An Intense Love-Hate Relationship

I can never quite figure out how I feel about the month of March.  On one hand, it's St. Patrick's Day season, so it's dance dance dance never ending . . . but at the same time, that dance means I am overloaded with schoolwork and constantly tired and sore.  Would I trade it for anything?  Nope!  Do I wish I had more time to sleep?  Ohhhh heck yeah.

Anyway, that's why I've been gone for most of March.  I've kept up mildly better with mine and Ashley's politics blog (then again, I have her constantly pestering me to update that).  But I do have two movie reviews to post, and a recap of Battlestar Galactica's Season 3, which I just finished.  Also upcoming: A Racetrack-based wallpaper, and a completed Minstralian Alliance story over at my website.

It's hard to cover a whole month of politics in a single post, but I'll try to hit the major points (to the non-politicos among my readers, you may breath a sigh of relief :P)

• Jim Bunning filibustered a jobless benefits extension bill.  He accomplished little except making a fool out of himself, flipping off a reporter, and providing me with excellent material for a mini-essay about the faults of the filibuster over at Double A Politics.
• President Obama signed the healthcare bill, after the House passed the Senate version.  Joe Biden became notorious for calling the bill "a big f***ing deal", and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me had a ton of fun pretending that America turned into a communist state.
• The Joint Chiefs of Staff commissioned a study to look into the effects of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell and have made it harder to enforce.

What else happened in March?  Well, my English teacher lost a couple of my assignments and blamed me for it . . . that was pleasant.  I've decided that The Sound and the Fury is one of the best books ever written, but is most definitely the worst movie of all time.  I'm heartily sick of my name after making 4 letterhead/business card/envelope sets as part of our corporate identity unit in Yearbook.  I've been promised a Nexus by my dad if I write apps for it.  Oh, and of course, I got into college!  Not sure where I'm going yet, since I'm still waiting on a few decisions, but I'm really happy with where I've gotten in so far.

That's all for now . . . I'm going to try to steal some sleep now!

"Heaven Knows No Frontiers"

I've had such a beautiful past few weeks.

School's been great; our yearbook is almost finished!  I've made so many great friends this year . . . I don't want it to end.  I want just one more year of high school . . . I even made up a dream schedule of classes :)

I love yearbook class so so much.  At the risk of sounding cliche, it taught me a whole new way of looking at the world.  I'm working on a photography series about seeing the world through raindrop-covered windows.  And I can't look at fonts anymore without analyzing them.  I learned that there really are no rules you can't bend, and no frontiers that are permanent.  I'm actually seriously considering a graphics/photography minor in college now, and it's all cause of this class.

I've been watching the Olympics . . . started out with tragedy, but everyone has managed to come through. These athletes are so amazing and inspiring.  Although I will say that I have been accused of being unpatriotic for not cheering for all Americans, all the time (notably, I was sooo rooting for the incredible, adorable, Shen/Zhou couple in pairs figure skating, I was so happy when they won!).

But the commercials get so overplayed.  Gah.  Especially Meg Whitman's "elect me!" commercial, which demonstrates an astounding lack of common sense and an unacceptable amount of pandering.  She says she wants to create jobs, and follows that up immediately with saying she wants to cut government spending.  I guess she missed the memo that we're just coming out of a recession and the economy is still shaky, and cutting spending is NOT what you do in a bad economy.  Sheesh.  I took a semester long economics course, and even I know that.  My point is, she is saying exactly what her Republican constituents want to hear, while offering no real solutions.  Gah.

I've been in a political and artsy mood lately. . . .go figure.  I blame it on the rain.  So I'm making campaign logos for all the Democratic senators running for re-election.  I'll post them all when I'm done! Also, with the TV in my room for the Olympics, I've been watching The Rachel Maddow Show every night . . . sheesh, that lady is AWESOME.  Especially when compared to the pretentious screamy git, Keith Olberman.

I spent last weekend in San Francisco with two of my beautiful, amazing, perfect Irish dance friends at the feis there.  The 6 hour drive turned out to be really fun, even though the I5 through the central valley is boring, my friends never are!  The stages were tiny and had no marlay down, but I managed to place in almost all my dances!  Everyone else did great too . . . and, since I'm in a bragging mood, the two dancers from our school who went to All-Irelands brought back medals!  Soooo proud of them!  Anyway, we also got to see a lot of the town, which was really nice.  Pictures are forthcoming.

I just spent a beautiful night watching the Olympics and doing henna tattoos with my two best friends.  I love the weekend.

