My blog recently caused a tree to be planted. What now?

What have you done today?

Oh, not much, I just saved the world, that's all.

Okay, maybe I didn't actually save the world, but it's one step closer than it was yesterday.  Because my blog has adopted the label of CARBON-NEUTRAL.  Check it out:

This beautiful icon is also on display in the sidebar, if you feel the need to gaze upon its beauty even more.  It also has mouseover text, like xkcd, which continues to amaze me.  My goal is to learn how to do that on normal pictures, and then my life will be complete.  Or, that is, more complete than helping to save the world.

I planted a tree today.  Can you say that?  I didn't think so.  So get out there and start saving the world, people!

UPDATE: Put your pointer on my image, peeps, and you will be delightfully surprised and awed at my Google search skills computing skills.

I Am SO Making an Amusement Park called "Seven Flags"

You know how Six Flag's motto is "More Flags, More Fun"?  Well, I'll make my amusement park called Seven Flags, and our motto will be "Yes, more flags ARE more fun. HA!"

I crack myself up sometimes.  I don't know if I crack anyone else up, but at least I'm having fun here.

So, in case you couldn't tell, I went to Six Flags (of the New England variety).  For my Sweet 16, which was actually a few months ago.  It got rained out.  So we went and had a blast.

My favorite ride was...drumroll....for once, not the biggest, coolest roller coaster.  Because I've been on far better coasters than those at Six Flags.  Great.  Now I'm a roller coaster snob.

It was the.....TEACUPS!  And no, they are so not lame.  When you spin them so fast that the centrifugal force barely lets you lean inward, and your arms start feeling like they'll fly off, it can get INTENSE.

Other great parts were when we went on this thing called the Buzzsaw.  It looked like this:

And it goes in circles.  It's not very exciting except it give you whiplash in your neck.  However, we felt the need to scream the entire time.  And scream we did.  I feel bad for the other passengers.  But we made friends.  There were these little girls who rode it the whole time we did.  We didn't know their names so we just called them, "Hi, friends!"  I think we probably terrified them.

Finally, we skipped in circles while holding hands when we were about to leave.  Some guy asked if he could join us.  It cracked me up.

This is Mainely about ME (both puns are intended)

I think that my excursion to Acadia National Park (in Maine) can be summarized by my Facebook status:

"Carefully scheduled our vacation. I also made sure to schedule time to be spontaneous."

My parents say I'm a control freak, but I've been trying to be more spontaneous lately, and this is a start, right?  I hope so.  My parents frequently deviated from my schedule, which made me unhappy, which is probably a bad sign (no pun intended), because soon I'll end up like one of those people who write to-do lists that look something like:


TO DO:

1. Hear alarm go off
2. Wake up
3. Turn off alarm clock
4. Sit up
5. Get out of bed
6. Walk to bathroom
7. Put in contacts
8. .....And so on

But anyways, my vacation was fun regardless.  It involved a lot of "light"* hiking and biking, and LOTS of rock climbing, which I'll get to in a second.

*On an island that is like a perpetual uphill, "hiking" is similar to skiing in Canada.  A black diamond on a mountain like Mt. Wachusett (teensy ski area in central MA) is the difficulty equivalent of a green circle on most Canadian mountains.  So Acadia trails are classified as "easy" or "moderate" but what they mean is "hard" and "intense".  And we hiked two, that, in Acadia-lingo, were classified as "strenuous".  I think that means "I hope you arranged for a helicopter to pick up your remains" in normal English.

The rock climbing was awesome (no pun intended).  All sorts of cliff faces everywhere to climb on.  We hiked the Precipice Trail, classified as the most difficult trail in the park, and its basically almost a mile up a sheer cliff face.  No climbing gear necessary, they have iron handholds and ladders in place.  It was ridiculous, but it offered plenty of opportunities to sing "Edge of Glory".

I also found a starfish the size of my head, a store that sells license plates (I decided one day when I actually have money I'll start a license plate collection) and ate the best popovers in existence.

This post has no picture.  Start complaining in the comments if you want more pictures because I'm starting to get lazy, but if you want 'em I'll supply 'em.  Or check the poll.

P.S. I feel like I should do one of these Blogger polls that are circulating around.  But I'm horrible at them because I always end up lying to make myself sound more awesome.  ("Greatest fear?"  Why, the zombie apocalypse, of course!)  Like those Facebook iPod things where you set it on shuffle and your answers are song titles?  I just cheated and put in the titles that answer the questions in the funniest manner.  This is a problem...

SC: "Summer Camp" or "Supreme Court"?

The camp I work at calls themselves [initials deleted due to stalkers who will try to hunt me down and roast my innards]SC.  Unfortunately, having spent a full year in APUSH, whenever I see the initials "SC" I think "Supreme Court."  It's just the way I'm wired.  Like when people were discussing ceramics and the first thing that came to mind was Henry Clay.  Is this a curse or a blessing?  I have yet to decide.

