tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26596685248525395342012-02-15T22:33:57.804-05:00Writings, ramblings, readings, and reviewselfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.comBlogger5211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-11610997919047359002012-02-15T16:46:00.001-05:002012-02-15T16:46:48.312-05:00

"You should find something you love to do, and then figure out a way to get someone to pay you to do it. That's the recipe for happiness in life." - Brandon Sanderson I was cleaning my room today and found a piece of paper I haven't looked at since around this time last year--a list of questions my pre-calc teacher wrote on the board toward the end of the semester for our contemplation. Are

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-81072411465508056832012-02-12T20:18:00.002-05:002012-02-12T20:18:36.528-05:00

"Writer's Block - when your imaginary friends won't talk to you." -a T-shirtCharacters have the most rotten lives ever.We make all of the worst things happen to them to invoke empathy and create tension, and then we completely abandon them for months at a time, leaving their lives at a complete standstill. I miss writing. I have no freaking idea where the time I used to give it went. Next

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-15866118451786865002012-02-08T16:27:00.000-05:002012-02-08T16:27:02.385-05:00

"I love my abs so much that I protect them with a layer of fat." - my sister (who is actually in pretty good shape) I started reading a master's thesis written by the owner of Feminist Frequency, a website that focuses on feminism and pop culture, and something confused me a bit. Quote: "Heroic women in science fiction and fantasy television shows have done much to represent strong,

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-65117232242379562002012-02-07T18:13:00.002-05:002012-02-07T18:13:45.497-05:00

"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his heart." - F. Scott Fitzgerald I spent last week feverishly preparing for a massive two-day debate tournament at a nearby university (which totally looks like Hogwarts), so my mind has kind of been too consumed with birthright citizenship to blog. I had switched into a new current events-based event because my friend's

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-41258794683518009392012-01-29T19:34:00.000-05:002012-01-29T19:34:11.262-05:00

"I am gonna tolerate and love the **** out of you." - a My Little Pony GIF my friend has I'm reading this book--God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World And Why Their Differences Matter-- that talks about why it's wonderful to imagine that all of the different religions are really just different paths to the same goal, this is a dangerous thought because they really are

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-67338150961353303862012-01-24T19:19:00.001-05:002012-01-24T19:19:51.670-05:00

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life." - William Morris First day of the new semester. Kicked it off completely inadvertently at 3:00 a.m. and went to cook breakfast for my family at 5 just for something productive to do. Had it occurred to me, I might have gone out to buy some bagels, because I now have my driver's license and can

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-44935096146949403782012-01-22T12:35:00.000-05:002012-01-22T12:35:30.258-05:00

"Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured." - Walter Anderson "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." - George Bernard Shaw "One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it." - Elizabeth Bowen Also, this.

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-44860082475518619122012-01-11T17:53:00.005-05:002012-01-11T17:53:53.300-05:00

"If it weren't for being so attracted to women, I would way definitely be gay." - my dad "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present." - Golda Meir "I never learned from a man who agreed with me." - Robert A. Heilein Exams this week. Yay.  At least my Latin teacher bought us

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-11826141478053625382012-01-09T18:56:00.000-05:002012-01-09T18:56:12.200-05:00

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything." - T. Roosevelt ...which I receive despite being neither rich nor snobby because of my fictitious wealth, because today I received a letter saying I was eligible for a summer program that will involve traveling/studying in France, Italy, and Greece. (They said they found me through CollegeBoard, so...my SAT scores? I

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-69189141196860804382012-01-04T17:49:00.000-05:002012-01-04T17:49:07.891-05:00

There is no quote today. There is only the existence of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, who make me smile. I just started reading a book by Peggy Orenstein (author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which I read last year) called Schoolgirls, and before page 1 even begins (there's about 20 roman numerals' worth), she tells a story about a teacher who gave her 6th grade students an interesting

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-3922755258948815212012-01-01T14:20:00.000-05:002012-01-01T14:20:05.657-05:00

"The only normal people are the one's you don't know very well." - Alfred Alder First: English country dancing turns out to be "Jane Austen movie dancing," according to people who have actually seen Jane Austen movies, and "the kind they were supposed to be doing in A Knight's Tale before the 80s took over," according to me. It was weird and fun and I had a good time. The square dancing lessons

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-66849365941273021272011-12-31T00:02:00.000-05:002011-12-31T00:02:12.960-05:00

"Adolescence represents an inner emotional upheaval, a struggle between the eternal human wish to cling to the past and the equally powerful wish to get on with the future." - Louise J. Kaplan Tomorrow I'm going English country dancing (don't ask me what that is) with my best friend and her family, so I'm writing my end of year reflections now. A lot of good stuff-a lot of wonderful stuff-

