The sweetness that is summer

I vowed to blog when school let out, and now I'm finally getting around to it. By the way, the end of school this year was one of the most euphoric feelings ever. To be able to relax and read and sleep and be a human again is so inconceivably divine!

So, with my sweet, sweet free time I've been up to various escapades, as you might imagine. I recently went camping with some friendsies, which was a smash. We may have been impressively overpacked, but we had loads of fun. Among other things, we constructed a sand fortress of epic proportions. Needless to say, we all had a grand time. Spending time with people and not freaking out about AP exams is refreshing. I've been driving a lot lately, and I find it can be very convenient; being able to zip from one place to another whenever you like is proving to be handy. Not to say I don't like the bus system around here; on the contrary, I love it. It is, however, nice to not have to plan my life around transit schedules. As I don't really have a car, I'll probably end up taking public transportation for a while yet. I don't mind, really. It's probably better, anyway, since I end up singing and dancing like a fiend while I drive.

On another note, I only have two or three episodes of Merlin left streaming from my Netflix. Sadness!! Since I missed the beginning of series two on television, I'm sort of screwed and will have to wait until it's over and on disc or something. I could always cut in now, I suppose, but that'd spoil it. For those who don't know, Merlin is awesome. It is also a BBC program about the adventures of young Merlin and Arthur in Camelot. Let me tell you, the episodes leading up to the end of series one are getting pretty epic, and Merlin and Arthur's love is blossoming stronger than ever. Homoromantic subtext, you may ask? Hell yes. Even my brother recognizes it. It's real, and it's fantastic. The whole show may seem sort of cheesy initially, but it'll definitely grow on you. Except the dragon. Then again, after the freakout in episode nine, I'm beginning to dig him (episode nine side note: was that undead knight the spawn of the Stig and Boba Fett or was he not?). I actually ought to terminate this Merlin rant before I embarrass myself further.

The best part about summer is the reading time! I am currently reading Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes, and I love it passionately. Each and every page I read delights me infinitely. High praise, I know, but I'm serious. I really should start reading the books for my summer assignments, but right now I'm just taking some time to relax sans school. I do believe that is all for the moment. Hopefully I shall blog again soon, but we'll see how that works out.

Back to school

Hey, I haven't blogged in a while. I figure it's best to keep it fresh with small relatively insignificant updates as opposed to waiting eons between something actually blog-worthy. Maybe it's just me.

In two words, school started. I won't go into a detailed account. I will, however, blog about my AP English teacher. She is completely amazing and I love her class. Plus, she has a poster with Oscar Wilde on it and it inspires me greatly. AP classes are good because they tend to attract the more serious and dedicated members of the student body. All the same, AP homework (combined with regular homework) devours all my time like chips or grapes or popcorn. But enough about school and the like. Actually, I will mention Obama's address to students today. I saw it (not live) in English class this afternoon. I haven't fully formed my opinion on it yet, but I think its message of trying to get more kids to really try in school is very good. There's so much apathy in schools (or at least, my school) and this was a good nudge. I get to analyze it for homework, and that should be interesting. My mom really dug it. My teacher mentioned something about the free education in this country and it got me thinking. It really is amazing, especially compared to a lot of countries. I wish more people appreciated learning and being able to go to school. I know I'm guilty of moaning about homework, but I really am very lucky. Kids should think more.

Thus concludes my little update. The weather-makers are still deciding what to do, I think. I also found Joel Stein's Twitter today. I've been looking for it since I made an account and I was fairly excited. I'm looking forward to taking a nice shower and possibly finding time to read a little if I can finish all my homework at a reasonable hour. A big if, but I can always try.

Ye gods!

As of right now, I'm a little more than half-way through Queen of the Damned. For those who don't know, it's the third book in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. So far I'm liking it more than I thought I would, but I'm not too sure how I feel about Akasha and her whisking Lestat away from all the other characters. I suppose I'll have to keep reading to find out...

You know, I really dig Anne Rice's views on human sexuality. I really do, odd as this sounds. I was watching an interview with her and one of the questions was why she had so many gay characters. She replied by saying she just sees the world that way and that in her mind the ideal being could love both men and women. She then elaborates about how attraction and love with her characters are fluid, transcending gender, age, status, etc. In short, it ended up sounding to me like she favors extreme pansexuality. I personally think this is really great, because I feel the same way and it's neat to find a like-minded soul, especially a prolific author. She writes it really well, too, in a way that doesn't dwell on the characters' sexuality but rather incorporates it as a natural part of them. I like it.

Anyways, enough about that. One of my favorite parts of Queen of the Damned so far is the excerpt from Claudia's diary. It reminded me how much I liked Claudia and how absolutely priceless she, Louis, and Lestat are together in their little vampire family. Someday, I would like to reread Interview with the Vampire. I think it'd be interesting to read it with a greater knowledge of Lestat, Armand, and Théâtre des Vampires. Perhaps I would like it more than when I initially read it.

It's rather late and I'm very tired. I stayed up watching a meteor shower last night, and today I finished my summer assignment dealing with Oedipus. I am incredibly excited by this. Tomorrow, I plan to sleep late, exercise, start another summer assignment, and read more of this mentioned book. I sort of left off at an Akasha bloodbath scene, so we'll see how that works out. Say, I'm not sure if the correct title is Queen of the Damned or The Queen of the Damned. I can't properly tell because my version has the movie promo cover. Ick. I hate movie promo covers. Well, it was that or a beastly hardcover, so I decided to go with a scantily clad Aaliyah and a half-naked Stuart Townsend in a compact paperback form. Oh, the things I do for purse-sized books....

I bid thee goodnight.

Tuesday is martes

I must admit it is taking me an embarrassingly long time to finish reading Frankenstein.  It's a good book, but I have virtually nill time to read.  Also, when reading books written with older language, it takes me a minute to get into it, thus I can't read a paragraph here and a paragraph there while taking notes in Spanish class.  It requires a certain level of concentration.  I vowed to finish it over spring break, but alas... 

I just renewed the thing, and I have until the 28th.  A decent amount of time, you may say, to read the second half of a not-actually-that-long novel.  We'll see.  The next book I hope to read is Running With Scissors, but there are so many books on the list I can't be certain.  I miss those lovely summer days when I read a book almost daily.

On the topic of renewing books, I love being able to renew books online.  It's such a breeze, and while I'm at it I can scout out new titles and check library hours.  It's a fabulous business.  All available from the comfort of my kitchen while I simultaneously blog about it in another window.

Although it is officially the season of new life and spring break has come and passed, it was exceptionally windy today.  Chills you to the bone, it does.  Power outages sprinkling the area, etc.  Even though I do tend to curse it as I heave myself out of the pool after practice, I do love the wind.  It's so very powerful.

Although I have no idea when the mango sitting on my kitchen counter will ripen, you just read my blog update of the day.