Silver Lining

Ok, here is a list of the top 5 things to do that will help me learn:

5. Mix things up. Even doing the way I learn best, if done ALL the time, will get boring, and boredom leads to zoning out, which obviously leads to a lack of learning!

4. Computers are great! Doing something other than the traditional really gets my attention and makes me want to try whatever it is you want me to try.

3. Discussion within short periods of time are really good.

2. Hands on activities are great. Something that we can take part in in a way other than notes or writing. Maybe acting something out.

1. DO NOT LECTURE ME. You might be saying something extremely important but if you stick it into the middle of a lecture I will not hear you. Short talks are fine, but ixnay on the 30 minute lectures.

Victory! I finally know what semi-colons, colons, and clauses! This, is a semi-colon —-> ;

It is used when you want to put two things together that COULD be separate sentences, but you want them to be the SAME sentence. For example: I like pink shirts; my brother likes blue shirts. Super simple, but effective. The two sentences on either side of the semi-colon are called CLAUSES. A colon is easier to explain. A colon is this —–> : and its job is to introduce things like lists. For example:

You will need: a eggs, milk, flower, baking soda, etc.

Grammar is way harder then it needs to be. Why bother making things so complicated when you can say things simply? One question I would REALLY like answered is who invented grammar and why? I can understand general rules, but not super specific rules that seemingly do nothing to promote the actual quality of writing. *Sigh* Oh well.

One of my goals was to put my horse on a training program and complete it. I definantly did just that. I went to the barn 5-7 days a week and worked my butt off (as my poor mother who had to drive me there, stay there, and then bring me home will testify to.) Even though it isn’technically “school work” I really learned a lot. I learned that animals don’t care what kind of day you had, you have to control you temper and frustrations because trying to get a 1400 pound animal to do what you want with a bad attitude doesn’t work. They can make a bad day worse or totally turn it arround. Training my horse taught me about commitment. This winter it was way below freezing, and sometimes 5-10 degrees. I still had to go to the barn in the dark, check on the horse, warm her up really well, then cool her down, blanket her, and bring her water.

I taught her to jump up and down banks, jump into water (when the weather warmed up) and how to jump in a small arena. She had never done any of this before. I call her the Evil Pony (along with everyone else in the barn) because if she doesn’t respect you she will buck, kick, take off, run out of jumps, or flat out refuse to move at all. Trying to MAKE 1400 lbs of thick skinned attitude move will teach you the meaning of WORK.

I experienced moments of extreme frustration as well as those of triumph. My training program took me all the way to my first show, and I’m now taking it to the next level in hopes of having a succesfull showing career with my little mare =) Even though it was tough, the lessons I learned from Amaretto (my horse) will definately stick with me. This was a tough but rewarding personal curriculum.

This year went by the fastest of any year in my life. School was amazing. Yes, I just said that school was amazing. I got to try so many things I had never done before like blogging. I got so into projects that couldn’t wait to work on them at home. Math was tolerable and I didn’t feel like I was failing every 10 seconds. I learned that the computer is my FRIEND.

 I met some friends that I’m never going to forget. We had good times together and were totaly spontaneous and didn’t worry about what other people would think. We slept in Falena’s living room, tied a cat bed to someone, and then couldn’t get it off. We also learned things NOT to do, like sneak out of the house wearing hot pink pajama pants. Why no pink pajama pants? It makes old ladies in nice cars stick HALF OF THEIR BODY out of the car and stare at you at stopsigns wondering where you are going at ONE in the morning all alone carrying your shoes because they kept falling off. I learned that you will have severe paranoia when walking through a dark field at night where creepy people have been known to chill. I learned that you can say no to something, you can gain more respect then you would have gotten otherwise. I learned that I am more spontaneous then I thought: I learned that my friends changed me for the better. I learned to do things on the spur of the moment (like flinging rice out of a spoon at someone in the lunch room) and it will create a great memory to look back on. I learned not to let your possesions or your relationships define you. I learned that its hard to remain YOU when everyone wants you to be someone else but you can do it. I learned that trying to walk up bloods acting like a crypt would have got me in a LOT OF TROUBLE if not for my friends. I learned that you had better make sure your friends know that a door DOESN’T LOCK before the try making out behind it. I learned that your friends always have your back even when you don’t think you need them. I learned that the Lucky Charms song does NOT say “don’t forget the red baloons”. I learned that Declan doesn’t recieve gifts of panty hose very well, but he will wear a pink crown and run and spy-role down the aisle at a serious event with parents watching. Having a squirt bottle fight in Math class with Eric complete with ninja rolls is a bad idea! Using “I WILL BITE YOU!!!” as a threat to a guy doesnt work. They will twist it into something nasty! Even big kids love Disney and Veggie Tales! Reading a note that has classified material in the open is a dangerous operation. It WILL get stolen. I learned that sometimes it takes a while to see through what people want you to see into who they really are but it is worth it. I learned that holding you tongue is a skill that should be practiced more often. I learned that pool parties at someones house are amazing. I learned that if you want something, you better work for it. I learned that you really do need to manage your time, or you start hyperventilating.

