A Shining Example of Breviloquence

Well, I don't have much to say, but I'll say it anyway.  Last night, as I lay sleepless in my bed until the early hours of morning (why, why did I have to take that Excedrin?), I schemed grand schemes for my spectacular Sabbath Post.  I would write poetry!  I would post pictures!  I would thrill and awe!  The wonders of my rhetorical, technical, and artistic skills would be sung to the third, yea to the third and fourth generations!  Alas, it was not to be.  Instead I involuntarily cleaned the kitchen to give everyone else a Sabbath break.  Sigh.  At least that's over.  It wasn't too bad, really; I recited "The Raven", "Paul Revere's Ride", and "The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet" while Ryan prompted me.  I sang "You Gotta Eat Your Spinach" and "Come and Get Your Happiness" (from Shirley Temple's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, in case you wondered) to pass the time.  By 9:30, however, it was getting old. I am so slow at cleaning the kitchen, and, unfortunately, "passing the time" never speeds things up.

Well, I know you were all dying for news from my end, and boy, do I have some for you!  I rearranged my room again!  Woohoo!  There's something I like just so much about rearranging furniture.  This time it was not just for fun, though.  I had a mission: to move my bed, bookcases, bureau, desk, and computer in such a way as freed up enough wall space for me to bring my keyboard into my room.  I managed it!  Fortunately, I like it, too.  It's not as aesthetically pleasing as the former arrangement, perhaps, but it is more functional.  The best part (other than that I now have a keyboard in my room) is that my bed is directly under the skylight, and I can look straight up into the stars!  Not that our stars compare with those of the Catskills or even western NH, but I'll take what I can get.

(Speaking of the stars in the Catskills, have you ever seen them?  I have lain for hours on the H.'s lawn just gazing at the sheer beauty of the sky.  If you haven't seen stars like that you don't know what you've missed.)

Well, I'm going to leave off here in hopes of my pastor reading my blog post aaaaaaaaalll the way through.  He told me today that he doesn't always get through my lengthy "sermons."   I said to him, "Upon my honor!"


Actually, I didn't.  : )

Another good Payne cartoon

Click here.

I'm back, Lucius.

This week has been SO busy! I have had NO time to write posts! Actually, that's not quite true, but I haven't had MUCH time. Add to that the fact that I have had NO inspiration at ALL to write, and you may realize why it is that I have not.

First of all, the biggest news of the week is that we have been redoing our roof. Our neighbor Mr. Z. has been doing it with occasional help from me and/or Daddy. Roofing can be pretty fun! The first part is best: tearing out nails, ripping off shingles, generally performing mass demolition. It's awesome, let me tell you! I like laying shingles, but it is not so nice as ripping old ones. Laying shingles just doesn't have the same, shall we say, exhileration to it: slowly working up the roof row by row, measuring and cutting individual shingles, working around the flashing (you have to in demo too, but just not the same way), and smashing skylights. In case you wondered, that last part was unintentional. Fortunately, I had nothing to do with it. Anyhow, the front side of the house is basically finished, and next week we will move to the back, which though much larger, is less steep. It contains fewer skylights, too.

I finally cleaned my room yesterday after floundering in mess for weeks. It's amazing what a difference it makes! It's also amazing how much much less work it takes to mess it up than to clean it! Bother those stupid laws of thermodynamics...

Having a clean room is especially nice because this week I will be able to do my school there. Of course, I could have before anyway, but it can be just so hard to concentrate when you are surrounded by clutter! I have been doing most of my school subjects in the living room, dining room, or basement, but there are a lot more distractions in the first two and the third is relatively dark. Distractions can be fatal when you're doing such subjects as Calculus or Economics, both of which require constant concentration. As a matter of fact, so do Writing, Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Italian, Vocabulary, and music (if you're doing them right, anyway)!