Anyway, today was the last day of Circus SC.  It was a sad, joyous day.  Sad because of all the campers I'll miss, joyous because, multiple times over the course of the summer, I had urges to hit my head against a wall.  With adequate force.  I can't decide whether I love or can't stand these kids.

"Why are the shirts blue?  I hate blue!"
"I CAN'T [insert circus art here that they refuse to do]"
"I'm not flexible, I shouldn't have to do stretching."
"I don't want to do an act with her!  She's bad at it!"
"When is [lunch, swimming, ect]?"
"Why do I have to listen to you?"

They don't understand what the words "straight legs" or "pointed toes" mean, despite repeated instruction.  They don't get that warm-ups mean actually trying, or you have to run laps.  They just don't get that you can't walk on the rolling globe (large ball to walk on) without a spot the first time.  I don't know why.  Was I this dense in elementary school?

But then again, I can't help but to love them.  Watch them learn to do cool things in just one week and get their full splits.  And connect with them.  Like the 7-year-old identical twins ho we just call Thing 1 and Thing 2, and whichever one is closer at the time is Thing 1.  Or the boy who started the summer with no experience and ended with a full straddle split.  And the girl who at first couldn't do a somersault and then was dive-rolling over other campers.

I wish I got paid more though, ya know?

Not to mention the 40-minute commute everyday.  Summer Camp is crazy stuff.  If you're looking for some peace and orderly quiet, check out the other SC.  I hear that our government is never crazy, and not one person has reported that it makes them want to bash their heads against a wall.
Sarcasm hand.
However, check out Secret Cauliflower and Sticky Cadillacs, because I hear they're quite entertaining.

Eveyrday Exercises

Here are some day-to-day stretches and conditioning exercises you can work into your daily routine.  You probably do most of them already anyways, so why not count it as exercise? "Don't worry, Mom, I can play video games today, I already exercised!"

The Cell Service Shoulder/Arm Exercise

Difficulty: Easy

Details: Whenever you need that pesky extra bar of service for your text to send, just raise your arm above your head for a stretch and better access to cell towers!  Alternate arms for even exercise.

The Paint-Your-Toenails Back Stretch

Difficulty: Medium

Details: Want an extra challenge while painting your toenails?  Keep your legs straight and stretch your back while at the same time adding some extra color to your feet?  If it hurts, that's good.  Remember, beauty is pain.

The Get-Off-My-Lawn Fist Shake

Difficulty: Easy

Details: You know how old people always get mad at the kids who trespass on their lawn?  Well, get your practice in early by doing this fist-shake exercise.  Vigorously shake your entire arm up and down whilst yelling obscenities and threats.  Switch arms.

The Messy-Room Obstacle Course

Difficulty: Easy to very hard, depending on how messy your room is.

Details: Open your door and get to your bed, without stepping on any of the multitudes of stuff on the floor. Can often be a very difficult feat.  Rearrange the mess to make it easier or more difficult as desired.

The Babysitting Weightlifting Exercise

Difficulty: Depends on how old + fat the kids are

Details: Crying babies?  Just hold 'em in the air above your head until they shut up.  Not just an easy problem-solving method but it strengthens your arms as well.  Just don't drop them.  Though that would make them stop crying too, I suppose.  Duct tape is good too, but it doesn't give you any exercise.

Movie Theaters and Airplanes: Who Gets the Armrest?

The above was the title of my thesis for Danny B**.  My subsequent nickname was the epic "The Dweller of Places Long Forgotten (TDOLF)."  I think I win because my nickname is longer than anyone else's.  Also, I did not get into Pottermore, so I will now live life as a sad and lonely hermit until October.

**By the way, the point I would argue for my thesis is that there are several options for movie theater/airplane etiquette.  You could either:
a) Let your seat-neighbor have the armrest
b) Hog the armrest
c) Weirdly share the armrest (ex. One person's elbow on the front half, one person's elbow on the back half)
d) Stack your arms awkwardly
e) No one gets the armrest
f) Write a petition to movie theaters to fix the problem.  Also, sit in first class
g) Move on and ignore the little annoyances in life

I spend my days at a summer camp wrangling small children, which doesn't make for interesting blog content.  I could talk about how we had to ban forks yesterday because the girls were combing their hair with them.  I could talk about how I got attacked by 8-year-old identical twins tickling me, which is a disconcerting experience because when I hold one back, another one that looks exactly the same comes at me.   And this is what every single day is like for me.  I think I deserve a higher pay rate.  I didn't know until now that counselors aren't even paid minimum wage.  Oh well.

