August, Day 31 - Doctor Who, Boys, and Fire

   I totally bought Doctor Who Monopoly yesterday! I also bought something else. Here are the two things I bought yesterday:

Isn't it awesome? I love it! I have such an urge to check the time with it every few minutes. I feel like such a dork... My goodness. So now I'm just sitting here listening to Cody Simpson, wishing I could play the Monopoly with someone. Oh, hey! When I bought the Monopoly at Chapters yesterday, I met a guy. ;) I walked up to the cashier casually as he called me over. He saw my Monopoly and he was totally a Whovian! We talked about Doctor Who for like 5 minutes and then I had to go so that other people in line could pay for their stuff. The best part about that was that he was cute! I doubt I'll see him again because I don't go to the city very often.
   After that I realize how much I miss being in a relationship. It kind of sucks being single but at the same time I'm really enjoying the freedom. I also really can't imagine a guy falling for me. I'm kind of weird. Even weird guys think I'm too weird. I DON'T GET IT! I like weird guys, personally. The silly thing is that normal guys go for normal girls, weird guys go for normal girls, and even nerdy guys go for normal girls. What about those weird girls, like myself?! Am I destined to be single for life? It sure feels like it. Maybe I should just forget about guys and completely pursue all my semi-passions.
    I say semi-passion because I have never really felt completely passionate about something. I am kind of envious of those people who have that one thing they are completely passionate about and they spend their life pursuing it with their whole being. Then there is me... I have a billion hobbies and likes. I just don't know what to do with myself...
   I totally didn't do a song cover. I'm sorry. I have a good excuse though! I'm a volunteer firefighter and we had a fire call yesterday and I got waaaayy too much smoke and I nearly collapsed. I probably should have put on an SCBA the minute I got on scene. So I spent all last night being nauseous and tired. That is my fabulous excuse. I also really feel like no one will like any of my covers. I'm so insecure about it... I have such a hesitation for trying things like that. I realize my insignificance every, single day. Maybe I should just stop suffering depression. It's really depressing, haha. I don't know.

   Love, Mary xoxo

August, Day 29 - Dr. Who, Before You Exit, and Failed Goals

I must say, I didn't complete my science goal. It's a total bummer, I know. I think I have pretty good excuses for it though! Not that excuses are really impressive... So first excuse: Our cat ran away or gotten eaten by the lovely owls that reside in our lovely village so we are left to feed her kittens by an eye dropper ever two hours. I have been sent to kitty duty for a few days. Second excuse: My birthday! I spent the day before my birthday hanging out with one of my friends and then she came over for a sleepover. In the morning, we started making my cake. In the afternoon we biked 40km. Yes, 40 whole kilometers. LIKE SERIOUSLY 40 WHOLE STINKING KILOMETERS!! It was amazing. I had set for myself the goal of biking 40km by the end of summer and I totally did it! It was amazing! During the last stretch I really had to battle my mind because I was so sore and tired that I came so close to just calling my sister to just come and pick me up. But I did it! Ah! Now I have decided that I want to bike to this city that is an hour's drive from my house. It will probably take all day to accomplish it. It's about 90km, I think. I'm not actually quite sure and I don't feel like looking it up.
   Anyways, third excuse: Wait... Do I even have a third excuse? I don't remember... Shoot. I was so sure I had a huge bunch load of reasons. Maybe I'm just a lame bum. Oh wait! I was catching up on my Dr. Who. I started watching it this year and I'm just about finished the third season. I can't express truly how much I love that show and David Tennant. I guess that is probably the lamest excuse in the world of excuses. *In whiny voice* I was watching Dr. Who! *sigh* My nerdy is showing. I apologize. Oh wait, maybe I don't because I SAW DR. WHO MONOPOLY!! It was in Chapters. $40. I must get it. I might purchase it tomorrow if I go to the city.
   I have a new favorite band other than Hunter Hayes now. It's Before You Exit. My friend, Dawn, showed them to me and I'm kind of obsessing. I kept telling myself that I wouldn't obsess over them and the next thing you know it they're the background on my computer. So embarrassing. Maybe I should have left that detail out. I hope they come out with more music really soon. I keep listening to them on repeat all day. I'm worried that I'm falling in love with boys that I will never meet. It's pitiful. I should really be more realistic. I'll never be able to meet them. *sigh*
   I keep thinking of doing those YouTube covers soon. Should I do it? What if I get famous? That would be horrible! I don't know if I could stand a bunch of silly people obsessing over me. :P I also have a wee bit of a cold so I can't sing... Well I can, but it might not sound that good. That would also mean that I would have to fit in another activity to my schedule. Maybe I could have a music-y evenings. I am supposed to practice piano in the evening but I never get around to it. Music evenings might be a good idea for me besides my hand sewing... To sing or not to sing! That is the question! Do you think I should go for it? Let me know in the comments!
   Well that's all I can think about writing tonight. I will either post tomorrow or I will be practicing a song for a YouTube cover. Good night!
   Love, Mary xoxo

