i was playing a tree trunk in a forest of fools

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci were a Welsh Britpop band from the 90s who never got as much recognition as they deserved. I assume this is the case because they incorporated mariachi brass into their music and they sang about things like playing a tree trunk in a forest of fools and joining a Spanish dance troupe because the British summer weather was shitty. I think this band discovery gets me all the indie cred.

Not the best weekend ever. It’s one of those weekends that you think is going to be good, and then it isn’t, and you feel disappointed and sad and just end up compounding the error. Hanging out with friends on Saturday was a plan that unfortunately fell apart, and so me and my mom went looking for stuff for my Halloween costume instead. I don’t know that I’ve mentioned this before, I probably have, but whatever I’m being Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd. She has a pretty generic witchy thing going on, but I’m all up for it. I really love Victorian clothes, men and women’s, especially men’s, which unfortunately will never be acceptable for me to wear, so dresses and stuff will suffice. I sort of like the idea of spending the night as an Edward Gorey character a lot. Also, I just love all things Sweeney Todd. Apparently stuff of this sort was vaguely popular in the 70s or 80s or something, says my mom, ‘cause I already have these black heels which are perfect and lacey gloves thanks to her. I need red/black tights and a dress(a dress! When did I last wear a dress?!). Also the character choice means I’ll probably need to take a stab at—horror of horrors—eye makeup, which I don’t ever wear. Still not sure about that. I love Halloween and I’ve always revelled in dressing up, and also just for looking for the pieces of a costume. I mean, if you just walk into Spencers’ and grab a sexy bunny outfit or something, whatever, up to you and I really don’t mind, but I just think half the fun of the whole event is looking through multiple places and taking individual things and watching the whole thing form piece by piece. It’s a sort of halloween passion that I don’t think many people invest in over the age of eleven or so, isn’t it? Ah well, it’s fun all the same. Apart from all the crappy halloween stores we tried, just in case, you know, and they were awful and these were Gryffindor scalves and black lipstick everywhere and, ugh. Hyper judgemental? Yes. But still!

I think I spent most of the weekend watching loads and loads of the Inbetweeners and I started reading A Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which so far is quite enjoyable but also weird and slightly difficult to follow. And oh, Sunday? Mom showed me this part of a forest round here I’d never been to before, it’s amazing. For whatever reason my mom knows the nature walks round here inside –out, and believe me there is an awful lot of them. It’s...impressive? Helps with things like this.

Otherwise, I spent much of the weekend working on a bio project. It didn’t take an overly long time, not like that macromolecule project which, my god, was awful, and the info was fairly accessible. All we really had to do was create an info sheet and write a case study. I’m getting no points for aesthetics in the info sheet but the information’s there, albeit in a kind of waffly, long-winded fashion. Think I overdid it on the case study. I’m prone to either overdoing or violently undergoing projects. It was two pages long single spaced and it didn’t even make a hell of a lot of sense. Later in the week, we’re supposedly doing an activity where we use these info sheets and case studies to assign diseases. Or something. I don’t know, it sounds like the sort of thing a lot of teachers say they’ll do but never actually get around to working on. Again, we’ve been working with the microscopes(still nothing broken on my behalf, thank god) and today I looked at onion cells and my own cheek cells stained blue and it was neat. I have a quiz tomorrow on cell organelles and I know nothing about ‘em.

And, tonight is he big day with that research paper. It’s due tomorrow and I’m so screwed if I think I’ll actually have any free time tonight. So far it’s about ten pages long, I think, and I’ve edited something like three of these. And, I repeat, it’s due tomorrow. I procrastinate, but this is bad even by my standards. My teacher’s being very particular vis-à-vis citations and stuff, and just going through all of that nonsense is very much taking the majority of my time. It’s not going to be very good, but it might be adequate if I just don’t sleep tonight. The ‘just don’t sleep’ route is one I seem to favor a lot at the moment, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly.

We’re just about finishing Gatsby in English, and we have a test tomorrow. We started watching the movie a bit, too, the one from the 70s. And we watch movies an awful lot in that class so it’s the sort of thing I’ve become kind of desensitized to, and this movie I thought was patchy, not that I’m any expert on movies. Speaking of films, I watched Dead Poets Society for the first time a couple of days ago. I’d heard loads about it, so I ordered it, and then I watched it and kind of really, really didn’t like it? I’m just saying, I was surprised, given its popularity(if not critical acclaim). It felt pompous and dull and, my god, that teacher. He’s the worst kind of teacher! Why does nobody see that? If I was the kid who never said anything which, let’s face it, I pretty much am, I was thinking I’d get that teacher guy fired for fucking physically holding me in front of the class and making me talk? Cause it's humiliating and um, counts as harassment? And somehow that guy’s behavior is celebrated. Probably explains why so many teachers are so fucking terrible. The attitude to teaching is just all wrong.

Okay, I’ve essay-editing to do, bye for now.

NanoWriMo Day One

Hello.

I got done with my first 1,667 words a few minutes ago. Yes, I am doing NaNoWriMo. for some reason among midterms, tests, homework, piano lessons, my mother going to England for a week, and all that--which, admittedly, isn't a ton compared to most--I have decided to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. i am one of those crazy deluded people, yes. But for the first week at least, it's fun.

