"I'm a lunatic!"

My sister Becky has taken up a strange new catchphrase. She often walks around the house saying, "I'm a lunatic! Come on, say it with me!" I don't know where she made this up. I have a feeling that I may have influenced it in some way, shape or form, but I never actually said it. It has led to much bemusement on the parts of everyone who lives with her (i.e. me, Mum and Dad).

Mum was interrogating her a bit on this matter today.

Mum: "Who says that?" (thinking it's from a cartoon or movie or something)
Becky: "Me!"
Mum: "Who made it up?"
Becky: "I did!"
Mum: "*laughs* You know, I think it's funny. Not the 'I'm a lunatic part', because I actually don't like it all that much. But it's the 'come on say it with me' that I think it hilarious!"
Becky: "Come on, say it with me!"

That's pretty much how it's been for us.

Untitled

My sister's hamster, Fluffy, died today. Remember Fluffy? He's the one who looked like a tribble. He died this morning...Becky was really sad about it. She still is. And I think she ought to be. It's really weird, though, because we had that hamster for less than a year. Hamsters generally live a little longer than that...but then again, we don't know how old he was when we first got him.

I just had to get that out of my system...sort of...

NaNoWriMo!

Yes, it's THAT time again. You know what I mean! It's November. And - think - what happens in November? No. I'm not talking about Thanksgiving. Or the anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death. Or even Election Day (although it's happening...). And I'm not even talking about the anniversary of when Nikki and I met!

I mean National Novel Writing Month.

Yes, THAT. The exciting time of the year when, once a year, all silly little writers like myself gather together via the internet to all join in the process of writing a 50,000 page novel in thirty days! Wow! I had a chance to do it last year, but I didn't. Let's just say there was a huge list of reasons why I didn't (they were thus: I was recovering from various things, I was very very busy, and I took my writing seriously then). But now that I'm not recovering from very much, I'm not too busy and I don't take my writing seriously (it's my MUSIC that I take seriously, and even then not all the time), I can do it! Yeah!

Obviously you want to know what my story's about. The working title is "The White Lens of Perception". Yes, a big long title. But a main theme of the story is perception. See, at risk of saying too much, it is about a guy named Harrison (actually his last name) who finds a mysterious door in his house and goes through it, only to find himself in a dream-world that his long lost childhood ex-friend created. And so they're trapped there. And they have to get out. The friend wants to destroy the dream world and start from scratch. Harrison just wants a way out.

I have made remarkably good time in writing this novel. I am 10,000 words in so far. And I'm not even kidding. All I can say is this: I stayed up until midnight last night to see November in. 10,000 words is a fifth of what I have to write. And it's only the second day. Egad!

Stay tuned for further and similar updates!

Novemberists?!?!?!?!?

Okay. I have a new problem. I don't know what a Novemberist is now and it's really bothering me.

See, it all happened because of a song I wrote. It featured the line "See Novemberists in the street". It referred to picketers...I think...but it really bothered me because the next day, I had no idea what a Novemberist was. I didn't question it the night I wrote it because, well, there was meletonin in my brain. In other words, it was late and I was tired. (Note to self: weird and fantastic things happen when I try to write while there is meletonin in my head.)

But the next morning I woke up to read what I'd written that night (see, stuff written late at night or early in the morning usually needs some rewriting to make sure I don't come off in a rather bad way). It was all suitable for inclusion into a song, but I came across the Novemberists line. And I thought, "What the heck is a Novemberist?"

I do know where I got the word. It had to do with Decemberists. As in, the absolutely fantastic modern band that nobody's ever heard of! I basically took the month before December (i.e. November) and made a word out of it.

I asked my friend Sasha, who didn't know what a Novemberist was, but she did know it had to have something to do with Decemberists. I then asked two friends, Rebecca and Stephanie, if they had any idea. Neither of them brought up the Decemberists. Though, Stephanie said, "You wrote it, right? You ought to know what it means." I then stated that I don't know what much of my writing means anyway and I can only decipher a very little of what I write. Rebecca said (jokingly), "Bad songwriter! Bad songwriter! Don't make other people listen to your music until you know what it means!" This I actually found funny.

I've just come to the conclusion that "bike" is a funny word.

You know you're in love...

You know you're in love when...

Those songs on the radio which you would originally have called "mushy" now make sense to you (and you even consider some of them "profound").

The object of your affections is all you can really think about. S/he's on your mind all the time...in the car going places...doing chores around the house...swimming in the pool...

You write a sonnet for the object of your affections (now come on, who HONESTLY writes a sonnet...?)

You prolifically write love songs about the object of your affections but get rid of more than half of them because you think they express your emotions a bit TOO accurately...

The Vegetarian

I met my friend Alexandra at the park today. She proudly announced that she is going to become a vegetarian. I thought this was a very interesting and rather admirable idea. (She's still going to eat mealworms and crickets though. She likes eating bugs, and she claims that the bugs were not mistreated, thus she can eat them.) I thought this was actually a pretty good idea. I couldn't become a vegetarian though. I really need to eat my meat. I'm sort of a carnivore. My sandwiches contain meat, and I like to eat chicken and rice for dinner. Actually - since I had chicken and rice for dinner, and my meat sandwich for lunch, and my breakfast included bacon, I had meat at every meal today. Actually, I'm sort of proud of this fact, though I can't tell why.

Pippin SINGS! (oh no everybody, run and hide!)

Ever noticed how I keep insisting that I'm a musician except none of you have ever actually heard me sing? Well, today's your lucky day! I've uploaded a few recordings of my singing on YouTube! Note that they're only covers. This is because I'm not at the point where I'm ready to put up my original songs. (But they'll be on there someday, I promise!)

Seven Seas of Rhye

Rhiannon

Wish You Were Here

Any comments on them would be ever so greatly appreciated. I've gotten curious what people think of them anyway.

Maybe it's just me...

