Ther...

There is a little baby chameleon crawling over the keys of my piano. It's strange - I am near-panophobic, afraid of so many things, but these creatures absolutely delight me. Our house is full of them. And they are so wriggly and sweet with their milky black eyes and their flat tiny feet and their transparent bellies. I can see their internal organs! Adorable! They might as well be puppies. I just want to pick them up and pat them, but they probably have teeth.

I was...

I was so happy to walk out of this room just now and see that it was still dark. OH YES. I can go to sleep at NIGHT. I swear that in the morning it is somehow brighter inside my room than it is out in the street.So, yeah, having nothing scheduled on a Monday morning is really bad for a person. But at least it means I finished most of my French homework. And how many other people can say that, right? Oh yeah, and I made a blueberry cake and cleaned my mother's house. Kind of. So I feel very domestic right now, and I feel that it was a very productive waste of my time.Yeah... I hope it's still dark now. :/

still, I love tomatoes. (& 2 edits)

If only I could have nothing to do with Camus for the rest of my life. I think he feels the same way about me. [Haha, well, he's quite dead, of course - but still.]I actually find myself wanting to do my Spanish homework instead, that's how bad it is. When I have to get a job or something... it's going to suck.I even cooked tonight, which is my number one act of procrastination. I made everybody sit at the table to eat two kinds of tomato-based dish. My father was with us. He's so much better than last July. Eee, I love my daddy. :DBut I wish he would do my French homework for me.ALSO, I find myself thinking about things like mortgages. And why do some people say relator for realtor? It's realtor. Or is it Realtor®?And OOH. The good thing about my having cooked is that my family didn't know I was procrastinating, just that they were getting fed. That will buy me my mother's love at least until the leftovers run out. My mother has two kinds of love: unconditional and conditional. The food will buy the conditional kind. However, my mother doesn't believe in conditional love, on a philosophical level. When I was little she would not accept an "I love you" after she did something nice for me. She said I must always love her, even when I didn't get anything. Which is true, but which has resulted in my being nervous about expressing any excess of gratitude, lest I be told off for it. But she didn't know that would happen. Maybe I should go back to that book.

Divali pictures

...mostly for smiggitysmee's spiritual edification.I sort of abandoned the plan on Tuesday. I was going to have tons of pictures and they were all going to be breathtaking. But I kept forgetting, and when I remembered I would find I had already lost the camera to my sister, who used it mainly for taking pictures of ceilings and dogs. So I mostly did not get any pictures of anything, and what I did get kind of suck. But...!I forgot to take a picture of the deyas the way we bought them, but they come in plastic bags in cardboard boxes, and they are very dusty, and they have tiny cracks in them. You have to soak them before you can do anything else.We dried them on newspapers on the floor because the table on which we normally do it has taken a lover and they have run off together. Or so I like to think. Whatever, we don't know where it is.While all this was going on, Ron/Peter the dog was having a snack on the veranda.We set up a deya-making station on top of my poor mother's washing machine and dryer. What you have to do is fill the deyas with oil, in which you dip the wicks - the little white strings - which you then squeeze and light with matches.Finally, we lined up the deyas on the little wall in front of the house. Normally we put deyas everywhere. But we were all so lazy on Tuesday and nobody could get anybody to do anything. And you see how it turned out.And here is a picture of Rufus moping, having spent the entire evening rolling in oil and and dirt.The end. :)

In need of direction.

Two posts in one month! Whee!Okay, so. Do any of you enjoy pushing your favourite music on anybody who is willing to listen as much as I do? Well, I'm willing to listen and I'm making it easy. Please, leave a comment telling me about your favourite bands or songs or albums. I have two weeks before I'm back in class and I need some kind of non-homework activity to keep me off the streets. :) Also, I'm interested in finding out what kind of music you all listen to-- I've found I don't really know. So, tell me, and feel free to rhapsodise about whatever you love-- gushing is fun. I promise to listen.

Creepy famous art

Is anybody else as broken as I am over Hieronymus Bosch's egglike monster (pictured here, because terror shared is doubled) in the Hell panel of his Garden Of Earthly Delights triptych?!This thing haunted me my whole life until I happily forgot about it some time, I think, last Christmas. Then, late last night, I was reading Lolita and came across this: "From the very first terrace I saw, far below, on the tennis court which seemed the size of a school child's ill-wiped slate, golden Lolita playing in a double. She moved like a fair angel among three horrible Boschian cripples."Thanks a lot. And now I'm terrified. (Even though no one else thinks it is scary.) Hieronymus Bosch, not you again. :(In other, happier news, I really, really love Owen Beverly.Anyway, you will see me. This is a threat. <3I used to hate those <3 things. I don't even know what happened.

Yest...

