MY FATHER'S TOY

My father is strange. I'll just tell you that straight up. He is very strange. Sometimes, it's an awesome type of strange, and sometimes it's just a 0.o STRANGE strange, if you catch my drift. I do love him so, but sometimes it gets quite obvious where I get my... uniqueness from. :P

Anyways, I'll tell you a little about him. He's very nice, but very opinionated. He once lectured my friend on why she shouldn't like the current political party that's in power in Canada (the Conservatives) when we were driving to the war museum. He's also very funny, and does a hilarious Celine Dion impression LOLZ. He loves my fat, hairy Golden Retrievers Fred and Wendy, and insists that they are not fat and they need more table scraps.

So, STORY TIME! Last year, my father turned 50. He had the whole mid-life crisis thing. He decided that, for his 50th birthday, he would definitely do two things: 1) Get a tattoo, and 2) buy himself a convertable. He did both. He now has the logo of his favourite hockey team on his thigh, and he is not hesitant to drop his pants and display the tattoo in his underwear. The convertible, that we have dubbed his "toy", is a black Mazda Miata named Matsumi, or Mia. She's imported from Japan, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. He LOVES his toy.

I always feel weird riding in it, though. Whenever I pull up to school and I'm in the convertible, I feel a little... show-offy. I guess I'm not really one for a grande entrance, but when we pull up to the barn I ride at, it's even weirder because I feel like I'm snobby or something. Of course, nobody really thinks that. They all think it's pretty cool my dad has a convertible. I just can't help thinking that they think I'm rich or something because of it. ANYWAYS, that's my story for today. :P

ERM, I KINDA FAIL

Yeah, I kinda fail.

I forgot to post yesterday. I don't know what came over me. I had tons of time, and I was just kind of occupying myself with nothing yesterday. But I FORGOT. How terrible of me!

Oh well. I'll just pick up where I left off, and this will be the post for yesterday, then I'll make another today for today and put it above. I also apologize to my buddies, as I have not been a very good buddy and haven't had time to comment on other people's blogs.

So, yesterday was Pirate Day at school for Spirit Week, and I was thoroughly disappointed with the school's turn out. There was like, 10 people out of the whole school (population: 1,700+ students) actually dressed up for Pirate Day. I mean, come on! It's SPIRIT WEEK. I want to see your hardcore SPIRIT. (Of course, if your a nerd like me you LIVE for days to dress up strangely and not be shunned for it... so I have a little more enthusiasm for Spirit Weeks than most people my age. :P) So yeah, my school kind of fails. And I do too. Aren't we just a bunch of failers?

CHEATER BLOG

I'm cheating. I don't have time to write a good blog, so I'll edit this blog tomorrow. :P

SPIRIT WEEKS ARE EPIC

YES, the title says it all. Spirit weeks are epic.

In case you don't know what a spirit week is (if you don't, it is quite possible you are a hermit), a spirit week is a week recognized by a school where there are five themed days with activites relating to the theme during lunch. It's pretty awesome. At our school, all the themes are chosen by the student council. Next week's themes are:

MONDAY - PAJAMA DAY
Oh, the joy of wearing your favourtest, comfiest PJs to school. :D
TUESDAY - PIRATE DAY
Arrrr, avast yee landlubbers!
WEDNESDAY - CRAZY HAT/HAIR DAY
I have no clue what I'm going to do for this one. But it's going to be FUN.
THURSDAY - 80'S DAY
Legwarmers, neon colours and shoulder pads required.
FRIDAY - COLOURS DAY
Aha, each grade is assigned a colour to wear. Colours are still yet to be decided.

This spirit week has some pretty good themes... I think it's one of the best. One or two years ago, we had a "Gender Bender" themed day where you got to dress up as the opposite gender, but the administration made the student council change it. It was very sad. Oh, also, on Thursday (80's day), our Semi-Formal dance is being held at 7 pm. AND I'M GOING! Yay. I wasn't sure if I was able to go because I have gymnastics that Thursday. I haven't missed any practices yet, though, so my coach allowed me this one night.

