Too busy with school!

Sorry, I've been too busy with school to post. It started Wednesday the 5th, and I'm already overloaded with homework. Also, I'm trying to save up $400 to buy a new iPod touch, so I've been doing lots of yard work. Wish me luck! :)

iTunes trouble, new blog template

I didn't tell you about this yesterday, but it did happen to me yesterday. I bought a live CD last two weeks ago (it happened to be Sarah McLachlan's "Mirrorball - The Complete Concert"). Once I listened to it, I found that some of the tracks were incomplete. The songs themselves were complete, but some were missing some clapping and Sarah talking, so the CD didn't flow very well. I could not "Report a problem" with my purchase before we went, because the only way I knew how was to click on a link in the email receipt, and mine hadn't come yet. It came while we were in DC, and I only got to it yesterday.

Here's another complication: I found another site (Nettwerk itself) offering a complete MP3 download (I could tell by the running times), at a higher quality, possibly even including all the album artwork, for, get this, less money.

First, I basically reported a problem saying I didn't get the whole CD and I wanted my money back. I really wanted the version from Nettwerk itself, but I didn't say so. :) They sent me back an email saying it didn't download properly, and to try again. I could tell that was not the problem, so I wanted to send them another "Report a problem," but the silly iTunes store wouldn't let me! I even tried re-downloading my music, the problem wasn't fixed, and I still couldn't report another problem! After a bit of speculating whether to try to call them for customer service, I tried to reply to the e-mail. To my surprise, I got a reply stating that they had reversed the credit. Sure enough, when I checked back into iTunes, I had $17 more left! :) I guess you succeed if you keep trying! =D

Also, I changed the template (obviously). I was getting a bit tired of the green. Tell me how you like it!

Middle of night (or morning) return

Last night, we arrived at the airport from Washington DC at about 1:30 AM. We got home at 3:30 AM. And we were still on EST, so it was 6:30 AM our time. So we were up about all of the night, and I barely slept. You’d think I would sleep like half the day, but I actually woke up at 6:15. I guess I was still on EST, because that’s 9:15 EST. (Either that or I did actually sleep on the plane).

OK, enough ranting about the night. How about the trip? We’d been to DC once before, and seen some of the more major sights then, so this time we looked a little closer at some of the smaller things to see.

We went to the top of the Washington Monument (the tall building in the middle of the mall). The first time we went, we found out that we needed tickets. *rolls eyes* Silly us. We bought some 10:30 tickets online for the 10:30 walk-down tour. When we got there, we found out that you needed 10:00 tickets to walk down, because the walk-down tour is at 10:30. *rolls eyes* Oh, well. We took the elevator down. At the top, they had four windows that looked out each of the four directions. I took a picture out of each window, and I will post them along with some other pictures in my gallery (once I get them downloaded off my camera *rolls eyes*). (Geez, they really need some emoticons on blogger).

We also went on a tour of the White House. It was exciting, but not as impressive as I thought it would be because it was smaller than I thought. They didn’t allow cameras in there, so I have no pictures to post. Sorry. =D

We also went to see this cool statue called the Awakening. I will post a picture in the gallery. My cousin kept trying to run up the knee, which was tricky because it was a steep smooth metal surface. It was also pretty hot. I tried, but I got freaked out about 3/4 of the way up. Oops. =)

I don’t think there’s much else to talk about right now. I need to get those pictures uploaded and posted in the gallery. They’ll come eventually. ;)

Quick Update

Nothing much has been going on lately. It's been pretty boring. However, we're leaving for Washington DC tomorrow. That will be exciting. =D We've been there once before, but it was a long time ago so I don't remember much. I'll tell you guys about it when we get back (because I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do there). =|

My photo gallery website is up (at least temporarily). I put up just a few of some of my favorite pictures. Look around as much as you want, but please don't steal my photos! They have watermarks on them for that reason. Oops, I almost forgot to give the address! It's here: http://www.twintreeac.com/gallery2

Cya when I come back from Washington! =D

Trying out email to blog

Hi guys! I'm just trying out the email to blog feature, where I email a post to a certain address and it supposedly gets posted to my blog. Hopefully it works!

