I could survive for 1 minute, 13 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

School School School...

Somehow blogger is not blocked at school. I thought it was, but maybe it's from getting here through links instead of going straight to it. Either way, that's a good thing.

I am in office systems right now. I'm about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of most of the class. Which means free time for me.

I finished reading Dumbing Us Down on Sunday. It was as amazing as I thought it would be. I ended up not highlighting much, maybe a dozen or so points. It is definitely a book I will read a couple more times.

I started reading Lolita. I have no idea why it's taken me so long to read this book. I have seen both versions of the movie already but I'm anxious to read the book.

Current thoughts

Brian starting a new blog made me want to start updating this thing more often. Here are the things I've been thinking of lately:

• Seeing people outside makes me happy. One day this week while canoeing during PE I saw a mom and her young son at the beach. The kid wasn't at daycare or preschool and the mom wasn't at work; they were just enjoying a quiet day at the beach together. As we were leaving I also saw a man come to the park, sit on the pier, and start eating his lunch. No ipod, no phone, just eating and looking at the lake.

• I've been in school about a month now and I think the most practical thing I've learned is how to rescue people who have capsized in their canoe.

• I've been reading Dumbing Us Down (John Taylor Gatto) and it's great. I do get annoyed though by how many people ask if I'm reading it for school when they see it, even though "The Hidden Curriculum of Complusory Schooling" sounds mighty anti-school to me. They ask a lot when I hilight stuff too. I just like hilighting in my books. I marked stuff all over in The Art of War.

• I'm ready for all this rain to end. It's meant a lot of canceled canoeing days (the one fun thing in school) and bad internet connections. Rainy weather makes me want to curl up with a book and lots of blankets, but of course school doesn't allow for that.

• This is a busy weekend for me. I spent five straight hours at the dojo today. Tomorrow I'll spend five hours at the tambura club.

• At karate the dad of one of the kids I teach a lot thanked me for always helping his son. That made my day. =)
  

Big Kids Want to Play Too!

Muffin Tin Mondays at Sycamore Stirrings looked so fun I wanted to join in for myself.

I have a small collection of shaped muffin tins (silicone hearts, flowers, snowflakes, individual easter shapes and metal easter eggs). The one I happened to grab was snowflakes, not very fitting for summer, but still fun.



I ate out more than usual this past week so that meant more leftovers.
Clockwise from the top left:
Dove dark chocolates (which sadly were melted by the time I got to them)
Pringles (I had planned on grapes, but we were out)
Cinnamon granola bar chunks
Leftover "Crusher" burger from Baker's Square
Ketchup
Leftover chicken nuggets and fork

Self-imposed Outdoor Challenge Days 1 & 2

Day 1 (Sunday)- This was a super easy day! My friend A called me and invited me out on her boyfriend (N)'s dad's boat. Our friend K went with too. At first N's dad and grandma came with and N and A went tubing (K and I opted out). Then the adults left and we took the boat back out to swim in the middle of the lake. After eating at N's dad's place we went to the beach and A and I swam while the other two wimped out from the cold water. We spent about five hours or so at the lake that day.

Dat 2 (Today)- I ate lunch outside, which was 15-30 minutes. Then I sat out/played with the dog/ran a karate kata under the sprinkler until the cold water drove me inside. That was another 20 minutes or so. My dad likes taking walks at night, so I'm going to ask him to take me walking tonight and that's usually 30 minutes. As long as I follow through later today I'll just hit my hour mark.

A new goal

I was inspired by reading posts (and challenge participants) over at Unplug Your Kids to spend some time today outside working on a paint-by-number my mom brought home one day (I am definitely NOT a painter).

I decided I want to spend more time outside this summer. My new goal is one hour a day minimum outside. I think this is a good goal since even on days when I'm feeling lazy I can go outside for an hour without pushing it too much. I think if I push myself too much I'll just give out.

I don't watch much TV. In fact, I only watch tv one day a week. This isn't a parental rule or even a self-placed rule. I just don't like TV much and the shows I watch happen to be on the same night.

I do however spend too much time on the computers. I spend most of my time at home at the computer. Sometimes I'll do other things like read or craft projects, but I usually have the computer on for instant messaging while I do that.

It's a nice summer, so I think I can do this. It'll probably help that next week I'm going to Florida too. =P

Yikes!

This blog has been rather forgotten about. But hopefully it will be put to some good (and new!) uses.

Lately not only have I continued reading my favorite homeschooling blogs, but I have a new blog reading obsession: blogs about budgeting and living frugally. Yes, I am an odd teenager, but I find them so fascinating.

I've been reading back on Sense to Save and am into December 2007. I love it!
I found her blog through The Grocery Cart Challenge, which is also awesome!

I've decided to sign up on MyPoints and after asking my parents hopefully some paid survey sites. For ones I'm not old enough for I'll have my parents use their information and I'll just do the actual work (if they agree of course, but I don't think that will be a problem).

Now of course a lot of things in these blogs don't apply to me since I still live with my parents, but they're still fun and interesting. They are motivating in some ways. I want to make more of an effort to save up for my trip to Europe next year.
I've always kept loose change but now it will have a specific purpose.
I also want to try to keep better track of where my money goes.
I also want to try to find ways to make small amounts of money that'll add up by next summer, also in case something happens with my job.

I had decided before I wanted to get a DSLR before Croatia, from looking online I figured that through sales/coupons.buying used I should be able to get one for $650 if I shop wisely. The cheapest DSLR I can get is what I want. I want to make that a more definite goal, I'm not sure how yet. Right now my money all goes into one bank account that is more like two sub-accounts. One is interest-bearings and is accessible from ATMs. The other is my checking account which is accessible from ATMs or with my debit card. So both can be taken from with the ATM but only part with my debit card. I need to look into transfering money online I think.

Besides just saving money lately I've been making an effort to finally clean my room with a purpose. I figure that either because of college or working in the next 2-3 years I'll be moving out of my parents' house. So as I've been cleaning I've been sorting through things instead of just putting them away and asking if things are things I really want to bring with/find storage for. I have a couple grocery bags of cheap trinkets and lots of Happy Meal toys to either be donated/sold at a fundraising rummage sale my tambura group may have. It's a really good feeling. I'm also getting rid of a few dozen Archie comics I think. If my best friend wants them I'll give them to her, otherwise they'll probably be sold either at the rumamge sale or maybe somewhere online as a big lot.