...or maybe it's my obsession with classic rock. I dunno. I've been watching Star Wars films as of late with my sister. I have nothing against Star Wars, I actually think it's quite brilliant (despite all the ideas and situations it presents that have become cliched over time; I don't think most of them were very cliche when it came out). However, while watching Revenge of the Sith, I realized that Anakin looks somewhat like Syd Barrett. (Well, there's this one picture of the band, with all five members, and he DOES look somewhat like Syd in that picture...) And when I watched A New Hope last night, I thought Luke looked sort of familiar...then I realized it! He looks like John Paul Jones! Somewhat! No, not the Revolutionary War guy! The Led Zeppelin guy! I defy anybody to prove this wrong! Yeah!

Huh...maybe it's just me, though...am I right? Or am I crazy?

Oy vey!

Oy vey! It's been a long time since I last wrote here. Lots of stuff has gone on since then. Like what, for example? Well, I've written a new album. Which amazed me, 'cause it took me only four days to write and record ALL the material. I think it's because the arrangements are simpler this time. Mostly it's just me and my guitar. Yeah...I've also written and recorded a brand new song. Actually, two songs. This might not seem so cool, except - they're over 20 minutes long. Yeah! I've decided to stop talking about those legendary progsters and become one myself! Pretty awesome, huh? It's going to be on an album of mine entitled A Round Trip and Back Again. (It's sort of a joke - The Hobbit is also called There and Back Again, and it's sort of a round trip because it starts and ends similarly. Also, it's alphabetical. My first album was called Phoenix, then the next one shall be called Queen of Hearts, and then Round Trip...see? It's the alphabet!)

I will do what I can to record more on here. Partly I feel discouraged because nobody actually reads this stuff that I put up. At least, nobody comments on what I've written! What's wrong with you readers? Comment more! Argh! Comment! Comment! (No I'm kidding...though I'd really appreciate it if more than one person commented.)

Hee hee!

How stuff happens

Ever notice how stuff can happen, just spontaneously, and whether you meant it or not, it can change the course of your afternoon, or your week, or possibly your life? That's what happened to me last night and today.

You see, I was playing around with Harrison (my uke) last night, when Becky came into my room and asked what I was doing. So I showed her what I was playing. Just random chords and stuff. Then I began playing We Like the Moon and then I realized it had a real catchy chord progression. So I decided to improvise lyrics to a totally different tune (as though We Like the Moon even HAS a tune). So I did this for a while, and Becky was watching me with rapt attention (at least, I THINK it was rapt attention). And when it was done, I realized I had a nifty song there. So the next day I recorded it. I guess that's how you break songwriter's block. Just improvise random stuff to a random tune and that ought to work.

And yesterday, I announced to Mum that I was bored. So she spontaneously just said, "You want to go to the museum?" Becky and I said sure, so that settled it. We off and went to the museum. Which was fun.

And then there's my Wall of Songs. It's something in the back of my journal. You see, I was bored and loitering in my room yesterday so I looked at the back inner cover of my journal. My journals are just composition books that I get at the store and put cool pictures on the covers of. But the back inner cover is just random junk that they put in composition books. So I wrote Echoes in small lettering on the back. This is Echoes as in the Pink Floyd song. I was not satisfied with this. So I wrote Long Away. And Across the Universe. And Moonage Daydream. And Tangerine. Until I had a whole wall of songs on the back cover. (Well, it seems like a wall to me!) So now, when I'm bored, I can just write a random song title on the back of my book. All born out of spontinaity. (I can't spell that word.)

And I guess that's how stuff happens.

Venting my frustration.

I went to Office Depot today, after waiting all week for Mum to take me. I had some gift cards, and I had no idea how much was on them. I was hoping a lot. I was pleased to discover that they had 17 bucks on 'em. Now, I wanted to get an iPod card with them, and since I was feeling rich I got two. I tried to buy them along with a special plastic box to put my CD's in (I store my little treasures under my bed), except then I discovered you can't buy iPod cards with gift cards. Very upset, I paid for one in cash and used the card on my box.

I then got the idea to give mum the cards to buy a keyboard for our new computer if she took the cards, which she did. There was some confusion however, it was so confusing I won't get into now. So I was upset because I was of the impression mum was mad at me. In the car she convinced me she wasn't. I went home happy.

I got home and I tried to use the cards. One of them supposedly wasn't valid. (Don't ask me why, it looked totally valid to me.) The other one wasn't activated by the fellow at Office Depot. I was first mad, then I got upset and started crying. I told mum what happened. Now, maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but you have to remember, I was looking forward to getting those cards all week, and they'd cost me $30 (which doesn't seem like a lot to some but is nearly a fortune to me). And now I couldn't use the bloody things. Mum, who has infinitely more patience than I do, decided she'd try to figure out my technological issues. And viola! She got one of the cards to work. The other one still has yet to be activated. We might see about that tonight. I doubt it though. Mum's having issues with another computer. It won't work. I don't know everything about it as I don't want to get into her problems. (It'd make her mad I fancy.) If we have any luck we might get our problems solved tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. Hopefully within the week. It's Monday.

Anyway, I decided that if the other one didn't work that was no problem, I could just work for money to get myself another one. I am trying to convince myself that money is absolutely nothing and is no object of any kind. But it is, alas. So I used my iPod card that I already had to buy an album, The Six Wives of Henry the Eight. It is a very good album, even if it's all instrumentals. No problem of any kind! (Heck, if Rick Wakeman is the fellow singing in the background of some Yes songs, then maybe I don't want to hear his voice.) Though, Catharine of Aragon sounds a lot like a song I composed (which oddly enough is similarly titled as Aragorn Rhapsody.) Perhaps I shouldn't be so sad, as I got to meet with my best friend today, and we spent four hours of nonstop fun together. Life is admittedly good.

Give us SparkNotes!

Okay. So I was thinking about SparkNotes today. It's kind of a cool concept, if you know what I mean...little study guides for books you might read in school and stuff...I was looking at their website a while back and saw they have study guides for films, too. (Star Wars was one of them, which I found rather funny.)

Except then I thought about it - and then I realized. SparkNotes doesn't have guides on the pieces of art that truly matter. Namely I'm talking about stuff like "Tommy" and "The Wall".

