=D

This will, most likely, unless I start rambling be short and quick. I'm just excited about so many things that I have to write them down and celebrate with the WORLD!!!


AHHH!!!!!

They're home!!! They're really, really, really home! I've missed them so much. (sorry emilea if you're reading this. Let me explain: Dante and Dominic, our friends, moved to California in January and aren't coming back until the end of the school year, but they're visiting for spring break and I'm totally excited!!)

So I'm freaked about that, but I'm also 100% freaked and psyched and waiting for 2, count em TWO!! free books! Ahh!! One, is Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde and she's so ridiculously kind that she sending it to me for no reason, only to review it on Plenty of Paper. The other (because yes, I did say two) is I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone which doesn't even come out until July but I entered a contest to win and I'm way way way in the lead and not only is it going to be an ARC, but it will be signed, yes SIGNED by Stephanie Kuehnert, the author. I'm completely psyched!!!!

Actually, the truth is that The Grand Prize is a gift certificate to DownloadPunk AND a signed, Advanced Review Copy of IWBYJR plus swag packs including bookmarks and, most exciting, official IWBYJR guitar picks. enough swag to keep and some to pass out around town.

EEE!!!!

and I'm kind of counting down the days until the letters. I really hope mine is positive.

♥your freak of a friend Heather

(oh, yeah. Emilea, please read the poem below and comment. )

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late

for a very important date!

I'm sorry, I felt the need to exploit Alice in Wonderland there, and I do not mean to say that I am in any way mocking the magnificent creation that is Wonderland. It's easy to do so, but I'm not.

So, I realize that I said I would post Monday, and I did have a break in the massive amounts of homework, but I also realize that I'm lazy. I'm a slacker. That's come to be known fact around people that actually know me. I'm Heather The Slacker. Okay, so you guys don't actually call me that, and some of you still expect me to do a little smidgen of my homework and madatory reading, but not quite like the rest of Waccamaw. The rest of Waccamaw just assumes (and you know what happens when you assume *wags finger*) that because I'm smart that I actually do my work. But, come to think of it, doing all my work is a very rare phenomenon, and you would have to study the species that is me for a while before you see this phenomenon occur. I'm not saying I never do my work, either. I just don't do all of it.

But enough about how lazy I am. I'm not Hassan.

Now, I promise to uphold my promise. I'll post a poem. =D


the ever-present evanescent*
quick like vapor
to come and go
as she stares it down, intense

the pen's in her hand,
the orange on her skin
as she scribbels on the page
and the glow soaks in

shafts of light catch the
dust; pollen dancing
shimmering golden specks
in the golden light

her hand reaches out
trying to catch a dot, a needle point
but it jumps back
towards the glowing source

and she's looking up, again
blinding her irises
as the others grow around her,
sprouting color

her pen stops, pauses
the ink stain enlarging
it's pulled away, a line
emerging, words have formed

a picture's painted
of the faint orange glow
with bright blue rings
and specks of dust gleam

she closes the notebook,
grips it tight,
holds it to her chest,
exhales (eyes closed)


Okay, the asterick (*) is not actually part of the poem, I'd just like to say that you, Caroline, will not call me teacher's pet!

that's all I really had to say. Have a great day. And I'm sure, the next post will contain a poem because that one I'm not just putting up for fun, I need opinions but I'm not done with it yet. So, next post, look for that. Happy Easter! (as I'm sure this is my only post before then)

♥Heather

Books, books, and more...ponchkes?

I introduce you to...sufganoyit. Or rather, as I prefer to call them, Muslim Doughnuts. And, hey, ponchkes works too, I mean, that's what we called them today when we had to present...Okay, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself...

Let's start from the beginning.

"We're going to completely forget about the book. The book doesn't exist. Those stupid people that make the book don't exist. We're going to use...dun dun dun...the Internet. I want y'all to pick a religion among the world's top 8, you'll do this in partners, and research it. Research everything. I'm giving you free reign on this. Two groups can go to the library, the other four, use the computers in here. On your mark...get set...Go!"

I kid you not, those are almost her exact words. I'm talking the dun dun dun, the mark...get set...Go! and everything.

I have the best social studies teacher ever.