You make a mistake, and in less time than it takes to say “guilty” you hear the iron door to your jail cell close. GROUNDED. The very WORD sounds cruddy. It makes it seemed like you are going to be chained to the floor while somethign torturous like Algebra equations are being read to you SLOWLY. Ugh. But it gets worse. The judges can’t decide on your sentence. You know that you are grounded from the phone, computer (homework ONLY) cellphone, iPod, and all things electronic. You know you are banned from any communication with you friends outside of school for at least a week while you decide. You sink to your knees. You just might die…

The goverment has finally devised the ultimate plan to suck up all our $$ into a superficial economy, while really using this $$ for evil purposes. Not hard to believe. What IS hard to believe is that they are doing it in the form of giant, disguised, $$ sucking vacums! This is 100% TRUE. I have PROOF. *runs arround with insane look on face*

First, they insert little microchips into little girls, infecting them with an irresistable obsession with “horses.” They beg until you get them lessons ($cha-ching$). Then, they want to flaunt their new-found skills in shows. You enter them in classes ($cha-ching$). Then, they want their OWN horse. Dad caves in ($cha-ching$). You buy the “horse.” You buy it tack. Your “horse” gets a sore back. You have a saddle fitter out ($cha-ching$) who tells you that you need new tack. Your daughter wants her tack to be edged in PINK but there is no pink tack available that will fit both her and the “horse.” You have to custom order ($cha-ching$). The “horse” goes lame in one foot. You have the vet out to take a look ($cha-ching$). The vet tells you that the horse merely has a stone in its hoof, removed it, and then tells you that your daughter should have been more carefull with her horse on rocky terrain. You ground your daughter for carelessness, so she can’t ride for a week. However, the “horse” must be ridden. You pay someone else to ride the “horse” for a week ($cha-ching$). Your daughter is back. She is now good enough to be in the next level of shows, which requre formal atire. You buy the velvet covered helmet, white gloves, creme breaches, black hunt coat, and black dressage boots required. ($cha-ching$)($cha-ching$)($cha-ching$)($cha-ching$). You credit card is smoking. Your “horse” goes lame and you are informed that he can’t handle this level of eventing. You need to upgrade to a better, more expensive “horse.” ($cha-ching$). ($cha-ching$)

 Guessed the vacume yet? And this isn’t even HALF of the expenses of owning a “horse.” The government is tricky. Together, we must come with a plan to thwart it! Suggestions, anyone? Meanwhile, I’m off to give bute (a drug) to my own “horse” because shes lame in her front left foot…

If I hear one more (not to be racist but…) skinny little white boy trying to be a black gangster I will SCREAM *screams*

What is up with everyone wanting to be a black (or even a white) pimp/gangster? What is so great about it? Do you all really buy into that fake TV life that they all SEEM to have? If you all think they’re so great you are delusional.

Posers; first off, you don’t sound like them at all, even if you say the exact same things that they do. You can’t pull it off, so please spare our ears and stop trying. Second, (if you haven’t figured this out already) you don’t look cool, you look stupid. VERY stupid. If you ever happen to meet a gangster and you talk like that, they would definitely shoot you just so they didn’t have to hear your poser voice again. Harsh? Maybe. But seriously, this world is becoming a world of 10% gangsters, 70% wannabe gangsters, and 20% “normal” people. Ugh. So do the world a favor, GET A REAL PERSONALITY.

CSAP. You either hate it or you love it. I definantly love it! No homework, shortened classes, breakfast and juice, and games when were not taking a test (in some of our cases) two years below our level. Could going to school be any easier? We get to watch a movie and eat popcorn, talk to our friends, and this seeming holiday is all in the name of taking a test that doesn’t even affect our grade.