Thursday I worked on the same problem in Calculus for close to twenty minutes and still got it wrong. SO frustrating. Fortunately it was one of very few. Also, I have been getting the same kind of problem wrong for DAYS...and all because I keep not noticing when they say "diameter" instead of "radius." Grrrr. School has not all been sadness and depression, however. In fact, so far I have been enjoying pretty much all of my school subjects, albeit overwhelmed a bit here and there. Even little things people say every now and then remind me of a new concept I studied recently in Chemistry, or a poem from Literature. (Did anyone spot my allusion to Nancy Boyd's (Edna St. Vincent Millay's) "I Like Americans" in my paragraph on roofing?) For a rather weak example, something Elizabeth said the other day reminded me of something from chemistry...something about the penetrating abilities of radiation from atomic bombs?...ok, so that's REALLY weak. But I have also noticed numerous applications of supply and demand!

Today I read an Agatha Christie through from beginning to end. It was a nice Sabbath thing to do; so relaxing! Alas, I didn't figure it out. The murderer was the very person of whom I said to Cara, "Well, the very LEAST likely person is such and such...", not counting Poirot or the narrator, of course. Near the end I THOUGHT I had it all figured out, but it was a red herring...a secondary crime meant to cast suspicion on a character who is shady but not completely shaded, if you know what I mean. Oh, Agatha! How do you do it?

Picture Puzzle

See if you can guess or figure out what these three things from my room are.







Here are the answers:
(Hover over each link for the name of the object, or click the link for a larger photo.)

Object I

Object II

Object III

Now, here's the big question.

Which ones did YOU figure out?
	None
	Object I
	Object II
	Object III
	Objects I and II
	Objects I and III
	Objects II and III
	All of them
	I didn't even try.
POLLHOST

An Explanation

In case nobody got my corny little "Sand End" joke from a couple posts ago, it was a take-off from Bag End of Tolkein fame. Just so you don't think I'm a brainless lunatic...

Looking for a good laugh?

Today Elizabeth, Bria, and I were talking about how people's personalities are different on the web from in real life, and how Facebooks and MySpaces can be deceiving. Later, as I was perusing the website of my favorite editorial cartoonist, Henry Payne, I came across this pertinent - and hilarious - cartoon:

Click Here.

(Copyright laws allow me to link to it but not reproduce the image.)

Boston Red Sox!

Well, very few of my pictures came out well. It was pretty dark and it's hard to catch any movement with a slow shutter, or any light with a fast one. I don't know enough about camera settings to know what would be optimal, but fortunately, I did get a few that were OK. Here they are for your benefit.  : )

By the way, if you want to read about what happened, Ryan posted most of the major details here on his blog.

So it begins....

Well,school is officially started here at Sand End. (Get it? Sand End? Haha! I kill myself! Hoho...ha...ahem....) I hardly feel like anything is different, though, because I've been doing Chemistry and Literature throughout the summer, and a number of my other subjects have yet to arrive. Call me a warm frog, but I haven't been able to dive into school with the same kind of enthusiasm as usual. Oh, well. Fortunately, I am now doing a part of Chemistry that I actually enjoy (Nuclear Reactions!), and Calculus has been pretty good. Literature started out great! I loved it! It was my favorite subject! And no, I haven't forgotten the rules of grammar; I am using the past tense on purpose. I think it's a conspiracy: the A Beka program starts out with "Early American Short Stories" - which are FANTASTIC! I even like reading Poe! - then jumps straight into "Early American Sermons."

Gulp.

Actually, the sermons section was not really that bad. I read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" as well as the work of such others as Talmage, Billy Sunday, and James Weldon Johnson. They were both well-written and inspirational. But they just take soooo long to read! At least they do if you want to try to get anything out of them. Which I do.

Actually, I finished reading all the sermons by now, so I don't know why I'm even writing about them. Today I read selections from "A History of Plymouth Plantation," though, which is almost as bad time-consuming per page.