Anyways, I'm tired and signing off for tonite. :)

THISISNOTTOM >:(

Today I am going to discuss ThisisNotTom (or TiNT). In case you didn't know, TiNT is a riddle website. You go to thisisnottom.com, and you start from there. No directions, no rules, you just have to find out how to get to the next clue in the riddle using a picture given to you, sometimes words or small, cryptic clues. I found out about TiNT through other forums on the internet, and I was very interested. Apparently, at the end of some of the newer clues, there are pieces to a story written by the mystery person who created nottom. I haven't quite got to any of the story yet. :(

At first, I was determined to figure everything out all by myself. But sometimes the clues are really hard. So then I resorted to hint websites. TiNT has a very large following, and there are websites for just hints that don't give anything away. For some clues, the levels, the hints really helped. But for others, it was very, very complicated and left me thinking, "... erm, LOLWHUT???" So, at some times I found myself finding the answers posted by others on internet. I cheated. It was terrible.

TiNT is pwetty hard, though. I guess if you're smart and persistent and patient, the riddles are easy. But not for me. So far, I have gotten to the YouTube Clue #2. I finished YouTube Clue #1 earlier today, but had to stop as this was taking way too much brain power.

(I realize this blog post really has no specific point to it other than to specify how challenging I find the TiNT website. Oh well. :P)

BOOKS I HAVE TO READ

Don't shoot me. This blog is going to be short too. Tomorrow's is probably going to be vertically challenged as well. SORRY! I just can't find the time to blog at length right now. So for this blog, I'm going to be lazy and make a list.

BOOKS I HAVE TO READ:
1) Finish "Specials" by Scott Westerfield
2) "Bermudez Triangle" by Maureen Johnson
3) "Extras" by Scott Westerfield
4) "The Boyfriend List" by E. Lockhart
5) All the PostSecret books :D
6) "Dramarama" by E. Lockhart

I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them right now. :P

GOOD/BAD DAY

Today was a good day and a bad day.

It was a good day because: today was a short day, tomorrow is a PD day, I used my iPod since I found it, I played Bingo and won a free movie ticket, and gymnastics was fun. Oh, and when I got home, I ate some pudding.

It was a bad day because: my brother is exceedingly annoying, my mother refuses to listen to any of the pleas I make about Sparky, and instead of getting the free movie ticket, I could have gotten a cake. I DIDN'T TAKE THE CAKE. >:( Why didn't I take the cake?! I dunno.

Harper's Island is on right now so sorry the blog is short and boring! I'll do an extra good blog tomorrow.

UPDATES AND EXCITING THINGS

I have to make this blog entry quite short because my evil brother wants the power cord to his laptop for his homework (he lost his power cord) and my laptop Spencer is running out of power.

Recent updates: Nothing new on the Sparky situation. My cousin who found me Sparky contacted my father and "reasoned" with him. It was quite funny. :P I FOUND MY iPOD! YAYYYYYYY! It wasn't in the house like we thought. It was in the car. I also got my third place ribbon today for my barn show on Saturday that just passed. My father is leaving for the weekend, which is sad. He's going golfing, LOL. The riding lesson was pretty good... I rode Radar again, and we were a little unorganized, but overall it was pretty good.

Exciting Things: Tomorrow is a short day (classes are all cut down by 15 minutes) so they can do parent-teacher interviews at school. Also, Friday is a PD Day! WOOOT! I also get to ride my cousin's awesome, adorable pony on Sunday, I think. It's going to be fun.

CHALLENGE 2: JOURNEY FROM BREAD TO TOAST

As a young piece of bread, my experiences with heat totalled to the oven in which I was born. Laying in a cupboard, I was quite content with my bread brothers and sisters. We enjoyed staying in our plastic bag home. Each slice of bread was a brother or sister to me, and we were all united in a profound way. Until I met the toaster.

I had never experienced heat like the wretched monster 'the toaster' introduced me to. One day, sleeping quietly in my bread bag, a human twirled open the bag of bread and pulled out another screaming victim - me. I was certain my life was over, and in some way, it was. The human set me and my bread buddy into a large, standing metal grill thing which they had dubbed the toaster. They pushed a button down, and we descended. It started to get really, really hot. Soon, the inferno was too much, and I had already decided that now was the time to let go.

Within minutes, I have given up on life. But then, there was a loud pop, and my bread buddy and I were thrust upwards toward cool air. We were pulled out of the despised toaster, and set down on a cool plate. The air was refreshing. Soon, I realized that a transformation had occured - I was no longer a piece of bread, but instead, I was toast. TOAST. Butter was spread on me, but instead of being eaten by the humans, I was forgotten about, and left on the plate. I was discarded into the garbage, where a whole new adventure began - I was taken to the dump. Though my initial experience travelling from bread to toast was terrifying, I accepted myself as toast and lived a full and healthy life.

