Bang, bang, the first six are for you.

Bang, bang, the seventh is for me. Great song.

I thought it was neat how the clouds behind/above the plane in this picture are in the formation of a plane, minus one of its wings. Perhaps I'm the only one who sees it. Yeah, so be it. It reminds me, though, of the other day when I was watching these birds fly near the pond and I was jealous. Why can't I take off and soar? And I don't mean in the dumb, metaphorical growing-up-and-reaching-my-potential sense, I'm talking the real deal: wings and all. I also wouldn't mind the incredibly sharp eyesight, you know, like an eagle. Which only makes me wonder if all eagles have super, I suppose 20/20, vision. I can't imagine what it'd be like to be the only eagle to need glasses.
These made me smile. I feel like such a little kid. If you think they are no different than your average Oreo, you are correct, my friend, but you see, it's a panda-wich so it's infinitely cooler.
That mini-harmonica necklace is new favorite accessory. You can actually play it! Also in this picture is my lovely shirt featuring a Degas dancer.

I would talk more about school and such, but really, it's SPRING BREAK.

I hope everyone is well.
:]

This is the world that we live in.

I am very glad I kept these shoes.
Funny how they looked odd on my feet a few years ago and were somewhat unfashionable, yet now I love them, I get compliments and life's good.

There's only four more days until my spring break begins and Wednesday is hardly a school day. We spend approximately 20 minutes in each class then are given the rest of the day to collect signatures from teachers for our registration sheets. Heck to the oh yeah.

I feel like I wasted this past weekend. Saturday I was unmotivated to do much of anything. When I did try to be productive, I was reading and taking notes about the Holocaust. Naturally, that didn't help. Sunday I woke up at 1:30, practically half the day gone, and my lower back hurting. Bah, I'll quit complaining.

The good news: I got a 96 on my math quiz! Hurray for a good start of the last quarter.

I just remembered I have Spanish vocabulary to write out twice in Spanish and once in English. GOO-RAH, RAWR!

We're currently analyzing an excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe's Tell Tale Heart in English. This is considered practice for our Cambridge exam come May. I'm not digging the whole work-in-a-group-with-people-that-you-may-or-may-not-like to complete an assignment that I feel requires very serious effort. I feel like, besides one group member, I have to drag out their input. Oh, well.
'Tis the tree reconstructed. I am going to be painting two of the lighter brown bottle caps darker, but that's easily fixable. What do you think?

It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.

I just heard a Poison Control Center radio ad that went -- no lie -- "If you think you might be poisoned, call 222--whatever" in a sing-song-y cheery voice, as if they were trying to sell candy! I can understand the importance of such an ad, but does it have to be so disconcertingly happy? I wouldn't be happy if I was dying from poison. Would you?

I finished The Catcher in the Rye. I'm very glad I read it; it is such an influential book. It has inspired me to create an art project about/surrounding it. For now, though, I must focus on completing my social issue project and grandfather drawing.

Meanwhile, I started up this other small project that I'm hoping to enter into an arbor day contest. And actually finish in the foreseeable future. Yeah, that'd be nice.
It's a tree constructed out of recycled bottle caps from my mom's teas. I then deconstructed it so I could paint the otherwise white or gray caps brown to look more like a trunk. I'm also pasting it to a poster board.
It looks less impressive now. That will change. Hopefully soon.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words on my last entry. I'm incredibly relieved to be done with that darn standardized test. For this year, at least. It's all up in the air at the moment, but my class may get out of taking a standardized science test next year (11th grade) while this year's 11th graders are stuck taking it tomorrow.

I saw Up in the Air on DVD recently. Not bad, not bad. Kudos to director, Jason Reitman, for telling a believable, heart-felt story without boring me to death. I see why it was nominated for Best Picture.

I also saw The Last Station at the cinema in the past week. Despite being clearly an intellectual movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it and not just because there were plenty of close-ups of McAvoy's darling face. Yet, of course, that was not overlooked in the slightest. teehee.

Have an awesome week, everyone. I'll be commenting back in the ensuing days. I promise.

You say you want a revolution.

Tomorrow I take a state-wide standardized test with my fellow sophomores. If you fail, forget getting to advance to the next grade and until you pass it, you cannot graduate high school either. Yeah. No pressure. In all seriousness, though, I think I will pass. I've only been taking this kind of test since third grade; granted now that I'm even older the articles are "harder." If harder means boring, then yes, they're harder. The articles they choose are absolutely mind-numbing! One year we had to read and comprehend the ideas behind bar codes.

Well, that's that. I need my sleep.

Profound.

image via here.

"Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be much older of anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrible fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way -- I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it."
-- an excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger