Cancer's an Asshole

I don't usually cuss in my titles, but considering the subject matter, I believe that's excusable. About 6 months ago, the Rabbi at my synagogue told us about a girl who had leukemia. Her family was short on funds to treat her, and he asked the community to mobilize and help fund her treatment, a very last ditch attempt. At around the same time, similar sermons were being spoken, all asking people to donate a few dollars to help A. The next day, I gave a five, as did each my (11 year old) brother, and both of my parents. I guess other families were doing this as well, because they raised enough money. A travelled to Israel, the place where the experimental treatment was being conducted, and started on the tough treatments.

About 30 minutes ago, I was called to the computer, where my mom showed me an article. A died at around 5:30 am on December 29th, Israel time. I didn't know A personally, and I didn't even know her family, yet I was crying while I read that article. The chemotherapy killed her before the cancer did, she was actually in remission.

Were my $5, and everyone else's, a waste? I'm wrestling with that question right now.

I think that the overall objective is to kick cancer's ass. Did this help?

She's dead. Her family is probably shattered. Cancer just took another innocent life, no ass-kicking there. Our money didn't save her. She was one of the first people to try out this treatment, which worked well in almost every other patient who went through it. What does that mean in terms of the research for it carrying on? What if my money spelled ruin for something that was looking promising?

Then again, the researchers probably learned more about the cancer. What kicks its ass the most effectively, and avoids kicking the ass of the patient. And science is all about trial and error, so on the large scale of things, this could be a tragedy, but not too terrible in the long run.

I almost feel like I should have prayed for her more, like I should have done something. Sent her a get well soon card or something. But I guess it's not my fault.

Cancer is kind of like this huge bonding force. I've been affected so deeply by it that when I hear of someone else who was affected by it, I just want to give them a big hug. Not that it shouldn't get a good ass-kicking.

<3 Gabi

Socks today: Pink and white striped fuzzy socks. I can't decide if it's ironic or not that they are ones to fund breast cancer research...

So. Many. Books.

Well. Blogger doesn't love me, since that took ten minutes of opening and closing tabs to try to get this text box to load.
WARNING: This post is almost completely consisted of me talking about various books. I tried to not include any spoilers, or at least nothing of the plots that wouldn't be on the back of the book. 




Anyways, I have books! Over three years I amassed all of my Chapters/Indigo/Coles/World's Biggest Bookstore cards (large bookstores, all part of the same chain) and when I added them up it came to a grand total of a lot of books. I ordered them online, because books in Canada are way more expensive than in the US (even though our dollar is at par, which is stupid.) I get a good discount online, and I bought six books with some money to spare.


Book #1:

An Abundance of Katherines

I must admit that the cover of my copy isn't that awesome, because I cheaped out and bought the trade paperback for $3.99. My potential best friend that I've mentioned a couple of times before (Shall we call her PBF?) recommended this to me, and said that I'm the female counterpart of the main character, Colin. I don't know how happy I am about that because Colin is kind of annoying. I guess (I hope) she meant how I like math, or was just referring to the time that we graphed goodness (I told you that she's awesome).When I opened the book, I knew I'd like it, because it had footnotes. Books with footnotes are wonderful, like the Bartimaeus Trilogy. It was a pretty cool book. Colin tries to find a formula to predict relationships, and there is even an appendix explaining the math behind it. I laughed at the footnotes.

Book #2

The Princess Bride

Again, my cover isn't as awesome because I cheaped out and bought the trade paperback with the movie cover. I am OMRSUPEREXCITEDSQUEEEEYAY to read this book. I have watched the movie many, many, many times from when I was really little, because it is my dad's favourite, and also mine. I'm assuming that the book will be even better, because I still stand by the whole "the book is always better" thing. Unless the book is based on a movie or (shudder) a TV series. Those Glee novels make me cry a little bit inside. I'm also thinking about writing a Sparklife article comparing the book and the movie, but that all depends on how much effort I want to actually put into that.


Book #3

Eating Animals

I've been thinking about vegetarianism a lot lately, and this is a book about it by an author whose other stuff I like. I'm kind of afraid to open it, because I am so close to being pushed over the edge that I think if this book gave a nudge that I would do it. I mean, I already avoid mammals most of the time. My main concern about going vegetarian is that it is hard enough for me to get nutrients already, and I don't need to make that tougher. I'd still eat fish, though, because I have gone fishing and gutted a fish, and I know that I could handle killing one, while I could never, ever, kill a mammal directly, and probably not a bird either. I'd love to talk to someone who's a vegetarian by the way.

