A Moment Of Happiness

Well, today, something occurred that resulted in a very happy Reindeer. Kind of.

As I was about to leave for music lessons today, my sister noticed that among the mail were our PSAT results. We, of course, tore the envelopes off and tried to figure out whether we did better or worse than we did last year (the time that it didn't count). I actually scored one less in the Mathematics section than I did last year, but the same in the others, so in reality, my score (which is added together) was 198 instead of 199, though how good that is, I don't know.

Last year one of the guys who took it with us aced it. 100% correct. Scholarship invitations and such from colleges all over in the USA. I'm jealous.

Still, my results aren't too bad--the thing comes with nice percentages--"you scored higher than ___ percentage of juniors." In the case of Mathematics, I scored higher than 65% of juniors, in Writing skills I scored higher than 97% of juniors, and in Critical Reading I scored higher than 99% of juniors.

It's really nice to know that I didn't get worse or anything in Critical Reading and Writing Skills since last year, but kind of frustrating that I didn't do better--I made two errors in Critical Reading and 3 in Writing Skills. It's going to bother me to no end.

On the way back from music lessons, though, I reached the bus stop with four minutes until the bus arrived, so I decided to walk to the next one, as I would be walking up to it when the bus arrived. That is, I would have been if the bus hadn't gone early. I was just out of a comfortable running distance (running distances are drastically reduced when you've got a cello on your back) from the stop when the bus pulled up. Four minutes early. Gah. It was really frustrating.

Anyways, I ended up walking to the 'next stop' the whole way--I made it almost halfway down the bus route before the next one arrived (around 15-20 minutes later), and then I just decided to walk the rest of the way.

AND MY SISTERS COME BACK FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! My second-oldest sister comes back from the USofA on Sunday morning, then, a week later, my oldest sister comes in, and finally, on the 23rd, my third-oldest sister comes back. It'll be the first time my whole family's been around for Christmas in several years. We're all really hyped about it. :D

Thanksgiving and post-It

Well, I've decided that I've gone long enough without updating. Last week and the week before I had an excuse--this week I don't.

So, starting with two weeks ago--Thanksgiving.

I had a blast. It was the 'smallest' Thanksgiving celebration we've had since 1997--there were only fifteen people. It felt....weird. Normally we have somewhere around 30. Anyway, we had the missionary family who lives on the floor beneath us come, another missionary family from a nearby city, several English teachers who....teach English around the city, and some Dutch friends. Oh, and an English guy from church. And two American girls who live in Germany right now and my family met this summer....it was my second time meeting them.

And there was lots of food. I spent a while making three pumpkin pies (THE ULTIMATE PIES EVER!) the night before, my mom and my twin made the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and the gravy, etc. And three more pies--a pecan pie, an apple pie, and a chocolate-chip pie (<--absolutely great to get on a sugar high with).

I think I gained a bunch of weight just eating, though I was hungry again at 'suppertime'.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had several ideas of stuff to blog about, and I remembered them all the way up until this last Saturday. So now I have to try to remember what they were, because I think I was ready to write quite a bit about them.

So, on Sunday night, my twin came down with a fever. And apparently, she decided I couldn't be happy unless I was sick too, because I felt absolutely miserable the next day. And the rest of the week.

It wasn't until Saturday that we started feeling fine--meaning, able to do more than just lie in bed or on the couch or something. Unfortunately, I had to make up a bunch of homework, and the same on Sunday afternoon (including three tests I had missed....). However, I managed to return Sunday night and read up. It made me very happy.

The Power of Words

I was thinking today about LotR and The Silmarillion, and Tolkien's poem of the contest between Felagund and Sauron came to mind:

He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps,
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he brought,
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothond,
The sighing of the sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor, the red blood flowing
Beside the sea, where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders, and stealing drew
Their white ships with their white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn,
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn-
And Finrod fell before the throne.

Now, I really like that poem. A lot. But what I got to thinking was that they sing. Their duel is a duel of songs and chanting. I thought that that was kind of weird. After all, Sauron had them in his power. Why not just smack Finrod upside the head and then, when he's unconscious, just torture them for information or something. Why bother singing?

I was thinking about that, and then I recalled other instances where it was song, not force, that won--or lost--the day. For instance, when Lúthien and Beren were in Angbad, Lúthien sang Morgoth to sleep.

It was a really interesting question, so I thought about it, and what I came up with is that, beyond the fact that 'magic' seems to be used in Arda via spells and such, it's a way of Tolkien showing the power of words. Words can hurt, a lot more than people think. Words have a lot more sway than most people think. I mean, just through this post, I'm influencing your thoughts for a while, perhaps with permanent (and traceable) consequences. Unfortunately, some people (like in the Media) do realise how much power words have, and abuse it. I hate the media.

