The Piiics

I know this is weird, but a bit after the last post I felt like I wanted to post these pics, but I didn't feel like tacking them on then, and now it feels too late to add them to the post since that was yesterday. So, here they are now:

I doodled this at the missionary party. Turns out you can properly doodle on QuickMemo+ (which is defs a good thing since I don't have LineBrush on my phone anymore).

So yeah. That happened.

And then another (which I apparently took on the 25th, and for some reason I'm having a hard time remembering which day of the week that was) I sent to Carter cuz we were texting and it was dark since it was night and we were watching a movie and I tried taking a pic anyway and with some effects I got it bright enough that it looked like... this. I mean, I'd been going for creepy when I was taking the pic (long story as to why I wanted to in the first place) and this was a different level than intended.

But I like it.

If only you couldn't see the frame of my glasses.

This reminded me a bit of a few Creepypasta pics I've seen? Like, it's of course creepy to a much lesser degree, but it seemed like something could actually be made of this. Again, if the frame of my glasses wasn't so obvious.  But, I mean, there's freaking glowing eyes and a tiny smile, and mystery~ surrounding. Yeah. I dunno. I wonder if something WILL be made out of this. Maybe it could inspire me~

Okay, I'm done. It's almost midnight. Why did I do this?

Oh, and SPIDERMAN FEELZ CUZ I'M READING SPIDERMAN (more like I just finished reading some Spiderman, but whatever)! FEELZ!

Stanford and Other Stuff

Yo, world!

In case you didn't know, fasting is not very fun when you just barely starting your period. At least my mom had emergency Advil and it started an hour or two after we'd done baptisms for the dead yesterday. That was incredibly lucky (or just one of the little miracles Heavenly Father does, because I doubt he would've liked that to happen while I was dressed in white and in the water...), huh?

I feel like this week was a bit... weird. Along with excitement and a bit of disappointment. But overall weird.

Just to get the weirdest thing out of the way, I had another dream where I was pregnant... Two, actually, in a row. I'm just seriously questioning whether this is supposed to mean something? Because I'm pretty sure within 12 months- or maybe even 6 months- I've had a dream where I was pregnant at least 4 times! The last 3 I was apparently a surrogate, so at the very least I was having the baby for someone else, but I was still in high school! I doubt that's even allowed... And weirder still was that everyone around me just acted like it was completely normal to be a surrogate mom at my age. And, in the first dream of this kind this week, there was actually a Korean girl where we thought she might've been the actual mom of the baby inside me, which makes me wonder if there's such thing as anonymously doing this whole thing?! And the second, the possibility of who was the mom was between two Korean girls (and let me repeat also the girls part, which also doesn't make much sense to me)! I just... I just wanna know if it really is my brain being weird (which, for once, I'm actually not entirely sure of, since I remember seeing a bit of a commercial that might've had something to do with how this popped up in my dreams, but I think I'd seen it in the day between these two nights, so it doesn't explain the first night) or it's what's gonna happen in the future. Someone tell me! *scream of frustration and mild fear*

I haven't actually told someone in real life since they'd probably as disturbed or worse than me... But I don't know if I actually should confide cuz I'm a little bit freaked out.

Now to go back to chronological order, starting with Monday...

There's a guy in our ward who's going on his mission in Atlanta, Georgia, and he said it's gonna be in English (I've only heard him speak Spanish so far, so I hope it isn't too difficult for him). Since I know that two of my friends just so happen to live in Georgia, and both are devout Christians, I'm wondering if maybe I could attempt to hook them up with a missionary and see how that goes... I'd need to check I have their information, though, and see how to do this in a way that they won't get mad at me... (Today we went to a little party for this girl who I think is his sister who's going to Argentina for her mission. I managed to get myself to talk to a guy who was there by himself, but when a family that he actually knew came by he kinda totally ditched me... Thanks, Dakota, really appreciate it.)

There's been a lot of "..." so far. That usually doesn't happen... (Woop! There it is again!)

Something very special happened on Tuesday. I'd already decided I wanted to go to BYU and wasn't really planning on allowing room for changing my mind... But I got an invitation in the mail and by email to go to this thing called "Exploring College Options" where some top colleges were gonna give presentations and answer questions about their schools. And I mean top colleges, like, say~ flippin' Harvard!

I had a bit of difficulty choosing whether to go or not because I'd already set my sights on BYU and this would probably only result in either not gaining any useful information or getting my parents to push me towards going to one of these schools even if I didn't want to. We ended up going anyways, cuz my parents said that it wouldn't be a waste of time.

Due to that, we learned that, even with the pretty decent amount of money my dad makes, we still barely fit under the line which indicates that we'd get tuition free! I thought my dad made too much and thus the need-based aid tons of colleges do wouldn't help us, but nope! We would still have to deal with room and board and maybe a few other things, but that's still a whole lot less than my parents and sister ever expected. (We told my sis by text afterward, and she freaked out.)

And, to my surprise, all three of us were excited by Stanford and Duke's presentations, though my parents were leaning more toward the former due to its proximity to Utah and such. And, luckily, my dad wasn't concerned about Harvard anymore! I was intrigued by a few of the points the Harvard guy made, but we all felt like it wasn't the right fit for us. Harvard's probably a great school, but my dad doesn't want to bother trying to get in. Both are rooting for Stanford instead.

