Fantasy

“You need someone who can hold you close, but at the same time, can hold the world at arm’s length for you.”

For a geek like me, these words melt my heart. To be able to escape reality with someone I love would be…

Heaven.

Some people would like someone who is strong, muscular, does sport and is intelligent. Sure, that’d be nice, but what I’m looking for is an adventurer. Someone who’s not afraid to stride out the door and carve the world into something beautiful. I would love to stand behind him and watch as the world is transformed into a living illusion

Illusion. Fantasy. Heaven.

Love.

Mrs. Perkins’ Garden

When I was little, I remember the next door neighbour. She was a no-nonsense, white-haired little lady with a raspy voice due to an illness she had as a child. She always owned a dog, had daughters and was a widow. Her house was adorned with flowery patterned rugs and couches, and had a little bed in a cupboard-sized room with a little bed for her to sleep in. She was a capable old lady, every morning at seven am she’d be down in her yard, watering the plants.

Mrs Perkins was the one who told my parents to calm down when our ducks hissed at us when we walked past their nests, who walked up to snakes and gave them what for and who asked my dad why he was building a bridge to nowhere in the middle of the yard. Practical as a pen and lovely, she made the most DELICIOUS rosella jam.

She passed away in 2008. One week to her 90th Birthday. It was a sad occasion, seeing her go, but we all know she’s in the great garden in the sky. It couldn’t compare to the garden in her ow house, but heaven’s pretty close.

I mean, you should have seen this place! Explosions of colour surrounding a golfing-class lawn. Trees of every colour and height, mulberry trees, apple trees, strawberry patches, the lot. If I had stuck a leaf in the ground, I reckon it would have grown into a full tree by the time I’d turned around twice.

Now, it’s a different story. The neighbours that moved in her place took down the flowers. They painted the place up and stuck a pumpkin patch in where the strawberries were. Then they put cats in the house. The poor old lady would be furious if she saw the cats.

If I was an artist, I would pay Mrs. Perkins to make a garden for me to paint again. Then, I’d be famous.

Reflection

Tomorrow, I turn fifteen. I am officially halfway through my teenage years, halfway through high school and have two and a half years to go on my education. For ever.

When I come to realize that, I think it’s cause for reflection. I am old enough to be aware of the face that I am in the top ten percent of the world’s wealthiest, proven here by my ability to type this on the computer. I have a home, a family, a school and lots of friends. I have a future, a past, and a responsibility. Some people in this world are not so fortunate, and I hope that eradicating poverty is the world’s first goal. Considering that the US spends millions on unnecessary military supplies, they could eradicate poverty simply by pulling their troops out of Iraq and putting that money into the third-world countries. That would take three weeks. Three weeks and poverty is history.

But will they do it? No. Not even if all of the united nations sacrificed one billion dollars out of their own economies, which would save the world from recession and poverty, homelessness and greed, they still wouldn’t do it.

When I was eight, I figured that teenagers were scary bitches that went to parties and shunted everyone that wasn’t their friend. I thought being a teenager gave you power and authority and good looks.

Not everything was right.

Sure..I have curves and a smooth complexion to complement my age..(yay) but so far the only reasom why I could see that I made those assumptions about teenagers is because what they do when they’re with friends.
Let me explain.

The average teenager is nice. Kind, understanding and mostly intelligent. However, when they’re in a group, they become vicious, air-headed and nasty little critters. Why? Because they want to be popular, perfect and pretty. Me? I think it’s stupid. You have to be who you are all the time, otherwise I’ll label you as a fake. Putting on that little mask whenever you want just so you can be noticed by a boy. I don’t care how popular you are, if you’re not genuine, it’s like getting glass when you paid for a diamond.

Over the past four years, I’ve experienced mental conflict. It started when my teeth – terribly misaligned and rather icky to look at – finally got to experience the blessing of braces. I became more popular as I looked more ‘normal’ and I started to realize that people really do judge by appearance.

