0_o...Trauma

I did tell you was I going to be gone for two weeks, right? *checks blog* oh...I guess not. Anyway, my absence is actually explainable for the past two weeks (June 7th through....Sunday?). The explanation is as thus:
Media fast for 7th through the 14th. No electronics. Then the 14th my youth group went to Nikiski Alaska (remember me mentioning that?). I came back this Sunday (the 22nd). And I hadn't managed to take the time to write until now.
Verily and forsooth!
Anyway, since I'm sure you're dying to know (yeah right) what I did in Alaska and how it was. Well...first of all, it was awesome. We went to Nikiski on the Kenai peninsula. We stayed in a church called Lighthouse Community Church. We got up for breakfast at 6am every day, went to morning worship, left for the jobsite around....7:30? We'd work until 5pm, then come home, eat supper at 6:30, there's an adult meeting at 7:30, then worship at 8 which lasts usually three hours, but it's awesome. After that we have youth group debriefing, in rooms at 11, lights out 11:30, repeat.

Wednesday was our day off, and we went to Exit Glacier park. I have all sorts of low-quality pictures (apparently a long long time ago in a state far far away I had set it to the lowest setting so I could have 2000 pictures. It was like 0.3 megapixles.), I'll have to show them to you sometime. Even if they're all grainy, they're still amazing. Anyway, I'm really tired after all of the work, and I haven't really been able to get moving.

Oh, one more announcement before I close this blog post: Hey, those of you skimming over: PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!
I finished....the first draft of...my NaNoWriMo Novel, Crystal Glare!

'Tis done.

I wish...

At my house, a lot of times when someone says something, someone else will say "I wish I..." and then they'd say the thing. Just to be weird. So, just to be weird and have some fun, I'll put a bunch of "I wishes":

I wish I could remember to write in this blog more often.
I wish I could find my friends on IM more.
I wish I was done with my novel.
I wish that I could never be done with my novel.

Those are all true, and no, the last two aren't really contradictory. Ask other writers.

Anyway, do you know what April is? National Poetry Month! So, I'm going to write 100 haiku.

Um...I'm not there yet. But I don't believe that I'm actually behind! Not yet! Anyway, I didn't get hardly any written this past week because of revival. Which was amazing. We had Thomas Young speaking if anyone knows who he is, and it was a great week. I'm tired now though.

So, we all know that I flunk the goal of blogging every week. But what about the others? Well...

♪Learn Italian: So far at a standstill. I started, and it was going ok, but then all of a sudden I couldn't stand it. I got confused, probably because I wasn't making myself flash cards and such to help me remember the grammar. What I need is someone to learn it with.

♪Finish CSS Course: Um...let's just say...not so much. No work done yet at all.

♪Finish JavaScript Course: See above.

♪Writing Twice a week: I've been pretty close on this one, but I don't think I've quite made it. So flunk I guess.

♪Sightreading/hymnal playing: Coming along. I've been playing some video game music from the internet, and it's helped a lot. I'm getting better.

♪Grow Closer to Christ: This past week has helped a lot. I've been terrible lately about reading my Bible and doing quiet time, but with mission trip coming up (we're starting the training we always do) I should be kicked into gear. Maybe I can stay there this time.

So, there's the synopsis of my goals so far. However, I'm just about done with the one programming one. I know that I should use PHP for logins and stuff, but I haven't decided whether to attempt it or not. I'm thinking not right now though. We'll see how CSS comes along however.

Various Big Fun Scary

I think I've been keeping up pretty well with my goals, I probably need to be keeping better track, but ah well. Wait a second, I do need to be working more on my Italian, but I suppose I have all year, so it's not that big of a deal. I've found a Bible Study book, or, my mom did for me. Anyway, I've been writing using my Neo, working on my NaNo.

Did I mention that I need to learn PHP to do logins? I'll see about that when I finish my CSS course. I need to make a decision, when I finish CSS, do I go on to JavaScript which I have the book for, or do I start on PHP? That's a hard one. I'll think about it as I try to actually do more CSS...

Speaking of web stuff, once I'm actually fairly happy with my website (well, enough that I think it can be put on the web without be being laughed at too much), I'll move this blog there I think. It won't be for a while though...

If anyone reads this, remind me to do a lesson or so of Italian, and to actually use it somehow, so I don't let it just fly out of my head. I know that the blog is what that's for, but...I don't know. I almost don't want to hurt everyone's brains with my bad Italian. Tell me to get over it please!

