Coloring Pages and Me

Most of you already know that my major hobby is reading, but what you may not know is that I am also into coloring. Yep, that's right, I belong to the slightly strange camp of adult/teen coloring book/page fans. There are more of us than you think, and we grow in number every year.

So why coloring pages?

Well, different people are fans for different reasons. Some find coloring to be a stress reliever, and there are in fact scientific studies that validate this. Others find that coloring reminds them of pleasant childhood memories and releases their 'inner child.'

So what camp do I belong to?

None of these, actually. While I do feel calmer coloring, that is not why I do it, nor do I need to re-live any childhood memories considering that I am still technically a child. So why do I color? I color because my limited degree of artistic talent, combined with my even more limited patience for the discipline and long hours required to create anything worth merit makes me a terrible artist. Now, for most people this would not matter, after all, not everyone can be the next Van Gogh. However, in my case, I have always wanted to be an artist since I was just a small child. Why I never properly pursued an art education I suppose I'll never know, but the point remains that I didn't. This leaves me as a frustrated fifteen-year old mourning the artist I'll never be.

This is where the coloring comes in. Ask me to draw you a person, and I'll draw a stick figure. But, ask me to color a complex picture and I'll happily pick up my 36 count box of Crayola colored pencils and get coloring. The end result leaves me with a masterpiece that I can be proud of while requiring very little skill. Sure, I know somewhat of shading and texturing, enough to make a difference in coloring, but not enough to draw well.

So if you have low art abilities like me, and you always wished you could be a real artist, come join me in the world of adult coloring books. I think you'll find a whole world of possibilities.

This is a coloring page I just finished today

Inheritence Cycle

Ok, here's the deal. Some of you have been reading my blog from before when I did book reviews. Those of you that have will have learned that one of my favorite series of all time is the Inheritance Cycle.

For those of you who are new, here's the scoop: I read roughly 200 pages every day, so I end up doing quite a bit of reading for a fifteen year-old. This means that I have many, many, many favorite books/series (55 at last count). However, one of my early favorites was the Inheritance Cycle. Eragon was the first book to take me more than one day to read, and it has remained in my heart since the third grade when I read it for the first time. To this day I still enjoy reading through this epic saga, and I am actually currently re-reading it.

All of this brings me here: the Inheritance cycle got exactly one movie, Eragon. One. Also, it was terrible. My advice for anyone who's read the book and wants to watch the movie is don't. Still, this one flaky, terrible movie was all the fandom had, so we just accepted it.

Until now. Now, the Inheritance cycle's main fan website, Shurtugal.com, has put forth a petition to 20th Century Fox to give us a reboot. Not only that, but a 
reboot that is true to the books. Plus, we're asking for the whole hog this time. That's right, we're 
not just asking for Eragon to be made into a movie, but Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance as well. 
Because this time Inheritance Cycle fans are going big or going home.

So, why am I telling you all this? Because I need your help. The plan is to submit the petition to Fox 
on this Saturday, but we're still roughly 7,000 signatures away from our goal of 50,000 signatures. 
So, can I ask you all for one big favor? 

If you are a fan of the Inheritance Cycle, please sign.
If you are a fan of fantasy, please sign.
If you are a fan of epic movies, please sign.
If you are a fan of dragons, please sign.
If you are a fan of Elves, magic, Dwarves, or LOTR, please sign.
If you are a fan of good movie adaptations, please sign. 

In other words, if you feel so inclined, please, please, please sign our petition. I promise you that if we 
can get a decent version of the Inheritance Cycle in theaters you will not regret it. 

Also, if you have any friends that you think would enjoy this for any of the reasons listed above 
(or others) please tell them. Spread the word, because we need all the signatures we can get. 

You can sign the petition here.


   

 

General Conference!

You heard me! It's that time of year again, when faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all flock to the conference center in Salt Lake city (or just turn on the TV at home) in order to hear the messages presented to anyone willing to listen by our General Authorities.

So, what did I make of general conference? Why, I loved every minute of it! From President Eyring's opening talk about fast offerings to Elder Cook's closing remarks about the light of the Lord, I felt the spirit incredibly powerfully. I am so grateful for the guidance of living prophets and apostles on the earth today who can give us such inspired instruction.

