An Awful Lot of Running

You might not know this, but I'm a Doctor Who fan. It's the sort of television show that one wishes were actually real. That tempts me to say something derogatory about Twilight, but I'll refrain. But anyways, as a fan of the Doctor's, I find the genre of Time-Lord Rock (trock) to be quite entertaining. As with most fan-made art, trock's quality can be very varied in quality, but I've found a song called An Awful Lot of Running by Chameleon Circuit that I particularly enjoy.

It's initial chord progression mimics the Doctor Who theme, and the theme pops up in many areas of the song. As a side note, this song will make no sense unless you check out the Doctor Who page on wikipedia, available through the finely crafted link above.


An Awful Lot of Running

He is like fire, burning through time
As old as forever, but fast in his prime
I saw his blue spaceship materialise
He stepped out and said to me, "run for your life!"

I don't know why I never thought to ask him for his name
But I really don't think he'd have told me the truth anyway
But you know, that's ok

It's completely terrifying but it's so so exciting
He said I was brilliant and I could change the world
So many places I've been and there's so much more to see
We've got galaxies and planets and moons
And an awful lot of running to do

As a full-time companion he gave me a key
And a phone with a signal in every galaxy
As we fell through the vortex I felt so free
Please don't let this danger just be another dream

Because my life before you was unreasonably mundane
I've never been happier although we face death every day
I wouldn't have it any other way

It's completely terrifying but it's so so exciting
He said I was brilliant and I could change the world
So many places I've been and there's so much more to see
We've got galaxies and planets and moons
And an awful lot of running to do

You know you can fix that chameleon circuit if you just try hotwiring the fragment links and superseding the binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary binary *gasp*

It's completely terrifying but it's so so exciting
He said I was brilliant and I could change the world
So many places I've been and there's so much more to see
We've got galaxies and planets and moons
And an awful lot of running ... to do

Oh, my blog!

Tay, from Fearless, awarded me the Oh, my blog! award. Don't ask me what that means, precisely.  Thanks, Tay!

1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER.