And, my mom asked the Stanford guy if there was the possibility that someone with a GED could get in, and he said it's actually happened before! So if the situation as to why my sis got a GED in the first place is explained and we show she's still doing and has done cool stuff, like teaching English and math and dance, then she could possibly get in too, and we could go to Stanford together!!! *kyaaah!!!*

I did a bit of research for both Stanford and Duke to see if they'd have the classes me and my sis have been considering taking, and it seems that yes. There's tons of languages my sis can do, plus a minor in Education, plus Stanford one-ups by having a Translation Studies minor. For me, I found that S has a human biology major with a focus on biomedical science (which would include genetics, but also have related things like epidemiology, which just so happens to be what Broranges wants to study, hehe), and D has a biology major which could be focused on genetics or genomics, plus both have minors in Creative Writing and whatever science minors I think I may want to do.

Then there's my dad, who's been thinking that he could possibly go back to school at Stanford, or U of U, or maybe even Duke, depending on if they'd allow my mom and dad to live in a dorm together.

So, it hasn't been 100% confirmed by a family meeting or something that we're reaching for Stanford, but it seems that's what's happening.

While it should be a good thing, it changes things quite a lot. For one thing, the concurrent classes I take at SLCC won't count anymore, which kinda sucks, and who knows if the summer math program will either. I'm hoping that, at the very least, they let me get bumped up to the higher-level math classes at Stanford even if they aren't totally required for the degree I want. There's also that now we need to really make an effort to show that I really make something out of my "passions". Like, I think writing counts, so it's good I actually write both here and in fics (though I doubt either would be really impressive, so I sure hope I can do a really great essay and maybe show a bit of WFAM), but dancing feels like it's more of something I did when I was little, back when my mom still did actual classes. I still get excited about our spare performances and like dancing when we go to the proper parties for it, but I just don't feel like I really actually dance much anymore, no matter what my parents say.

There's also drums, which I am practicing about as much as I used to (which is to say an average of once or twice a week when I really should be playing more often), but I'm not taking classes nor am in a group/band like we did for a bit in Alabama. I don't really have much to show for it, in that case. And I suddenly feel like I'm not as good as I could be. I love playing Green Day songs, but I need to try new, more complicated stuff (as if Green Day doesn't already have complicated songs) if I wanna really be able to show off and be versatile.

Last possibility is martial arts, but I hadn't taken actual classes since I was 7... My interest got reignited by Coatrack, but that was just hanging out with him and going to his club. I have to admit I'd lost that spark of wanting to be in martial arts for years, and- though I still want to get into a new class, if I can- I'm a bit concerned that suddenly starting up again between junior and senior year and putting it in my college application will make it look like I just wanted to make my app look good. I'm also worried about my parents being able to afford it...

We actually went looking around at different martial arts places on Friday and a bit after our time at the temple yesterday. It kinda sucks cuz I'm interested in the ones like Tae-Kwondo (and follow in my sister's footsteps), Kali, and Systema, but those are the ones that are far away and/or cost too much or might not seem worth the price. The most decently-priced place seems to be a Kung-Fu place, but I'm not totally sure I really want to learn Kung-Fu? I think that's mainly cuz I'm not totally sure what we'd be doing in that style and it seems to be made fun of a lot... But if it is indeed really cool and close enough to our house, I guess we'll most likely do that one.

Returning to the topic of the concurrent classes not counting anymore. Due to that, my dad was saying that I should at the very least take college classes that would impress them, and- since he didn't ask me to elaborate much on my plan- he thinks I'm just taking blah classes. I'm taking the closest I can to impressive, but I could've possibly done better if there was more options for concurrent classes! Like mentioned before, they don't even let me take Math 1080 like the Accuplacer said I should take, but even Math 1060 is pretty good (and, especially if I get a good grade in math my first semester, we could hopefully convince the community college to let me take 1080 as a concurrent student in the second semester). I plan to take Chemistry and then Physics, which would (hopefully) ensure that I have a good base in the sciences for when I go to actual college. And English is because I need to take 12th grade English anyway and I want to make sure my writing gets better and I start getting used to writing essays more often (as much as I'd rather not). I actually feel good about taking these three classes, so I hope- unless he really has a better, doable idea for what classes to take next year, then I'm sticking with the plan I have so far.

Yes, taking the basic classes for English and science are not "Wow, she went up and over the moon!" but it's what I'm allowed to do and what I feel I should do.

What sucks, though, is that I have to do Financial Lit over the summer. My teacher pointed out that it wouldn't really be a useful class for colleges and it probably wouldn't be best to leave it as one of my very last classes next year. So, she had me take the pretests for both terms last week and, just like I feared, I only got about 70% for both, one a teensy bit above and the other a teensy bit below. That means I'll have to do most of the actual classes to pass with an A, which I clearly can't accomplish within the last 4 days of school I have this week. And I really would rather not leave this for next school year and have that on my plate along with all the normal classes I'm taking. So, look who's going to be doing some summer school after the math program! *points to self with deep sigh* I sure hope I finish it rather quickly and still get some time to enjoy the summer break...