I also thought it was very interesting how a few people (4) decided to not sustain the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve during the meeting. I personally find that kind of sad, however it is their choice to make and not mine. I just hope that they really will go talk to their stake presidency so that they can get things straightened out between them and the church.

Other than that incident, conference was great and I'm looking forward to the next two sessions tomorrow.  

Electronic High School Update/Scheduling

Hey, so it's been awhile since my first post on my frustration with the program, and I realized that I just kind of left you all hanging on how it all worked out in the end. Actually, everything's back to smooth sailing again. The teacher e-mailed me back the monday after I encountered the problem, and gave me some extra help figuring out how to format things on my mac. Everything since then has been going just fine, and I'm even starting to work ahead a little bit.



So, on to other things. Today was class registration for incoming juniors at my high school. Since I'm an incoming junior, that means I'm supposed to get completely registered for all of my classes for next year. The registration window is just 'anytime' between 2:45 today and 11:59 on the 30th, 'anytime' being within the first few seconds of registration opening if I want to get all of the classes I want.

The catch? My high school was hosting a regional music festival between 3:30 and 5:30 tonight. So of course the band that is 90% 'incoming juniors', aka needs to schedule promptly at 2:45, are the first ones up, with a warm-up time of 2:30. Now, I love my band teacher dearly, and I know he didn't do it to deliberately inconvenience the band members, but still. So, last night my mom and I ran over my schedule in preparation for her registering me at 2:45 today. To do this, my mom needs my login and password to Skyward, an online gradebook and scheduling program used by my school. So, we get on her laptop and go to skyward only to find that my username and password is saved in her browser. Win, right?

Wrong. Completely and utterly wrong. When my mom went to register for my classes, her computer crashed. And guess what she didn't know without her computer? My flipping Skyward login. She attempted to text me, but my device was in the band room and I was in the auditorium, so I didn't hear it.

The result? I am currently registered for every class I need/want to be in except honors English, because the class was 'full' by the time my mom got to it. Supposedly this isn't that big of a deal, and my mom is going to talk to my counselor tomorrow to make sure that they can put me in the class. Still, it's a big pain in the rear factor I wish I didn't have to deal with.            

Let's talk about Introversion

No, really, let's. I'm an introvert, after all, so we're going to have to broach this topic at some point. What, you might ask, is the reason for this sudden post? One of my pet peeves, namely, people who call themselves introverts without really knowing what they're talking about.

One growing movement which I really appreciate is the movement to get introverts recognized and accepted by a society, that, up until just recently, viewed withdrawn, introverted people as 'lame' or 'socially awkward.'  However, one drawback of this movement is that, the cooler introverts look to the outside world, the more people want to identify in that group, resulting in confused definitions of what an introvert really is. So, I'm here today as an introvert who's done quite a bit of research on introversion to give you an inside look on what it really means to be an introvert.

To begin with, an introvert is someone who derives their daily energy from solitude. That's it. Not 'people who are shy,' or 'people who don't like to go to parties,' but 'people who get their energy from being alone.'  So your first clue is, how does being around other people for extended periods of time make you feel? If your answer is 'no change,' 'happier,' or 'more energized,' then chances are you are not an introvert, but rather, an extrovert.

So if the definition is so simple, why do so many people mis-identify themselves as introverts? The problem arises from a few (for lack of a better word) 'side effects' of being an introvert. This includes a reluctance to go to large social events, a tendency to avoid noisy people, and a habit of being quiet and shy around other people. Since we are all individuals, not every introvert behaves this way, and quite a few extroverts find themselves doing these things, which can lead some to believing they are introverts.

Take me, for example. On every test I have ever taken, and according to the earlier definition, I am almost 100% an introvert. Nevertheless, few would call me 'shy' or 'withdrawn.' Rather, although I avoid large social events, sporting events, and dances, and while I find face-to-face conversation daunting, especially with an authority figure or stranger, I have an almost obsessive love for public speaking. This 'strange' (as far as introverts go) passion, coupled with my raucous and high-pitched laugh, often would not lead most to label me as an introvert. At other times, however, my introversion is painfully obvious, such as me spending all of my free (in-school) time in the library, or coming home from school only to head straight down the stairs and 'recharge' before I do homework.

