Gahhhh

I look at things things now and all I can think is: "Oh, look, a Doric column. Oh, look a pendentive dome. Oh, look, Roman influence! Oh, hey--that's some Neoclassicism! Oh, there's some Rococo. Oh, hold up, got some Baroque there. Oh, why do all of these thoughts begin with 'oh'?"

And then people-*coughNeha/Michellecough*-have to remind me that I have AP tests in less than two months?!

Thanks.

But seriously.

Also, I've been...slackerish lately.

Oh, gosh it's frustrating.

I'm too influenced by outside sources. I will not succomb!

Also, according to Eshwar, I'm Shakespeare. ??? OK.

Something I call an MLIA/FML moment....

So today in AP Lang, we were reading the passages in the "entering the conversation" in our book and summarizing them. I'm reading them, being productive and actually working on the assignment we're supposed to. Meanwhile other people are talking about some of the selections or just things that aren't related to AP Lang at all. I here something about a passage concerning 24 and Law&Order and start to think, "Have I read that yet? Guess not." Then finally, I come to the sixth and final conversation passage.

Thinking that there was only 5, I turn to Abby and say, "What!? There's six! Dang it! I thought there were only five"

She responds, "What? No, there's only five."

"...What page are you on?"

"760, what page are you on?"

"...880."

So, I had been reading the wrong series of passages for the last hour of class. It made a lot more sense, seeing as how I had been reading the passages in the Nature section of our book when I was supposed to be reading the Popular Culture section....no wonder all the passages I was reading about dealt with global warming instead of the media.

The Parthenon

For my brief mid-winter break, my sisters and I traveled back in time to see the Parthenon in its glory days, complete with Phidias' ornate 41 feet tall statue of Athena. Somehow it had been moved to Nashville, Tennessee....It was pretty fun.

I've also resolved to NEVER read the same book at the same time with my sister Leah. Ever.

What'd you do?

Tennessee

Going back to Tennessee was like...visiting a place that had dissolved into pure memory. It was an odd sense of deja vu as we drove through Hendersonville: a town that had at one time seemed exciting and big but now appeared as a simple, sleepy, and small Southern town. As we climbed over hills or turned corners, it was weird seeing places that I recognized yet had seemed to have forgotten. It's like these mental pictures were dug from the bottom of my memory and brought into clearer focus. Fuzzy places that I had seen in my dreams were now reality, whether it was a corner on Old Shackle Island Road or a hill on Timberlake Drive. We passed the roller skating rink, our old house, Shipley's donuts, the pool where I learned to swim, and so many other places that were a part of my (somewhat brief) childhood. We even went to Kid's Kingdom, a community playground that had been a mile long ten years ago but has somehow shrunk in my absence. In the five years since I've been there, so little has changed. The South is so constant it's almost relaxing. I realize that I've missed more than just the mild winters. It's the gorgeous autumn weather, the laid back lifestyle, and the rolling hills that shape the layout of civilization.

Happiness in a List

According to the UN, the following countries are the top 10 best places to live, in chronological order:

1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Iceland
4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. the Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Japan

I don't know about you, but this list is hilarious. It also makes me kind of really happy. I want to live in at least seven of these places.

Iceland is number three. Perfect. Two-thirds of the Scandinavian Peninsula is on this list. What's up with Finland? Slackers.

What's at the bottom of this list of 182 countries? Niger and Afghanistan. Apparently, Norway makes eighty-two dollars for every dollar Niger makes.

Eva Braun

I think Eva Braun has to be one of history's most interesting figures. Anyone who was lucky enough to date Hitler already makes them extremely interesting. She was his "companion" since they had met when she was 17. He was 40. Eva's sister had been Hitler's mistress before she committed suicide. Braun lived a life of luxury, unaware of the difficulties that came along with World War II. She was spoiled, allowed to read American and European magazines when the rest of Germany was cut off from the outer world and suffering from food shortages. She was fond of nude sunbathing and photography and often combined the two. She had no interest in politics but her loyalty to Hitler technically makes her a Nazi. Hitler, however, didn't quite find her to be acceptable in society. They were rarely seen together before his rise to Fuehrer. After being his wife for only 40 hours, she committed suicide by biting a cyanide pill. Apparently, the German public was largely unaware of her until after her death. This was not her first attempt at suicide. She had tried to kill herself twice during her 16 year long relationship with Hitler. Honestly, I don't blame her.

Oh, the joys of quiz bowl projects!

Deutsch Klasse

You know you're in Herr Baldwin's German class when you associate anything German with...

• Trogdor, Mummra, and the Pantones
• Das Taco: the German-Mexican Taco Restaurant.
• a mini-Starbucks that sells Pantones paraphernalia
• speaking German in Indian, valley girl, English, Australian, and Southern accents
• good intentions but a failure to act on them
• Disco Pogo, Das Geht Ab
• "Hey, Misser B-Win, I found a mistake! Can I have a red pen, please?" -Tim Reimers
• Hannover 96
• a disliking of people who live in Bremen and Russia
• "Uh, I think it's das. Let's ask Tim."
• Boshaft!
• "So...I was going to grade your papers, but I went to a concert instead. However, I got a super cool T-shirt!"
• Mallorca is more than just a small island owned by Spain

Are you sad you missed out on the awesomeness? Yeah, I would be, too.