Discontinuation?

As much as I enjoy blogging, I am too busy right now to post to this blog. However, I think I'll start a simpler blog called Love and Hate. So for now consider this blog dead. But who knows? Maybe I'll start again.

How to Relax

My second how-to! Anyways, I am almost always relaxed, and I will share some secrets of staying relaxed and calm, since so many people seem to be stressed.

*Breathe deeply. You'd be surprised how much of a change this can make. If you get used to breathing deeply, you are relaxed more easily.

*Be more optimistic. Don't be unrealistically optimistic, just don't be so morbid. Even if you don't show much emotion, at least have good emotions, even if you don't show them. I don't, but I am actually in a good mood most of the time. Remember, if things seem bad now, just think of all the ways it could be worse and be glad those didn't happen.

*Listen to music. Whether it's rap, country, metal, classical, or rock, enjoy music. Listen to music while on a bus, or walking down the street (keep it turned down enough you can still tell what's going on around you if you choose to listen to music as you walk). Even just read a book or surf the web while listening to your favorite tunes.

*Be spiritually sure. Don't say you believe a religion you don't. Try to find out what you really believe, what your core beliefs about life are. It doesn't have to stay the same for your whole life, just make sure you have your own solid opinion on faith.

*If you are in school, when a test is coming up think about what will help you. If you work well under pressure, feel free to freak out a bit, just try not to have a mental breakdown. If you study best and memorize the most when you have a rapidly approaching deadline, procrastinate. If you feel like you are going to fail if you don't study daily up until the test, then study daily at least to give yourself some peace of mind. I, for instance, remember classes well, but if I get nervous I don't do as well, so I try to forget that there even will be a test, that way I'm calm all the way up until the test. I don't normally need to study much, maybe look the material over the night before, or spend a few days quizzing myself until I get it all correct if it's a hard test.

*Don't drink coffee. A little to wake you up is ok, but although things like Mountain Dew are loaded with sugar, they have less caffiene. Caffiene can make you more anxious or nervous. I guess what I mean to say is that it's not exactly good for calming the nerves. At all. And it never will be. Ever. EVER. Get it through your head: too much caffiene will make you more nervous. It may help you wake up in the morning, but that doesn't mean you have to be sipping coffee all day. If you didn't get enough sleep, drink something like Mountain Dew that doesn't have as much caffiene so that you don't get high off coffee (caffiene is actually a drug).

*Don't worry about what's not worth worrying about. That upcoming inspection? Yes, you should probably worry a bit. Global warming? It's inevitable, and it's happening slower than the media implies. Although we should change our habits to slow global warming (which is a natural process the earth goes through in cycles, and just happens to be speeding up because of greenhouse gas emmisions) it's not as if the earth is going to turn into an oven overnight and we're all going to wake up frying our guts out tomorrow morning.

Well, not as much of a how-to as I expected, but it turned out OK. This is how I stay calm most of the time, so I pretty much just wrote it down. Feel free to copy these to pretty much anywhere if you really want to(wear these relaxation tips on a t-shirt for all I care), and when it comes to giving me credit I don't particularly care if something like this is never traced to me as the origin. Usually I'd never give permissions like that, but these tips are useful to me, and if they help you and you love them so much you want to share them with the world, give me credit if you want but it doesn't really matter either way. This is just my humble little blog. When it comes to my artwork, that is my property and please do not copy it, but when it comes to little how-tos anyone can reproduce them anywhere without even giving credit. Hey, with the iPod one it might be good if that's never traced back to me. It should be legal, but Apple's copyright stuff is kind of strange in my opinion. I mean, what if your computer and all your CDs are destroyed and you want the music from the CDs back?

Peace out!

Pervert Alert!

My school has unusually high concentrations of many kinds of people: weirdoes/freaks, Japan fangirls, musicians/artists/actors/writers, kids who know how to hack something (windows computers, firewalls, and the school website blocker to name a few), perverts...you get the picture, it's a varied place with all sorts of strange people and definatly a strange atmosphere for a middle school.

