beboots

So far, so good.
~Anonymous

So... I survived my English 30 AP exam today! Woot! I signed an agreement saying that I wouldn't "divulge the contents of this packet, not even to my AP teacher", so I can't give any specifics beyond what's already known. I had to do 55 multiple choice questions (comprehension stuff), with five options instead of the usual four (you know, ABCDE instead of ABCD) - the last one was particularly obscure. And then was the whole "three essays in two hours" thing - otherwise known as "write until your brain dribbles out one ear". XP

But... I live! XD I actually think I did pretty well, and they scale it all anyway. ^_^

Of course, it was a morning thing, and my English class is in the afternoon, therefore to add insult to injury we had to go to class, afterwards. But we got a treat - we got to watch the movie version of that awesome play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - hilarious stuff. :) Plus, y'know, deep.

I've been quite busy - learning how to waltz for Grad. I also broke up with my longtime boyfriend, Daniel (actually, only two weeks before our first anniversary). I feel bad for breaking up with him, but a little relieved, too. I've just turned eighteen last month, and I'm not searching for a life partner at the moment.

In any case, I've also been writing a lot - besides, of course, all of the scholastic essays I've been writing. I have made a promise to myself to write at least a paragraph a day of my fanfics (none of which I've posted except one random one-shot, featuring Furher!Ed and here it is, *shameless plug* http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3429447/1/), and so far I've succeeded, with the exception of the two-week in Japan period.

Speaking of which... I've uploaded some of my best photographs (not of scenery, anyway, I mean some of the more unique stuff) onto a website called Flickr. Here's a link to my gallery: check 'em out! :D http://www.flickr.com/photos/7780435@N05/ (click to make them bigger, and feel free to post and ask about the backstory to any of them).

I hope you're all doing well! ^_^

Hohenhiem: Oji... sama...?
~Fullmetal Alchemist, episode 43: The Stray Dog
(because Hoho-jeebus has a very smexy face and voice, for all that he's a rotting fleshbag and horrible father to our precious Ed and Al. Just look at him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hohenheim_of_Light_%28FMA%29.JPG ^_^

(oh, and basic japanese translates to "Thank you, (honoured) uncle!" -- "Un... cle...?" He just looks so cute while saying it! So confused... XD)

I appologize for random FMA squeeing (I just bought the newest DVD released; volume 11 of the anime, and Hohenheim is just awesome -- and so are Ed and Al, of course. Even Roze is as well (curse you laptop that does not allow me to do accents! XP Roze really needs an accent on the "e" in her name to get the pronounciation correct... But whatever).

That brings me to my next point; we've had computer troubles. First a virus (it looks like everything's still there, thank goodness *pets avatar collection and enormous favorites library*), which made the computer restart every minute or so. We got it back last night... only to find that the problem wasn't really fixed (it only restarted every TWO minutes XP). So we took it back this morning, only to find that the memory was faulty (well, the newest part of the memory; we got extra memory space a few weeks before we left on vacation).

Oh, and that reminds me! Vacation! :D For about a week and a half, my family and I went to British Columbia. We drove, BTW -- two days each way, about eight hours on the road apiece. So... a total of approx. 32 hours on the road. Fun stuff. -_-; At least I got to finnish my first Harry Potter scarf! (Ravenclaw house, for a friend's birthday *waves to Leah*) I'm never using those circular needles to knit something like that again; I could have finished it in half the time (with around two thirds less stitches) had I only used a larger sized pair of needles. It's over a meter and a half long! About 120 stitches per row, about 20 rows per stripe, nineteen stripes. *is dead* Blah, whatever. It looks awesome, though; as I said, nineteen stripes, and so is long and fwooshy. I've nearly finished a Gryffindor one (I'm on the seventeenth stripe), and have learnt from my mistakes -- my new needles are almost twice the width of my old ones.

We did a bunch of touristy stuff; checked out Stanley Park for a day in Vancouver, hopped on a ferry to the island and chilled in Victoria for a week (yay for the Royal BC museum, the Maritime Museum, street buskers, whalewatching and orcas (we saw some! :D I'll post what few pictures we have later when I can access my (hopefully not permanantly disabled) computer), the Butterfly Gardens, Madame Tussaud's wax museum, sea walls, and the Pacific Ocean! XD)

For the last two days spent in Victoria, we three kids had to accompany our mother and father to a few military functions in honour of the HMCS Edmonton (we normally live in Edmonton, and dad's on a council to honour Edmonton's military, the council was invited to tour the battleship, etc., so there we were!). We got to hang with some really cool people (including the Mayor of Edmonton (Steven Mandell) and his wife -- who were nice and funny, BTW). I sat with two different tables while at the formal meals, and met some nice people; many of them were rather affluent, though, and would casually begin telling an anectdote about their vacation to the Bahamas or the Philipines or where-ever (and I would feel jealous). They flaunt their economic power to me, a poor highschool student! ;_; Still, they were all generally nice people. ^_^ I also met the guy who played Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar Ball I went to last year with dad -- and he's quite funny out-of-costume (he's really a naval officer, which is cool).

We got to tour some of the naval training facilities (the simulator rooms were cool), and we spent a day on the HMCS Edmonton (and they did flashy maneuvers). It even has an article on Wikipedia (and a picture): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Ship_box_HMCS_Edmonton_(MM_703)The inside was cool, but slightly claustrophobic (so compact!). They actually had hallways labelled with street names from downtown Edmonton (like Jasper Ave., etc.) ^_^

Gack! Long entry... Must... wrap... up...
It was a very good trip. I'll post pictures when our actual computer's up and running.