Right now, I'm typing on my brand new, first-ever laptop! If you read my post Mac Vs. PC, well my dad was apparently joking about the Acer thing... so I have an HP. More specifically the Pavilion dm1. Yay!! It's ruby red and only 11.6 inches! It's so tiny but I love it! It's light, portable, and wonderful :^)). I'm so excited to keep using it especially during the school year!
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Yesterday was my cousin Faith's 11th birthday, and I was invited to her party. The party was very fun, like all of her parties. Her mom, Mandy (who is also my cousin because my mom is her aunt, but I still call her Aunt Mandy anyways), is one of the most creative people I know, especially when it comes to Faith's parties. Last year, the party was movie-themed. We went on a movie based scavenger hunt, watched a movie (of coarse), played games like movie hangman, and a game where we had to guess what movie a picture was from, and more games that Mandy made up, and we did tons of other fun stuff. This year, the party was a Luau. It was adorable all the way down to the invitation. The invitation was a message in a bottle, so it was a rolled up piece of paper inside of a bottle. The paper was placed in sand and seashells that were in the bottle. When I arrived, Faith equipped me with a grass skirt and Lai (those Hawaiian flower necklaces). Once everyone had come, we headed to a small beach in walking distance from her house. There, we swam to the middle of the lake where there was a raft that we jumped off of. After an hour of that, we headed to Faith's backyard. Her yard was decorated with Hawaiian flowers, a limbo area with sand underneath, and even a little lemonade bar, with colorful glasses and those mini umbrellas you put in drinks. The whole time, beach music and tropical music was being played on the CD player. We had a lot of fun jumping on Faith's trampoline in our grass skirts and limboing until we couldn't limbo anymore.
All good things must come to an end, so then it was time to go home. The goody bags contained the CD of beach music we listened to, along with LOTS of candy. It was definitely a spectacular party that I will always remember, and everyone had a great time. Did anyone else watch the opening ceremony to the Olympics last night? I started watching towards the middle, and it was really cool. They had this whole theatrical performance about London's history, complete with wars and different time periods, all going on at once. When the camera showed the scene from an arial view, you could see that the stage they were on was a map of London. At the end, the five rings joined together in the air and fireworks rained down on the stadium. The Queen even jumped out of an airplane with James Bond! (Not really, but they made it look like it). Then it showed the age ot technology, and there were a ton of giant screens in the center displaying TV shows and singers from England. After that, an orchestra played that song from Chariots of Fire with Rowan Atkinson (other wise known as Mr. Bean) playing one note repetively on the piano the whole time, while checking his phone, mocking the other piano player, and doing a bunch of other funny stuff. Afterwards came the part where all of the countries march through and hold their flags. I didn't watch every single one walk through, but I saw enough to get the general picture. Over half of the countries I have never even heard of like Kyrgyzstan, or Saint Kitts and Nevis. I think it's really cool that amidst wars, crimes, and disastors the Olympics brings all of the countries together no matter what battles they are fighting with each other. I am so excited to see all of the games, especially gymnastics, and I will root for team USA all the way! :^) I Just realized I haven't posted any pictures of my pets yet! The black and white cat its Leo, the brown and white cat is Rockey, and the dog is Sam. The cats are brothers, and yes, they get along with Sam very well. Ironically, Sam is a little intimidated by them.
Earlier this summer, I got a Facebook. To be honest, I have never wanted a Facebook, and never really saw the point, but I made an account just to fulfill my curiosity. The first day, I just stared at my page wondering "So what happens next?" until I got bored of trying to figure it out. The second day I spent hours on it, checking it every 10 minutes, still wondering what the big deal is. By the third day, I realized that Facebook is just as stupid as I had predicted. Why do people like it so much? Even my mom has an account. I feel like I should like it, but I just don't see the value in wasting hours of my precious time on some mindless computer website designed for the lonely, when I could be doing something like, say, blogging. I've explained this thought to many Facebook users, and they argue that it's a good way to keep in touch with friends, and to know what friends are doing. And yes, I agree, especially during the summer when you don't see your friends every day at school, it's kind of nice to hear about your friends' vacations to Europe or wherever they go. But honestly, I don't care that Suzie is "sooooooooo bored", or even that Oscar is "eating sushi!". (I don't have any Facebook friends named Suzie or Oscar, but you get the point) So what's the big whoop? I've yet to find a post about something worthwhile. If you happen to enjoy the wonders of Facebook, whatever floats your boat, I guess. Personally, I have better things to do.... but I can't explain why I'm constantly logged on... Today I was on Google Earth, searching for my house on the map. (I know everyone's done it, where they keep clicking the 'zoom in' button until you find your house, and then you look for your neighbors' houses, and then your friends houses until you realize that your kind of being a stalker? Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about...) I find it s little scary sometimes. No, not my house, my house is perfectly normal, but the fact that your house, large in comparison to yourself, is only a speck compared to the earth, if even that. Which means that if our houses seem large to us, than imagine how small we must be! Have you ever zoomed out from your house (on Google Earth) all the way to outer space and came to the realization that you are just a person, in room, on a floor, in a house, on a street, on a block, in a neighborhood, on a grid, in a suburb, on a longitude line, in a county, in a state, in a time zone, in a region, in a country, in a continent, , in an ocean, in a hemisphere, in a planet, in an orbit, in a galaxy, in space, in the universe? Deep, right? Also a little bit daunting.