We went to the library again on Friday, since I'd put a few books on hold and they arrived very fast. So, I'd accidentally written a series title wrong last post; it is actually Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning. For some reason, it's difficult for me to remember. I also had gotten Armada by Ernest Cline, which is hopefully as cool as Ready Player One. We ended up buying quite an amount of books there too, so those were hopefully worth getting once we get around to reading them.

All that's left to talk about now is fics. This is the week when I'm supposed to publish the final chapter of "Visiting Homeland"! I'm really hoping I can get the last few paragraphs done tomorrow (since there's no school tomorrow, and neither was there last Friday- oh! Last Friday, my mom and I tried out a simple recipe of portabello mushrooms stuffed with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella, which came out decent) so I can edit the entire thing on Thursday and Friday with fresh(er) eyes and make sure it's really good before posting on Friday! Ah! It's officially ending forever and ever!

What started up this week, however, was that I suddenly received a bit of inspiration to add a bit to the idea of "They Never Saw the Sun" (which I can't remember if I ever talked a bit about it here) and redo "Two Souls, One Armor". I mean that as in I suddenly got an idea of how I could start the narration of the prologue or first chapter, depending on how I decided to do it. That, along with the sudden urge I had to write the ending for 2S1A several weeks ago, I decided I might as well go for it. I really can't predict if I'll ever get the rewrite to the point where I'm confident in posting, due to needing to make sure I really know where I'm going with the plot and making the necessary changes that diverge from the original so it is higher quality than the first time around I wrote 2S1A.

First change: the title. The best title I came up with on the spot is "An Extra Soul Trapped Yet Saved", but I should hopefully manage to tweak it a bit if I actually post this story.

Second change: it can't be a self-insert anymore. I mean, it wasn't a traditional self-insert in the first place, as far as I can tell, since it was a Lilly who was born in Amestris and lived just outside Central City (most likely for her whole life), and she ends up dealing with a certain serial killer, which I highly doubt will actually happen to me, but even if it did, it's too late to be identical to the story since this Lilly had originally been written to be 15 and I'm kinda almost 17 now... Even though Lily was 15 in FH and VH, I think I'll stick with 15 here again since it seems like it won't be too far from the ages of the Elric brothers.

But yeah, it can't be Lilly still because I already was bordering fanfic-taboo with putting myself into "Family History". The important things that I think should stay the same, like her age and backstory, will remain, but I want to model out an actual OC, which means a different hypothetical appearance and personality and such. I hope I manage to do this decently, cuz otherwise I'll either get ragged on for self-inserting or this whole thing will be really boring due to being entirely (or maybe almost entirely) narrated by someone who lacks character.

Third change: the original mood and writing style needs to be thrown out the window. I already explained long ago what was wrong with this story, but I'll say real fast what is bad about it again. It is too carefree and more like just observing a fictional story instead of being treated like all of this is real life for the characters. By that point, I was familiar enough with FMA that I could flippantly say "Yeah, this one guy dies" instead of being "OH MY GOSH, THIS GUY DIES!" and it clearly reflected in that work. So, I need to take the events more seriously, and thus allow the characters to take their lives seriously as well. Already, this is meaning that the beginning is quite dark, more than I'm used to seeing out of myself, and I need to really make more out of the OC's past. I'm hoping I'll manage to make my character appropriately traumatized, but not make that such a crucial aspect of her personality as time goes by, like what happens to some OCs. Honestly, OCs that seem to act like total jerks because of their past experiences or seem attacked by PTSD too often can be a bit annoying (I know PTSD is serious, but it can be overdone and tiring to a point)... so, since I'm doing something similar with my own OC, I'm really hoping I manage to handle this aspect well and thus don't become a complete hypocrite. I don't like being a hypocrite.

Oh, and style is because it really lacked detail and normal prose. The ratio of dialogue to just prose and thoughts was huge to almost none. I still do quite an amount of dialogue, but I think I really started to balance between the different parts of storytelling when I was working on "Visiting Homeland". Back in my first year-ish of fic-writing, though, such a balance was much less common.

I guess the last possible change I could do is map out better what sort of scenes I'll do between the beginning and end. I know in 2S1A I did about half-and-half between scenes that had to do with the canon plotline and scenes that were unrelated. So, I'll have to figure out if I still want to do something similar (but do more than just dip into the events like originally done, but actually take events seriously) or have a different sort of balance. What's more important at the moment, though, is developing the main character and writing well rather than vaguely.

Clearly, I have a lot ahead of me, both with school and after-school... Wish me luck, and happy Memorial's Day tomorrow~ Bai!

I Missed You, Ueki

Hello world!

More than anything, I've been reentering some shows and the sort that I've kinda ignored for a while in favor of just reading fanfics this week.

Very first thing (unrelated to prior paragraph) is that I finished doing the SAGE tests for this year... the very ones I'd dreaded in 9th grade. I managed to evade doing state testing for two years, but no more.

