCK COMMUNITY BUT IT'S TRUE ANYWAY!

DID I MENTION I'M GOING TO WROCKSTOCK?!?!

/capsrape.

But yeah, I don't think I've actually explained wizard rock on here yet, which is shocking. So here goes:

Wizard rock (henceforth "wrock") is music about Harry Potter, which is predictable if you know me. It was started by Harry and the Potters, Paul and Joe DeGeorge, and now there are tons of wrock bands ("tons" as in, around 800 at last count). Here's a sample lyric, for those of you going, "But... how can you actually write music about Harry Potter? What's there to write about?"

From Save Ginny Weasley by Harry and the Potters:

Are you scared
To walk through the hallways?
Are you worried
That the spiders run away?
Are you petrified
Of being petrified?
Are we going to have to save the school again?

We've got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk
We've got to save the school from that unseen horror
We've got to save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk
We've got to save the school again.

So yeah, that's that. ( Interesting side note: This song is one of HatP's most popular, and they've played it at nearly all of their more than 500 shows. The first time they ever played it together as a band? The version of it on the album.)

Now. Wrockstock is a THREE DAY concert held yearly at the Trout Lodge YMCA in Potosi, Missouri, which is about 90 minutes outside St. Louis. Every year there are fifteen of wrock's awesomest bands playing the mainstage, and this year they are:

Draco and the Malfoys

The second biggest wrock band after HatP. Featuring songs like, "My Dad Is Rich," Party Like You're Evil," and "Your Family Is Poor." I haven't heard much by them but I've heard a lot about them and I know they're awesome.

Tonks and the Aurors

Tonks and the Aurors = Seven ways of awesome. I love them (well, actually, her: It's just Steph Anderson, despite the plural name. There are actually quite a few bands like that), and her EP in the 2009 EP of the Month Club was totally kickass. Rachel agrees completely, and she hasn't read the Harry Potter books yet.

Hawthorn and Holly

I didn't know who this was so I looked them up and even though I've only heard one song ("La La Luna") I like them quite well so far.

The Ministry of Magic

They're like Draco and the Malfoys in that I've heard great things about them but haven't heard much of their music but really, really like them. They're not musically like DatM at all, though.

The Blibbering Humdingers

I have no idea. I like the name, though.

Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls

Heard of them. Heard none of their music. Plan to remedy that in the near future.

Neville's Diary

I don't know. I'll look them up after I post this.

The Parselmouths

The Parselmouths rule. They're hilarious and awesome and sing well and are pretty and write cool songs and stuff and I basically love them. Their music style? Slytherin techno-pop. Does that sound badass or what?

Gred and Forge

Again with the "haven't heard them much, have heard they're awesome, agree so far" thing.

Marked As His Equal

No idea.

MC Kreacher

OMFG MC KREACHER ALONE IN THE DARK IS AWESOME

Alone in the Dark= best EP ever, the only rap music I've ever liked, totally superb in all ways. MC Kreacher wins epically.

Swish And Flick

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT click that link unless you're not creeped out by lots of innuendos in music about what is essentially a children's book (but is really so much more than that). Swish and Flick are awesome and hilarious, but they're not for the faint of heart of the easily disgusted.

Riddle TM

They're coming from the UK, which is awesomesauce, and though I've only really heard their big hit "For Jo" and their Talons and Teacakes EP I absolutely love them to death.

The Remus Lupins

OHMAGAWD ALEX CARPENTER

Yeah. That's every girl in the entire wizard rock community. He's that awesome. The Remus Lupins were (was?) originally just him, but now he's got a drummer and a bass player and they're exponentially more awesome, which is hard to believe considering how awesome they were in the first place. Nevermind the Furthermore is arguably the best album I've ever heard, wrock or otherwise. They're supposed to be awesome and at least a half (maybe two awesomes!) in concert. Alex did an epic guitar smash at LeakyCon '08. They won two WRPCA's in 2010, FIVE (including the lifetime achievement award) in 2009, and a bunch that I'm too lazy to count for 2006, 2007, and 2008. If you can't tell by the paragraph I've already written about them, this is the band that I'm by far the most excited to see at Wrockstock.

I LOVE YOU ALEX MARRY ME <3 *dreamy fangirl sigh*

Diagon Alley

I don't know who they are, which is super anticlimactic after my response to the last band.