The only requirement, was that we make a food. This, is where the ponchkes came in. Me and my partner picked Islam, the second largest religion in the world. We researched and researched and, surprisingly, learned things. I actually learned a lot more than I had ever learned from a project. This 'free reign' stuff really does work. The book just tells you what you've heard before, maybe adding in a few people and dates you haven't. The Internet, however, that wondrous place that holds the everlasting e-bay (okay, we didn't use e-bay, but it is a mythical place of great magical power), tought us a lot.

Like, I'm sure you didn't know that it's considered rude to use your left hand at all when eating. And did you know that when dining with ones other than just your family, males and females are to be seperated? What about the fact that Muslims don't actually have to adhere to any rules in order to be a Muslim? Really, I'm being honest here. There are no beliefs that are mandatory. Well, except for that one really important one about believing in God. So, I guess that's why it's the second largest religion in the world. There are no rules. Nothing to follow. Nothing to break or bend. It is free-reign.

And I don't want to be wrong on here, so sorry if I am about anything. I'm just telling you what I know.

So, as we are learning all these things, me and Kayla go on the 'Perilous Recindex Hunt'

I'm saying it's perilous because you really never know what you're going to find. I mean, beef filled apples? Eww! and then, of course, we mistakinly looked up what schmaltz was. Ew to that too.

But finally, with a giant breath of fresh air, we clicked on the funniest name in the visible square that the computer screen offered. Sufganoyit. :D

And, thus, Muslim Doughnuts. They are essentially jelly-filled peices of fried dough. Doughnuts. Don't call them anything else. They may be special becaue they have orange extract and zest in them, but they are doughnuts.

Except, we, of course, destroyed them.

Kayla is, supposedly, a good cook. At least, she says she is. And you have to understand this, Kayla is probably one of the most humble people I know. She's definitely not one to brag. So, I believed her. I trusted in this skill to help us along, becuase, despite many attempts, I'm not a baker.

Sadly, though, the dough didn't set, and we hung around her house for four hours, varying between eating Cheez-Its, Tostitos, and graham crackers, and watching the various gameshows that we all love: Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, and that singing show...with Wayne Brady...yeah, that one. And let me tell you, I would make an awesome contestant on Wheel of Fortune, not so much Jeopardy!, not really on the singing show, and a spectacular, nobody could ever beat me, impossible to lose sontestant on AYSTAFG.

so, while we were doing all this, our project was falling into dismal failing range. ah.

And then, Kayla's mom comes home.

And she, with her amazing powers of awesome, suggests...Bisquick!

and voila, we have ourselves some instant, two-minute dough, whereas the other stuff took nearly four hours. Yeah, way to go people who made the terrible recipe that DOESN'T WORK!

UGH!

Apparently, though, we're going to sue them, so it all turns out fine.

But, we do that, then, then we get to the deep-frying. DANGER ZONE! FLASHING RED LIGHTS AND ALARMS SCREAMING! DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!

We(and by this I mean Kayla) burn the oil and have to evacuate the house for a full two minutes because we cant even breathe. but, after that, all goes smoothly. And now, it's Larkin's favorite food and he ordered us to make more. He actually begged us. And he's not the only one that liked them. Everyone in the class said they were the best food among the six projects. Good sign I guess. haha.

So, that's the story of the ponchkes.

Now for the books.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom asked me to make a list of the books I wanted because I got my new bookshelf and have plenty of room and she's kind of been denying me the nourishment I need from those wonderaculous things known as books. (yes, caroline, I stole your word. Now and forever.)

And so it begins.

You see, I already had about 30 or so books in mind. I wrote those down instantly. But then, I abandoned my task for a week and a half, nearly forgetting I was to be writing it. But, you can never forget books for too long. :D

Soon, I was typing away, 90 wpm, a very long list of books. You see, I happen upon books I want a lot--I read reviews for them, have them recommended, see them floating around the school (not as likely seeing as the top five favorite books in Waccamaw on facebook are such that say how the person doesn't like to read or should read more). And other times, when the happening isn't happening, I spend hours perusing amazon and BAM and many other sources. That even includes myspace. And sometimes, I'll happen upon a book, or find it in my perusing, and forget what it's called. And, in my search for the title, I'll stumble upon (see how I changed it up there? DO YOU? I used 'stumble' instead of 'happen'. Did you see that?) other awesome titles.