Yesterday I tried to clean my room and I couldn't. My room is absolutely overflowing with books. Books on, above, and behind shelves, books on the floor, books in boxes, books in baskets, books in bags, books in drawers, books beside the bed, books under the bed, books on the bed, and the rest of the house is the same way. Books on the television, microwave and washing machine. Books on the piano, books in the car. And I haven't even read half of them, and today, I went out and bought more books. I think I'm a kind of criminal.I organise my books constantly, and my mind has become slightly bent because of it. Last night, I switched Dante's Inferno (which I haven't even bothered to finish yet, may god forgive me-- for that and for spelling his name with a common 'g', and for keeping this parenthes-ed comment going on for such a long time) for Sue Townsend's The Public Confessions Of A Middle-Aged Woman on the shelf in my bedroom. I told The Public Confessions... that I wanted her on my shelf to break up the monotony of all the white covers, and I tried her between Tricky Business by Dave Barry and To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis. Then I decided to put her at the end because she was too distracting. Immediately, I imagined the book in a future position on a different shelf, telling all the other books everything about it and how readers say they want interesting-looking books, but really want ordinary stuff, and snarkily saying things like "I guess I broke more monotony than she was comfortable with," and going on about how hard it is for a strong, independent book to find work in this town. And there I was, genuinely cringing away about the reputation I would end up with if I didn't put her back where I had originally placed her. I'm beginning to think I need to get out more.Now, since I last posted here, my parents have bought the house behind our house, which stands on land that my father's son was forced to sell over fifteen years ago, and which my father has always dreamed of owning again. It's very different from our yard, stuffy and concrete-y and grass-less, and nobody lives there except when family or my parents' foreign colleagues visit. (Two very friendly, sweet Australian journalists are staying over there at the moment.) So my mother keeps trying to get me to move some of the books over there, but how can I do that? I can't bear to be separated from them. They're like my children. What if they wanted me? (!) They therefore continue to pile up in my bedroom.So I've been thinking about something and I need all of your help. If you're reading this, please stop and tell me what you think about the phrase 'staring blindly,' as in 'staring blindly into the distance.' Is it a decent idea or does it immediately strike you as impossible?And now that everyone is completely over it, I'm going to do the song meme. Read on!Okay, first twenty songs on a randomised playlist, excluding anything without lyrics, and anything that nobody will know, because that's no fun at all. Also, when two songs by the same artist came up, I chose the nicer one or the single and discarded the other. This is going to be easy!1) But beware my heart can be a pin, a sharp silver dragonfly...2) The smile of Turner and the scent of roses, the waiters whistling as the last bar closes...3) When you get old and start losing your hair, can you tell me who will still care?4) When I'm alone with my fancies, I'll be with you, weaving romances...5) And when she wakes up and makes up her mind she'll see...6) Another town that I'll go walking through, with the rain in my shoe, searching for you...7) I’ll shine up the old brown shoes, put on a brand new shirt...8) Never seen thee or touched thee but known thee with all of my heart...9) I saw a spaceship fly by your window... did you see it disappear?10) My shaving razor's cold and it stings...11) Trying to live without your love is one long sleepless night, let me show you girl...12) First class and fancy-free, she's high society, she's got the best of everything...13) When you called me on the telephone, I knew that you were miles away...14) I'm so alive, I'm so enlightened, I can barely survive a night in my mind...15) Oh, look what I'm holding here in my fire, this is for you...16) You swoon, you sigh, why deny it?17) How you got me blind is still a mystery...18) Some call it magic, the search for the grail...19) Would I run off and never tell me where I'm going?20) Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words...

Happy only...

Happy only-just-belated birthday, angua9! You're growing up so fast!...and someday, I'll write something that doesn't translate to 'spam.'

I d...