So yeah, whenever I randomly shout "We're going to Wrockstock!" because I'm so excited Mom and Dad go, "Unless something else comes up!" but then I point out that that's true for every vacation or leisure activity and they haven't thought of a good response to that yet.

Links:

Wrockstock website
The Wizrocklopedia

UPDATED: Here's a post I wrote of a few awesome bands, for those few people that are thinking, "OMG WIZARD ROCK SOUNDS AMAZING BUT THERE ARE SO MANY BANDS WHO DO I LISTEN TO FIRST?!?!?!?!"

Also, I just read through this and realized I found, like, seven ways to say "awesome" and also that for as big of a wizard rock fan as I am there's a remarkably large number of bands I've never heard of on this list.

Anyway.

Adventures with Rachel: Heath's House, Part One

2010-05-16T16:23:00.008-04:00

I’ve decided to start a new weekly ( and by ‘weekly’ I mean “whenever the hell I feel like it”) segment called Adventures With Rachel. Rachel is one of my best friends.

She’s also totally crazy.

And, without further ado, I present to you: Adventures With Rachel!

It started out like a normal Christmas.

I woke up at six and got mom and dad up, my brother and I opened presents, and then we were instructed to be quiet so mom and dad could nap in peace. We had Christmas dinner, and then my relatives came over. I was bored, so I decided to call Rachel.

And that’s where the trouble started.

Because when Rachel came over, she decided that since it was so unusually warm for December, we should go bike riding. At nine o’clock at night. But hey, we’d done it before, so I said yes.

We rode around our neighborhood a while, when Rachel said, “Hey, I’m thirsty. You‘ve got money, right? Buy me a soda.”

I did, in fact, have five dollars with me, and I was also thirsty, so, again, I agreed.

The problem with living in a small town in the bible belt is that, on any Christian holiday (Christmas, Easter, anything) NOTHING IS OPEN. Seriously. Like, I think there was an Exxon in the West End and maybe the Walgreens near Jolly Pirate Donuts open. But we didn’t think about that. To us, this was just a normal evening, and there was no reason anywhere we wanted to go shouldn’t be ready to receive us.

Unfortunately, it didn’t really work like that.

We reached the Kroger that we’d named as our destination to find it deserted. There was nothing in the parking lot save a few reject shopping carts in its shadowed recesses. We got off our bikes and walked to the door, only to find a sign reading “Kroger will be closed Friday, December 25 2009” with an ugly Christmas tree clipart image below it. We both suddenly remembered that, oh yeah, it’s Christmas and nothing’s open.

There were, however, soda vending machines outside Kroger, so all was not lost.

Or so we thought.

Because see, under normal circumstances, being at Kroger means you could just go inside and buy a soda for less money, so their machines had fallen into disrepair. There were only two machines that actually accepted five dollar bills; of those, one was out of order and the other was sold out of everything except 7up, which neither of us particularly like. We bought one of those to get change, leaving it on top of the vending machine so someone else could have a free soda. We then proceeded to buy a water for Rachel and a bottle of Pepsi for me.

Now is probably the best time to introduce Heath. Heath is a friend of ours who lives near us. He’s nice enough, but overall a fairly normal person, at least compared to Rachel. We happen to know which house is his because we see him walking home from the bus stop a lot. He has a giant afro of super curly hair. He’s, like, six feet tall. That’s all you really need to know for now. And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

We had some money left over; just enough, in fact, to pay for one more soda. Rachel said we should buy one for somebody. I asked who she had in mind.

I don’t know how or why she decided this was a good idea, but her immediate response was, “Let’s get a Dr. Pepper for Heath!”

And so we did.

Giggling insanely at our own bizarre scheme, we rode our bikes, singing loudly all the while, to Heath’s house and rang the doorbell. After a moment, his dad answered the door.

Not expecting someone to answer quite so promptly, Rachel and I were still laughing. As we desperately attempted to get our giggling under control, Rachel shouted, “I promise we’re not high!” to his dad. He gave us a strange look and started to close the door.

“Wait!” Rachel called. “Is Heath home? We’re friends of his!”
His dad said, deadpan, “Heath doesn’t have any friends.”
Rachel looked mortified, when his dad smiled and said, “I’m kidding! Hang on a second.”

He walked away from the door, leaving Rachel and I to our still uncontrollable laughter.

