Don't Leave, Spring Break!

Hello world!

Happy Easter! Remember why it's celebrated!

So it was Spring Break. I wished I had another week. *tear*

We didn't do much going out to fun places in the first part, but my sis ended up dragging me to some hot springs on Wednesday (which I don't think I've ever done before...). Long story. It wasn't that bad, but I like normal pools more. Sure, they tend to be more lukewarm or even cold, but I feel more free to dunk my whole body in and do whatever in the water. Plus, it doesn't feel like my feet are burning in a normal pool. My hair came out super awesome the next day, though, since my sis had put it up in a French braid before we went in and I didn't really shower after... Yeah. I felt a bit gross, but the salt water made my hair become more fab than ever!

We went downtown to go to different Church stuff. We started at the Beehive House, and ate at the Lion House next door (which was quite good but a bit expensive). Then, we went to the Church History Museum. There's some great stuff there! We began with this amazing First Vision movie that was on a curved screen that went around almost 180 degrees, that was such high quality it felt like you were there in the forest with him... There was also touchscreen TVs with stories of Mormon pioneers... I was so close to tearing up at watching some, including one from a 10-year-old girl! Ah! Feels!

Our last stop was the North Visitor's Center, the one that has the big, cool statue of Jesus at the top. We looked a bit at exhibits, but mainly sat in front of that statue. There were a few boys ruining the peace, but it was still nice.

The day after, I got to see my aunt and little cousin after not seeing them for a little over a year. Now he's 2.25 years old... and I pretty much didn't talk to him, since he held no interest for me. That tends to happen between me and babies/toddlers. We're not really fans of each other.

We'd gone to grandma and grandpa's in the first place because we wanted to practice a bit for the musical number we had to do today. They actually had to come to our Sacrament meeting, since my grandma was playing the piano for us. Apparently, the only other time they've come to a Spanish branch/ward with us was when my sister and I got our baby blessings.

Wanna know what's awesome sauce? They assigned basically everything after the passing of the Sacrament to my family. So not just the song, but the talks. I didn't know my sis and I were also supposed to give our testimonies, so you can imagine how well mine went, especially because I felt so unprepared. Not only did people who barely recognize me watched me crash and burn, but my grandparents too. Joy.

Everyone else did a lot better than me, and our rendition of that awesome, pretty arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" went well except that part where... I think it was my dad who started singing the verse a note late, which threw us and poor grandma off and we got the line kinda messed up. I guess people didn't care about it, though, cuz we got complimented on the song and we apparently made a few people cry? Hey, me and my mom and my sis already shed some tears throughout the meeting, so we better have made people cry! *Ed humph*

Welp, back to yesterday, in which a lot happened. My dad and sis went to the Color Festival and then to a wedding. The wedding, in their experience, sucked. Meanwhile, me and my mom went with family friends to the Women's Session of this General Conference. I think it's the first time I've gone to one of the sessions, so it was kinda exciting. It was cool to know that we were actually there watching these great leaders speak, but the thing is that you usually look over to the TVs because their faces are much more visible... So it's not much different from watching at home except there's a lot more people... So yeah, I won't worry about actually going to the conference again.

The message this time was very obvious, and ran through all the talks: serve others. I'm hoping I'll remember a bit of the things they said and let them motivate me to find a good work to do. I plan to start by inviting Coatrack, Carter, and maybe even a few of my older friends (like Blondie? Maybe???) to watch General Conference. They most likely won't, but I guess no damage can really be done by asking. I think.

We ate at Shanghai Café afterwards. Delicious, as usual, though I tried something different.

I was hoping I'd be done with Magnus Chase (well, technically, the volume is The Sword of Summer) by now, but I'm not. *sad noise* This feels longer than The Red Pyramid!