Speaking of school, does anyone remember/know how to do the geometry problem pictured at right? I can always look it up, but I thought I'd just let others do the work. :) (And no, it is not a problem from my next Calculus lesson.)

The leaves on the big maple by our pond are rapidly turning into a gorgeous crimson! Just thought you should know...

In other areas of my life, I spent much of my afternoon translating French! I enjoyed finding out how much I do remember (I took it in 6th grade through 8th grade, I think), as well as how learning Italian has actually improved my understanding of the conjugation of French verbs! Fascinating! If you would like to know WHY I was translating French all afternoon, you'll have to try to get Cara to blog about it. It's HER story. >:) I tried to get her to write about it tonight, but all she could think about was her new hairdo, not her mysterious African letter! So go inundate her with comments here and maybe you'll all have an interesting post to read. Not that her hair isn't interesting, but...

<--- Here is the HQ of the Sand End (hahaha...) Department of Information, Communication, and Academics. *cough* This was before Cara redid her coiffure... *cough*

Finale of the First Act of a Comical Operetta

I sometimes wonder if I have listened to or played The Mikado too many times. The many songs from that classic operetta have been going around in my head for days. But on further inspection of my thoughts, this is all I could recall of the finale of the first act, at least off the top of my head:

With aspect stern and gloomy stride
We come to learn how you decide.
Don’t hesitate your choice to name:
A dreadful fate you’ll suffer all the same;
A dreadful fate you’ll suffer all the same.

To ask you what you mean to do
We punctually appear.

Congratulate me, gentlemen,
I’ve found a volunteer!

The Japanese equivalent of “Here, here, here!”

‘Tis Nanki-Poo!

Hail Nanki-Poo!

I think he’ll do!

Yes, yes, he’ll do.

He gives his life if I’ll Yum-Yum surrender;
Now I adore that girl with passion tender,
And could not yield her with a ready will,
Or her allot
If I did not
Adore myself with passion tend’rer still,
With passion tend’rer still.

Ah, yes, he loves himself
With passion tend’rer still.

Take her: She’s yours!

The threatening cloud has past away!
And brightly shines the dawning day!
What though the night may come too soon…
We’ve yet a month of afternoon!

Then let our songs abound and every tear be dry!
And let none heave any sad or mournful cry!
Then let the throng our joy advance
With laughing song and merry dance;
Then let the throng our joy advance
With laughing song and merry dance;
With laughing song….

With joyous shout—with joyous shout and ringing cheer—
Inaugurate, inaugurate their brief career;
With joyous shout and ringing cheer
Inaugurate career.

As in a month you’ve got to die if Koko tells us true,
‘Twere empty compliment to cry ‘Long life to Nanki-Poo!’
But as one month you have to live as fellow citizen,
This toast in three times three we’ll give:
Long life…
Long life to you; Long life to you.
Long life to you…
Till then.

May all good fortune—all good fortune prosper you;
May you have health, may you have health and riches too;
May you succeed in all you do,
Long life to yooooooou…
Till then.

A day, a week, a month, a year...
[Second verse which I never sing ‘cause I don’t believe in turning pages backward.] ;)

Your revels cease!
Assist me, all of you!

Why, who is this whose evil rains
On our festivites?

I claim my perjured lover: Nanki-Poo!
Oh fool, to shun delights that never cloy!

Go leave thy deadly work undone!

Come back, O shallow fool, come back to joy!

Ah! ‘Tis Katisha: the maid of whom I told you!

No! You shall not go!
These arms shall thus enfold you!
O fool, to leave my hallowed joys.
O blind, that shows no equipoise.
O rash, blablabla,
O base, blablabla.
Give me my place, O rash, O base;
Thy heart unbind, O fool, O blind.
Give me my place, O rash, O base,
Thy heart unbind, O fool, O blind,
Thy heart unbind, Give me, give me my place.

If she’s thy bride, restore her place,
O fool, O blind, O rash, O base!

