Leaving on Friday

Hey,

So, if I haven't mentioned this already, I'm going on a 10 day trip with the languages programme at my school to France and Spain. We're going to Paris via London between Friday night and Saturday morning and we'll do our thing there for a few days, we'll spend a few days in Toulouse, then we take the train to Barcelona and from there to Madrid and then home.

A few of the wonderful things we'll be seeing will be Notre Dame Cathedral, where we will be attending mass on our second day which is incidentally a Sunday, as well we'll see the Seine, the Champs d'Elysee, Versailles, the Louvre, and a bunch of stuff in Spain... I'm in the French programme so I mostly paid attention to the stuff in France.

Anyway, I did all my shopping today, and I'm packing tomorrow after I do my Theory of Knowledge presentation, and then I just have to say goodbye. I'm really upset about leaving all of my friends behind, but I suppose I need to learn how to deal with that kind of stuff considering the wonders of post secondary await us next year.

Anyway, I probably won't post anything tomorrow, so I'll post more in April when I get back, there'll be lots to say... I'll probably transcribe my travel journal 'cause I'll be too lazy to write anything else :P

Fare thee well!
~Alexandra

Reading Again!

Hello,

I finally did some reading today. I haven't actually read something for fun in months, so this was good for me. I had my Oryx & Crake test on Friday and I was still 70 pages from the end of the book, so I finished that off today. I really liked the ending, it kind of continued the feeling of the book and gave the reader the impression that life goes on regardless of what has happened. I was really impressed at how well she did that. It kind of reminds me of how I tried to end one of my stories "Don't Let Go". It's just raw and real yet beautiful.

I also started reading Angelology by Danielle Trussoni today. It's very well written, I'm quite impressed. I was lulled into a false sense of security by her writing style, it started out looking like a book about a nun in her convent and an artist who works as a P.I. on the side, and then there's an old man who was youthful in the early 1800's which completely threw me off and reminded me that this book does in fact have a fantasy element to it. A rather substantial one. I'm already 37 pages in. I'll be taking this one to Europe with me I think. It seems appropriate, as it appears that it will be set in Paris at one point or another.

Other than that my day was slow, I went out in search of Bromelain tablets for a biology enzyme lab I'm performing tomorrow, and I also picked up more hair smoother. Exciting.

Bye for now!
~Alexandra

Yeah...

Hi,

Been ignoring the blog for 5 days now... and I have nothing to post. I had an archery tournament today in which I took first for the individual round in my category and then 3rd in the grand eliminator (everyone took part).

D&D on Thursday, my group left me behind while they all went into a magical book and became awesome. I got 20 XP in pity points because I "was there" as the DM put it.

Been learning to play magic, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. My friend built me a deck in 15 minutes and I've actually got a good win/loss ratio going with it.

Nothing else has happened.

Bye!
~Alexandra

Splicing

Hello,

Well it was back to school with me today. Not a bad day, though, I understood Calculus, got a reading period in English, did my lab on Superworms in bio, did my oral in 2 1/2 minutes in French and then texted for the remainder of class in which everyone else did their orals. I joined my friends for Magic after class and we put me together a deck and I'm starting to play now! I am no good at all, but I'll learn.

Other than that... I gamed a little bit just now and I also put together a track for a belly dance performance. I don't know how choreographed it's going to be, and I also don't know if it'll be performed anywhere... maybe YouTube if it's any good.

Not a very exciting day otherwise. I'm just trying to survive. Every day I have to go to school I die a little bit inside. I hate it, it's pure hell. I just want to get the hell out of here and get to University, where I'll care about what I'm doing. There will be a legitimate purpose in studying what I'm doing there. IB is killing me.

I'll stop whining now and opt for something productive along the lines of freewriting. I think I'll do a freewrite meme actually... I haven't done one of those in a few months.

Bye!
~Alexandra

Perfect Day :)

Hey Guys,

I had the perfect day today. I got up rather early and went off to archery, ended up spending around 3 hours there just shooting. I fixed up a few form things and I'm trying to tighten my grouping up so I don't suck too badly in the near future. Then again, I'm not actually going to Provincials (in lieu of Europe) so there's no rush.

Anyway, when I got home I played Black Ops. For, like, 5 1/2 hours. So much fun! Did several TDMs, got a couple contracts paid, and tonnes of wager matches. Did some combat training with a few of my friends, got a nice ego boost from the high K/Ds! And zombies. We didn't do so hot on zombies today, but it was fun anyway.

I successfully relaxed this weekend, and had so much fun doing it. I can't wait until school is over and I can just enjoy life. Right now, I just pray for the hours to go by faster and I'm getting tired of living like that. Also, I'm getting NO writing done... I don't even know why. I'm still trying to get this story figured out and I can't get anywhere with it.

