Grammar and Punctuation

One thing that I can't comprehend is why so many fellow teenagers refuse to use proper punctuation in everyday communication.

Okay, that came out more nerdy than I planned. But it makes hardly any sense. For the most part, the only time virtual shorthand will be used is while in adolescence. So, why not practice using proper grammar, and thus have practice when writing is necessary?

I'm not being arrogant in this instance, I'm just wondering how hard it would be to capitalize your "i"'s and an apostrophe when needed. I'm not even saying that you have to use semicolons all the time (although trust me, it's fun).

Let us focus our attention on "LOL". Last I checked, "LOL" is not in the dictionary. So, that means that it is not a word. Yet, the use of it is prolific. There seems to be quite a few people that cannot go two sentences without typing "LOL". Honestly, how many times have you laughed out loud to something on the computer. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, but not every time that "LOL" is said. Really, how hard is it to express this emotion of laughter with real words? You could even say "Laughing out loud". It isn't really that hard to type.

Perfect grammar and punctuation is not what I am asking for. If you read my blog, you know that I make plenty of errors. What I really want, I guess, would be for more people to at least TRY to be literate in more instances.

Am I ranting? Probably. But, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Thor

If you pay attention to all three of us bloggers (Abby, Ryan, and myself), you would realize that we have been known to write on the same subjects (remember my post about rain?). It's not like we are copying from the others, there is often a new spin on the subject, or we disagree with each other.

If I was actually good at reviewing movies, I would probably mention a little background information about Thor, like how he is the god of thunder, he's a superhero, was sent to Earth, blah, blah, blah. But I won't, because I'm lazy.

I was actually quite disappointed with Thor. I had read mixed reviews, but I figured that there would at least be enough action to keep me into the movie. Turns out, not so much. First of all, Thor only has his magical hammer, Mjolnir, for half of the movie. And even when he had the hammer, the fighting wasn't as intense as I would have preferred.

As for the rest of his superpowers, they were really dumbed down. I'm not too familiar with the comic book hero Thor, bit it was obvious that quite a few of his superpowers were not featured in the movie.

You might think that even though the action wasn't fantastic, it must have been made up in other ways. Sadly, this isn't true. The characters never really developed. If any character besides Thor suddenly died, we wouldn't be wracked with grief, we would be apathetic.

Thor was on Earth for only a day or two, and yet his personality was said to drastically change while he was there. But, he didn't especially interact with the other characters much. It seemed that the relationships between the characters were just really rushed. This might have been alright if they went all of the place and did all sorts of exciting things. But that didn't really happen. To me, it was like they were rushing the story without going anywhere.

Naps

Procrastination. Good stuff. The last few hours, instead of writing blog posts, I have been reading other people's blogs and rereading some of my old posts. Finally, I decided that I really need to start writing a post. At camp I took a few naps, so I figure that would be a good place to start.

In between preparing the meal, washing dishes, serving food, mopping, sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and selling frozen goodies, I often took naps. This was actually quite a weird thing for me, because I never take naps. Except when I'm sick, like, cough, RIGHT NOW, sleeping is solely reserved for bed time.

I've always known that when I get old and tired and start to get grumpy, naps will be a necessity. I just guess that that time came sooner than expected. When the people on Tag Team, including myself, aren't working, we hang out in a lounge with fluffy couches. Great for naps.

Somewhat of a lame subject. How in the world am I going to be able to do five more posts?

Blah

So, I got back from camp earlier today. I'll you, writing a blog post with a cold is not fun. Do you know what is even worse? Writing seven blog posts with cold. Now in between sniffles, I have to dry my watery eyes. I knew that today was going to be hard, but I expected that the only thing I would have to deal with would be a lack of sleep. I SHOULD be resting so that I will feel better when I go back to camp on monday. But, when you are obligated to do something...

I hope that I am not complaining too much, it's just that I'm so tired. Grr, I should probably go write something now...

Graduation Parties

For the most part, graduation parties are done for the year, and summer rolls in. I don't go a bazillion of them, but I've went to my fair share. Many seem to follow the same basic script: feed guests, show guests pictures of myself, greet guest, and haul in all of the graduation money.

Meh. What is the point of a party if you don't get to enjoy it? I guess it's more just a party in your honour. Most people finish highschool, right? So why not have the big party for finishing college, a harder achievement? Of course, highschool would be more efficient and it would be impossible for most friends from college to come to the graduation party. So it was a dumb idea.

Does it look like I'm blathering? I'm not surprised. I've a done a ridiculous amount of writing today, after all. Right now, I just want to go to bed. I can't give any thoughts or insights. But hey, I tried. The post was about something. Maybe I can't think from all those cookies I ate today, I did seem to get enough sugar to last an average person a year. I should stop writing now, I'm just embarrassing myself. Oh, wait, I don't care if I embarrass myself. No matter, I should stop anyway. I'll be going to camp soon, anyway. Goodnight mr. coconut.

The Jungle Book (A Marion Homeschool Production)

I recently watched the Jungle Book Marion Homeschool Musical on DVD. I happened to decide to watch this old preduction on a whim, I saw in my facebook feed a friend mentioning to another about this particular play. I of course, didn't know he had been in it. A similar experience with someone else had happened at the start of the school year, so I finally put my procrastination aside, took out the DVD, and watched it.

Now, we did this play in 2007 (I was in sixth grade). My family had just moved from Canada, and I didn't know a single person when I joined the play. It was a middleschool muscial, so I was one of the older kids. Due to this, I happened to get a larger part, the villain of the tale: Shere Khan the tiger. So, this is where I started meeting friends. A good pal of mine, Paul, also got one of the main roles: Baloo the bear. Watching the play now, I'm struck by how good an actor Paul was, even at the age. The body language was absolutely perfect.

This was the the first play that I had ever been that had not been a church play, even though I had done those for years. So I was increasingly surprised to learn that not only would there be three performances, but we we would sign autographs for the audience afterwords. This was wildly different from anything I had ever done before.

It is impossible to reminisce about the Jungle Book without mentioning my character, Shere Khan. Now I was quite pleased to have a villains role, although my enthusiasm was slightly dampened when I discovered that I had to have all sorts of makeup and nasty things. Not to mention that my costume was like a giant suit of pajamas with ears.

There are legions of people that I'm good friends with now, and were in Jungle Book, but I didn't know them then. It's fun rediscovering people.

Has Everything We Write Already Been Said?

Roughly five billion people in the world are literate (that was a VERY rough estimate, by the way. It might be off by a billion or two). People from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. All writing. What is the chance that whatever you say hasn't been said many times before by many other people? Not very good.

It's kind of humbling, really. So many other people have had the exact same thought patterns, and come to the exact same conclusions. When writing, it is natural think that it is one of a kind. And in a way, it is (assuming you didn't plagiarize). But no matter how random, or how many words you say, someone else has probably thought of it before.

In our culture today, we don't really think about how big the world is much. Oh, they give big numbers, but a billion is not a number that we can relate to. It is just that so much of American culture is focused on individuality. It is common to hear that no one is exactly like us, but there are many that come very, very close. If everyone was asked to explain their personality in 500 words, how many would be exactly like mine? I have a feeling quite a few.

Although many ideas aren't new, the trouble that many people have is implementing them. For example, someone else might of thought of a similar plot to my Perla Vardo series. But, if they didn't let the world see it, like I did with my blog, does it really count? Does an idea that doesn't impact anyone actually count as existing? Of course, that goes into the age old question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make any noise? We won't get into that today, however.