Today was my Young Womanhood Recognition, an evening in the Mormon Church in which girls are recognized for their accomplishments in the church. It's pretty cool. My mom wrote a really sweet blurb about me and it made me cry when they read it. :) Good night.

This morning I finished Cloud Atlas. It was like the end of any book. I got that sad "it's over" feeling," but multiplied six times over. :(

Today I am going to the temple, so I can't blog so much...

Good Day

Hi. Today I rehearsed a piece for a little group from choir that got together to learn Bohemian Rhapsody! IT SOUNDS AMAZING!

All human beings should be in a choir once in their life.

My Birthday!!!!!!!!

Today is my eighteenth birthday and a very good birthday at that! I got a Nikon camera this morning from my parents (like in "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon). This morning in the parking lot, my friends and I had a dance party and formed a party line when "We Like to Party" came on! It was so epic. The day was perfectly lovely; I got to practice music with people I love, which is really my favorite thing to do. Also, tonight I went to an academic awards ceremony, talked to that boy, all while reading the greatest book ever written and discussing it with him! It was absolutely a day well spent. :)

postttt

Welll... I got home really late last night with every intention of blogging, but all the computers were off, soooo I'm posting this today. Tada!

My Painting

I did a lot today! This morning, I finished the first chunk of my Integrity project by reading a bunch of talks and writing a bit about them. Then I started my painting, which is the main thing I'm doing. It's a picture of the Nauvoo temple with trees and foliage around. I'm doing this sort of Impressionist thing with it and it's actually going pretty well. :)
Okay... it could be better.
Today I also recorded a bunch of improvised a-capella stuff that should be up on my music page pretty soon. That was very fun.
I'm super behind on my journal, so I have to go write in it now. Bye!

Oh My Heavens.

I adore Cloud Atlas. It is probably the best book I have ever read and completely different from all of them. Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. I cannot get over how gorgeous the prose is, how, whether in a limited vocabulary or speaking through a verbose persona, David Mitchell makes every rudimentary thought pensive and beautiful. I'm not even through with it yet, but I just reached the part where the narrator sort of explains the title (you know that part; it's in so many books), and when I read it, I was completely shocked. 

I stopped.

I read the next paragraph, turned the page.

I turned back to read those two sentences over.

And again.

And I literally gasped.

Heavens, it was the most gorgeous thought. And the way he led up to it was... just completely perfect.

To complement the thought, here is a collection of art/photography by Hugo Hildebrand Hildebrandsson on a UCSD site. The site introduces the collection thus:

"In 1874, the year of the first International Meteorological Congress...important new efforts were initiated in the [field of cloud classification]. During the succeeding 20 years constructive proposals were advanced in many countries by a large number of workers whose combined efforts led in 1896 to publication of the International Cloud-Atlas". This atlas documents an early cooperative scientific investigation on an international level. U.S. observations were made at Blue Hill Observatory, south of Boston."

It's actually a legitimate cloud atlas. :) Crazy, huh?

Hi.

I don't really know what to post about... Today I didn't do much. I didn't even end up going to the One-Acts, since I was busy buying stuff for a quilt I'm making for a humanitarian project thing and such. 

I did clean my room today, which was a good thing. I got rid of a lot of stuff, since I need to get ready to go to school and I don't really want to take all these stupid things I don't need with me.I just got a lot done that really needed to be done. For instance, I paste things in my journal, and today, I found a bunch of tickets and papers I saved from my trip to China when I was fourteen, so I glued them in. Finally...

So. I'm getting stuff over with. For Personal Progress, I only have three projects to knock out, and they are all in the works. It should be interesting! :)

I'm supposed to go to Mikado's with Justin and Leslie on Monday. Might invite someone... :)

Cloud Atlas is really good. I think everyone in the world should read it.

Also, look up Design Milk. It is so interesting.

Not So Much Today...

Today was just my last assembly in high school, but it's not like I'm going to miss those. I didn't really do anything after school but work on composition and stuff, since I had to stay home with my little brother and sister. I'm going to more one-acts tomorrow, so that should be fun. I love watching plays and concerts and stuff. 

