Arianna's Extended Blog for the 18th of June, 2010

I have just less than one week left of school. We get out at 12:50, a week from today. I can hardly believe I have less than a week left of being an eighth grader.

Well, my last weekend was rather fun. Our friends from America were visiting. They came on Friday, and on Monday they left with my dad - they're hiking or climbing mountains or whatever outdoorsy people like them do. We went hiking once (after a long period of deliberation from yours truly) and that was okay, though I was tired.

I think they also went to the park after that, but I don't remember on exactly which day that was. It doesn't really matter. We had fun with them and I think they'll be back today, or tomorrow.

What else is new? My stevia plant is dying, which is really rather sad. I guess it's one less thing for me to do, because I almost forget to water it a lot of the time. Just a few days ago brown splotches started to appear on lots of the leaves, and they just shriveled up and died. Even though others are still okay, they're probably gonna die, anyway.

On a happier note, though not for my brother, I poured a glass of water on someone the day before yesterday. Let me tell you, it was fun. My mom didn't even punish me, even though my brother was pretty mad. I've always wanted to do that and I finally got to. I guess that crosses one of the things I've always wanted to do in life off my list.

In terms of school, everything's winding down. We had a math test and I got 100%, even though I sort of got a question with scientific notation wrong. Rather than putting 1.75 * 10^4, I put 17.5 * 10^3. Technically, that's wrong, but my teacher said it was okay. All I know is that I'm going to be getting into the highest math class next year. I'm so glad. The classes are mixed up until now and it's horrible when everything has to be taught to the lowest common denominator.

I haven't written on TwigWriSum in over a week. I haven't been procrastinating, I've been telling myself, I've been taking a break. But the story I'm working on seems so horrible and unrealistic and I really hate what's been happening. I just don't like it, and I know that if I continue it'll get worse.

That's why I've decided that I'm going to go for another goal. It's sort of like being a Nanowrimo rebel, except for this isn't Nanowrimo, it's TwigWriSum. My goal - I don't want to put it like that, because that makes it seem like it's something which I will eventually achieve - is to finish a complete novel by the end of the summer.

A complete, good novel. I don't want to have one-dimensional characters, and I don't want to have the same, boring writing I always do. I want to have a plot with twists and turns but which still makes the reader go "Oooh, I should have known that was coming!", and I want to be able to tell the voices of each and every one of my characters apart.

Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll develop a nice writing style. For now, my style is blunt and boring. I describe stuff, but not too much, not too little. I don't overuse words and sometimes I'll even have a sentence which is just inherently lovely. The problem is that my style is boring, it's common, and it's useless.

I'm not sure exactly on which story I'm going to be writing on, but I might attempt to write another one, just for fun. I know, I'm not going to win and it's probably going to hurt to design a certificate but not be able to fill it out. But I think that for me as a writer, it's the best thing to do.

For me as a programmer, there are also things I'd like to do over the summer. I haven't been able to get on PixelPuppy for more than a long time now. It's been more than two and a half weeks now, and the lovely people at our internet provider don't seem to know how to fix it. At least I can get on at school, but I can hardly do anything there.

I'm almost done with programming the recode of TwigAdopts. I've rambled on about this enough before, but it's really important to me. I read somewhere that goals are necessary in any project, and even though TwigAdopts isn't a big project compared to what 'real' developers do, it's a big project for me. I'm going to draw a clear outline, set myself daily goals, and make sure I know what the finish line is. When I'm done, I'll update.

I run the site off something called the Rusnak PHP Adoptables right now, if you didn't know. It's open-source, but not in spirit. I don't know much about open-source, but this project is by one developer and it isn't really that good. I can write better code, and I'm an eighth (for a few more weeks) grader.

That brings me to the inner debate I'm having - should I or should I not make the script I'm writing open-source? It's taken me a lot of time, sure, and I've put a whole lot of work into it. My dad says that it's people like me who make open-source possible. I feel like some kind of preschooler here, lecturing my peers about how to produce famous pieces of art when I can hardly draw a stickman myself, but I'm really not sure. On one hand, I'd be helping the community and maybe eclipsing this original script. On the other hand, I'm not sure how the original developer would feel about it. Maybe he'd even feel like I took his idea, even though I've added so many things. Also, what if there end up being security flaws? Would it be a good thing to have people point them out so I can fix them, or would it just make TwigAdopts more vulnerable to attacks?

I'm not really sure, but I think I'm leaning towards the open-source bit of my opinions. If you have an opinion on this, or even just want to say what you think would be good, please do.