Nope, I'm not kidding. SparkNotes should make a series of books on famous rock operas. I say this because they could actually occasionally be useful. No kidding. A friend of mine who graduated college a while ago told me that once, they had the students do a little lesson-thing on The Wall. Yeah, like the Pink Floyd album. It actually was the Pink Floyd album. And then they made them watch the movie. Yeah...I made a little joke to her about how The Wall is either a piece of genius, horribly depressing, or Roger Waters whining about his life instead of getting one. (If by some random chance Roger Waters is reading this - I apologize and hope he doesn't take it as anything more than a joke.)

So seriously, SparkNotes should make little guides to stuff like The Wall, or Tommy. Tommy's practically a classic as it is! There should seriously be a series of SparkNotes books on albums. If somehow they could figure out a way to do albums that weren't just rock operas, then I'll bet they ought to try something like Sgt. Pepper's. Seriously! Somebody ought to make up this stuff before I get to it. Naah, then I get to say it's my idea. But honestly! They should do that!

No More Computer Room

The computer on which I type all this stuff has moved. No more computer room. It is now in the family room, where one would find the television. The advantage of this is that I can use the piano now. Our piano (Lennon, as I named it) is in the family room. The computer used to be in its own little room. But now it's moved.

Advantages: I can use the piano to record with Lennon now.

Disadvantages: I can't work if my sister is in the room, I can't use Wakeman (the keyboard I used to use) because it's in the other room, and if someone comes into the room (which they ALWAYS do) - I can't work.

Hmm...there's a 1 to 3 ratio of advantages to disadvantages. Do you think I approve of the change?

An EXPERIENCE!

Last night, I had a real EXPERIENCE! (And it wasn't the Jimi Hendrix Experience, ha, I wish...) Aunt Dee-dee, Uncle Gary, my cousin Alicia and I all went to a Korean restaurant for dinner last night! And it was a real experience!

I'm sure you've heard of the restaurants where they cook the food in front of you. They did that. There was a little grill (or whatever you'll call it) in the center of the table, and we got to watch them as they cooked the food for us. They also had some chopsticks for us to use; I'm not really very proficient in the usage of chopsticks, but I was determined to learn how. And, believe it or not, I was actually able to eat my food with no other utensil! (Except for the soup...I used a spoon there, of course...)

The food itself was quite good. I liked the meat a lot, especially the first meat we had (which I guess was some sort of beef, but I'm not totally sure). The soup wasn't quite my thing, but heck, it's not everybody's thing. I liked the bean sprouts that they served us before the meal (an appetizer or something, I guess). It was all quite good.

Sauron's a moron.

I was writing a story today, where one of the characters is named Sorren, and it made me think of how there's an owl called Soren in Guardians of Ga'Hoole. And then I thought about the one time I was talking to my uncle about Lord of the Rings. We were discussing the pronunciations of the names and such, and my uncle brought up the fact that he pronounces Sauron's name as Sorren. I told him that I couldn't say it that way, as Soren is a hero owl in Guardians of Ga'Hoole, and that's how you pronounce his name. So then I told him how I pronounce Sauron. I didn't realize it, but now I do. I say Sauron so that it rhymes with "moron". Since I think certain insult words can be funny if carried into Middle-Earth and such, I mentally made the joke that "Sauron's a moron". Well, not exactly, but it's fairly humorous.

Largely concerning dogs.

Well, I'm back. I had a brilliant time on holiday, and guess what? Bears came through our campsite every night! I didn't see them because I was sleeping, though. The last night there, however, I did see a bear near the dumpsters!

However, that's not the main purpose of my discussion today. (Yeah right...) I was reading Fruits Basket and thinking about Shigure. He's a dog (literally), and I'm a dog on the Chinese zodiac. I think two of my best friends are, too...they're both 14, like me. (One of my friends I'm not sure about, I'll have to ask her.) I decided I wanted to refer to this in a song I could write, but I was also curious about other things. Apparently there are months assosiated with each animal, so I wanted to know which animal's month I was born in. I was born in May, and according to Wikipedia (which I trust for accuracy, so sad), May, the fifth month, is assosiated with the snake. This made me think of Ayame from Fruits Basket...this is a bit unusual, as I have some Ayame-like tendencies. (Hopefully you know what I mean when I use that word...) So the symbolic thing in my song became a "serpent-dog" (dog's year, snake's month). This actually sounds fairly cool.

Then my curiosity got out of hand. I became curious about what year the members of Queen were born in. (One of these days I'm going to do it for the members of all my favorite bands, just you wait...) I discovered, to my surprise, that Freddie Mercury is (was) a dog, too. I've always felt a certain, oh, let's say kinship with Freddie (I once wondered if, were there such a thing as reincarnation, I might be his reincarnation), and the fact that we're both dogs strengthened this feeling. So anyway - I decided I'd put him in the song. (An unusual fact - during this searching, I discovered that Skandar Keynes, who acts as Edmund in the Narnia films, was born on Freddie's birthday in the year he died. Perhaps I shouldn't be the one thinking I'm his reincarnation...)

Then I got interested in what month and what element Freddie turned out to be and well...it ended up that his month of birth was the month of the rabbit. A serpent-dog and a rabbit-dog. This is all interesting of course. His element turned out to be fire, and mine was wood. A wood-dog and a fire-dog paint some very cool images in my head. All this is going to end up in my songs! Hopefully...

Going on holiday!

Yes, you know what this means! I'm going on HOLIDAY! Yet again! Gosh, two holidays in one summer? I must be mad I say!

Well, I'm going to Mammoth to go camping. Another family we know is coming with us. This is the first time I've gone on vacation with another family and I'm so excited! I'm going to have tons of fun! When I come back, I'll let you all know what happens!

