Z - Zeal

   So, the last post of the A to Z challenge. It went fast. I will say, I signed up for the challenge zealous, full of hope for the upcoming month. Unfortunately, April 1st arrived and I was sorry to say that I had only one post written for the month.
   Before I signed up, I wrote out an idea for each letter. But I didn't exactly stick to what I had. Everyday I chose what I wanted to write about, rather than what I had planned. The first five posts I wrote seemed easy. I wrote them all in a day and scheduled them accordingly. During the middle of the alphabet, some days seemed easy, others, not so much. Here at the end though, it's probably been the hardest.
   Each day brought it's own challenges and successes. I'm glad I did the A to Z Challenge. I hope to do it again next year. The most important thing I learned is to be zealous in posting, to not let a lack of ideas stand in my way. I will probably be posting more frequently, it's become a habit. :)

Y - Yearbooks

   Every year our homeschool group creates a yearbook. Our homeschool group used to be much bigger, but now we have under half of the people we used to have. Which isn't bad, really. You get to know everyone personally. Our yearbook is much smaller as well.
   Because of our smaller size, every kid fills out a slip of paper for the yearbook where they write their name, age and something about themselves. This is how you will be remembered when everybody's old and half dead, as they look through their old yearbooks and see the kid they pretty much forgot about. They read your 'about myself' statement, and aren't ashamed they didn't remember you. You like to swim, great.
   My brother and I always put extra effort towards ours, spending days trying to come up with the perfect thought. This year, mine reads something like, "I like art, music, playing guitar, being with my friends, superheroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, reading, writing and being a vegetarian, despite people's opinions. I absolutely abhor styrofoam and communism. I am looking forward to our upcoming trips this summer."
   I know, I know, I sound like an eight year old boy crossed with a slightly crazy, slightly depressed teenager. If that's what you're thinking, then I'm guessing I did a pretty good job of describing myself. :) I'm just kidding. I'm not eight, a boy or depressed. I can't promise anything about the crazy.
   Anyway, in a decade or two, most of the people I know now I won't even have to talk to anymore. In the future, I will have different friends and people I associate with. For most of the people I know, that won't be a bad thing. But for some of the people I know, I will miss them when they're gone.

X - Xanthous

   So, I'll be honest, my X word has been quite difficult to choose. Luckily, I found one and I'll be writing about xanthous today. Xanthous, is pretty much a fancy word meaning yellow or yellowish. It also can mean 'having yellowish, red, auburn or brown hair'.
   I have xanthous hair, for the record. In fact, my whole family does. My mom, dad and brother all have dark brown hair, almost identical in color, while I have naturally light brown hair that I currently have dyed darker (and blue and orange, though it's fading out).
   I cut my hair by myself a few weeks back, and it didn't turn out bad. I was actually pleased with the way it turned out. My mom cuts my dad's and brother's hair. When I had bangs as a child, mom trimmed those too. I don't think mom would ever venture to cut her own hair herself, aside from a quick trim of her bangs.
   Have you ever cut your own hair?

W - Wreck

   I love to read. It's a way to live a thousand lives during your life. Awesome, right? Well, not always. Sometimes, the book you read is awful. A book I read recently, The Girl on the Train, is probably one of the worst books I've ever read. I read it because it was supposed to be a great mystery. It's getting it's own movie and all.
   I was appalled at the book. I found all the characters unlikable, insane, stupid and troubled. The mystery element wasn't very good. I think the mystery would have been better if the characters would have been more tolerable.
   I think the worst part of the book was the fact that there wasn't any 'good' characters. Every character was a mess, undignified and miserable. If you would happen upon this book, I would suggest that you throw it away, burn it, make it into confetti or use the pages to line a hamster cage. That would be better than reading it.
   Some books are fantastic, others are quite the wreck. Still, you need bad books to help you understand the treasure that is a good book.

V - Vinyl Records

   Vinyl records are some of my favorite things in the world. I got into them last Christmas or so. My uncle bought me a record player, and so did my aunt. So I have two. :) My uncle brought me down a box full of records, so I have plenty to listen to. My favorites so far are Merle Travis' Strictly Guitar, Sing Along With Mitch, All Time Blooper's Volume I, Saloon Songs, The Country Stars and a couple others I can't think of the titles of.
   None the less, vinyl records are cool. I like mine very much. Have you ever listened to vinyl? If so, what did you listen to?