Anyway, I just thought that that was one of Tolkien's more subtle things. Words have power, both to heal, or to harm and destroy. A lot can happen because of one word.

But, I also have other things to say. For instance, I feel miserable still. We got snow yesterday, but by this morning it had been rained away. Then, my head still felt terrible this morning. Then the cat got it (I'm allergic to cats) and my day worsened, since my allergies acted up along with my cold. Then I found out that I only got a 90.0 on my Physics Quarterly, because of several mistakes that I shouldn't have made, which made my day even worse.

But, it got brighter after I read a bunch of Calvin & Hobbes after school. And then I did something absolutely awesome--I drank Kofola. And not just any Kofola--I drank the new Cinnamon flavour. Which is actually really similar to normal Kofola, since the cinnamon is a background flavour and not that noticeable. Regardless, it was good, like all Kofola, so now my day (with the exception of my cold and allergies) is going better.

And I saw this really cool quote from Ursula K. LeGuin's The Earthsea Quartet--

Only in silence the word,
Only in dark the light,
Only in dying life:
Right the hawk's flight
On the empty sky.

It's in reference to realizations and stuff. But I don't remember what the last two lines are referring to, and I don't feel like puzzling them out. :P

At World's End

I have listened to the At World's End soundtrack quite a few times in the last couple of days, and I can say without any doubt that at various parts throughout it, the themes are similar or identical to themes from Batman Begins, The Last Samurai, The Passion, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and worst of all--The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It really messes up the soundtrack when my mind start's playing tHGttG. Like seriously a lot. >_<

It's understandable that it somewhat resembles the first two, as Hans Zimmer did the music for them, but RotS was scored by John Williams, The Passion was scored by John Debney, and I don't even care who scored tHGttG, since the music was hardly memorable. Unfortunately, there was one insanely hilarious song that happens to share a thematic moment with AWE. Which really drives me insane. <_<

However, I really like the overall At World's End soundtrack, though it sadly lacks that awesome organ sound that made the Dead Man's Chest soundtrack so brilliant. It does make up for it with violins, though.

And I was fooling around with GIMP yesterday, since I really love John Howe's paintings, and I came up with this, which I dedicated to PotR for her birthday (of all possible things, it's the dedication that looks worst). It's the first desktop I've done in around three years--

I like it. Mostly. Still, it could be better. I tried to fit John Howe's painting of Gwaihir in there, but it just didn't match up--the colouring was just too unfit.

Huzzah!

Sinbearer was kind enough to send me the At World's End soundtrack via MSN Messenger's file transfer, so now I have it. It's the best of the three, I think, though I still love "Davy Jones," "The Kraken" and "Hello Beastie" better than any AWE ones, I think. So far, at least. I'm presuming that the AWE ones will grow on me.

And I've made several banners in the last week from John Howe's paintings, but I've decided that my banner-making skills are very limited--they all have the same border, which IMO looks good on them, yet I'm pretty sure that they could look better with some creative uses of brushes and textures. Unfortunately, I'm very inept with both of the latter two. Thus, my banners have the same borders. I guess I could classify them all as my "John Howe Banner series", but then it'd get more boring.

I need to figure out how to use textures and brushes.

Um, in random frustrated news, my gaming computer (the one that was pieced together from four other computers <_<) has decided to go on strike, apparently hoping for an upgrade or something beneficial to itself. It even has the audacity to say that my connected hard-drives aren't connected. It's weird. I've decided to see who bends first--me or my computer. Our love-hate relationship might become nullified if the strike continues, and I might be forced to fire it.

Don't you hate old computers?

Why

This is something I've actually noticed for a while, but I think it'd be interesting to share.

Why do we ask people questions? I mean, like, in social instances--interrogation doesn't count. Perhaps my conclusion isn't correct, though it is logical, but I've come to believe that we ask people questions (most of the time) so that we can then give our opinion. For example:

A: What's your favourite Star Wars book?
B: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
A: Well, my favourite book is Star by Star by Troy Denning because.....

And so it goes on. I've thought about a number of scenarios, and in all of them, the most probable thing for someone to say is their own opinion. Which makes sense, I suppose. If you initiate a topic, it'd be pointless for it to be one about which you have nothing to say. However, I think it also portrays something else--our self-centered natures. I think that most people, save for a few amazing exceptions, are naturally self-centered, even if it's mostly suppressed. For instance, I wouldn't consider myself to be a braggart, and I would consider myself to have a lot of concern for others, yet I do tend to say a lot of sentences with "Me" or "I" instead of "You" or "He" or "She". Especially on the internet, I come across as more boastful than in real life.