In yearbook, we're doing a corporate ID project, and it's really forcing me to look at myself and what I want, and I realized . . . I want everything.  I am so many things.  Computers, graphics design, astronomy, politics, photography, Irish dance . . . they're all such an integral part of me.  I want to do so many things in life, and I worry that I won't have enough time to be everything I want to be.

I decided I'm re-starting the Minstralian Alliance series on my website.  I just . . . had inspiration, all of a sudden.  I don't know what happened.  But I'm excited!

Current Music:
The Corrs
Sinead O'Connor
Midnight Oil
Maire Brennan
Sarah Brightman
Loreena McKennitt

Current Books:
"Madame Secretary", Madeleine Albright
"Light in August", William Faulkner

Current TV Show:
Battlestar Galactica, Season 3

Movies I Really Really Want to See Right Now:
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Shutter Island
Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sorry for the really rambling post.  There's been a lot going on lately, both in my life and in the wide world, and I wanted to write it all down.

6 C's

1. Cinema (Julianne & I watching "Avatar")
2. Caffeine (Drinking more iced tea than we probably should at the Cheesecake Factory until 11.40 at night)
3. Chemistry (Yep, we did our AP Chem homework at dinner.  We are just that awesome)
4. Cold (Beautifully cold and windy outside.  A truly lovely day to be out and about!)
5. Cairde (Irish for "friends")
6. Craic (Irish for "fun')

Full review on "Avatar" coming later, but for now, I'm exhausted!

Lazy Amazing Days

It's a cloudy, rainy day in December, and I'm in one of those funky, artsy, calm-but-hyperaware moods that the rain always puts me in.

I'm sitting in bed, doing AP Government homework and listening to Enya music.

But I'm also ripping some Stargate Atlantis episodes.

But I'm also dying to go out and dance in the rain.

But I'm also writing a story.

But I also just kind of want to curl up and go to sleep.

See what I mean?  Southern California rains are just so rare, and real cold winter rains, complete with clouds and raindrops running down your window are just so rare.  There's a big tree right outside my window and I can see individual raindrops on its leaves from across the room.  I'm slightly in awe.  I went outside and sat in my backyard for a bit, just watching the world turn.  My backyard is huge and a bit wild, and when it rains I feel like I should see garden fairies or something.  I'm normally a more analytical person, but fairies have always held a special place in my heart, and the rain brings out all the wild myths that I've always half believed in.

The rain washes LA clean, more, I think, than in other cities.  All the colors are sharper, the air is more welcoming, the city is more alive.  You feel like you should see plants growing in front of your eyes, and the world has a new soundtrack for a bit.  That's why I love the rain, it's wild and powerful and beautiful and it brings you life.

If I Can't . . .

If I can't check out videos/CDs on my own library card 'till I'm 18, why can I drive when I'm 16?

If I can't text while walking without running into trees/tripping/etc, why do people need a law to tell them not to text while driving?

Just some stuff to think about, I suppose.  Comment if you have any others :)

In Your Place: Randomz

I made it my mission a bit ago to find Republicans With Brains (they get capital letters in their title 'cause they're just that rare, y'know?).  Actually, Ash kinda inspired me to go on that search.  I found two: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, two lovely senators from Maine who care about things like bailout packages, social equality, and affordable healthcare.  Kudos to them for knowing when to drop the party line.

I want a Kindle.  And an iPhone.  And a tablet.  Why do all the best things in life come with such huge pricetags?  Apple should hurry up and release their tablet . . . but if it's just a large-scale iTouch, I will be quite unhappy.  On the subject of computer-y things, I have a newfound respect for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator (we're using them a lot in designing our yearbook).  I'll still take GIMP over Photoshop any day, but I haven't found anything to compare to Illustrator or InDesign (my dad thinks I'm a bit crazy.  He says, "why would you want software you have to pay for?"

I love Nancy Pelosi.  She doesn't stand stupidity from anyone, and when told by a senior army figure that she needs to be put "in her place" she responds with "I am in my place".  And her place just so happens to be Speaker of the House of Representatives.  I approve =)  There needs to be more people like her in Congress.  Maybe then things would actually get done in an orderly fashion.

Speaking of, I'm in my place right now . . . watching Stargate Atlantis and "doing schoolwork".  I suppose I have to get back to the second part of that now (though the schoolwork is the reason I have to multi-task and watch SGA at the same time, because it's taking me three months to watch four episodes.  Sheesh).  Catch ya on the flip side! =)