Return of the Blogthings!

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost. You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Jesus is coming - everybody look busy

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

You Belong in the Upper West Side

You have what it takes to be successful, but not snooty. That's why you belong in the New York of Sex and the City and Seinfeld!

Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?

Your Inner European is Spanish!

Energetic and lively. You bring the party with you!

Who's Your Inner European?

This is kind of hilarious

THE RULES: Go to a search engine, and type in your name then the word "needs." see what happens.

The results:

"The average adult Robin needs about 40 calories per day" (right. i'll work on that.)

"Ambushes are great for acquiring the money that Robin needs to pay the ransom
for King Richard's release." (I'll take your word on that. Or i could ambush people to raise money for a new ipod.)

"Robin needs to hook up with the Ravers." (check out the pic)

"But sometimes, even Robin needs help." (Don't we all?)

"Robin needs help going downhill" (I really hadn't noticed a problem)

"Robin needs to put Patrick in his place" (If I knew a guy named Patrick, he would already be in his place, and there to stay)

"Robin needs to choose between a local college and an out-of-town college." (a little early for that)
"Robin needs your help coming up with a hip/cool blog/domain name." (true that)

Blah

I haven't posted in just over two months now, for which I apologize.

A lot's been going on in my life. Not really, but it still feels good to say that. I've been to several summer camps already, including an uber-geeky overnight computer camp and a slightly less geeky day camp at my future school. First in this post, I shall talk about the uber-geeky overnight computer camp.

It was a game-modding camp, which means that we went into Warcraft III and made new characters, buildings, enemies, and levels. It was some pretty fun stuff. We also got a copy of the full game, including expansion packs and strategy guides. On the plus side, I was one of only three girls in the overnight section, so there was some automatic popularity going on. Which rocked, because I'm pretty unpopular at school, since I was a dork up until about 7th grade. Come to think of it, I'm still sort of a dork. But whatever. I'll live. So when the game-modding section (about ten people) had their "graduation," we all went out and sat on a lawn in the middle of the college campus where the camp was held, and received a full copy of Warcraft III, which is the CD vresion of World of Warcraft. Even worse is the fact that I'm addicted to the game now.

And now on to the less geeky day camp at my future school.
It consists of four different periods, in which you can take four different classes. There is a plethora of different class choices, so hardly anybody has the same schedule as anybody else.
First period I had baking. We got to make all sorts ofd stuff from Strawberry Roulades to Apple Pie to Chocolate Mousse. When we made chocolate chip cookies, we had more dough than would fit on a single cookie sheet, but not by much. Nobody really wanted to start another sheet, so the teacher let us eat the rest of the dough. That was awesome because my mom is super paranoid about samonella and won't let me eat anything with raw eggs in it.
Next period was a buisness class. We learned about running a shop, then ran a candy store during the free time after lunch.
Lunch was kind of interesting because there was a methadone clinic right across the street from the cafeteria, ehich was a couple of blocks away from the school. That meant that every morning there were a bunch of creepy heroin people hanging around on the other side of the road.
After lunch was Stained Glass. We didn't dye the glass, but we cut it and ground it and sodered it together. I made a jukebox. It's pretty cool looking, with a whole bunch of different colors and textures.
Last was Recreational Sports. Not much to say there. We pretty much played a bunch of different team sports every day. Dodgeball, Kickball, Soccer, Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, etc.

That's all for now folks!