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-45903590854354747592011-12-30T00:08:00.000-05:002011-12-30T00:27:37.456-05:00

"Happiest is he who judges and knows books." - Thomas Davies, 1845 It's that time of year again where I place all of the books I've read in one post so that they will be archived and I can finally clear out my sidebar. However, this year I'm also going to rate all of them. I know I've written reviews for a few, but I also flat-out disagree with some of them now, so I won't link to them. No

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-79080863803098738242011-12-24T13:21:00.000-05:002011-12-24T13:21:13.920-05:00

"Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store." - Dr. Seuss Christmas...is a difficult holiday for me. Mainly because I really, really, want to adore it, and then don't. I don't have the religious aspect going for me, and "OMG SANTA" was over a long time ago. I once woke up at 3:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep Christmas morning because I was just that excited. Now it's

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-307932251093589732011-12-22T17:58:00.000-05:002011-12-22T17:58:18.354-05:00

"I want to believe that cynicism comes from loving the world too much to let it get away with less." - Rock, Paper, Cynic Stopped in at my aunt and uncle's today and ended up chatting with my home-from-college cousin for an hour or two. I think it sums up our conversation well enough just to share what my aunt said upon her arrival: "Okay, can we discuss the current state of the humanity and the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-63614184439346235212011-12-22T00:05:00.000-05:002011-12-22T17:24:53.060-05:00

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." - William Shakespeare Two of my friends and I have been holding a series of movie days, in which we are forcing each other to watch things that we believe to be simply necessary. The majority of these so far have been spent watching Firefly (although Princess Bride was also in there). Tonight we held our party at a

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-82488285524623115152011-12-15T20:56:00.000-05:002011-12-16T16:54:17.363-05:00

"I feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers." - The Hold Steady The following was published in the newspaper when my English teacher was in 11th grade, and she cut it out to save in her journal. Today she passed copies out to us. And since she's usually pretty good about copyright, I'm assuming I'm allowed to share it with you. (Sorry about the masculine pronouns--it was in an

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-63653647042679558592011-12-11T15:10:00.001-05:002011-12-11T16:24:27.560-05:00

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." - Henry Miller First, just because you've been hanging around teenage boys all day doesn't meant you have the right to act like one. Second, just because you're a teenage boy doesn't mean you have the right to be a sexist, objectifying, and completely inappropriate jerk. I should not be

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-4490780636709663692011-12-09T21:08:00.001-05:002011-12-10T23:15:10.467-05:00

"One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge." - Robert Lynd "Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence." - Henrik Tikannen Somehow managed to win first place in my event at the debate tournament today. It helps that 3/4 of my opponents had never debated before, but hey. That's not terribly important, though. The

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-84815849419245164642011-12-05T21:41:00.001-05:002011-12-05T22:03:46.066-05:00

“We have to create. It is the only thing louder than destruction.” - Andrea Gibson The following is an essay I wrote for English two weeks ago, being posted as a response to Kenny's post about honesty.      Most of us believe that honesty is a good thing, but most of us lie anyway--every day, all the time. This is because our primary value is not honesty, but openness, and every time we lie, we

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-49571985566672419822011-12-04T12:58:00.001-05:002011-12-04T16:51:53.282-05:00

"Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong." - E. O. Wilson Yesterday I took the SAT, received what's probably almost my 40th rejection letter, and received notification that my Governor's School application has been rejected. Pretty great day, right? Not going to Governor's School means my entire summer has opened up, though, so that's nice. I wanted to

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-45068715054163479542011-11-30T21:52:00.001-05:002011-11-30T22:05:49.250-05:00

"Destiny is for people who are too lazy to create alternate timelines." - R. Stevens This is the mirror image of the legit manuscript I'm to blurb, because I'm too lazy to hunt down my sister's camera and take a proper picture that's the right way around with good lighting.  I picked it up from the bookstore they sent it to-reserved under my name behind the front desk, which was cool-this

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-65415206622011249832011-11-25T21:53:00.001-05:002011-11-25T22:05:11.105-05:00

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - Robert Kennedy Black Friday: The day on which to avoid all stores as if they contain the Black Plague. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, which resulted in enough leftover food to feed you for all three meals today as well. I also hope you've spent it with people you love- which in my case means they're currently arguing

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-85974117884919134222011-11-18T20:03:00.001-05:002011-11-20T21:24:55.407-05:00

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." - Henry J. Kaiser Dear Lisa, I just finished watching the latest episode in the television show based off of your family, in which you decide to write a novel. First of all, I'm terribly jealous because you got to meet Neil Gaiman. And second, I have some advice for you. When you sat down at your laptop and said "I'll just pound out two

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-71935458800625167142011-11-15T18:47:00.001-05:002011-11-17T20:17:21.870-05:00