I'll just update that I made a goal to get the next chapter of VH done by the end of the week, and... I got a bit more than halfway done, I think. That's still a whole lot better than nothing! I got some more ideas for WFAM, too, including a possible new title... These Shifters In the Sea. It sounds stupid, I know, but Carter pointed out what I avoided telling myself for a while... When Friends Are Magnets only deals with a somewhat small part of the entire plot. Like, it's still important to me, but it's not enough of a focus and the title needs to encompass more the whole story. I got the new title because I listened to "Cough Syrup" after what feels like a really long time, and I realized the song is important to me, so why shouldn't it have a place in this story? I doubt neither of the title ideas will stick to the end, but I am still using the song to hopefully inspire more ideas out of me. I think it might already be working. Ah, I love that song~

I think I've mentioned Carter and I have been trying to help each other out with our stories? He's given me a character and a few ideas for WFAM, and I've been doing more of trying to give decent advice on DoH and character design and that sort of thing. He needed help on wardrobe for one character (I personally haven't bothered much with character clothes in WFAM, since everyone basically dresses normal), and gave me pics of what he wanted to inspire her outfit. I was actually intrigued by the idea enough that I drew two sketches of possible outfits, which took bits from all the pics. He said he actually liked a lot of it and incorporated the same or similar to his own design once he started on it. That's pretty cool, since I haven't exactly imagined myself as a fashion designer or anything, but apparently I can be decent.

(I'm glad my second attempt came out more proportional...)

(He'd wanted to use a headpiece similar to one of the pics- which I was like "Well,  um, okay..." for, since it didn't seem like the grandest thing, but he likes that sort of thing- and so I incorporated a simplified version of it here after he critiqued the first pic and mentioned he planned to use it.)

Comic Con was this weekend, which I didn't find out until the day before, so by that point the cost and rushing to go there last minute didn't seem worth it. That means I defs wanna go to the next one. However, a thought occurred to me...

A while ago, I'd decided that, if I was gonna cosplay for reals, I'd wanna try doing May Chang. She isn't super famous, but anyone who's gone far enough in FMA:B or the manga will instantly recognize her. I knew I could most likely use my natural hair to do the costume, which was a bit bonus. Her costume doesn't require a ridiculous amount of work to pull off.

But, since I'm planning to donate my hair next month, I most likely wouldn't have hair long enough to do her costume without a wig for a long time...

Since I'd never had the guts to see if I could even do her hairstyle or not before because that would be a strange thing for a member of my family to walk into, I decided to finally sit down and try it.

It worked.

I'd just need to use white rubber bands to tie off the braids, a neater part, and wide white ribbons to tie around the buns (since I only have tiny thin one at the moment). Otherwise, it's basically down:

I sure hope my face is covered enough.

Anyway, success! My mom and dad were pleasantly surprised that this didn't take an insane amount to do, and my dad went on a rampage on the Internet to find what the costume looked like, since he was excited I could possibly cosplay. The closest event besides Comic Con was the Japan Festival, apparently, but the prob is that... while they'll indeed have a cosplay contest and stuff there, this may look more like dressing up than cosplaying as a specific character, and this specific character looks more Chinese than Japanese. Dressing Chinese for a Japanese festival doesn't seem very smart.

Unless I chicken out and don't cut my hair, and keep it long long enough till the next Comic Con, this ain't happening for a while, then, unless my sister's black wig actually suffices for this costume (which I'm not sure about, and I'd rather not use a wig if its color is almost the same as my natural- feels a bit pointless). But who knows? Maybe I never would actually get myself to make a costume in that time and still not have a cosplay ready for the next convention and be mad at myself. And, honestly, I'm really getting sick of long hair. I know I may quickly regret cutting my hair after the deed's been done, but I know I look fine with short hair (though perhaps even younger, depending on the cut) and I just want to not deal with all the trouble my hair causes me because of its length. Shampooing will be much faster and easier, and same with brushing... Ah, sounds wonderful.

But I've come up with a thought. Though it would require more effort than May, I could try doing Ruby from RWBY. I'd most likely have a haircut like hers or close to hers, anyways, and I look young! Our faces aren't very similar, so it'd require having a detailed dress, and making a scythe of some sort would definitely help make her recognizable. I sort of doubt I have the money and patience to make a weapon, especially one so big, but if I did make it I'd love having it. I already had fun playing around with my fake knife the first time I went to Comic Con with Broranges- imagine how much more fun I'd have whipping around a freaking scythe!!! Oooooh yeeeaaah.

I think that's pretty much everything... Aw man, I don't wanna go back to school yet! I never give myself much time to relax at school, so this has been awesome. Noooo!...

