Steven in Math Class

Steven Hsieh: "Mrs. Dolan, can I tell a Math Related joke? What's an owl's favourite subject?"

Mrs. Dolan: "Math...?"

Steven Hsieh: "Owlgebra!"

Elendomiel, Educational Cartoons

I haven't been able to post much. Who can guess why? Yeah... I've cleaned my room, it's absolutely amazing. Nicer than it's been since I moved here eight years ago. And today, for instance, I got home from school, helped with groceries, made a big pot of hobo stew, called Stephanie and Christy and coordinated the AP Comparitive Project. Then I went and got a tooth filled, took the hobo stew to the Moores, stayed there with them for two and a half hours helping them bathe, play with, and put to bed their four children, and waited for the numbness to wear off (it went all the way up to my eyes this time; I think they used too much...). I got home with ten minutes to spare before the Chemistry Study Session. O.o... Life is hectic.

At any rate, I made a few scans. One is a page from a set of 'cryptic' papers I uncovered from the exhumed 'archives' of my room. They're all written in a half rp-elvish, half made up language. I think I can date them to about sixth grade. What's notable about this one is that it's the first recorded usage of my now universal username: Elindomiel. Notice the funny spelling... and that it pops up once alongside many repititions of Elenmirwen... probably my first Elvish name. :P (Elenmirwen would be very straightforward Elvish for "Star Jewel Maiden".


My second scans are some cartoons Stephanie and I made for our school. Yeah, they're a little random and childish, but they're mildly amusing if you know the people involved. Or maybe just if you're me or Stephanie.

Himmel Donner Wetter

Sort of.

Alright, we're having an "Alberta Clipper". For my non-American readers, Alberta is in Canada, so basically it means we get their nice cold air for a while. Yay! That's good, it means February will be real winter this year (You never know, sometimes it snows in March, or even April... othertimes it's swimming weather by then). It also means we can expect a few more good snow storms.

Right now? Well, we had a really nice, sunny day... probably 60 degrees. Almost freaky, but we've had signifcantly worse this year. And then the cold moved in. It's nasty, disagreeable cold, with incredibly bright sun and dry air. It promises no snow.

Other news? Given the title of this post, it better be depressing.

The IP Project.

There's a good one.

What can I say? Can I hate my 'friends'? No, I can only say to myself "I wouldn't have done so." and mean it. And know it. Maybe it's because I am a Christian, or maybe I just have moral fiber, or maybe I have a spine. Who knows. I wouldn't have done it.

I firmly believe that they didn't do any of this out of malice. Or to hurt me in particular. No, it's just all so petty. A disagreement, a lack of honesty. Why stop at one when you can burn three people in order to get your perfect group? And make sure to take care of yourself first. High school is a dog eat dog world, after all. You have to keep your head above water.

Can I hate them? No. I always tell my mom, that you cannot truly blame people for being weak. And if there is one thing I try not to be, it is a hypocrite. There, you are all weak. And I do not hate you. I do not even truly blame you. And I'll probably never mention this again.

But I wouldn't have done it. And I cling to that...

Cönversational Nörwegian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQvVVsq6vYY

Yeah... Billie emailed me this. Thought I'd find it amusing.

I especially like the Umlauts over the O's. Not only are they completely decorational, they're not even accurate! :)

Too much Coffee for Austrian Jewelers.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-01-16T233008Z_01_L15321402_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRIA-JEWELLER-THEFT.xml&src=rss

Overboard Autobiography

So, our genius Health Teacher had us write half page Autobiographies. Honestly, I need no encouragement in writing an Autobiography. Big mistake on his part... I think I went a bit overboard. (We were instructed not to mention the obvious)

Autobiography

I was born in Boston. Perhaps that explains my fondness for Clam Chowder and why living in a city of snow and sea breezes is my idea of happiness, but not of home. I am rooted in Missouri, rooted as deeply as anyone can be in the sandy soil that is America’s brief history. When Charbonneau of the Lewis and Clark Expedition settled here, he laid down his line in our rich earth and clear rivers, mixing his blood with the Scottish, Irish, English, and Shoshone Indians to spawn a breed of hobos, hillbillies, and horse thieves that has led directly to me.

I was born from such apparent contradictions, and I have founded my life in the rich contrasts of our world, apparent to all those who try to understand it. Once I saw the Notre Dame, “Our Lady”, that beautiful Cathedral that straddles the Seine and is a stone’s throw away from the best ice cream in Paris. Not two weeks later I found myself on a different river, canoeing through two miles of self-styled “Redneck Yacht Club” to the tune of Gretchen Wilson and some guy trying to trade me his rifle for my dachshund.

