Week of 10/4, or whenever this one's due

Today I shall write about my Pet Peeves, some of which are annoying me as I write...

First there are doors. Open doors. They annoy the heck out of me. I cannot stand for more than 5 seconds to be in my room doing homework with my door open, even if it's just a crack. Why? I don't know, maybe it's because I have 4 annoying siblings who are constantly interrupting me and my thoughts, etc., and bursting into my room uninvited. Maybe it's because I have OCD, and everything has to be perfectly in order and set. Maybe it's because I need silence to do my work, or because I like to be alone; I do not know. But I do know this: one of my Pet Peeves even worse than just an ordinary open door is when I have the door shut, and someone comes in to get something, then walks out and just leaves the door open. Then, I have to get up off my butt and close the door behind them or it will drive me insane. I can't stand it!

Another one of my Pet Peeves something we call the Crying Child. This may easily be a Pet Peeve of many people, as it is annoying and very interuppting. Actually, I am listening to a little 3-year-old bawl his head off right now. Ugh. So nerve racking. Why can't they just shut their mouths. Is it really nessisary for them to just sit on their fat little baby butts and cry? No! They cry because they don't get what they want, they cry when they wake up, and they cry for no reason to annoy you. I've actually gotten pretty used to hearing my siblings cry, but when other people's babies cry, it makes me just want to get up and stuff their mouth's full of stinky socks or broccoli or something.

Next we have going to bed. Now don't get me wrong, I love to sleep, but I'm just a night owl, and I never seem to be tired...well except in the morning when I didn't get any sleep the night before. Then I have nagging parents: "Go to bed, Alissa!". "Turn your light off!". "Give me that book!". "That's it! I'm unscrewing your light bulb!". Sheesh. I don't see the problem with staying up; if I'm tired in the morning I'm the one who has to suffer, not them. But no, they still nag me all night until I finally go to bed, and just sit there listening to my iPod or something until I fall asleep.

This one is definitely one of the more annoying Pet Peeves of mine; boys who say, "Girls don't need make-up! Take it off! You don't need it!". Ok, first of all, who are they to say that? They're boys, for heavens sake! What do they know? Second, most all boys who say that don't even know what I look like with no make-up on, so how do they know I "look better"? Do they even know what make-up is for? It's not just so you can have fun putting a bunch of crap on your face - it's to enhance your appearence. Plus, I hate to break this to you boys, but almost all girls wear make-up, and almost nothing you say is going to make them not wear it. It's just what girls do. I LOVE make-up. It's fun to put on, fun to buy, fun to try, and fun to share and do with other girls. It's just a fact of life; girls will be girls.

And there you have it- my top four Pet Peeves! 0:) < angel

Week of 9/21

This week was a good week for me, english-wise.

Now, I don't mean to get all religious on my blog or anything, but this week I mostly read the Book of Mormon and studied my scriptures. Of course, that's good for me and my religion, but one thing about the scriptures that helps me in english is that I like to use the Topical Guide a lot, which is sort of like an Index to the scriptures. You can look up any subject/word you want to, and it will give you a list of scriptures that go with that subject, or have that word in it. I have to look things up alphabetically each time, and then actually find the scriptures in the book, etc. This is really good practice for me, as searching/ looking up things and finding them hasn't always been a strength of mine. Also, for any of you who have read the scriptures, you probably know how difficult the scriptures are to interpret and understand. They use many parables that you have to often figure out on your own, and use words and language used around 2610 years ago. With all the "ye"s and "art"s and "thou"s and "thy"s, it tends to get a little confusing, and takes some getting used to. One thing I find (as well as many others who have read these books) is that I often find myself just reading words, and not actually thinking about what I'm reading. I've never really done this before in my normal reading, but since the scriptures are so different and complex, you don't really think about it, you just read it. So...I often have to make an extra effort to actually think about what I'm reading and what it means. I realized this, and now I try to not only not do that while reading my scriptures, but other normal books as well.

Another thing that is very fascinating about the scriptures is that no matter how many times I read them I find literally hundreds of new things I didn't see the last time. For example, about a week ago I was reading 1 Nephi, and today when I was in seminary, my teacher asked us to skim through the same part I had been reading before, and even then I saw and read what I had read the week before in a whole different view/perspective. That part of the scriptures meant something totally different than it had before. Of course, Mormons might say this is because the spirit is guiding you while you read, and all that, but I was just thinking that maybe I should try to reread things more often, so maybe I can find new things than before and see things differently, even in my normal reading.

Another thing I love to do is mark my scriptures - mark things that stand out to me, or that are important and special. I spend hours just finding cool scriptures and marking them. Then, sometimes I like to flip through my scriptures and find all the cool things I've marked and read them again. This is a good skill for my normal reading and english, because it helps me pick out the things that are important and need to be remembered.

So....that's basically what went on. I had a great week :)

Week of 9/14

Right now I am reading Rocket Boys for Biology and English. Another name for the book (and the name of the movie based on the book) is October Sky. I actually went to a presentation thing by Homer Hickam Jr. (the author), and he told us that if you took all the letters from Rocket Boys and mixed them around, you could make the words October Sky. Hmm...interesting. He also talked a lot about his adventures as a NASA engineer, scuba instructor and consultant of aerospace projects. Of course I'm just reading it for credit in class, but it actually is an interesting book.

It's a memior by Homer Hickam Jr., and is all about living in a mine town, and how he was destined to work in the old mine until he won the science fair and got a scholarship to collage. I think it's really great writing, and so far I'm about halfway done. The main character is Homer, and he is in love with Dorthey Plunk. His friends (Roy Lee, O'Dell, Sherman, Billy and Quintin) are all very interested in Rockets and such, and decided to make a club called the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA), and began experimenting building rockets, and making powdery concoctions to make them soar into the sky. All of the boys' teachers (The Great Six) want them to put their project on rockets into the science fair, and at first they are hesitant. Over time, they find a big empty space where they can launch their rockets, and with scrap supplies make a launch pad and a little hut to hide in and watch the rockets after they light the fuse. After they got a few good rockets (some flying to 1500 feet), they decided to post announcements of when they were launching their latest rockets. Soon they got at least 50 people to come and watch them shoot them off, including their teachers and mechanics that helped them build all of their rockets in Homer's father's mine workshops. They get into trouble at times, but for the most part they are really successful for just being high school boys. That's about as far into the story as I am right now, and I am eager to read more!

Before I started reading Rocket Boys, I was reading The Host by Stephanie Meyers, but I had to pause that so I could get Rocket Boys done in time. I was about halfway into the book, and it is AMAZING so far, although it's a bit hard to get into at first. It's about aliens rading the earth, and nearly taking over. I don't know if they actually DO take over since I haven't finished yet, but I was at a pretty exciting point in the story when I stopped reading. The main character is a girl named Melenie. The aliens take over by using the humans as hosts, and are put into the human bodys and then taking over the human. It's a very interesting read...

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