2. Choose ONE of the following options of accepting the OMB award:
a. Get really caffeinated and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.
b. Write about your most embarrassing moment.
c. Write a "soundtrack of your childhood" post.
d. Make your next blog a vlog (video blog). Basically, you're talking to the camera about whatever.
e. Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, shower, etc.) and post it.

~~~~~~~~~~~/\~~~~~~~~~~~~

I choose c. However, because my childhood is far too short, I shall expand from the confirmed past to my hopeful future.

- Opening Credits: Don't Bring Me Down by the Coats

- Birth Through 3 years, or To Be a Shroom: The Gummybear Song

- 4 years, or Off With Her Hair! - The Hamster Dance

- 5 and 6 years, or She of Boundless Energy: Crazy Loop, by Crazy Loop

- 7 through 10, or Growing Pains: Pavane for a Dead Princess, Guns 'n Roses by Paradise Lunch

- 10 through 12, or the Hunting of the Snark : According to You, by Orianthi, The Logical Song by Supertramp, Stand My Ground by Within Temptation

-12, or Decisions Made: What is Eternal, by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash, Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton

- 13 and 14, or The Fact is, That is Not a Head on Her Shoulders: Daddy DJ, by Daddy DJ

- 15, or A Turning Point: 100 Years, by Five For Fighting, Older by They Might Be Giants

-16, or Dancing in the Rain: Shadows in the Rain, by Sting, Praise Adonai by Paul Baloche, Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone,

-Waking Up: Lux Aeterna, by Clint Mansel, So She Dances by Josh Groban

-Falling In Love: Holding Out For A Hero by Bonnie Tyler, Jennifer Saunders

-Epic Fight Scene: Woman of God by Larry Norman

-Secret Love: Dark Waltz by Hayley Westenra

-Life's OK: Viva La Vida by Coldplay

-Mental Breakdown: Under the Radar, by Abney Park

-Driving Scene: Step Up to the Microphone by Newsboys, The Wanderer by Johnny Cash

-Flashback: Running Up That Hill by Placebo

-Happy Dance: Yakety Sax, 99 Luftballoons by Nena

-Regretting: The Hazards of Love 4 by the Decemberists

-Long Night Alone: Hurt by Johnny Cash

-Final Battle: All Systems Go by Krypteria

-Death Scene:If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly

-Final Ending: Now We Are Free by Howard Shore

-End Credits: Orinoco Flow by Enya, Tell Me Ma by Gaelic Storm



3. Pass the award on to at least  three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don't forget to tell them.
Grey (The Locket)
Qwip (If By Happy You Mean Deranged)
Chris (My Ink Spot)
Bridget (Gonna Take A Ride Over The Moon)

Cheers,
B

Short Grab Bag

Alrighty. In my haste to get my thoughts about Regionals up and running, I forgot to bring you other important news.

So, starting at the very beginning. The Monday after Regionals, I had an audition for a summer production of Much Ado About Nothing. I think it went rather well - I used a piece from Moliere's Two Precious Maidens Ridiculed. It's all about this hopelessly romantic teenage girl lecturing her father about how a suitor is supposed to behave around his beloved.  The callbacks were posted the next day, and I've been called back for Hero, Ursula, and a member of the city Watch. I'm quite excited, really. Hero was the role I'd been hoping to be called back as, but if I get any of those roles, I'll be most pleased.

On Tuesday evening, my mom got back from Minnesota. She spent three weeks back there with my uncle, during the course of which she got a sinus infection. Thank you all for keeping her in your prayers.

Today is quite busy. About a month ago, Lady Specs emailed me about the Christian Heritage Conference. Turns out, someone had volunteered me to help with the Speech and Debate presentation that Lady Specs was organizing. I've spent this last week stressing about what I would say. I finally finished the script today. So at noon, I'll be heading over to the conference, and after that, well, well, well... It's also Lady Spec's 18th birthday today, so she's having a dance in honor of it. Which should prove interesting.

Well, that's all for now, folks!

B

Music Wednesday

My apologies on the lateness of this post. This weekend has been crazy, and I only just got around to it.

Let me introduce you to The Voice, by Celtic Women. Normally, I really dislike this group, because it's so commercial, and certainly isn't true Celtic music. Yes, I prefer real bagpipes to some caterwauling by a girl group with a fiddle. But I love the lyrics to this song, so I overlook the band who sang it.

The Voice

I hear your voice on the wind
And I hear you call out my name

"Listen, my child," you say to me
"I am the voice of your history
Be not afraid, come follow me
Answer my call, and I'll set you free"

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice, I will remain

I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone
The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow
Ne'er do I sleep thoughout all the cold winter long
I am the force that in springtime will grow

I am the voice of the past that will always be
Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields
I am the voice of the future, bring me your peace
Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal

I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice

I am the voice of the past that will always be
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice of the future
I am the voice, I am the voice
I am the voice, I am the voice





B

Regionals

This weekend was the Region 3 Invitational National Qualifying Tournament. It was pretty fun,actually. I guess I'll give you a rough day-by-day high and low-lights list.