I’ve captured a black widow in a jar from my bare foot, pulled a little girl out of a pool, and converted the ez-mac recipe to a campfire. I’ve played cursing games with a Norwegian, paintball with a German, and tongue twisters with a Finn (she beat me soundly). I’ve seen Socrates’ prison and the Stone of Pnyx where democracy was born, played British Monopoly in Papiamentu and snorkelled over a shipwreck. I’ve met a man, blind from birth, who fled Sudan in search of freedom and found his sight as well. I’ve been stung by Jelly Fish and Sea Anemones, charged by a crazy dog, and warned ‘not to drive on the autobahn’, until I am ready. I can say Our Father and scold children in Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and order drinks in Lithuanian. Once a week I attend the First Arabic Baptist Church; once a year the Womack Family Reunion and Weenie Roast in Farmington.

I’ve seen a man who could change his eye colour just by looking at a bird or a blanket. No ones ever been able to explain that to me, and I prefer it that way. It is truer to have seen it without explanation than to have accepted it blindly. After all, when we die, we are nothing; only a memory, a snapshot of the world seen through a cracked lens.

I did Compile a shorter version in case it's REALLY out of place:

I was born in Boston, but my roots are in Missouri. I am a mixture of French Canadian, Shoshone Indian, Scottish, Irish, English, and perhaps a bit of Spanish. My ancestor was Charbonneau of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I’ve seen the Notre Dame and Socrates’ prison, been offered a Rifle in exchange for my dachshund, translated a wedding cake, scolded children in the language of Jesus, captured a black widow off my bare foot, and been asked out by an Italian in Germany. I’ve played cursing games with a Norwegian, paintball with a German, and tongue twisters with a Finn, who beat me soundly. Once a week I attend the First Arabic Baptist Church; once a year the Womack Family Reunion and Weenie Roast in Farmington.

Update on a Woman Leader...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14143930.htm

Church

This morning my mom and my sister were tired, so we didn't go to church. I was kind of relieved. It's not that I don't love God... but I haven't been back to my own church for anything other than the occasional service project or multicultural dinner for a while now, and I've come to resist it.

It's pretty, I'll give it that. Enormous and as ancient as any church this side of the Mississippi can claim to be. Rows of beautiful blonde children and american-blonde teenagers line the pews. We have a preschool choir, a kindergarten choir, an elementary school choir, a middle school choir, a high school choir, a purple choir, and three or four specialized choirs singing barbershop style or springing from the extensive Drama department. We have too many ministries to name - from Scrapbooking to Puppets, each with a healthy membership.

And there are good people in the church, don't get me wrong about that, either. But every clear voice seems drowned out by a cacophany of 'christians' yelling at their parents and sneaking out of Devotional to meet boys. It's not just the teenagers, quite often it's their parents as well. Backstabbing is rampant at church functions. There are cliques in the sunday schools. There are five fake smiles for every real one, like a glint of richly golden tinsel hidden under a mound of cheap yellow.

You forget about those, after a while. They're background noise. Almost white noise. You concentrate on the good. You must...

Until you start going to a little church, a little Arabic Baptist Church. And it's filled with ex-missionaries and refugees, and no one is left out. You're greeted by hugs and translated 'love you's' instead of fake smiles. The children don't look like ornate, fallen angels but like children.
The food is not mass produced spaghetti from an industrial sized kitchen but a miniature feast composed of a dish from each house. And the background noise is singing.

How can I go back? Is it any wonder I've begun to resist?

Ice Storm

When I look outside, it looks like snow. It's quite easy to pretend. Then the wind blows, and a shower of meltwater lights the air like silver rain. The ice is so thick that it's wrapped the smallest twigs as thickly as my thumb, yet from far away the trees all look like glittering diamond chandeliers, and the fields look frothy and soft.

I haven't seen too many ice storms before this year. For a while we had a good deal of snow. Then we had... not so much snow. Now we have ice storms.

My parents are from Cape Girardieau, that's a college town two hours south. They used to listen to our weather forecasts in longing, wishing for snow. They used to take all the ice storms. It's moving north.

(See An Inconvenient Truth)

!!!

St. Louis...

Ego Non Habeo Patriam

Time Magazine Asks: "Does sending more soldiers to Iraq make any sense?"

Bush is sending them. 21,500 of them.

We watched the speech. Protests were ringing in the background. We couldn't make out the words, but it soundedn an awful lot like "F--- Bush" to us. In the news footage afterwards, some bigshot in the media declared that the American Empire was over. My mom whimpered. It's existed a long time for her. Not a brief second in history, only a few years of my own childhood. But a long time for her.