Two Things that Confuse Me

1) The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. First of all, it is wierd that a country called "Macedonia" even exists. That is the sort of thing that should only exist in the ancient past, sort of like the Roman Empire, or Persia. Second, I find it funny that Greece won't let Macedonia be called simply "Macedonia," because they think that Macedonia is really part of Greece. So now the Macedonians are stuck with a name that's reminiscent of The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
2) Actors who can actually sing. It's sort of backwards that it's the ones who can really sing who don't make big deals out of that fact, but the ones who can't have these gigantic double careers. Take, for example, Ewan McGregor and Hilary Duff. On one hand, we have Ewan, appearing in Moulin Rouge, Star Wars, and others. I recently saw Moulin Rouge for the first time, and he is an incredible singer. Full, deep voice that can do all sorts of stuff the rest of us mere mortals can only dream of. Now, in his role in Star Wars, you really wouldn't look at Obi Wan Kenobi and think "Oh look, there's a guy who's voice can do things the rest of us mere mortals can only dream of," now would you? I wouldn't. Hilary Duff, on the other hand, seems to need to find the opportunity to sing in every one of her rather pathetic movie roles. Not that she can act or sing in the first place. But it turns out the we need to see her in roles such as: a girl at music camp, a girl who gets mistaken for a pop star, and many more (Cadet Kelly, A Cinderella Story, Agent Cody Banks). And yet, she's the one going on tour as we speak. That is what I call a backwards world.
Ah, well.

@Wabson:
I need some more STone...

Just Look the Other Way

sun bounces off
a statue
of a little girl
she holds a tiny crane
in her outstretched hand
she beams up at it
behind this monument
to peace and happiness
a man sleeps
on the wet ground
he wears
a ratty parka
and lies in his old
blue sleeping bag
the sun doesn't shine
on him
why?
I don't know
all around
there are people
who walk quickly
heads down
they could stop
they could
take the man home
give him food
and a shower
then send him
on his way
but no
they just
look
the
other
way
it's his own fault
they say
to rid themselves
of guilt
what if someone did stop?
would things change?
after all
it's just one man
what would happen?

a girl staggers
out of an alley
tears are flowing
down her cheeks
she clutches her thin jacket
around her bony frame
what happened to her
in that alley
that could make
her looks so terrible?
there really is
no question
they all know
the people who walk
right by
as she slides down
the brick wall
of a building
she's lying
on the sidewalk
sobs shaking
her small back
but they walk right by
just
look
the
other
way
and it will go away

Kidz Bop--Insanity on Crack

So there's this dude in my class named Jake (all names changed to protect the guilty) who brings his wiped to school a lot. Since this guy is geeky dork numero uno, I got curious. Just what do geeky dork numero unos listen to on their baby-blue-leather encased ipod minis? I ask to see it. What do I find? Eragon book-on-MP3 (no surprise there), and a strange band called "Kidz Bop." Since the Jake wouldn't let me listen to his pod, I felt the need to go to my own ituned store and look up the oddity "Kidz Bop." Up come the search result. I look in the "songs" column and I see familiar titles like "I'm a Believer," "Toxic," "Because of U," and "My Immortal." I listen. For all of about two seconds. My ears are assaulted by a barrage of about fifteen eight-year-olds singing the chorus of Toxic, a song about making out with boys--well, men really. Am I the only one who notices something wrong with this picture (or this sound, for that matter)? All of the other songs were exactly the same--Pop/Rock hits, sped up, then sung by tone-deaf preteens. By now I'm intrigued.

My next step was the world wide web. I googled Kidz Bop and headed off to the official website. The premise behind this website seemed to be "How can we take the drug-induced hallucinations of the 60's and present them to preppy preteens via a band homepage?" There was no color that was not at some time used in a Lisa Frank drawing of some rainbow kittens. The background consisted mainly of purple silhouettes of kids(z) jumping up and down like freaks. I spied a survey--I love surveys--that is I DID love surveys until I came across this one. The question: Which Kidz Bop music video is your favorite? A) Because of U B) Sk8r Boi C) D) . These people make music videos?! For you, my dear readers, I subject myself to the horror that is the Kidz Bop Sk8r Boi music video.

A twelve-year-old dressed as a poser-punk "croons" the opening of Sk8r Boi. Spliced in are shots of just her lips, just her eyes (so heavily made up that she looks permanently blue) and shots of more twelve-year-olds skateboarding in the background. The chorus arrives. Ten invisible kids join in, and the pitch shoots up an octave. The poser-punk begins bouncing up and down like she's got knives in her shoes. Her face looks like it, too. More shots of kids skateboarding. I nearly died.

What am I doing now? I'm in the school computer lab, watching two slightly insane boys throw themselves at a conglomeration of office chairs, trying to knock over as many as they can at one time. There's another guy taking pictures of them doing this from his camera phone. They're listening to "Damn it's good to be a gangsta"

First attempt at a poem!