I'll admit I had a harder time with them than I feel like I had all the way back when they were still CRTs. For one, I had a harder time gauging how much time I had left, which was stressing me out since I always felt like I was taking too long when I really wasn't. Second, I forgot that this was one of the changes resulting from switching to SAGE: you can't advance to the next question until you give an answer. I mean, it's true that you could just give a quick guess, flag it, and then return to think on the question more once you're done with the rest of the test, which I actually did on a few questions I was desperate on. But it was more nerve-wracking this time cuz I had to give some sort of answer, and whatever I said would kinda determine what the next question would be. And some of the questions were quite difficult! I can blame some of that on forgetting how to do some problems, and some more on having a different curriculum my first semester, but it was like "How am I supposed to know how to do this?" sometimes. I felt more like I was gonna fail than with CRTs, even though in the end it turned out I got a really good score. Just... ugh.

I also kinda wish it was easier to change the color combo on the screen and such like with CRTs. I know some kids fiddled with the colors for fun, but I actually had usually changed it to black on blue rather than black on white since it was easier on the eyes, and I didn't know if we were allowed or able to make such changes this time...

Other stuff happening at school this week was basically... nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. The thing is that I had to wait a few days for my official score on my PE pretests before I could start working on assignments to bump the grade up, and I am still waiting for those things to be graded to see if I need to do anything else. (The PE teacher's only here for 2 or 3 hours a day, so you can imagine I'm a bit frustrated.) I finished with my LA class the previous week and just needed my grade submitted. And besides that is just Chemistry, and the classes/meetings for Chem didn't start back up till Thursday. So, most of my time at school was spent on derping about on Gmail, my stories and those I'm beta-ing for (not that I got much done for either), and reading, mainly from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It was suggested to me by one of the tutors, and with nothing else to do I started on it. It is honestly very interesting and kinda educational about videogames and 80's culture (hehe). He'd warned me that it had quite the amount of obscene language, but I think I've honestly read worse in that category. Pretty much my one critique in how it is written (and I'm quite close to the end, so I think it's safe to say this) is that it feels like it over-explains in the beginning... if that makes any sense.

Once I'm done with it, I don't need to fret about not having anything to read! Yesterday, my mom and I went to the library after quite a while. (See? Now the first paragraph is starting to tie back in.) I kinda missed not reading manga and actual books, and I've wanted to see what else the nearby library has anyway. Turns out a few books I'd heard about aren't in the system (one probably because it is too new?), but some others still are, so I'll have to request them.

One book I got was the very first of some manga titled Spiral: The Book of Reasoning... or something like that. Another is the first few books of Ultraman, which I'm pretty sure was actually referenced in Ready Player One, which is pretty much the main reason why I thought of trying it out. There's a few others, but I guess I'll talk about those next week once I've dived into their pages. Like a swimming pool. Make of wood pulp.

Pretty much my first favorite manga/anime character- like, one I was no doubt a fan of and practically looked up to- was Kosuke Ueki from The Law of Ueki. I think I'd read and watched a bit before I started this blog, but his story had honestly made a big impact on me. I mean, if I literally wanted to name my future child "Ueki", then I was serious. (And, in fact, I still want to! But it's definitely more likely to be a middle name. And the second or third kid's middle name will be Alphonse, because he defs deserves the same sort of honor too.) And, as has been shown before, I have a character named after him, too. So yes, Ueki is a big deal.

A few days ago, I'd been trying to find the specific "Spongebob Sings Eminem" video I loved when I was little, and thought to look if it was way back in my liked videos. Turns out it wasn't, but as I went through the list I started to reminisce a bit about middle-school me, since that's when I started going on YouTube with my Gmail account. And it was a total surprise for me to find that among some of those first dozens of likes was the opening song to The Law of Ueki. I played it and gushed at how familiar the song was and the nostalgia of seeing Ueki again. I'd already been thinking of watching or reading (the latter depending on if my dad was planning on visiting the City Library like we used to years ago) the series sometime during the summer, but now I really wanted to watch it sooner.

After a bit of internal conflict, I decided to start watching it as soon as possible on KissAnime.

It's been so great to watch and feel the excitement of it, possibly to a bit of a higher degree than when I originally watched. Everything's coming back to me. It's reaffirmed in me that my love of Ueki (not really a crush, but more like appreciating just how unique and awesome he is and admiring how he's such a great person) has not dimmed. He is the kind of guy who I'd want people to look up to, which is part of why I'd thought to name my kid after him in the first place.

I'm already spotting again the few things that were a bit frustrating about him and I'm mentally groaning a bit at knowing it takes a while for some of those things to be fixed, but I know eventually someone points them out to him and he works on them.

Anyway... I hope I can still read the books, since I'm pretty sure I'd liked them a bit more than the anime, like I usually do, but for now I'm so happy just to get to watch it again. I know you're not gonna let me down, Kosuke!

OOOOOOOH and mind explosion time! As I was looking up the title to show my friend what he looked like and such, we found out there was a sequel called The Law of Ueki Plus. It's only manga, no anime, but it's Ueki when he's in high school instead of middle school, and I saw a few reviews that said it was definitely worth checking out. (Those are what officially convinced me that I wouldn't regret reading it.) I sure hope I can find that series somewhere cuz I'm so excited by it!!!