The tournament started on Wednesday, so bright and early at 5:30, I stumbled out of bed, bleary-eyed and no tail in sight. I needed to get down to Renton by 9:00 because extemp rounds started at 9:30, and we had articles to file. When I got down to the church, I discovered, along with KK, that Calvin had printed out an entire stack of papers that needed to be filed before the round. Can you say 'panic'? Extemp would have gone rather well had it not been for the fact that Mr. Shane Baumgardner, one of the extemp powerhouses of my region, had been in my room all three times. I kind of psyched myself out. This excuse is not saying that I would have done better if Mr. Baumgardner had not been in my room: It was an extreme miracle that I qualified to Regionals in the first place. I then had a debate round, which was interesting and not entirely pleasant. After coming out from about four hours worth of analysis and argumentation, I was greeted by an onslaught of inquisitive friends. Questions flew over my head like flies over a particularly ripe cheese. Keep in mind that I was operating off of very little sleep, and you'll understand that moving from a nice, quiet debate round to a noisy circle full of friends did very little for my sanity and comprehension. It was completely overwhelming. And naturally, Grey and Ophelia were at the very heart of the culprits, and I mean that in the best possible way. I skipped the social event at the Space Needle because I needed sleep, and getting up at 4:30 the next day was not conducive to sleep.

Thursday was chaos. Rounds started at 7:30, after announcements at 7:00. There were four debate rounds plus three speech rounds, and by the end of the day, I was pretty well exhausted. On the plus, I ran into quite a few old new friends from last time around.  All Thursday, I was pretty bummed that Mrs. Hudson hadn't done her speech about hats. Oh, also, I had a judge who refused to make eye contact with me in my OO. It was a little jolting, because no matter what I would do, this parent WOULD NOT look at me. She was even staring at the other judges, but I was apparently too horrific to look at.

On Friday, I got in a huge discussion with some other debaters about the Big Bang theory, Old Earth and New Earth Creationism, and Biblical interpretation. It was CJ and I against the world. Well, not quite as melodramatic, but still, it was a good argument. It's probably cemented my status as a resident freethinker even more firmly, but I happen to believe that "any society that looses its troublemakers goes downhill," so I'm comparatively alright with that.

On Saturday, I woke up with my eye swollen shut, so I got to wear an eye patch! Also, on Saturday, I had a dandelion fight with a TP debater I had just started talking to that day. We figured out that if you walk upwind of your target and shake the seed head of a dandelion, your target gets a face-full. This started an all out war, which was absolutely amazing, except that Mr. Owl got a video of it.  We found a Rubik's cube, and I solved one side almost completely, but I got stuck with the last square. Mr. Owl got the last square in place, and then claimed to have solved the entire thing. It was a lolwut moment, if I ever saw one. :D Calvin was awkward with CS as usual, but it was still kind of entertaining hanging out with them. I will never view Coca-Cola in the same way again, nor Axe, for that matter. See, the original Calvin, whom I shall refer to as StickMan for the rest of this blog, brought a can of Axe deodorant spray with him, and on Saturday, proceeded to stagnate the air for a twenty-foot radius around him. Bell was sleeping a couple feet away, and StickMan got the idea to spray Bell with the Axe. He creeps over to the sleeping debater, and thoroughly marinates him with the stuff, and Bell didn't even wake up. It was hilarious, amazing, etc.


And throughout the tournament, I had a very fun time imitating Theresa Hudson's accent, who was running Regionals. I hope she didn't over hear me, though. ;P

B

Run

Let me introduce you to a favorite of mine: Run, by Snow Patrol. I acquired it this summer when I was expanding my music library. It, too, came up on Pandora. I'm not quite sure why I like it, so just go and listen to it for yourself.


Run by Snow Patrol.

I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done

And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

Slower slower
We don't have time for that
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads

Have heart my dear
We're bound to be afraid
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Wish List

Every Tuesday, I walk to the library. There, I spend an hour or so browsing through periodicals, books, encyclopaedias, and other resources in preparation for extemporaneous club and debate. This usually brings me into contact with the other patrons of the library. A couple times now, I've had to explain "why I'm not in school."  It doesn't bother me too much, but the various comments I have to bite back when questioned do. So this post is going to be great! It'll only be the punch lines, not the buildup. Ready? Here we go.

1. No, I do not know your cousin's daughter who homeschools in Virginia.

2. No, I don't want to communicate with your cousin's daughter in Virgina.

3. Just because there's a 'home' in homeschool doesn't mean I spend my time there.

4. Just because there's a 'school' in homeschool doesn't mean I need 10 hours a day to get my learning done.

5. No, I don't own a copy of the Constitution.

6. No, I don't have the Declaration of Independence memorized.

7. Keeping a bunch of teenagers racing with hormones in close contact with each other five days of the week doesn't count as socialization.

8. Why, yes! I have lots of friends. You just can't see them.


9. No, I don't like, eat, like, icecream? for like, you know, breakfast?


10. Don't look so surprised. It's not like every homeschool family is large.


11. Not all homeschoolers school the way your cousin's daughter in New York does.


12. Have you ever heard of autodidactic tendencies? No? Go look it up and then ask me that again.


13. Prom? You mean, there's socializing? I'm sorry, as a backward, fundamentalist homeschooler, I don't think it's alright for guys and girls to be in the same room as each other, let alone talking to one another!