Anyways, perverts have been particularly annoying lately (I say "anyways" too much). For three days in Algebra there was a sub, and those days were absolutely laden with innuendo. You know, I don't think boys realize at all that being perverted actually repels girls. Well there are some that are okay, but most guys at my school are total pervs. Well, at least last year's main perverts' antics have died down, and this year's batch is a bit more entertaining. Although there is one boy who has been a constant annoyance. At the beginning of 7th grade, he asked me out. I turned him down (it's the only time i've been asked out, but I really don't like him at all) and he kept pestering me for a few days and finally I got kinda mad and said something that shut him up. It wasn't anything bad, it was just kinda rude. Well, it is a good thing I turned him down: a few months later I saw him talking to his friend (when they were already both in trouble) about the length of their...things. 'Nuff said. And this year he keeps blurting out random sexual references he probably doesn't even understand. Don't ask how I know what they mean, I'd really rather not explain. For example, in English the teacher was talking about some stupid group book report that I know we're not going to finish by the deadline because for the past few days we've had a sub who has no idea what she's doing. So she told us that we could write it up if there were good writers in the group, or if most of the group was actors they could do some sort of skit. So she said basically to pick our favorite thing to do, and this boy commented, "Eating, sleeping, jacking off," and he kept saying things like that the whole class. I just about yelled at him several times to just shut up already.

So there is another boy who is like his best friend, who is also a pervert but since he's not as outgoing he's not so annoying. Anyways in history the teacher joked (I have a great history teacher, he always says funny things about the students to make fun of them, but in a nice way most of the time) that when we got our school computers back, if we had looked at things like porn then when we opened them for the first time, they would say "Pervert alert! Pervert alert!" I bet if they did that then like half the school would be filled with the sounds of sirens and "Pervert Alert!"s. And he mentioned that the aformentioned person's computer would definately do that. So now sometimes when he walks into a room someone says "Pervert alert!" It's funny.

Speaking of perverts, the school laptops can be set up so they talk to you. In science on Monday there was a sub (the same one in Algebra) and so she pretended not to hear when a couple of boys made their computer say something like "[Insert name I did not quite hear here] likes to touch his vagina." I sort of chuckled and said to my friend who I was studying with(we were supposed to be studying for the test we had today) "I do NOT want to know."

Seriously. Perverts are annoying. They usually do not get girlfriends for a long time. They do not get laid at a fairly young age, unlike the nicer boys, I have noticed(there is a boy at my school who I wouldn't have even expected to get a girlfriend, but judging from the comments people make about him and his friends' reactions to these comments, he seems to have given a girl (who I would also not expect to have a boyfriend) an STD. He does not act perverted in public and as far as I know never really has. See the connection?). They remain single idiots for quite a while. I practically have a list of boys who, if they ask me out for some reason, I will turn them down because they are extreme perverts. Yet another reason I prefer to not have much of a social life: you get asked out a lot, and considering the percentage of pervert boys, I really don't plan to date anytime soon. Might as well avoid getting asked out for a few years and hope they've matured a bit.

October 11

Holy crap, I've been busy. I have a list of topics to post about, in fact. I just had to reset my passwords (again).

Anyways, I would've posted this on October 11, but...well...anyways...idunno...agh nevermind. anyways, for some reason I don't quite recall, I didn't get around to it.

So anyways, October 11 is my dad's birthday. So why is that such a big deal? He died about a year and a half ago. As we did last year, we made a cake, but this year there wasn't crying, or fancy decorations. It had legos and stuff (courtesy of my bros) but no writing. We just quietly ate cake, pretty much.

I don't know why, I just thought it would be nice to write about it.

Gaining Depth Perception

I've been busy, but not as busy as last week. This week I have time to read, and I have been rereading Xenocide, the third book in the Ender series, which begins with Ender's Game. It is not my favorite in the series, but it is good. I got to a part where Olhado (whose real name is Lauro) was talking about what it is like to have no depth perception. Now, Olhado lost his eyes somehow, and one was replaced with a mechanical eye, and the other with a place to connect to the computer. He had wanted to show other people what he had seen, so he had chosen a computer hookup over depth perception.