I changed the video to another Capercaillie one. Not a particularly good one, but I wanted to put something up.

Nothing else to say. Bye!

EDIT: It works! That is so cool! =D

Back from Massachusetts

We are back from Massachusetts, where we went last week. We were out on the Cape, visited Martha's Vineyard, and ate a lot of ice cream. I've recently had an obsession with ice cream. =P The trip was a lot of fun, but it's nice to be back home.

There hasn't been much going on lately. I have been playing Myst a lot more than usual, and yesterday we got my favorite game in the series (Myst IV Revelation) working, so I've been playing it a lot. At the moment I am listening to the soundtrack to it. =D I also beat 2/3 of Uru, another fun one.

I've been trying to think of a video to put on here, but I can't think of one yet.

Not really anything else to report. I'll think of something else later, I bet, but we have to go soon because we are going on a walk/hike. Later today I might try to email a post to my blog (I think that's what the feature is, unless I misread it). Sorry I haven't been posting much, it just isn't the highest priority on my list. Cya later. ;)

Camping

Last weekend (yes, it's been a while) we went camping to a place about 1.5 hours from here. We got a site right next to the stream. It was a pretty nice place, but it rained a whole lot the first night. In the middle of summer! We had lots of hot chocolate and s'mores. (Btw, I love the spanish word for hot chocolate! It makes it seem like you're an expert because it's very easy to say fast =D )

For dinner on Saturday, we had hot dogs. While my brother and dad cooked two each, I completely failed to cook even one. I stuck it in the embers and ended up burning the top. I tried to peel off most of the black, but then I felt the bottom and it was barely warm. I finally resorted to the grill, and then when I went to take it off, it fell into the ashes. D= But then my dad cooked one for me. =D

Usually, when I cook s'mores, I put the marshmallow near the embers, and it gets nice and brown on the side. The problem is, the bottom/middle usually don't get cooked, and I don't like the texture of uncooked marshmallows. Then, my dad suggested a way, to stick it above the flames. It didn't get brown, but it was wonderfully cooked all the way through, so warm and melted it was falling off the stick! Unfortunately, that was on the last night we were there, so no one else wanted any. I ate about 5. =3

Am I spelling marshmallows right? :-?

ZaPaper, I added that ClustrMaps thing you have on your site. It hasn't done anything yet, I guess it will soon. =D

Sorry I haven't been replying to comments. I appreciate them all, but I barely even have time to blog!

Nothing else to report. I might change the video, but I won't tell anything about it unless I really want to. =P

EDIT: Actually, I am going to say something about the video. It's (another) one of my fav bands, and a great song, Seanchas. The person who put it on Youtube does not allow embedding, so you just have to click on it to watch it. It is a great song, but the video is not that great, so just pay attention to the song. =D

ANOTHER EDIT: I just remembered something else I should say, to make this post a boring post. I'm back into Myst, which is a very fun computer game series. I beat Exile in 2 days, and I also played Uru a bit. Unfortunately, I was reading the manual for my favorite of them, Revelation (I hadn't yet installed it, 8GB =O ), and it said "Laptop video cards not supported." *cries* I can't play it on my computer! We have another computer, but it can't read DVDs! =(

........................

Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Wow, I'm really bored. I typed that all by hand, no copying+pasting. I am very good at it, I hate to admit, and I could have done a lot more if I hadn't been capitalizing the 'B's and putting periods at the end. Too bad blogger doesn't have an AutoCorrect feature. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blha blah blah blah blah blahlb alhbla bhalb blahb blah blah blh blahb blhab blhbalbh blahbhlb ahb. I did that all in about 15 seconds. Why am I wasting time (and blogger space) like this?

OK, nothing sane to report, really. I shut down my website a few days ago because I received an email that I thought was from it, but the information it had couldn't be possible (plus most of it was in Arabic), so I thought I had been hacked. In a panic, I deleted everything. Then, I looked closer, and it was from a different website. I'm trying to restore mine right now, as I'm typing. (In fact, as I was blah-ing, I was also uploading files).

