Hope everyone has a fun Halloween. I love that it’s on a Friday. It was insane at school though. They told us three different times about how we weren’t supposed to terrorize the little kiddies, and how we would be arrested if found with eggs or shaving cream. The police also sent letters to all our houses. 0_0 They’re probably just paranoid because it’s a Friday.

Stacey’s still having her party, so I’m going as Kim Possible because it will allow me to wear my cool green pants and a black shirt and pass it off as a costume. I’ve never actually seen the show, but whatever.

I’ve been horribly lazy, and still have to read The Return of the King before the movie comes out. I’d like to, at least. I wish I was a true LotR fan, that i liked the books and such. But alas, I do not. I find them dull. I love the idea of them, though, and the movies. Beyond the hot guys, even.

I have tons of homework this weekend. Bah. But I got a 93 on the physics test I thought I got a 70 on, and my average for this term is a 98.6, so I’m happy.

Today, I am 17. It seems like a strange age. And I still can’t drive. I got a cell phone, though, which is cool. I shan’t post the number here, for fear of stalkers, but LJ friends can see it there. I also got The Elegant Universe, Stephen Hawking’s Brief History of Time, $10 at B&N, and the first volume of The Legendary Couple, a graphic novel. So I am happy.

The former Badness is over, and things are back to normal. Whew.

I really wish I had something interesting to write about, but I don’t. I feel happy with my life right now, other than my history and English grades. I feel like I have friends, and that they actually like me, which is rare for me. I feel better socially than I have in a while. I’d still like a guy of some sort, but I suppose that’s too much to ask right now. And it would probably end badly anyway.

::pokes men:: Bah.

And oh! Dark Tower V is coming! ::dies:: FINALLY!!!

Every once in a while, I get the urge to write. Currently on my list are a big Harry/Draco fic and the Anti-Fantasy. The Anti-Fantasy, briefly outlined somewhere on my LJ, though I can’t find it, is intended to be an Ayn Rand-esque demonstration of my beliefs and values- all nicely ploted with characters and such, of course. It’ll be more a rejection of cliches than anything else, though. It’s told mainly from the perspective of the “Dark” side, and because of that, the “Bright” side is make out to be evil. But the Bright side isn’t some faceless mob of drooling and claws and death. It’s composed of real people, (though many of them were duped) and even the the most “evil” just have different beliefs and values than I do. They’re not evil.

I still have a lot of mental work to do on it before it’s near the stage where it can be written, and I’m really not working actively on it, but if I was to write something, that would be it. I almost don’t want to ever write it, though. Every time I try to write somethng, I fail miserably and end up hating the idea and never trying again. For me, writing is a constant uphill battle find the right words. Dialogue is especially hard. It becomes unpleasant.

Haven’t updated in a few days, so I feel obligated to. I’m on the new downstairs computer- it’s not as fast as the new one upstairs, but a lot faster (and generally better) than the old one we used to have down here. It doesn’t have Sylfaen, though- that’s my favorite font. *sniff*

I’ve been reading The Cicatrix Cyle. I’ve only read the first fic and the one shot that goes with the second, but they’re good so far. I was a bit disappointed with the end of Origins, though. It just kind of… stopped.

We have book club tomorrow- we’re discussing Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. I didn’t really like it- I hated his writing style. Very, very heavy on kind of pretentious description and lighter on plot. It like “look at me, I’m going to describe all these things in a strange, surreal way that will mesmerize you and give the book a spooky tone!” In reality, it was just annoying.

My aunt and uncle are visiting from California, which is cool. They’re at my house now.

And, more importantly (ok, not really), it’s my birthday on Thursday! Whee! In three days I’ll be able to legally get into any movie ever made.

Yay, the sidebar is fixed. Thus, I am happy.

Things are bad with some of my friends, which is (obviously) not good. I just hope that everything eventually resolves itself, though it’s not looking likely. It’s worse than usual. -_- Sometimes it seems like I’m the only oneI know who isn’t going through kind of (or a lot of) a bad time right now.

School was unusually fun today, despite the above business. We had a sub for English for the long period, so we basically pretending to work while slacking and generally having fun. Joe is reading The Fountainhead (and it’s not even at my prompting), which is cool. And Moses liked his birthday present, though I wouldn’t give it to him until lunch. Apparently he has to go to Chinatown to get the collection of things he and Melissa are getting me. Or maybe he was just lying. Last period I had my fun study in the chorus room. We were going to go down and explore the labyrinth of a bomb shelter under the school that Greg and Gwen stumbled upon last week, but that nevre really ended upa happening. Also, Greg is reading and liking Vanyel. Ah, the joy is spreading.

We celebrated my mother’s birthday today, as my sister won’t be home all day tomorrow. Marching band. Both my parents, my uncle, Moses, Gwen, and I all have our birthdays in the week starting today (or tomorrow).

25th- my mother

26th- Moses

27th- no one, but possibly my Uncle Mark- we’re not sure

28th- my Uncle Steve

29th- my father

30th- me

31st- Gwen

So this is week in which I get really sick of birthday cake. My father’s side of the family has so many birhdays in october that we have an october birthday party every year- this year’s is tomorrow.

