Two Choices on the Shelf...

Graduate. Or blog. It's kinda coming down to that. I've found more and more of my time being spent doing schoolwork. I haven't even read a fictional book for... over a week now, actually. Some of you are thinking, "So?" But for me that's a big deal. Because I read. All the time.

Okay, so I'm still on facebook. Maybe more than is necessary. But that's kinda slowing down, too. And did I mention that I haven't blogged in ... forever? Or that I have five posts started that I never finished and published?

I have a lot to get done, peeps. Prayers would be mucho appreciando. In the mean time, here are some measures I have been or will be taking in order to get everything done.

• Cutting reading time waaaaaay back
• Cutting back on facebook time
• Limiting use of youtube (come on, guys! Stop posting all of those awesome vids!)
• Deleting blog subscriptions to cut down on Google Reader time
• Putting my novels on hold (the finishing touches on The Looking Glass and the first draft on another nameless novel)

Any other ideas? I'm not feeling drastic enough to completely abstain from fb and youtube and blogger and blogs and tv and books, etc etc etc... But if I don't do something differently now, I'll have to be harder on myself later.

Anyhow. I'm going to try to keep blogging, but we'll see what happens.

Until next time, I remain your (unfaithful) bloggity buddy,

Emily Rose

P.S. Graduation is May 28th.

There is HOPE!!!

I'm trudging wearily along, completely in the dark, not sure how long it will all last.

Suddenly...

what IS that?

Some strange thing ahead. A mirage, more likely than not. I think to myself. It almost has the appearance of being... light?

Of course it's not real.

This is the neverending tunnel that I have been in for 12 years.

At the beginning it was all fun. Then it got harder. And the end is full of mixed emotions.

Here I am, not really believing, but the light seems to be a bit brighter with each passing day. Each math test I finish. Each chapter I read. Is it even remotely possible that I might be graduating from high school this year?

Nah... It's a mirage.

Or is it?

Many Years Ago He Was Dead... And He's Still Dead

I get the Wikipedia daily article email. It's very interesting. Random stories are picked... there's a word of the day, a quote of the day. And, for history lovers like myself, the icing on the cake is "This day in history..." Some of them are things that I know about anyhow. Some are things I'm glad to learn. And other things, like something that I learned about today... Well, it's just a little disturbing.

Have you ever heard of cyropreservation? I have. In Mission: Impossible, they pretend to preserve a guy in order to get information out of him. (Man! Now I want to watch that show!) Anyhow... On this day in history, the first man was preserved by cyropreservation. I would tell you about it in my own words, but I find that Wikipedia did a fantastic job telling about it. Fantastic as in... I was laughing at the whole idea, but was... well, disturbed. Here's what is on the Wikipedia page for cryonics:

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. Currently, human cryopreservation is not reversible, which means that it is not currently possible to bring people out of cryopreservation alive. The rationale for cryonics is that people who are considered dead by the current legal or medical definitions will not necessarily be dead by future standards – the most stringent standard being the information-theoretic definition of death – and that such people could be brought out of cryopreservation in the future.

(Emphasis is mine.)

Just how far do people think that technology is going to take us anyhow???

The Thing About History...

I have always been a readaholic, reading and rereading books until I’d memorized some passages. Although reading is a good thing, my Mom recognized that I was taking it to an unhealthy level. Mystery was my obsession, and I was caught reading the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew when I should be doing school. Secret of the Golden Cowrie was confiscated when I failed to set the table for supper. Mystery of the Missing Stamp had to be given up for a week because I was found with a flashlight under my blanket, reading into the wee hours of the morning. And the American Adventure series? I dove into those so whole-heartedly that my Mom put a restriction on me: I was only allowed to read for 1 hour every day. TORTURE! At another time, I had to take all of my books into my mom’s room so that she knew what I was reading and when I was reading it. I’d trek in early in the morning and ask for Twig the Collie, read a few chapters, and return it to her before breakfast. So went my early life.

