charity: water

I've had a full day today. After my massage (for my shoulder) I got so sleepy I kept nodding off while I was doing my math homework. But I finished it! And now I can finally - totally - relax. I just wanted to share a video from "charity: water" about the water crisis. We're doing a project for this organization in ATAC, and we had a very inspiring and idea-filled meeting about it today. Here's the video: http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/.

The Beauty of Birds

A few days ago, I went outside to feed my rabbit when I got home from school. It was a rainy, soggy day, as most this week have been, but cheerful in its own way. The greens of the grass and the trees were vivid, bringing everything else into a color-contrasting perspective. As I turned the corner to face the front of my rabbit's cage, I looked down to see a bright yellow bird lying on the cement.

Had I not been looking down, I would have undoubtedly stepped right on him. I paused, still leaning over, one foot ready to step forward, and examined the little bird. He was lying on his side, feet curled up under him, eyes shut. He bore no signs of rough treatment or injury, but there he lay, dead. Right in front of my rabbit, who hopped around his cage with bursting energy. I was shocked that something so bright and beautiful and healthy-looking could be dead, and amongst so much life.

I mourned the bird's death as I scooped him up with a shovel and carried him to the back of the yard, yet my mood was brightened by his brightness. I dug a little hole, and buried him right next to my rabbits' graves next to the creek. I felt paradoxical senses of wrong at covering up all that beauty, and right at burying the dead. I tried to wish his soul well, and I hope that my showing I cared helped him somehow. I hoped that reached him, wherever he is.

As I handled the bird (don't worry, I never touched him with my bare hands - I won't get sick or anything), I marveled at how fragile he was. As I scooped him up on the shovel, I had to be careful not to bend his neck grotesquely. And he was so light - light as a feather. It's a miracle that something so fragile could survive at all, providing for itself and probably its family. It's the beauty of nature, and it's incredible.

The Environmental Lab, High School, and Changing the World

This week has been a week of many accomplishments. First of all, I found out that my Holocaust project earned 2nd Place in my division in the contest! And I get $100 for that! To put it simply...I'm quite proud of myself. I'm excited for the awards ceremony next weekend. Also, I found out who my advisor is for high school, and met with her and my parents today to discuss my schedule. She's the advisor I wanted, partly because she's the Freshman English teacher and from Yellow Springs, but also because I am - to some extent - friends with the Freshman girls in the advisory, all of whom are good writers. I got into Algebra II Honors, Biology Honors, and Mandarin III next year...so I've got an exciting schedule!

ATAC (Action Through Awareness Club) met on Thursday to finalize our goals and really start some action! We haven't done much in a while - we've been talking a lot about what we should do, and there are only a few people who are really dedicated. Most of the club left our meeting when they were finished eating, and didn't come back, but Cora, Chandler (another eighth grade girl), and I stayed for a while and talked about what we could do. We had a really good discussion - just the three of us, with our wishes and our caring hearts. We've all pursued options for the club and talked to our teachers, and we'll probably be able to continue in high school. However, it seems like the three of us - Cora, Chandler, and I - are the only ones really dedicated to it who genuinely want to make a difference, and whose want for that is coming right from our hearts. I've found our conversations very inspiring, and I can't wait to see where it brings us in the future.

And, last but not least, the groundbreaking ceremony for the environmental lab that is being built at MVS. It was this week, also on Thursday. And I got to represent the middle school. There were two students from each division, along with a couple of teachers and the family who got the project started, who got to scoop up a little dirt. It was an amazing feeling, being part of something that big, something I'm unbelievably excited about. As I was sitting in a chair listening to the headmaster's speech, this feeling swept over me, this overwhelming feeling of being present when something huge began. It was hard to stop and appreciate the full impact of what this building means for MVS and for myself, since it was right after a grammar lesson and right before a big American History test - such bothersome distractions - but I know that I will remember that day.

What's Up

Wow, I haven't posted in quite some time!

I must say, I'm tired tonight, so this will be quick... I'd like to catch up though, seeing as I haven't posted for a while. So, things that have happened recently:

1.) I submitted my Holocaust project about a week ago. It felt like a huge weight being lifted off my chest, since I've been working on it and thinking about it for so long. It's been haunting me...well, it still is.

2.) I had a saxophone lesson yesterday, and it didn't go so well. The reason? My teacher had to cancel for two weeks in a row due to a birthday and an illness. I was totally prepared for a lesson the first week. The second week, I was excited and overly prepared - I knew the songs so well. But this last week? I was really busy, and didn't have any time to practice. Any time. Meaning I couldn't play very well in my lesson, and I felt like it was pointless because I already knew all the things he was telling me. I was very upset...