New School Bling - Apps I'm Loving Fall 2013

I am always on the lookout for new apps. I just love apps and maybe one day I'll make my own. So here is my compiled list of apps that I found and love for back to school.

Grades 2 - Free

Grades 2 is perfect for me because I home school and it saves time to have all my grades on my iPod. Also when you can type in what grade average that you want to maintain with each subject and it will tell you what test score you need to get in order to get that grade average. It will definitely be on my iPod for a long time.

 Dictionary.com Dictionary and Thesaurus - Free

This is pretty self explanatory. Like seriously, how are you supposed to get through school without a dictionary? I like this one because it has such a simple format and you can upgrade it for $0.99 to add a rhyming dictionary. I can already see it now! This will make me more famous than Dr. Seuss!! Ha ha...ha.... Okay, maybe not.

BooksApp 2 - Free

This app is used to catalog all the books you own. It will even sort them by author, genre, and title. It's like the private version of Goodreads. 

A+ FlashCards Pro - Free

This is for those times when you are on the go and have no way of making manual flashcards and the best part about it is that you'll never lose your flashcards.

Do! Spring - Free

I spent a really long time searching for the perfect to-do list. I wanted it cute and simple but I couldn't find any that compares to Do! Spring. It's just so pretty and it makes me want to finish the things on my list. It also features sound effects so it sounds like you have scratched it off with a pencil. Very satisfying!

Learn French - Mindsnacks 

-  First lesson free and then $4.99 for all 50 lessons

Mindsnacks is great with languages. I'm personally learning French and it really encourages daily learning and practice and who could say no to learning a language by playing games?

It also comes in Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese.

Songza - Free

Now if you are using a computer, you could just use the website but if you are nowhere near a computer, the app is perfect! Some of my favorite playlists are American Primitivism, Electronic Study: Ambient, and Superhero Soundtracks. 

So that is my list of my current favorites. Do you have any apps that you would recommend? I would love to hear about them!

August, Day 25

   From the get go I should probably mention that I didn't complete my goal of finish module 15 in chemistry by Friday. Recently our cat ran away or got eaten by an owl and her five kittens have been left to our care so I have to feed them like every two hours with an eye dropper. They're only 4 weeks old and soooo cute. It's a bit of a pain though. So I have been busy these past few days playing mommy cat.
   I have really been getting excited for winter. As soon as December comes, I get to buy myself Adobe Photoshop! I am so excited for it. I wish I had a better job and then I could get it sooner. After I get it, though, I know I'm going to want a new camera so that I can take pro pictures and edit them. So my older sister, who is also a graphics enthusiast, said she will buy a good camera and we could share our goodies. We will take pictures with her camera and edit them with my Photoshop. Eeeks! It excites me so much! The opportunities that will come with that is just so high! Maybe I should calm down about this.
   I really miss autumn a lot. When the leaves turn orange, it is the most inspiring time for me, especially for writing because the story that I'm writing takes place in autumn. It's not a really good story but I enjoy writing it. I have been spending a lot of time adding autumn pictures on We Heart It. I love that website because the pictures always have that vintage looking tinge to them. Oh and I have added a new page to the blog. If you look at the top of the page, there will be a link that says "Contact Me." On that page it has links to my social networks, including We Heart It!
   Oh, speaking of my story, I am currently doing a 100 for 100 challenge. It is hosted by the Go Teen Writers blog. You have to write 100 words for your current novel that you're working on for 100 days. It's really good for keeping myself consistent with writing. Do you write? Do you have any goals for yourself in writing?
   Sometimes I feel like no one will ever read the things that I write on here. Do you ever get the feeling of insignificance? I really hate it. I sometimes wish that bad feelings would just go away but I realize that without the bad feelings, how could we enjoy the good feelings?
   Now to work on writing my Back-to-School-Apps post.
   Love, Mary xoxo