I was so curious about this topic that I decided to do some research (Does Googling count as research?) and google searched "How big is a person in comparison to the earth?". One of the things I found was that it would take millions of Mt. Everests to cover the earth. That's pretty impressive! I also discovered that compared to the earth, we are equivalent to a grain of salt. You know the saying, "you take it with a grain of salt"? Well, the saying's actual meaning aside, the earth literally takes human beings with a grain of salt. So, if one grain of salt equals one person, and f there are roughly 7.7 billion people in the world, than there are 7.7 billion grains of salt in the world. Bowkerhouse,com says that 1 billion grains of salt is equivalent to 25 gallons. 7.7 billion times 25 gallons equals 192,500,000,000 gallons. How many grains of salt does that equal? I have no idea. I'll let you do the math. All I know, is that it's a VERY large number. So by now, you're probably wondering why I bothered blogging about this. What does this all mean? It means two things: Number one, we are all figuratively just grains of salt. And number two: the earth is one giant salt shaker. There are many weird sounds that aggravate me, but these are just the top three.
1. You know that material that's not quite metal, but looks a lot like it? I can't stand looking at, and especially feeling that material. Every single time I get a chill down my spine that lasts until I plug my ears or walk away. It makes this strange, spine tingling noise when you rub your finger on it, which rings in my ear for several minutes afterwards. Everyone thinks I'm crazy because they have no idea why I'm cringing, they can't even hear anything, but I do. This was especially hard going laptop shopping yesterday, because most laptops are made of this material. Of coarse the guy from best buy who was helping us pick one out had to run his fingers over every single laptop he passed. I was practically dying! 2. The sound of paper sliding against a wall. I discovered this one when my friend was doing this in my basement. "Should I put the paper over here?" She slid it to the opposite side of the wall "or over here?". I dropped my pencil and plugged my ears. She thought I was having a seizure or something, she started saying "Are you OK? What's wrong? Do you need help? What do you need?" Yet the whole time she continued sliding the paper on the wall. It drove me nuts. 3. The sound of writing with an un-sharpened pencil. I can't even explain this one. I usually just stick with mechanical. The other day was my friend Lily's birthday party, and that morning I still had no idea what to get her. I've been friends with her since 3rd grade, so it's not that I don't know her well enough, I just didn't have any ideas. (And it's definitely a social faux pas to ask someone what they want the day of their party.) You have to understand that Lily is a little... unique. Not unique in a bad way, unique in the sense that it makes her even more hilarious. Nonetheless, a unique person is very hard to shop for.
Lily and I both had volleyball the morning before her party. As we were walking out of practice, Lily said "I've always wanted to try a papaya. Just give me a papaya for my birthday and I'll be perfectly happy. But I don't know how to eat it..." "Ok Lily," I said " I'll buy you a papaya, and print you out step by step instructions on how to eat it just for you." Lily laughed at the thought of actually getting a papaya for her birthday, but I was laughing because she thought I was kidding. When I got to the party, almost everyone was there already (including Maura :^)) . I beheld two presents: One was a pink bag which contained a bracelet and a gift card, and the other was surprisingly heavy and lumpy, not to mention huge, wrapped in butterfly wrapping paper. I gave them to Lily, and she had a sneaky, knowing look on her face. She broke out into a wide grin and said "Is this a papaya?" I pretended like I had no idea what she was talking about. "Huh?" I asked her. She just smiled and put it with the rest of the presents. After the scavenger hunt, pizza, and cupcakes, it was time for Lily to open presents. I told her she should open mine first. She took it and tore through the wrapping paper. "YES!!" She screamed "It's what I've always wanted!! Thank you SO much!" Everyone was very confused (especially Lily's mom) as to why I gave her a papaya of all things, and why Lily was so excited. I don't know why, after all, it's exactly the kind of gift Lily would love. The next morning we were in the car on the way to volleyball, and Lily pulled out a plastic bag with slices of some kind of fruit in it. She proudl"Would anyone like some papaya?" As you may have read in one of Maura's posts, Maura and I are in a Maine South cross country camp together this summer which is a month long, so it ends when July ends. All of the running we do takes place in the forest preserve, and you can run whatever distance you want: one and a half miles, 2 miles, 3 miles, 4 miles, 5 miles, 6 miles, or 8 miles if you're either on varsity or looking for a way to torture yourself.
