Victory for Bamarre!

I had a dumb moment yesterday. I spilled a little bit of water on my laptop's keyboard, and I panicked and tried to dry it off with a hairdryer. The water dried all right, but some of the keys melted. Yeah, effing melted. Like the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Well, no, not actually that dramatic, but they did get all deformed to the point that I had to take them off. I am now typing like this:

Ghetto fabulous.

Anyway, something pretty exciting has happened to me. My neighbor is writing a children's book for one of her classes, and she's asked me to illustrate it! This is my first real "job," or whatever, and I am going to work hard. She's not going to pay me, but that's okay, because it's a great experience.

Phew, I'm going to be super-busy these next few weeks. Apart from regular schoolwork and the illustrations for the book, but I also have to draw something almost every day for my college class, I have to read Jane Eyre next week, in its entirety, and of course the next book on my list: The Dragon Rider.

Good fun.

Firstly, though, I want to tell you all about the previous book I read on my list: The Two Princesses of Bamarre. I love this book to death. Gail Carson Levine is the author, better known for penning Ella Enchanted. This book is about the strong bonds of sisterhood, coping with the illness of a loved one, and finding one's courage. This is about the third time I've read this book and I still cry. I love this book. Here is a piece from an epic poem from the book:

Step follows step

Hope follows courage

Set your face towards danger

Set your heart towards victory

Victory for Bamarre!

Anyway, I will be showing you all progress on my illustrations for the children's book. Better get working!

So Many Books, So Little Time.

On my previous list of "resolutions" one of them was that I wanted to read 50 books this year. This may seem like a lot to some and not that much to others, but for me, it's actually quite a lot. I am in love with reading, and if I had a lot of free time on my hands, I could probably read this amount easily. But I have a busy year ahead of me, so it's going to be a little tricky. I am going to have to fill every minute of free time I have with reading.

My awesome list (May be read in any order):

1.       The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring

2.       The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers

3.       The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King

4.       The Changeover

5.       The Brothers Lionheart

6.       Leviathan

7.       Behemoth

8.       Goliath (third book in series?)

9.       A Great and Terrible Beauty

10.   Rebel Angels

11.   The Sweet Far Thing

12.   Witch season – Summer

13.   Fall

14.   Winter

15.   Spring

16.   Cien Años de Soledad

17.   Harry Potter en español

18.   Harry Potter en français

19.   The City of Beasts

20.   The Kingdom fo the Golden Dragon

21.   The forest of the Pygmies

22.   Around the World in Eighty Days

23.   Demon in My View

24.   The Hunger Games

25.   Catching Fire

26.   Mockingjay

27.   The Way of the Witch

28.   The Golden Compass

29.   The Amber Spyglass

30.   The Subtle Knife

31.   The Two Princesses of Bamarre

32.   The Awakening

33.   The Summoning

34.   The Reckoning

35.   The Last Enchantment

36.   Dragon Rider

37.   The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

38.   Prince Caspian

39.   The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

40.   The Horse and His Boy

41.   The Silver Chair

42.   The Magician’s Nephew

43.   The Last Battle

44.   East

45.   Thirteen Reasons Why

46.   The Eternal Enemy

47.   The Starlight Crystal

48.   Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

49.   Eat, Pray, Love

50.   Anything by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Most of these I have sitting at home, some I'll have to get from my library, and some I'll have to order from Amazon. Let the adventures begin!

Also, a little update on a painting I am working on.

For my mom.

Snow White Goes to College

I'm sort of at the beginning of a new era of my life. I'm at the cusp of adulthood (cusp. heehee.) and beginning the more mature and independent stage of my life.
To celebrate this mature-ness, I am going to list all of the great things that come with adulthood.

• Driving- I'm not yet terrorizing the streets with my awful driving, but after I turn eighteen, watch out. I'm not a huge fan of driving, but even I can't deny that driving means more independence. And just wait 'til I get my own car...
• Voting- It's just cool that I can have a say in how I'm governed. Every vote counts, right?
• I Know More About Stuff- This may sound shallow, and hey, maybe it is, but when I was little I would always think how it was so cool that adults knew so much. I couldn't wait to be smart like them!
• Independence!- I can now go shopping by myself, go to the supermarket by myself, go to the pool by myself. I used to be scared to do those things when I was young. I needed my mommy with me. I still want my mom with me sometimes, but that's different.
• College-  School back in the day was awful. Full of know-it-alls, assholes and bitches. And douchebags. So many douchebags. In college, there is no social hierarchy. Everyone is different, and it's all good.

