My book recommendation

The book I'm going to recommend is Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol. This is actually a graphic novel but I'm hoping this counts.

This book is so wonderful. I loved the style of the artwork and colouring. The pacing is fantastic. The main character is Anya, a Russian immigrant to America. She feels like she doesn't fit in at her school. After falling down a well she becomes friends with a ghost. Which had it's perks to start with but takes a strange and terrifying turn.

One of the best things about this book is it really is very relatable to (not the befriending a ghost part), like you can imagine what it's like to be Anya. To feel disconnected. Or be the odd one out and just trying to fit in with everyone else at schoo, it's kind of how I felt whilst being at school.It all makes Anya just feel very real.

Basically just read it! It's a perfect book, it's dark and creepy and just beautiful. Plus there's a quote from Neil Gaiman on front, he knows his stuff.

Sorry this wasn't a very good post I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things.

I really ought to have just bought pudding

I went through all the trouble to try to make custard, and when that worked out, make pudding, and then discovered that my audio was off. ARGH. But I still did it! Please excuse the quality, this is the first actual video I've ever made with the intent of showing someone else.

Maybe I should have picked truth

The TIme For Lies Has Ended

START MONDAY NIGHT, POST TUESDAY MORNING
TIMING, I HAVE IT.

So I was going to choose a dare option, I really liked peanut butter face, but I don't have peanut butter at home. So while I was holding a jar of frosting I was previously eating and a jar of Nutella I would never eat, trying to decide between them and my brother was setting up the video camera, my folks came home.

And no way was I going to cover myself in sugar and/or liquified nut based product in front of them. The camera was quickly replaced and the jars shoved to the back of the fridge.

So I believe I'll be spilling some secrets to you all.

The only thing I can think of that I'm actively trying to hide from people is my reading selection.

 I tend to make a big show of being superstitious about books, just so people won't ask what I'm reading. Saying that I can't tell people what I'm reading while I'm reading it because if I do it might turn out to be a bad book.

 I prefer to read on my Kindle because I don't want people to be able to see the titles and especially the covers. Unfortunately when you read on a Kindle people are more likely to ask what it is you're reading.
The conversation goes a little like this.

Person: Hey, whatcha reading?

Me: A book.

Person: What book?

Me: A good one.

And either they'll realize I'm not going to tell them which specific book I'm reading, or more often they'll continue to press me for more information. For me this is really uncomfortable because I am typically ashamed of what I'm reading.

I always say, "Oh no, I hate romance books." I act really uncomfortable about the genre partly because I'm ashamed to like them and partly because I feel people probably won't understand why I like them if I have such major anxiety issues regarding relationships.

So yeah, I really like urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and I read them rather frequently. And mystery romances too.

I'm not sure if this is a major secret that counts for this. But I'm constantly afraid of being judged for what I read because the genre that have romance as a common feature tend to get a bad reputation. They're considered lesser literature and "mommy porn". But when from what I've read, there's just as many amazing stories as there are bad stories that you would find in any genre romance or not. It's just that not everyone else realizes it so I feel like I have to hide it from everyone.

But here, I'm coming out of the closet about it.

Time Capsule

The frist thing I would put into my time capsule would be some of my old sketchbooks. It would be great to look at these and see how far I've came and all the effort I put in to achieve my dream. I would also be quite funny to see awful some of it would look.

Next I would put in my year book from my 6th year so I can look back at all the good memories I have of school. See all the people signed it. And most importantly of all laugh at awful the fashion in 2010 was.

I would put in all the doodles and drawings my friends from college have given me to remind me of all the fun I had there and friends I made.

Perhaps I would put in a collection of my favourite DVDs. I would make a CD with my current favourite songs. I like when you have't listened to a song a in long time and when you hear it for the first time in maybe years and it brings back all those feelings you had at the time. That's the reason I'd do that.

I would put in all my school ties and my prefect badge. If they weren't so important I'd put in my certificate with all my grades and stuff from school. Just to remind myself of what I managed to achieve during some of the hardest time of my life.

I'm fairly sure if I did end up making a time capsule I'd end up throwing some pretty random stuff in it. I kinda want to put some sort of food in but that's really not gonna last ten years...

I would also if I could like to put the old blogger website in my time capsule. Apparently I was away for so long that changed it.

Capturing Time

(I really liked how Sarah included photos in her post, so I was going to do that too, but then most of my items ended up being things I didn't actually physically have, so I decided not to bother)

The first item I would put in would be a list of all my best friends that I hope I'm still friends with in 10 years, along with photographs of all of them to remind me just how much I love them, and their current contact information in case I need to try to track them down. That way even I'm not in touch with some of them any more I can reminisce about all the good times I had, and try to get in touch with them to catch up.

I would want to put in a copy of my last NaNoWriMo novel. This would remind my future self that this is what I wan to be doing. Also hopefully it will be a reminder to her of how far she's come (and besides, maybe she'll actually be able to do something worthwhile with it).