During the first week, my group (maura and two other girls) was barely finishing at 1 and a half miles, and we walked a large portion of the trail. By the beginning of the second week we could do 2 miles with a break at the end of the trail, and between the 1 and a half miles and the extra half mile that made 2 miles. All of my group is in cross country at Lincoln or Emerson, but we usually never placed too well, or walked some of the time (well, at least I did :^)). So during the camp we were surprised we could even run/walk 2 miles without collapsing. At the end of the second week, our goal was to master the 2 miles and not stop the whole time, and we succeeded! So we ran 2 miles every day for another week - except today. One of the girls in our group wasn't at camp today, and there was a heat advisory warning, but of coarse we chose this day of all days to try 3 miles. I know 3 is, in most terms a very small number. To many other runners, it's probably a very small number to, but to us, 3 miles was like suicide. But we just had to try. As a very wise gym teacher, Mrs. Cohen, once said "You're not going to get any better if you don't push yourself." and we were getting very bored with the 2 mile trail; we knew it so well we could run it blindfolded. The whole way we told ourselves "If we walk we will die" (which turned out to be very motivational, but made other runners look at us like we were crazy) or "think of ice cold water, waiting for you at the finish line" (which just made us even thirstier and more tired). Once I saw my water bottle, filled with ice and glistening in the hot sun, I forgot how tired I was and sprinted to the end. We made the whole 3 miles without stopping and it felt really good! Some of the older girls ran 3 miles also, but they said they walked a lot of it because it was so hot, but we didn't slow down once. It's the farthest I've ever run without stopping and tomorrow were going to try to go even faster. Earlier this summer my dad came up to me and asked, "Isn't it about time you get a laptop?" I was completely surprised. Usually my dad is all about being "fair", but my older sister only got her laptop this year for Christmas. He must have been in a really good mood, because I thought I'd have to wait until freshman year to get a laptop like my sister. Of coarse I replied "Yes!". There is only one problem: my dad is a PC person. I am a mac person. But since he's the one who volunteered to buy the laptop, and I wasn't about to let this once-in-a-lifetime chance pass me by, I figured I would just go with a PC. Key word: figured. Meaning I figured I should probably just go with it, but I'm not the type who will settle for something when I know there's a better option. So, later that day, I said "Hey, dad, what are the chances my laptop could be the macbook air?" He said, "None. Unless you present me with research explaining why macs are $600 better than PCs. If you can do that, than I'll buy you and your sister macbook airs." To fully understand why he said this, you should probably know that my dad is a lawyer. He does research for a living, and loves his job, so he loves research. What he didn't know, is that I happen to be very persuasive in my research. So I set to work. I ended up with a 27 page thesis complete with charts, graphs, bullet points, customer reviews, and even an unbiased review just to make him happy. I even listed my sources. He was very surprised that I went through all that trouble, so he dropped what he was doing, and read through my paperwork. I was sitting on the edge of my seat watching him read it, hoping for at least a smile or an approving nod, but his expression was completely blase. After an agonizing 10 minutes, he set the packet down. He said "You definitely gave me some things to think about." and then turned on the TV. Hey at least I got him to think about it, right? Wrong. As I mentioned earlier, my dad is a big fan of research, and he decided to do some research of his own. I don't think that was very fair. He then presented me with paperwork concerning why PCs are better than MACs. Defeated, I agreed to a PC. At least I'm getting a nice laptop, right? Wrong. Again. When I told him that I surrendered, he kept going. "Hey, look at this!" He said one morning, pointing to an ad in the newspaper. "Look here, this Acer laptop has a nice hard drive and lots of memory space, and it's even half the price of a Dell! This Acer is just perfect for you! Isn't that great?" I could not believe him. "Seriously?" I asked. "Well," he said "how about you present me with research showing why a Dell or HP computer is double the price of an Acer." Wow dad. |
me: aka an awesome personHello i'm Emily. Some things I do often are dancing, running, playing clarinet and tripping over things... I hope you enjoy reading about my super-exciting life! Archives
October 2013
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