Dragon Feathers and a Highschool Graduate

So, I Rocked my GED yesterday. Social Studies and Science, nice - 92nd percentile. Mathematics - 76th percentile. I know, it's not nearly as cool as a 92nd percentile score, but it's still Way above the minimum passing score And I didn't burst into tears mid-test.

Actually, it's more like...

Anyway, I scored in the 99th percentile for both Reading and Writing. Which is super amazing in a way that you won't fully understand until you read my essay. The prompt was completely normal.

Prompt: Many people collect things. What is something you would like to collect and why?

Okay. So they probably expect an essay like, "I would collect buttons. They are round, and shiny, and good for just about anything that you would think that they're useful for." Or maybe even, "Stamps are Great. I love stamps. You can lick them and stick them to someone's forehead, or even your Own forehead."

My Essay: I would collect dragon feathers. They are both beautiful and useful. You can display them as decoration in your home, treat minor wounds and illnesses with the help of their natural healing properties, and even use them in place of household tools. They're difficult to find, but well worth [I wanted to say, "the hunt"] having for many reasons.

Dragon feathers are [something I can't quite remember]. Plucked from the tail of a sleeping dragon, they shimmer with an array of vibrant jewel-tones that they absorb from the beast's hoards of treasure. Many get caught by the hypnotic shift in color as their hands get closer to the feather. It could be a deep ruby, but then turn bright sapphire blue at your touch, or go from deep violet to striking emerald in waves.

They can also be used to cure minor ailments. Brushing a dragon feather against the skin soothes stiff and sore muscles. Likewise, strapping one to your forehead will clear your sinuses and cut the duration of a cold in half. It's good to keep one in your first-aid kit for travelling in case there are any unexpected minor illnesses that would otherwise get in the way of your trip.

These feathers may look delicate, but they can be used in place of Any household tool. Screwdrivers become completely unnecessary when you have a feather in your hands. They can also act as wrenches, pliers, and surprisingly as hammers. Their incredible versatility makes them a definite must-have in any toolbox.

Dragon feathers are lovely and strong.

And there you have it.

Think it with conviction.

I had the two math tests right after that, before my lunch break. I told my mom about my essay through a mouthful of sushi while we were sitting in the car listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers. She wrote me a little free-verse poem when she got home.

Mom's poem:

Baby Girl -

Finding words to

Express how incredibly

Awesome you are could

Take me a lifetime.

Having you as a daughter exceeds all

Expectations, because you

Rock! (or should I say "feather"?)

- Mom

Yeah, you see what she did there? She spelled feather. It's awesome.

But yes! Graduated! I'm done!

Mad World

After a brief explanation to Phil that Call of Duty 3 (set during WW2) and Call of Duty: World at War (also set during WW2) are different games, he decided that he too wished to own a copy.

It was, and is, my plan to run out to GameStop -- and by run I mean smile at my Papa until he drives me there -- buy a nice little used copy of World at War, and then speed back home to get cracking on the solo campaign.

[Because that's not what I'm playing for, no, I'm playing for the co-op Nazi Zombie extra thing at the end of the game. Mmmm....yes.]

But I wasn't sure that my brother should be shelling out the ...er... medium-sized bucks on a game that I would already be buying for myself. I mean, I would play it for a while... but then I would be done with it for years (as per my usual pattern).

So I told him this, following it up with a "So are you sure? ...Are you sure you're sure?" and he said:

"Just take out thirty bucks [out of his box]. Whether or not you do, I would be spending it anyway."

(me:) "...What?"

"It just seems like a really good idea to spend thirty dollars on this."

.
.
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How do I argue with that?

Fun with Rusty Nail Boards

Another picture!! The above is of a man with mild tetanus.

I just cleaned the garage for my mama with the help of my loving heavy-lifter sister Reine, which included moving half-full paint cans, sweeping dead leaves off of the floor, and tons of consolidating (my mother's favorite word), as well as moving a pile of nail-ridden, gives-you-tetanus-just-by-looking-at-it 2x4s. I had Reine do other things -- namely fetch water -- while I moved them.

I do not and will not have tetanus from moving these things, but it got me curious. What's tetanus anyway?