Heath walked to the door a moment later, wearing pajama pants and one of his many oversized zip-up hoodies. Rachel offered him the soda. He took it, giving us a weird look. Rachel said, “We’re not high!” again, and then, making sure everyone was certain she was, in fact, doing drugs, she ran up to Heath and hugged him, though not before telling him she was going to give him a hug.

We ran off his porch and rode away, leaving Heath standing in the doorway with a bewildered look on his face, still clutching the Dr. Pepper. He hadn’t said a word the whole time.

We went home, happy with our evening of entertainment. But the best ( or worst, depending on who you are) was yet to come.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Adventures With Rachel, where we give Heath more totally random gifts and convince his parents he’s got stalkerish fangirls.

Facebook and Social Anxiety. Related? Nooo.

2010-05-09T21:09:00.010-04:00

So. This post requires a little explanation.

I'm going to preemptively assume that anyone reading this knows what a tagging picture is. And if you've read anything else of mine you know I LOVE the Harry Potter books and everything related to it, including wizard rock and fanfiction. So my friend Heath posted a tagging picture that's a picture of Harry Potter characters, of which I already had the original picture (that was a very grammatically ambiguous sentence, by the way -- anyone notice any errors?).

Original image:

Tagging image:

Anyway. I posted a comment about the fact that I was tagged as a young Voldemort, jokingly saying I was offended, and pointing out the fact that there is absolutely no way Helga Hufflepuff is ditzy. I was mostly just joking, but this is what happened afterwards:

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to crawl under a rock and never talk to anyone ever again except Lizzy, Rachel, and my family.

I have such trouble with criticism and I'm usually not great in social situations, which is a bad and potentially upsetting combination. I'll say something I think is totally inoffensive and not a big deal, and everybody freaks out. It makes me feel very alienated, like no one could ever like me because I say weird or rude things. I've heard my friends at school make jokes about certain people that are different or weird socially, and, though I know it shouldn't matter, I want so desperately not to be made fun of. Sometimes, when it has to do with my hobbies and habits, I don't really care about others' opinions much (for example: I don't give a shit if someone thinks it's stupid that I like Harry Potter), but I don't want to be disliked because I'm awkward at parties. An understanding of social situations has never come naturally for me, and it's problematic, because I'm naturally a people pleaser, and then things like this happen, and it's really upsetting.

Sometimes I'm envious of Rachel. She's just effortlessly good at small talk and the like; everybody's friends with her, everybody likes her. Lizzy, in contrast, has even more trouble with it than me, though I doubt she's particularly aware of it; She says and does whatever she wants, and that means a lot of people dislike her and find her annoying, because she's decidedly weird and also very opinionated. The problem is that she doesn't see the problem with that. Not only would she say something like what I said, she'd feel totally justified in saying it regardless of everyone else's opinions of her statement. I'm not like that. It bugs me when everyone thinks what I said was out of line.

I guess my main point(s) were:
1) I suck socially,
2) Everybody thinks I'm annoying,
3) that bothers me even though I know it shouldn't,
4) and Rachel and Lizzy are both lucky in their own way: Rachel because she's good socially, Lizzy because she isn't, but doesn't give a shit.

That was a bad summary, but I think I got my point across well enough, so I'll just go with that, probably to be edited later.

Fin.

2010-04-28T23:06:00.004-04:00

So.

I haven't posted in a while and I've got a lot to say.

First, I'm scared.

I've only got about eleven (school) days until WESTEST, our end of year standardized test here in WV. Then, because the new school building is finished, we'll be getting out of school almost immediately after. Then it'll be summer, and then on August 23, I'll be in high school.

HIGH SCHOOL! THIS IS NOT OKAY!

I was in elementary school two years ago! How the **** am I almost in high school already?

Second, I'm happy.

Elizabeth is skipping eighth grade! She's getting double promoted! We'll have classes together next year! Probably! If we get the same teachers!

Third, I'm sad.

My friend Seth is moving over the summer and he'll be going to Spring Valley High next year instead of HHS. Even though my first impression of him was that he was completely and utterly insane and more than a little creepy ( he walked up to me and said, 'your hair's pretty,' and then proceeded to follow me around all day and mess with it. I was too shy and nervous to make him stop), he turned out to be really awesome and really entertaining, and we're good friends now.

But he's MOVING. Again, THIS IS NOT OKAY.