My friend made a confession to me the other day, that when she first met me, she couldn’t stand the sight of my because of my teeth. Now, she says, it’s a lot better. I soon put her on the list of fake people, and as judgemental as I am about what people think, she’s staying there. People say I judge myself too harshly because of my assumptions. But the truth is, I assume what people are thinking…because that’s what I think of them. If someone says one bitchy word, I don’t like them. In turn, I watch my words so that if I ever say something terrible, I have full right to slap myself.

Why? Because I’m not fake. I don’t pretend behind people’s backs, I don’t badmouth people and I take into account that I keep most of my thoughts to myself.

Writing

Well, since writing is a passion of mine, I might as well say something about it. I write on average three times a day. One third is jotting ideas down, one third is writing the draft and the other third is going through the painstaking editing process.

My friends enjoy editing for me. Things like; “You didn’t do this,” or “It’d be better if..” or “what’s that word?”
I honestly think they like watching me suffer.

But I have a quirk about my writing that I think you’ll notice if someone tries to steal my work. Never in the history of the world have I ever come across my own writing style. I’ll give you an example.

J.K Rowling has a fantastic way of putting things plainly, but making it interesting at the same time. Yeah sure, saying that Harry Potter was put in Griffindor was pretty ordinary, but the debate over good and evil from the very beginning was an unexpected item while the magic of a whole new world was thick and heady already. Saying it like this is pretty basic, however over three million people in the world read it over and over and never get tired.

J.R.R Tolkein. He loves to elabourate. Mr Tolkien can spend a whole book just saying that Frodo Baggins got the ring because his uncle found it and stole it off Gollum with the help of a handful of dwarves and a wizard, all in the meantime trying to kill a troublesome dragon. I spend three hours just trying to find where the heck I was after Bilbo’s Party, then to realise he hadn’t even left home yet. Good thing he put his story into so much detail, that the movie makers couldn’t possibly screw the idea up. Or did they?

C.S Lewis, putting Christan faith into epic novels. From The Magician’s Nephew to The Last Battle, The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe to Prince Caspian, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Horse And His Boy, The Silver Chair….It’s soaked in Magic, yet Catholics accept it. It’s a simple story, yet has been retold in movies and theatre ever since it was published.

David Eddings. The tale of a farm boy to a king is a classic tale, but told in a new age of knights and sorcerors make dungeons and dragons feel that it has something…lacking. No matter how deep-and-meaningful the book gets, I can never get tired of it. Now he’s expanded it into a saga, From the Belgaraid to The Mallorean and beyond. Separate books to explain the history of each main character, and still more to come.

So what do these literary greats have in common? A simple idea made great. How? Through elabouration, imagination and passion. Why? Because they worked for it. You don’t see Stephanie Meyer getting the applause from everyone because she didn’t get rejected by the same amount of publishing houses as J.K Rowling. She didn’t study History and English at a prestigious university whilst conversing with a friend about Hobbits and Lions…She certainly didn’t struggle or fight for her rights to be published.

Talking about romance novels, whenever I try to write anything intimate, even writing it on a computer in the confines of my room, my face gets all warm. When I put my hand up in class and people turn for my answer, my face goes all warm. Why? I get embarassed. When I write a horror story about people dying horrible deaths, I chuckle. When I write about the unfortunate events of a rabbit with a shouting problem, I laugh. When I write a sad story about an unrequited love, I smile. But as soon as people start looking into each other’s eyes, you could use me as a warming device.

As obvious as it may be, I have a lot to say on this topic. Thank God for a blog, because if I tried to put this into a story, it’d never be published XD
See to the right of my screen here, a little button saying ‘publish’. I wonder if Stephanie Meyer used it when she thought she’d done enough on her dream journal.

Yeah, I know. I’m terrible to the things I dislike. But teenagers who think that Twilight is more than light reading, you’ve got another thing coming. I mean come on, a novel the size of my maths book basic enough for ten year old girls to giggle about at lunchtime isn’t what I’d call an epic.
My point on this little flame session is this;
1  – De-fanging vampires is shameful. I’d side with the bad guys on this story.
2  – In the movies, it wouldn’t hurt to show a little more emotion. You look colder than the vampires when you’re running around. In the book, some original, non-mechanical thought could help.