"Miranda, can I go with you when you move to Norway?" My sister.

"Of course. Mom?"

"If both of you are there, why not!"

Then we hit the brick wall of practicalities. Mom thinks every place in the world other than the US is too cold or dangerous, with the lone exception of the UK, which is "too expensive". France was considered, but she doesn't know French. That's fine, actually. Curacao was her favourite choice - they speak English, and it's warm, and it's cheap... but she didn't want us so far away.

And it hit me, we were considering it. We still have everything here, and Dad doesn't know a word of our scheming, and nothing comes to anything, but we're considering it. And I've been considering it for a long time. And the question comes to me: Could I really do it? Could I really leave America? I'd be an ex-patriate. The idea scares me somehow. But the answer comes to me just as quickly. Harshly, in rough Latin, it etches itself across my mind.

Ego Non Habeo Patriam.

Finals

Yay, the finals this semester are not very stressful, and the most stressful one is pretty much out of my hands...

English - I want to review vocabulary and maybe the "Love Nest" short story in preparation. English finals are hard to study for, but I want an A in the class and an A on the final would really help.

Chemistry - I'm doing a study session with Stephanie. I should have a solid B, and therefore no worries, but just to be safe...

Spanish - I don't know the exact status of my A, so it would probably be beneficial to study a little. Hopefully, if I get a B or an A, I'm fine.

Math - Even though as long as I get about a 70%, I've got a B, I think I'll study as much as possible. Math is hard.

Gym - Yeah... the final is to Squaredance....

Government - I'm going to the study session, but I don't think it will help and I don't think it needs to. I have a solid B.

German - Yeah, I'd have to get about a 25% on the final to kill my A. No studying.

Always a Globe

I will always have a globe around the house for my children to look at, and run their fingers over, and love as I do. We'll have a big atlas, too, for specifics and close ups and colour photos of Mount Everest and Macchu Picchu, the Grand Canyon and the Snows of Kilimanjaro, Rheinfels Castle and the Fjords of Norway. The globe will be for seeing all together, perfect and real, so incomprehensibly gargantuan and yet so small, and so beautiful...

They will see it and see nature, know what they have to love and experience and know what they have to protect. They will see it and see history, know the paths that have led to their time and their country. They will see it and see humanity - see the globe as I see it, bleeding with culture. A thousand gods and a thousand dreams, a thousand signs to wish on and a thousand ways to say, "I love you".

Sunset Photos

Sunsets are coming at slightly more natural times now that we're a couple weeks past the equinox. Today's ended by about 5, but went on for almost forty five minutes in a really exceptional display. At about 4:30 the sky was normal blue, but the clouds were all pink and yellow. Then the sky turned all rosy for 360 degrees - something to be able to see out of every window in my house. Hard to imagine what it would look like somewhere with a view. Even now at about 5:20, in the deepening blue, there are still little displays of amber in the far west. I grabbed a camera which amazingly had both batteries and a memory card and took a few, however I couldn't get one of the windows open so those look a little odd...

1,3,4,5,7

Mussels in White Wine and Garlic

This recipe sounds fancy and will impress people, especially when you're just making it for an afternoon snack. However, it's actually really simple.

Ingredients:
6-12 Mussels
1/8 Cup Water
1/8 Cup White Wine
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Clove Garlic
Pinch of Parsley

Preparation:
In a normal sized soup pan, heat olive oil and parsley, add garlic. When the garlic is sizzling as you add it, add water, white wine, and mussels. Make sure to clean the mussels first. The mussels actually open up really fast, or did for me, so go ahead and cover the pan and let them steam a while anyway to make the flavour good. Take them out of the shells and serve or leave to steam/boil more in the sauce. Serve with some sort of 'hard-carb'. I recommend French Bread, cooked Italian Bread, or Town House Crackers. The Sauce is delicious too, so make sure to dip the carb in it and absorb as much as possible.

No More Horizon

There's nothing in this world that time can't kill,
Heaven is empty and the stars are still.
There's only now, there's only us,
But whoever said that wasn't enough?

Yksi and Kaksi, and Dinner with Christy

Today I went to Starbucks with Christy. It was half study session, half hang out. She got Chai, a sort of spiced tea that even I, who have no taste for either coffee or it's British counterpart, admit is rather drinkable. Especially the pumpkin kind that comes out in fall. I got a white hot chocolate. I love that stuff. It needs to be more mass marketed.