My brother and I have been playing this fun board game called Carcassonne. You build cities and roads by drawing tiles that fit together, and get points for completed ones. It's a pretty fun game.

And to let certain readers of this blog know, I have been playing Pokemon Pearl, but not too much. I beat the first two gyms easily, but I cannot beat the third gym. Maylene's Lucario is ridiculously strong! I gave up for a while and haven't played for a couple of days, but I might play again soon (I'm going to have to train before fighting her again).

EDIT: If any of you three (you know who you are) come reading this before checking your email (unlikely, I know), my site is back up.

Back to Boredom

Life is boring again. Nothing to report. Except that I burned my hand this morning and I can't type very well because it hurts.

But, I am in the process of making a photo gallery that is on my website. I will post it when I finish.

Sorry about the second short post in a row, just wanted to let you know I am still here!

Ratatouille

Tonight we went to see the movie Ratatouille, about a rat who wants to become a chef. It was a pretty entertaining movie. I usually don't go see movies, so this was a special occasion for me.

Also, happy 07/07/07 (July 7, 2007)!

This is a short post, as I have to go to bed.

Hawaii Pics

Here are some pictures from my trip to Hawaii.

This first one is at a beach. It's just a nice picture of a palm tree. I liked how the sun was shining through it yet you could still see its color. I also managed to get the shadow in there for a nicer effect.

The next one is walking to a second beach. There was a nice view of a mountain. My brother and dad have agreed that it was Mauna Kea.

This one is at the beach we were walking to. There was an interesting dead tree there, so I took a picture of it and its shadow in the sand, with the ocean in the background.

The last one is one my brother took with an underwater camera while snorkeling. There's some coral in the background and a nice fish.

I know this is a small portion of pics, but I certainly couldn't upload all of them. I hope you enjoy these, which are my favorites! You can use them for your own personal use (desktops, etc.), but please don't give them out anywhere. Please link to this page instead. =P

Oh, and I decided I needed to change the video already because I found one I liked better and couldn't wait. Never fear, all of the previous ones are listed under the video and you can still watch them. =P This new one is Karen Matheson (also the lead singer of Capercaillie).

Good night!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July (Independence Day) to everyone who reads this! (I only know of two. lol)

Last night, we went down to the riverfront to watch the fireworks, the first time I had ever done that. At first, they were right behind a tree (groan), so we had to move. Then it was okay. I got cold, so I had a blanket wrapped around me. The fireworks were really cool, though. They kept taking long breaks, so we kept thinking they were over. Part of the grand finale exploded where we couldn't see them, but oh well. We got to see the hugest ones. =)

You may have noticed that I changed the video on the right. While Enya is not my favorite artist, I like this remix of her song Only Time.

That's it for now. See you later!

Back from Hawaii, planes, planes, and more planes

Well, we're finally back from Hawaii. It was a pretty fun trip overall. (Except for yesterday, which was all planes, driving, and sitting in the airport from 6 AM to 12 PM.)

We went to the big island, which is where we went last year (I really want to go to Maui sometime to see a silversword). I went snorkeling twice. My brother, mom, and some friends that we went with also went snorkeling twice more, at a beach that I hate because it's so shallow. All of it was beautiful. My favorite snorkeling was at the Captain Cook monument, but the boat ride over made me seasick. D=

The food was yummy. There are actually not many good restaurants around Kona (where we were), but you just have to find the best ones. My favorite is a breakfast and lunch place called U-Top-It, where they have crepe like things and you put whatever you want on them.

I mainly forgot about my camera until the last day (Monday), but we went to a nice beach and I took some great pics. (I can't spell beach today.) I will post some pics when I get them uploaded. (Uh oh.)