SCHOOL UPDATE - Chemistry and Regency

Hey!  So last night I did finish my chemistry test. Only 2 more modules to go and then I'm done forever! This excites me very much. I should almost be back on schedule. I just have to finish module 15 by Friday. I'm not sure if I will be able to manage it because today is Wednesday so that is three full days I have to finish it. Thursdays I work though. Friday I usually spend it cleaning for Shabbat on Friday evening. I will have to try and finish half of the module today and the other half tomorrow and then study and test on Friday. Sounds almost doable.
   I also want to get some algebra in today. I believe I just have one lesson and then a test which should take only 2.5 hours maybe.
   I should probably tell you about something I do a lot. I am constantly reading classic books. I've finished all of Jane Austen's books, Wuthering Heights, Anne of Green Gables, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and many more. I do this partly for school and partly because I just like reading older books. They have more meaning than those vampire and werewolf books that teenagers are gobbling up... Also I enjoy school, so anything I do for school I typically enjoy. The current classic book I'm reading now is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and I have finished chapter 4. So far it is pretty interesting though I actually already know a bit about the story because I watched the movie adaptation. I didn't like the movie but the book is so far off to a good start.
    That is about all for this school update. I will post again when I have more!
BYE

August, Day 20 - Photoshop, Decorating, and Sunglasses

   Good morning you beautiful person! Or good evening, depending on what side of the world you are on.
Today I have been thinking a lot, and I mean a lot. It is only 10:50am where I am and I have really been thinking about you and life. I would really like to get Photoshop. Why? Because then I can update my blog with a more welcoming format. I made the background with Picmonkey, the free version, so it's not really that impressive. Blah... My creative juices are begging to come out to possess their full glory! I'm going to make a goal to purchase it at the farthest of December. That's when I manage to scrounge up enough pennies to buy something nice.
   I really enjoy Photoshop because there is just so much stuff you can do with it. Once I start fooling around with it I have a really hard time stopping. It's an addiction to me. I bet you're probably thinking in your head, "if she doesn't own Photoshop, how does she know she's addicted?" The answer is that I have friends that have bought Photoshop and I have been privileged enough to use theirs. The best part though is that you can get it a whole bunches cheaper with a student ID card and since I'm still a student... BAM! I totes get it cheap! I hope I can get it sooner than December though... Well, I don't know actually. It might result in being the biggest distraction of all time from my school work. Maybe I should take a Photoshop course and then it would be part of my schoolwork. That would be a good plan, I think.
   After I get photoshop, I could post free backgrounds and graphics for you. I absolutely love making backgrounds. I think it's mostly because I love changing my background a lot and there aren't enough backgrounds to go around and feed my background every week or every day. Maybe I should make this as a part of my job... hmm... I think I will have to give it a try!
   So I don't know about you but with my love for decorating comes a desire to do something with my composition notebook for this next semester. This notebook needs some love and care:

So what I'm going to do is modge podge some pretty scrapbook paper to it. I just really need to buy some Modge Podge. I can't keep using up all of my sister's. It just isn't right. So, I should really look at the prices of it and see if I can squeeze it into my budget, then I can decorate everything!! I wonder if it comes in oil based. My sister's is water based but I know that water based stuff tends to wash off with water and I like my prettys to be *ahem* more permanent.
   I wonder what my next lesson in Art 10 is supposed to be. I'm going to peek... Hang on...Okay, so it is a drawing project. I have to practice foreshadowing. That is probably going to be a little bit more difficult than the last project. Are you taking an art class? I would absolutely love to see some of your work! Let me know in the comments if you want to show me!
   So a while ago I decided that our lovely book room needed to be cleaned out and used only as a storage for books and not for other random things that don't have a place in our house. I spent 3 whole days cleaning it out, vacuuming it, organizing books by genre and just making it a nice place. I had it tip top condition other than the things that there really wasn't any room in the house for it at all. It was a nice spot. I even wanted to bring a chair in there because of such a nice dusty atmosphere of books. Needless to say, my work no longer shows. It has gone back to being a storage dump for the rest of house things... *cries silently* One day I think I will endeavor to clean it again. Maybe soon, maybe not. I miss having a clean book room that I could just go into for some good reading and writing time. *sigh* Anyways! During that whole crisis of cleaning, I found these lovely sunglasses:

No one in my family wanted them so I claimed them as mine! It excites me! My favorite part about them is that they are PINK! and I absolutely love the color pink. It is just such a happy color.  
   I must be off now. I have to finish studying for my chemistry test.
   Love, Mary xoxo
  

August, Day 19

   Good day lovely person! I missed talking to you. I've had a bit of a busy week though I really can't seem to remember what I did for most of it... Yesterday, though, my sister and I had to make the birthday cake of our beloved little brother. It took a while and the results were disappointing. I've made such fabulous cakes with my sister in the past. For example, my birthday cake:

This one just didn't cut it for my taste. I will have to do better next time.
    Today, I spent the morning trying to coax myself from my sleeping chambers and to do schoolwork with no avail. I ended up browsing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for most of it. Shameful, I know. The good thing though is that I actually got some chemistry done today and now I just have to study for the test. That will be 14 out of 16 modules finished. Two more modules and I will be done with chemistry FOREVER!!!! Well... actually... I was having some thoughts today. Chemistry has been getting fairly easy lately and it is even starting to get a little bit fun... It's just so stinkin' fascinating! So after graduation, I might get the advanced chemistry text book and go through it. I'm not sure though.
    While still on the topic of school, I managed to finish my art project for my Art 10 class! It was the third lesson, so I had to do a collage for it. I ended up enjoying it so much, I made one for my mom too. Here's what my first one looks like:

So currently that would mean I'm ahead of my schedule in Art 10 for this coming semester! I just need to finish my chemistry before September 1st and I need to be around lesson 45 in Algebra 2(I'm currently 37). I should also probably hurry and wrap up the Personal Finance and Private Law really soon as well. I want to have Personal Finance finished by September 12 and Private Law finished by September 26. They seem like reasonable goals. I also have to get ahead in my subjects to make up for the time I can't work during the fall Jewish festivals like Succot and Rosh HaShana. I haven't learned about them yet so I can't remember which ones I can't work on but I will try to get ahead in preparation for them. I'm excited to be celebrating all the Jewish feasts and festivals. This year I have decided not to celebrate Christmas but celebrate Hanukkah instead. It will be interesting since I have to somehow make it more enjoyable than Christmas. For Hanukkah, we have to have fried foods so that consists of latke (potato pancakes) and donuts. Yum, though I'm not entirely sure if my stomach can handle it.
    For the past month I've been experiencing on and off nauseousness. It mostly comes when I eat greasy food or have too much sugar and stuff. Today was exceptionally painful since I kind of ate leftover birthday cake for breakfast and lunch today... I DID EAT SOME HEALTHY FOOD TOO! No worries. I had scrambled eggs in the morning and garlic tomato soup with half of a garlic bagel(if you haven't noticed a pattern yet, I love garlic). Supper was spaghetti with cooked zucchini slices. It was pretty decent, though, I'm not a particular fan of zucchini. The only way I really like it is as fries. It tastes sooooo yummy. I made zucchini fries last week when it was my day of the week to make supper.
    Oh, and I also remembered that green tea helps prevent the nauseous feelings as well as certain fruits like blueberries and cherries. I'm hoping these feelings go away soon...
    I should really practice my French more. I can only say a few phrases and tell you colors, numbers, some fruits and vegetables, and the day of the week. The easiest that I remember is "Comment allez-vous?" which means "How are you?" I hope I spelled that right, otherwise that would be embarrassing...
   Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing a skirt or dress today. I spent the whole day in my jammies. It was nice.
I also downloaded a new app for my ipod. It is amazing. I will post about it in my back-to-school post that should be up a week before September 1st. So in one week it will be up! I'm excited! Also nervous though about keeping to my schedule. I need to bust out of my lazy and procrastinating habits. It's dreadful, really.
   I should get back to studying for chemistry since I will be doing the test tomorrow and possibly start on the next module as well as finish some algebra. Yum. But first I shall give you a peak of my working/blogging area with my chemistry in the corner: My Floor!

 Bye!
   Love, Mary xoxo