So much for posting more often during the summer...

I have a knack for making summer resolutions and then completely blowing them off. Let's see... I planned to finish my summer reading by the end of June, finish a third of my summer artwork by the end of July, stay well-hydrated, post more frequently on my blog, practice my viola a lot, get my room cleaned before CIY, emailing my friends from Colombia (it's so much harder to read and write a language I don't understand, and Babelfish doesn't help much)... the list goes on and on.

Right now, as you can see, I'm starting on the goal of posting more often. It was brought to my attention on Saturday that I haven't posted since the first of July in the year of our Lord two thousand and eight. I'm currently working on two or three posts, but they could take a while. Especially now that I've forgotten how to use the scanner.

So I guess the point of this was just to say that I do intend to write more. I think my next post will be on my artwork, even though I've written on it in the past and the pictures are on Facebook. The old pictures weren't nearly as good as Ronda's old ones, I've finished several more since my last discussion on art, none of my sketchbook assignments were in the last batch of photos, and I can't really critique them all on Facebook. Well, I suppose I could critique them all on Facebook, but I'm choosing not to.

I'm done rambling for now, so, in the words of Tigger, ta-ta for now!

Podcasts

I've recently become a podcast junkie. Some of the ones I've listened to are good, others are not. Here's a look at some of them. They have been rated according to the five-star system, but I have no Alt code for a star, so instead I'm using eighth notes. ♫ = one star ♪ = one half star. As usual (for me, anyway), this list has been put in alphabetical order.

• Awesome Vocabulary: Learn English Vocabulary Words Podcast ♪
  Don't download this podcast. They're normally seven minutes long, with five of these minutes devoted to monotonous, redundant ramblings from the host. Of the "awesome vocabulary" he's introduced, I haven't learned a single new word. My fifth grade sister would know all of them.
  
  
• Cleveland Celtic Podcast ♫♫♫♪
  This is a decent one. The hostess makes a podcast of Irish and Celtic music (both traditional music and music influenced by the culture) roughly an hour long at sporadic intervals. Some of the songs aren't exactly to my liking for various reasons, but I enjoy the vast majority of them. The most recent podcast has marked a change in style that I hope doesn't persist, but it may well do so. According to a survey taken by the hostess, more listeners want more Celtic rock than otherwise. Many of the songs featured on the newest podcast aren't that great. Plus, I truly do like the traditional tunes, and I don't want them to disappear from this podcast.
  
  
• Grist: Environmental Podcast ♫♪
  Since it's almost entirely politics and delivered in a remarkably dull and unenthusiastic voice, I don't like this podcast all that much. I have never managed to actually pay attention to one all the way through, so I have nothing more to say about this podcast.
  
  
• IndieFeed Alternative/Modern Rock Channel ♫♫♫
  This one gives you one song per week from an indie band. I promptly delete at least 50% percent of the episodes I hear, and after listening to each of the remaining songs one or two times more, I get rid of a quarter to a third of those that lasted the first round. In general, the songs aren't that great. Sometimes they're so horrible I can't bear to listen to the whole thing. However, a fair amount of them are decent, and every once in a while I come across a real gem that makes it into my top lists, so I keep IndieFeed.
  
  
• Irish and Celtic Music Podcast ♫♫♫♫♪
  Another excellent Irish podcast. It tends to repeat songs in multiple episodes and the host has an annoying voice. It doesn't help that he sounds a bit tipsy in some of the episodes. Other than that, it's a wonderful podcast.
  
  
• Learn Spanish: Survival Guide to Spanish ♫♫♫♪
  Well, this one teaches Spanish pretty well. I can't say I'm all that excited about it right now. I'd love to learn another language, but right now I don't have time for what I do already, let alone time to add anything else. Plus, Spanish would not be my first choice. However, since I'll be in Colombia for a week this summer, learning a bit of survival Spanish would certainly be useful.
  