"People change and forget to tell each other." - Lillian Hellman So about ten minutes ago the lady in charge of the Teen section at my local independent bookstore called my house (which sounds cooler than it was- she had already asked me via Facebook to call her at the store and happened to be busy at the time).  Someone at the Penguin Group had contacted her about teen girls to read an early

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-38730192789302731782011-11-09T16:06:00.002-05:002011-11-13T12:33:53.576-05:00

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." - Oscar Wilde I'm not going to post my cases again, but our second debate tournament of the season was yesterday, and the resolution for my event was "Individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need." First, the judge and I waited 20 minutes for my opponent to even show up for the first round. The judge went out into the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-10168480800557445162011-11-07T18:55:00.001-05:002011-11-07T18:55:13.900-05:00

"There is no better high than discovery." - E. O. Wilson The second meeting this year of the writing club I mentor at my old elementary school was today. A kid came up to me, looking absolutely terrified, and said, "We don't have to write 50,000 words this month, do we?" The poor kid. I explained the Young Writer's Program to him and said we'd be working out reasonable word count goals after

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-10928229228372810452011-11-05T09:25:00.002-04:002011-11-05T13:14:41.281-04:00

“Books are humanity in print.” - Barbara W. Tuchman "Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top." - Edward Abbey "The idea is to die young as late as possible." - Ashley Montagu "This is what I learned: that everybody is talented, original and has something important to say." - Brenda Ueland "Only passions, great passions can

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-33408694592054925272011-10-28T18:42:00.004-04:002011-10-28T18:42:59.414-04:00

“I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.” - John Steinbeck So for Halloween this year, I'm doing this thing called Trick Or Treat So Kids Can Eat with a few friends, so we're going to go around with a wagon and collect cans. Tomorrow is also my school's annual marching band competition, which is also a massive cultural event in my town, since we've been doing it for

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-19514767468020726972011-10-26T16:42:00.000-04:002011-10-26T16:42:09.791-04:00

"It's not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas." - Edwin Land We are currently reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in my English class. I love this book, but this post is not about the book. This post is about the man who wrote it. My quote feeds have given me a lot of Mark Twain quotes over the past two years, and I've enjoyed all of them, but I hadn't really

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-68713175747790684822011-10-22T17:32:00.001-04:002011-10-22T17:32:23.702-04:00

"We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too." - Helen Hayes The round-table writing discussion I was invited to co-lead took place today. There were maybe 15 people there, about half of which knew either me or my co-presenter. She took the self-publishing-and-market-your-book-around route, and I'm in the "still stubbornly going for traditional publishing"

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-35596649161084241372011-10-17T16:48:00.003-04:002011-10-17T16:48:39.809-04:00

“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up.” So said psychologist Abraham Maslow, creator of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, as he illustrated the extent of humanity’s passion for life. Because I would be swimming right next to Maslow, I negate the resolution. I would like to

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-49102901512504193092011-10-16T09:05:00.002-04:002011-10-16T09:05:56.178-04:00

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." - Walter Winchell The debate tournament was yesterday, and I received an honorable mention for winning 3/4 of my rounds, which means I was either 7, 8, or 9 out of 24. The entire day was so much fun, and my team did really well (one girl was 1st in my event, one set of partners was 6th in theirs, and another girl took 3rd

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-42334373537402272202011-10-13T16:58:00.000-04:002011-10-13T16:58:05.650-04:00

"The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future." - Jessamyn West In January of 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, which set nation-wide goals for testing, test scores, and qualification levels for prospective teachers. Although I was too young to understand or care about the legislation at the time-I only noticed the new poster

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-25842357931020435732011-10-11T20:41:00.000-04:002011-10-11T20:41:02.263-04:00

"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think." - Niels Bohr This Saturday is the first debate tournament I'm attending in which I'm actually debating. As of right now, there are only three pieces of paper in my Con binder: my two-page opening speech, and my only piece of evidence. It's possible that I may have won the practice debate today with only that (in terms of

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-75658058366805563832011-10-05T18:20:00.001-04:002011-10-05T18:20:24.041-04:00

"When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy, one doubts nothing." - Joseph Roux Nothing was set on fire today, but that was probably only because our principal came on the intercom at about 12:30 to announce that we were entering a Code Yellow Lockdown due to a bank robbery across the street. We stayed in 3rd period an extra 30 minutes before the police said it was definitely safe to go

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-20414837152265240192011-10-04T18:57:00.003-04:002011-10-04T18:57:46.501-04:00

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." - Lorraine Hansberry "Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves." - Abraham Lincoln Two of my friends buy lunch at Dairy Queen every day, but there's no way I can afford that, so I bring lunch from home and go along with them. Yesterday as we were walking back to campus before last period, we see several hundred students milling