I would put in this gavel I have that's made of duct tape. It's from where I worked last summer, a lot of people had summer birthdays and we had a tradition of giving everyone presents made of duct tape, so at the end of the summer they gave all the students a duct tape present that was somehow related our education/interests. So I got a gavel. I want to put it in my time capsule in case my future self needs a reminder that I was at one point excited about going to law school and that I was a bit of an idealist about it and how I was going to help people. Plus it would remind me of that job and those people and all of the duct tape shenanigans and the silly pranks.

I would also include a copy of my first ever YouTube video. Joining a collab channel was a pretty spontaneous decision and I was really nervous about it at first. But it ended up being a lot of fun, and I've become good friends with the other people involved and no one has said (yet) that my videos were stupid or anything like that. So it's a good reminder that sometimes I just need to be brave and put myself out there.

And the last one would be my jar of shells and beach glass. I've always lived very close to the ocean, and I can't imagine ever living far away from it. I want my future self to remember that, and plus they'll be a comfort to her if she isn't living near the ocean. Also most of them I collected during a beach day with some friends, so they have nice nostalgic memories, too.

I feel like there should probably be more things to go in there, but that's all I can think of for now, so I guess that will have to do.

Time Capsule! Mine Might Smell

Where objects travel the long way but you get travel back in time. Mentally of course.

When I think about things to put in a time capsule I imagine they'd be things current to me now so as to remind my future-self who she was.

I took awful quality pictures to show you what I'd put in my time capsule to be opened up in ten years time.

First, I think I'd put in my copy of Tales of Beedle The Bard in the time capsule. To remind myself in the future that I loved fairytales, Harry Potter, fantasy, stuff like that. Just in case I forget somewhere, which I really hope that I don't.

Also because I know that right now I could read and read forever. If I could just go live in an unending library I'd do so.

Second I think I would put in my graduation certificate from Witch's Rock Surf School. We got them at the end of our week spent there in Costa Rica, it was a fantastic place and the instructors were very helpful.

They spelled my name wrong on it, but it's still a memory of the school surf trip there. And the certificate, if you can read it, is quite humorous.

Thirdly I'd put in this bottle of possible-agricultural-virus containing sand that customs probably wouldn't have allowed into the country if they found it, from Costa Rica as well. Also from the surf trip.

I want to remind my future-self that she loved to travel and itched at any change to get on a plane and that I jumped at every opportunity to leave the country. I hope that I'm still traveling and maybe even living overseas ten years from now.

Next I'm tucking away my skating boot.  I'm getting new ones so I won't be missing it long. But up until now I've been skating at Charles Moore Arena for just over twelve years. I'll be leaving for Wheaton in August and I haven't totally figured out the rink situation out there yet. I hope I still skate ten years from now, even as just a hobby with significant loss of fitness.

But future me would probably like to remember the good old days.


The boot is foul smelling, I'm hypothetically glad to be hypothetically rid of it.

Next, I'd put in this metal hair-wrap I got at King Richard's Faire. I love dressing up and I love events like King Richard's Faire, it's one of my favourite times of the year.

Hopefully future me still appreciates the fun of those events and activities, I know they're definitely a part of my life currently.

And last but not least...

I'd put in one of my Amy Pond shoes. Because I'm a cosplayer, I love Doctor Who, and Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica and others in sci-fi, I love cons and the people who go to them. I love the community of the fandom and all awesome people get up to over it.

I may or may not be involved later, a lot can happen in ten years. I can only hope I'm still involved and loving it. Maybe I'll move up in cosplay skills and this will remind my future-self where it all started and all the fellow fans she met and fun she had. And then get her back into it if she ever stopped.

Those are all the items I'd put into my time capsule. All of it has a purpose to remind myself who I was, what I love and the best memories I have/had. Hopefully I won't have forgotten and they'll just be nostalgia for when everything started.

Can't wait to read what you all are putting in your capsules. Have an awesome week!
-Sarah

Dear Amnesia Rachel:

Okay Rachel, you've forgotten everything that's happened in the last year, and it's my job to help you remember the most important things.

This room will look unfamiliar to you - you helped your sister pay for a house, and this is your room in said house. You live in Sacramento now, and work for a different company but do essentially the same thing. The only real bummer with that will be re-learned how to take data for them since it's a bit different, but just remember to write down every question you ask (whether it's the target for the lesson or not) and graph only the lessons you run all day. (I'm still having trouble remembering to do those two, so you should actually have an advantage there)

Mother's Day is on Sunday, but don't worry - you sent the packages and card yesterday. Just remember to call!

You may notice that there are random people lying around your living room, and the guy in the office that is just barely covered by a blanket. You didn't black out from too much drinking, I promise - these are just random folks your sister's fiance brought in to party with. You're not required to do more than offer a cursory greeting, there's a pretty good chance you won't see most of them again, so feel free to be antisocial in your room.

I'm almost out of time... um.... your old roommate (the one that was about 50) died about 6 months ago. Apparently of a heart attack, but that's a little sketchy since he was in really good shape. You'll probably never know what happened, just let that go. The good friends you used to live with are in Chicago now, so make sure you text them once in awhile to see how they're doing.

(I ran out of time at this point. Man, this was harder than I thought!)

Imaginary Forgetting

Okay, you've just lost your memories of the past year. I'm going to start with important reminders:

Mother's Day is on Sunday and you haven't done anything about it yet, so, get on that.

