[Something closer to very insane] - A tale of the girl who looks clueless

Hm, I figured now would be a good time to update this blog, it's been a few weeks, hasn't it?

Let's see. I turned nineteen!

I will admit, this is kind of scary. Turning my last teenage year coupled with the last Harry Potter movie coming out... I feel like my childhood is ending. I don't know how to act like a grownup! I'm not ready to not be a teenager. I am, likewise, not ready for the Harry Potter Saga to be over. It's been a part of my life since I was seven! Oh noes! :( I'm sure I will figure out how to go on without a new installment of my beloved childhood friend... and not being a teenager.

It's inevitable, but I can't help but get into the slightly panic mode of keysmashing at the thought. LSAKdf;lasjdf Woe is me.



My friend has been linking me to all these blogs. They're all blogs about normal everyday things, but they're so interesting. The writing itself, you know?

I want to write like that!

I'm not sure how one does that, write in such a way that you can turn the most mundane things into interesting posts full of clever wit and fun words. I still can't write a short story properly to save my life, so we'll see. Maybe one day I'll figure out how that works. (Maybe you have to be an interesting person? Hm, I'll have to work on that too.)



On the subject of writing. Have I declared my love for Neil Gaiman?

The man is seriously amazing. He's gotten into my top 15 favorite authors and he's just utterly fantastic. He's the writer for Mirror Mask (which I have not read, but I loved the movie) and Stardust (which I have read and adored. The movie was great too.) He also wrote the Graveyard Book, which is basically the Jungle Book only in a cemetery. Amazing read.

One of my favorites of his (in a slightly disturbing matter) is his short story retelling Snow White. You know, I hate the disney version because it feels so fake and vapid... However, the original tale and all the retellings are usually much more gruesome. I enjoy it, in a morbid fashion.

His short story on the tale is found here. Tis quite amazing.


Jared once observed that all the Laulusa girls' favorite authors are male female (as Suki has pointed out). Suki and I were quick to prove him wrong, but it made me think about my favorite authors and how many of them there are. I'm definitely the type of person to find an author I like and then proceed to write everything they've written until I've exhausted their supplies (the exception being Ray Bradbury, I'm surprisingly lacking in that department. Will resolve as soon as possible.) - Anyways, I decided to list my top 15 favorite authors.

In no particular order, just as I name them off the top of my head.


1. Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game will continue to be one of my favorite forever books. He's Mormon! He's probably one of the greatest idols in my life, I adore him. I am slightly obsessed with his short stories about dreams.)

2. Ray Bradbury (His short story on Abraham Lincoln's assassination is so compelling. Fahrenheit 451 will never not be utterly fantastic. I love his vivid writing style.)

3. Shannon Hale (Goose Girl is another all time favorite of mine. I wish her continuations of that verse had contained the same fairytale wonderfulness. I enjoyed them, but Goose Girl is the best. Princess Academy is also pretty great.)

4. Robin McKinley (Sunshine is the best vampire book I have ever read... and one of the best books I've read in general. Aerin is one of my heroes. Beauty is a fantastic book... I could go on and on about her.)

5. Terry Pratchett (The day his stories stop getting written will be tragic. His Discworld series is one of my favorites and I just... There are no words. I don't even have a favorite book of his, I love them all. I am, however, overly fond of... well, actually, I like all the characters in Discworld.)

6. JK Rowling (She may not be the most brilliant writer, but she's an amazing storyteller and Harry Potter will forever be my childhood. It's all I need for her to be here.)

7. Anne McCaffery (I've mostly read her Pern series, but that's also another part of my childhood. Ruth and Ramoth are my favorite dragons, F'lar and Lessa are my favorite dragonriders, and I used to have a major crush on Robinton. He makes me want Benden wine to exist.)

8. Neil Gaiman (I've already spoke about what books I love but I just lovelovelove his writing style. It's just... I don't know, I like it.)

9. Patricia C. Wrede (I found her because of her Dragons series and AHAHA, it's epic. I love the humor and characters. She's written some other great stuff like magicians in England and stuff like that.)