So what he said was that it is like everyone is a cardboard cutout, and everything behind them is a painted background. I don't know what it's like to have no depth perception, but I do know what it's like to have almost no depth perception. Over the years, ever since I was very small my eyes changed. One became very farsighted, and the other became very nearsighted. There are advantages to this, but it's really better to have depth perception. So finally about a year and a half ago I went to the optometrist for some reason, and I found out my eyes are like that. I never realized it until I got glasses, but for most of my life the world had looked like a painting to me, I could tell how far away something was by its size or by where it sat on the ground, but nothing really looked 3D. Then when I first put on my glasses, everything popped out at me, like cardboard cutouts. And I realized that depth perception doesn't actually help you tell how far away things are very well. Oh well. At least I can see a bit better. My eyes have improved enough that I can see a lot better without my glasses, but I still wear glasses when they're not lost if I don't have a headache.

Today's observation? Orson Scott Card clearly has no idea what it's like to live without depth perception.

news stuff0rz

I've been really busy lately. But yesterday, I went into the music room during lunch. I asked if I could play my piece for the concert on the piano that's not in a practice room. I played Gentle Rain, and at the end the student teacher asked me if it was from something, and I told him it was from Mother 3 and he said "Oh, I've played that one," like it was no big deal. I thought he seemed like a video game type, but who'da thunk he'd heard of the Mother series? I was shocked that someone other than me in this small town had even heard of them, let alone played Earthbound. But he seems to have not played either game for a while, because somehow for weeks he never recognized any of the EB music I played at lunch in the practice room. You can hear the piano from the main band room when no one's playing, and I know for a fact that he and the main teacher sometimes listen to me play when there's no one in the music room. And this guy is a musician, so you'd think he'd pay attention to game music enough to recognize songs like Pollyanna and the sound stone theme that I play fairly often.

Well today I went in and played the piano in the practice room because I like it better. I played Gentle Rain, and then I heard a sound behind me, and there were all these people crowding around the door trying to watch me play. Kinda creepy, if you think about it, that all of a sudden one day these people appear within like a minute. I played some more stuff, and then there was something I was going to play that I forgot. I still don't remember. Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

I just got in from walking the puppy for HALF AN HOUR. I walked down two blocks (even though I'm not in a city, they're probably about the same size as city blocks, but on a steep hill so they're actually longer)and then ran most of the way back up. That's the farthest he's ever walked. His teeth are getting sharper, he's getting bigger, and his claws are getting to be somewhat dangerous.

I don't have school tomorrow! And my little brothers do! YES!!! This SO makes up for being so busy this week.

So the school gave us these stupid planner things at the beginning of the year, but they're great for doodling. I draw my cats in every week along the edge. Last week I put an invasion of Mr. Saturns, and this week I drew the kraken from EB along the bottom, and also some other stuff, like in the math section, I drew a starmen saying "NO *whirr* HOMEWORK [beeeeep] DUE." For once I didn't have algebra homework last week because of the quiz. Also on one of the boxes I drew Kirby with his mouth open, and I colored it all in except a word: "-zilch-" like my assignment was sucked up into the black hole known as Kirby. I think next week I'll draw Tessie or maybe the mecha-drago or something. I'll have to take pictures of these eventually and put them on DA.

I am tired.

H1N1

I may have swine flu. I looked up the symptoms on the CDC's website, and they match, but the symptoms are the same as a normal flu or cold, so that's not saying much. It did spread to my town though. I think I was the first to get sick at my school, and I kept going to school because I thought it was a normal cold. But now, I sort of hope people get sick from me, because then they will have to shut the school down for a while, and that will give us all time to recover. Flus are not hard to recover from, it just takes time. Something interesting is that there was this one day I went home early, and earlier that day I looked at the sign-out sheet at the office, and just in the time before lunch, at least 10-20 people went home sick. And there was another person in my class who didn't feel so good. But whoever's in charge of the district is an idiot.

Last year when there was about two feet of snow they still didn't cancel school. That may not sound like much to people who live in places where you can really get snowed in, but normally we don't get that much. My mom went and shoveled the driveway almost every day for weeks just so we could get the car out, and somehow they didn't cancel school. And there's this empty lot next to my school, and they piled up snow there. There ended up being a pile about fifteen feet high, and then gravel got kicked up by the cars and coated it, so then that blocked the sun and it took months to finally disappear. It was still there in May if I remember correctly.