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-28630256314005670732011-09-21T17:17:00.001-04:002011-09-21T17:17:25.949-04:00

"I think 'buddy' is man-talk for 'sweetie.'" - Room (approximate quote) Jack is five. He lives in Room with Ma and Table and Bed and Rocker and Door, plus a few other things. Room is 11 feet by 11 feet, and beyond it is Outside. There are things that are real (Room), and everything else is TV (stores, ice cream, cars, etc). Jack has to "switch off" before Watch says 9:00 inside Wardrobe each

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-3453260990129247702011-09-17T16:33:00.000-04:002011-09-17T16:33:10.428-04:00

"Friends and good manners will carry you where money won't go." - Margaret Walker   When I was in elementary school, there was an experimental class with both 4th and 5th graders who had been deemed "independent learners." My best friend was in this class as a 4th grader, and she was always talking about how awesome it was. I wanted in, so I wrote a letter to the principal outlining my

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-29353019084159612072011-09-16T22:23:00.001-04:002011-09-16T22:23:36.192-04:00

‎"THE MAGIC AND THE DANGER OF FICTION IS THIS: it allows us to see through other eyes. It takes us to places we have never been, allows us to care about, worry about, laugh with, and cry for people who do not, outside of the story, exist. There are people who think that things that happen in fiction do not really happen. These people are wrong." - Neil Gaiman Have I mentioned that Neil Gaiman

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-340672080167813572011-09-12T22:21:00.000-04:002011-09-12T22:21:41.880-04:00

"Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past...wisdom is know you will be an idiot in the future...and common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now." - The webcomic Questionable Content (the most recent installment as of now is a guest comic, so it's not representative of the thing as a whole--it's really good, trust me) Today is the second anniversary of this blog,

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-58363824591103691592011-09-11T14:55:00.002-04:002011-09-11T16:57:47.468-04:00

"All men are equal before fish." - Herbet Hoover I was not going to write anything today. I was young enough ten years ago that I have very little to say. But then I thought that that is perhaps something of a unique perspective. Too young to be told everything, too young to really understand, but old enough to remember. My uncle used to work in the Pentagon. Yes, on that side. He managed to

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-34304477666440516932011-09-10T19:46:00.000-04:002011-09-10T19:46:00.491-04:00

"I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't." -  Kurt CobainI just discovered a really cool app that I can't use (because it's only for iPhone and iPad), but I wanted to tell you about it anyway. It's by BookTrack.com, which creates soundtracks for ebooks. The software knows which page you're on, and which music/sound effects/ambience to play on that spread. It

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-33686613510142344202011-09-08T18:32:00.000-04:002011-09-08T18:32:17.374-04:00

"Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries." - Moby Dick (which I am not reading), found in and stolen from Paper Covers Rock (which I read twice in one week). “Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-82105049465260643142011-09-06T18:08:00.000-04:002011-09-08T18:32:35.959-04:00

“Writing: a scrupulous attempt to preserve something, to make something last–plucking a few exact fragments from the deepening void, leaving somewhere or other a furrow, a trace, a mark, a few signs.” - Georges Perec My sister's friend's mom, who works at a library in my county's system I've never been to, knows a lady at that same library who is putting together an Event. And yes, the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-35619994235582494022011-09-03T20:48:00.001-04:002011-09-03T20:49:29.767-04:00

"Killing time isn't as difficult as it sounds. I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hands tick tick tick their final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind." - Shatter

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-10595180325823496382011-08-31T19:24:00.000-04:002011-08-31T19:24:11.612-04:00

"A person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." - Bennet Cerf I just found the blog of someone I met on Monday who has just moved here from Utah. Her most recent post is about the insane amount of school spirit my school apparently has. I read this and thought "...aren't all high schools like this?" Kids wear school T-shirts all the time, apparently the local

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-84329483656259558072011-08-24T12:26:00.000-04:002011-08-24T12:26:52.056-04:00

"A quiet mind cureth all." - Robert Burton Novel 1: 80,015 words Novel 2: 80,035 wordsNow that second number is definitely going to change (in the upward direction) during revisions, but...dang. 20-word difference. Although this is interesting: Novel 1: 430,506 chars Novel 2: 445,399 charsApparently I used bigger words. And according to Random Online Writing Analyzer I used yesterday...