I’ll give you an example.

Edward swooped in through the open window to Bella’s side. His ice-cold hands took hers and she looked up at him.
“Edward…I…”
Without letting her say another word, Edward leapt out to safety with Bella in tow, her weight insignificant to him. Within a few minutes, they had left the werewolves in their clearing with no lead to the captive’s direction. ..

I mean, come on. I wrote that in two minutes and it still needs editing. However, hold it up to Twilight, or New Moon, or Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn and what will you find…? Edward is still as neurotically stalkerlike, Bella is still a mechanical shell of a human puppet and millions of girls couldn’t tell the difference.

My Bad. I support freedom of creative commons.

A couple of basic steps to writing anything, really.

1  – Decide on your genre. If it’s going to be a horror, don’t put bunnies in it.
2  – Write down things that support the genre. If you think clowns are scary, write it down.
3  – Write a draft.
4  – Edit
5  – Edit some more
6  – Get some opinions of your target audience and edit again.

Did You Know?

 

Turn your eyes to the heavens, do they see what I see?
‘Coz I see the reflection of someone great in those stars
The stars are little mirrors that are sit from afar
reflecting the light that you hold within, the light of a star

Take your gaze to the waters, can you see what I see?
‘Coz I see the reflection of someone who cares
No matter where I am you’re always around me
I may be an island but you are my sea.

Look behind you, do you notice what I do?
‘Coz I see the footprints of a great adventurer
Taking the path less travelled, wearing the road
Always putting yourself out there, sharing the load

Look at this forest, do you see what I do?
‘Coz I see a thousand limbs reaching for you
yearning for your love, me in the least
What can I do to prove this to be true?

Look at your reflection, what do you see?
A person who stands admired by me
I wish you the best for all of your life
and may never your doubts cause you any strife.

Someone For Everyone

There’s somebody out there for everyone. Someone waiting to hold you in their arms. Someone who dreams of a warm life and love with you.

So why does that dream only happen in Anime? I have a friend who lives in America that has the same luck, but he’s literally a world away. Why are people so materialistic in Australia?
In this country, if you’re not pretty or outgoing, people don’t look at you. If you’re into geeky stuff and are an intelligent girl, boys actually avoid you unless they want to talk about games.
O_o
We have a strange world. There are a lot of upsides to being single, but being with someone usually outweighs them. Let me explain how;

1  – You have been single almost half your life before you meet someone.
2  – When you are single, you are independant
3  – You save money when you’re single, because you’re not going on dates
4  – You don’t spend money on phone calls or texts half as much
5  – When you’re dating, you have an 85% of being dumped within the month
6  – Also, having a 75% of being dumped within the next two weeks
7  – Being single involves less stress than waiting for messages from your date.
8  – Two out of three boys are lying when they say they love you
9  – If you’re expecting boys to be flowery with their ‘devotions’, stop expecting
10 – Dating is a ‘getting to know you’ stage, not a ‘friends forever’ stage

And then the ups to being with someone.

1  – When you’re going out, you feel happy because you’re being complimented
2  – You get attention from a guy, something some try very hard to get
3  – You don’t have to wrry about appearance, because you already have a boyfriend.
4  – You get distracted from study because you’re thinking of him
5  – You start working harder to pay for your twenty dollars of calls
6  – Your weekends are suddenly full for dates and chatting
7  – You become possesive over the guy when your friends say the slightest bad thing about him.
8  – You become more social and get to meet his friends
9  – He draws attention to your attributes and you feel more confident
10 – When he doesn’t call, you feel incredibly lonely
11 – The breakup is always emotional, whether you liked the guy or not.

So, my point is made. When a guy asks you out, as for him to wait a week for your reply. If he can wait for your answer, he’s worth it. If not, don’t bother. Keep in touch with him, but don’t give him an answer. The moment after a guy confesses his feelings isn’t love, it’s surprise. Don’t confuse love for lust, and make sure he knows that too.