10. Isaac Asimov (I admittedly haven't read much of him either, but his robot stories always had this quality that strikes deep. It's an interesting topic to touch into, I think. I loved how everything went back to the Rules and how you can bend and twist clearly stated things.)

11. Cornelia Funke (She's written many stories I've enjoyed from her Thief Lord to the Inkheart series and Dragon Rider. I think it's amazing how well the books were translated!)

12. JRR Tolkien (I feel like I'm being predictable saying his name but the Lord of the Rings trilogy was something I read as a kid. Love them. And the Hobbit! I've read some of his other stuff, but I cannot bring it to mind if I liked it or not...)

13. CS Lewis (Another rather predictable one, I suppose... Narnia, anyone? But he's written some other great things like the Screwtape letters.)

14. Tamora Pierce (I'm not sure if there's anything of her's I haven't liked. Alanna's is my favorite set, but all her books are pretty epic. I liked her Tortall books over her Circle of Magic books.)

15. Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I also like a Salmon Of Doubt, which isn't exactly fiction, but he's such an enjoyable writer. I wasn't really aware of him when he passed away though. I feel like I missed out on an epic era of towel toting.)



There are more. Many more. I feel like I'm missing several very vital ones, but I cannot think of them at this time... Oh well.

I realize this is totally pointless and not all that reflective on my life, but I figured it was something to post about. Posting later about China and all that once I get a bit more information, right, right?

Also, I think I should change my layout. Hmmm. Not sure about that one yet.
Edit: Changed! :D With lots of color, because I love color.

My, oh my.

So a lot of things have happened in the past... week or so. Around last November, I had switched to the Fall track (Aug-Dec) for my Chinese exchange from spring (Feb-June).

I get a call on Saturday asking me if I can please switch back to Spring because they're short teachers and they're willing to knock six-hundred bucks off the deal.

... Long story short, I'm going to China in February.

My face right now is something like this.

+_+
♥_♥
X_X
n_n
^_^

Oh, and if we're going into horizontal faces, it's something like this.

8D
)8
8D

8DDDDDDDDDDDDD


Anyways...

Departure date is approximately on the 9th of February and for the most part, things are taken care of... except for the actual packing and what not. Nana is a gem and wants to buy some of the wintery clothes I'll need and what not. ♥ Mom is using me as slave labor in exchange for a shiny MinoHD from Flipvideo. (See it here). My camera lust, can you feel it? I've been wanting this little baby for a while now. Nothing near to an actual, for the real camera, but for me, it's beyond awesome. I am excite!

If you happened to be giving me a birthday present (it's coming up on the 22nd ^.~)... well, normally I'm not one to ask for something, but in this case, I'm going to ask for cash. Impersonal, I know, but the green stuff gets you places. For one, I have paid for the exchange, but there's always things to do abroad. (And you all want something when I come back, right?) - also, there's this matter of trying to get a new iPod. Unfortunately I doubt I'll get my hands on one of those this time around. Must find a cheaper replacement for my iPod that went kaput! (The one I'm looking at is this one though... aish, when did they discontinue the 80GB one? Sigh. Obviously out of my reach right now.)

In any case, I am excited. I've never been out of the country before! Uwaa, such a new experience. And no, I don't speak Chinese. I am part Chinese though, so this is also something important as a kind of heritage thing. Which reminds me, I need to ask Dad some questions... Except wait! The Dad is actually home now. Hm. Oh well, I still need to ask him stuff.

I also feel slight victory at being the first of the Laulusa kids to be out of the US (five minutes in Canada does not count.)

If I were to try and express the excite-ness but it would look something like this below. ↓

LSKD:FJLS KDJF:LSJFLSDJF:LKJ!!! LKSJDF:L SKJFSLKDJF ~!!!! lKJ:LDFKJ: LSDKJF ♥♥♥♥♥♥

... Something like that. In any case... Yes. I should get back to cleaning something up.

OH WAIT!

Pictures for you all. Taken from the ILP website from the various Chinese locations (There are 8 in total and I probably won't know where I'm going until next week, maybe longer...)

Aren't they adorable?♫

Prettyyyyyyy. Cuuuuuute. *wibbles*