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-74160114062354176412011-08-23T20:16:00.000-04:002011-08-23T20:16:54.509-04:00

"There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum." - Arthur C. Clarke "This is your world. Shape it or someone else will." - Gary Lew “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” - Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul “I sing of time, concealer and revelator, time which will rejoin you to the dead,

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-52928721430321918812011-08-16T20:23:00.001-04:002011-08-16T20:24:43.918-04:00

"Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it." - Christopher Morely I am such a hypocrite. First, the summary off of Shelfari: Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-273446807277857282011-08-15T20:44:00.001-04:002011-08-15T20:46:00.608-04:00

“Literature is more than just paper, you know - it affects every aspect of existence.” - Al, The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers This post comes to you less than a week after I stated I found it pointless to blog about books because I'm just going to talk about them at book club anyway. Clearly I've just been lacking in books worth talking about. To Timbuktu is worth talking about.

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-78636223792918126992011-08-14T17:56:00.000-04:002011-08-14T17:56:06.583-04:00

"And if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born Then it's time to goAnd define your destinationThere's so many different places to call homeBecause when you find yourself the villain in the story you have writtenIt's plain to seeThat sometimes the best intentions are in need of redemptionsWould you agree?" - Death Cab for Cutie, "You Are A Tourist" There is the Awkward Silence.

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-33002612961941444062011-08-13T13:16:00.000-04:002011-08-13T13:16:41.086-04:00

"A joke is a very serious thing." - my eighth cousin five times removed, Mr. Winston Churchill First of all, look at this. For right now it's just through phones and special glasses...but just wait until it hits contact lenses. Neither of my sisters is particularly eager to take book recommendations from me. The youngest claims she doesn't like the books I liked when I was her age (yet is

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-88555466391514191682011-08-12T22:32:00.001-04:002011-08-12T22:42:41.280-04:00

"A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering...than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence." - John Stuart Mill "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a food

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-83970127986430946042011-08-12T00:17:00.000-04:002011-08-12T00:17:11.213-04:00

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength." - Eric Hoffer I went to see A Better Life with my aunt and cousin last night at this, for want of a better word, indie theater near my house. It's about an illegal immigrant trying to support and take care of his teenage son. While it was very depressing and employed every stereotype about Mexican immigrants we could think of on the way home,

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-9476750607727324842011-08-11T09:53:00.000-04:002011-08-11T09:53:32.614-04:00

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought." - Jean Paul Yesterday was Freshman Camp, so the debate team and I showed up with out trifold board and fliers to attempt to recruit new members.  After the morning session for those whose last names fall at the beginning of the alphabet (How I loathe thee!), a few of us decided to walk down the street to the Dairy Queen to get lunch. On the way

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-63072823013961476282011-08-10T21:50:00.000-04:002011-08-10T21:50:18.088-04:00

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-71360789905036837692011-08-07T22:00:00.000-04:002011-08-07T22:00:05.532-04:00

"There is something rather than nothing because something is more stable." - Victor Stenger "There once was a young fellow from Trinity Who took [the square root of infinity] But the number of digits Gave him the fidgets He dropped math and took up Divinity" - George Gamow "It is not only man that is adapted to the universe. The universe is adapted to man." - John Barrow and Frank Tipler The

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-30470121284845807872011-08-05T00:02:00.000-04:002011-08-05T00:02:41.305-04:00

"Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome, but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home." - The Mountain Goats Section 3 of The Believing Brain ("Belief in Things Unseen") includes chapters on the afterlife, God, aliens, and conspiracies. I skimmed the majority of it, having heard most of the arguments on Shermer's side of things before. However, the chapter on the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-39289658950347480202011-08-03T09:20:00.000-04:002011-08-03T09:20:33.248-04:00

"He who stops being better stops being good." - Oliver Cromwell Part 2 of The Believing Brain starts out with a chapter on patternicity-- humans' tendency to find patterns where there may or may not be any. This chapter was really cool because it describes an experiment in which it was discovered that pigeons have superstitions. The pigeons were placed in boxes containing buttons at a

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-51140552756447914452011-08-02T19:32:00.001-04:002011-08-02T22:15:01.651-04:00

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself-- and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard Feynman Disclaimer: Post may be offensive. Please read with discretion. Ten funny movie charts. Approximate quote from this book I found in a place that is not my house nor a library or bookstore: "...how to protect your child from the dangerous new cultural movement known as '

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-53372256078120701972011-08-01T09:32:00.000-04:002011-08-01T09:32:57.706-04:00

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra The dystopian/negative-utopian novel has seen a lot of popularity recently- due to the awesomeness of The Hunger Games. However, those themes have been popular, particularly among teenagers, for a lot longer than that (see the Rush album 2112, which my dad loved when he was my age, for example).

