I completely forgot to put in a title and my mom wants me offline. So [insert descriptive title here]

"Terence beckoned her in and, with a vague sense of surprise, realized that he loved her." - The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady, by Gerald Morris.


I love that quote. It's so romantic in such a sweet way, and from a cool series, too. My Potential Best Friend, who I think I will promote to Most Probably a Best Friend despite my insecurities screaming at me, lent the first two books to me. They're Arthurian legends, but Morris takes a really neat slant on the characters. They're all somewhat Mary-Sue ish, but Round Table stuff isn't really supposed to have three-dimensional characters. I'm surprised at how a series in a genre that is usually so cliche manages to stay admirably true to the original stories, but still has its own originality. I enjoyed reading the series over my week internetless.

Yep, I spent a week internetless, just to see how I'd do. It was fine, I guess. I had to check my e-mail because my babysitting jobs are organised through that. I ended up talking on the phone a lot with MPBF and reading a lot instead. Guess what I discovered? MPBF AND I ARE THE SAME PERSON. Seriously, it's kind of scary. I've found my friendship soul mate, to some degree. I just hope I don't fall in love-love with her, I guess xP

I apologise for my long, unruly post. I hope that the ratio of my boring posts to my interesting posts isn't terrible.

<3 Gabi

Socks: Boring.

Happy Lonely Singles Appreciation Day!

I think us singles need some love, yes? I wouldn't mind candy either, actually. 


I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at the moment. I'm falling back into the same habits I had last semester, that only started after I got depressed for a while. I don't think I've completely recovered my old motivation, which I could really use right now. Oh well.


GUESS WHAT I FOUND A COPY OF?! HARRY POTTER. IN HEBREW. It's taken me a while, but I've finally finished the first chapter. That's a start. 


It's really cool when I can stand in a room and here people speaking in a language which I'm not expected to understand. Very ninja-like.


--Gabi (I left out the heart as an act of defiance against commercial holidays. Or I was lazy.)


Socks today: One bright pink, one blue. It doesn't really reflect my mood right now, actually, I'm kind of icky feeling at the moment. But they're still awesome :D

Amazing Internet Things You HAVE TO Check out

The internet is an awesome place, and I have all of these epic things in my bookmarks folder. I think I need to share them with you guys.

Webcomics

Left Handed Toons -- This used to be better than it is now, I admit, but even if you just read the archives it's still awesome.

Questionable Content -- Another awesome webcomic. Just read.

XKCD : XKCD is awesome :) 

I have more webcomics, but I can't overload your brain circuits.

Videos

Haircut - a choose your own adventure song -- This is by the same dude who does Potter Puppet Pals, and I'm a little bit in love with him.

The Vlogbrothers -- This is an AMAZING Youtube channel. I love Hank and John.

I also have more of these. Eh, for later.

In terms of random websites, I have a few interesting ones.


Wrockbox is the best place ever if you want to listen to nerdy Harry Potter music. It's actually amazing. **fangirls**


 If technology, current events, and some other random stuff is your thing, check out BoingBoing. 


TV Tropes is an absolutely amazing website, but it will ruin your life, in terms of a time sinkhole. 


Oh, I just discovered Shelfari, and am cataloging every book I've ever read. I'll never finish, but it's kind of neat to be reminded of what I've read.


This one is probably the most important. freerice.com lets you answer reeealllyyy easy questions and donates rice to starving people. 5 minutes on it a day helps a lot. 


<3 Gabi


Socks today: Plain and white and a little bit damp. My neighbour and I went for a long walk through the snowy neighbourhood, chatting about society, superficiality, and guys while getting our socks wet. 

Books!!

Today I am here to review books! Also because I'd like to feel somewhat productive on my last day of freedom before school starts again. I've read a lot of books recently. Well I always read a lot of books. But I feel like writing book reviews at the moment, so shuddupandletmewrite. 

The first book of today is a VAMPIRE BOOK. 

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Please don't hurt me, it isn't a typical vampire book. By the way, this is one of those books where the back cover ruins the first 20 pages. Be careful. Catherine Jinks writes from the POV of a vampire named Nina. She is 50 years old, but as she looks 15 she has to live with her mother. People also frequently act like they would act towards a 15 year old, and Nina probably has around the same emotional maturity. Anyways, there's a mystery that I think I won't mention to keep the first 20 pages wonderful for you, and some interesting stuff happens. I enjoyed reading this for its fresh view on vampires as people who are just sick and bored all of the time, and like that it keeps most of the old vampire lore, like going out into the sun = death, not sparkliness. It was a cute book. Not as good as the other books by Catherine Jinks, Evil Genius was brilliant, but it was enjoyable enough.

I don't think I'd recommend it out of the blue, purely because it was a good read, but not a great one. It wasn't a waste of my time though, so if you see it at the library and have nothing else to read, pick it up.

The Outsiders

THE PICTURE LIES!! You will not be able to look inside if you click on that, as far as I know. The Outsiders was recommended to me a few times, but I never really got around to reading it. I read it, and it was AMAZING. I loved the personalities in it, and how real they are. There's some great anti violence stuff going on there, as well. It's really worth reading. I'd say more, but the entire thing has melded into one big mush of awesomeness in my head, so I don't know how much analysing I'm capable of right now. Just read it.