To take breaks in between crazy AP World History work, I've been online.  So here's some pictures I found, copied and pasted here just for you!  Credit: iwastesomuchtime.com

I can see Russia from here...

I just spent 2 weeks in Alaska on a Girl Scout trip, so forgive the lack of posts for the past many days.  I apologize greatly.  I saw amazing things, wildlife like moose (meese? Goose plural is geese, so moose plural is meese), bears, caribou, ptarmigans, whales, and puffins.  And mountains.  Crazy amazing mountains.  I could just sit and stare at those mountains for hours on end.  I was disappointed that we didn't get to go hiking, so I already promised myself I'm going back someday.

Awesome moments include:

• Running down the hallway at the hotel in Anchorage to stare at gorgeous guys in the hot tub.
• An intense game of Egyptian Rat-Screw at a restaurant that ends in two spilled Diet Cokes.
• Singing "Edge of Glory" on a public tour bus, shortly followed by "Don't Stop Believing".
• Watching Finding Nemo and quoting it for the rest of the trip.
• The discovery that one of the other girls knew who Danny B was.
• Singing "Love Story" on a fishing boat, and seeing whales right in the middle so it went something like..."He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said WHALES!!!"
• Seeing a batmobile parked on the side of the highway
• My t-shirt from Denali National Park:

• Getting a free dinosaur rubber ducky at a flea market
• Touring an underground abandoned WWII bunker
• Offering a little girl a balloon animal I'd gotten - and getting rejected
• Stealing about 30 total blankets from Delta Airlines
• These t-shirts found in the airport in Las Vegas

It's all over

Forgive me if this post is a bit damp, but I'm sobbing uncontrollably.  Like Hagrid when he found out that Buckbeak would be executed...

I just can't believe it's all over.  We've all grown up with Harry Potter, and the grand finale is tonight.  The end of it all.  Yep, I'll be the Leaky Cauldron, bawling during the credits.  And blowing my nose on my handkerchief embroidered with the Hogwarts logo (I wish).

I do, however, have plenty of HP accessories, including, but not limited to:

• Dark Mark lollipop
• Stickers
• Wand
• Authentic D.A. t-shirt
• Cloak + hat
• HP themed fingernails

I'M GOING TO CRY!

Credit: Dan Bergstein

P.S. No, of course I don't have HP themed underwear, that would be preposterous. 

Kid's Toys That Reflect the World Situation

Just some toys that they might make soon, to teach little kids about the global issues facing us today.

Updates and Damage Control

Yes, I am aware my dear lovely brother was here.  Luckily, I happened to sign up for a little thing in the sidebar, which, as the title tells you, gives me an annoying email whenever something gets posted.  Seems like a good idea now, so that I can know when "certain people" decide to go nosing around my stuff.  No worries, though, the other day I hired a ninja who may or may not be in his room tonight with a katana.  Don't tell him.

I'm also mad at him because we both ordered random TeeFury shirts, and he claimed the Firefly one while I'm stuck with some random thing with a scantily clothed robot woman on the front.  Arrrghhh.

I was away on vacation last week, and my brother didn't get to come because he sucks.  Just kidding, he went to a juggling festival instead and I'm jealous.  I spent a lovely week boating and swimming and fishing and cleaning fish (ick).  I won't go into details on that because I'm sure there are some vegetarians and things who may shoot me in the face.  I respect you, don't murder me please.  Mutual respect?

Anyways, I don't have much to say, considering I've spent the last week in The Middle Of Nowhere, NY.  I could go into details about fish and playing with cousins and how there are more fields up there than buildings and more Amish buggies than cars (okay, exaggeration.  There are some cars.  But still).

I think the best part of yesterday (the 6-hour car ride home) was when a guy told me I'm awesome and meant it(!)

An announcement

Hi! This is flyergirl13's brother! I'm just letting you all know that she needs to learn to be better about logging out of things, and also that large quantities of the content she posts here are directly or indirectly stolen from my facebook page :P

I don't really have anything to say here, except that despite her having an awesome time wherever she is, I am having a far more awesome time doing such things as glow poi, and waiting anxiously for my fire contact juggling ball to arrive. Because I'm into stuff like that. I never needed my arm hair anyway.

I will check the comments on this post for the next while. However, you may expect this blog post to disappear before my sister's return, and be replaced by a post which merely reads, "Mischief Managed". You are free to make up what you please to tell her I said.

I will leave you with some food for thought: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5OB6UdlR9A

This is just like Mario Kart, right?

So I got my permit.  It's nice and shiny paper and has an ugly picture of me on it.  It allows me to legally learn how to drive.

No problem! I'm an ACE at Mario Kart, this is a piece of cake!

Until...I try to actually go on a road.  There were like, other cars there.  And they were moving fast.  Right by me.  And I had to learn how to stop and go and be nice to the idiots who are honking at me and tailgating me as I drive the speed limit.