What I'm mildly less excited about and more like questioning why I thought it was a good idea... was me asking a friend for suggestions of good Creepypastas. The thing is that, she's a friend on FFN who writes crazy good stories, but the two I've been following involve Creepypasta, most of which I'm not exactly all that familiar with. I'd sufficed with just looking up their appearances and stuff, but at this point I really should have already looked up their origin stories or something if I'm gonna be reading a fanfic that includes these characters. Thus, I asked for her recommendations.

Luckily, it wasn't really a long list, only about... 7? And, well, Creepypastas don't have to be long to be crazy good. Her very first was "BEN Drowned" (who happens to be in both of her fics), but it turns out that one's mainly based on YouTube videos, and I barely got myself through the first of 4 and started the second (just as Carter sent me a text, making my phone vibrate and jumpscare me) before deciding my heart couldn't take it. *sweatdrop, but laughing nonetheless* I then read "Mr. Widemouth", which wasn't that bad, but not as creepy as some of the few Creepypastas I'd already read in the past. I then went though the list of "Candle Cove" stories, starting with the original. As usual, the original was the best, but some of the other stories inspired by it had good, creepy details.

The last I've done so far is seeing a bit about Ticcy Toby, which was good since he's in one of her fics, but the story itself wasn't really scary... That could be cuz some of the original material I couldn't see without being a member of DeviantArt, and I'm kinda not, so...

I still have some more, but hopefully I won't regret this. I just did a bit the first day cuz I really have a hard time watching actual scary things and I had finished reading rather close to when I was gonna get ready for bed. What a terrible idea! *laughing at myself cuz I seriously should've known better*

Just a little bit more to go!

I'm inching ever closer to finishing the last chapter of "Visiting Homeland". This is just a bit nerve-wracking cuz this time I don't have planned out specifically what the final lines for the entire story are, unlike "Family History", and I really wanna make it a good, dramatic ending that is worthy to all writer-kind. Ah!

At least, once that's done, I'll be able to say, once again, that I completed a chapter story, and it was a sequel at that, which I hadn't really expected I'd ever do. (And it was longer this time! Unsure how much, though, but I'll find out.) And that also means I can devote more time to all my other stories and even unfinished ideas without feeling guilty about it.

After about 2 years, I had a doctor appointment... Though I felt a little bit weird around him, which may just be because he's a doctor and I'm an unhealthy sack of teenaged flesh who knows she's got a lot to improve on, my mom pointed out that he and the nurse were more willing to get to the bottom of where my issues came from. That meant he wanted to see if I really had iron deficiency still and what the true cause of my heart thing was. I mean, I'd always been kinda skeptical about whether it was caused by iron deficiency, but since you're supposed to trust doctors, I just went with it. But this one's like "Uh-uh, that don't sound right. *sassy snap*" Since they took blood from my arm yet again, and gave me a shot yet again- though it wasn't as bad as it could've been, cuz I almost got two!- we'll just have to see how the results come out. And he also told us to check out a cardiologist. Oh joy.

Last note- the Ueki opening is surprisingly difficult to learn. It's not really that fast, but my brain is just having a hard time remembering the words for some reason. I better learn it by the last episode or I'll rage!

Creepster Powerpuff

Hello world!

(This is from last week; I had almost finished it, but... well... didn't. Only one of the added paragraphs has a bit of info that actually happened this week.)

I guess I'll address first and foremost the little song. It's been a while since I last tried to do a song, and this one didn't really have a motive of any kind. I just glanced through my "Misheard" list on my iPod, which is just little snippets of lyrics I like, lyrics I misheard (hence the title), and a line or so of a song that just came to me once and I thought had the potential to be used. My brain linked a few of these little snippets together on Tuesday, and I decided to get to work. I then tried to work some sort of meaning in, which I might've accomplished sort of? Listening to Vocaloid has convinced me that lyrics don't have to all make sense, honestly. *hehehe* Yesterday I finished the rest of the song (as I'd only gotten the chorus done) and here it is. I imagine it sung like a Paramore song, even though I think it might sound better if it was slowed down instead.

I read a few manga one-shots on Kissmanga (after I was convinced that it is legal, or at least legal enough), and I thought maybe it'd be a decent idea to make a manga one-shot out of my first fic ever, "Al Meets a Star" (though I'd like to try to come up with a different title in this case). Since it seems kinda stupid to just do the entire thing exactly the same, especially since it's not actually an original story, and it'd be incredibly difficult to draw Al's armor so many times, the gist could still be the same but with normal people instead. The characters would still be similar in personality to Ed and Al, but I'd still try to not make it so obvious where they originated from. A possibility is that Al is some kid who just recently lost his legs and is going about in a wheelchair, and is under the watchful eye of his older brother who is currently his parental guardian. Ed leaves the house to get groceries or something and tells Al to not go out and especially don't go picking up strays, but Al ignores him and somehow makes it out the door in his chair, and finds the little kitten and brings it in. For the second half, Al is now older and has prosthetics for both legs, plus has a haircut and a stubbly beard and all sorts of things that make him different from before, but in the end the cat recognizes him all the same. It'll be so adorable if I ever actually get around to doing it- or at the very least giving the idea to someone else who is better at that sort of thing anyway.