  
• Let My People Think (RZIM)
  RZIM stands for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, so you know it's got to be good. Unfortunately, that's all I have to say right now about this podcast. I just discovered it, so I haven't listened to a whole episode yet.
  
  
• Living Planet ♫♫♫♫
  I'm rather fond of Living Planet, brought by Deutschewelle Radio. It covers fascinating environmental topics from all points of view, not just from the standpoint of ardent environmentalists.



• MicrobeWorld Radio ♫♫♫♫
  What's not to love about one-minute snippets of the latest news concerning microbiology? Short and informative, this one makes the microbiologist in me smile and appreciate the beauty and fascination of microscopic life.



• National Geographic Minutes ♫♫♫♫♪
  Varied as the articles in the magazine itself are the topics that these one-minute podcasts address. Anything from spiderwebs to the Berlin Wall to Mona Lisa's voice could be subject matter for this delightful podcast. They are no longer making new episodes, but you can probably still download the old ones if you take interest in them.
  
  
• Natural History Radio: World on the Move ♫♫♫
  This is a radio show powered by BBC. I was not aware of this when I downloaded it, but it's devoted entirely to migratory animals. It's okay, but there are definitely more exciting things on the planet.
  
  
• One Minute How-To ♪
  Don't download this one either. The primary purpose of the podcast is for the guest speaker to advertise their service or product for a few minutes after explaining something that's rarely profound. Plus, the intro music is exceedingly annoying. You may, however find the "How To Talk Like a Pirate" episode interesting, wherein Ol' Chumbucket and Cap'n Slappy explain a few key words to be used on ITLAPD.



• One Minute Irish ♫♫♫
  Similar to my issue with the Spanish podcast, I just don't have time for another language right now. Unlike my issue with the Spanish podcast, Irish would be towards the top of the list of languages I want to learn. These lessons come in shorter doses than the Spanish podcast, which is nice.
  
  
• The Math Factor ♫♫♫♫♫
  I love this one. It's short, entertaining (in a math nerd sort of way), and it makes me think while simultaneously exercising my inner math geek. Every week, a math professor from the University of Arkansas and some other guy introduce a math problem to all listeners and normally give the answer to the previous week's question. I highly recommend this. If you aren't really the math sort, there are also several episodes with logic puzzles that may intrigue you.



• They Might Be Giants Podcast ♫♫♫♫
  There are only three episodes of this one available. The second is just an interview, so I never finished listening to it. The other two are mostly music, and it's well performed nerdy music too.
  
  
• TIME's GreenCast ♫
  Aside from the horrible sound quality compounded by the fact that the interviewees often have thick accents, I have no complaints about the GreenCast. Probably because I can't understand what's being said half the time. What I do hear seems to be rather repetitively redundant over and over again. I doubt I'm missing anything too exciting or valuable now that I've opted out of this one.
  
  
• Treehugger Radio ♫
  To be honest, I chose this one knowing it would be bad, and intending to make fun of it. It was bad, but not even the kind of bad that's fun or amusing to ridicule. It's about people's inspirational life stories involving the environment. I didn't last an entire episode, and I don't plan on going back for more.

Facebook

I really don't like Facebook. Yet now I'm a part of it. Urgh. But it's valuable enough for communication purposes that I suppose I will keep it.

I hate how every little change you make instantly shows up on your profile page! Is there no privacy? I mean, it's not like I'm taking part in unspeakable atrocities through facebook that need to be hidden from the world, I'm just a private person who doesn't really want people to be able to monitor everything she does on facebook. For example, I removed my relationship status in order to avoid the possible uncomfortable situations which some of my friends have encountered, and people instantly make assumptions. Incorrect assumptions, I may add. I suppose they've now learned what happens when you make assumptions. Do people really have nothing better to do with their time than to check everyone's mini-feeds to see what they've changed?

I do like the pieces of flair though. It's like a virtual version of the front of my purse!

Adventures in Driving II

It's the second adventure I've typed anyway. Driving mishaps happen pretty much whenever I go somewhere new.