Leslie's boyfriend Justin is coming soon! I'm so excited to meet him! :)

Leslie, don't worry... I don't really know what's going on, but I'm vaguely depressed too.

This too shall pass.

Today I went to see the One-Act Plays put on at my school by our very own Compass Theatre Acting Company. They were very cute; the first one was The Importance of Being Earnest, which is one of my favorites. I went with my sister and my friend Christina. Our friend was in the play as Algy and he did a brilliant job. It was hilarious! I absolutely love Earnest; it's the only play I ever laughed aloud while reading.
Lately, I watched Citizen Kane for my English class and it's definitely made it to my top list of favorite movies. In fact, it my even usurp Breakfast at Tiffany's, which has been in first place for a while now. The cinematography in Citizen is just phenomenal, and the plot is so poignant. I loved it! Orson Welles was truly a genius.
And (need I remark) really hot.

Twin Day

Today at Palm Desert High School, we had, for the third day of Spirit Week, a Twin Day. Since my sister and I already look so much alike, and we could find clothes we have in common, we decided to dress up. This is what we looked like!

A really funny thing happened involving this after school ended today. Madelyn and I were walking out to the parking lot to go home when some boys from Madelyn's English class walking behind us said stuff like, "Awww; how cute; they dressed up together." I turned, and little did I know that Madelyn turned, too, and at the same time, we both kicked up our left legs and smiled in unison. I was on the outside, so I couldn't see what had happened, but the boys went, "Whoa!" and Madelyn said, "Yeah, we're that good." It was so funny. They wanted us to do it again. Ha ha ha. :)

Another thing: today was my last Chamber Singers concert ever. EVER. I've been in Chamber Singers for the past four years and that was my last official concert. Well... I guess there is graduation, but at least I'll never have to wear that dress again, right? The experience is still kind of surreal... we sang really well tonight. It was great! :)

And Now for a Proper Post about Prom...

Indeed. He was super handsome, I felt really pretty, and we had an amazing, wonderfully perfect night together.
Sometimes, in moments of brilliant color involving flashing lights and gorgeous clothes, high school can really be beautiful.
He picked me up around 4:30 and we went to a mutual guy friend's house, where we took a bunch of pictures together and with two other girls. Then we went to aforementioned boy's date's house, stopping on the way to see my date's mom at her work. She said how nice we looked and then sent us off. It was so nice talking to him in the car; we just talked about everything and he is such a gentleman. (so Darcy-esque) Eventually we all ended up going to dinner at Morton's, which is a really nice steakhouse here, and then we went to prom! We all danced all night and had a lovely time. Afterward, we went to a party briefly, but it was kind of boring, so my date and I went to a friend's house and hung out there for a while until he took me home. :)
It was very nice.

A Piano.

Piano

Perfect! I just had to do this the other day... :)
When I need to relax (i.e., because of Prom nerves, college freak-outs, etc.) I ride my bike somewhere, which lets me think more clearly. Sometimes I go to the library and I read or look for books of music or art to take home.
Primarily, I guess (I probably should have put this first), I play the piano and compose music. The wonderful thing about playing the piano is that pianos turn up all the time whenever you go somewhere. You sit down on the bench and see the keys, and whether you're in Shanghai or Visby, you're at home. Playing the piano gives me a sense of gravity when I feel like I'm not anchored to anything.

Technically,

I didn't post this the day of. I am a NaBloPoMo failure! At least it's not November!

Well, Prom was wonderful! Really really perfect and happy. I will post pictures soon, and if you want them sooner, they are already on facebook; my date posted them. :)

I have a permanent smile these days.

:)

Prom is Today!

Hooray hooray hooray!

Today I Met Pico Iyer!