HAHA, that was my take on the toast blog. It's very fun to write a story from the perspective of toast. xD Tomorrow, I'll actually report on my life. :)

CHALLENGE 1: QUESTIONNAIRE

Here is my first challenge. The blog about toast will come for tomorrow's BEDA. I also invite my buddies to make challenges too! They're quite fun. :D

- Name: Ellen
- Alias: Ellie, Melon, MelonEllen, Eddin, various other forms of Ellen...
- Country You Live In: Canadaland! :)
- Favourite TV Shows: House, Scrubs, Heartland (not as much anymore...), Project Runway (sometimes...), So You Think You Can Dance?, there's probably more but I can't think of any...
- Favourite Books or Authors: Dream Factory, Uglies Series, Princess Diaries 1-10, Stargirl, Love, Stargirl, Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Girl At Sea, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Just Listen, Audrey, Wait!, Criss-Cross, Looking For Alaska, and others.
- Favourite Movies: Mleh, I like most movies. Except for ones that are stupid and not funny.
- Favourite Bands/Singers: Oh my... ACDC, Led Zepplin, Tokyo Police Club, The Who, Metric, Stars, MGMT (Just starting to listen to their music), and others. My music taste is always changing, so I'm open for song suggestions!
- Pets You Own: Two extremely hairy and fat Golden Retrievers named Fred and Wendy. My older brother also owns a Beta fish named Andy-Flag (Nicknamed Andy for short).
- Languages You Speak: French and English! (Je suis canadienne... je parle le francais a l'ecole!)
- The Last Place You Visited: My kitchen. To eat. Om nom nom.
- Sports You Participate In: Horse-back riding, gymnastics, some random games of softball or soccer when I feel like it.
- The Best Way To Spend A Rainy Day: Computer, reading, with friends doing cool things.
- If You Had $10,000 You Would: Buy horses. Buy Sparky. Invest. Take my friends on a road trip.
- 1 Weird Fact About You: I have never been seriously hurt or injured. Not to jinx myself, but the sickest I've ever been is when I had strep throat. I've sprained my toe too, but that's the extent of my injuries.

I'll be adding my toast blog and a blog reporting on the latest events tomorrow. :)

A CHALLENGE FOR MY BUDDIES

I have a challenge for my BEDA buddies! Well, actually, I have two challenges! Your mission, should you choose to accept them, are below.

CHALLENGE 1: QUESTIONNAIRE
I want to get to know you guys! YOU (Sierra, Katherine and Dimitra) have to fill in this questionnaire:
- Name:
- Alias:
- Country You Live In:
- Favourite TV Shows:
- Favourite Books or Authors:
- Favourite Movies:
- Favourite Bands/Singers:
- Pets You Own:
- Languages You Speak:
- The Last Place You Visited:
- Sports You Participate In:
- The Best Way To Spend A Rainy Day:
- If You Had $10,000 You Would:
- 1 Weird Fact About You:

CHALLENGE 2: RANDOM BLOG
You must blog about toast. A WHOLE blog. It doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter how you say it, it just has to be about toast.

I will be participating in these challenges too. I hope you guys join in! :D

NEGOTIATIONS THAT AREN'T WORKING

My mother is raining on my parade. I guess you could call her a 'realist'. She is the sort of person that points out that no, you can't go _____ (insert awesome place here) because it's raining or the sky is falling or zombies are coming. She generally think in a very realistic, calm way. I love her for it, but it's also frustrating. She doesn't like horses. She doesn't want me to have a horse. Horses practically eat money for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and she realizes this. It's sad. Therefore, she refuses to buy a horse for me.

I've tried very hard to negotiate my parents buying Sparky for me. My father is actually not saying no. He seems interested in buying the horse I want. But it's my mother who I really have to convince. Without the approval of my mother, my father won't go through with it. For the moment, I'm stuck trying to negotiate with my mother.

My negotiations have gone something like this:
ME: Spaaaaaaaarky, Spaaaaaaaaarky mommy!
MOM: No.
ME: But I will work for you and do whatever you want forever!
MOM: No.
ME: I'll write a signed contract that agrees I will listen to you and do things without being asked. Also, I'll go into dad's work and clean for free, clean the house, and do the laundry.
MOM: No. How on earth would you do that when you have to do your schoolwork and take care of a horse AND go to gymnastics?
ME: I'll give up gymnastics!
MOM: No. You cannot have a horse.

