The nerdiness of this post is slightly overwhelming

So I'm at a program at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute - college in Massachusetts) and it's pretty freaking awesome.  Just thought you should know.

So here's how this goes down: 200 nerds from across the globe gathered together to be awesome and learn things.  I'm in physics, so we're learning about astronomy and black holes and quantum mechanics and special relativity and all that mind-blowing theoretical craziness.  I'm also in creative writing, since we're required to take one main STEM class (physics) and also one Humanities and Arts class, for this camp that I'm at.

Basically, it's amazing.  We've played countless games of Magic the Gathering and Settlers of Catan and Egyptian Rat-Screw.  We've held many Rubik's Cube competitions.  We've broken out into Disney medleys on the bus.  We've had light saber duels on the quad (nerf guns are, quite unfortuantely, forbidden at WPI).  We've played Ninja, quite a bit.  We've had multi-hour-long debates about quantum physics and how one would survive the eventual collapse of the universe (including detailed plans on how to become a cyborg-human and create an alternate universe within a quantum computer).  We've eaten ice cream cake at 8AM. 

The best part is, we're all crazy nerds here.  Not only do they understand my nerdy t-shirts, we can have awesome debates about Legend of Korra or Death Note or Nerdfighteria.  We all understand the internet jokes that everyone makes.

The funny thing is, every morning, the Program Assistants slip an announcement sheet under your dorm door, listing out the day's schedule and announcements.  And on the back, they put a comic.  For the past three days, its been an xkcd comic, and about 80% of the camp was talking about how they'd seen that comic before.  It's great.

Anyways, just letting you know that I'm not dead, and that I'm actually being awesome, just not online.  I have real-life nerd friends too!  Be proud of me.

I've started Pottermore-ing

Is that a word?  Now it is.

But before I can talk rationally and coherently discuss this new development, if you will please excuse the following:

OH MY ROWLING!  ZOMG!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSS
*happy dance*


It's official, guys.  I mean, I have a Gryffindor patch on my backpack, and my penpal made me a Gryffindor bracelet, but now J.K. ROWLING has confirmed it!

*ahem*

I have regained my composure and would like to inform the world that I have joined Pottermore.  After not getting into the Beta testing in October and clicking back every week since then to see if it was finally open to the public yet.

And finally my labors were rewarded.

Friends, my name is NifflerCauldron2980 (add me as a friend!) and I am a Gryffindor!  My wand is cedar and unicorn hair, 11 inches, unbending.  And so far I have contributed a great 14 points to my House (but I'm not sure how I did that).

Basically, Pottermore is pretty cool.  My favorite part is reading J.K. Rowling's little notes and backstories about the characters and plotlines and how it all came together.  The extra stuff, where it lets you duel people and brew potions and things, is fun as well.

But, WOW brewing potions is hard.  And stressful.  All these thoughts were going through my head:

• Which of these little bags of ingredients is snake fangs?  TELL ME NOW.
• Where the freak is my wand??!
• Who knew heating cauldrons to the right temperature was so hard? 
• I'm really good at grinding bezoars.
• What am I supposed to do for the three minutes that my potion brews?  Just stare at the screen and hope that I didn't add too many porcupine quills?

I have tried, and failed, to brew the Antidote to Common Poisons at least six times.  All of these failures are because I let my cauldron overheat while it is cooking for five seconds.

Potions are hard.  How was Lily so good at it??

Also, there's one, easily remedied issue that makes me sad:

However, all I see is:

Alas.  I shall stay with my friend-less-ness and continue to fail at brewing potions.  Wish me luck!

Snow Day!

This is what I put on Facebook yesterday, when it started snowing, and people were predicting the statistical likelihood of a snow day:

After that, I did notice there were fewer statuses that looked something like "It's snowinngggg!"  or "Guyz, its lyk snowing rite now!!!1!111!"

But whatever.  I'm not here to criticize annoying Facebookers.  I'm here to share the results of my snow day with you.

Did I start my history essay?  No.  Did I finish my history outlining?  No.  Did I research my forestry topics?  No.  Did I call my Gold Award project adviser?  No.

I had a great list of all the things I would do today.  Very few got done.  However, I made this!  IT'S A SNOW DALEK!

Who says I'm unproductive?  Psshh.

Happy Alaska Young Day!

This message brought to you from 6th Period Marketing class.  Just to let you know that I am awesome.  You must admit, it's an important fact to note.

Happy Alaska Young Day!  If you don't know who that is, go straight to your local library and check out "Looking for Alaska" (in your pants) by John Green.

Do you know how I'm going to celebrate Alaska Young Day?  That's right, I'm going to meet John and Hank Green!

You have no idea how difficult it is for me to stay coherent at this moment, and not dissolve into a fit of babbling.

You see, for those non-Nerdfighters amongst you, today is not only Alaska Young Day, but the release date of John Green's new novel, "The Fault in Our Stars."  And I, flyergirl13, will be attending the first stop on John's book tour, the Tour De Nerdfighting, which is right here in Massachusetts in about 5 hours.

Yes, you are all very, very jealous.  