Such deviancy in one's personality is natural, in fact, life would be pretty boring without it. Still, some of what you've read here should help you determine if you're an introvert or an extrovert, so next time think before you publicly label yourself as one or the other personality type.

(Still unsure where you fall? Try taking the Briggs-Myers personality test online! Besides telling you whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, this test also measures you in a variety of other ways and gives you a fascinating personality type that you can explore more into if you so choose.)

Electronic High School

So, I have to take an online high school version of 'computer tech' in order to graduate. So, a few days ago I signed myself up for the correct course and all seemed well. I went on to the class yesterday, was able to complete my first 'getting to know you' assignment, and all still seemed well. Then, I went on to start working on my first actual assignment, and hit a snag. The blinking instructions for the blinking assignment were written for a freaking PC. 

As you might guess, I don't use a PC, but rather a mac. This has all kinds of ramifications for me being able to take this class, though. I mean, if I'm not able to take this class I will have to figure out some way to work it into my actual schedule, thereby dropping an elective I really want to take, or I won't graduate. 

This is so frustrating on so many levels for me, especially when I really need to be able to take all the electives I can, also to be able to graduate. What I'm saying is, release time seminary, which allows me to take LDS religion classes during school, also eats up a credit that doesn't show up on my transcript, effectively giving me seven credit hours to work with instead of eight. This in turn means that I have no room to spare in my schedule, because I'm right on the edge of where I need to be in order to graduate. Thus, my frustration with possibly not being able to take this stupid blinking supposed-to-be-easy online class. 

To Socialize or Not to Socialize?

My Mother has recently decided to try to get me to obtain some phone numbers of my 'friends' so that we can hang out after school and stuff. This is all fine and well, but it has brought me to the realization that I don't actually really have any friends. I mean, there are some people who I know who I enjoy being in their company, but there's really nobody who I can always count on to always want to spend time with me. To some of you, this might sound pretty lonely, but to me it's just how I live my life, and it's actually not as lonely as you might think, mostly because I spend so much time with my family and church friends outside of school.

All things being equal, however, an assignment in my English class today has provided me with some new insights I thought I would share with you. The assignment was that we were supposed to decide whether or not our school deserves its clique-free reputation, and then to provide an example to illustrate the point. I chose to stand by our school's reputation, and provided the type of example required by the assignment, at which point I thought the matter over and done with. To my surprise, my English teacher decided that he was going to read some of the other students' work out loud to provide examples of good and bad writing. After he did so, I realized something.

Every other student whose work had been read had argued for our school having cliques to one degree or another. Why, I wondered, was that? I knew most of the students whose work had been read and they were all friendly people who were willing to make friends with many others. Why then, would such people be able to argue for a certain degree of cliqueness, when I was not?  That was when it hit me. All of the other students whose work had been read were part of a tight-knit group of friends, a clique even. Because of this, all of them could clearly see the boundaries of their social circles and groups, as well as where other groups lie. For example, one girl talked about the differences between 'techies' and choir students, while another girl mentioned how she was mostly just friends with other members of the track team.

I, on the other hand, do not really belong to any group, or, like I mentioned before, have very many 'friend' friends. Good acquaintances? Yes. People who I admire and respect? Definitely. But no real 'group,' no obvious boundaries. I find that my 'friends' number among many groups from which I share interests, like AP/Honors nerds, reading nerds, history enthusiasts, band geeks, and of course the 'we don't have a group' group. But, I also have friends from other groups, like choir students, girl jocks, emo-ish people, the 'we're really weird for no reason' group, and the 'artsy-fartsy' kids. The result? I don't really see the boundaries since I don't have a belonging place with any. I bounce so easily from group to group, able to discuss boy trouble and Russian history all in the space of a few minutes, that I can simply walk through social walls like they don't even exist.

I guess this only leaves one burning question in my mind. To socialize or not to socialize? If I do like my mom wants me to I'll gain a whole new level of friendship that I've never really experienced before, but I risk losing my social immunity and ability to sort of fit in anywhere. If I keep doing like I'm doing now, I'll stay pretty much a loner and a nerd with few to no 'real' friends, but I'll still be able to walk through social walls, and still be able to sort of belong anywhere.