Book #4

A Dose of Awkward

This is the Left Handed Toons book, and I've been reading it bit by bit, instead of splurging on the comics all at once. *congratulates self on self-control* For those of you who don't know what Left Handed Toons are, I suggest that you go to lefthandedtoons.com  right now. That may be a threat, actually. Or else. You see, now it's a threat!

Book #5

Outwitting Squirrels

I got this one because it was recommended on boingboing.net, and it sounded funny. It reminded me of my grandfather a lot, too, because he is on this never ending quest to vanquish the squirrels from his bird feeder.

Book #6

Behemoth

This is a sequel to Leviathan, a book by Scott Westerfeld. If I remember correctly, it is set in a world that has two opposing societies, Creationists, and Darwinists. The Creationists use mechanical and steam powered stuff, while the Darwinists genetically engineer animals to do stuff. The protagonist dressed up as a guy (in a classic story) so she could work on this huge ship, the Leviathan, for the Darwinists. The Leviathan is this whole floating ecosystem, complete with glowing worms that light up at night. I loved Westerfeld's steampunk/science fiction world, and I'm excited to read his sequel. 

Hope you didn't mind my book talks too much.

<3 Gabi

Socks Today: I'm not wearing any socks, because I am on vacation and can do that. I am also wearing mismatched pajamas and a bathrobe, and it is 2pm. *stagnates*

School's out, and I'm not particularly excited

Winter break just started. School's out for two weeks. I've kind of been staring into space, in shock.


Must. Do. Homework. 
Wait, where's the homework? 
Oh, my ISP.
I don't want to do my ISP, there must be some other homework.
Must. Do. Homework.
(Return to the beginning)

I guess I do have homework, my ISP for computers, but it is so huge and scary and intimidating that I don't even want to look at it right now. The thing is, if I had to create a game, like some of the people, I'd be excited, but I was assigned to code a lesson on shapes and a quiz. SHAPES?! Shapes. Are. Boring.
I'm sort of happy about how easy my assignment will be, though, because I won't have much animation to do and only a few buttons.

Enough about school. WINTER BREAK!
This break I'm going to go skiing for three days with my family at a semi-posh resort we've never really been able to afford, which is exciting. Then later on, I'm going to get to see my three guy friends from my old school who I miss very much. I've heard rumours that one has begun to wear a ponytail because his hair is so long, so I will come wielding scissors. Well, not really. I'll just threaten him. I think I'll try to get together with some more old friends as well. Oh , I printed off some sheet music for Seasons of Love, so I'll try to learn a new song too, since my piano lessons seem to have fallen through.

I know nobody actually reads up to this point, and that my diary-entries are boring. I'm sure that when I put up more pictures of W.O. my pageviews will skyrocket, at least. Speaking of that, I had better track down my camera. Bye!

--Gabi <3

Socks: Sports socks that are warm and soft.

Further Proof that Nerds will Rule the World

     Last evening, I was sitting at my laptop typing frantically. Why, you may ask? I had a speech due in English class the next day, and I had to finish writing it. Finally, it was done, so I practiced for an hour. I'd only be allowed ONE FREAKING CUE CARD for a four minute speech, so being the overachiever that I am, I was freaking out. I made everyone listen to me practice, and people actually laughed, and found it funny! The topic I chose? Nerds. 

     My school public speaking assignments generally end up as boring research speeches, while people fall asleep. Contrary to popular belief, sandwiches are really not that interesting. I decided to go for a less serious topic, so nerds it was. 

     I have to say, I learned a lot more from this assignment than I do for most assignments, even though I barely did any research. I learned about Wizard Rock, (Gred and Forge are my favourites, for now.) and I also managed to find some support for nerds taking over. 

     Ever heard of word drift? That's basically when a word changes in meaning over time. Way back when, I could have called someone hot, and that would result in pulled out fans, and some absolutely spiffing iced lemonade. Now, the result would be much different. (I thought about making an MS paint picture to illustrate this, but maybe later.) The same thing has just begun to happen with the word nerd, with more and more people calling themselves nerds, but there are still tons of people who think of nerds as a bad thing. So, WORD DRIFT IS HAPPENING RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES!! I figured that if the increasing number of nerds keeps going up, pretty soon we will be EVERYWHERE!!!