Yep. Today I met the author of The Open Road, a great book about the mission and teachings of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. I went to the Rancho Las Palmas Hotel around eleven, where I met about seven other students from AP English who were selected to go talk to Mr. Iyer. We met in a conference room before the lunch and speech and Mr. Iyer talked to the high school students and we got to ask him questions. He told us a really interesting thing about the way he writes: When he decides to write on a particular subject, it is because he has a different perspective on that subject than he feels another writer would have. It's a really cool way to impart of culture he's learned. For instance, he wrote The Open Road because he personally knows the Dalai Lama and knew he could offer a different perspective on his character and philosophy than other scholars. At the end of the student meeting, I asked him to sign my copy of the book, and he did. It was extremely cool.

Sorry about that post last night; I didn't have the time or energy to write coherently, so that's just what happened. I guess I could edit it later and write something interesting about yesterday.

Today I took the AP Microeconomics Exam, which is not as bad as I thought it was. I felt all right about the multiple choice, and I know I did really well on the last question of the free response bit of the test. True, I am not positive I aced the thing, but I have a feeling I passed. I hope.

Anyway, I have been composing a very lovely piece that I am obsessed with playing very fast, and very often. In fact, all the time. It's not actually finished yet, but hopefully I will find some more inspiration and get it done. (Hmmm, Leslie; guess what it's about. :) Yay!)

(Augh. It's weird to do a smiley within parentheses.)

That's all for tonight, then!

Blah

Post for NaBloPoMo. Good night.

"Ulterior"

Emily Brown

Mrs. Blank

AP English Literature, Period 6

12 May 2009

Assignment

Please write five sentences using the following vocabulary word:

ulterior • \ul-TEER-ee-er\  • adjective

1 a : further, future

 

* b : more distant : remoter

 

c : situated on the farther side : thither

2 : going beyond what is openly said or shown and especially what is proper

(Ulterior, ulterior, ulterior, thinks Miss Brown. There are only so many ways I can go with this. Then again, what are the chances I can use this word properly without saying "motives?"

They are not great.)

(Well, am going to Paris soon)

• She couldn't tell if he had an ulterior meaning when he told her he was also going to Paris in the summer.
• Then again, boys that nice just don't have ulterior motives.

(Could make classical Literature reference. Have been reading Pride and Prejudice and Cloud Atlas of late and old words seeping into speech. Merriam Webster says it was used thus:)

• Jane Eyre roomed in an ulterior end of Thornfield.
• She went to an ulterior area of England when she found out Mr. Rochester was married to that madwoman, Bertha.

(What else? What else? Aha! Other reference to play:)

• Algernon, in The Importance of Being Earnest, nearly always had an ulterior meaning, which contributed invaluably to the satire of the play.

(Bam. That's done.)

Word of the Day

A desperate need calls for desperate measures, and since I am in desperate need of something to write about, I have decided on a rather clever thing, I think. I looked up the word of the day on Merriam-Webster, and I am going to talk about whatever it makes me think of. 

This should be interesting.

And the word is.............................................

"whinge • \WINJ\  • verb

: to complain fretfully : whine"

The interesting thing about this word is that neither it nor "whine" were actually derived from one another; they have completely separate roots. I just had to say that because the page devoted an entire cute digression about it on the bottom of the screen.

Whinging, whinging, whinging...

What can I write about whinging?

I don't have a lot to whinge about, currently. The only thing I can think of in particular is that the AP Environmental Science test is tomorrow. Other than the fact that I have to go study for it, I am perfectly content.

Someone remind me to order a boutonierre for Saturday.

Good night, then.

Mother's Day!!!

Today was quite a lovely Mother's Day; I think my mom had a really great time and I saw my grandmother later today, which was very cool. :) I may have had a better time than both of them, however. Today in church I sang in a quartet with my sister and two other girls; we've been practicing the song for a while.

After church, our whole family sat around playing Apples to Apples together for an hour, waiting and waiting for Collin to call. Missionaries from the Mormon church only get 2 phone calls per year, one on Christmas and the other on Mother's Day. So today he called; we each talked to him and asked questions (with everyone there, of course) and we recorded the whole hour and seventeen minutes with GarageBand. :)

For another thing... we went to our grandparents' house later that day and had dinner together and stuff. Later that night, I was exploring the bookshelves and stuff, which I tend to do when I am there, and I found a binder of letters Grandma wrote to her parents while she was at college and dating Grandpa. It was so cool! I read a bunch of them aloud to everyone; it was so interesting to see how she wrote and behaved so close to my age. I loved it. Later in the binder, there was a journal Grandma's mom kept about her when she was little. It was extremely interesting, especially when I noticed similarities between her and myself. Dad wasn't surprised, however, since those come up all the time. :) I love her.