Whoops, class is almost over.  Have fun with your mundane evening plans!  DFTBA, yo.


UPDATE:
I'm sorry if you didn't understand that, I was slightly crazed with excitement when I wrote it.  John Green is one of my favorite authors, and I went to the book signing for the release of his new book, The Fault in Our Stars (which I already finished and is absolutely incredible.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.)
What I liked best about the event was, obviously, John and Hank, but also all the other people there. Imagine an auditorium of over 800 people, and you could (and we did) walk up to ANYONE (literally) and start a conversation, and become friends.  And don't get me started on the vast number of awesome, infinitely nerdy t-shirts present.
This is getting to be a long update, so I won't go into the details (you know, Hank in a tutu, TFiOS waving, all that jazz) so peace out, dudes.

WINNING

It's like losing, except more fun.

I have 50,003 words, but my novel isn't quite down yet.  I'll probably need another thousand or so to wrap things up.  But regardless, I WON.

I can write fifty freaking thousand words in a month.  Friends, I do believe I am invincible.
Go ahead, shoot me, the bullet will bounce off because vampires have an extra chromosome and because Edward loves Bella and because I have my 50,000 word novel to use as a shield.

Out of random curiousity, now that I'm on the subject of novels protecting against bullets, how many sheets of paper could stop a bullet from going through?

I suddenly really want to know this.  Google, here I come.

Google is conflicted on the answer.  Apparently depends on type of paper, type of gun, type of bullet, and so on.  I just want to KNOW, Google!  How could you fail me?  *headkeyboard* sdfhnkjKsdhn

Someone, please test this for me and discover the answer.

Solver Extraordinaire: ME

I  now understand why people carry around Rubik's Cubes.  Because when you solve the, you feel so freaking epic you just want to keep doing it forever.

I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube today.

I still need to look at this one long algorithm, but I have all the others memorized, and I just feel awesome.  I can't stop doing it, as though if I'm not sure if it was just chance and I have to do it again to prove I can.

My best time is 3:47, which compared to most people is terrible, but I'm super proud of.  Considering I've known how to do this for about 5 hours.

Imagine what you could do in 3 minutes 47 seconds.  You could brush our teeth.  Write around 125 NaNo words.  If you're Bill Gates, you earn around $5000.  You could get around 300 points in Fruit Ninja, depending how good you are.  You could do your pre-calc homework.
Or you could solve Rubik's Cube.

Well, at least I've crossed this item off my bucket list.

Snippet of my Bucket List


312. Go skydiving
313. Swim with dolphins

314. Solve a Rubik's Cube

315. Watch every Vlogbrothers video

Sorry I have no hand-drawn pictures, but here's an awesome prank related to Rubik's Cubes.

I don't know what "Leibster" means, but it sounds fancy

UPDATE:

This is the second post in a row that has been up for a day or two with no title.  I generally title posts after I write them, and now I'm forgetting to go back and title them.  If I forget again, you have permission to virtual-slap me in the comments.

It would appear as though I have been awarded an award, which is a rewarding feeling, and since this award was awarded to me by Gabi who I don't think is creepy. I think I should be awarded another award for the award-winning usage of some form of the word "award" in these few award-winning sentences.

Onto the blog award.  Basically, it means I have to tell you 7 things about me then tag 7 people with under 100 followers.  Let us commence the battle of wits!

*Though not really a battle since, considering I'm the one writing all this anyways, it's a bit biased, but hey, who said it was a fair Battle of Wits?  If it was fair, Westley would not be immune to iocane powder, and where would that leave us?  Being thrown off the Cliffs of Insanity, most likely.

1) I am more than slightly obsessed with The Princess Bride, and if you have not seen/read it, I shall strike you with an ax.

II) I just learned that "ax" is not spelled "axe" even though I always thought it was.  I guess "Axe" is just how they spell the deodorant.

c) Thee may be surprised to learneth that, upon occasion, I may enjoy to speaketh in a style which dost be similar to that of the Olde English.  Tis a most pleasant merriment.

iv) My hair has been dyed pink on and off for the last six months, but I didn't bleach my hair first so you couldn't really see it.

cinq) I can't roll my tongue or touch my nose or have a hitchhiker's thumb or anything cool like that.

6) I know over 100 digits of pi.

G) I refuse to number things in a normal fashion.

AND....drumroll...to the tagging!
Umm....

•  Ohmygoodnessgraciousgosh because I think it's funny how I started saying the blog title in normal conversation.
• Randomly Yakking, though I can't find the follower count (I'm likely blind), if I'm wrong we can just pretend you have less than 100.
• Defenestrated Feet who shares my fascination with shoes.
• Irrefutable Rules of Teenage Life because she's a Sparkler (we gotta stick together) and her URL has velociraptors in it.
• [I Am Unimaginative] because she's awesome.  DFTBA.
• Color it Awesomesauce because she appreciates the awesomeness of "awesome"
• Chronicles of Beck because she's quite funny and needs some followers, peeps.

Hope I didn't leave anyone out.  If you're reading this and being offended because I forgot to tag you, I apologize and place the blame on my press secretary, my pet rock, Westley.  Any complaints should be sent to him.