So far, just doing this in my very limited spare time, my list has increased greatly to 91 books. 91!

that's a lot of paper. And it's subject to change all the time, and a few of them might come into my possession soon, and I haven't added six of them because there is that great possiblility that I will (definitely hopefully want to so bad) win that contest for the page flipper. Then, and if, I'll get 6 brand new books! Wow. I really, really want to win that contest.

So, I'm asking for help (because my goal is 200+). Any recommendations?

realizing exactly how long this post ended up, thinking about that one book I was just looking at, going to crawl in bed with the first free time I've had in about a week and read Maximum Ride (so excited I got it. It's pure wonderaculous-ness),

♥heather

(oh, p.s. If possible, a poem on monday. And that's a big if, seeing as the homework hasn't reduced...)

THE Universal Questions! (and stuff)

Whew. It's great to be back in the blogosphere. I've missed it terribly. I've had computer problems that were most annoying and couldn't sign into Blogger, my email, facebook, or myspace. Now, once I get done here, I'm going to go over to facebook and have 18 million infuriating requests, notifications, and other nonsense like that.

Fun.

but, by now, I'm sure you are wondering: "Heather, made of awesome Nerdfighter, what exactly is this nonsense about 'Universal Questions' and 'stuff?' "

Well, fellow bloggers, I'm glad you asked!

I'm very excited about this (unfortunately I did forget some of the amazing Universal Questions but will ask the ones I do remember)!

Here we go:

Universal Question un!

On the Verizon wireless commercials, who is the guy with the glasses and gray jacket talking to, exactly, when he asks "Can you hear me now?"? (I had to put a question mark after his question and the Universal Question). And you cannot tell me you've never wondered this. And if you haven't (I don't know what's wrong with you, but you surely must be diagnosed soon, otherwise, I fear you might die) than you are now. You are asking yourself "Who is this incredibly shmexy person asking this question? Who is on the other line? And do they always say yes? Because he always says good, but maybe he doesn't want them to hear him? And if he doesn't say yes, but he doesn't say no, what does he say? Maybe? Possibly? Sort of?" Hmm... see, this question is worthy of Question Teusday, because it is so Universal, and not only has the question in itself, but sparks all sorts of new questions that are likewise Universal. I'll get on that.

Universal Question dos!

When you talk to someone, say, on the other side of the country or maybe the world, and they are on a different time than you, are you time traveling, or are they? Or are you both time-traveling? Because, yes, when you talk to someone in a different time zone, you are time-traveling, you just don't think about it. Ha! So, say I talked to Dante (who is in California<--so doesn't look like a word!) on the phone and I'm here in SC, am I time-traveling, is he or are we both meeting in the middle, say in Kansas or Oklahoma? Ponder that.

Universal Questiong trois!

If a Nerdfighter trips, fall, and bangs his/her head into a tree in the middle of the forest, do they make a sound, or do people just walk by and ignore them as if they were actually invisible? Now, that's a good Question Teusday question. Unless it's already been asked. In that case, 'you didn't hear anything'

Universal Question cuatro!

[insert you're Universal Question here! it will be featured and possibly answered in my next post. Well, that and if I remember the other millions of Universal Questions that I formulated while I was on a hi-ate-is (I don't know how to spell that word, so I just sounded it out, like they tell us to) so think of a question post it in a comment!]

And now, better and less important things.

I have an overflowing amount of poetry that I want to put on here because I've written a few that I think are better than previous ones in the past week or so. I can't decide which one I want to post first...hmm...ok, I'll just post the one the page is open to, and post the next one next, and the next one next, and the next one next, and if you don't get the picture by now, get out your camera, and if you don't have a camera, get a pen or pencil or marker or so on, and if you can't draw, copy and paste and if you don't do that, just give up. :D

Teardrop

finally, the crystal comes,
forms gently, on
the pupil
sparkling hope and

detereorating pain, the
crystal, it forms,
reflective of
greens, blues, and grays
of London sights
we see as we may

the crystal, it builds
shining the light,
glistening on sky in
shades of a prism

falling, the crystal
dropping, streaking, drawing
a line

the crystal so small,
so wide,
so large, it sparkles
with joy, therefore hiding
the truth

it smashes and shatters,
baby crystals have
formed
sparkling, reflecting
shining their sight

the crystalline
array:
it's the rain that must
come before
your bow


questions (only universal ones), comments (one the poem, please), concerns (actually, nevermind, if you have any, don't post them, I don't really care :D)

♥Heather