Comment and tell me wether you like CSAP or not…

You want a cookie, but you don’t need it. But because YOU can’t eat it yourself, you don’t want anyone else to have it either (even though having them eat it has nothing to do with your own personal eating enjoyment.) Your just being selfish. Why can’t they have it if you can’t? Plus, you don’t really want THAT cookie anyway. You don’t even want a cookie. You just dont want anyone else to have it. How dumb is that?

For a horse, survival is their #1 priority. So, in order to survive, horses spook at a LOT of things and don’t calm down until they are convinced whatever they spooked at is harmless (the convincing process could take HOURS). Horses spook at…

dumpsters

trash cans

porta pottys

judges

umbrellas

blankets

at times other horses

flags

flowery fences

treew blowing in the wind

you

shadows (no joke, even their own)

reflections

papers

plastic bags

arena entrances

loudspeakers

dogs

little kids

ponies (a lot of horses are affraid of ponies. why? we may never know.)

dressage whips

jumping bats

show ground stalls

barn doors

cats

wow, that list could go on forever! on second thought, maybe I should have asked what are horses NOT afraid of…

ok, so i was attempting to learn something about grammar (because on the CSAP last year mine was awefull) and i hit a roadblock. the definition explaining how to USE a certain part of grammar is more confusing then the dictionary!!! here is whaty i got when searching for how to use a colon: (yes, i just used one, but i dont know if i should have at all!)

• syntactical-deductive: introduces the logical consequence, or effect, of a fact stated before
• syntactical-descriptive: introduces a description; in particular, explicits the elements of a set
• appositive: introduces a sentence with the role of apposition with respect to the previous one
• segmental: introduces a direct speech, in combination with quotation marks and dashes.

This last was once a common means of indicating an unmarked quotation on the same line (from the Fowlers’ grammar book, The King’s English)

Benjamin Franklin proclaimed the virtue of frugality:— A penny saved is a penny earned.

A colon may also be used for the following:

• introduction of a definition

A: the first letter in the Latin alphabet

Hypernym of a word: a word having a wider meaning than the given one; e.g. vehiclecar is a hypernym of

• separation of the chapter and the verse number(s) indication in many references to religious scriptures, and also epic poems; it was also used for chapter numbers in roman numerals

John 3:14–16 (or John iii:14–16) (cf. chapters and verses of the Bible)

The Qur’an, Sura 5:18

• separation when reporting time of the day (cf. ISO 8601)

The concert finished at 23:45

This file was last modified today at 11:15:05

• separation of a title and the corresponding subtitle

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

• separation of clauses in a periodic sentence

In English, a colon may be followed either by a capital letter or by a lower case letter, as the author prefers (unless a capital letter is necessary for a proper noun).^{[citation needed]} No particular consistency is required within a given text, although it is assumed that use of both capital letters and lower case letters after colons, in a single given text, would serve some purpose in communicating the author’s desired meaning, rather than simply reflecting carelessness.

WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN!? the explainer automatically asumes that i know what all kinds of things used in the explanation are. i dont. i wonder if the have grammar for dummies…

Mrs. Chenoweth was yelling at us this morning for being the worst behaved, loudest, and generaly worst core of science this morning. Not that I disagree, but we could have been much, much, worse. Like if we have a shopping cart.

I was thinking about how I had nothing to write and then started wondering how often a truly original idea appears. Is anything at all original or are all our thoughts and ideas based upon someone else’s thoughts and ideas? It that’s true then they aren’t really original anymore. But then where did the first “idea” come from? Maybe truly original ideas have gotten more and more scarce as time has passed. The wheel was an original idea, but it must have been based on something (maybe the guy saw a rolling stone?). Does the fact that an idea is based on something else make it unoriginal?

ok, so this started out as an AMAZINGLY original post. i decided i would type out whatever i was thinking, nomatter what it was. i would share with you everything going through my mind at the moment. i had seriously been off on fantastical tangents too. then, i re-read what i had typed. here is the look the went over my face… clicky. (except that im a girl) now before you get to thinking that i was totally trashing everyone, i wasnt. and i can HONESTLY say that i did not think one mean thing about ANYONE for a whole 5 minutes. it was probably a record for the human race. but before you think im starting to tell you im the greatest thing ever… i did have some classic mind-in-the-gutter moments though. i admit it. i typed a few things that i would rather NOT share with the whole blogging community. i will keep those thoughts to myself. they do not need to be posted, flashing the world with naughtyness. then, i got to thinking about how it was a VERY good thing that we didnt automiticaly say (or type and post) the first thing that comes into our heads. if we automaticaly did that then think about how much trouble we would be in ALL the time! i had discovered first hand the reason our ideas is not directly linked to our mouths (or tryping fingers)! now, i know some of you amazingly smart people discovered this along time ago, but i take longer to figure things out.  how many of you have almost said something TOTALY unnecessary but caught yourself just in time? that was what i realised through actually typing out my thoughts. im still trying to decide though, did i actually need to discover that, or was the whole accidental experiment a waste of 20 minutes of my life? hmm. another question. so many questions, so little time for experiments.