(Wait, last thing: went to Brorange's today again. I don't think I mentioned that we were there, like, two weeks ago? According to him, that's the time gap. I don't think I mentioned it was his house. Must've forgotten that he has a codename here...)

(Update after the fact: I finally got myself to do another cat thumb since almost all the polish from before was off... As if there was much in the first place.

Anyway, I decided to try something new and go sparkly and shiny. ...Didn't quite work out. The cat can't be seen very much. Oh well. I know it's there, and that's enough, since no one cares anyway. *sparkles of acceptance*)

WFAMily Outings

Hello world!

Today's my dad's birthday! *confetti cannons* Besides giving him snacks (mainly things involving chocolate), we also found at Dollar Tree a tiny trash/recycle bin, only 6-inch-ish tall. He assumed it was for his desk for things like used tissues, but I'd personally been thinking he could pretend to put whatever BSs or idiotic things his boss and/coworkers said to him in there. *clear amusement at my own joke*

Today I started reading the new (or at least to me new) book Magnum Chase: The Sword of Summer this morning, and I'm really liking it. I was kinda like "C'mon, Rick Riordan, you can't get past the whole Percy Jackson plot and make something more different already? You're clearly just changing mythologies!" But, I mean, his work really is good and I love Sadie and Carter from The Kane Chronicles, so I figured it was worth a shot.

Seriously, I am amazed at how well that man can make realistic teenage protagonists. Magnus talks so much like a modern high-schooler, and I love it! From the first page I was already laughing and I was like "This is definitely gonna be good."

Today was the dedication of the Provo City Center Temple, so we watched that broadcast from our stake center. It was a nice experience, especially since the only thing I remember from when I last watched a dedication (or re-dedication, in that case) was the white handkerchiefs. The speakers were powerful, and reminded me again of how important it is to be going to the temple, especially since we're close to different ones. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go do baptisms with the Young Men and Women here, though, and my sis is too old to be doing them without a family name (apparently, there's some that we can do, if only we figure out more how to use the FamilySearch site and also complete more of my mom's side of the family). I hope we can all go soon, and it'd be so awesome if we could all do at least one family name. I haven't gotten to do that before.

There was also the yearly event of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, where people of different religions perform songs or similar things. Some of the acts are really interesting, and some of the music seriously brings a smile to my face. While there, I realized it was another thing that I could do with Coatrack and/or Carter, if they come at the right time of the year to Utah in the future. I think they'd love it. ...I hope they'd love it... *tear*

Throughout the week, I've ended up receiving more inspiration for WFAM, which is awesome. Mainly, it's been for Benji- the main bad guy- and for drawing the characters. (Cred to Carter for helping me think of Benji's motive.) I'd pretty much only had the old, tiny simple doodles for a few of the OCs starring in the story, and with Carter having done proper drawings of at least a few of his characters, I decided it's defs about time I should do the same.

So first I tried doing Ben, the character Carter gave me, since he hadn't given me any idea for appearance beyond a picture of his dog. With trying to take a few characteristics I saw in the picture, along with the description of personality and stuff, I did my best. Apparently, he likes it.

Every time I draw thick eyebrows, it either makes me think "Those are mine!" (especially if they are the same kind of shape) or it makes me think of obersten (Side-note: I reread a few of the Mud Grave fics someone wrote for him and told Carter about the AU- he was like "That... that's so messed up...") who usually draws thick eyebrows and once said "Arakawa's gotta learn how to draw eyebrows!" since her characters are usually drawn with really thin ones.

So here's the ones of Cami and Guinn I did a day or two later- with pen and everything! But the closest pen was blue... Oh well.

I can never draw Guinn quite right. If you don't know or remember that I drew her when she was first created... please don't try to find those old pics. Not super proud of 'em.

But Cami came out decent enough, even though I'm used to drawing bangs. I wish I hadn't tried to lengthen her hair more at the end, since it's so obvious I did so. I just was thinking I should do so because in the fic her hair's gonna be somewhere to her upper or middle back, a bit shorter than I have now.

The differences that now exist between me and Cami:

Her hair's completely straight. It couldn't wave on its own if it tried.

She doesn't need glasses; therefore, she is free to wear hair/headbands without them hurting her as much as they do to me- and she wears such accessories to school every day.