Anyways, back to the swine flu. So Evan (a boy I've known since about preschool who has just recently started getting on my nerves trying to act cool) was joking a few days ago that I have swine flu, and once I had cleared my throat enough to get some words out, I told him in my hoarse, nearly lost voice that that was NOT funny because I might actually have swine flu. Not that I'm really scared of it, though. It's pretty much a normal flu that started showing up at the wrong time of the year. Hardly anyone died from it. And anyways, you can't catch the exact same disease twice, so if I did somehow catch it (I travel a lot, I could've picked it up somewhere now I think of it) then once I recover I will be immune to it. I don't really believe in getting flu vaccinations, so even if I don't have H1N1, I am not getting vaccinated unless it is required by my school. I mean, what's the point if the flu mutates every year? I am not getting a shot or two every year against something I don't even usually get. I think it's better to be naturally immune, because some people react badly to vaccinations.

While I'm on the topic of vaccinations, I had to get some sort of vaccination last year, and my mom works at the clinic. I waited for forty minutes. Then I asked my mom what was going on, because the place wasn't busy at all. So she went and checked and it turned out the nurse who was doing it is the weird one, and she was just staring blankly at the computer screen with the shot partly ready. So my mom told her we were in a hurry. Within a few minutes I was in the checkup room, and so she gets it ready, and then comes over and cleans my arm, and without any warning stabs me in the arm with the needle. I gasped but didn't really cry out; I don't normally make a big deal when I get hurt. As usual, I clenched my other fist to give me something to do other than think about the shot as usual. And so as we were leaving, my mom told me that the lady was kinda crazy that way. She figured that since she had told her that we were in a hurry because of my mom's lunch schedule, she had been so quick about it, but she wasn't really sure. Now I think of it, that lady sounds kinda like me. Except for the part about staring at a boring computer screen for half an hour.

OK, onto the jokes!

One of my teachers has a paper taped onto her door. It says that the difference between the swine flu and the bird flu is that for the bird flu you need tweetment and for the swine flu you need oinkment.

Check this out, it's a Mother 3 and swine flu crossover! http://files.fobby.net/0000/6b38/porky.jpg

OK, this isn't exactly a joke, but still...Wasn't it within the first 100 days of Obama's presidency that the swine flu pandemic started?

BORED,
NA

How to move music from your iPod to your computer

So, if you somehow lost your computer data and need to get some music back and the music is on your iPod, I know a way to transfer it.

Step 0: This method takes a lot of time. Seriously, unless you have a ton of time to kill, if there is any way possible to transfer it from another computer, a CD, a mini hard drive, or even if you put it in the recycle bin, then do it. I mean it, this can take hours depending on how much music is on your iPod.

Step 1: Show hidden files.
Mac:I am not sure, but I think on a Mac it already shows hidden files anyways. I don't usually use Macs, but I've looked at the school ones a bit, and didn't like them. As far as I could tell, it showed hidden files automatically, but I don't know.
Windows:I don't know about Vista or 7, but at least for XP and possibly other versions (I'm fairly certain this works with older versions too, but in my opinion if you use an older version you're crazy) go to Tools>Options. Then look through the tabs until you find one with a long list of options and checkboxes. Change "Do not show hidden files and folders" to the opposite. Then click Apply, and just to be safe click on Apply to All Folders, which should be above the list of options.

Step 2:Go to My Computer on Windows, or click on your iPod on the desktop on a Mac. OK, my iPod is a Nano, second generation, but this step should be about the same. If these exact folders don't work, just look through folders until you find it. But here is what works with mine:

[insert iPod name here] (E:)>iPod Control>Music

Inside there should be at least several folders with names like F05, at least for my iPod. Go through them and copy the mp3's into a folder on your computer or a backup hard drive. The mp3's should have names that are four random letters in all-caps. Don't bother copying the locked ones if you already re-downloaded your iTunes store music, because this is just your iPod's copy of it, and you have to use your password to open it anyways.

Step 3: I suggest using Winamp for this step. Go through your copied files one by one and open them preferably in Winamp. Then rename the file the correct name. Trust me, even if you have to do it again in iTunes, this is important. Here are some shortcuts that will help you when renaming the actual file.

F2 (or possibly Fn-F2) - I really doubt this works with a Mac, but on a Windows it is a quick way to rename.
Arrows and Enter - skip through the songs, and play one in Winamp or iTunes (seriously, Winamp works better for the renaming. It's very useful anyways, and it's free. Download it.)
Delete/Backspace - if you find a song you don't want anymore or already have elsewhere on your computer, delete it. MP3's take up a lot of room and actually it's best to copy the songs onto a small hard drive instead of your computer, especially if you have a large music collection. My music collection is like 3 gigabytes, but I know for a fact most people have more music than that. Actually I do have a lot of music, but most of the songs are fairly short (one is almost 40 minutes though) and also I delete the ones I don't listen to, so I end up not using as much space for my music.