Also, last night, I FINALLY saw the Prince Caspian movie with my aunt and uncle. They're great fans of Narnia, and we weren't disappointed by the film. The first part is fairly true to the book, but everything that happens after Caspian invades the castle (which didn't happen in the book) is basically a mixture of stuff that wasn't in the book with a few things that did happen floating around. (Admittedly it made me want to go back and read that book again.) There wasn't a single scene with Reepicheep that I didn't say, "Aww, he's so cute!" (That's what being a hamster owner does to you.) The part where he loses his tail, I couldn't help but say, "He's a HAMSTER now!" I also liked Trufflehunter, the badger. I do like badgers. Ever notice how, whenever you see a badger, you feel like you want to hug it and kiss it, except it'll tear you to shreds so maybe you shouldn't? Me too. Also, in the movie, I noticed that there's this one guy who looks like John Bonham! No joke! (Seriously - it's the part where Glossell - or maybe Sospespian, I have trouble telling the two apart - tells Miraz that the Narnians killed some of his men. The guy on the far left. Yes, THAT'S him.)

So anywho - I had a great time last night. Let's hope I'll have a great time this time, too!

The Fourth Album Conspiracy?

I'm convinced that bands have some sort of a conspiracy about fourth albums.

Have you ever noticed that, when a band does their fourth album, it's often either very popular, very sucessful, very different, or very good? I first noticed this when I realized that A Night at the Opera is Queen's fourth album. As far as I know, A Night at the Opera is considered Queen's best album. It has their best song on it, anyway!

And then there's Led Zeppelin IV. It's a very famous Led Zeppelin album, and it has the world's number 1 rock song on it: Stairway to Heaven. I think that deserves it some special attention, doesn't it?

There's other albums, too: A Hard Day's Night, Eldorado, Leftoverture, and Fragile. A Hard Day's Night was a soundtrack of sorts to the Beatle's first movie. Leftoverture has Kansas's number one song, Carry On Wayward Son. Fragile was a breakthrough album for Yes (and, by extention, the entire prog genre). Eldorado, well, it's not too notable...but I love it, and remember, this is my blog, and if I like it, it goes on here. Also, if one considers Space Oddity to be David Bowie's first album, then that would make Ziggy Stardust his fourth. And we all know what that was famous for.

Ah! I've almost forgotten! Let me never forget that Tommy was the Who's fourth album. That album was almost revolutionary! (Heck, maybe it was!) It was the first album to be billed as a rock opera upon release! Let's never forget that!

So - is it a conspiracy? I think not. Sure, there's plenty of bands with fourth albums that were particularly good, but not enough to constitute a conspiracy. True, a lot of bands had some pretty good fourth albums, some of which are famous enough to say they're legendary. But there were plenty of bands that didn't fit into this pattern. (People like The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, The Steve Miller Band, and Cream didn't have fourth albums that were that famous. And to diehard fans of these bands: I apologize if you don't agree with these descriptions. I've never even heard those guys' fourth albums! But if I haven't heard of them, they probably aren't too famous.) But then, I think that there might be enough evidence present to say that "fourth time's the charm" as far as music goes.

Van Halen.

Van Halen is a good name for a hamster. You know why? Because hamsters scream. Just like Van Halen.

No one calls me Bonzo.

My mum and I got some bon-bons at the store today, and they made me realise something. I have a slight resentment harbored towards them. You see, my real name is Bonnie (though I insist on having people call me Pippin), and when I was a kid, too many people called me Bon-Bon and other such unpleasant nicknames. In fact, it was only when my favorite teacher called me Bonzai did I ever feel the least bit glad to have this name.

Except then I realised something else. I have yet to figure out why nobody's ever called me Bonzo. I mean, it makes sense...you can get it out of Bonnie. Bonzo, for those who don't know, refers to John Bonham, of Led Zeppelin. Most everybody knows that I like Led Zeppelin. (If you didn't know that by now - why didn't you know that already?) And most people I know know that my real name is Bonnie. I wonder why nobody ever put two and two together...hmm...Okay, from this day on, I demand to be called Bonzo! Everybody must call me Bonzo! That is if you're not busy calling me Pippin! I am Bonzo! Fear me!

A Night at the Cinema

I went to the cinema last night with my Mum, Aunt Dee-Dee and Uncle Gary. We saw the film Get Smart. Now, I always liked watching the show Get Smart, and so I was curious to see how the film went up against the show. The film was rather good, though, given a choice, I'd probably rather have the show in the long run. Though, the film is inappropriate in places (admittedly this was not keeping in spirit of the original show, where one would find none of this). This is why we did not take Becky. That and she was having a sleepover. In the end, I'd recommend the film for anyone who wants to be entertained.

Also - I finally got around to listening to Ziggy Stardust. It's incredible, just like Nikki said it would be! (And now I went to the library and I've got three other albums to listen to now...maybe later today.)

It was over before it started.

Guess what? This stinks...My psychologist informed me of the inconvenient truth. No, it has nothing to do with global warming. She told me that most people don't like my English accent and that the majority of my peers find it annoying. As did she. As a result, I no longer speak Scouse. Doesn't that stink? I'm never going to speak like the Beatles again! That is, until I move to Liverpool in revenge to pick up the accent again and start a prog-glam rock band with my best friend who will be living with me there. Yes, I make weird plans for the future. Usually I do not tell people these things. So there went me Scouse accent.

Non sequiturs and a round of edible lime!

Non sequiturs are fun. They also taste rather good. Why do I say this? I was with two of my friends (Sasha and Kolya), and we were having a lovely time together while making non sequiturs. I have no idea what we said exactly, as nobody was writing it down, but I do recall that there were references to such diverse subjects as Teddy Roosevelt, toothbrushes, the sky turning purple, free festivals, the rainfall in Kenya, and the roof coming off and golden flowers (I think) raining down. Have you ever brushed a hippopotamus *?

Also - we decided to play a round of Exquisite Corpse. It's a surrealist game where you begin to write a sentence on a piece of paper and then you hide part of it by folding the paper. Then the next person has to write a little more, and such goes on...I kept telling them we'd play "Exquisite Corpse", except my English accent kept getting in the way and they thought I said "Exquisite Copse". I had to correct them. Sasha did not much care for this name, hence we changed it to Edible Lime. You see, Exquisite Corpse got its name because "Exquisite corpse" was the first part of the first sentence made with that game. The sentence we made was: "The edible lime will be ukuleles to destroy Frankenstein's stale Twinkies growl and die." Actually, if you think about it, Edible Lime sounds like the name of an alchoholic beverage or something. "Oi! Get us another round o' Edible Lime, willya?" (Or some such nonsense.)