Meh, I just decided that adulthood isn't all that great. Now some cool I used to do as a kid (that I still love doing):

•  Pretend- "Pretend I was a warrior elf lady who rode her white stallion all across the land!" "Pretend I was a witch who did magic and people came to me for potions to help them!" (*crush various plants with rocks*) "Pretend Harry Potter was my boyfriend!"
• Dressing Up- When I was little, anytime I could put on a costume I would. My mother loves telling the story of how every time I watched Snow White I would rush to my room and come out in full Snow White costume. If I could dress up every day in a costume, I would. Unfortunately, it interferes with life. You know how these things are.
• Writing and Sending Letters in the Mail- I did this for years after I moved. My friends and I would write all the damn time, and I loved it. I miss it. I have no one to write to anymore, and this saddenes me.
• Amelia's Notebook- Amelia was my first book obsession. My friend and I loved these books, and we even made notebooks ourselves, complete with a million stickers. To this day I still write my journals only in composition notebooks. They just seem so safe to me.
• Making Houses for My Barbies- When my sister or friends and I played barbies, we would make whole damn towns for them. And very detailed houses. Down to the tiny notebooks we made for them. I love little versions of big things and I want to make a miniature dollhouse one day. 

I really haven't grown up in some ways. My favorite shows are still cartoons, my favorite foods are sweets, and I still mess around with my sister as if we were six. In fact, this morning I got overtly excited when I saw that Danny Phantom was on. I sang to the theme song and squealed with joy. Latest proof of my immaturity:

 

Also, a little update on what I am currently reading. I have a list of fifty books I want to read this year and perhaps I'll post it tomorrow. For now:

Anyway, I had one heck of a day today. We did gesture drawings and blind contours in drawing class today. Ugh, and I have a French final to study for tomorrow. Better get some sleep. Buenas Noches.

Things I Am Currently Obsessed With

This post is going to be about things I am currently obsessed with, like music, art, whatever. But I want to start out by writing about my FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE!

First, a little background on my life, school-wise. In the sixth grade my family moved from Tucson, Arizona to San Diego, California. The move was especially hard on me. I was leaving two of my best friends and entering the unknown. It was too much for my innocent psyche. I vowed to not talk to anyone, or even look at anyone, to blend into the background. (I'm serious about this. I had a list that stated these and other depressing points.)

Anyway, from that moment on I saw saw school and all the people in it as the enemy. I made one friend in middle school, but then I went to a different high school than her, and made two friends. But I still had remnants of that negative mindset plus a different view of life than them. I hated the pettiness and shallowness of high school. I felt alienated and lonely, and in the tenth grade I became depressed. I could go really in-depth about all this, but this is getting long as it is. Long story short, I've been going to school online since the eleventh grade. I have one semester left of school, but I'm also taking a college class, which I LOVE.

I was ridiculously excited to start going to school again. I got all dolled up on Wednesday and skipped happily to my class, and even socialized. The past me would not have recognized this person. The people in my class are cool, not the usual douchebags from high school, and the teacher is pretty badass, I think. I am excited to go back on Monday. I may be the youngest in my class, but I feel all grown up.

Anyway, on to my obsessions:

Lackadaisy

The coolest webcomic ever. In my humble opinion. The comic is about cats from the nineteen twenties, during the prohibition era, running a speakeasy called Lackadaisy. I love cats, I love the nineteen twenties, and I love comics. Anyone who loves these things should read Lackadaisy.

Tori Amos

Tori Amos is sort of a new/renewed discovery. My dad had her Beekeeper CD and I listened to it a lot the summer before eleventh grade. But last night I was surfing (does anyone even use that word anymore?) youtube and I came across Tori, and I discovered a hell of a lot more songs that I had never heard before, and I fell in love again. Among my favorites are "Blood Roses," and "Jackie's Strength." Also the video for "A Sorta Fairytale" is so strange, and yet oddly beautiful. Here is "Blood Roses."