Pink cheek that rulest where wisdom serves;
Bright eye that covers heroic nerves!
Rose lip that scorneth long-laden years;
Smooth tongue that chasteneth who rightly hears!
Thy doom is nigh, Pink Cheek, Bright Eye!
Thy knell is rung, Rose lip, Smooth Tongue!
Thy doom is nigh, thy knell is rung,
Pink cheek, bright eye, rose lip, smooth tongue,
They doom is nigh! Thy knell, thy knell is rung!

If her tale’s true, thy knell is rung!
Pink cheek, bright eye, rose lip, smooth tongue.

Thy doom is nigh, thy knell is rung,
Thy knell, thy knell, thy knell is rung!

Away, nor prosecute your quest,
From our intentions well expressed,
You cannot turn us.
The state of your connubial views
Toward the person you accuse
Does not concern us…..
For he’s going to marry Yum-Yum!
Your anger pray bury
For all will be merry;
I think you had better succumb,
And join our expressions of glee.
On this subject I pray you’ll be dumb;
You’ll find there are many
Who’ll wed for a penny;
The word for your guidance is “mum.”
There are lots of good fish in the sea.

On this subject we pray you be dumb, dumb dumb,
We think you had better succumb, cumb cumb,
You’ll find there are many who’ll wed for a penny
Who’ll wed for a penny;
There are lots of good fish in the sea,
There are lots of good fish in the sea!
There’s lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
There’s lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
In the sea, in the sea, in the sea, in the sea.

The hour of gladness
Is dead and gone;
In silent sadness
I live alone.
The love I cherished
Has fled and gone;
All has perished,
All has perished,
Save love, which never dies,
Which never, never dies.
Oh, faithless one! This insult you shall rue!
In vain for mercy on your knees you’ll sue!
I’ll tear the mask from your disguising…

Now comes the blow…

Prepare yourselves for news surprising…

How foil my foe?

No minstrel he, despite bravado.

Ha! I know!

He is the son of your….

O ni shiku bakiru ni!

In vain you interrupt with this tornado.
He is the son of your…

O ni shiku bakiru ni!

Of your…

O ni shiku bakiru ni!

The son of your…

O ni shiku bakiru ni!

I’ll spoil…

O ni, o ni kiru!

Ye torrents roar,
Ye tempests howl.
Blablablablablablabla…
My vengeance call shall rise triumphant over all!

Away you go, ill-omened owl;
To joy we soar despite your scowl!
The echoes of our festival shall rise triumphant over all!

Prepare for woe, ye haughty lords;
Away I go, Mikado-wards.

Away you go, collect your hordes!
Proclaim your woes in dismal chords!

We do not heed their dismal sound
For joy reigns everywhere around!
We do not heed their dismal sound
For joy reigns everywhere around!
The echoes of our festival
Shall rise triumphant over all!
Our songs shall rise….
Our songs shall rise…
Shall rise triumphant over all!

My wrongs with vengeance shall be crowned!

We do not heed their dismal sound for joy rains every where around!

Side note: I kind of made up the Japanese part, but I think Sir Gilbert did too, so I should be OK. :)

A Quote

Recently spoken by Offspring Y, of "Overheard in the S------d Household" fame, to me (Offspring X; I admit it):

"Why are you taking over my life!?!?!?!?!"

Meaning, of course, that I should return the laptop to him (or her; you never know here)....

Video: Ping Pong

Warning: I stretched out the volley to match the length of the song. If you get bored just skip a bit and you won't miss much. However, if you have any appreciation of music, you WILL watch it all. ;)

Windows Media (.wmv)

Hope you enjoy this!

I've been enjoying a wonderfully peaceful Sabbath at home. So far I have slept in, played Ping Pong with Daddy (he beat me thrice: 21-18, 21-17, and 21-16), ate brunch instead of breakfast, read blogs, and pretty much just enjoyed the quiet. Hope your Sabbath is/was as nice!

Nero e Bianco