U - Unique

   Ah, uniqueness. Something each of us possesses. There is no such thing as two identical people. Even identical twins have different fingerprints. So, if you think about it, being unique isn't really unique at all. Everyone's unique. In fact, it would be more unique to be exactly the same as a someone else.
   So many people take pride in being different, and that's great. I'm one of those people. But, really we aren't that special after all. Everyone's different, and that's good, but being different isn't a talent. Being special isn't special.
   Well, unless you are Michel Lotito. He's that guy who ate over 9 tons of metal over the span of his lifetime. That, might just be truly unique.

T - Terrible Advice I've Given Myself

   I'm not the wisest person I've ever met, but I'm not an idiot, or at least that's what I think. Sometimes, though, I feel like the dumbest person in the world when I get myself into situations that I'd rather not be in.
   Before I begin, I am well aware that I should have thought this through more, before I did such a thing. But I did it anyway. It was a Saturday night, and I was writing in one of my notebooks, studying for the Bible quiz that was tomorrow morning. All of a sudden, my favorite pen stopped writing. I tried everything I possibly could think of to make it write again, but nothing helped.
   I then decided to take the pen apart and see if that could help. I opened it up, and removed the tube of ink. I had a great idea. I would take the tip of the pen off and blow the ink through the tube so it could write again. What could go wrong?, I told myself.
   I brought it to my lips and blew a light amount of pressure into it, but nothing happened. So I blew harder. All at once, half the tube of ink was sprayed across my left hand. I thought, Oh, crap, this better wash off. So I threw the inky pen and all of it's parts straight in the trash and headed to the bathroom to wash my hands.
   I started with soap and water, but then realized it wasn't coming off, it hardly even smeared. Worried, I remembered tea tree oil, (which was right in the cabinet above the sink) would take practically anything off your hands. So I got the bottle and dropped multiple drops into my palm. I started to rub it in.
   It smeared everywhere. Up my arms, under my fingernails, everywhere. It was then I went into a light panic. Tomorrow morning, I had to go to church, a restaurant, and then a quiz meet! I didn't want to go with purple/black hands!
   So I swallowed my pride and called for mom, who was downstairs. "Mom," I called, "I made a really bad decision." I heard her give a timid laugh as she was coming up the stairs.
   When she saw me, her eyes widened. I told her how I had gotten myself into this mess. Like always, mom remedied my situation with tea tree castile soap. After many washings and re-washings of my hands, there was only a slight difference in color of my ink covered skin, and my non ink colored skin.
   I could tell you about the time I dye part of my hair with the ink you use for stamps, or the time I time I dropped the last can of baked beans on the floor out of my own stupidity. Or maybe I'd tell you about the time I'd got my hand stuck between our banister and the wall (that happened when I was much younger.)
   Long story short, I've made (and have yet to make) a lot of bad decisions. But I'm learning, sometimes the hard way.

S - School

   Some days I love school, other days, not so much. I've finished my science for the year and I will finish my history next week. I still have a bit to go with my language arts and math, but I'll be done so enough.
   Every fall I'm very excited to start school, but every spring I'm more than ready to be over. It's a very similar experience every year. Now, as I'm getting older, I don't have many more years of school left, so the cycle will only continue so many more times.
   So basically, I couldn't think of anything to write about today, so I managed to come up with two paragraphs. How about that?

R - Random Facts

   Since I can't think of anything interesting to write about today, I will enlighten you with some worthless information.

• If you fold a piece of paper 42 times, it will reach the moon. Sounds insane, right? Read more about it here. 
• Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. How about that for a vintage sounding name?
• Avocados, watermelons and banana's are all berries, but a strawberry isn't.
• This fact is more common sense, but none the less interesting. At the time the oldest person on earth was born, there was an entirely differently set of human beings on earth.
• Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
• A giraffe can go longer without water than a camel.
• Prince (the musician) is dead at age 57. I just got an alert from one of my radio apps and NBC News just did a special report.
• If one places a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting it's self to death.
• It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it.
• Human eyeballs never grow.
• On average, humans eat 18 acres of pizza everyday.
• 400 quarter pounders can be made from one cow.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111, = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
• Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
• Each king in a deck of cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• A dime has 118 ridges around it's edge.
• China has more English speakers than the United States.
• You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. You'll just pass out. (Don't try this at home.)
• A spider has transparent blood.

   And to finish on a high note,

• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

Q - Quotes

   I'm sure a lot of A to Z Challenger's are blogging their favorite quotes today. Q is kind of a hard letter. These are quotes I found funny, insightful or just plain interesting.