Music

I've been listening to some video game music to put on my iPod (I'm a geek/nerd, I know), and one of the songs...called Sad, really is aptly named. But for some reason...I like it. Another favorite is Tarm Ruins. They're both from Oracle of Seasons, a Legend of Zelda game.

I find it so strange how well music manipulates our emotions. It can go straight to the soul. For some reason, I kind of like sad music sometimes. Another song from Twilight Princess (another Zelda game), has a song that you hear once, Midna's Desperate Hour, it's sad, but I like it. I'd like to learn it on the piano. Anyway, that's the today's ramble I guess. Maybe if you're lucky you'll get more later.

Yay!

*happy dance* Oh right. I'm happy because I got to have my braces off today. This is going to be one of the few times I write about myself in the real world.

We went to the orthodontist this morning at about ten, and we didn't get out until something like 11:30. That's ok though, because they yanked my braces off, scraped the glue off with something that sounded and looked like the drill the dentist uses when you have a cavity (It smelled like burning feathers when they did that by the way), and then they took impressions for my retainers. I get one set of clear ones and also a holly (the kind that you see in most cartoons, with the plastic that goes on the roof of your mouth and then the wire that goes around your teeth). After we left (with my teeth feeling strangely slimy, I still don't know if that's how they always feel and I forgot, or if they really are slimier than usual), we went to Panara bread where I got coffee (of course) and a nice sandwich with roasted tomatoes and a tomato pesto, and greens, and chicken. It was wonderful. I was stuffed by the end of it. Then we came home, and as soon as I feel my stomach can take it, I'm going to have a bowl of homemade popcorn.

In other, possibly more interesting news, the other day a friend came over, and I think she thinks I'm a master web programmer. Because she wants to make a website with me (meaning I do all, and I mean all of the work. I'll have to put whatever graphics, do the CSS, whatever JavaScript I can, write all of the pages...etc, etc). I can't really do much with a website, though I'm getting a little better. I can't do PHP or anything like that, so I can't do user logins, which would be better for what she wants to do. She once sat and watched me code something the first time we tried, and when I finished, she said she expected there to be more than that for the time we spent. I should have told her to go buy dreamweaver or something, then she could see how it would work as she made it herself. But she's my friend, and I think I'm supposed to be nice to them. I know there are tons of Bible verses. Like..."Love your neighbor as yourself," "love your enemies"

I'm not saying she's an enemy of mine, but if you're supposed to love your enemies, how much more should you love your friends? Anyway, I just kind of wish she would be more realistic.

Rambly/ranty today, aren't I? Please don't ask me to do more, because I will if I get half a chance.

Language Issues

Also an update on my 2008 goals.

I've written every day so far, and I also posted in my Italian blog today. Which is partly the source of my language issues. Anyway, other than that, I haven't studied coding, I haven't practiced piano. I have swim team tonight, but no piano today as my brothers are off on a hunting trip, it's not really worth it to go. I should get to work practicing piano, and then if I still have time I should write more, or maybe do a lesson of coding. But I don't feel very motivated. I will practice piano though. I've also done at least one Italian lesson per day.

And now on to my language issue. It's resolved actually now, but I want to blog about it anyway. I was getting confused about when to use Parlo, when to use Parli, and when to use Parla. I called and asked, and I got a very nice answer. It's all about "persons" ("people"? I'm talking about first person, third person, second person). Parlo is when you're talking about yourself, first person ("Io parlo"). Parli is second person familiar. So only to a friend ("tu parli). Parla is either third person or second person formal (hehe, haven't dealt much with third person yet...). Anyway, it was nice to know the rule. I can remember it now. It's just I get confused if my program won't just tell me the rule that it is, if they'll just do that, I'll remember it. There are also different words for if it's plural. But I won't go into that.

Oh, if you were wondering, parlo, parli, parla, and all of those mean "to speak."

Time to Get Started!

So, first of all Merry New Year, good luck to you all with whatever you have planned! Second, I added a goal to my list. It's really partly a plan to help me learn Italian. I started a blog, which will be entirely in Italian. To start with I'll be using Google Translator to write the posts so that they're in Italian, but I'll pay attention and my goal is by the end of the year to be able to write them with virtually no help. You can find the new blog here.

If you don't want to try and read the Italian (If you do know Italian, and you see mistakes, please let me know), you can find Google Translator here.