As I said, I can't think of very many scenarios where someone's natural response would not be about themself. I find that very interesting.

And that whole little section was a prime example of my point.

Tuesday was a very interesting day. I had been thinking that afternoon about just how different I am, even compared to my own family members, who are by far the most similar to me of anybody I've ever met. Yet I stand out. I am an oddball, through and through. I am always the one who takes on everyone else in a debate, holding to the least favoured opinion. I am generally considered weird for my reading habits and taste, for the movies I enjoy, for the music I enjoy, for the sports I enjoy, etc. There are some people who are like me in one thing of the other, yet they think me weird for enjoying the others.

So I was thinking about that, and wondering why in the world it was that way, especially considering the fact that everyone else seems a lot more similar to each other than I am to them, when I found something out.

I'd known for a while that a new family was moving in downstairs, an American family who'd lived in Serbia for a while, and that they had two kids. What I didn't know, and what I found out, was that both the dad and the thirteen year-old son both are fans of The Lord of the Rings. And not really of the movies. Of the books. Not only that, Daniel (the son) has read LotR over 20 times, which means there's someone else around who's read it a lot. He's three years younger than me but he's read it only five times less. w00t for him.

I find that really cool. Someone who likes LotR a lot. Who's a major fan of it. And who's not someone I know only on the internet (no offense, guys!). Anyway, that makes me happy. Now I've got to find out what his taste in music and movies is. :P

Hard Times

I finished the book the night before last. Then I got into another debate in English class over it--the class was divided the same way that it usually is, too--everyone vs. me. W00t.

Anyway, I'm of the opinion that Hard Times was the same sort of situation as A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens had a good idea, and then went and completely botched it. Everyone else liked the book.

Now, I know that the writing styles differed a lot then compared to what they are now (I mean, it's evident even in Tolkien's and Lewis' writings), but Austen and Dickens don't even match up with the other authors of their era. I quite enjoy Alexandre Dumas' books, as well as Sir Walter Scott's ones. I just don't like Austen's and Dickens'. I was trying to think of why that might be the case, and I have to confess that I still don't have a stable conclusion. I said in my last post that Austen's writing style seems almost childishly simplistic. Dickens' is more complicated, yet it still isn't good, in my opinion. With almost all other authors and books, the events of the book unfold in vivid images in my mind. Including other books from that era. With every single one of Dickens' books, though, those images have been pretty much in black and white. Even if it's sunny out in the novel, it seems overcast. Everything is written in a way that just conveys despair, regardless of whether or not they're happy in the novel. I have absolutely no idea how he does it, but somehow he manages it. I can't put a Dickens' novel into images in colour. I just [i]cannot[/i]. I hate it. And because I know it's exclusive to his books, I don't like him for it. Besides the fact that he picks (in my opinion) boring topics, for the most part. Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities could've been good, executed properly (for instance, of Matthew Stover or Robert Jordan had written them), but Dickens' method was just bleh. Naturally, I had a hard time defending myself in our English-class debate, since we each got an equal allotment of time--regardless of whose side we were on. So I had a lot less time to defend my opinions than they did to attack. <_<

Anyway, following through with the Kitty of Doom's idea about blogging about Star Crystal, I shall. Go me.

Jhoran is somewhat easier to roleplay than Adanil was, since he's not a lowly farmer, but in his current situation, it's actually kind of difficult to post as him, since he's in really bad shape, and by all rights shouldn't even be running around. I mean, he's got something like three concussions, a broken arm, multiple other broken bones, and numerous cuts and scrapes. And he's running around on an island intent on luring out a giant tentacled monster so that it can be killed. At least he's not trying to assassinate a Sea Dragon anymore....

But it's also interesting trying to tie Jhoran to Adanil, without making it seem like I'm too lazy to come up with new character ideas. I've been debating with myself as to whether or not to implement an idea pertaining to the two of them (and possibly several other of Jhoran's ancestors). It could be cool, or it might totally flop and ruin Jhoran's character. Tough choice.

Aaaaand since somehow Adobe Photoshop got erased from the computer, I reinstalled GIMP. It was already installed, but the version on my profile was in Slovak, and my Slovak vocabulary pertaining to such things is rather limited. So I reinstalled it, making sure that it was in English.

And then I made a banner for the first time in something like six months. As it's my signature on the forum, I don't think it's necessary to post it here, but I'm somewhat pleased at how it turned out, seeing as how it's been a long time since I've used GIMP, not to mention that I'm rather downgrading from the more advanced features that Photoshop had. I miss all of the text effects that Photoshop had. >_<