3.) We're doing watercolor sunset silhouettes in art class. This means we do a watercolor wash for a sunset (get the paper wet, then use really watery paint and paint lightly...I suppose that's the best way to describe it). Then we're using dark paper to make a silhouette in front of the sunset. It's a thoughtful process. I've been enjoying art lately, enjoying it a lot, and I've been very grateful for it.

4.) I played in my second lacrosse game today... AND I SCORED A GOAL! I wasn't planning on it, wasn't expecting it... I'm very impressed with myself!! I love this game...

5.) We've started the book To Kill a Mockingbird in English class. I don't like it nearly as much as I've liked the other books we've read this year (which, I must admit, we've been very lucky with - they've all been extremely well-written and engaging). I suppose it's starting to grow on me a little bit. Like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in sixth grade - I started to really like it towards the end. You start to love the characters in these classics...that's why they're classic!

6.) On Thursday, some Arab-Israeli students visited our school. Cora and I got to host one of the eighth grade girls. It was so fun! She was really good at English, yet there were still things she couldn't understand. Taking Mandarin and having experience trying to communicate with people in it really helped me understand what kind of situation she was in. We had to simplify the words we used and speak clearly. And now, I think I have a better understanding of what it will be like to be in China! Anyway, it was really fun hosting her, and I actually missed her at school today!

7.) A few days ago, I was craving chocolate chip cookies like crazy. And my mom made them...some of the best in the world. She's just amazing like that.

8.) Here's the reason why I don't watch shows like CSI: I get way too involved in them. (We watched an episode in science the other day because we starting forensics, and I got so wrapped up in it. I think the people who write the script and the screenplay are like...insanely smart.)

9.) We're making a video for our make a difference club. (We've decided to call it ATAC - Action Through Awareness Club. It was formed out of some people in our speech and debate class who really took the service projects we started on to heart.) We started on posters last week to use in the video... And I'm just super excited about making a difference! I love that, as kids, we can have such a huge impact on the world.

10.) I wrote something last weekend. It's a response to a picture prompt in an online writing group I'm part of on Shelfari (a book-sharing website), and it's supposed to be like a dream. Anyway, I really like it.

11.) I'm glad it's the weekend, and excited to work on Cora and my TV script that we're writing for Script Frenzy!

12.) I'm listening to Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" right now. It's a good song...

A Poem: "Success"

The quote that came up on my iGoogle homepage is from a verse of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was one of those quotes that struck a chord with me, partly because of its meaning and partly because of its lyricism. The whole poem is copied below, for your enjoyment. I would reflect now but can't due to math homework and a particularly sharp pain in my shoulder tonight.

Success

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.

The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

(http://holyjoe.org/poetry/longfellow1.htm)

Latin Phrases About Art

I was just working on my online Latin course, and I learned about some Latin phrases concerning art. There are a few I particularly like, so I'm sharing them here.

ars gratia artis - art for the sake of art

ars longa, vita brevis - art lasts long, life is short

ars est celare artem - true art is to conceal art

Note: I know I've been posting a lot today, and NONE OF IT IS FOR APRIL FOOL'S! But Happy April Fool's anyway... (Gosh, I wish Bean Day part 2 would have only been for April Fool's...)

The Sad Case of the Earth These Days

I just looked at a link sent to me by my dad about some more environmental stuff and...I'm overwhelmed! There are soo many things that need to be helped! And my generation will play a huge role in fixing them. It's frustrating, and overwhelming, and depressing, and challenging, and frustrating...I already said that.

The book I'm reading by David Orr about ecological design does a good job of bringing everything together, and explaining how we have to take everything into account and think ahead when using ecological design, as does the research I'm doing about Biosphere 2 for my term paper. (Which, by the way, I worked on for 1 and a half hours yesterday! Two whole pages! That just makes me want to squeal with pride!) It's all tied together. But when you look at all these things gone wrong in the world - global warming, poverty, disease, starvation, genocide, pollution, animal extinction, poor diets and unhealthy food, waste and waste and waste - it's so hard to put things in perspective! Not to mention all these wars and oil discrepancies! It's too much to deal with! I don't know what to do!

I'm doing my best though - taking out the compost every day, turning off lights and unplugging appliances...you know, among other things. Still, there's so much more. The world is so huge. And I want to help people too!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that. Needed a moment to express my rage there...

Anyway, my point is that there's so much to do I don't even know where to start. Gosh, that could be my motto, because I'm that way about a lot of things. However, once I get started, I always do really well. So I just have to get started. Wait, I am...Ooohh, this is confusing! Sometimes I really just can't wait until I can go to college and then have a job and be focused entirely on really worthwhile things! (Well, at least I hope it'll work out that way.) Then again, sometimes I just love being a kid.