She's got normal eyebrows.

She wears makeup to school. It was originally gonna be that she instead wears makeup when doing shifty stuff (huehuehue), but I realized that it'd make more sense the other way around because it'd suck a lot more to be sweating and stuff with makeup on. Plus, it's less likely someone will recognize you right away if you usually have paint on your face and you go a day without it than vice-versa, right?

It's not necessary for her to be doing such things, but she still feels better with looking different at TAC than from everywhere else like school, just on the small chance that someone she knows sees a glance of her while she's on a mission or something. So at school she wears light foundation and blush and a deep lipstick, then when arriving to TaC she wipes all that makeup off, takes out her headband to let her bangs down, and pulls her hair up into a high ponytail. It's not really a disguise, but it's still enough that she looks about as different as she could from how she looks at school with minimal effort.

Appearance-wise other than those things, we're still similar, I think. She might be slightly darker, but we still have same eyes and face shape and stuff like that.

Since I just don't say much about WFAM here since that'd take a long time, I'll just go to the last doodle. Since Carter had made a character, I figured maybe I could ask Coatrack to make one too. I'd thought to ask earlier, but I never really told him anything about my writing since that's not his kind of thing. But he still made one! Sort of. I asked him a question at a time and a mildly silly minor character came out of it.

This is what happens if I draw on my phone hurriedly without really trying. *want to laugh and cry at the pic*

I later cleaned it up, so this should hurt your eyes less!

He was supposed to be a cool kid, but then I made the suggestion that maybe he secretly loves Backstreet Boys and Coatrack was all for it.

Welp, I guess that's it. I hope I can use Spring Break decently!!! Like for school stuff (lame, I know) and writing stuff and enjoying the weather!

K bai!

Many Butthurts

Hello world!

For some reason, I kinda don't wanna write about some of the stuff that happened... But I feel like I should. So here we go~

I guess I'll first address this book that I chose for Language Arts. It basically had to be an American book about social issues. Yup. Only requirements. I made a few picks, but wasn't sure about them. Ultimately, I asked a tutor to show me a few books in the LA rooms that I could use and I picked on the last one.

I'm about halfway through The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, and it's seriously really interesting. I haven't read anything like it. I mean, I guess that's usually because I don't really read stuff that has to do with war, though this is more about the aftermath than fighting itself. But yeah, it really gives a different perspective on things. I totes recommend it.

But on the way to doing so, I considered a few other books, one of which apparently had a lot of "adult themes", as the tutor described it. He gave me the rundown of one scene and... oof. That was not just mere adult themes. Hardcore. So... I ultimately decided I was too scared of the book to read it.

But then, when we went about to the classroom libraries, he asked my sis about how well I handle that sort of thing and she was like "Oh, not at all. She doesn't like seeing kissing. She can't stand seeing puppies die." How she was so flippant about my apparent sensitivity to topics like that kinda hurt my feelings, and I actually felt myself start to tear up in embarrassment and sads, but I think I sucked those tears back up before they were obvious. I mean, if that happened it would've proved her point 10x over and I would've felt even worse.

Am I really that bad? Like, that stuff is technically still true... even the kissing thing, though I'm more tolerant of it, I think (and hope). I've had to become more resilient to that sort of thing and much worse because of the sorts of things talked about and stuff on the Internet that I've stumbled into. Social media. Fanfics that get more intense than I expected. In this sort of world, you have to be able to just deal with stuff like that, or at least ignore it the best you can.

And yes, I'd rather not look at something like that. Frankly, I sometimes wonder why other people would even want to include something so disturbing in a story or whatever. But am I really a total weakling because of it?

Of course, I'm not gonna go traumatize myself by looking for that stuff so I become tougher against "adult themes", but... ugh, am I just being butthurt about this? It felt like my sis insulted me, but I don't think that was her intention. But she could've still said it nicer, not with a scoff and "um, DUH" kind of tone. *sad pout*

K, now to things that matter a little more. So I have most likely mentioned this one family we've been friends with since forever, but I don't think I gave any codenames for the members of that family. Mm, what's the name of the siblings in A Series of Unfortunate Events? I know the oldest is Violet, but the other two... *Googles it* Ah! Klaus and Sunny! Well, the kids in this family don't have the ages so different between the three, but I'll still call them by this.