Thus, I am getting nowhere. It's very sad. I'll keep you guys updated on how the Sparky negotiations are going. Everyone so far but my mother has been Pro-Sparky. My father is more Neutral-Sparky. This is frustrating. D:

OH, AND EXTRAS

The other post below was very long, so I decided cut it off and will put my other news and junk in an extra blog entry. This is good! I'm catching up on my blog writing!

First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to my awesome BEDA buddies Dimitra, Sierra and Katherine Hardman. I'm really excited to do the buddy program, and now I have to go read some of your blogs and leave comments! Thanks for the comments. I like my layout too, LOL. :D

Second, I have to report on how my barn's Fun Show (it was a "Mock" horse show) went. I got to ride the horse I wanted to. His name is Radar, and he's a big bay Warmblood cross. He was really good for me, and was REALLY responsive to all the aids I gave him. We didn't place in the two flat classes, but in the ground poles class we got 4th (or 3rd, I don't know because I had to leave before they gave out the ribbons) and I'm really happy. It was really fun... I got the official job of horse holder when people needed to do stuff. It was a great day!

And lastly, I have to go to bed. I'm really tired, but planning to possibly head to Greenhawk tomorrow to look at more horsey stuff and prices! :D

THE COST OF A HORSE

I have a wonderful cousin. Well, I have many wonderful cousins. But this one in particular found me a horse.

You see, ever since I was about 4 years old, maybe earlier, I have wanted a horse. Or a pony. Whatever came first. It didn't have to be a gorgeous, perfect horse. It just had to be a horse, that maybe I could ride. If I couldn't, I would've probably been satisfied anyways. I took lessons around the age of 8, maybe even earlier, for a couple months at this one barn, then later took a couple months more at this other barn. Then, for about 5 years or so, probably longer, I stopped riding. It was a very sad time, and whenever I would see little kids riding along I would mourn for my dashed dreams. Last year, I began nagging my parents again for lessons. They told me if i wanted them, I had to pay for them myself and organize them myself. So I did. Now I take lessons.

Horses have been in my family for a long time. Since I was born, I guess. Two of my aunts breed horses, and live on farms. Another of my aunts rides, and three of my other cousins ride. So, I guess I could say I have experience with horses. I've been around them all my life. I don't have as much riding experience, only 1-2 years. But I love them TONS.

Anyways, so my cousin rides horses for this guy just to help out at his barn. She found a bay (brown, in case you don't speak equestrian) 6 year old Thoroughbred (same breed as racehorses) for me to buy. He's $3,000 initially, but he's very quiet, easy to ride, laid back, and apparently wonderful. So the point of this BEDA blog is to calculate the cost of Sparky, the horse I want to buy, for the first month I own him. (Maybe) These are all approximate numbers... they can vary.

Initial cost: $3,000
First month of board: $300
Saddle: $400
Bridle: $100
Extra Miscellanious Horse Apparel: $200
Weekly Lessons On Sparky: $150
TOTAL FOR THE FIRST MONTH: $4150 - $4500

This all doesn't include vet and farrier (which can range in cost) and lessons for myself, too. So yes. It is going to be quite hard to convince the parents to buy this horse for me, as I have nothing to contribute to the buying of the horse except maybe $40 in savings, $50 in my bank account, $40 floating around my wallet and $100 from my birthday. So I can contribute about $230. Oh my.

THE TRAVEL BLOG

I like to travel. This is just a fact. My parents, luckily, endorse travelling a LOT. They want me to experience different cultures, try new things, and see the world. I have good parents for my love of travel. For sixteen years old, I've been a lot of places, and travelled different ways. For the next little bit, I'm just going to ramble about the past trips I've had.

First of all, I'm going to talk about one of my biggest trips: Austria. I went to Austria for the World Gymnaestrada 2007, and it was awesome. It was the first time that I went out of North America, and the second time I ever went on a plane. We spent half the three weeks there taking part of the gymnaestrada with my team of 14 girls + coaches + chaperones, and the other half some of the families of the girls and my family rented a house jutting out of the side of a mountain in Austria. The house was beautiful, the other teams from all over the world we met were wonderful, and it was such a good experience. We also toured Italy, Luxenbourg, Germany and briefly stopped in an airport in Holland.