Also - Kolya, who is a great David Bowie fan, gave me a copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. (That has to be the longest album title I have ever seen in my life.) I haven't actually gotten around to listening to it, though...I promise I will! Maybe tomorrow!

*This is completely off-topic if you know what I'm talking about.

Be Kind To Your Behind

I just discovered the funniest thing today. My grandma was showing me a little ad in a magazine for Cotonelle toilet paper or something. She thought it was cute that there were tons of puppies on the stairs, but I noticed something hilarious. On the little package of toilet paper in the ad, it had the words "Be Kind to Your Behind" on it. I just thought this was funny. You see, if the joke contains any sort of bathroom humor, I automatically crack up. Perhaps you are one of the more "conservative" members of our population and you fail to see how this is funny. Well, let me tell you something - I bet that, in actuality, you laugh at things like this. Oh, come on. Don't tell me you don't laugh. This sort of thing is absolutely hilarious, I say.

Yay! 4th of July! (and other stuff)

Guess what? Today's the Fourth of July! So happy fourth everybody! Yay! And if you're from England or something - you can vicariously celebrate it with me! Yay!

Anyway...I haven't actually DONE anything for the Fourth yet. We're going to go to my aunt's house for a party. This should be fun. Almost everybody related to us comes to her house (and a couple people who aren't related), and we all swim in her pool and do fun stuff and eat and act like demented monkeys and stuff...yeah...that should be pretty fun. PLus my family and I are going to go see the film Wally. Or is that spelled Wall-E? What a stupidly "creative" spelling...oh well...perhaps the film shall be better than its title.

I've also decided that my fascination with rock and roll is more than, well, just a fascination. It's an addiction. Seriously. I discussed this with Mark, my bass teacher, and we realized I exhibit the symptoms of an addiction. I tried stopping for a day, and I ended up going through withdrawal. Also, I feel an intensive need to get more of it. I used to do one a week. Now I will get lots in one day. Like yesterday. I went and got Fragile (by Yes) at Fry's (Mum told me they sell albums; we went there. It is a glorious haven of beautiful classic rock. Seriously.) And then we went to the library, where I compulsively checked out three more.

And...I was going to say something else...I can't remember it...Oh yeah. Once, I was at church, and there was this kid, and he looked familiar to me. And I couldn't remember why, except then it dawned on me. He looked just like Roger Daltry. From the Who. Yeah...and also I have a friend who looks just like Rick Wakeman from Yes. Yeah...one of these days I'm going to tell him that...maybe...and I like pretending that I look like John Deacon (which is partially not a good thing as I'm a girl)...yeah...weird stuffses...

Classic books + classic rock = classic comedy!

I was looking online for lists of bands that were named after books. (What? I was curious!) I always thought that certain things from Lord of the Rings would make good band names, like, say, Isengard. Come on, who wouldn't be interested in going to see a new concert from ISENGARD?

Anyway - I did find this. I thought, "Yeah, that's real funny. But no song or album puns?" (The only one I could think of, "Horton Hears the Who" was already on there.) So I tried to think of a couple that related to song and album titles as well instead of just bands! Here they are:

The Old Man and the Seven Seas of Rhye
My Fairy King Lear
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Matilda-Mother (this is only funny if you have excessive Pink Floyd knowledge)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Rolling Stones (I think it's funny anyway...)
David Bowie-Copperfield (why is that even funny?)
The Earth, Wind and Fire in the Willows
The Man in the Iron Man Mask (okay, I have officially ceased to be funny...)

Oddly enough, these were already named after classics:
Moby Dick
Piper at the Gates of Dawn

The 10 Longest Songs on my iPod

I decided to do an unusual test. I decided I would pick the 10 longest songs on my iPod and see how long they were averaged. The songs were, in order:

1. Echoes (by the Pink Floyd): 23:31
2. The Gates of Delirium (by Yes): 21:54
3. Voodoo Chile (by the Jimi Hendrix Experience): 15:00
4. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Part 1) (by the Pink Floyd): 13:40
5. 1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) (by the Jimi Hendrix Experience): 13:39
6. Down Once More (from Phantom of the Opera): 12:49
7. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 2) (by the Pink Floyd): 12:31
8. A Saucerful of Secrets (by the Pink Floyd): 12:00
9. I Heard it Through the Grapevine (by Creedence Clearwater Revival): 11:07
10. Achilles Last Stand (by Led Zeppelin): 10:23

Okay, so those are my longest songs. What does this say? Well, it says that Led Zeppelin isn't nearly as long as most people think. (Only one of them got in the top 10, and even then only once.) Also, the Pink Floyd seems to dominate the list, with four songs on the list. (Not to mention the fact that one of their songs, Echoes, is indeed the longest!)

So after I figured out what my top 10 longest songs were, I had to calculate them. So I did. And I figured out that the average length of my top 10 longest songs is something like 14:47. And trust me - that's no short song.

The Brilliance of KISS Guys

A couple days ago, Becky (my sister) and I were talking about Hannah Montana. I have no idea why, except for the fact that she felt like talking about her. (She's into Hannah Montana. A lot.) At any rate, she began to talk about a picture she had seen of her. "She's got all this makeup on!" she said. She went on to describe how much makeup Hannah Montana was wearing. I said this could possibly be because in public, people might not recognize her because of her regular lack of makeup. Then I realized - the guys from KISS were smart. You know KISS? I don't listen to them, but they were those crazy guys in that band, and they wore a lot of makeup. (Look them up online, they look INSANE!) But I realized, that if you wear a bunch of makeup onstage, like KISS (or Hannah Montana) then nobody's going to recognize you in public. Which is sort of a good thing, if you're at all the quiet type.

Which is why I think that the KISS guys had a rather good idea there.

I hath returned!