Anyway, so they all learned (or, in the case of Sunny, is learning) how to play piano at a young age. The one that is the best at piano is Klaus. Like, he is ridiculously good. And he was having a solo piano recital.

Of all the siblings, I've been the closest to Klaus, then Sunny, then Violet. And so, I wanted to make it to the recital if we could. It meant I had to leave school earlier and my mom and I went on a journey to Orem to get to the recital, but we made it just in time.

That boy really is amazing. He played almost an hour straight of really difficult pieces- some of these were famous classical and baroque pieces!- and hardly broke a sweat. He basically only messed up maximum once within one song, and a few I don't think he messed up at all. And most of these difficult piano pieces he had memorized. No sheet music at all. If you aren't impressed at all, you're... meh. I can't think of a proper adjective.

Anyway. I went. And in a new dress. It's a little more black than I like seeing myself in, but it's a really cool Alice in Wonderland dress from Hot Topic, and I was excited to wear it to school (and we got a matching one for the birthday girl at the quinceañera) especially because I knew I could just keep it on and look nice for the recital. My sis didn't cuz she and her friends decided to do a trip to LA, starting on that day. Hope they're all okay and having fun!

After that, we went to a Japanese restaurant near the venue of the recital and it was SO GOOD! And they had a little scrapbook thing of drawings that people left to thank the restaurant for the meal. So some of them were really cute, or funny, or just really cool. And, as I knew my parents would say, they suggested that I leave a drawing too to maybe make it into the art book.

But the thing is, it was going to have to be a quickie, so I knew it'd look like how I did my drawings somewhere between 6th and 9th grade. Not very impressive. And I didn't even know what to draw. So I doodled something based off a weird idea that was basically "something to do with a girl and sushi". Then this happened.

That's what happens when I'm not feeling super artistically-inspired. Though I will say the different parts aren't that bad, considering. All together, though, it's confusing. I hope the text makes it make a bit more sense.

Now, I'm gonna say something that I've never said aloud before... I never cared too much about the whole racism issue between blacks and whites.

Hear me out, okay? First of all, I'd never even met very many African-Americans in the first place. Like, there was sometimes one or two in my class... And we never really talked to each other. There were more at my school in Alabama, but they still never really talked to me beyond necessary except for one time, and that one time I was accused of being racist when I wasn't. Ya wanna know what happened?

I was just minding my own business during a free period, and (I never know if I'm supposed to say "black" or "African-American", but I guess so I do less typing I'll say "black") a black guy asked me if he could borrow a pencil from me. It was one of the only ones I had at the moment, so I said "Uh, yeah, as long as you actually give it back." He then immediately replied, "That's racist."

Like, are there really people that are just waiting for you to say something that could be taken as discriminatory so they can accuse you of doing such a thing? I had no intent of that sort right then and I never intend to offend people like that. I just stared blankly for a moment as I processed what he just said and then felt a bit ticked off when I realized he was saying that I thought all blacks steal or something like that. Um, NO! I said that because almost every time I let someone borrow something from me they don't give it back! I say that to basically anyone that asks me!

I told him as such, and I begrudgingly gave him the pencil anyway. And guess what?

He didn't give it back.

If that's what happened for the first conversation (if that even counted) with a black person that I remember, coupled with my dad who likes to say that nowadays blacks are the ones that are more racist than whites, then it makes more sense why I wasn't as concerned about the treatment they apparently received from whites. I felt bad about not caring as much as I should, but I just... couldn't. Not when it was the fault of both sides for things not being fixed between the two races.

Well... I knew I'd have to care a little more because of Carter.

He's half-white, half-something else, like me and my sis, but rather than Mexican that other side's black. And we actually asked each other about family and culture and, even, racism. He admits he's dealt with some from both sides, but he's a firm believer in equal treatment for blacks. And, well, if he says there isn't equal treatment, then I'm gonna believe him.

But I still say that this conflict is not getting better because there's people being oversensitive and even butthurt too easily. Like, that guy that "borrowed" my pencil can't be the only person like that. He expects everything anyone says to him to be an attack when it's probably not most of the time. If people cared less about wondering if someone would be racist against them and just have civil conversations, the situation would already be improved. But that requires the effort of everyone, especially the butthurt.