This one actually came to pass on Monday, and I started writing about it on Monday, but then I forgot about it. I was trying to reach the not-so-distant land of Colerain, where Chuck E. Cheese, Half Price Books, and Ihop live so I could visit Home Depot to find some lovely flowers to plant in Ronda, Michael, and Kate Corbin's yard. I knew I had to get on Ronald Reagan, but for some reason it never occurred to me to ask my mom which direction I should be going. I chose east Ronald Reagan. I chose incorrectly. We had passed Blue Ash, narrowly (and an eensy bit illegally) escaped an entrance ramp onto the dreaded valley of horrors know as I-71 (or something-else-71), and come to the end of the Ronald Reagan freeway by the time we were positive that we weren't in the right place. A phone call verified that we had gone the wrong direction. Fortunately, the exit we took landed us in Montgomery, the least shady place you could ask for when trying to turn around in an unfamiliar place.

Eventually, we reached the Colerain Home Depot. We left that place to seek out Ronda's Fairfield home. The directions I wrote from what my mom dictated to me told me to turn on "Reysor". We drove all the way through Fairfield (crossing my old enemy, Dixie Highway, in the process) before realizing that we were once again lost. I turned around. Again. As we headed back, a song began to play on my iPod. This same song played in the last Driving Adventure I chronicled on this blog. It seems to choose the perfect moments to come up in the shuffle. The chorus of this song goes like this: "Maria, Maria, Maria, where did you go?". My brother about killed himself laughing. On the way back through Fairfield, I saw a street that I was pretty sure would take me to the Corbin house by a back route. For some odd reason, Jonathon was against that. I can't imagine why (I checked with Ronda later, and the street actually would have gotten me there just as I had thought it would). As we drove, it occurred to my brother and sister that they could help look for the street if they knew what it was called. I told them its name, and they spotted it shortly thereafter. Apparently, it was spelled "Resor" rather than "Reysor", but sometimes I only see the exact thing that I'm looking for.

Summer Reading

So today I succumbed to my summer addiction and read a book completely unrelated to any current responsibilities.

I received Twilight by Stephanie Meyer at a surprise birthday party yesterday and read it today. I've been hearing good things about it for a while now, and it was better than I expected. Yes, it's a love story, but it's about a vampire and a human (which makes it so much more interesting), and most of it moves at a fairly fast pace. The book contained a suspenseful preview of the second book. Now I really want to read the second book, then I'll want to read the third, and then I'll be stuck waiting for the fourth (and final, I believe) installment. I personally think the main guy should just turn the main girl into a vampire. It would solve so many problems.

During the summer, I normally end up doing pretty much nothing but reading with a hint of gardening and a dash of artwork. Although I have a lot more to do this summer, I still plan on doing a lot of reading. There are two books that all of us AP students are required to read, and we also get to pick one off of a long list from the teacher. I couldn't decide, so I'm reading three of them. At least. Plus there's all the other books I want to read.

In all, I have quite the comprehensive list of books I plan(ned) on reading this summer. The starred ones are required (at least to some degree), and I've already read the top two. The first definitely could have been better.

-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Rowling (I couldn't not finish the series)
-Twilight by Meyer
-New Moon by Meyer
-Eclipse by Meyer
-Breaking Dawn by Meyer (once again, I can't bear to let a series go unfinished, plus this one will hopefully remain enthralling all the way through)
-The Battle of Evernight by Dart-Thornton (the final book of a trilogy that really annoyed me, but I can't leave a story unfinished)
-Heart of Darkness* by Conrad
-The Bean Trees* by Kingslover
-The Road* by McCarthy
-The Time Traveler's Wife* by Niffenegger
-Beloved* by Morrison
-Three Cups of Tea by Mortenson and Relin
-The Anthropic Cosmological Principle by Barrow and Tipler
-The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle (it's going to be my school's fall play, so I want to review the tale)
-Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony by Tchaikovsky

I'm probably forgetting at least a couple. Perhaps I'll post reviews of them all. Perhaps not. I haven't decided.