     It's also really neat that my classmates seemed interested in my talk about Wrock, NaNoWriMo, and pi. It seems to me that only a nerd would be interested in that sort of stuff, hence my class must be full of nerds. You see, the nerds are totally taking over. Soon World Suck will be vanquished! (look up John and Hank Green or Nerd Fighters if you don't understand that.

Okay, lecture over, goodbye!

DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome,)

Gabi

Socks today: Both black, one with blue-green heels, one with pink heels. I think my friend and I may have scared the new girl by complimenting her socks. They were leopard print, we couldn't help ourselves!

P.S. Today is my former best friend's birthday. We haven't been close for a long time, and this is the first year we haven't been at the same school, so I haven't wished her happy birthday. It feels weird, but liberating as well. Mostly weird, unfortunately. 

New York!!!

Hello! I have recently returned from a trip to New York City. It wasn't actually my first time, but it was the first time that I spent a day shopping. When I went with my friend over the summer we went to museums, like the nerds that we are; with my family it looks something like this (I hope I used that semicolon correctly...) :
Mom: So, family, what would you like to do today?
Brother: LET'S GO LOOK AT GUNS!!!
Dad: Oh, I'll take Ben to do that!
(they walk out before asking me if I want to come)
Me: So, what should we do?
Mom: I was thinking a walk around Times Square.
Me: Okay!


Mom: Oh, let's go into the kitchenwares store!!
Me: Ummm...
Mom: Gabi, do you think that this set of dishes would look nice with these napkins?
Me: Can we go, please?




So as you see, these aren't really the best outings, so I was excited to go shopping. It was fun, and I got a shrug to go with a dress that I needed one for.


I also saw some weird stores...

It's a RUBBER STORE!!! I really don't get the point, though. 

I didn't realise that there were lightbulb stores. 

Those are my funny signs for today. Kind of stupid, too.


<3 Gabi


Socks today: I got some really pretty socks for 95 cents a pair at Forever 21, which we don't have here in Canadia. One is blue and gray with a pretty snow-flakey pattern, and the other is white and black with the same pattern. Due to them, I had a conversation with the girl at the checkout about mismatched socks.


P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACH!!

Book Stores are Amazing

I feel so accomplished, posting so often like this. I feel like Howie jump-started me and a lot of other sparklers to keep blogging, and I've seen a lot more posts lately. THANK YOU SQUIRREL!


Anywhoodle, after Hebrew class last night, my dad offered to take me to the bookstore to meet up with my mom and brother, since my brother's school is having a book sale. Of course, he was met with a loud YESSSSSSSS!!! When I got there, I inhaled the scent of books, then went upstairs to the teen section. (By the way, what is with all of the vampire fiction? I mean, teenagers have some taste.) I started to flip through the Hunger Games, which I still need to read, when my mum sneaked up behind me and freaked me out, then offered to buy me a book. I chose something random, then decided to go look at the kids section, when I saw a book I've wanted for a really long time. Well, I didn't know that it existed, but if I did I would have wanted it. Oh, btw, it is the prequel to the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and seems interesting so far.


I just wish that books weren't so expensive in Canada, it cost $20. Is that a lot for a hardcover, or am I just forgetting after my long streak of buying books secondhand? 


Oh, New York trip is tonight, and I haven't started to pack. I'd better go and do that. 


-Gabi-


Socks today: I think one is my cousin's sock, but they are pale pink and my cousin's sock looks like it has shoelaces on it and mine has brown heels and toes.

If you do not want to see a picture of W.O., you are probably heartless.

My birthday is coming up in two weeks. As an early birthday present, my parents got me a new camera to replace my poor dead Samsung. Though I'm not entirely sure that I like the feel of the camera, I managed to get a decent picture of W.O., who doesn't generally like to stay still for photos. A combination of the amazingness of my purple fuzzy chair (that may have some laundry on it in the picture) and of my new camera, perhaps? Feely seemed very interested in the camera, and her nose was wiggling insanely as I took the picture.
Drum roll please


















BUNNY RABBIT CUTENESS!

The saturation is a bit funny because I needed to edit it so that she wasn't just a blob of black. And isn't her mohawk amazing?
Westley Ophelia is quite possibly the coolest furry rodent ever.


<3 Gabi


Socks Today: I forgot about this part for a while. Today I am wearing boring ankle socks, just grey and white. Kind of lame.