I think that I was going to write about a book called Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, but it's kind of heavy. Very much worth reading, but heavy, and I don't want to discuss it right now. 

Anyways, any book recommendations? I'm in the mood for something like Douglas Addams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or something like what Tamora Pierce writes. I haven't read proper science fiction or fantasy of the easy reading sort for a while. 

<3 Gabi

Socks Today: No socks again. I'll put on some thick ones before I go out to walk the dog, though. xP

Internet Usage Caps

 I just found out that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) just allowed internet service providers to charge $1 for every GB used over 25 GB per month. They say that it is to limit people who use tons of bandwidth. This is stupid because:

1. It costs providers one cent per GB. They'd make 99 cents to each extra dollar.

2. What about public libraries? A library's public wi-fi certainly uses more than 25GB per month, and I doubt libraries could afford those kinds of costs. Schools too, for that matter.

3. From an environmental standpoint, it will set back environmental programs that are doing well right now, like online textbooks and marking through the internet, that save a lot of trees from being cut down. 

4. There are many charitable organisations who use the internet as their primary way of advertising because they can afford it. It becomes less affordable when people must use up their valuable bytes to learn more about them. 

Of course, there would be even more results, but a lot have to do with things I don't know anything about,  like Canada's digital competitiveness (I just read that phrase on the petition site for the issue.) We can't even boycott these providers, because these providers are virtually every major phone and internet company. Boycotting them would mean losing TV and phone service as well, because these are usually sold in packages. Canadians have until March, and until then we'll be protesting. 

Thank you, I needed a rant.

<3 Gabi

Socks today: Well, I'm actually not wearing right now, but I should go put my new slipper-socks on. They're striped and fuzzy.

Liking Myself

Hi guys. This is going to be one of those self-absorbed self-introspective posts, so feel free to ignore.

I don't like myself as a person very much right now. I don't know when this happened, and I'm not even sure why. I don't feel things as deeply as I used to. I don't have that power of self-control as much anymore, or desire to improve myself, like I did when I used to strive for grades, and learning, and awesome things like that. I don't care about others as much anymore. I talk about myself too much. People don't really come to me for advice as much as they used to. I say really mean, b*tchy things sometimes. I'm not the responsible person that someone can trust anymore, I'm the forgetful ditzy one, who can't be trusted with valuable jewelery. I never get anything done.

 A couple of months ago I made a life goal. The goal was that I wanted, in my lifetime, to bring more goodness into the world than badness. I flattered myself by saying that it's easier said than done, which is true. But is that goal really enough? Many people have probably achieved that goal without doing much, sitting on the couch, watching TV, volunteering once in a while. I don't want to be a lazy person, who maybe does some volunteer work here and there, who doesn't eat animals, even though she doesn't feel that strongly about vegetarianism either way.

 I guess I'm saying that I've always expected to be more than the average person. My standards are higher for myself than for others, because I know that I am completely capable of reaching that standard. Is it fair to subject myself to that? I feel like I should make up for a world where the average American spends 7 years of his life in front of the TV. I don't know if I can be happy with myself until I make a tangible difference. I said at the beginning of this that I've changed into a not as good person. I probably have, but I wonder if it is also my changing view on the world that makes me see myself as inadequate. I need a set of rules to make for myself, standards of my life and goals to work my way up to. That's no easy list to write, so I'll think about that. If my views on the world are always changing, my list probably won't be enough a while from now. Maybe I'll think up a universal set of them, but that'd be awfully pretentious. Hmmm...

--Gabi

Socks today: They're white and kind of lacy, and don't fit with my baggy sweatpants and sweatshirt. 

Jelly Candies of DOOM

         I went to a bat-mitzvah at synagogue last week. For those of you who don't know, a girl becomes bat-mitzvah when she turns 12, then she is obligated - well, not many people actually do, but still - to follow the Torah. Then the girl's parents are absolved of responsibility for the girl's actions.


Then everyone eats food.


             While the girl was chanting Torah, I realised that my bat-mitzvah wasn't that long ago. I was an awkward 12 year old, and I still didn't know exactly what to do with my long limbs at that point in time.


               A wonderful custom that us Jews have is to throw candies at the bar-mitzvah boy or bat-mitzvah girl after they finish chanting, then all of the little children, and a few of the less inhibited kids above 4'5", rush forward to grab as much candy as they can possibly stuff into their little hands. Every single time I sigh and wish that I was still young enough to do that. When the candy is thrown, my synagogue's ritual director, who is a really nice person, seems to think that the 12 or 13 year old standing on the podium, just recovering from hyperventilation and the humiliation of his or her voice cracking in front of everyone, needs protection from those soft candies. Like paper airplanes, jelly candies are lethal when thrown at all, forget their soft, squishy, sugary feel. He shields the girl or boy from the flying candy projectiles with his prayer shawl.

                 You see? Conclusive proof that they are out to get us. When I was 12, I survived the attack of the jelly candies. I now realise that then was when I became a true woman.

Okay, that was stupid, but really easy and fun to draw.

<3 Gabi

Socks today: They have little sunglasses on them in different colours. I suppose that I wanted to pretend that it was summer...