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-84812416708213873132011-07-31T15:52:00.002-04:002011-07-31T15:52:00.295-04:00

"Whether you are a believer or a skeptic, the meaning of life is here. It is now. It is within us and without us. It is in our thoughts and in our actions. It is in our lives and in our loves. It is in our families and in our friends. It is in our communities and in our world. It is in the courage of our convictions and in the character of our commitments. Hope springs eternal, whether life is

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-71268713757014471632011-07-30T14:31:00.000-04:002011-07-30T14:31:16.764-04:00

"Belief change comes from a combination of personal psychological readiness and a deeper social and cultural shift in the underlying zeitgeist, which is affected in part by education but is more the product of larger and harder-to-define political, economic, religious, and social changes." - Michael Shermer, The Believing Brain: How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths Dear 2,303

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-3687089148448755572011-07-29T08:36:00.001-04:002011-07-29T08:36:53.761-04:00

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho It's nearly one in the morning as I'm writing this, and I just checked the temperature back at home, and it is NINETY DEGREES. At ONE IN THE MORNING. That's ridiculous. So now that my week at the beach is nearly over... Maybe it's the beach itself, and maybe it's the escape from routine, and maybe

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-48775479894815477712011-07-28T18:49:00.000-04:002011-07-28T18:49:25.793-04:00

“When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.” - Paper Towns Question: What exactly is the point of having a debt ceiling in the first place if Congress can

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-72473983377745094012011-07-27T16:08:00.000-04:002011-07-27T16:08:58.786-04:00

http://www.themillions.com/2011/07/29142.html http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/07/24/should_novelists_double_as_book_critics/index.html Two interesting articles, the first of which gripes about how writers are cowards and like to write about writing in order to procrastinate from their actual projects, features the quote "Leaving aside the obvious benefits of a good writing workshop —

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-85409986082328161662011-07-26T23:24:00.000-04:002011-07-26T23:24:13.172-04:00

You know, any novel that requires the watching of Pirates of the Caribbean in order to figure out how to write epic sea battles is a novel I am in favor of writing. That said, at least in PotC both sides have cannons (rather than just the bad guys). And, you know, Will Turner. It's been raining a lot this week, so we haven't gotten much actual beach time in. However, this means we have a lot of

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-81694410329710529242011-07-25T15:32:00.000-04:002011-07-25T15:32:25.558-04:00

"There is nothing...quite like the moral absolutism of the young. It's easy, as a child, to believe in good and evil, in light and dark.  Valentine never lost that-- neither his destructive idealism nor his passionate loathing of anything he considered 'nonhuman.'" - Cassandra Clare, City of Bones “It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. It’s like walking up the stairs to your bedroom

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-62811966425123724172011-07-23T17:05:00.000-04:002011-07-23T17:05:54.642-04:00

“To be nobody but yourself in a world doing its best to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human can ever fight and never stop fighting.” - E. E. Cummings So my day started out by being woken up by my friend's phone asking "Are you my mummy?" Those of you who are Doctor Who fans will know just how terrifying this was. (Long story as to why my friend was spending the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-26445743891456202011-07-20T12:04:00.000-04:002011-07-20T12:04:59.333-04:00

"You're right, it doesn't really matter. It's best to live life as yourself. If you start to care too much about results, then you see the box that you're kind of in and then you start acting like your box is supposed to act. Then you're not acting like yourself." - my best friend in response to my last post So I was sitting here procrastinating from figuring out a plot dilemma, and I started

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-22575598147100649282011-07-19T22:32:00.000-04:002011-07-19T22:32:00.876-04:00

“There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.” - Oscar Wilde Having spent most of the day writing and then a little bit more time on Khan Academy (my dad wants me to work on it just so I can have the calculus unlocked when I need it and I can

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-14292142864348678522011-07-18T23:56:00.000-04:002011-07-18T23:56:06.547-04:00

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead While I was eating dinner today, I was also reading a few articles in the most recent issue of Wired magazine. One of these introduced me to Khan Academy and how it's set-up is changing the teaching of math in some schools. It piqued my interest, and I ended

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-32118068018053994852011-07-16T14:18:00.000-04:002011-07-16T14:18:38.682-04:00

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Honestly, going to see the final Harry Potter movie was not the intense emotional experience I expected and hoped it would be. It was enjoyable, yes, and I did cry a little (The Prince's Tale), but it didn't live up to the expectations set by the tweets of everyone who saw the advanced

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-11886141395974772882011-07-15T00:20:00.000-04:002011-07-15T00:20:14.801-04:00

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez I'm going to shamelessly rip off this entire post from butcept at My Two Cents. Hopefully she won't sue me. Somehow I get threatened with lawsuits rather often from writing group people (butcept being one of the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-37710751108142197902011-07-14T08:08:00.000-04:002011-07-14T08:08:10.557-04:00

“Bookaholics are the ones who start to feel uncomfortable and uneasy in another person’s house, and suddenly realize there are no bookshelves or magazines lying around. People who only own a telephone book and their high school yearbooks scare us.” - Robert Lee Hadden While I'm still involved with the HP fandom, it isn't Life about Harry Potter anymore; it's Harry Potter about Life. I'm