People are nuts.  Well, what do I expect, I live in Massachusetts.  Massholes.

I got my permit two days ago.  I drove legally for the first time 2 days ago.  Yesterday, the day after I got my permit, I learned to drive a manual transmission.  And drove it for the first time on a real road.  At night, during a downpour.  At least that means if I can survive that, I can survive anything.  Go me!

Now please excuse me while I load my car with banana peels and turtle shells.

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.

Yes, we are obsessed

So after the AP exams, APUSH has kind of been hell.  Here's the run-down on our final project, which we have spent the past month and a half on:

Basically, we create a fictitious presidential candidate to run in 2012.  There are 5 groups creating candidates.  My group's in Anthony Louis Benson.  We then write position papers outlining their policies for important issues.  We wrote about energy policy, the budget, and foreign policy in Iraq, Iran, and Israel.  Each of these were about 25+ pages, mind you.  And each completed in 10 days.

Now, as I mentioned, my group can be slightly obsessive about this kind of thing.  We also like to take things above and beyond.  Like so.

1. Part of the project is to create Twitter accounts for our candidates so they can tweet and stuff.  I wanted our candidate to stand out, so I went ahead and made a Wikipedia page for him.  It was deleted by an admin within 3 minutes of its creation, because apparently it was a "blatant hoax".  Really now, Wikipedia?  The following is my conversation with an admin, in which I pleaded for him not to delete it.
   Me: Please tell me why you called this page a hoax. It really shouldn't be deleted, since first of all it is true, and second of all I need the page for a project.    
   Admin: Wikipedia is not the place for this kind of page. On this page it says that Benson was governor of California in 2004, which is not true. You also don't provide any sources for the other information in this article.   
   Me: Benson is a candidate who has not yet publicized his campaign for the 2012 presidency. His credentials and biography have been used from his own Facebook page and Twitter account, which he updates regularly. 
   Admin: Once he 'publicizes' this with a reliable source, then the article can be created. You will have to apply to an admin to recreate this article as its been creation protected.     
   Me: What is creation protected? 
   Admin: read WP:SALT   
   Me: This is ridiculous. The page should not have been deleted. You've lost yourself a loyal reader.  
   Admin: If you would have read the article creation policies, and followed those rules with your page it wouldn't have been deleted.(or created in the first place)
2. Another part of the project is to choose a VP running mate (an actual, real person).  We chose Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).  But we actually emailed her to ask if she wanted to be our VP (and offered to send her our position papers).  She has yet to respond but I will inform you if she does.
3. Another group insulted us on Twitter.  So we created a fake newspaper clipping in which we accused them of "mismanagement of campaign funds."  Next, we're hoping to do a sex scandal or something.
4. We printed up campaign posters and wallpapered the history hallway.  Tomorrow, we will be giving all the history teachers cookies in thanks for their support (they let us put the fliers on their doors).
5. Then someone took down the aforementioned fliers.  We don't know who, but we'll do some investigations.  THIS MEANS WAR! 

Ninjapiratezombierobot

 Today, my friends, we bring a very controversial topic to the table.  Before we begin the pleasant conversation/discussion/debate/war/total annihilation of anyone who disagrees with you (that was the progression of most in-class debates I have in school), let's lay some ground rules.

1. No throwing spoons at people.
2. Keep your voice level between that of a platypus at lunchtime and typewriter at 49.8 wpm.
3. No sic-ing dinosaurs on anyone.
4. Anyone who mentions pea soup will be thrown out.

If you break any rules, I will sic my velociraptor on you.  And no, I am not breaking Rule #3, because I made the rules, so I'm allowed to break them.  If you have a problem with that, let me know the time, place, and weapon and we'll discuss the matter reasonably.

So...the topic of today's debate is:

Yep.  Ninjapiratezombierobot.
It sums up all the awesome things about life.  Well, except wizards and Darren Criss and dinosaurs.  And whipped cream and loam.  But close enough, okay? 
It also sums up the controversies of life.  Obviously, are you Team Ninja or Team Pirate?

Team Ninja has katanas, night vision, death gazes of death, ninja stars (see diagram, left hand), and awesomeness.
Team Pirate has Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook (see diagram, right hand), swords, cannons, eyepatches, and awesomeness.

And then, of course, there's robots and zombies.  The Roboters believe that the world will end when the robots gain sentience and will destroy us all.  The Zombiers believe that the world will end when the zombies come back to life and destroy us all.

Of course, there are other opinions.  There are the Mayaners, whose Bible is the movie 2012.  Also, the Obesitiers, who believe childhood obesity will eat us all from the inside out.  And the Staplers, who plan to destroy the world with a staple gun.  There are so many opinions on how the world will end.

Is it strange that there is no one out there predicting how the world will NOT end???