I hope this helps. I'd avoid doing this though, it takes a lot of time. I may only have about 3 gigabytes of music, but that's about 400 songs that I had to go through. But if your house burned down and your computer and CDs were destroyed, this is a good option. OK, I'll admit I could've gotten the music from my old computer, but I had a lot of spare time to use up, and anyways I did this in my spare time during a road trip, so I couldn't exactly go home and get them off that computer and onto my laptop. I think there is a program for this that you could get, but it's not free. I don't remember what it's called.

Remember, it's all fun and games until the Ramblin' Evil Mushrooms attack.

A better world

Ya know what would be great? If teenagers got to move out and become independant. I would have my life so much more organized if I actually had some control over it, but I don't so it's hard to work up much motivation to do things like clean my room. And all the drama with parents trying to run their kid's lives when all the kids want is a shot at running their lives themselves would be gone. Teens wouldn't have to be so secretive about what they do just because they want to be alone. I mean, I want to watch movies alone, not because I watch inappropriate movies, but because I really just prefer to watch movies alone because it's less awkward if you're the only one paying enough attention to understand the jokes. My mom doesn't pay much attention to movies and my little brothers often don't understand the jokes, so I am the only one laughing. Another thing I hate? My mom wanting to know what I do on the computer. I don't do anything bad, I just don't like people looking over my shoulder while I'm trying to read something relevant to my interests. It's awkward and I can't concentrate. And then I don't like talking about what I looked at because often it's something no one else in my family understands. Often it's Mother-related, and I am the only one in my family who has actually finished the games. My little brothers never get very far, and my mom doesn't understand that video games can have great plots. I think she's lost touch with good plots. She never reads novels or anything. I often go through a book a day, and let me tell you, Mother 3's plot is better than many of the books I've read, and even better because if there is a puzzle, you have to figure it out YOURSELF. You can imagine the character's day-to-day interactions and relationships YOURSELF. Don't like the ending? Write some fanfiction or find a different way to interpret it. In the Mother series, nothing is really set in stone, so you really are free to interpret things however you want. Anyways, I guess I really just wish people would understand that not all videogames are gory first-person shooters that are inappropriate for small and impressionable children.

HIPPIES ARE ATTACKING OH NO

Choices

Wow, I haven't updated for a long time. I've been so busy, and it's a shame; I really enjoy blogging.

Anyways, I have a hard choice. I can either go to a fine art camp this summer, or go on a trip to Japan through the school. Right now I'm thinking that I could probably do both, considering getting a scholarship for the art camp would be easy, and anyways, the art camp is considerably cheaper. But if I had to choose, I think I'd choose Japan. It's not an opportunity I'm going to get again, unlike the art camp, which I could do any year. But I feel like my mom is trying to shame me into picking the art camp. She wants me to get a scholarship so we don't have to pay so much, but I'd really hate to take the opportunity away from someone else; only one kid in each grade can get the scholarship, and there are so many people who actually need the scholarship money. We don't. I hate how my mom is like that: she tries to save every dollar possible even if it means taking an opportunity to save big money from someone who actually doesn't have much money. I'd rather go to Japan anyways.

But the thing I hate is that now my mom is pressuring me into doing the art camp, but last winter there was plenty of time left to register and still get what classes I wanted, and just because I missed out on the scholorship she wouldn't let me go, even though we could easily cover the cost without it. Now her excuse is that there probably weren't any spots left, even though at the time I had told her that registration had just started and I could still get the classes I wanted. GAH IM SO CONFUSED AND ANNOYED AND KINDA PISSED.

I don't have much time left to register for the trip to Japan, but I could still manage it, if my mom does her part of the registration stuff that is. I need to get the recommendation forms to the teachers I picked and some parents of old friends who know me pretty well. All this stuff needs to be in by the 30th, which only gives me a few days. I'm kinda nervous now. I would've done all this earlier, but my little brother's birthday came up and everyone was too busy cleaning for the party and wrapping presents for his actual birthday.