Observe! I hath returned from holiday! I'm a bit sad that it was cut short (darn those fires...) but I'm okay that I'm home. In fact, I'm quite glad to be home now. I fully intend to do lots of cool stuff while here! Don't ask me what, because I'm not sure, but I will have good time! Hooray!

How my vacation's going so far...

You'll never guess what. At one of the hotels my grandparents and I stopped at while on holiday, there's a computer that you get to use if you're staying at the hotel. And I'm using it now.

Anyway...I can't say my holiday's gone badly. I've had a good time. Though, it turns out we'll be returning sooner than we might have been. You see, there are lots of fires right now where we wanted to go, so now we're going back home and attempting to make the best of it. Actually, I'm not too disappointed. It seems that this year, there are more things at home that I miss (like my friends and the hamsters). I will actually have a nice time at home. Hooray for returning home!

Random ramble (or - stuff I need to say)

Okay. This is going to be a fairly disjointed and confused entry. But then again, when it's with Pippin herself, do they even come in many other flavors?

Okay. I'm feeling conflicted. I'm going on holiday tomorrow with my grandparents. I have everything I need packed up. Except for an album. You see, I fully intend to get a new album today and not listen to it until I leave. Except - which album? Currently I am pondering "The Madcap Laughs" (by Syd Barrett) or "Space Oddity" (by David Bowie - Oddity, not Odyssey, it's Oddity I say!). Anywho...I got the Space Oddity idea from my friend Nikki, who is into Queen, David Bowie, stuff like that...(She also wants to revive glam rock, and in which case, bravo and good-on-ya!) The Madcap Laughs idea...was my own. Admittedly I am a Pink Floyd fan. I'm also a Syd Barrett fan. I want to try one of his solo albums, see if it's any good at all. Promptly weighing the pros and cons of each, I decided that The Madcap Laughs would make me more reflective. However, it would also depress me. Space Oddity is a cool song, and the album has cool songs on it. I've only heard good things about it (musically). The cons...I don't know exactly what it is. Okay, what the heck, I'm going to get Space Oddity! Give Nikki and I one more thing to talk about! *gets Space Oddity* Okay, now I feel better. Arg! More conflict! I now have Space Oddity but I can't listen to it until TOMORROW! Argh!

Album issues aside, yesterday was an important day for Becky and I. It was TWINKY DAY! You see, Becky's never had a twinky. In her life. So we got a box of twinkies and we each had one. I bestowed the noble honor of the twinky knights upon my sister (to be goofy) and then we dug into our twinkies! Yum! Admittedly it was worse than when I last had it, when I was in preschool.

And today I finally figured out information about our favorite song on the radio. (Us meaning my mum and I.) There's this one song we always hear on our radio station (the one that made me sure that I wanted to be a DJ when I grew up). And our favorite song to hear is called "You May Be Right". We had no idea who it was by or even if that was its real name. But I decided to google some of the lyrics I remembered (i.e. "you may be right", "I may be crazy", "It just may be a lunatic you're after", and "there you are alone in your electric chair"). Mum and I like to call it "electric chair" because of that quirky line. Once, when it was on, I, trying to be funny, said, "You know how that guy wrote that song? You see, he was the guy who took out Pink Floyd's trash. We found some of the unfinished lyrics in Roger Waters' wastebasket. He read 'em, liked 'em, and wrote a full song out of it. Naturally Roger Waters got quite mad at him." Mum said: "How do you find all this out?" (The proper answer is: the great Wikipedia!) I said: "It's not a true story..." By the way, turns out that one guy was...Billy Joel. Oh...

At any rate, I've got a good deal of great new music, and I get to go on holiday tomorrow! This is the great Pippin, signing off!

Computer class is over!

Well, you know what this means. My computer class is over. It was real fun, though. We got to show everyone our websites, though. In fact, we're showing them even as I speak. Er, type. Ah, you get the idea...I hope...anyhow, the computer class was a good deal of fun and I'm glad I did it. Hooray!

Webcomic! Yay!

Guess what? I've got me own webcomic. That I do. It's called Sparks, and it's about two guys learning to tolerate each other. Take a look at it if you want to. I'm trying to get better at putting up new comics, and I'll make updates when I put up a new one.

Computer Class

Today I was in computer class. I'm doing a little class where we make websites, you see, and the teacher wanted us to do a blog. However, I was the only one who already had a blog. Hence I didn't have to create one from scratch. I did, however, have to link this from my website. Plus they told me I had to make a post today. So here's the obligatory post of the day.

A Cure for Autism

Ah! First, I want to apologize for lack of postage. Life got busy...sorry, lame excuse, but that's what happened.

Anyhow - one of my friends, her mother and I were discussing how they're trying to get a cure for autism. (I can't recall how we began talking about this, but it occupied the better part of our conversation.) Her mum wanted to know what I thought of this, as I was diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. (My Asperger's used to be more easily seen when I was a kid; I have of late learned how to "hide" it.) Well, here's what I thought of it: I'm pretty sure you can't cure autism in someone who's already got it (I'm kind of an exception, not the least of reason being because I'm not even totally sure I've even got the disorder). However, I think I would be glad if they came up with something that prevented all future births of people with it.

Then again...I guess we appreciate autism, maybe we even need it. But then, what about severe autistics, the ones who can't barely function? I'd love to cure them of their autism, if only there were a way. That's what it all comes down to. But I really wouldn't mind if they found a future prevention. Say, if pregnant women could take a thing that would prevent their baby from having autism. (I don't know if that's possible, it just made sense to me.)

And then I suddenly realised something. We were talking about "spreading the autism gene", if you know what I mean, and I suddenly realised why I don't like guys. I thought there could have been another reason (which was scaring me there and back again), but then I realised why I don't let myself like guys. Liking a guy is the first step towards falling in love with him. And when you fall in love with a guy (or girl if you're a guy), you want to get married. And when you're married, you have children. When you have children, you pass on your genes to them. This means my children, if I had them, might have autism. And I've heard that the children of those with mild autism or something often have a more severe form of it. So that's why I don't let myself like guys. If you read Warriors, you'll know what I mean when I say: I'm a medicine cat and I can't have kits. It's hard, but it's okay for me. I had a good cry about it last night, but now I can let it be.