When I turned 13, however, Mom came up with a new idea. I must say it was rather brilliant, though I did NOT think so at the time. She told me that for one whole longmonth, I could not read any fiction. Her goal in doing this (I think) was to have my “must-be-reading” nature turn me towards biographies and autobiographies of missionaries and other more worthy heroes. I imagine that she didn’t want me trying to turn into a Nancy Drew, getting kidnapped every few months and being incommunicado for days on end during a case. (LOL Like that would ever happen!) Anyhow… I didn’t see the sense of her idea, so I resolved that if I couldn’t read fiction, I wouldn’t read anything. I lasted for THREE DAYS, people. Yeah. It’s an obsession. The first thing I picked up was a biography about Jim Elliot. I don’t remember which one it was, but I do remember reading it and thinking, “You know, this is kinda cool.” And then someone suggested that I read about Anne Frank. I wish I knew who it was who gave me this suggestion, because they opened a new chapter in my life. You see, my library didn’t have any books about Anne Frank that weren’t checked out. But they DID have dozens of other World War Two and Holocaust books. Memoirs, autobiographies, timelines, histories. I checked out a few in desperation: I felt that I just had to be reading! As I read, I started wanting more. These were REAL people, things that REALLY happened! I read about concentration camps and battlefields, then one memoir mentioned a pilot… so I read about him, then I had to read about airplanes. Planes can take off from onboard ships, so then I read about ships. Then I checked out books on secret codes. And the process just went on and on. It was at this time that I discovered the classics, as well. In one of the many biographies I read, I found that a girl loved Jane Austen and George Eliot. So when my month was up, I read Jane Austen. And George Eliot. Charles Dickens. Elizabeth Gaskell. Arthur Conan Doyle. Lloyd Douglas. Alexander Dumas. etc etc etc. My fiction addiction leveled off a bit, but my obsession with the written word reached a feverish all-time high. I decided to break my mystery habit in my own writing and wrote my first historical fiction. I don’t know if I’ll ever love any of my writings as much as I love that book. The story takes place during the Holocaust, and it involves finding new life at the end of tragedy. I had found a new life for myself in the world of the past. The things thatreally happened are often just as (or more) exciting than what authors come up with.

So here’s the thing about history: It opens your eyes. I found links from the past that explain some of my world today. I discovered just how amazing things are – things that I just take for granted. What went into the radio? The light bulb? Airplanes and cars? The people who invented these things are honored in our society today, but in their own world, they were thought of as total jerks. I’ve just written about 750 words to say something that could be said in a mere five words: “Don’t be afraid to expand” Try something new! As unwilling as I was to enter the “real world” of non-fiction, I found it to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Don’t get stuck in your little corner, ’cause another thing about history is this: people who stay in their own cozy little corners don’t make a difference.

A little confusion with Spanish...

This year I'm learning Spanish. It went really well for the first 7 weeks, but now I have hit a tough spot. It's called "right vs. left" or, "derecha vs. izquierda" (I don't know if I spelled that right...)

I have always been directionally challenged. Even though I've reached the ripe old age of 17, I still use my hands to tell directions. How? Quite simple, actually. I have a mole or birthmark or something of that sort on my right hand. All I have to do is look at one of my palms and I know right from left. My right palm has this little mark on it, and my left palm is blank.

Wait, how does this apply to Spanish? Well, I'm to the part where I'm supposed to learn right from left. The problem is, I can't even do it in ENGLISH... so Spanish has been a bit of a problem. I'm using Rosetta Stone, and as many of you will probably know, they give you a phrase and show four pictures, leaving you to click on the picture that matches the phrase. Pretty easy stuff, really. I mean, if it says "elephant" I'm not going to click on a picture of a woman. But if it says, "The ball is in the woman's right hand..." AAAAAAAAAAAACK! Here is the problem:

1. I already have right vs. left problems

2. I'm new at this Spanish thing

3. MY right is the PICTURE'S left!!!

So if you're in my neighborhood and you hear a scream between 10:30 and 11:15, you may just shrug and say, "Ah, Emily is doing her Spanish." =D