14. You've completely convinced me. I now firmly believe that after living a long, full, life, doing a job that I love, pursuing knowledge, after finding adventures everywhere, after marrying the man of my dreams; I believe that I'll look back on my life and say that the one thing I regret is not having had a boyfriend throughout high school because it really would have made my life complete.


15. I agree, I don't sound like other kids my age. Do you have a problem with that?


16. No, no. No offense taken. My fundamentalist, wack-job friends from the vast right-wing conspiracy will never know.


17. Now that you're done, can I quiz your kid about everything they've learned at school?


18. Yes, these are, in fact, pants. You're not hallucinating.

19. Oi! Don't disrespect the van!

20. This conversation was scintillating, I'm sure, but much like a chanson de geste, it has waxed loquacious and time itself is fleeting.



Thanks! You have no idea how good it felt to just release some of the pent-up sarcasm. I can now go back and continue my polite, non-committal conversations.
You know, it's getting so bad I'm considering just calling myself "library schooled" and leaving it at that.

B

Airship Pirates

You may remember I talked about Abney Park a few Music Mondays ago. This song of theirs is a bit different than I Am Stretched On Your Grave. See, this one is a little more ... robust. It's about a group of pirates who sail the skies in their airship. It's called, surprisingly enough, Airship Pirates. I think my two favorite parts of the song is the helicopter propellers introducing the song, and the violin's scrawls throughout. It's good if you're trying to distract your mind from, say, the 100 sit-ups you're attempting to do. But it's also good in its own right, so I'll leave you to enjoy.

Airship Pirates by Abney Park

Our fires high and the airbags tight
Food's low but the skies are bright
Props spinning all through the night
We're low on cash but seen another target

Goggles down and the cannons up
My blood starts pumping as I drain my cup
I give the wheel a spin and I turn this girl around
We're way above ground but we're closed in on our target

Flying Jib is filled with air
East India ships filled with despair
We even up, her broadsides bare
Our cannons flair but it’s just a show of muscle

Steady on, she doesn’t need to burn
She tries to flee and she tries to turn
Grappling fire, we latch her hull
She’s starting to roll, but we’ve got her on a leash

With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves now

Expendable crew starts to reel her in
Our swords are sharpened and we're ready to sin
I’m three miles up, we're about to swing aboard
My tether's made of leather so I’m not about to fall here

A swish of air and my boots hit deck
No cash, no fuel, no not a speck
Our grape shots made this bird a wreck
And a glance below deck shows a crew of nuns and orphans

With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves

Tag!

Qwip tagged me with this one, which he wrote himself.

1. How many toes do you have?

14. In base 6, that is.

2. How many bones have you broken?


One. It was when someone mistook my foot for the soccer ball in a game and tried to loft it.


3. Name an epic thing that you have done.


I was carrying one of those food trays you get from the cafeteria to a friend with a plate of food and  a glass of water on it. I tripped over the invisible object that follows me a around, and the plate of food and glass jumped off the tray. Keep in mind this was a few feet from my friend's table. She turned around just in time to see me catch the food and water glass on the tray just before planting my face in the cement. Nothing spilled.

4. If you had a pet lemming, what would you name him?

Road Kill

5. What color are the clothes you're wearing right now?

Cream and brown, unless you're also counting the drawing on my arm, in which case: Cream and Brown and purply black.

6. How awesome are orca whales on a scale of one to ten?

Uhhhh.... Five? I've never really thought about it before.

8. How old do you want to be when you die?

Before fifty. Unlike the creator of this tag, I want to be doing something interesting when I go.

9. Name a pet peeve and an addiction.

Pet Peeve: People apologizing for things that don't need apologies ("I'm sorry, I have to get my bag. I'm sorry, did I open my sandwich without asking if you've had lunch. I'm sorry, I opened the door a little slowly. I'm sorry, I just expressed an opinion you disagree with ..." )


Addiction:  I'm addicted to well-written movie soundtracks.

10. Write a paragraph detailing your life. 100 word minimum.


My earliest memory is standing at the top of a very large hill looking down on my brother on the playground at the foot of the hill. I was public schooled from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, a time period I prefer to forget. Public school is one of the reasons that I can't stand kids. I took up the violin in second grade. I was also in a ballet company basically from kindergarten 'till sixth grade. I was training to be a professional. It was in ballet that I discovered precisely everything that was wrong with my feet. I went en pointe and my firey, scary Russian teacher sent me to a foot doctor to see what the trouble was. Turns out, I had plantar faschitis, achilles tendonities, calcaneal apophicitis, epiphicitis, and sesmoiditis. In other words, my feet were screwy. In addition, x-rays discovered that I have extra bones in my heels and bone growths that severally limit my range of motion. The doctor put me in cast boots for two months and I had to drop out of dance, because while surgery could have fixed these problems, it was terribly expensive.  After fifth grade, I asked my parents to home school me, and they were kind enough to agree. I joined a choir, and a few years later, the NCFCA. And that pretty much brings me up to date - nothing much has happened during my years homeschooling.  Hah, 200-something words.