What is Your Life Rated? Quiz

My life is rated PG!



Your life is rated PG!

What is your life rated? (MPAA Scale)

Take Other Caffeine Nebula Quizzes

And now it's my birthday!

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Today's my actual, official birthday! I'm officially 14 today! Hooray!

I'm a tadbit sorry to stop being 13. I liked it. Acting like a depressed teenager was fun. But oh well. 14 calls me. I leave now.

Woot!

Birthday

Guess what? Yesterday was my birthday. Well, not my official birthday (which is tomorrow), but we had the party yesterday.

My party was a lot of fun. I got mobbed three times by my friends, but I still had a bunch of fun. We played lots of games, including "Mad Gab". Which was fun. Especially because I got to make up my own phrase for it ("Him a grin song" - guess what it is). Then we opened presents. One of cousins played something of a joke on me. She bought me Abbey Road (which I already have), with the gift receipt taped to it. I have full intention of going and exchanging it for an album I don't have. Other things I got were speakers and a dock to put my iPod in (so I can play it aloud in my room), more gift cards than I need, a butter dish (from my uncle who kidnapped me and helped me ask for a butter dish at the video store), and - a very ugly statuette of a duck. My dad gave me that one. We call it the "ugly duck" (say ugly like oogly, like you've got a British accent or something), and it used to live in a furniture store near our house. Whenever we took a walk, we'd go over to that store and admire its ugliness. It's a red duck with two left feet, and it's holding a bouquet of fake green flowers. It is tacky. Truly. I was half excited, half angry to have gotten it. Though I thanked mum and dad anyway. In revenge, however, I put the duck on the stairs that lead to mum and dad's bedroom.

So I had a lovely day yesterday, and today's my last day of being thirteen. Fourteen, here I come!

Kidnapped

Since my birthday is tomorrow (well, not really; it's really on the 27th, but we're having the party tomorrow), my Aunt Diane, Uncle Gary and Cousin Jhenya (Jhenya's not their daughter, by the way) decided to do something fun with me. They're rather strange people, though, with a strange sense of humor. So, they played a round of ding-dong-ditchit with me, and I found a long piece of cardboard, like a poster, in front of the door. It had gnomes taped to it (yes, real garden-gnomes; they know I hate gnomes), and it basically said "We are kidnapping you!" Then they came, wearing bizarre little animal noses (you know, those fake animal noses that you wear on a string in front of your real nose) and other paraphenalia. They blindfolded me and took me into their car. Except then I realized I needed my shoes. So my mum came with my shoes, and I had to put them on blindfolded, and I kept yelling for my raincoat (there was no need for a raincoat).

Properly dressed, I was ushered into the car, and they drove off with me, taking me to who-knows-where. I pretended to be able to see without my eyes, and I pretended I knew what they were doing. My sister (who had come along) got rather a kick out of this. And then I started pretending to scream out the window. Then I began a rendition of "They're Coming to Take me Away, Ha-Haa!" All while blindfolded.

Finally we got to where we were going. Apparently they were taking me to a mall-type place, with a bunch of stores, restaurants, a cinema, ect. We went to a pet store, where we looked at puppies and hamsters, and then they took me on a ferris wheel that was there! It was so fun! And then we went to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, which was fun. We all said weird things at the table (funny weird things). After that, I insisted they take me to Barnes and Noble, so I went into the CD section and started looking at all the CD's. Then Jhenya and I started talking about long songs, and we realized how rediculously long 23 minutes is for a song. We left, but after persistent badgering in the car that we do so, they took me to a video store. I did not tell them why, but finally when we were there, I informed them that I had the intention to ask the people who worked there if they had any butter dishes. I did so, and to great comic effect. And then they took me home.

As you can see, it was a great deal of fun. I can't wait for tomorrow.

I Just Realized...

....Freezer-burned cheese is probably one of the most disgusting substances on earth.

Official Mentally Disordered Peoples' Meeting

I was at a party last night (a graduation party, as I'm going into high school next year). There were tons of people there, and we all went to a restaurant called the Macaroni Grill. Well, there was a sheet of paper instead of a tablecloth, and I got the bright idea to draw stuff on it with my pencils. I had a dementedly good time with that. And while we were all waiting for our food, I started to hold an "Official Mentally Disordered People's Meeting". Of course, there was only really one other person I knew who was mentally disordered there, so I pretended all the utensils and stuff at the table had mental disorders. Except then the pepper died of depression (guess what that means). So then I just started diagnosing the stuff there. The jar of oil was OCD, the packets of sugar were hypomanic, the pepper was depressed, my cup was clinically insane, the meat had MPD, the straws were anorexic, the knife had anger management issues, and the table had them all. And me? I was their autistic ringleader.

Last Night

I got high last not. Not on drugs, but on my dad's rock and roll. You see, he's in a band with some of his friends, and they had a concert last night. The band is called Me and Them (which is quite funny). They do a lot of benefit concerts, and they did one last night. It was the best this time, because they recently got a drummer for their band. Previously, they were good. Now they're great. I remember just sitting there, watching them perform. The music came at me like a great sonic blast or something, and I remember absorbing it and just having the time of my life. Gino (my friend) filmed it. Hopefully it'll be appearing on YouTube someday...

By the way: my website is giving away free hamsters now! And you don't even have to enter into anything to get one! Click here for details.