Another essential trip to mention is ALLL my March Break trips to South Carolina, mainly Hilton Head. These trips were week-long trips that included lots of swimming, sun, beach time, and shopping. I adore South Carolina. :D

I've also been to Vancouver. It was another March Break trip with the family, and I took my first plane ride ever when I was going to Vancouver. Ellen + First Plane Ride = Lots of handholding and squeezing of my little brother and going "OHMYGOSHTHEPLANEISCRASHING". It was interesting. The visit itself to Vancouver wasn't really that eventful. Though, it was nice to see the Rockies from the plane and see the city.

Going to the maritimes (PEI, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia) has been a frequent travel destination during the summer in my family. These trips were very fun, and involved very long car rides and lots of radio tunes. PEI is one of my favourite destination spots.

Last March Break, (MB 2008) I took my first cruise. My family flew down to Florida, then went on a cruise to the Bahamas. It was very fun, and very hot. I really love taking cruises... we went with Carnival, and everything was fun and laid back. There was LOTS of food. All the time. -drools- After the cruise, we went to Disney World and Universal Studios for the rides. That was awesome. (Excuse my multiple uses of 'awesome')

A very important trip I took was a kind of on-the-whim trip to the inauguration of Obama. I'm Canadian, so the inauguration probably wasn't as big a deal in Canadaland as it was in Americaland. But there was a lot of Canadians who were excited. We took a 14 hour trip by bus to Washington, and by the time we got there, we were deprived of sleep and very hungry. But we stood in the cold for a good 6 hours, and then listened to the speech on a loudspeaker and watched the parade. We almost saw Obama. SOOOO CLOSE. But the experience was wonderful, and I can say "I was there". :D

Other miscellanious trips I've taken include going to Maine, Delaware, Toronto (and other various places in Canada) and Quebec. Anyways, that concludes my long ramble on my travelling experience. I may add more later, but for now, I'm tired and have a horse show (it's a fun show, but whatever) tomorrow! :D Promise to update!

BEING SCARED (AND LIKING IT?)

Today was a pretty mediocre days. It wasn't exactly bad, nor was it exactly good. I think the most exciting thing that happened to me today is I watched Harper's Island. It's just a little sad that watching a TV show seems to be the highlight of my day. Oh, I went to gymnastics too, and that was fun. :)

Now I'm going to explain this show Harper's Island. It's one of those shows that creeps you out and makes you want to cover your eyes half the time, but you seem to still get a thrill of watching and tune in every single week to watch another episode. Harper's Island is a horror/murder mystery/thriller 10-week show series on Global, and it is freaking creepy. It's about this island where people were hung by this wacko dude who got shot like 6 years ago or something. Now, a guy who used to live on the island is getting married there and the murders are happening again.

Technically, Harper's Island isn't exactly the best of horror shows. It's not extremely, overly scary, but it has things that jumps out at you. And the anticipation is TERRIBLE! Half the time I know something is going to happen, and when it does, it makes me jump. It's the kind of horror that makes you think, "OHMYGOSHYOUDUMMYWHYAREYOUWALKINGALONEATNIGHTTHROUGHTHEWOODS?!"

Needless to say, the show makes me scared. So far (it's only the second episode), almost 6 people have died/been murdered. Yet, the show still draws me back in. Strangely enough, I like being scared... ? I know horror appeals to a large amount of people, so it makes me wonder: why do we like to get scared? I guess it's the thrill, but it's very weird. I mean, I don't normally like to voluntarily creep myself out, but this show makes me want to do that. Humans are strange beings. :P

RANDOM PROSE

This is some random, short prose that I wrote. It's pretty simple, but I tried to spruce it up a little.

With his head in his hands, with the weight sitting atop his shoulders, his breathing is ragged and uneven. He sits with his elbows propped on his knees, sitting on the edge of the bed. Lexi had never seen him like this. Eyes puffy and tired, an empty, lifeless expression in his eyes, his hair in several different directions... this was not the Matthew she knew.

"How does someone just give up like that?" He asks, his voice cracking.

"She left, Matthew. You've got to stop wallowing," Lexi tells him gently, taking a seat next to him.

He had been so infinite when they were together. On the balmy, crisp days of the spring they met, they slowly realized the new predicament that had arisen. With their hands entwined, they were astounded by this new love. But, sweltering days of summer brought subtle changes to their relationship, and before they even knew it, they were falling apart, holding on by just their fingers.