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-32344593721979770692011-07-13T10:00:00.006-04:002011-07-13T10:00:12.267-04:00

"When people say Fruit Loops are just gay Cheerios, I tell them 'I always knew there was a reason I liked Fruit Loops better.'" - Anonymous The funny thing about the joy associated with finding the community of Nerdfighteria is that I haven't made any close friends online in the two years since then. Sure, NotVeryCharming and I originally bonded over my "Nerdfighterlike" T-shirt (which I happen

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-59928838876165188752011-07-12T10:00:00.004-04:002011-07-12T10:07:52.699-04:00

"The fabric of existence weaves itself whole." - Charles Ives Sometime during 7th grade (that would be 2007-2008), my dad had recently bought himself an iPod and discovered the wonder that is the podcast. He suggested I find some of my own to listen to regarding my interests, and suggested I look up Harry Potter. This lead me to Pottercast, which I ended up listening to for three years. 

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-49454981938403669972011-07-11T10:30:00.001-04:002011-07-11T13:34:46.300-04:00

“One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.” - Erich Fromm “A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.” - Friedrich Nietzsche Allow me to tell you a story. I'm sorry that it's long, but the details mean a lot to me and I have yet to put them all in one place. This actually works out surprisingly well, though, considering that I have an

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-15740872289966507072011-07-10T23:59:00.001-04:002011-07-11T00:00:06.198-04:00

"Common and cliche are different." - my friend Not Very Charming while we were discussing a writing project I'm working on Hey, remember that book of poetry, short stories, and essays/blog posts I compiled called "Thoughts On Life" which I've never spoken highly of yet still wanted you to buy? Last month I compiled a sequel, "Questions On Life" (title courtesy of my grandma), which is of

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-41520157031933756182011-07-09T10:15:00.000-04:002011-07-09T10:15:44.166-04:00

"You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you’re going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible- that maybe you’d survive." -The Ninth Doctor So I guess that'll be the last time I wander in at 1 in the morning after being with a couple of college guys. "That" being the car trip home and "couple of

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-11894695456212471802011-07-07T19:05:00.000-04:002011-07-07T19:05:21.094-04:00

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” - Audre Lorde About a month ago I wrote a post concerning Meghan Cox Gurdon's article in The Wall Street Journal on the subject of increasing darkness in YA literature. This article instigated a massive Twitter campaign lead by Maureen Johnson against some of her points, and today I listened to the

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-53623822446145103972011-07-04T23:25:00.000-04:002011-07-04T23:25:24.803-04:00

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy." - Anton Chekhov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2UENnbGGM0&feature=feedu Not only is that video itself cool, but I think the song has an important message for us all: "It's okay to not like things, but don't be a dick about the things you don't like." Last night, my great grandma (who will be 95 later this month and

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-41687307811685271652011-07-02T22:06:00.000-04:002011-07-02T22:06:58.235-04:00

"Opinions are like noses. Everybody has one, they are different, and some are quite remarkable." - A Comment I Found On A Random Article I Was Reading Funnily enough, immediately after writing the weed post, I went out into my grandma's art studio and colored with crayons with my sisters and cousin. After drawing a picture of something resembling either a tiki head or an african mask (or as my

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-86397763894623746302011-07-01T13:59:00.000-04:002011-07-01T13:59:00.795-04:00

“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” - Gene Fowler Today's post comes to you at the request of my grandma. She would like me to inform you that not only is she an expert on weed, but she also feeds it to her grandchildren for lunch with the command "Alright, kids. Time to get high." Even her house itself is stoned.

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-46719794999324204932011-06-29T10:05:00.001-04:002011-06-29T10:05:00.870-04:00

The majority of today's quotes stolen from Thief of Words' tumblr. "All progress is experimental." - John Jay Chapman "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." - P.J. O'Rourke “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-87399639620044692612011-06-28T00:26:00.000-04:002011-06-28T00:26:16.615-04:00

“Socializing is as exhausting as giving blood. People assume we loners are misanthropes just ­sitting thinking, ‘Oh, people are such a bunch of assholes,’ but it’s really not like that. We just have a smaller tolerance for what it takes to be with others. It means having to perform. I get so tired of communicating.” - Anneli Rufus A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about how I was going to be a

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-3214223389050860602011-06-25T11:00:00.012-04:002011-06-25T11:00:00.910-04:00

"Who but the mad would choose to keep on living?" - Libba Bray, Going Bovine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFnul4k5hUM Last night, after watching several episodes of Important Things With Demetri Martin with my dad, I ended up checking Twitter and found the great news about NY. (I'm actually going to be in NY next week, which means I'll get to listen to half of my relatives-who-care be glad