   "He had no reason to give up teaching, and one very good reason to stick to it. Kids were stupid, and getting stupider. The evidence was plain to see."
- Chris Van Etten

   "I've never seen a thin person drink Diet Coke."
- Donald Trump

   "Fake quotes are going to ruin the internet."
- Benjamin Franklin

   "A bargain is something you don't need at a price you can't resist."
- Franklin Jones

   "Some cause happiness wherever they go, others; whenever they go."
- Oscar Wilde

   "The most cutting thing you can ever say to a person is "Who's this clown?" Because it implies A) They're a clown, and B) They're not even one of the better known clowns."
- Unknown

   "I intend to live forever. So far, so good."
- Steven Wright

   "I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned."
- Unknown

   "The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?"
- Pablo Picasso

   "Look guys, I get it, times are hard. But we have something they can never take away from us: The dishwasher!"
- Gumball Watterson (From The Amazing World of Gumball)

   "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
- Dr. Seuss

P - Page Views

   So today, I pulled up my homepage on Blogger, and I saw I had just reached over 2,000 page views. 2,009, to be specific. How cool is that? I think the most page views I ever received in one day was 69. My blog is almost a year old, so I don't think I'm doing too bad. I've written 72 posts, (including this one,) and received 83 comments (including mine.) 
   The first comment I've ever received was from an Anonymous user on my first post. Here is my first post, in case you are intrigued and have not read it. My first comment reads,

Welcome to the world of blogging! Hope you find it to be a fun hobby!
I don't care for Country music much myself except for maybe a song or two. :)

   So far, so good for my blog. It's not perfect, but neither am I.

O - Old Things

   I like old, vintage and antique things. Yesterday, I sat sprawled out on my floor enjoying the warmer weather with my windows open, listening to vinyl records of radio bloopers from the 1940's. Ah, it was an enjoyable time.
   I like vintage dresses, though I enjoy my shorts and pants. To think, when I grow old, these current times will be the olden days. I will have stories from back in '00's and '10's from when I was a child. The music of today will be played on the oldies channels of the future.
   I'm looking forward to the future, though I don't want to rush today. The warm summer days, cold winter evenings, all the happy memories I already have made so far in my life. Everything up to this point that's made me the person I am today.
   So when I think of old things, I think of the future of old things. The things of today. I am enjoying today, but I'm ready for tomorrow.

N - Names

   So yesterday I talked about my favorite song, My Name is Jonas. Jonas is a name I really like. So today, I decided to continue with that with a list of names I like at this current time.


BOYS

Ryder
Axel
Jedi
Clay
Andrew
Chase
Flint
Cobalt
Jared
Joel
Jerome
Wade
Elijah
Marvel
Lee
Ezekiel
Jonas
Thor
Maverick
Grayson


GIRLS

Rebekah
Jayne
Adele
Dare
Elayne
Claire
Lovella
Charlotte
Gwyneth
Sakura
Maeve
Juliette
Alexial
Ariane
Amorice
Flaire
Gaylinn
Cardea
Coretta
Elspeth
Brae
Marilynn
Florence
Alice
Annistyn
Edythe
Minerva

   So those are some names I like. By the time I would actually have children, my name preferences will probably have changed. So my future children still have a chance at a normal name. :)

M - My Name is Jonas

   My Name is Jonas. Assuming you haven't heard the song, you're either intrigued or thinking, "Man, what a stupid title." Or maybe a mixture of both. It goes both ways.
   I wrote My Name is Jonas on my black light puppetry bag. People asked me about considering how my name is in fact not Jonas (though I do like the name,) and why I would write it on my bag.
   Why? It's my favorite song. My Name is Jonas by Weezer. I love this song. I originally became acquainted to it through Guitar Hero, and I've loved it ever since. Here is the link. I was going to attach it all fancy, but I've been having some minor technical difficulties.

L - Leadership

   I love to lead. It's one of my favorite things. I like to think I'm decent at leading, but I guess that's to be decided by the people that I direct. For our black light puppetry team, I am directing two songs. One is a dance, which I choreographed, taught, and arranged.
   The second is a song about how God lights up our sky. It focuses on a girl, lost and alone, then out comes planets, stars and the sun. It restores her hope. The rest of the song is like that, and somehow, I managed to get my self into a leadership role. I started offering some suggestions, and then before you know it, I'm pretty much in charge of the whole song. Somehow I wonder how I get myself into these things. But it's fun regardless.
   When I become a functioning adult, I would like to have a leadership role for a job. I know it's wishful thinking, considering you have to start at the bottom before you can reach the top, but at least it's a goal.

K - Kale

   I recently tried kale for the first time and I really liked it. It's really healthy for you and it tastes good. It's kinda tough, in a weird way, but it's good. I recently got a kale and butternut squash salad a restaurant we went to a while ago. It was really good. Ever tried kale before? I'd recommend it. 