I don't know how many of you are interested in A Series Of Unfortunate Events, but I've just found out (and this is relatively old news) that Liam Aiken (that kid from Stepmom and Road To Perdition) is playing Klaus Baudelaire in that Really Bad Idea, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate EventsWell, he's pretty cute now-- he even has freckles-- but I needed to know if he was talented or not. I did a bit of research at metacritic.com and found...Comments on his performance in his most recent movie, Good Boy!:The Onion A.V. Club: "For example, they're supposed to love Liam Aiken, that horrible little brat from Stepmom..."The Globe and Mail (Toronto): "To be fair, Good Boy! is redeemed by two intriguing performances. Young Liam Aiken manages to bring a quiet integrity to the role of Owen. Also, there's a great scene where one of the supporting dogs is asked to sit, roll over, then play dead."TV Guide: "While Aiken couldn't be cuter or more-well suited for his earnest role, the script is utterly predictable and often falls into the saccharine trap."Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "The boy, named Owen Baker (rising young star Liam Aiken)..."Portland Oregonian: "[Writer/director John Hoffman] also makes sure the kids are genuine and likable."New York Post: "The movie is saved, however, by its well-trained four-legged stars and the likable Liam Aiken ("Road to Perdition"), who plays 12-year-old loner Owen Baker."New York Daily News: "Before we get to the dogs, let's hear it for Liam Aiken, the 13-year-old who plays Owen, a lonely youth in sore need of animal companionship. Aiken resembles a young John Cusack and has some of the same delicious acting instincts. He registers half-tones of emotion like a pro twice his age."Chicago Tribune: "But the dogs are all but upstaged by their human costar, Aiken, who has appeared in "Stepmom," "Sweet November" and "I Dreamed of Africa." Clad in a cute red jumpsuit, Aiken is a puppy of a boy who (aside from one grating, obligatory fist-in-the-air "yeah!") has you smiling when he's smiling and almost crying when he's almost crying."LA Weekly: "Liam Aiken is a very good Owen..."New York Times: "As Owen, the boy who adopts the terrier from the pound, Liam Aiken does a nice job of conveying adolescent vulnerability and affection."Boston Globe: "Aiken probably wouldn't stand for condescension, anyway. Through his uncannily vivid face, we see a boy's already expansive world open up even more. When the Greater Dane arrives and the dogs might have to leave forever, the boy's heartbreak is yours."So I guess he's all right. He'd better be.Australian Emily Browning (see her photo here), who has already appeared in two awful horror movies, Ghost Ship and Darkness Falls, will play Violet. I checked all the reviews at metacritic.com, but most of them are offline now, and she was barely mentioned in Ghost Ship's reviews and not mentioned at all in Darkness Falls':New York Post: "You've got one of those frightening little girls with a pale face and an English accent." San Francisco Chronicle: "Ghostly little girls are surefire scare machines, or so goes the logic of lousy horror movies. Especially if the girl has a chilly British accent, as this one does ... The girl is not scary..."James Berardinelli: "Oddly, the most "human" character is one of the ghosts – a little girl named Katie (Emily Browning), who appears from time-to-time to reveal bits and pieces of the past. We also see her during the prologue, as the sole survivor of the steel cable incident. It's not a good sign when an audience feels more sympathy for an apparition than for the flesh-and-blood protagonists."She was also in Ned Kelly, but she wasn't mentioned in any of the reviews I read. I did find out, however, that Orlando Bloom is actually admired for his talent in some places and that he "personifies the attractive rogue women find irresistible." (Movie-vault.com) Okay.Finally, it turns out that Love Actually has got a lower Metascore than Elf, which is very sad and unexpected. I knew better, of course, than to assume that LA would be brilliant (not juggling eight storylines like that), but then Elf went and got a 64/100 (compared to LA's 56), after looking like such an idiotic movie, and it's just sad.

It's 11:...

It's 11:58 right now and if I hurry I still have time to wish dianora a Happy Birthday.So...Happy Birthday, dianora, Pointy-Eared Pirate Queen!I hope the world arranges itself to make your 18th year a very, very happy one.

Divali (H...

Divali (Hindu festival-type-thing about triumph-of-light-over-darkness which I probably need to have explained to me again before I can explain it to anyone-- don't tell my mother) is this Friday. I like Divali as much, I think, as I like Christmas, which is a lot. People come over, some of them just for the food (curry!), but most of them stay and threaten to burn our house down with a (very pretty) combination of unsteady hands and dozens of little oily cups of fire, also known as deyas. It's probably dangerous-- our carpet caught a bit of a fire two years ago-- but we can't be stopped. Not just because some of us are religious, or because it's traditional, but because it's too much fun. And, well, we try to keep the deyas away from the house as much as we can...Juniatha

Guess which idiot ...

Guess which idiot thought yesterday was the ninth?Happy Belated Birthday, Ree!

This ...

This has got to be THE WEIRDEST thing I've ever seen. Christ.

1) Wh...

1) What do you think of the statement: Money is the root of all evil? What is the root of all evil, if not money?2) Which is the scariest mythical creature?3) If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take three fictional characters with you, from books, movies, myths, or whatever, who would they be?4) You have a lot of Disney icons, so, of these movies (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan) name your favourite/ least favourite, the best/ worst hero(ine), the best/ worst comic relief, the best/ worst villain, the best/ worst love story, and the best/ worst song. How's that for a long question, eh?5) Would you rather be bald or toothless?So if anyone would like to be asked questions, I'm still here.

Not that anyone's online, but...

I got my book! Some tiny shop down the street had a few copies (I don't know how), and my mother drove down as soon as she heard because she's the sweetest woman in the world and doesn't want me moping about and upsetting her family. So, thank you SO MUCH to all the people who felt sorry for me, and whoo!Juniatha

Happy Mother'...