Stupid Warning Labels

I somehow stumbled upon this site. I was reading the part with the warning labels. Man, are those FUNNY! Nothing makes me laugh more than to think how stupid people have been. My dad always says that whenever there's a stupid warning label, then it means that someone actually tried it. Here's some of the funniest:

"Caution: The contents of this bottle should not be fed to fish." -- On a bottle of shampoo for dogs. (Uh...*tries to imagine someone feeding it to a fish*)
"Warning: This product can burn eyes." -- On a curling iron. (Well, duh!)
"Caution: This is not a safety protective device." -- On a plastic toy helmet used as a container for popcorn.
"Do not eat toner." -- On a toner cartridge for a laser printer. (Someone had to have been really stupid to get this one out there.)
"Not intended for highway use." - On a 13-inch wheel on a wheelbarrow.
"Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth." -- On a novelty rock garden set called "Popcorn Rock." (May lead to broken teeth?)
"Caution: Shoots rubber bands." -- On a product called "Rubber Band Shooter." (Well duh!)
"Please keep out of children." -- On a butcher knife.
"Do not look into laser with remaining eye." -- On a laser pointer. (Which raises the question of where the other eye went...hmm...*goes and looks for missing eye*)
"Do not use as ear plugs." -- On a package of silly putty. (I'm laughing as I imagine some mentally challenged person using these as earplugs...)
"Twist top off with hands. Throw top away. Do not put top in mouth." -- On the label of a bottled drink. (Which is funny, as I put the top in my mouth all the time.)

Also, I once saw my own personal silly warning. Once, my dad got me a little "Fruit-by-the-Foot" thing, and I (ever the reader) was reading the label. I pointed out, "Dad, look. It says 'Warning: Do not eat paper backing."

Hamsters

I took some pictures of the hamsters and thought they were worth putting up:

This is Jude, my hamster.

We named him after Hey Jude.

This is Jude meeting Roger, the other hamster.

I think Jude would probably eat Roger.

This is Fluffy, my sister's hamster.

It is not a Tribble.

Everything I needed to know I learned from Pink Floyd

I just realized today that Pink Floyd can teach you a lot about life. If you don't believe me, then here, I'll show you:

"Don't take drugs."

"Life stinks. Build a wall."

"Sometimes people will fire you just 'cause they don't like you."

"Fire someone, and when you resign, they'll come right back in again."

"Be at least a little whimsical."

"It's not a good idea to have insane members in your band."

"Write 20 minute songs if it makes you feel good."

If I Was a DJ

The other day, my mum and I were driving in the car for some errands of ours, and we were listening to the radio. If you know me, then you know I love Queen, and so I was very excited when we tuned in during the middle of "We Will Rock You". That's actually the first time we've ever heard a Queen song on the radio. The next songs after that were all very good ones that we knew. Except it didn't last, and then they played some baaad ones.

This got me to say something like, "If I was a DJ, I'd only play good songs!" And then, being the imaginative person I am, I started rambling on about what I'd do exactly. I got it into my head that being a DJ, I could play whatever songs I liked, provided that I either had them or the radio station had them (I'm of the impression that DJ's can bring their own music from home, provided nobody's banned it from radio.) I also got it into my head that I'd play whole albums on occasion. Isn't that a lovely idea? I mean, 30-40 minutes of pure albumy beauty! Then Mum said, "What albums do you like start to finish?" Plenty, actually. Queen II comes to mind, as does A Night at the Opera. Then there's Dark Side of the Moon, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Wish You Were Here, ect. Plus I like Eldorado start to finish. (Actually, it's a little wrong to listen to it otherwise.) That's what I'd do if I was a DJ. Maybe I'll have to become one when I grow up!

Pippin's got a gig!

Torch, the band I'm in, has its first gig today. We get to play for a bunch of kids at our church, which ought to be fun. In fact, it would be great...provided I didn't have a sore throat and I have to sing. Everyone (except the ever-so-busy drummer) has to sing in our band, and I'm no exception, even when I'm busy playing bass. I ate a waffle and peanut butter this morning, and I suppose it has medicinal qualities, as my throat felt better after consuming it. I wonder, was it the waffle part or the peanut butter part that helped me most? Who cares.

I'll update this when I return from my gig, to tell everyone how it went. 

Update:

Okay, I got back from my gig. It was pretty good. I mean, we weren't perfect, and David (our singer-slash-keyboardist) wouldn't stop talking while my dad was doing the sound checks, so there was this bad rumbling noise throughout the whole thing. I intend to have a long talk with him next time I see him. Gino, our drummer, was probably the best of us. Sadie (the guitarist) made a mistake during our last song, and we almost messed up, and I, who was supposed to sing, didn't sing throughout the whole thing (plus I hit some bad notes on my bass). Gino didn't do anything wrong, and (shame on us), he was the only one who thanked Dad for setting up everything. But hey, it's a good start. Also, Gino and his mum videotaped the whole thing. We're going to see about putting it up on YouTube. Hey, didn't you hear? We're the next big thing in music!

Stairway to Heaven Backwards?

Okay, I suppose we all know what happens when you listen to Stairway to Heaven backwards. In case you don't: you're supposed to hear these crazy backwards messages. You can look it up on YouTube. Anyhow, I was curious: it works when you listen to the studio version of the song, song by Led Zeppelin (Robert Plant, actually, but hey - that's not exactly important right now). Why not if you sing it yourself?

So that's what I tried. Using the audio editor program Audacity, I recorded myself singing the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven, except I didn't slur my words like Robert Plant does in the recording. Ever noticed how he always seems to slur his words weirdly on those Zeppelin recordings, eh? Well, I sang the words correctly, and I discovered that I could just barely hear some of it. But otherwise, I could hear none of it. Badgers, I don't know what this means. I guess that all we can gather from this is that it doesn't work when  you use proper pronunciation.

Introduction

Behold. I have begun to write a blog! O joy!

Or not.

At any rate, I have begun to write my blog. As such, I feel the need to introduce myself to the world. My name is Pippin (not really, but it's what I make people call me), and I am a crazy genius. At least I seem to be genius. Maybe I'm just crazy. I am a writer, drawer, singer-songwriter, and hats-wearer. I like to read Redwall, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, the Inheritance Cycle, Warriors, and a few others. A true classic-rock-lover, I like listening to Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Cream, Electric Light Orchestra, Simon and Garfunkel, and other people. I have pet hamsters, and I love them so. I also have an unusual look on life, sort of an idea that my life is a great story...oh never mind the philosophical-ness.

Let it be known. Pippin the Genius has come!

(By the way: I run this site.)