And just to make things easier, don’t date until you’re twenty. By then most boys are over their hormones and can act with a brain in their head. Not to say teenage boys aren’t gentlemen, just that you’d be hard pressed to actually find one.

Laugh

So, it’s pretty safe to say I have simple tastes in humour. When I see something silly, I laugh.

Say, for example, a sign from my favourite website www.engrishfunny.com, saying
“BEWARE! MONKEY STEAL YOUR THING!”
Priceless…absolutely priceless….

Blonde jokes also get me chortling. Such as this one I cracked on my family.

Me: Hey, here’s a joke. A brunette turns to a blonde and says “hey, can you tell me what the weather’s like outside?” and the blonde turns around and replies “I don’t know, it’s raining too heavily…”
Me: *Laughing manically*
Family Blonde: Whatt…I don’t get it…
Me: *Laughs harder*

Alright, so I’m a little unfair. But…it’s FUNNY…

Also, there’s a musical that’s coming to Sydney soon, called Avenue Q. If you happen to see this and you can get to Sydney, SEE IT. It’s is so funny. Songs like “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”, “It Sucks To Be Me” and “If You Were Gay” are some of the classic hits. I laughed my socks off the first time I heard them.

Which brings me to a point. I have thirteen pairs of black striped socks, and two pairs of white striped socks. All of these said socks are in different colours and are at least to the knee. So what is my mum’s problem? Every time I’m seen wearing these socks and slipping around the house in the glee that I get to wear them on the weekends…she gives me this funny look.

I don’t get adults. They yak on and on about how to be responsible, then they screw their own sermon up by being irresponsible, and then shout at me for laughing at them and telling them they did it wrong.
When I’m an adult, I’m going to be a lot less crabby. =.=’

=D On the bright side, me and some friends of mine have started a Cheese Fanclub. We talk about Colby and Swiss cheese and talk about nuttyness and then eat cheese. It’s pretty simple but it works for all of us.

The reason why I’m in such a good mood is because I’m SUPPOSED to be doing assignments but I can’t be stuffed… ^.^’

Panic Switch

Growing up is a hard task. Especially if you don’t find the idea of wearing miniskirts and boots particularly inviting. You have to come to terms that having boys touch you is ‘fun’, that if people look at you  – good looks or not – it’s a good thing and anything that gets you noticed is a plus.

When children become teenagers, they tend to slide and slip until they can find a cliche to fit into. There are some debates among the older section of the teens, such as ‘individuality’ and ‘expression’ but whether they know it or not, everyone actually fits into one of these categories;

The Unsocials;

Nerds (Smart children who put study first. Being nice is optional, mostly they’re nice)
Geeks (Spend most time online or with a gadget of some sort.)
Emos (Sit alone and listen to screamo, cutting and crying usually seen in these people, all of them dress in black or have very little care for their appearance.)
Oddballs (It’s not their fault, they’re different therefore some kids reject them. They may have a mental illness, or be the odd one out in a grade of populars. Constantly happens in Private schools.)

Semi-Social

Goths (Dress in black. Mostly social, but not a lot of people want to hang)
Jacks (The rebels, those who like to watch adults scream and shout.)
Scene (A new group, a type of pop-emo culture. More fluro than black)
Goods (Those kids that are proper, prim and does everything by the book.)
Skaters (Tomboys who skate/bike/blade)
Motorheads (They love cars)
Gamers (They spend most of their time playing Runescape, World Of Warcraft or on a gaming console of some sort)
Tanks (These can be seen as sports junkies, very buff and are well-known)
Anime Fans (A cross between a geek and a gamer, except they spend their time watching anime, reading manga and trying to be Japanese.)
Musos (Those Music Types. =})
Drama Blacks (Their name pretty much gives it away)

Social

TC (TC stands for Too-Cool..usually are annoying, sit in class and chat about their social lives. Party hards, never have their homework and disregard people unless they’re relevant to what they’re doing.)
Gangsters (Like to be referred to as ‘Gangstas’ .. Usually bullies)
Slut (Oh yeah, these guys are social. Tend to have a new boyfriend/girlfriend every month/week.)
Dramo (Those people who always have a problem and like to tell everyone)
Surfies (Naturally Tanned, popular, fit, very strict on friendship rules.)