Speaking of drawing, for some reason I came up with this idea while listening to Sanders Bohlke songs yesterday... I finally got around to it, after listening to "The Weight of Us" for so long. I didn't like most of them, honestly, so only two or three other songs ended up being added to my playlist.

Anyway, his style doesn't evoke "creepy" at all, which is why I don't know where this came from, but with photo effects darkening my drawing I think I actually did a decent job at making it creepy. Yay!

Here's what it really looks like (I prove once again I have difficulties coloring dark):

And, eventually, after a bit of chatting with Carter, I came up with a decent idea for Alt. Y! Which means, as soon as that's written, I can post the next chapter! I've also got most of the final chap done and got started on Alt. Z. It's weird that this is ending, yet at the same time I feel like I took too long with VH...

M'kay, next topic! So I may or may not have mentioned that Powerpuff Girls rebooted, and so they started selling PPG stuff at Hot Topic and stuff? Due to the coolness of the dresses (especially cuz you could actually wear them just whenever you want; I've already worn the pink Blossom dress once) and the idea that we could use them as a Halloween costume this year, we bought all three. Blossom is for me, Buttercup (green) is for my sis, and Bubbles (blue) is for my sister's friend or whoever ends up wanting to do this with us.

I wanna be creepy still, so I'm hoping maybe we could figure out how to make it look like we're crying blood? That'd be so sweet.

Speaking of my sis... so far, she's already done some cool stuff, like go to a Chinese beach and zoo (where she got to hold a little monkey and got picked up by an elephant with its trunk! Pictures to prove it!) and store (the Engrish is insane), and she and her group had got a lot more planned. She might even go with them to visit Japan afterwards, which will take about a thousand dollars or something, but she's going for it.

It's kinda sucky how she ended up getting kinda sicky at one point and homesick, which is a horrible combination for being so far away. Oh, and she has a hard time dealing with some of the kids. I really hope she feels better by next Monday!!!

Just one last note:

The Work and the Glory trilogy though... My mom and I cried at the very, very end.

Make Me Unfeeling

When I thought it was all over

You still had me go in circles

Circles of emotion

That never ended

Make me unfeeling

Make me unfeeling

It's hard to get anywhere with you

'Cause I cannot find your switch

There never was a sign or light

That I could ever miss

I am tempted, I am tempted

To pop your arrogant bubble here, though

You know I can't, you know I won't

Sink to your level

You poisoned me

With your lies and your eyes

I have the payback in my hand

But I can't let this come to pass

When I thought it was all over

You still had me go in circles

Circles of emotion

That never ended

Make me unfeeling

When I thought it was all over

You still had me go in circles

I am getting dizzy

From this shaking ground now

Make me unfeeling

Yet these bottles of cyanide

I refuse to break

I am going nowhere

Nowhere

The effect you have

Is impossible to escape

Even now, I can't

Breathe any air that wasn't tainted by you

I want your knees to shake in fear

As much as mine have

No one deserves the torture I have faced

But taking revenge will make me like you:

A complete disgrace

When I thought it was all over

You still had me go in circles

Circles of emotion

That never ended

Make me unfeeling

When I thought it was all over

You still had me go in circles

I am getting dizzy

From this shaking ground now

Make me unfeeling

Yet these bottles of cyanide

I refuse to break

I am going nowhere

Nowhere

Make me unfeeling

(Nowhere, nowhere)

Make me unfeeling

Nowhere

I refuse to use the cyanide

On such an unfeeling disgrace

(Nowhere nowhere)

Make me-

I'm Not Ready

Hello world! Happy Mother's Day!

We spent today by going to the Sacrament meeting of Elenita's family's branch (our old, old, old branch) to see her big sister talk. I think I mentioned it last week, so I won't really bother with detail.

We also ate dinner at my grandma and grandpa's house, though it was just us visiting (besides a few minutes when one aunt and my two little cousins showed up to chat a bit) rather than it being a whole family get-together. Dinner and dessert were good, and most of us got really invested into working on one of her new puzzles. We were sitting there for who knows how long and barely managed to get almost all of the edges of the 1,000 piece puzzle put together. She's got a looooot of work ahead of her...

Not much happened this week, even with school assignments. I only got, like, 3 done (besides going to Chem classes) within the entire week, one of them being the mock interview. I liked how the teacher did the interview, though; she only asked a few questions, and when you looked stuck she would help with ideas and tips on how to answer it. She said I did pretty well (I'd add a "considering" at the end of that, but whatever).

It's incredibly frustrating how long the last two assignments of Government were/are taking me. They feel so difficult... At least I managed to finish ONE of them within the week. I have tests and some other stuff I have to do this week and the next, so I am a bit concerned about if I'll manage to actually get myself to finish the last thing on time. I'd been hoping my last weeks could be stress-free and I could spend some time just reading one or two books from the English teachers' shelves... *deep sigh*

A lot's happening for other people, though, like my sister. This was her last week, and she didn't even get to be here the whole time because of pain from the recently-done wisdom teeth surgery. I've held off for long enough to say that she's spending some time in China to teach English! She's going to fill in for a lady who had to leave the program early, and thus is doing the last month and a half of the semester rather than the whole thing. She'll be there till the end of June, which is right around the time I'll end with the summer math program. Huh.