I've used the word "butthurt" three times already in this post... Or four, with this paragraph. Wow.

I think I pretty much covered everything... Besides that I was considering talking about a new fic idea, but it's kinda late now. Maybe if I really start developing it more I'll talk about it next week. Bai!

WAIT I WATCHED Kiki's Delivery Service ON MONDAY! Now I'm done.

Dance Till Ya Drop

Hello world!

A few important things happened this week, mainly over the weekend. I'll start with that I now have more of a plan as to what I'll do over the summer this year: math camp and CLEP tests in summer school. Sounds super fun, right?

I've also found out that becoming a lab tech requires only an associate's degree... So now I'm not entirely sure about reaching for a bachelor's. We've all kinda agreed that I'll get a job as a lab tech and, if I wanna continue my education, I'll study for my bachelor's while working.

Now, a somewhat pressing issue that's come up is that... apparently, I'm gonna go to prom with Carter.

Mind you, the conversation had been innocent and gently veered that way by accident, and I think he suggested it more as a going-as-friends thing than am actual date. But he'd been saying "a promise is a promise", and I like actually living up to promises too, so I guess we're really doing it. The prob is just that... ya know... we kinda live in different states now. Someone (more likely him) will have to make the drive. Since it's gonna be more likely to happen next year or the year after that, it can be that I'll go over there instead (though my mom pointed out that, besides the fact that I'd be a young woman traveling by myself, unless my sister comes along or something, Coatrack would most likely be in the same dance and it might hurt his feelings. I'm now wondering if it'd be possible to go to one prom with Coatrack and another with Carter...)

This conversation came about from chatting about the dance party I went to and the quinceañera the day after. Yes. Many dancings, much tire, wow.

The quinceañera had some people from our old-old-old ward. As in, the last ward in Utah we'd gone to until we moved. It's only been about 2 years since we last saw these people, but the youngsters changed a lot. My dad was saying that he wouldn't have even recognized some of them on his own, like- for example-

Beka.

I hadn't remembered that the birthday girl- Elenita's big sister, Lalita- and Beka were friends, or at least acquaintances. And I'll be honest, I'm glad I'd seen how Beka had changed from her profile pic on Kik and pics on Facebook beforehand, because it also would've taken me a while to realize it was her.

When we first hugged and chatted, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. Last time we met up it took a bit longer to loosen up and be like we used to be, but it was immediate this time. Though I kinda wish she broke off from her friend circle later so we could talk some more, I'm still glad we're still definitely good friends.

As Beka pointed out and then definitely proved on the dance floor, she's come out of her shell more and is now quite outgoing. She was being absolutely ridiculous while "dancing", and it was fun to watch her and laugh. She's got the white-people-party dancing down.

Even more surprising, a friend from 9th grade showed up. I think I hadn't mentioned her here yet, but I'd always figured I'd call her Miku (because she often wore a Hatsune Miku shirt to school back then). I'd never seen her outside of school, plus it'd been a few years, after all, so this was awesome to find her. We talked a bit, too, and at the end of the party I asked if maybe we could try hanging out sometime, but there was something that, in a way, prevented us talking more...

Nutelly.

I don't remember if I'd previously called her Nutelly or Nutella in old posts, but let's go with Nutelly.

It was a bit un-fun to be physically near an ex-friend who has basically not acknowledged my existence since the end of 7th grade. Not that I'm the only person she ignores the existence of- she does that to most people, I think- but still. And her haircut reminds me of an ice cream cone.

Nutelly and Miku were hanging out almost the entire time, so not only did I not get to talk much to Beka because she was with her group of friends (unsurprising), but I also didn't get to talk much to Miku. And there were a few other friends-ish that I chatted a bit with, but not much.

Ya know, now I'm sort of starting to question why I overall enjoyed the evening if I was generally ignored and feeling weird over how much the young men and women had changed while I was gone. Eh, it was still nice to see old friends. And the quinceañera events were cute. Oh gosh, that cake was delicious.

I feel like there might've been something else I was gonna mention... Eh, I'll just end with DON'T VOTE FOR TRUMP!