So I'll do what I can, Earth. I'll do what I can now, and I'll do more in the future. Don't worry - I'll keep workin' at it.

Some Writing Frustrations and Grievances and Bean Day

This morning I woke up and started working on an explanation of the poem I included in my Holocaust project (which you can read in the post called "Monumental Poem"). The project will be submitted soon, and I felt that I should explain the genius of the poem because, well...it's not all that clear. That is, I worked in right after searching my computer for fantasy stories I could work on - I've been pining for fantasy lately - and then getting frustrated because I always fail to plan a story out before I start to write it. I've started soo many stories, and I've finished a few also...but then I always end up looking back at what I wrote and thinking that it could have been better. (I have an undying admiration for authors of great fantasy or science fiction novels that manage to weave together a long and imaginative story that is fantastic from start to finish...I always get tired of mine at some point, and I hate myself for it!) Anyway, I found multiple stories, but I was afraid to work on any of them because I knew I'd just get carried away and wouldn't actually accomplish anything... But then I did what I'd turned my computer on to do, and wrote the explanation of the poem for my project. It's long, and I hope it's clear enough, and I'm sure I'll have to do some editing.

A few days ago...or was it yesterday? Yesterday, I believe... I woke up and one of the first things I did was write some more scene/conflict note cards for my novel! The one I started for NaNoWriMo...A Beginning For the End. I still love that one...and it still needs a lot of work. And it's still not close to finished, of course. But I did finish something in the note cards. Let's just say it has to do with the death of one of my characters, and it was rather jarring to realize that I'd finished a certain section of the note cards that morning... It was really sad!!!

That makes me feel more secure about my novel though - that I felt so strongly about the characters. It's hard to admit it but...I've never grown that attached to my characters before. Still, this was hard.

Just as I was beginning to compose an email in reply to the one from my mother, I heard some quite disturbing noises coming from the kitchen. First there was a loud sizzle, some harried commotion, and then a bang, angry sizzle, a follow-up bang, and a cry from my father. Hurrying our of my cave of blankets and pillows and books, I rushed down the hall, images of my father lying on the floor with boiling water scalding his face racing through my mind. I walked into the kitchen and was relieved to find nothing of the sort. My dad was standing in the middle of kitchen, an extremely disgruntled - no, that's an understatement - unimaginably annoyed and surprised expression on his face. I saw the wet floor, and the continued sizzle, but only after his words did I really know what was going on: "It's another bean day." That was when I looked up and saw, to my horror, our white stove covered in black and goopy "beanstuff," along with a semicircle of it bubbling on the ceiling. I sighed and said, "Oh no."

The reason I'm not going into much explanation here is because, frankly, I've had enough of that. Seven pages, in fact. When this happened last year I wrote a narrative of it. (That piece of writing, I did finish!) So I'm not really up for going into too much detail now - I'm a little beaned out. Basically, our pressure cooker exploded. Beanstuff got all over the place. It's not a pretty sight. Yada yada yada.

I asked my father what had happened, and it was this: he had heard the pressure cooker about to explode, and moved it off the burner, then, when it kept acting up, he had backed up hastily so as to not be right by the pot when it exploded, and slipped full-out on the wet floor, banging up against the open dishwasher and somehow jamming his finger. Neither of us are sure if the beans exploded before or after he actually fell, but whatever happened, it was not good.

Well, I helped him get some arnica for his rapidly swelling finger, and immediately began wiping the floor. (My mom called right in the middle of it... I'm sure our news wasn't the best to hear in the middle of her last day at work before spring break.) Thankfully, the mess wasn't nearly as bad as it was last time. Last time, there was beanstuff on the opposite wall of the kitchen. This time, it was at least consolidated to the area of the stove. Yes ,it went up to the ceiling, and in the little cracks of the vent-thing above our microwave, but it was not nearly as bad. So we cleaned, and we did pretty well. We talked, and had a nice time together. My dad and I were planning on doing something together today, so we got that accomplished easily!

Later on, I made biscuits. I didn't eat, accepting the cup of tea I had while working on my Holocaust project and last two bites (literally) of the pie from yesterday, for a really long time today. There was too much to do! But I even did a little bit of filing today! That. Is. Pretty. Cool. And the biscuits and salad I finally got to have sure were good. Now, however, I'm feeling kind of stressed and a little overwhelmed. Blogging helps, though. Blogging always helps.

Thanks, Blog... Or should I say, World of Words, since that's really what you are.