Happy Mother's Day, Ma! And to all the mothers and aspiring mothers out there!(My mummy got a puppy for Mother's Day today, so now the house has two! And they're beating each other up!)Urg. Tomorrow, we're doing a simulation of the trial of Louis Riel. This is really why I shouldn't attend a Canada-run school. If there's anything worse than learning about your own boring history, it's learning about someone else's. My entire mark will be based on my acting, which is the worst thing that could possibly happen, because you KNOW Italklikethis, and I'm going to FAIL. I have to go and write a supplementary page now, because it's all that can possibly save me. *panics* See you.Juniatha

McDonalds Politics

WTF? I'm sorry, but I thought the world was going to WAR. I didn't realise potatoes were a matter of national priority. Seriously, could you order 'freedom fries' without totally cracking up? The people at theonion.com must be kicking themselves for not having come up with it first.Anyway, do you think we can harness this power to work for us? If I call fries 'a healthy diet and exercise', will I lose ten pounds?Finally, I am extremely tired of songs like this. If you want to see footage from September 11th every day (no idea why), you certainly had enough time to make a tape in the two months following. I'm sorry, it's been well over a year, other people have suffered and died, the world is close to war, and it's not news anymore.Juniatha

I ma...

I made an avatar! It's not pretty, but who else has a Du/G avatar?Also, I was going to make a Valentine's Day tape, but now I can't be bothered. Lazy!Juniatha

WAAAAAAAAAAAA...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNGGLLLLEEEEEEE!This is what four days of non-stop school, homework, and housework will do to a fourteen-year-old mind.Anyway. What about that book meme thing? I picked these books off the shelf with my eyes closed, except for #2, #5, and #9, which are my favourite books, and not to be left to chance. These are mainly children's books, because those are the memories that I keep in my room, away from the idle hands of the ever-present cousins. So:1.) All children, except one, grow up.2.) There were four of us-- George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency.3.) My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born.4.) That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me.5.) Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once of twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?'6.)Once upon a time, in the province of Westphalia, at the castle of his lordship the Baron von Thunder-ten-Tronckh, there lived a boy of very sweet disposition.7.) In Poland's deepest autumn, a tall young man in an expensive overcoat, double-breasted dinner jacket beneath it and-- in the lapel of the dinner jacket-- a large ornamental gold-on-black-enamel Hakenkreuz (swastika) emerged from a fashionable apartment building in Straszewskiego Street, on the edge of the ancient center of Cracow, and saw his chauffeur waiting with fuming breath by the open door of an enormous and, even in this blackened world, lustrous Adler limousine.8.) If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.9.) This is Valoroso XXIV, King of Paflagonia, seated with his Queen and only child at their royal breakfast-table, and receiving the letter which announces to His Majesty a proposed visit from Prince Bulbo, heir of Padella, reigning King of Crim Tartary.10.) In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks.Juniatha

what decade ...

what decade does your personality live in?quiz brought to you by lady interference, ltdNo way. I'm living in the forties! Anyway, close enough.Ha. My cousin is a Mary-Sue. She slept over, and as we were going to bed, she (age 11, in Deep Love with Daniel Radcliffe) started composing her own HP fanfiction. Of course, she doesn't know what fanfiction is, but that's what she was doing. She decided that her name would be Francesca, and she would meet Harry at some point wandering around Hogwarts. Despite the fact that she doesn't have an American accent, Francesca and her various boyfriends and their jealous girlfriends all had one. It was very scary.At some point, I dozed off, but was awakened by a very loud, "Gryffindor!" I was horrified and intrigued. How sick can a person get? Unfortunately, I never found out, because my little sister came in and told her to shut up. :(Juniatha

Happy New Year!

I saw TTT today! We went to the 11:45 showing, and it was near empty. I suppose everyone was still getting over New Year's, because when we were leaving, there were so many people waiting that they'd had to close the gates and let everyone out through a side door.I feel unqualified to review the movie, because I haven't read the book, so I'll just mention that I am a model of self-control, for not screaming whenever Sexy Elf Boy came onscreen. Not even when the entire cinema started yelling and applauding for X-Treme!Legolas and TooManyGirlfriends!Aragorn. In other news, my mother has gone completely mad. Is this the same woman I had to beg and suck up to (more than usual) for 1.5 years to get a puppy out of? So, why is it that when someone comes up to her and asks, "Do you want a puppy or two?" she says, "All right, bring me one tomorrow!"? And it isn't even the kind of dog she says she's been holding out for since forever! It's a really small, really hairy kind of dog, according to the lady. Is this a joke? This has to be a joke. Not that I'm complaining, or anything. Roy needs a companion. It's just incredible. We'll see.Juniatha