On a completely unrelated note, we've been watching the movie 2012 in geography class. We also watched Cheaper by the Dozen 2 in Spanish class, in Spanish with English subtitles, but that isn't as scary as the theory that the world's going to end in two and a half years.

I don't believe that it will, of course, but there are other things which could happen. The only movies (other than documentaries) that we watch in geography in history are apocalyptic ones. This year it's been Supervolcano and 2012, but last year we watched the Day After Tomorrow. I loved that film, really.

But even though the movies are cool to some extent, I like apocalyptic fiction more. I can't find any good stories about it, though. There are some short stories about it on this one site I've been reading lately, but not enough novel-length ones. I guess it doesn't matter, it'd just be interesting to read more books like Life as We Knew It. I can't write apocalyptic stuff myself. I don't know why, I just can't.

And another complete subject change - I've been thinking of starting a blog for quite a while. Originally it was supposed to be just a blog - you know, what I'm doing right now - but I've decided that I'm going to be posting not only my Twig blogs on it, but my freewriting too. I was also considering book reviews, which I may or may not do, and rants. For the rants, I'll probably stick to the Mweor rant board.

Anyway, if you'd like to visit the (probably rather boring) blog, I'll post a link to it sometime. That is, if I even deem it worthwhile reading. Most of the things I post on it I'll be posting to Twig, so it's not like that matters.

For whichever reason, I've been amazingly tired every morning this week. I'm so happy that it's weekend now, and then just four and five sevenths of a day until we have holidays. The next day we'll be heading to Greece, and soon enough we'll be back in Austria. A bit after my birthday we'll visit the US, where we'll see my grandparents and friends and do lots of fun things - or at least, I hope.

I was also wondering what your opinion is on me having topical blogs. I'd start this at the beginning of the summer and talk about what I feel like talking about - but about one subject in particular. Still posted every Friday, and still boring as usual, just about one thing in particular. I don't have much to speak about during the summer, or at least I don't think I will, so it seems like a good option.

I've decided not to leave questions at the end of this blog. Sometimes I do, because I've just rambled on about nothing in particular, but I think that I've covered enough topics here to warrant a comment or two.

Even if you don't reply, I hope you didn't feel like my blog was a waste of your time. I'm rather proud of this, because I haven't used any smilies, at all - and yet, I've expressed my opinions well enough.

Thanks for reading!

Arianna

That sucks about the plant. Dx Don't worry, I always kill the plants I try to grow.

Congrats on getting 100%!

Well, good luck with your novel, Ari. I personally think your writing style is awesome, but if you think it needs changing, then good luck. :3

Ooh, I love Supervolcano. We watched it last year and it was pretty cool. Was 2012 any good?

A blog sounds cool. I'd love to have a link if you decide to start it up.

Where are you going in the US? Florida? ^^

-highfive-
I just feel so sorry for it. It looks half alive now. Some of the leaves are all brown and crunchy, and the rest are all green and lively and happy. xD

Thanks. (:

Yeah, Supervolcano was cool. 2012 is a good movie, but I much preferred The Day After Tomorrow. I think it was made by the same director, but in 2012, even though there are great graphics, some of the things they do look really unrealistic.

http://arianna157.wordpress.com/
There's nothing there yet, but oh well. ^^ I'll start today by posting my freewriting.

I'm afraid not. Just Colorado and Idaho, I think. Maybe California too? What I shame.
I still want a Twig convention. ._. That'd be soooo fun.

Yeah, we grew this plants for life science, and erm, I accidentally stepped on mine the day it started to sprout. XD

You're welcome. ^^

Yeah, I get what you mean. I want to see both of those movies.

-bookmarks- Ooh, I love the banner!

Aw. D: Well, Colorado and Idaho will be fun.
And I know! If we have one, though, it should be in FL. xD

Well, that was smart of you. xD

If you only get to see one, for whichever reason, TDAT is better. Just saying. xD

I should get to posting something... -thinks- Nah, maybe tomorrow. (This might go on for a few weeks. xD)

Nooooo, the Twig convention should be in Colorado.

I think you should make the code open-source. :3 Just have some people run around and test it out first, or something? (Lol, I really don't know much about it, though. XD So I really hope I understand what you're asking us.)

I'd like to see your blog when you make it! ^^

I think topical blogs are cool, but you don't always have to do them. :3

And sorry I commented so . . . late. XD I totally missed your blog somehow.

That means I'mma have to ask the glitch queen for help again. AMANDAAAAAA! xD I'm really gonna need her to test it, open-source or not. xD

-points at link-

I'll try doing them every second week or something in the summer and see how that works out. xD

It's totally fine. ^^ (Though I do have to admit I did notice. xD)