AND Rachel, sadly, DIDN'T get double promoted (no surprise, she hates school) and so she'll still be at HMS next year, and I'm worried about not hanging out with her as much and sort of separating, which I don't want to happen because she's my awesome and entertaining low maintenance friend that I hang out with when too much time with Lizzy has made me want to hang myself.

Fourth, I'm a winner.

I won NaNoWriMo back in November and forgot to post about it. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo - or National Novel Writing Month - is in November, and it's a thing where you try to write a fifty thousand word novel in a month. that's right, 50,000. 200-ish pages. And I did it.

Normally I'd feel like a jerk for bragging and then get all guilty and delete this post or something, but I really feel like this is something that deserves bragging rights. They even give you a little icon to show off. See?

P.S. I typed this straight into the little editing box on blogger and didn't really edit it and it's eleven thirty, so I apologize for my incoherence.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T07:02:00.001-05:00

It's Christmas morning and I'm sitting in my room on my laptop waiting impatiently until it's late enough to wake up Mom and Dad. I really don't have much else to say, though. So Merry Christmas!

I Have A Set Of Russian Nesting Dolls The Smallest Of Which Would Feel Dwarfed By A Raisin

2009-12-24T14:36:00.009-05:00

Really. Look.

The largest doll.

The smallest doll.

The largest doll next to the smallest doll.

All ten of them. Yes, ten.

And, though it's blurry, the smallest doll next to a raisin bigger than it is.

And you know what the best part is? The smallest one has eyelashes. Hand painted freaking eyelashes.

Ta-da.

A Note on the Grammar... Or Lack Thereof

2009-12-20T17:50:00.006-05:00

So I'm a total grammar nerd. Sadly, it isn't a title that I share with anyone my age, which is stressful, because I have no one to talk to about it, no one to sympathize with me. At least my mom is an English major, so I'm not totally alone in my love of words.

But as a grammar nerd, the internet is a very annoying place. No one my age - and not very many adults even - care about grammar when on the internet or a social networking site. And it's worse when it's a creation you'll be sharing with others.

Oh, irony, how I love you.

But wait, it gets worse (though not because of irony, I'm afraid):

Stupid Flair users. Or would sad and ignorant be better?

Note: I don't mean to insult the creators of these themselves, only their hideous (and hilarious) lack of grammatical knowledge. It's something to do when I'm bored, at least.

Harry, A History, by Melissa Anelli

2009-12-12T19:34:00.004-05:00

So I just read the best book ever besides the Harry Potter series.

And it was about the Harry Potter series.

I know I'm a geek.

WARNING: If you don't enjoy Harry Potter, think it's gay (which shouldn't be an insult, but, sadly, has become one), think it teaches witchcraft, think it goes against your religion, etc., then you might not want to read the rest of this post. Or my blog at all. Harry Potter is my life. That and reading in general.

But it was an absolutely wonderful book. It talked about all the Harry Potter things only geeks and truly hardcore fans know about, like fanfiction, wizard rock, the ship wars, the names of all the actors in all the movies, etc. But, instead of being just all about the books and the whole phenomenon, it's also about the author's (who runs one of the biggest fansites, the Leaky Cauldron, which is only second to Mugglenet) experience as an obsessive Harry Potter fan (an exceptionally lucky one; she got to interview J.K. Rowling!) and how the whole experience permanently changed her life. The whole thing was absolutely epic, and while I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's about Harry Potter, I'm also pretty sure it had a lot to do with the book itself.

But anyway, if you love Harry Potter as well, and you want to read an excellent book, I recommend it. If you're confused because I didn't say what the book actually was, look at the title of this post.

Chemistry is Awesome

2009-11-25T16:39:00.009-05:00

Today in science class my teacher, Mrs. F, invited a friend of hers who is a chemist in to the class. He showed us several really awesome things, including the the reaction of several different Alkali metals when introduced to water. But the absolute coolest thing he did was to show us what happens when you throw powdered pine tree pollen into the air and hold a match to it.

Basically, it sends a plume of flame into the air for about half a second.

Of course, when we started the experiment, we had no idea what would happen. He had a volunteer (me) light a match and hold it out at arm's length, making sure my sleeve was pushed back. He then threw a handful of the powder into the air, and FWOOSH (for lack of a better onomatopoeia), it burst into flames. At this point I was thinking, "Holy crap! There's fire on my hand! I'm going to get burned really bad!" Luckily, though, the flame didn't last for very long , so my left (and dominant) hand survived undamaged.