NaNoWriMo, Nerdfighters, and I Don't Really Want to Keep Alliterating

Hello. I am a neglectful, horrible, mean, lazy, not-even-remotely-funny, blogger. In October I tried to write a few posts, but as a busy student that has ADD ("OH MY GOSH A PRETTY BIRD!!!") I tend to abandon these posts halfway through. This time I am RESOLVED to finish this post without getting distracted halfway through. ("Those bagels smell realllyyyy good.") 


In October, before Sparklife changed its layout and I could actually follow the posts, I was reminded about the awesome program called NaNoWriMo. You write a fifty thousand word novel in a month, which equals approximately 1667 words a day. I decided that I would attempt this, and I told absolutely everyone that I was doing it. That was in the hopes that I'd be embarrassed into writing daily. So how am I doing? I'm a failure, actually. I kept on schedule for the first week, then fell behind. So right now, with only 9 days left, I am at 19000, which is really far behind. I've given up hope, which is why I dragged myself over to this blog without the excuse of having to finish writing a book. To be honest, not doing well at nano wasn't all that bad. I've gained a huge amount of respect for writers in general, because I have realised how hard it is to develop a character, to choose a point of view and general feel of a book, and to actually get a plot. 


Speaking of books (well, movies,) the first installment of the last Harry Potter movie just came out. I probably will not watch it, because I stopped following the movies after the Goblet of Fire for no particular reason. Two of my new friends, who both actually have best friend potential, wants me to come see it with them. Well, with the school Harry Potter club which the two of them started. If I end up going, it will probably be really fun, but that is only if I force myself to be social. 


I haven't been very social lately, unless you count the semi-formal dance on Thursday. Oh, and taking public transit with my friends. ("Oh look, a message on gtalk!") I just realised how lame that sounds, but I am still excited about how many people in public school take the TTC. When I was in private school, people sometimes sounded shocked that I take the subway and bus, so it is nice that my friends take it. 


That brings me to Nerdfighters.While walking to the bus stop together, my friend decided to introduce me to Nerdfighters. Namely the Fitness for Nerds video. I'd link to it, but my internet blocker thing is being all annoying. In part of the video, the guy jumps back and forth to dodge the bully. Dodge, and deflect, dodge and deflect. I got really excited about these nerd fighters, and decided to try it out. And that is how I ended up looking like an idiot at the corner of a major intersection.


I think I am going to go write my essay now. And eat a bagel. And maybe spend a little bit longer on gtalk.


Bye!

My First Halloween

Halloween is coming up, and I have a bit of a problem. For the last 10 years of my life, I have been in a Jewish school. In Jewish schools, they don't do anything for halloween, so I have no idea how to act. I know that people dress up and go trick-or-treating. I don't know much else. I'd love it if you guys would answer my questions.

1) Do you dress up as something scary, or as anything?

2) Do people my age even dress up?

3) Do people my age trick-or-treat?

4) Do you just knock on random people's doors?

Somebody explain? Please?

Hi! Sorry I'm so late in this post. I've had a problem with writer's block, opening up blogger then not knowing what to write. There should really be a scientific name for writer's block. One day when I forget to write an essay for English, I could just say, "I'm sorry, I had (insert fancy sounding name here)." The teacher will have no idea what I'm talking about, and I'll be able to submit my essay the next day!


Guess what? I still have writer's block. So instead of writing a lovely, connected, inspirational post, I think I'll just write about things I wanted to mention.


1) I was going to Canadian Tire to get a bike lock and helmet with my dad. Canadian Tire is an awesome hardware store by the way, for the un-Canadians reading. (That is everyone I believe.) They have everything from bandsaws to skis to dog food. When my dad and I pulled into the parking lot of Canadian Tire, something smelled funny, but we ignored it. After we left the store we saw a fire, with firefighters. The worst part is that what was on fire was a clothing donation bin. Best case scenario: Somebody thought that it was a garbage can, threw their cigarette butt in, and it caught. The thing is, I can't help speculating on whether some idiot did it on purpose. Either way, my faith in humanity is somewhat shaky.


2) On a happier note, W.O. has achieved even more epic ninjaness. Last week, I couldn't find her anywhere. I checked all of her favourite hiding spots around my room, but to no avail. I finally opened up my drawers to check in those. She wasn't in any of the lower ones, but when I opened up my top dresser drawer, there she was, looking extremely cozy. I think that she jumped onto the back of my purple fuzzy chair, and from there jumped into the drawer, and it slid closed. NINJA BUNNY POWERS, I TELL YOU!