Anyway, it's gonna be weird to know she's that far away... I seriously don't have the guts to travel so far. Like, I literally doubt I have the guts for it; she has to go on 3 planes, and one of the three plane-trips lasts for hours and hours and hours... *wants to cry just thinking about it* Nonetheless, we all hope she's safe and enjoys her time there!

There's also an apartment complex that went through a fire that is very close to my house... As in, it takes just a few minutes to walk there from my complex. It was so crazy, because my sister's friend was the one taking me home, and everything was fine until we saw that my street was blocked off... And then she saw the smoke billowing up suspiciously close to where I live.

Thus, a bit of chaos ensued as we tried to figure out what was going on and how to get me home safely. At some point, she ended up having to park several blocks away and we walked the rest. We walked among the firetrucks and news stations' vans and people just sitting in front of their own complexes, watching the fire get put out. It was crazy to see the firemen actually in action. I saw at least three fire hydrants being used, and there was one fireman on a really high crane holding a hose shooting tons of water, and he was there for a long time. It was two buildings that were hit, and hit hard. We have passed by the apartments a few times since then, and the roofs have gaping holes and stuff...

One of the families in our ward lived in one of the apartments, so they currently are somewhere else. A few sisters organized sending clothes and other important things to the family so they'd have some, and my mom and I donated quite an amount from my closet and a bit from my sister's for the twin sisters in that family. I felt bad about them maybe not liking what we gave them, since a few of the shirts weren't very nice, but my mom said they'd be grateful for anything. At least I know that some of the clothes fit, since one of the girls went to church today wearing my old dress and shoes.

As far as I know, no one knows how the fire was caused... At least no one was hurt, and hopefully everyone will recover okay from the loss.

I realized I hadn't listened to "The Weight of Us" by Sanders Bohlke in a long time, and I used to listen to that song a ton last school year. I did so yesterday, and I'm so glad I did. It's an awesome song, and Carter actually agreed. (Of course he did; he likes orchestra.) The title of this post is because of the song... and seemed appropriate since I've been thinking a lot about the possible trip to Mexico. I kept almost tearing up during Sacrament because the very thought is terrifying me...

And I seriously need to text Sami because I've put it off for too long. It just feels so weird to say anything to a friend I haven't talked to in a long time... I'm too used to just leaving old friends behind completely. There are a few exceptions, but I hadn't thought Sami to be one of them. I know I should talk with her, but I just feel so bad and I don't know what it'd be like to hang out with her now. Gah!

Visiting the Hair Registration

Wazzap, world!

There weren't really many different events that fit into different topics this week, but there's a whole lotta pics because I got a little too excite about photo-editing.

See, what happens is that I usually don't bother with editing my pictures, unless it could be done really easily and I know it would definitely make it look better. But editing for the sake of editing, not much.

But you know how awesome some of my drawings looked on my old phone, right? It would do all that cool stuff by itself. My new one actually has more editing stuff, and I've been figuring them out more. Now I'm seeing that I can actually have the same or similar effects now like I use to, though it takes a bit more effort.

So, all the way back to when I went May Chang to school. I had to shower so my hair was ready to be cut the next day, right? I was a little disappointed to take the buns out, but oh well. Anyway, I let down the buns and what remained was the two high pigtails and braids. Hair tends to come out in huge curls when in buns for a long time, which is what happened here. But then I got curious, and loosely wrapped the tiny braids around the ponytails, and I was suddenly like "This could look so killer on an anime girl."

From that day, I've wanted to sit down and attempt to draw it (SO glad I took a pic of the resulting hairstyle before showering), along with how my hair looks now. I finally got myself to do it yesterday.

See? Editing with my new phone has been improving since the Ruby costume drawing. Otherwise, it looked like this:

I started with my current hair first. I stared at my hair a bit and then tried to draw it (or at least something similar to it) and ended up with this:

I fixed the front piece a bit when I realized I messed up on my bangs. It looks a little closer now.

I started realizing at this point that I had subconsciously gave Guinn hair similar to my own. Like, I used to have a slightly angled bob like what she has and why I have now, plus it had similar texture to my natural hair (though I'm embarrassed to say I forgot just how curly-wavy my hair is naturally because my mom used to brush my hair straight every day). But yeah, maybe Guinn's looks more like this without the long piece at the bottom.

I then moved on to the fancy pigtails. I had a few troubles trying to make them symmetrical, but I think overall I did a pretty good job of making them look the same now.

This is when I realized pressing a certain button made the pic look really dramatic, like my old phone would do.

From there I went effects-happy.

Cool, right?!

That last little doodle was an attempt to retry the hair with bangs more similar to how I've been having them lately (though it's been the result of my sis curling the front piece). I generally don't like it as much as the first attempt, though.

But still more effects! *flashes grin*

So, I'm gonna try playing around more with drawing hair and hope I get better at it.

Now on with the rest of this post!