J - Just Me and Random Stuff

   Creating my blog was easy. Picking the layout, the color scheme, fonts, what I wanted on my sidebar, it wasn't hard for me to pick. The hard part though, was choosing a name. It took me several weeks from the time I was told I could have my own blog, from the time I started it, to pick a name. I put a lot of pressure on myself to pick the perfect name.
   I originally wanted to put the word 'prism' in my blog title, but everything I could think of was already taken, or it sounded really stupid. So, prism eventually faded out of a possibility. I was out of ideas. I need a name that incorporated what I was going to write about, yet was vague enough that I could write about various topics. That leaves very few options.
   After another week or so passed without any name ideas. Then I remembered a name I had previously came up with for something else. Just Me and Random Stuff. I had a slight doubts about it, considering that it sounds kind of childish, but I realized it was probably my best option. Vague, yet specific enough and pretty much summed up what my blog was going to be about.
   So I created the blog. Here we are today, where we are close to Just Me and Random Stuff's one year anniversary. Looking back, I'm glad I chose this name. In the words of one of the ladies at the nursing home we volunteer at, "It's short, sweet and to the point. It says what it needs to say and that's it." Of course, she was talking about the Valentines Day card we had made for her imaginary boyfriend, but the point remains the same.

I - Ice Cream

   I like ice cream. A delicious, cold, creamy treat I enjoy all year round. My favorite flavor is vanilla. There is nothing more delicious than vanilla flavored ice cream. I don't like chocolate ice cream, except for in Phish Food, the Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Rocky Road ice cream. I also like mint chocolate chip ice cream.
   Did you know that the state with the highest ice cream sales is Alaska? For me, that makes sense, because I eat more ice cream in the winter than in the summer. Still, ice cream is targeted as a more summer food than a winter one.
   Do you like ice cream? If so, what flavor? Do you eat more ice cream in the summer or in the winter? Feel free to express in yourself to comments. :)

H - Hoarding

   I may have a bit of a hoarding problem. My bedroom is overflowing with things and clothes. I also have several totes of clothes and stuffed animals in my moms bedroom and several totes in the attic. It's not like I don't throw away things, I do, it's just that I have so much stuff that isn't trash.
   Stacks of notebooks, piles of clothes, shoebox after shoebox filled with assorted things and against one of my walls is half a library of books. Children's books, mysteries, biographies, poetry, joke books, love stories, educational books, anything. From The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe to The Joy of Knowledge.
   It has come to my mom's attention that I need to clean my room. I was supposed to have it cleaned by Thursday night, but since I finished all my science for the year, mom gave me an extension. The thing is, it's hard. Really, really hard. I don't know where to put everything. I have so much stuff, it overflows into mom's room, where it sits in totes.
   So today, after I finish this post and take care of the chickens (I may also clean the bathroom and the fish tank, because I'm procrastinator), I will be starting on the horrific mess that has become my room. Wish me luck!

G - Genres

   The kind of genres I'm talking about today is music genres. Country, rock, pop, from the oldies to modern. There is music for everyone. One of my friends is a fan of country music, while another one of my friends can't stand it. The people I know have an incredibly vast span of genres they like. I probably have the most unique tastes in music, not because I'm special, because the majority of my friends are Christian homeschoolers, and I like old alternative/rock bands. Bands and singers they've never heard of, and probably never will.
   Don't get me wrong, I listen to all types of music and enjoy them, but the old alt/rock stuff is my favorite. I'm not a huge country music fan, but I do like some of it. I'm definitely not a pop fan, but I know a lot about it because my brother listens to it. I can identify a lot of the singers and songs, unfortunately. One person that I can be sure I will never like, is the tragedy that is Taylor Swift. She is not on my playlist, to say the least. Almost all my friends are Taylor Swift fans. I will never know why.
   I know I've not even scratched the surface of genres, but I couldn't fit all that into a single post, especially one that's supposed to be short, sweet and to the point.
   What's your favorite type of music? Why? Feel free to express yourself in the comments, that's what they're for. :)

F - Fairy Tales

   Ah, fairy tales. Dramatic and unrealistic tales of a quivering princess trapped in a tower, a strong and mighty prince comes and slays the dragon, saves the princess and brings peace to the kingdom, right? Not so much. Have you ever read a fairy tale before? I have, and I was surprised at what I read.
   My favorite example of a fairy tale that isn't what you except is a quaint sounding one, The Dog and the Sparrow by Wilhelm Grimm. It begins with an abused dog who wasn't fed, and a sparrow. The dog was really hungry, and the sparrow helped him steal food from the marketplace. After they ate, the dog was tired and wanted to take a nap, so he did. The sparrow saw a cart approaching and warned the driver of the sleeping dog, but the carter continued anyway. He ran over the dog and killed him.
   Happy, right? Well, not to brighten your day, but it gets worse. The sparrow is now outraged, so she goes and avenges the dog's death. She wrecks much havoc, and finally in the end, she kills the carter. It ends, "...and the sparrow flew quietly home to her nest." That's the end. Seriously.
   I was surprised, to say the least. It was a terrible ending to a terrible story. The Twelve Dancing Princesses, my cousin's (and my) favorite Barbie movie was based upon a fairy tale. The movie was almost completely different than the story. Same with Briar Rose, the origins of Sleeping Beauty. It's so distorted from the original tale, I'm sure that if The Dog and the Sparrow was made into a movie, it would have a happy ending.