We did Government Study and she took my friend quiz. She tied with Austin, although I gave her one of the answers when she had it narrowed down to 50-50. I was studying the Finnish for words 1-10, and joking about how random they all were, and how I really had to get creative. For number 6, for example, Kuusi, I imagined six Koozie Cups. No, my memory was not really so perfect as to keep the image of all six of them firmly in its memory, but the effort in doing so managed to tie Kuusi to Koozie and Koozie to Six quickly and efficiently. I honestly have no idea how it works, but if you can tie a word to an English word, it really doesn't matter what English word, it will help you remember the English meaning. I'll study it someday. (Note: This can be hard with Japanese and Chinese.)

The fun began with Kaksi, I was thinking of two, you see, and Kaksi... Two Roosters! Of course. Translate that into 'horny' teenage girl, and you have a well remembered word. So Christy was proud of knowing Kaksi, so I made her learn Yski as well, so she could count to two in Finnish. When she proudly told her mom this, of course, her mom that she said, "Count to two and finish", and wasn't impressed. She also learned Kumennen because I put her to work helping me come up with a memory trick. This one was even lamer, but again, did the trick. Cum (Latin for with), Men, In. Withmenin. Even pulling in the pitstop in Latin, it actually works. Huh.

Yksi - Kaksi - Kolme - Neljä - Viisi - Kuusi - Seitsemän - Kahdeksan - Yhdeksän - Kumennen

After this, we decided to watch "An Inconvenient Truth", that movie Al Gore made about Global Warming. I wasn't sure what to expect, but Christy seemed fired up about it, and I respect her sense of humour if nothing else. (We both are very, very easily amused by banal grammar mistakes, etc.) But, I didn't want to watch it crowded around her laptop, no matter how proud of it she was.

We hadn't eaten, so we went to Dierbergs and bought a Pomegranate, Mussels, Sole Stuffed with Lobster and Shrimp, Italian Bread, and Two Heads of Broccoli. Oh, we're healthy and capable girls. I paid for the mussels myself, since I was the only one who wanted them and didn't even make them that night. Other than that, we split the cost, which was fair because even though I kept the leftovers, I made most of the food, so it worked out. I know Christy probably wasn't even thinking that deeply on the whole matter, and I love her for that, because petty people suck, but I never want to be a freeloader.

It was a good dinner and cheap for as much as we got. The only letown was the Pomegranate, which seemed to our admittedly less than expert eyes to be... moldy. Not all of it was thus 'infected', but to be safe we threw the whole thing out. We also made fun of the box on the Fish, which listed under ingredients, right next to each other, "...Lobster, Lobster Meat..."

Yes, it was a fun evening, but I don't want my serious review of "An Inconvenient Truth" meshed with my ramblings, so I'll post it seperately later. :D

New Years Party

I went to Kates house for New Years, drove there myself (yay!). The people who came were me, Gwen, Stephanie, and Mary. First we all played DDR for a really long time, surprisingly I wasn't the worst. Despite having no rhythm or dancing skills, I played the game like Spider-Squash or the similar and wider known game Whack-a-Mole, and managed to pass every round, albeit with a D. Apparently I looked really, really funny though, because everyone was in stitches and they took video. I also got the best work out. Go me. :D Mary was a genius at DDR because, well, she owns it. But it was still neat to watch. Gwen wasn't bad, got a B or two on the easier setting. Kate and Stephanie were about my level, maybe Kate was a bit worse. (Sorry Kate!) Mrs. Schlarman was hilarious.

Then we played Super Smash Brothers Melee. If we had had the original, I would have owned with Pikachu. As it was, Mary HAD to have Pikachu, and so I got to play Link with a new controller. Ah well, I won once or twice, and it was mindless and fun. We got hungry and made ravioli and taquitos, but of course with Stephanie as a vegetarian we also had to make white pizza. I love Spinach. :D

We did a few fireworks, just fountains really, and then we watched Pitch Black with Vin Diesel. It really went in line with Scary Movie night a few days back. A creepy sort of mass slaughter movie with a bit of charector development thrown in. I thought Caroline-Fry's death at the end was a little unecessary, though. And apparently the movie has two sequals that don't even go along with the first movie, which I find strange. It's like having an RPG sequal to a first person shooter.

After this Gwen and I talked about dimensions, multiple worlds, the perserverance of the mind and soul after death, and all the crazy things Norwegians do. Mary had gone to sleep halfway through Pitch Black because she wimped out, and Stephanie just took out her hearing aides and was down for the count, but I'm sure we kept poor Kate up. Sorry!

AND HAPPY NEW YEARS!

The break is so amazing! The sun has been so bright and the rain has smelled cold and sweet, and I've been free from parents and school and stress for just a few days. Working hard to catch up!