I landed myself a job as a beta once again! I haven't done any besides for myself in a while... or at least it felt like it. I'm now a beta for a new FMA story that is gonna crossover with a bunch of series, starting with How to Train Your Dragon. (Upon Carter's suggestion, I watched what was available of that franchise in Netflix. It was the second movie and two shorts. I'd mildly forgotten how much I loved the series! I hope maybe the first will be on Hulu? And maybe I could read the books again? I remember that I liked them, though they're quite different from the movies.)

I also volunteered to beta a Ninjago one-shot, which makes me a little more nervous. I mean, I haven't seen it in quite a while, and only once have I attempted to write for it but didn't like the result enough to put it online. I find it a good idea to watch at least the later seasons again (though I heard there's been, like, 2 more seasons since I last watched?! The girl writing the one-shot had said she hasn't seen those yet either, but I hope I can see them over the summer or something!). I can hopefully be of more use once I get that done.

We ended up seeing a surprising amount of family and family friends within the week. When we went to my aunt's so my sister could have her eyebrows done (I still think it's weird), we met up for a few minutes with a girl I don't think I've mentioned yet? Since she had gone to her mission in France, maybe I'll just call her Frenchie (hehe). Anyway, it was her and her mom, both of whom we haven't seen in quite a while- not since the farewell when Frenchie was about to leave on said mission. I think I was in 8th grade then...? So she was crazy surprised by us, especially me. Yanno, since I'm now 16 and tall and stuff. But it was equally weird for us since she's 20-something and married and about to get her associate's degree! So it was a mind-blowing visit all around.

We also got to hang out with an ex-missionary that we knew for a long time. I asked him when it was he first met us, and turns out it was April-something 6 years ago. I was 9. I barely even remember the events my family likes to talk about from that point, just pretty much vaguely remember he ate at our house a lot. But he's quite cool, even if he's more nervous to try to talk in Spanish nowadays since he's out of practice. Like usual, I spoke the least since that's generally how I am with guests, but I did get the chance to talk with him privately when we were waiting for the concert to start (as we brought him along to a MoTab choir and orchestra concert that my teacher was going to sing in- "From Death to Life" and "The Prodigal" were particularly beautiful, and a very special treat since the first had never been played in the US before, and the second had only ever been played once since it was finished last year). My sis actually ended up accompanying him to a wedding yesterday, which was the reason why he had been in Utah in the first place.

Lastly, we had seen Cuncle. The poor guy had been cooking French fries for a stand at a Cinco de Mayo fair for 5 hours. And he only had one a T-shirt, flip-flops, and I think shorts when there was wind blowing all day, so he was also freezing. We ate from their stand, which was good but took a while. The wind really wasn't doing us any favors, especially since, with mine being short but still long enough to get all over my face... yeah.

Final topic is registrations. I finally got to put in the classes I wanted to take next semester, and I was out into each of my first picks with no problems! So next year will be started off with Chemistry 1010, English 1010, and Math 1060!

We also got to finish the paperwork for the summer math program, so I guess it's even more official that I'm going. Woot!

Sadly, that mean that I can't go to the Youth Conference this stake is having this year, and it'd most likely be stupid to try to fit in girls camp in, too, since I might be going to Mexico with my mom after June... I'm really concerned about that, since I don't know if I could handle my relatives without my sister there. I feel pretty sure I'd be overwhelmed. I mean, I already get overwhelmed every once in a while when we're in Mexico, and I'm thinking it'd surely be worse this year if she isn't there.

It's times like these that I wonder if I really do have at least a small amount of some sort of anxiety. I've never been diagnosed, but sometimes I just think it's a possibility... Or it's just a lot of introversion. I don't know.

My sister's going on her own trip. In just a week or so, she's going to China for a month and a half! That'd been something she's wanted to do since Alabama, so I'm happy for her. We fasted today and we've been praying a lot that she'll be safe there and have some awesome experiences.

I just remembered two things to mention! 

One, MY DRUM SET IS ALL SET UP SO I CAN START PRACTICING AGAIN! ... Once I have somewhere to sit. 

Two, I read part of a post here from Dec. 2013, where Past Me was saying how excited she was for the day her future self came up with an original story, which actually happened approximately 2 years later. I'm still working on it, but it makes me want to go back and pat my old self's head and tell her that yes, it really happens, and WFAM's gonna be awesome once I actually write it. There's still more actually planning I want to do before that, though. I might actually end up waiting until not this November, but next year's to write it... unless I manage to get a lot further ahead in planning during the summer, I guess.

Wow, you made it all the way through this post! As fic writers love to do, here's an Internet cookie for reading! *hands you an internet cookie*

[Gah, I forgot until right now! Due to mentioning to a girl on FFN the funny running gag in "Adventure Time with Ed and Al", she suggested making a one-shot out of the idea, which resulted in "Fudge You", which has been my most popular one-shot ever! Within just a few hours of it being online it got 3 or 4 reviews from strangers, then my friends and others pitched in, and it's now at 11 reviews and 9 favorites (or at least last I checked)!!! That's really surprising but awesome! My confidence writing-wise has been boosted up a little bit, I think, which is a good thing since I'm starting to write the final chapter for VH and am technically still working on QQ and WFAM... oh, the acronyms.]