Finally, I have to leave you with this picture my friend showed me.  Maybe I'm just slow and everyone's seen it, but I cracked up.  Pretend like you think it's hilarious too so I don't feel bad.

It's "A Dell Rolling in the Deep"!!!

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss"

I can fly.

As my username implies, of course.  Not that it means anything, because if my username was "AwesomePerson" it wouldn't necessarily be true...oh wait it is true!  Bad example.  Sorry.

Anyways, I do this super cool thing called flying trapeze.  Yeah, like the circus thing.  I'm a circus freak and do lots of cool things, one of which is flying trapeze.  Looks like this:

That's what I look like right now.  Except with a nose and other features I've left out of this drawing.

But I didn't look like that a little while ago.  As of before last night, I looked like this:

You will note the key difference.  It's like one of those "Spot the Difference" puzzles, which I would just like to mention that I am damn good at those.
Those green line things are the safety lines.  The things that, you know, kept me alive while soaring through the air about 30 feet up.  Things, you will notice, are missing from the first picture.

I am officially allowed to fly without safety lines!  This is a big deal for me.  You have to go through all sorts of certification to prove you won't kill yourself and sue the trapeze school.  And I did.  And flew out of lines.  It was epic.

Umm...yea....that's it.  I was psyched and nervous and excited and it was awesome.  You may send cupcakes or congratulatory elephants to P.O. Box #3.14159.

My NaNoWriMo Arrived!

IT CAME!!!!

I'm super excited.  I ordered it about a week ago, because the NaNo YWP gives everyone under 18 a free proof copy of their book.  Like, I got a FREE COPY of MY book, professionally done.  It's all extremely exciting.
The package arrived about 5 days earlier than the website said it would.  I was practically dancing with happiness.  So, I decided to document the amazing moment.

The package....and my hand.

Just the package.  I had to dramatize the moment.  Please bask in its awesomeness

Umm...can't get it open

Solution!!

It's open! Drumroll....

*Angels singing*  IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL, I'M GONNA CRY

It's a REAL LIVE BOOK! I'm hyperventilating.

It even has REAL LIVE PAGES!!!  247 of them!

And...right there on the back cover is a typo.  I've done a lot of "peering", but I've never "perred" before.  Arggghh.

A journey of a thousand awards and fame and awesomeness and fantasticism begins with one award

Because someone is awesome and amazing, Lola gave me a blog award.  As I mentioned briefly in the title, this award is clearly a sign of my soon-to-be rise to fame and fortune.  I would thank all the awesome people in my life for supporting me and stuff, but sometimes I like to hog the glory.  I'm like fluorine, the most electronegative element, who hogs all the electrons when it bonds.  I often don't like being in the spotlight, but this award is too awesome.

Ok, let's cut to the chase.  THIS is my award, the Overlord Award.  Be jealous.

Being granted the privilege of being supreme ruler-dictator-monarch-queen-awesome person-winner allows me to decide 3 rules that I would like to change:

1. Anyone who misuses "they're", "their", or "there" or "to", "two", and "too" will be sentenced to dark and unhappy dungeons.
2. All sentences spoken to me must begin with either "Your Royal Awesomeness..." or "Darren Criss is calling on line 2."
3. Everyone just lost the game.

And now, to pass on this prestigious award to my fellow awesome-ers.


Give Up Sex or Dinosaurs? because she gave it to me, and I like to return favors.  Plus, I love her blog.
Ohmygoodnessgraciousgosh because of awesome pictures and a title that took me 3 tries to spell correctly.
Almost out of Ink because I wish I could draw that well.

Ohmygoodnessgraciousgosh
If you are furious that I forgot you and wish to express your anger, leave me a note in the comments.  I will read it, cackle, and remind you I just got the Overlord Award.  WIN
Ohmygoodnessgraciousgosh

How To Get A SparkLife Series

There's a brand-new series on SparkLife - written by...can you guess it? Moi. If You don't take French, that means that this awesome new column is authored by none other than yours truly!

Ok. Sorry. I don't mean to brag. I'm just rather excited. Yell at me in the comments if you think I'm an egotistical jerk for stealing the columnist position that you applied for, having visit SparkLife thanks to the handy link in my Awesome Links section.

Anyway, I have a new series. "Flyergirl13 Tells You How-" as it is aptly named, considering I will explain to you in a comprehensive guide how to do anything and everything that is completely unhelpful. It's pretty awesome, I'm telling you.

Again, apologies for sounding braggy. But hey, I got a series. Can't I have an itsy bit of bragging rights?
YAY! *fist pump*

Fist Pump!

I'm going to have to try to make this a non-braggy post. But it's hard. The words are spewing out of my mouth, I can't stop them... I DID IT! That's right. Or, actually, that's write. Because I wrote a 50K word novel in a month. For NaNoWriMo. Actually, in 29 days. And I couldn't be happier.

Olive Branch, by Me, is 50,515 words long and I'm so proud. I don't know what to do with it now. Oh well. It doesn't matter. All that matters is I DID IT!
*fist pump*