p.s. before you start telling me i have too much free time, i ussualy have NONE! but im grounded. *ugh* it STINKS. so yes, as you can tell, youd better never let me get bored again…

note: i still need to do the links, but my computer is being stupid. and this story depressed me, i didnt start it that way but it ended up like this. next post will definantly have to be happier… 

She stares at the wall. It was more than she could have ever asked for. Then, with one crash, one car, one screech of brakes, one trip to the hospital, it was gone.

Gone.

So completely it was like it had never existed. The only thing left were memories. Of a park. Of the movies. Of laughing when they got locked out of the house in the rain. She cries until she loses her breath, and then keeps crying. Tears fall off her eyelashes like shattered diamonds. She slammed her fist into the window, hoping her physical pain will lessen her mental pain. It doesnt. Not even as a bruise start to appear on her fist. She rests her head against the window. Small snowflakes wander through the gap of air between cool clouds and frozen ground. She watches them fall. She used to love the snow. Not anymore. She had loved life with everything she had, but that love had been stripped away with more ease then picking up a pencil. She cant even fall asleep the pain hurts so bad. She hasnt slept for days. Nothing she does quiets her thoughts. All the what ifs and the whys. She lives in a waking dream, filled with only memories. She keeps going over them again and again, afraid that if she stops then she’ll lose them. The only thing she has left. She hears her little siblings playing with the dog downstairs. Before, she would have played with them. Not anymore. She cant stand being around people. People who say the understand what its like to lose someone, and that the pain will eventually fade. Their words dont mean anything at all. There empty. Empty, like her.

(yes, all of these come from real experiences, or ones close in the future!)

1) drinks (no, i dont mean coke!)
2) stairs
3) money
4) cars (especialy if they are fast)
5) street-racing competitions (especialy illegal ones)
6) spelling (yah, i know i can’t spell either)
7) cameras
principals (the PEOPLE not the morals!)

9) bridges if im on them (you could get shoved off)
10) puppies (how could you slap a puppy!?)

11) pink fuzzy things

12) swimming pools

13) lighters (and matches, especialy around big cities!)

14) rubber duckies!

15) CHRIS, Tyler, El, Rachel, Chelsea, Anna, Jess, Falena, Missy, Danielle (especialy if we are all together!)
16) the color brown
17) Halloween Costumes
18) christmas decorations
19) knives (especialy switch blades!)

20) screw drivers (umm, no comment!)

21) golf carts

22) golf clubs (and the balls that go with them)

23) horses

24) tractors

25) WAL-MART

26) chips

27) cake (it annoys some people, no joke!)

28) people who cost other people $50 grand

30) good influences/bad influences (depending on who you are)

31) video cameras

32) blogs

33) EmOs

34) guys sweat pants

35) short skirts

36) tube tops

37) anything in Rachels closet!

38) Chanel stores

39) rachels daddy’s money (and credit cards, and walets, and debit cards…)
40) nail and hair salons (especialy of they are combined

41) drugs

42) high heels

43) zippers

44) sugar in any form (especialy marshmallows)

45) madagascar theme songs

46) bikinis

47) ski lifts

48) the colors blue and red (especialy when together)

49) the color purple for guys (pink is hot, purples NOT)

50) Izzes (they cause extreme hiperness in certain people!)
51) guns (and the shooting range)

52) pointy objects
53) the gheto

54) lacy thongs (dont ask, and no, it has nothing to do with me!)
55) pizza

56)sporks

57) stuffed animals

58) glue

59) writing lists! (especialy about me!)

60) green monsters

61) NICKNAMES

62) pogo sticks

63) bowling balls

64) soccer coaches

65) soccer games

66) ice cream

67) the movies

68) guys/girls

69) sharpies

70) duck tape