Matthew remembered those days when he had tried so hard to keep the grasp for a little longer. He had tried, and she had given up. Now his heart was hanging by threads.

LOVE YOUR DORKY SNEAKERS (AND SHINY BOOTS)

A couple weeks ago, I getting ready to go outside. Oh, and did I mention it was SNOWING?! In APRIL?! Curse you, indecisive Canadian weather! It's not anymore, though. Which is good. It is now sunny. Anyways, I was getting ready to walk my doggies when I came home today, and I couldn't find any shoes. Normally, in my household, finding shoes is never a problem. My family owns lots of shoes. I ALONE own probably half my family's shoes, the shoes of two brothers and two parents. On a nice, slightly wet but otherwise sunny normal spring day, I would just wear my loose, comfy skate shoes. But NO. It had to snow. When I already put away my fairly normal looking boots.

So, instead, I wore a pair of shiny, black boots that are my mothers. I do not like these boots. Wearing them with jeans makes me look strange. I probably shouldn't have worried so much what they looked like, because my street is in the Middle Of Nowhere, between Nothing and No Civilisation. So there wasn't much of a chance that anyone would actually see me. But, nonetheless, because I'm a teenager, I couldn't help but be insecure about the shiny boots.This whole shiny boot episode reminded me of horse camp. I attended horse back riding camp, because a) I adore horses, b) it involved spending time in another part of the Middle Of Nowhere with only horses and nothing else around for a whole week, and c) my friend convinced me to go with her. This camp was an overnight camp, and before we left everyone got mailed a packing list from the camp. On the list, it had the item "Running Shoes". I, being the strange one that I am, took this term too literally. When they said "Running Shoes", they meant "A Pair Of Shoes You Can Wear When Not Wearing Riding Boots, Not Necessarily Running Shoes". I brought actual running shoes and no other pair of shoes. They were a size too large, a dorky blue and white, and looked very funny with skinny jeans. Oh my. My friend, upon seeing my running shoes, laughed and said, "Did you bring any other shoes to wear?" My response to this was no.

Although the running shoes were incredibly dorky, they were extremely comfortable and quite reliable. Granted, they didn't really flatter my outfits, but everybody looks like crap at horse camp with no hair dryer and four shower stalls. You're outside the whole day anyways on horse back, so what does it matter? The point of this blog is to inform the world to LOVE YOUR DORKY SNEAKERS. They may not be the prettiest sneakers around, but they are reliable and will take a fair amount of battering. Dorky sneakers will love you right back.

THOUGHTS OF A SUPER!ELLEN

Wowie, every time I go to type "Super!Ellen", I type "Supper!Ellen". Hm, I guess my brain just wants to associate me with food.

HULLO, I'm Super!Ellen. Not Supper!Ellen. But you don't have to add the prefix of Super!. It's not required. You can just call me Ellen. And, I started this blog because I would like to participate in BEDA (Blog Every Day April, Maureen Johnson's awesome new blog challenge), even though I'm starting late. I'll add some extra blogs and I'll probably continue for a while into May to make up for this.

Okay, an introduction! My name is Ellen. I live in Canada. I am 16. I go to school. I ramble A LOT. I doodle A LOT. I like visual art, like painting, drawing, cartooning... anything in that general category. I ride horses, and do rhythmic gymnastics. -cueribbontwirling- I listen to music, but my little brother lost my iPod, so I haven't been able to listen to it when I'm going to school. My taste in music is always changing. At the moment, I like Death Cab For Cutie, Guns N' Roses, Metric, Vampire Weekend, Stars, Tokyo Police Club, The Who and a bunch of more random but awesome stuff. I'm still being introduced to new bands, too, so feel free to suggest. I like lots of books and authors, like Maureen Johnson (of course), John Green (of course), Sarah Dessen, Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler, Carl Hiaasen, Lynne Rae Perkins, Libba Bray, Scott Westerfield... I could go on for a while, but I'm going to stop. I like movies, too, but I can't remember all of my favourites right now. Other random facts about me: I speak English and French, I suck at checkers, I listen to my music really LOUD when nobody's home, I sing while waiting for the bus in the morning, I wrote a novel that's a load of crap, I went to the inauguration of Obama, I have an overactive imagination...

Phew, the hard part is over! Introductions always suck. Now I can BLOG!