I’ve been on a huge Harry/Draco kick lately. I just adore fanon!Draco with every ounce of my being, and like him with Harry. I’ve decided I rather like Draco and Hermione being friends, and Harry just being confused and hormonal. And madly crushing on Draco. Right now I’m reading Transfigurations, and plan to finish it before the night is through. Good stuff.

I also finished American Gods, finally. It took me a month, which is utterly ridiculous. Two years ago, I would have been done in less than a week. I don’t spend enough time reading anymore.

I did, however, find time to rant about teleportation in Gwen’s LJ. It’s her fault for mentioning it in the first place.

This (only slightly) obscenely long entry has been brought to you by cramps and the little pumpkin sitting on my desk. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. You’re a good (wo)man.

For some reason, that entire sidebar over on the left there isn’t working. I have no idea why, only that it has something to do with the div layer. I took the tag for that layer out, and it was fine- but in the wrong place. And this layer, that this text goes in, is working. I have no idea what’s wrong. I’m gonna email the Dreamhost guys, I think, because they’re nice and they’ll probably be able to fix it. I just email them like three days ago but I need them again and that’s what they’re there for, so there.

I went out with my father earlier to get my mother a birthday present. We went to Taco Bell, for the first time in years. I like Taco Bell. We went to Barnes & Noble (I bought her a cookbook she wants- a moosewood thing, I think) and I started reading The Elegant Universe. Ahhh, I want it so much. If Stacey still wants to buy me a book for by birthday, I want that one. ::is geek:: I love all that ground-breaking physics stuff. And I love how I can just walk into Barnes & Noble and buy Newton’s Principia That’s so cool. I would want to, because it looks far too complicated for me right now, but I love that I could. I adore the science section of B&N. If you’re reading this, you should probably hope that I don’t read TEU, because if I do I’ll start babbling about string theory and reconciling quantum mechanics with general relativity in every entry.

There’s a 3-part Nova special starting on Tuesday that’s hosted by Brian Greene, who wrote The Elegant Universe. ::excited::

Argh, the DH site isn’t working. I guess I’ll have to email them tomorrow. -_-;;;

There’s a new layout, as I’m sure you noticed. Yeah, the old one was really new, but I just wanted a new one. Plus the old one was hard to read. I wish everyone had the same screen resolution. It would be so much easier. This layout looks better with the table centered, but I can’t do that because I’m using absolute positioning, and it would be weird in 800x600. *sigh*

I have a half day today- yay! I’m good, aside from trauma with my friends.

We (my parents and sister and I) went to the mall after school to pick up some stuff. I got a bag for the semi (now I have everything I need!) and a birthday present for Moses, though I shan’t say what it is. My sister had to meet a friend at Hot Topic.

Hot Topic. Wow. What a store. Mecca of every pseudo-punk/goth teen in the country. Now, I don’t have problems with people who shop there. There are people I like and respect that shop there. I might even pick up something there if I liked it. I have a problem with the people who use it as the expression of their rebellion and teenage angst. Hello, people, it’s just as corporate as Gap or A&F. The only difference is that everything is black instead of pastel, and the pants have more chains and zippers. And oh, lets not forget the wonderfully immature shirts. (Again, some of the shirts are cool. I’m not knocking them all.) I hate all that merchandise bearing messages like “Don’t like me? Go away.” People think they’re so cool with them. Putting out some marketed message of “Look, I’m rude, I’m in your face, deal with it!” There’s no need for that. I’m all for people standing up for themselves and what they believe in, but all that stuff is just immature.

So the bottom line is that if you want to make a statement about your anti-establishment beliefs, don’t go to Hot Topic. Buy your clothes at the Salvation Army or something. But if you just want one of the cool shirts, or a studded belt, shop away. Just don’t let yourself be defined by Hot Topic.

Flame me, tell me I’m wrong, whatever. And I’d be very interested in any information on who owns Hot Topic. I’ve heard it’s the same people that own the Gap, but I don’t know how true that it.

Stacey’s having a Halloween party. And she won’t let me in without a costume. Now, I don’t really like dressing up for Halloween. I don’t even like cosplaying that much. I guess some people get a thrill out of thinking of a costume and getting everything they need for it. I don’t, really. I’m enjoying getting my stuff for the semi, but I didn’t have to think of an idea for a semi outfit. I just got a dress. So now I need to get some sort of pseudo-costume together. Any suggestions?

I just wanted to drop a line about why I chose to name the blog Synthesis. There actually is a reason, believe it or not. I hate naming things, usually, because I can never come up with anything that sounds right, but I did this time. Synthesis was born the day after I made this entry in my LJ. (You probably won’t be able to read it, it’s protected. The link is just there for certain LJ friends so that they know what I’m talking about.) The entry basically says “My emotional responses are manufactured, and I’m tired of it.” So the blog is named Synthesis because so much of what I seem like is just synthesized for the benefit of others. And because I’ma dork, and it sounded cool and science-y. And my favorite part of bio was protein synthesis.