Dressing Magically

In the tenth grade I started getting really into Wicca and Witchcraft and stuff, and, almost three years later I still have witchy tendencies and believe in magic (I've always believed in magic actually). A post in Moonshine Junkyard was my inspiration, so I found this site that tells you the colors of the day of the week. I've only been doing it this week but I'm probably going to get tired of it after a while. Still, it's fun to add a little magic to your daily wardrobe. I don't have any pictures, unfortunately.


Hats

Not Using Shampoo

I recently started going shampoo-free, and it's going better than I expected. I tried going shampoo-free a couple of times before, but I got frustrated and gave up. This time, my hair got really awfully greasy, and then I read about using baking soda, so I tried it, and I love it! My hair feels good and not greasy at all. Hopefully I won't start shampooing again, since I have a history on giving up on these things.

Anyway, I'd best be off to make a dent in my reading list.  The Lord of the Rings awaits!

New Years Resolutions... More Like Friendly Suggestions

• Walk to school as many days as possible.
• Read 50 books this year.
• Post on this blog as much as possible.
• Practice my Spanish and French.
• Get my driver's license, also, learn to drive properly.
• Start playing Final Fantasy XII again, and finish the game.
• Write a whole novel! (Seriously, I've got about seven or eight unfinished stories just gathering dust in my USB.)
• Make new friends.
• Drink more tea instead of coffee.
• Paint and draw and perfect my art style.
• Learn to play one song entirely on the piano.
• Get a tattoo.
• Organize and clean my entire room, including my hazardous closet.

These are the tattoo designs I've been working on. I really like the whole symmetric, balanced look the flowers have.

This is Marne, a character from one of the stories I've not been working on.

I have really specific and list-like resolutions like this every year.  They just seem easier for me to follow than a generic I want to lose ten pounds, or I want to be healthier. I like writing lists. They make the jumble of thoughts in my mind easier to follow and understand. Do you know what I mean?

A New Year and a New Me

Hello internet. It's been a while since I posted on here, but I just got the urge to blog again. So here I am.

So much has changed since I last posted. I've been going through some hardships and serious changes, but all is well. I can say with certainty that I am a changed person. You know how sometimes something happens that your whole life perspective just changes? Yeah. Well, that happened to me, and now I am not so afraid of life anymore. I'm stronger and braver and a lot more confident.

I guess you're all wondering what happened to evoke such a change. Well, this Christmas my mom got diagnosed with cancer. I know, ouch. It was such a blow to our family. There had never really been a huge tragedy-like thing in our immediate or extended family, so we were all scared. I swear, the day my mom came back from the doctors, the very second she and my dad came through the door, I knew it was bad. There was a dark cloud of sadness in the house those first few days. There was a lot of crying.

Luckily we had the holidays to distract us, and for a while, we forgot all about the cancer. Once the holidays were over, though, my mom's doctor said that she should start chemotherapy as soon as possible. That was when the news really hit me hard. I cried a whole day.

The next day, though, I felt okay. Not just okay, but I felt great. I felt very carpe diem and happy and peaceful. I looked back at the things that used to weigh heavy on my mind (like getting a lot of views on deviantArt. I know, shallow.) which now seemed stupid. Now the little details of life are what makes me happiest. I see the moon in my window, I am am happy. I get a new pair of glasses, and I am happy. I go to my first day of school, and I'm happy, something the me-from-the-past would have scoffed at. I am brave at talking to people, and I no longer worry about what people think of me. My heart is filled with the joy of life and living.

I drew this while listening to Sarah by Bat For Lashes. Random, but I thought it kind of fit with the whole post.

My mom has taken the news with real grace. She's started reading "The Power of Now" and she says that it has helped her. She hasn't started chemo yet, so she still feels as good and energetic as always. But she has been in and out of hospitals and doctors' offices a lot, which is something that will be happening often. I am very proud of her for being so positive and strong.


To finish this long-ass post off, I want to add that I would like to start blogging again, though this will not be the lame fashion blog I had in mind when I started. I am going to write about things I like (books, movies, music, art), that inspire me, and my thoughts on stuff. And maybe a couple of interesting fashion posts.