Shmurf.

NaBloPoMo. Oh no. It's so late. Early.

I don't really know what to post about, but today my date brought me my ticket for prom along with this book he is lending me, both of which I am quite excited about. The book is called Cloud Atlas and is by David Mitchell. I am only a few pages into it now, but it is really good. My date tells me it's about the deterioration of the English language. So far, the beginning has a lot of really weird words I've never heard before. I haven't looked them up, though. :/ That's what our English teacher says we should do, but it does sort of ruin the fluidity of reading to be looking at the dictionary every few minutes. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm really excited about it, so I'll post more when I am done. :)

Hooray!

The AP English test went really well! I may have even got a five! The multiple choice was definitely the easiest, but I felt really good about my essays, too! We'll see about it! :)
Leslie, you need to come over!

Welll...

Tomorrow is the AP English Literature test and I feel very prepared for it. Today I went to my friend Christina's house and we reviewed Hamlet together because it's one of those plays we can never remember. :) After the test, my entire class is going to Chipotle, which should be fun!
What else? Lately I have been rereading Pride and Prejudice, which only gets better every time. Mr. Darcy is probably every woman's default boyfriend. Har har har. I am working on writing new music, which is fun, but going slightly slow.
Also, subconsciously and sometimes with definite thought, I am thinking and planning for prom! :)

Take Two: Donating Blood

Today I donated blood for the SECOND time ever! It was fairly scary because the lady was kind of new (you can just tell) and she couldn't find my vein. It was somewhat painful and made me very dizzy. I blacked out a little on the way out, so when I got home, I laid down on the floor in the living room and put my feet on the couch.
Donating blood is important, so even if this experience wasn't quite as idyllic as the last, I still did SOMETHING good today. I am happy. :)

More News About BYU!!

I know where I'm going to live next year! Last week I got my housing all ready and such and I also found out who my roommates are and added them on facebook! They seem really cool! One is from South Africa.
I am so psyched about being able to study what I want to study at college! I am going to be double majoring in English and Music Composition! It's going to be amazing!!!
Plus, I have all these cousins who will be there and we are going to rule the campus!
In unrelated news, I took the AP Government Test today and it wasn't half bad. :)

Hmmmm....

Not much to post about tonight, so this is mostly just so I can keep doing NaBloPoMo.
Today, my grandmother came over and we planned some more of our Paris trip this summer. We're also thinking of stopping in Copenhagen to see the Christus and stuff, and because we have ancestors there. I am so psyched!!!

If the Pizza Girl met the Latte Boy...

As some of you may know, the Jonas Brothers (popular fraternal teen boy band) recently came out with a song called "Pizza Girl." Likewise, Kirsten Chenoweth sang a cute song a little while back called "Taylor the Latte Boy."

The question is, then, since both food-associated persons are so apparently entrancing, why don't Pizza Girl and Latte Boy get together???

Just a random thought. Someone should set them up.

LESLIE, YOU NEED TO READ THIS.

This is NaBloPoMo Post number one, guys! The theme for May is sweet, apparently, and in that vein, I'm sure I will think of a lot to write about.

For instance, there is the matter of food.
Family can occasionally be sweet.
Movies, chick flicks specifically, can be sweet.

But, more specifically, this post is about something rather romantic/sweet that happened to me yesterday.

Yes, friends, relatives, blogstalkers.

I got asked to prom by an awesome guy.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(jumps up and down in a happy dance, my sister adds)

I am terribly, explosively, and incandescently happy.

Pluse, I just went to Mormon Prom last weekend, so I have already had a practice version. So I pretty much know exactly what I'm going to look like, only this time I can do it better. Bwahaha.