You're supposed to write an article for Mitchell and Tom and Philip's magazine thing, it's due on Thursday and you haven't started yet. Sorry about that. You do have an outline and three pages of notes, though, so it should be okay.

You're going to forget everything you learned in 1L, which is unfortunate, but hopefully you'll be able to get along without it. Oh, right, important: you mostly don't hate law school, so you are going to be doing second year even though right now I know you're fully expecting to want to drop out.

Your number one priority for the next while is to find a summer job, so that's what you should be doing with your time mainly. Also there's a to do list on your desk, be sure to look at that.

Okay, important things you figured out this year that I want you to remember:

People are actually pretty nice and it's helpful if you talk to them first sometimes instead of always waiting for them to approach you.

Parties where you don't know a lot of people are actually totally manageable, so don't bother making up excuses not to go.

You always have more time to do things than you think, you're just kind of bad at managing it. You thrive when you're busy, so find things to do.

Amnesia In 5 4 3 2...

(I tried to do a video for this one because of the time limit, but the camera went a little wonky and I decided editing it at that point would be a nightmare. So here's a written version instead.)

Okay, Sarah, If you're reading this you probably don't know why and that's fine, relax, you're reading this because you've lost your memory of the past year.

 Lots of stuff has happened and you are in the middle of your IB exams, great timing to forget things. You just finished English and Maths exams, you were going to fail physics anyway so don't worry about forgetting that. There are notes around if you need to study.

You ordered your prom dress and it's being altered, Toria is coming down to meet the assistant director and gain permission to go to prom this Friday.

You are going to Wheaton College in Norton MA next fall.

Leuka has passed away, I'm really sorry. And I hope it's not too hard on you at this point.

Also the

(I ran out of time. It was pretty difficult to think of things I really wanted to remember, deciding what takes priority over what in getting written down. I figured I'd end up covering what would happen in order of which anxiety attack would happen first.)

Catching up and whatnot

So, easily the biggest thing going on with me right now is that there's a possibility that I'm going to be moving to Canada (specifically, the Vancouver area) sometime in the next year or two. Ok, that sounds really out of the blue, so I should probably explain.

My boyfriend and I have been planning on doing this at some point for various reasons, but he's had absolutely no luck finding jobs here. I mean, not even retail or food service jobs. While he's still looking here for now, we're formulating our own plans of him moving back and me following him.

It's exciting precisely because it's so vague; I can be all giddy that I won't have to have a long distance relationship anymore, get to marry the man I love, and explore a new country, but I don't have to work out all the financial details yet or deal with my parents' reaction (I'm trying to slooooowly work into it, so that by the time we're ready to move it won't be a surprise), or the stresses of trying to gain citizenship.

Other than that, I've found a part-time job to supplement my meager income, though the new job still hasn't trained me yet so I can't start. I've been cutting back on spending - both due to only part-time work and now to start saving - and have been surprised to find that it's kinda fun.

Sometimes it can be an interesting challenge, like "here's what's in my fridge, what can I make for dinner tonight?" I realize that it's fun to me because I know that I do have a little extra if I need to grab something from the store, whereas if I didn't have that option this probably would be depressing instead.

I've been returning to my less expensive hobbies like knitting, playing through video games I own, reading, writing, exercising (which is much needed), learning French, and as mentioned above, cooking. While I enjoy a fancy meal or going out to the movies just as much as the next person, it's nice to have something simple to do, and since I'm introverted I don't mind being on my own for it. Though I'm totally splurging to go see The Avengers this weekend, whooo!

Speaking of cheap hobbies, I knit my first pair of socks! Well, err... my first single sock, I'm still working on the other one. It's a family tradition to give each other silly socks every year for Christmas, and this year I've decided to make them by hand - and I'm starting now so I don't freak out in November. While some of the yarn is more expensive, even at $10 a ball, a pair of socks takes me easily 20 hours, so all things considered that's still a good deal, and I find it fun and relaxing too.

Laziness and Rambling

Gonna be honest here... I don't feel like I have a whole lot to say tonight. I've been staring at this blank screen for a while and I'm still not really coming up with anything. I think we're definitely pushing the limit on how many free weeks we can have in close proximity to one another.

I already talked about pretty much everything that's going on with me last week and... yeah, nothing has really changed since then. I've been continuing with the reading and the cleaning and I've done a lot of lazing around in general. It's amazing how easy it is to be lazy. Even when the things I'm avoiding doing are things I want to do. I don't think I could ever work from home or be self-employed, I just don't have the self-discipline for it. Well... maybe if there were deadlines. Those tend to help.

So in the process of procrastinating writing this post (I started over an hour ago... oops) I found out that my childhood best friend is having a baby really soon and I had no idea until just now. She's not even the person my age that I know who's had a baby, and we've hardly even spoken to each other in the past 7 or 8 years, but it's just weird that we used to see each other nearly every single day for so long and now I don't even know anything about her and, I don't know, it's just odd how people grow apart and fall out of each other's lives, that's something I find myself thinking about a lot.

Anyway, I'm going to quit rambling and go to bed, good night!