3) I sort of forget about anything else. Oh well.


Socks Today: One pink sock, one blue and pink striped sock. I was trying to find my lime green and pink socks, but I was in a rush and didn't feel like digging through my socks.




-Gabi

Whoaaaaah

It is Saturday night. Well, Sunday morning. I am being stupid and staying up too late. It is 1:53 am, and I seemed to have reached the point of staying up too late when everything is amazing and weirdly bewildering. So if I come across as stranger than usual, that may be why. About a month ago, staying up this late wouldn't seem so bad, so I guess this means that I am getting back onto a school schedule. Nevertheless, I am up late, being amazed by the fact that I can follow myself on my own blog. 


"Oh look! I have 9 followers now! That is a slightly less pitiable amount than my 8 before! Yaaaaawwwnnn."


I should really go to bed now. Tomorrow I am volunteering at my synagogue's sukkah hop. A sukkah is, well, look it up. Wait, here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkah
Happy? For further clarification, if you eat in a sukkah while it is raining, you will get wet. If there is a severe thunderstorm, the branches on top of the sukkah will probably blow away and the sukkah will probably fall over. Which happened with my family's sukkah.
Anyways, a sukkah hop is when you go to different people's sukkahs and eat food and possibly do other stuff. They're quite fun, and this year I will be supervising the crafts table at one of the sukkahs. The little kids are actually quite cute, so I'm looking forward to it. 


Now, it is time to actually go to bed. It is 2:11 am. It may be this late because I was reading Left Handed Toons and watching the nunchuk duck while being mystified.





Anyways, goodnight.


Socks today: An older pair I got from Bluenotes when they were having a large sale on socks. They are sort of argyle printish in blue with darker heels and toes. The argyle print incorporates hearts in a largely unexplainable way. They aren't very good quality socks, but nice for a day at home spent curled up in a corner reading. The book was actually an etymology book, because I finished the sequel to wicked and was extremely bored. W.O. nibbled the corners of it. On the bright side, I learned how to say the F-bomb in three other languages. (it was quite an interesting etymology book)

Pets

So, you may have been wondering about the ninja bunny part of my blog name. Actually, I'm fairly sure that most of my extremely small blog audience knows about my rabbit, Westley Ophelia.
One day, I was in the car, reading Blogging Twilight out loud to my mom and brother. We were on our way to try horseback riding for the first time at a smallish farm in the middle of Ontario's cottage country, A.K.A. The Middle of Nowhere. We passed an alpaca farm or two. Well one. Eventually, after many sections of Blogging Twilight, we pulled into a small horse farm. That is when I discovered W.O.  At that moment I knew I should have her. With her ninja prowess, she had escaped her rabbit run, and two of the people who worked at the farm were chasing her in circles. Apparently she did this every day. Then she walked on the horse poop.
After the horseback riding and begging my mom to let me buy myself the rabbit, she let up. So I brought W.O. home. She still engages in ninja activities daily, like jumping onto my bed and running in circles, sneaking into my closets and refusing to come out, and licking people's toes.
A picture of westley:

There are also many other pets in my house. In fact, they outnumber the number of people.


Meeka: Meeka is a dog. If you want to call him that. He more closely resembles a cross between an extremely hungry horse and an excitable bulldozer. We've been working on training him, because it seems to bother people when a huge labradoodle jumps on them more than a miniature poodle would. I don't really get that, because I am a bit afraid of small dogs. Especially ones who are the exact same colour as the carpet, and snarl at you when you don't see them and step on their tails.
Rocky, Fluffy, and Spike: These are my brother's guinea pigs. They are rodents. That's pretty much it.




My socks today: One is light blue, one is dark blue. I was in that sort of mood today.

Hi!

Hi!!
This is my new blog. You see, my last blog was lame. This blog will be less lame. I think I'll try to write about once a week, but chances are that won't happen, because I'm a world class procrastinator. In my quest to stop my procrastination, I'm going to do my homework. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! I think I'm going to tell people what socks I am wearing every time I write this. Socks are cool.


My socks today: Black with pink toes and ankle-y things, and pink heels. I'm really, really, not a bright pink sort of person, but I woke up after 1pm today. I had to go volunteer to help kids not staple themselves while making paper chains at 2, so I sort of grabbed the first socks I saw in my drawer.