11. Name one thing that isn't really a secret, but that you haven't really gotten around to telling anyone.

I really like my privacy, so it bugs me when people ask too much about me.

12. Name another pet peeve.

The slurping and munching sounds people make when they eat noisily drive me nuts.
 
13. Sprechen Sie deutsch?

Ich spreche nur sehr wenig Deutsch


14. Tell a joke.

Zakos Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis

15. How many of the questions have you answered in a witty manner so far?

4, ish.

16. Compose a haiku.

 The cute crocodile
Opens his mouth for fishies
Grinning, licks his lips.

17. Have you ever noticed how sour candies taste even more sour if you rub them on the side of your tongue?

Yeah.


18. What book(s) are you reading at the moment?

The Phoenix Guard by Someone - it's a parody, of sorts, of Dumas' the Three Musketeers
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang - It's part history, part biography, part memoir.
and a collection of Moliere's one act plays

19. How many doors are there in your house?

13.

20. How would you solve a problem like Maria?

Solitary confinement's worked before.

21. Think of something about yourself. Anything. Go on, think of it.

Now think of something more interesting. Write it down here.

Something more interesting: I got certified in Leave No Trace when I was nine, and then proceeded to bully older Boy Scouts getting their certification because I volunteered as an instructor about how to act around pack animals for several years after that. I think I enjoyed it a little too much.

22. What's wrong with your legs?

I'm the lady from the test.

24. What's your favorite show tune?


That's a hard one. Camelot's my favorite musical, and it's got so many good ones. The Simple Joys of Maidenhood, Camelot, The Jousts, the Seven Deadly Virtues, and Guenevere rank up there, though.

25. Okay, you can tell us what that first thing you thought of for number 21 was. We all want to know, even if it isn't interesting.

I missed my best friend's birthday party five years in a row.

I tag Jare and Lib.


B

Biology

I love science! I love learning about why the universe works the way it works. There is something perfect, pleasing, and beautiful about learning how God created everything. That said, I hate biology. Why? Because rather than dealing with the 'why' of creation, it deals with the 'what'.  What the names of bones are; what the respiratory system is; what photosynthesis does... All sorts of specific which, quite frankly, bore me stiff. I'd much rather study the science of dropping things (ie, physics) or the science of exploding things (ie, chemistry) rather than the science of living things...

Fortunately, for the most part, my biology class is tolerable. A sarcastic teacher who also prefers physics and chemistry helps. But because she's bored with the subject, she messes with the students, and yesterday was undoubtedly the worst science class I've ever had.

We started on animals yesterday. Previously, we'd covered botany, an interesting, enlightening, and thoroughly engrossing topic. Please tell me you get my sarcasm. The logical starting point is looking at invertebrates.

Because she had planned a dissection, the teacher only had a short lecture - fifteen minutes. She focused on stuff that interested her. So for the first five minutes, she gave an in-depth introduction to tape worms, complete with pictures, graphs, and all the biological impacts it has on the host. After that section, I was feeling kind of queasy, and desperately wishing that my grade didn't depend on my attendance of the class.

The teacher then announced that she'd spend the remnant of the lecture on spiders. In case you didn't know, I've got a case of arachnophobia.  For the next ten minutes, I looked anywhere but the slideshow, and by the end of the slide show, not only was I ready to lose my breakfast, but feeling thousands of crawling legs moving up my spine. It didn't help that the teacher was gesturing and pointing out things on the slides with the can of 14-inch-long worms that were about to be dissected. Basically, by the end of the lecture, I wanted to run screaming from the room.

Then the fun began. She called us to pick out our worm, and gave us dissecting kits. The worm on the tray in front of me looked like a scale model of the tape worms she had just told us about. My stomach gave a warning jump. However, since I was being graded, I picked up the scalpel and got to work. The only way I got through the intervening hour was by singing "The Gambler"'s chorus to myself.

See, I have a problem. When I read a book about someone experiencing pain, I start hurting too. That's one of the reasons I have problems with meat: I see the veins and I start hurting all over. And when I was cutting through the skin of the worm and pinning it back, it felt like I was peeling back the skin on my hand without anaesthetics and pinning it to the cardboard. And when it didn't feel like I was vivisecting myself, I felt sick because the worm was disgusting.

I felt sick for the entire day, and I am desperately praying that the next dissection falls on the week Regionals will be held. Because I don't know if I can even do it again.

Sickly yours,
B

Archery

Last night, my Venture crew got together with another crew and went to an archery range. It was, surprisingly, fun!

Before yesterday,  I'd never used a ranged weapon/toy/whatever you want to call it before. You could tell, too. My target hitting and self-injuring skills seemed to be directly proportionate - I didn't do the former a lot, but the latter more than made up for it. Because the arm-guard thingy didn't fit, it slid down my arm to where it wasn't useful, and I'd hit my arm with the string.


But despite the bruises forming on my upper left forearm, I had fun. So yeah, that's my report for the evening.

B