It was really awesome though. Hence the title of this post.

Also, here is a video that you need to watch. It's the reaction of Alkali metals in water, as I mentioned previously. Mr. Chemist Guy only showed us Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium, because Rubidium and Cesium are much more extreme and also much more expensive, as well as radioactive.

Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Cesium:

P.S. That thing that happens with pine tree pollen? It works the same way with Paprika. It has to be in the air, though, or else it won't have enough Oxygen to burn. I wouldn't really recommend testing it... except I totally would. I'm planning to this weekend sometime, and I'll probably post video and/or photographic results. But if you decide to try this at home, dear (nonexistent) readers, make sure you don't light your shirt on fire or anything, and make sure you wear safety goggles. Also, doing a quick google search on how just how flammable paprika is probably wouldn't hurt, either.

EDIT: I have just discovered that the most common kind of paprika that most people have at home is nonflammable. Bummer. However, it is still possible to buy flammable (organic?) paprika, and I'll attempt to do that sometime in the near future.

EDIT AGAIN: I know I'm a nerd. But hopefully I'm not alone.

Also, credit these videos to the people who made them. I just found them on Youtube, they're not mine. Just a disclaimer.

The Aforementioned Meme

2009-11-24T17:35:00.001-05:00

Here's the meme I mentioned earlier. The original of the image is *here*.

The point was to add something to the picture. here goes:

Ta-da!

Also, I'm assuming I'm supposed to give you the rules, so here they are, verbatim (And I put emphasis on that, because it gets pretty weird down at about number four, and I don't want people to read it and think, "This chick is a creeper! No way am I reading her blog!" because the rules, as I said, WERE NOT WRITTEN BY ME!):

1. Copy and paste the rules and the picture into your blog.

2. If you feel that the rules are imperfect or stupid, change the rules. No one will know the difference. Or maybe they will but they probably won't care. Much.

3. Tag X people where "X" is any real number greater than or equal to negative twelve. If you can figure out how to tag the square root of negative i people, then go ahead and tag an unreal number of people. Or tag so many people that it's totally unreal. Either will work. Or go drink some cranberry juice and watch Oprah. OR do "inverse tagging" where you open up the meme to everyone and then tag those who do it, creating kind of a gallery of meme artwork.

4. Draw on the picture. Use anything you want. Open it in MS paint and draw a cat or a sun or Eddie Izzard. Print it out and scribble on it then take a picture of it and post the picture you took of the picture on your blog. Set it on fire. Smear poop on it and mail it to the guy who owes you money for crack. Just alter the picture in some way and send it along to be altered further/incinerated/defiled with feces. You can try to make it pretty or try to make it ugly. You can add things or erase things. Just make sure to send it along because I don't know how else I'm going to get famous and Brett Favre won't be fertile forever. Actually he probably will be, but I won't, and I need to have that man's babies or else I run the risk of dying without having carried Brett Favre's spawn in my womb.

Hello World!

2009-11-24T17:21:00.000-05:00

Dear potential followers:

I created this blog because of a meme.

You see, I follow a few blogs on Blogger through my Google account, and so I have a sort of idea what memes are, though I have no idea how to pronounce the word. One of my favorite blogs, Hyperbole-And-A-Half, created a meme of indescribable awesomeness, and since I had already been considering making a blog, I quit my dithering and just went for it.

So if you enjoy my blog, Thank Allie of Hyperbole-And-A-Half. She started it.

The actual meme will follow shortly.

My Personal Favorite Wrock Bands EVER In Several Categories

2009-09-01T20:34:00.000-04:00

You have to hear them because you just have to:

Harry and the Potters
Draco and the Malfoys

OFMG THIS BAND IS AMAZING GO LISTEN OR ELSE YOU'LL NEVER TRULY KNOW GOOD MUSIC:

The Remus Lupins (they get the extra special amazing award for this category, too)
Tonks and the Aurors
Riddle™
The Moaning Myrtles
The Whomping Willows

Awesome Rap/ Hip-hop stuff:

MC Kreacher
Danny Dementor
Swish and Flick (mature content warning)

Techno-ish Awesomeness:

Ministry of Magic
The Parselmouths

I'll add to this as I get new music/ think of more categories.