Anyway, I'ma go now and do YouTube related things.

Bye!
~Alexandra

T-Shirts

Hello,

The most interesting thing I've done all day was make up the t-shirt design for my archery club. A bunch of us are making designs and I think we'll vote or something. I'll take a pic and post it to deviantArt soon and then pop a link up here.

Other than that I played some Black Ops today, in which I was the top player on my team for a whole round, finishing 10 and 13, which should give you some idea of how badly we got our asses handed to us. I got a contract paid, AUG Frenzy or something... 50 kills with an AUG in 40 minutes or something. I tried using C4 and it didn't work out so well, I need practice with that one. Tried a Ground War, which didn't turn out well either. Tried a new machine gun, the PM63, and that's not going so hot either. Not a fabulous day, I just need to switch back to my Galil I think. It was a good gun... Also tried solo zombies and I made it to round 9, so I was quite proud of myself for that. I'm just waiting for my dad to go to sleep so I can sneak downstairs and play with my friend who's online just now, then we'll cause carnage together and it shall be awesome.

That's my day.

Bye!
~Alexandra

I'm not ignoring you!

Hello,

I promise I'm not ignoring you! I've been having a hell of a week. I finished the Historical Investigation, finally, and yesterday I didn't actually get in until after 10, I was participating in shenanigans.

It's all good today, though, I get to relax and enjoy my weekend since I finished the HI and it's going to be great! Archery practice on Sunday, for one thing, and there's the possibility of my group having another Dungeons and Dragons session sometime on Sunday as well, which I am looking forward to very much, I enjoy the group we have going. Last time, we accidentally knocked out a shop keeper so I took advantage of the situation and looted the register :P successfully converting myself from lawful good to chaotic neutral. I love D&D!

Um... yeah that's all. Loving the new computer!!

Bye!
~Alexandra

My New Toy!!

Hey people,

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I got absorbed in homework and writing stuff... trying to figure out where my story starts.

Anyway! My grad present came today! It's a Dell XPS laptop! It's super pretty... nice face plate on the keyboard and the cover was customizable, and they had a line of OPI nail polish colours as options so I got "Jade is the New Black", which I'm actually considering buying in the polish if I can find it. It's a gorgeous green-blue.... I love it! I'm in the middle of transferring all my iTunes stuff over (via USB, because I'm too retarded to figure out how to do it any other way) and then I need to flip some school documents over so I can actually try to finish my Historical Investigation, which is due on Thursday.

I have quite a bit of stuff to accomplish tonight in the way of homework and I'm just sitting here now... in fact I forgot about this and went on for nearly half an hour working on my iTunes stuff, which is less than productive. So... I should go and do something useful.

Tschus!
~Alexandra

Sundays

Hello...

First Sunday without archery class. I got to sleep in. I enjoyed that. My day consisted of going out to breakfast with the family then coming home and doing homework mixed with various assorted procrastination methods.

I'm still a whole section behind (as of tomorrow) in Oryx & Crake, so I should go back to that and try to get it done tonight... its only 50-odd pages, so it shouldn't take me more than... 2 hours? 3 maybe? Oh dear...

I'm also trying to haul ass and get my Historical Investigation done for my History IB class. I'm looking at the role of Rasputin and Alexandra's relationship in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty. It's a fairly self explanatory topic, but the aim of the paper is to prove I know how to do historiographical research. Which I do, I just don't particularly care for it. I need the paper to pass the course, which sucks.

I need to go read now... I'll try to have something interesting to say tomorrow.

xoxo
~Alexandra

Awesome Day

Hey there,

I'm really tired but I wanted to get this post done. Today was a really big day: I finally bought my grad dress! It's gorgeous! I was against a strapless dress, but I ended up buying one anyway. It's floorlength, it has these kind of diagonal folds that stream from the bust line down to about mid thigh where they fade into the rest of the dress. It has a band under the bust of rhinestones. The colour... we've been having an arguement over the colour! It's Ruby/Burgundy/Brick/Wine coloured. It has a corset back, which I LOVE! It's a Tony Bowls.

I also went out and got a clutch to go with it, I got Coach's Kristin Large Leather Wristlet in Champagne. I may not wear this to grad, but I'll use it for any other events I wear this dress to. We're planning on getting really good seats at the Opera so we can dress up!

I also have a pair of shoes coming in, but they're nothing fancy. About a 1/2 inch wedge heel, silver, with a ankle band that has rhinestones on it... they're not fabulous, but we've ordered them in so we can try them at least. I kind of want them for summer wear... with skinnys or something, they're actually cute. I can't wear heels because of a bone disorder I have (which I'll get into another day), so if I fall off the heels I'll break every bone in my body. So mostly flats it is. I would go with flats, but the last time I did I popped my knee out.