E - Earth Day

The Great Law of the Iroquois

 

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation...even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine." 

   Earth Day. A practically religious holiday for tree-huggers. Another day for most. But then there's me. I appreciate what Earth Day is trying to say. "Hey guys, if we don't stop the chopping down rain forests, mass polluting and dumping our trash in the sea, we won't have a earth to chop down the rain forests on, mass pollute and throw our trash in it's sea." If we abuse the planet, within years, we won't have a planet. That's something to think about.
   But then it goes the other way. SAVE MOTHER EARTH! LOGGING IS MURDER! You can go mega overboard. The earth is important, but it's not a goddess or idol.
   Seventh generation sustainability is a movement originally proposed by the Iroquois Indians. I wrote it above. Every generation preserves the earth for those to come, a very logical system. For every person, it's not hard to do small things to help do our part. Do you know how easy it is NOT to litter? Throw your trash in a trash can. We live in a rural area, but we have a ton of litter along side our roads. Can't we all do better? Can we except more from ourselves than to just throw our trash out the window? I, for one, believe we can.

D - Dragon Necklace

   At one our local festivals last fall, I bought myself dragon necklace. My mom thinks it's weird, but I like it.

Here's some pictures:

 

 

   I had originally wanted to this post a while back, when I had first bought it, but I couldn't post the pictures. So better late than never, right?

C - Conformity

Conformity:

 

Compliance with standards, rules or laws

Behavior in accordance with socially acceptable conventions or standards

Similarity in form or type; agreement in character

   I was raised to be a strong and independent thinker, capable of making the right choice even when it's hard. Maybe I was raised a little too well. I am a strong anti-conformist. I'm not a non-conformist, because if you conform to non-conformism, what's the point? You're just conforming to something other than traditional conformity.
   So I decided on anti-conformity. I don't know if that's a real thing or not, so if it's not real, I just made it up. Regardless, it's one of my strongest principles. To me, anti-conformity is not conforming to the tradition peer-pressures, social injustices and government overreach. But conforming isn't always such a bad thing.
   Conforming to a religion is important part of many peoples lives. Anything from atheism to pantheism counts. Sometimes conformity is a good thing. Our black light puppetry team is doing a flash dance. The point is to make everyone look the same. If you don't conform to the dance, you look like the idiot.
   Conformity isn't all bad. Be your own person, but remember, sometimes you need to conform, and that isn't a bad thing.

B - Band

   I'm in a band. Not a good band, or a popular one, but a band. We call ourselves Those People. Myself, my brother, my best friend and her younger sister (who is also my friend) are the members of our band. We play all types of music, because we haven't decided on a genre.
   I play guitar and sing, and my best friend's younger sister sings and writes lyrics. My best friend is our manager and my brother is our bus driver (he doesn't have a drivers license, or a bus, and we aren't on tour, but still, he's our bus driver) and he also plays guitar, though he hasn't started playing in the band.
   We have a few original songs, but we play a lot of covers too. It's fun being in the band, but it can be frustrating at times. But hey, even the greats had to start somewhere.

A - Artistic People

   I'm an art person. People (including my mom) say that art people are weird. I don't feel that I'm weird. Maybe I am.
   I don't mind fashion, but I do not like high fashion. Meaning, I don't like ugly clothes just because some fancy dude who can't dress designed something and listed it as a thousand dollars. Brand names don't do anything for me.
   I do, however, like expressing myself through the clothes I wear. I own a multitude of assorted scarves, cool shoes and intriguing jackets. Even with my incredible fashion sense, I have been told I dress like a clown, which only supports my mom's theory: art people are weird.
   I also like makeup. It's fun, and it's also a cool way to express myself. I have been called Goth, a clown (again, but with my face) and several other interestingly unkind things.
   Will I stop? No. Will people ever stop thinking it's their business what I choose to wear and put on my face? No. Do I care? Not at all. I'm an artistic person who loves self expression. Art is a great outlet for expression. Use it.