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-14713341764392836582011-06-24T12:11:00.000-04:002011-06-24T12:11:21.855-04:00

'If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." - Hermann Hesse (There are certainly exceptions to this, but I don't think there are many.) Every morning this week, I have been turning off the internet and writing (that is to say, editing). I'm so much more productive that way. If the internet's on, I'm going to be

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-90300985302420934572011-06-23T10:40:00.000-04:002011-06-23T10:40:47.455-04:00

"Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood." - H. L. Mencken Another fantastic video about (or rather not about) religion: And here's the link for those who can't see embeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfKolpFOZLk&feature=player_embedded One thing being discussed in the comments of said video is that sometimes people ask about others'

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-53584581066739514532011-06-21T11:00:00.000-04:002011-06-21T11:00:36.896-04:00

“You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don’t imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your perfection is inside of you. If only you could realise that, you would not want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul there are infinitely precious things, that may not be

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-15511852476887792142011-06-19T12:22:00.000-04:002011-06-19T12:22:14.449-04:00

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” - Oscar Wilde This week I've been listening to the audio book of Going Bovine, by Libba Bray, winner of the 2010 Printz award. It's about a guy named Cameron who has a weird temporal form of Mad Cow Disease trying to save the universe by closing a wormhole while fighting Dark Energy Fire Demons with the help

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-7371587840916975982011-06-17T11:55:00.000-04:002011-06-17T11:55:03.551-04:00

"I think a lot of people misinterpret the 'nerdfighters' philosophy as 'we are people who wear glasses and are socially awkward and love math and harry potter and english literature.' It sort of started out that way, but since then I think the major ideology of the community has become something more to the tune of 'we are people who value rationality and sensibility as opposed to vapidity and

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-38947403450697059862011-06-16T12:00:00.000-04:002011-06-16T12:00:16.002-04:00

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." - John Green, Looking For Alaska I'm sitting here online minding my own business and discussing faerie clones with my best friend (long story), and I get an email. An email from Tumblr. Apparently a poem I wrote had been reblogged by the famous tumblr Eff Yeah Nerdfighters. So that's exciting and all, but whatever. It's not that

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-49636625588683573932011-06-15T15:20:00.000-04:002011-06-15T15:20:41.038-04:00

"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity." - Eleanor Roosevelt Who wouldn't want a summer job where your boss lets you ride (and pushes you!) on the flatbed cart on the way to pick up boxes from a distant room, or where you get to fly down a long, wide hallway on a wheely chair at high speeds? A

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-17605674858865478182011-06-14T11:06:00.000-04:002011-06-14T11:06:10.109-04:00

"Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better." - Emile Coue WARNING: This post contains sappiness and over-sentimentality. This is what comes from me realizing I can turn up my volume at midnight and not wake anybody up because there's nobody there. Yesterday morning, both of my sisters left with my grandparents, who live within an hour's drive of Niagara Falls. I'll be joining

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-17381584734079049832011-06-11T10:56:00.000-04:002011-06-11T10:56:27.981-04:00

"When I'm really into a novel, I'm seeing the world differently during that time-- not just for an hour or so in the day when I get to read. I'm actually walking around in a bit of a haze, spellbound by the book and looking at everything through a different prism." - Colin Firth I was born three weeks early, so I spent the first three weeks of my life sleeping pretty much 24/7. This made it

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-44069230417472897132011-06-09T19:24:00.000-04:002011-06-09T19:24:15.379-04:00

"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can never be certain whether they are authentic." - Abraham Lincoln I am currently in the midst of a quest to expand my music library (it's going rather well, but if any of you want to leave a couple of your favorite bands/favorite songs by said bands in the comments, go right ahead.) The problem hasn't really been that I only like 

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-66686099588747257372011-06-06T18:07:00.000-04:002011-06-06T18:07:24.300-04:00

"Take any conservative position on a social or economic issue and boil away all the rhetoric and what you are left with is 'I got mine, screw you.'" - Justin Rosario I post that quote not to say that I think it is true, but to beg someone to please, please give me an exception. If your Internet House is situated anywhere near the sphere YA literature occupies on Twitter, you have probably

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2659668524852539534.post-15525278845243593272011-06-05T17:07:00.000-04:002011-06-05T17:07:02.745-04:00

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire In English last semester, we read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It's about a man's spiritual journey. He starts out as a Hindu Brahmin (priest caste), becomes an ascetic (self-deprivation for the sake of spiritual advancement), meets the Buddha, decides he admires the Buddha but needs to find his own

elfarmy17http://www.blogger.com/profile/09127074008716633538noreply@blogger.com1