Other things also come into play when it concerns a person’s clique. For example, a Jock/Surfie is highly unlikely to be shy. Same as Anime fans. However, Anime fans are more likely to be eccentric than a Jock, and thus affects their popularity if there aren’t a lot of Anime fans that share alike.

One last thing that can be considered, that a teenager can change between groups during the course of their teenage-ship and long into their twenties. I myself have gone from Oddball to Goth to Emo to Anime to …I dunno

I have some friends who have had sex quite casually and are going to parties where drinking is held. My parents forbid me from such pastimes…not to say I’d actually do it myself but now I’m sort of curious as they’re yakking on about it. Australia might seem to be the ‘hip’ place to be and so everyone is pressured to look the same…do the same…I don’t particularly like labels but they’re there…what are you going to do about it?

Supanova 2009

As you might have noticed, I am a bit of a geek. Naturally, I participated for the first time in the ultimate NERDFESTT!!

Aka; Japanese Pop Culture Festival – Supanova.

The point of this outing is to dress up as an Anime character, line up for two hours, go into a pavillion, admire other people’s costumes, buy stuff and leave whenever. Things are usually discounted and you get some yummy freebies if you buy from certain stores, as I found out.

Next year I plan to put a lot more effort into my costume, as I was flabberghasted by all of the cool outfits. There were Storm Troopers and Jedi and Naruto and Jokers and Bunnies and Chiis and Rozen Maidens…

The interior of Supanova

You probably have no idea what I’m talking about.

It’s nice to know I’m not the only one in the world. Which brings me to think that…when I walk down the street in my suburb all the oldies stare at me in my black gear. What’s wrong with it? I’m not goth…I can’t even apply eyeliner properly!

…It happens when I only draw on a thin like or eyeliner and there’s a white gap on my eyelid and my friends just shake their heads and laugh. *Sigh* this is why I don’t wear makeup. Ever. Take that you plastic teens!

…

So, at Supanova…It’s AWESOME…there’s a ring where guys can sign up and beat the shizzle out of each other for our entertainment…And a pizza stall where you can buy lunch…and book signings and promotions for new stuff and lollies and people and nerds and people playing singstar and the latest DSi and DDR and buying swords and lightsabers and books and …

Yeah. I liked it.

Butterflies

This afternoon Grandma and Granddad came to visit. Naturally, I went outside to say hello. As my Grandparents were admiring my Dad’s handiwork on the house (will be explained) I noticed two black butterflies flitting past. Naturally I zoomed to the computer to look up the species but couldn’t find it…sadly I went out the front with a camera to see if I could snap the elusive creature but, alas, it had fluttered away. ={

The Random Lamp-Post...but no butterflies

I took this picture as I tried to catch the butterfly and I thought of why Dad had plonked a random lamp-post in our front yard. It wasn’t there in the ‘old days’ because it had a switch inside our house to turn it on, and Dad said it WAS from the ‘olden days’….but dad yonked it from the road and moved it back a couple of metres to our house.

Lovely.

…

Oh, right, I’m explaining Grandma’s fascination for the house. As I was saying, Dad had done some handiwork on the house. Uhhmm…how to explain…Well before Dad started, we had a room on one side and a closed-in verandah on the other. One sledgehammer and a screw later and now we have a BIG verandah that’s painted across the front but not the sides.

It looks really funny where the paint stops. Downside is, I now no longer have a wall protecting the side of my room where the closed in verandah used to be O.o’

Well, My pursuit of butterflies has ended for a day. I don’t go outside much…I usually spend most of my time indoors…so I usually get really excited when something like that happens. ^.^’.