Something's being elected tomorrow so no school. Yay! that's good for the writing. however, over the course of actual school, blogging and writing a novel will be tricky to do at the same time. So, until December, blogging will pretty much be a weekend thing. So...y'know, savor it while you can. I will savor not being ridiculously stressed for the moment. However, the big positive about this is that it gives me something to do over November. It's not technically winter yet but it is in my head. and I hate winter. hate hate hate it so much. Everyone dislikes it but I am something, it appears, of an extreme. I mean that so much more than I can actually explain. Seasonal Affective Disorder? Not diagnosed and don't think I should be. It's just different. I need something to do this time of year or things just get very bad. thanks, nanowrimo.

My Halloween rocked thank you very much. I spent the whole weekend worrying I wouldn't get to go with anyone but I went with my friend, and two sort of friends. I knew them from middle school and they're nice enough. And one's in my geometry class and the other my gym and study. it was the first Halloween where it wasn't seventy plus degrees and I had to wear gloves(I was a last minute pirate by the way. Emphasis on last minute.). the depressing thing was how empty it was. Probably to do with it being a Sunday or something, but we were in a fairly busy area and there weren't many kids out. Kind of a shame. we went back to have pie at my friend's house but there wasn't enough time. So, great!

that evening I went to a Florence and the Machine concert. It's not much of a story but it would take up more words than I have time to write. Put simply, she was very very very good. she played all my favorites and didn't play You got The Love(nice) and her and her band were dressed as skeletons. it was cool. My first time seeing Florence. Would very much like to again. although how 'bout that 2nd album, eh Florence? See my, um, music blog for details(ish).

Now, I'm so tired. last night i did my random thing of waking up at three in the morning for no reason, despite going to bed so late. Ugh. why?

Sunday morning was like super super busy, what with homework and organising the evening and stuff. I carved a pumpkin! I used a template and it says Welcome. It was a tricky design and an awkward bit fell off but I'm proud of it. also, do pumpkins not smell amazing? I love it! Halloween is so cool. Christmas then Halloween then...everything else, in my book. Yes.

It's kinda sad that it's over. oh, it's the curse of November 1st. My silly brain.

On the plus side, Peep show in 25 days. Jesse and Sam, give me a super witty late November sitcom, 'kay?

PEEP SHOW MOMENT OF THE POST;

"I'll tell you what, this crack is really moreish" - Superhans

this show is my life and my love. I'm creepy.

I'm listening to Peter Doherty's solo. Still love it. It is so not mediocre like people think. What's happening with the Libertines, I wonder? I've heard nothing. that's so weird.

Is it just me, or is music SO boring at the moment? it's so sad that a Kings of Leon album is gonna be the biggest album of the latter part of the year. I've only added a few songs lately to my ipod . i will add more Florence and Walkmen, but come on...things just aren't looking good. I'm sad about it.

Oh yes, Friday afternoon! amazing! I knew the school were gonna dress up but I wasn't expecting the extent to which it went. My God, there was some serious effort put into some of those. Yes, most were like Mario and cross dressing and stuff but there was Lady Gagas and one Mario with an electric board thing, a condom dispenser, a guy walking upside down, etc. it rocked! Most mornings in the hallway where I sit, there are these guys who put an iPhone in their backpack playing the same dance track and wander around in circles for no reason. Friday there were like twenty of them, all in costume of course, and it was kinda amazing. the funny thing was how it was the senior guys who had put in the serious effort and it was the freshman in, like, funny hats and glasses. How brilliant and unexpected is that? plus, a guy in my study was supposed to be Mexican and he brought a guitar with him. We had a sub in study and the teacher was reading out all the rules one already knows, as subs tend to do, and the guy kept playing a couple of chords after he finished each sentence. "Now, this is a QUIET study..." *Mexican-sounding strumming*. Genius!

I'm gonna have a busy week. math test on Friday, Spanish test wednesday, Spanish presentation Friday, Science test wednesday, science mid-ohmyeffinggod-term Friday. all these tests! My grades are okay in all classes at the moment. I got updates a few days ago. Slightly better in geometry slightly worse in science. spanish the same. Science labs are silly. Spanish is verbs that are boring, and food that I can't be bothered to learn. Gym is gym. We were pulling people up like flying squirrels today. It's getting rather too cold to be outside every lesson.

Geometry's weird. I had a quiz last week and I thought I did really badly because I didn't understand half of it and I could have done with more time. However, i got it back today. 104%. She acknowledges people who do really well after tests and quizzes and I was the only one today. and I'm not a regular for that sort of thing. I'm not trying to boast, I'm just saying this is the weirdest thing that has happened to be in quite a long time. On the bonus one, I guessed. How did I guess a bonus and get it right? It's like, what the hell? And when I say guess, I literally mean the only logic I applied was "well, this unit is about congruent sides on triangles and stuff, so I'm gonna run with that idea and hope it's right". And it was! Ha! Hardest quiz so far and best grade. Yeesssssss. Here's to keeping an A minus and feeling good.

Since I have a day off tomorrow, I'm gonna go to the mall. it's not very exciting, but it's something. This entire week, my sister is at a camp in Maine in below average temperatures, sitting outside and learning about peer pressure and going to bed several hours earlier than she likes. Yay! Her whole grade does it. I did it, too, in 7th grade and I abhorred it like most others. I actually had it a week earlier and I still froze so I win, sorta. But it will be lonely without her. I will have to take her place. I will have to hit random piano keys while I'm playing, I will have to not do my math homework until my dad screams at me to do so, I will have to have arguments with myself over whether I can watch Peep Show or Avatar before I go to bed. It's gonna be a fun, fun week.

Have fun writing guys. 1/30 there! Happy November xD

- Naomi