Also called "lock-jaw" (oooh, fun...) it's an infectious disease caused by open wounds (such as those caused by rusty nails and other kinds of great things that puncture your skin) getting contaminated by bacteria that live in soil. Symptoms include severe, painful muscle spasms, sweating, elevated temperature, and elevated blood-pressure. Spasms may occur frequently and last for several minutes with the body shaped into a characteristic form called opisthotonos (your entire body arches painfully, like in the painting by Sir Charles Bell). Spasms continue for up to 4 weeks, and complete recovery may take months.

There are different types as well: generalized, neonatal, local, and cephalic tetanus.

Yes, and apparently you cannot O.D. on tetanus shots, so when you go into the doctor's office and they ask when your last tetanus shot was and your response is "ummm....", chances are you'll soon know exactly when your last shot was.

Carolina Wren

It's a plump, brown little bird, and very small...but it is LOUD. Really, really loud. It has a distinctive call too --"Teakettle, Teakettle, Teakettle, Tea!"--so when I'm sitting up in my new bed, next to my bright, lacking-in-a-curtain window...I know. I know that it's that stupid little puff exacting it's revenge for the chicken I ate last Wednesday.

Here's one of the maniacal little devils for you to see. Vicious, no?

Jack Wesson

Jack, Jack, Jack...no matter the reincarnation, Jack is always strong, stubborn, and passionate - a willing martyr to whichever is his favored cause. He's a fun character to write, all angst-ridden and intense...Charlotte--the little sister he guards with his very soul (literally)--finds him to be irritatingly judgmental, having an open mind and a case-by-case mentality when confronting a specific problem herself. Jack assess a situation from the outside and assumes from his past experience that "this happens this way" and "that happens that way" without exception (and he is often correct since he never makes it far enough for something dramatic and unusual to happen). Even if life were to settle down for him (without killing him), he wouldn't start a family of his own, preferring instead to roam around and kill things well into his old age. He would make his own un-settled-down-ness.

Unfortunately, I usually have him die a heroic death as the push to get a story rolling, and so rob myself of his exciting, adrenaline-powered personality.

Follow Up

Okay, it's not really that hard, but what do I blog about? Blog about what I'm learning?

I'm learning to read the play before the part of the textbook that evaluates it, otherwise I fall asleep in the middle of reading...I'm learning that practice makes imperfect more obvious and that not practicing turns imperfection into a mess of strings and rosin...I'm learning that I don't actually like other highschoolers, just my friends (who are either intelligent, "strange", or a healthy mix of both)...and I'm learning that I love the people around me more than I realized.

Also, formspring.me is NOT a site for introverts. Not even ones that blog.

Posting Infrequently

Blogging is hard.

The Lemon Meringue Experiment

A couple friends of ours are pregnant with their first kid, so my sister, Reine (11), decided to make little lemon meringue cupcake things called "creamy lemon delights" (That's a pretty risky name...kind of like naming your kid "Awesome" or "Bodacious", you're really setting the bar higher up than you should). I'd been eyeing the three spares left in the kitchen for hours. One was definitely mine, but I'd been feeling the start of a bad cold and so had been debating whether or not to give in to the lemony delight of creamy cupcake-shaped mush piles sitting on the counter.
I ended up trying one of them as my siblings came home. It was a confusing experience.

Phil (9) decided right away that it was crap. Reine and I, on the other hand, couldn't actually make up our minds. In my head it wasn't worth eating; squishy and warm lemon mush with the consistency of gelatin gone wrong, but once it was in my mouth...it wasn't actually so bad. This cycle of "ew", "yum", "ew", "yum", eventually turned into "hm, let's refrigerate it" and a hasty nodded agreement.

Now the little squishy semi-delights sit half-eaten in the fridge, just waiting for the chance to plague us with some sort of almost-delicious aftertaste.

"What is in a name?

That which we call a rose by any other name might smell as sweet."
-W. Shakespeare

My mother recently started a blog -- it's called "Wasting Thyme"; her first entry was "Introverts Should Not Blog..." (and I totally agree) -- and has convinced me to share my own daily adventures.
I had trouble choosing a name (for this silly thing that I probably won't even share until four posts from now). That same issue kept my mom from creating a blog for ages. All of the questions buzz through your head: "Is it cool enough?", "What will my friends think when they see it?" (ha!), and then "How long will [the rest of the family] laugh when they find out what I decided on?", to name a few.
I finally settled on Thalia and Melpomene, the muses of comedy and tragedy, to represent the ups and downs of my life....which I will now proceed to send out into the great wide web. Goodbye privacy, hellooooooo over-sharing!