Do you remember
The last time we talked,
The last time we laughed together,
The last time we cried together?
I think you do.
Do you miss it?
I think you do.
Because I do.
I remember
The last time we talked,
The last time we laughed,
The last time we cried.
And now it's over
I may never see you again
We talked
We laughed
We cried
and now we say good bye.
Do you care?
You don't show it
But I think you do.

wOOt

Maddox is my hero

http://maddox.xmission.com/

I (don't) love raaaaaagtime

Holy crap, I haven't posted for almost a month. That kind of sucks. St. Patty's day (which is totally awesome) has come and gone, and so has the Irish dancing show season (I'm a dancer, for all of you who haven't even looked at my profile yet). Now we can get back to work on learning some more complicated steps, instead of the seper-easy ones we know right now. Seriously. My reel step is, like, a Beginner step. Not even an advanced beginner step. Nevermind the fact that I'm almost in championships, I still have four jump 23's in my reel. That kind of sucks.
I have, however, learned the famed "Cotton-Eyed Joe," the foot-tapping, hand-clapping, whooping finale of all of our shows. I have been denied the right of participating in this by my teacher, Robert (who has pinkeye right now. In both eyes. Seriously, who gets pinkeye in both eyes?) who is actually pretty cool, but even though I know Cotton-Eyed Joe now, it's no thanks to him. I have exploited the black marked of show steps created by a bunch of teen girls who want to look good at competitions--a wish that involves learning some actually good steps.

In other news, it is now the second year running that my grade has been assigned to sing a song about music. Last year it was the infamous "Shim Sham Shimmy," which is honestly as bad as it sounds. Provided here is an exerpt:

C'mon baby put your best threads on
Lock up the door and let's get gone
We'll take a little ride in my Coup DeVille
To a spot that's rocking right over the hill
We'll do the shim sham shimmy
Shim sham shimmy

Really. I kid you not. And it has this kind of strange tune thing going on, too. Provided also is an exerpt from "I Love Ragtime"

I love Ragtime
I wanna feel that rythm in my feet
Don't want slow drag-time
Hey leader play me something hot and sweet
I'm confessin' Ragtime's my obsession
I love Ragtime
I wanna feel that rythm
Be right with 'em
Hey play me some Rag

I have recently realized just why the school concerts are so fucked up. Everyone has to stand perfectly straight, with hands at their sides. Now, in kindergarten, this might be okay, but when last year's sixth graders sang "Chapel of Love"--Which, by the way, they actually sang quite well--they looked like idiots. Now, this has some logistical problems, but here is my proposal: why don't we just give between five and eight students from each class microphones and have them stand in front and sing like they mean it. Not that kind of "I don't care if this song has emotion, I'm just going to sing it" thing, but like Janis Joplin. Really getting into it! That would be pretty kick ass.

Fariy Tales: Really all that nice?

In this post, we explore the semi-convoluted world of the original fairy tales. This is the stuff that got left out of the Disney movies.

Snow White-
Before the evil stepmother gives Snow White the apple, she gives her a new bodice/corset. The corset then magically cinches up, almost killing SW. If not for the dwarves who come and rescue her, she would have died there on the forest floor. This was considered too gruesome for the tender minds of 5-year-olds.

Cinderella-
When the stepmother (there really seem to be a lot of these, don't there?) realizes that there is no way that her daughters will fit Cinderella's slipper (not glass), she resorts to self-mutilation. She tells the first daughter to cut off her toes. She does, and the shoe fits. As she is riding to the castle with the Prince, little birds whisper into his ear "Your true love does not bleed" and sure enough, the sister's foot is bleeding. The prince takes her back to the house. The stepmother then tells the second sister to cut off a bit of her heel. She does, and the shoe fits. Again with the birds and whispering and bleeding. The prince returns to the house, and pickes up the real Cinderella.

Swan Lake-
Really, with all the young and beautiful girls being kept by the evil magician (who turns into this creepy owl), it kind of seems a little kinky-think BSDM.

If I find out about any more of this sort of thing, I'll let you know.