So, that was my day! I had fun and now I get to look forward to a weekend of homework. Yay.

Bye!!
~Alexandra

D&D Night

Hello,

So I had my nerd night with my friends today. We played D&D. It went well, for the most part. No one died, we'll put it that way. I critically failed twice (rolled a 1 on a d20). The first time I was going to shoot a dragon off of my friends head and I stopped to consider that my life would be so much worse if I lived in a lovecraftian universe. Tonnes of help to my flailing friend. The second time I forgot how to speak the common language and could only communicate in Japanese. Thankfully, we didn't need to converse much in the heat of battle.

Before all this, I sat at the library all afternoon with my guy friends and watched them play the card game Magic. It's very interesting to watch. I'd never play, but I enjoy watching it. I have no sense of strategy, I'm more of a shoot first ask questions later kind of girl. That's why I fail at chess. It's also why I'm so good at team deathmatch...

Um... I picked up the forms today so I can rewrite my Math 30 Pure and Biology 30 diplomas this June. I need to haul my grades up if I actually want to get into University.

I need a vacation.

~Alexandra

Officially Flipping Out

Hey...

So I just got an e-mail telling me that my transcripts (as they stand) were transferred to U of C today. I did really badly on my diplomas, and I'm currently .75% under the minimum entrance percentage for the English programme. The only thing that might save me here is the fact that I'm in full IB and I have to wait for my marks to come in July. That should save me. I hope. *cries silently in the corner*

Otherwise... I had the drive to write, like, an hour and a half ago but I decided to shower first and I think I washed the inspiration away :( Oh well... I have a better drive to write when I write by hand, but I write more and faster on the computer. I don't know why.

I had a practice oral exam for French this afternoon, which went quite well. The picture I had to describe went smoothly, I was 5 seconds under the time but I BS'd a sentence that filled the time quite nicely. Then the back and forth questioning went quite well, that part went for about 7 1/2 minutes, and I did really well. It's kind of an on the spot interview, and I love doing those! I was tickled to figure out that I can do it in French as well.

I'm not planning on continuing French after high school. I will be switching to German first year! I'm really excited about this because I love the language and I AM German so I want to learn the tongue so I can travel to Germany one day (and stalk Martin Goers, but that's a story for another day :P).

That's all for today, I may or may not post something tomorrow, I'll be out all evening at a friend's house... playing D&D. Yeah. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrd. I know.

Tschüs!
~Alexandra

(P.S. The story I wrote for the Figment "Extraordinary" Contest went through! I'm hoping I get enough votes to win... it's a $35 gift card for ThinkGeek.com. I officially love this website...)

Serenity

Hello.

Last night I wrote a very graphic piece in which a character portraying me violently killed a character portraying the girl who's been troubling me at school. And you know what? I feel better. A lot better. I actually had the drive to get out of bed half an hour late and actually do my makeup this morning, which I haven't done in days.

I had the opportunity to meet thriller author Jeff Buick, as he is a personal friend of my neighbours, and one story I never hear enough times is about how he got very angry at Revenue Canada and ended up having a character violently murder a tax agent. He was less angry about paying his taxes that year.

And now I understand why that works. It helps you unleash pent up fury and afterwards you kind of feel like you have an edge when you're around that person. You feel like you're more in control of the situation. And no one actually gets hurt in the process. Double positive, I see no downside here. Except that perhaps I sound like a psychopath... I don't care. I feel really good for the first time in two weeks and it's all thanks to writing. I knew there was a reason I love this profession.

I decided to fore-go my recurve tonight and opted for longbow. I more or less figured out how to do it at 20m, but I need practice. If I anchor with my index finger at the corner of my mouth and point the tip of the arrow exactly where I want it to go, I usually hit it. I just need to practice more. Regionals are on Sunday starting at 9 am so I need to mentally prepare for that. I'm looking forward to it actually. I will be shooting my recurve, of course, and I'm pretty sure I'll do well. I haven't been shooting particularly well lately, in fact I'm about 60 points down from my old average, so I need to just sit down for a half hour or so and just mentally train: a yoga elastic band, some rubber bands and maybe a stick and I'll have everything I need to mentally train for this thing. The stick is used to position the shoulders correctly, the rubber bands are tied together and used as a makeshift string for draw, anchor and release practice, and the yoga band is for stretching and resistance training. If I take a half hour or an hour I can do this.

That's all for today, I was just enjoying the bliss of being guilt free for once.

Tschüs!
~Alexandra