And of course, yesterday. That's a whole different story, but I'll tell it anyway. =P Yesterday, we had to get up at 5:30 AM so we could eat, drive to the airport, and still catch our 8:20 flight to Honolulu. Then we had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Honolulu before our 12:30 flight to San Fransisco. Because of the time change, it was 8:15 PDT when we got to San Fran. And then we had to get one more flight back home. Because of the baggage, and the driving home, it was 2:30 in the morning when we actually got home. (And here I am, less than 10 hours later, typing on the computer. Typical of me. lol)

So that is the conclusion to our interesting and fun (except for yesterday) trip.

Nothing much..

Nothing much has happened over the last few days. Last night I bought a new CD (which I'm listening to right now) off iTunes, and it's pretty good. (Yes, it's been so boring I'm writing about a CD I bought. lol)

On the other hand, we're leaving for Hawaii on Tuesday! Pretty excited about that! =D

Water Balloon Catapult

My mom is on a work trip, so my brother and I are having various people stay with us. Yesterday, our uncle stayed with us. We built a water balloon catapult using poles, surgical tube, and red tape (all from Bi-Mart =P ) ! It goes so far! We were launching it yesterday, and we got it to go 4 houses down the street (a big hill). This morning we launched it the other direction. My brother pulled it back really, really far, and not far enough down, so it hit smack on the mailbox. It made a huge dent! Fortunately, we pushed it back out. =P We also tried to hit our uncle's car, but we didn't succeed. =P

This morning my brother showed our uncle the demented cartoon movie. It is probably more than 15 minutes long (of total randomness), and I can't really stand it for that long. Only watch it if you are completely bored and will do anything. It is the most random thing. (For example, the first part is random people walking in, saying "blah," and having their heads blown off.) If you really have nothing better to do, the link is on the right.

I will also try to more frequently rotate the videos on the right column. At the moment, it is showing my favorite band, Capercaillie, playing a song called Mile Marbhaisg. This is not the best version of the song, but I still like it. =P

Oh, and ZaPaper, would you happen to know a chinese song called Gan Lan Shu, or The Olive Tree? Misty River (a favorite band of mine) does it, and they have an interesting story that goes with it.

Nothing else to report. See ya!

Concert, Fiddle Lesson, BBQ

Yesterday was an interesting day. Hmmm, the first day school is completely out is the first one in a while that wasn't boring. Coincidence?

I had my first fiddle lesson with my new "teacher" yesterday. My old teacher is taking an "indefinite break," which probably means she's going to stop teaching. I am now taking lessons from another one of her students. It went pretty well yesterday. I think we both learned a lot. =P

Last night we went to a concert. It was a local folk band called Misty River. I have all 5 of their CD's and this was my 5th or 6th concert I've seen by them. The tickets were a birthday present, and I also bought their latest CD, Stories, which I didn't have. I'm listening to it right now. =P It's okay, but Willow is still better. =P

In less than an hour, we are leaving to go to a barbecue, hosted by my old fiddle teacher. We are supposed to bring a dessert... I can smell the brownies baking!

That's it for now. See ya!

SCHOOL'S OUT!!! =D

YAY! SUMMER!!! NO MORE SCHOOL! ....for less than three months. Yes, I'm kind of a "glass half-empty" person. But summer goes by so fast!

School was fun today. The whole day we just signed yearbooks. Then we watched Blue's Clues in Humanitites because there wasn't anything else to do. lol

This summer is probably something I should look forward to. We're going on three main vacations, to Hawaii, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. The problem is that that's not going to leave much time at home and there's so much stuff I want to do!

I am NOT looking forward to next year. We had some people from the next grade up come into our class and talk to us about their year. They said there were more homework and more projects, my two worst nightmares! I certainly will not be caught wasting my summer! *shifty eyes*

Whenever I feel like it, soon, I'll post here again. Bye. =P

A partially interesting Sunday

Well, it's been an okay Sunday. Here I sit, listening to Seanchas will I write this post, and chatting with my friend on Skype.

Breakfast was good, we had crepes. I ate a bit less than usual. I don't know why. >_>

My brother's friend (AL's brother) is over, and they've been playing video games for the whole time. Typical. *rolls eyes* I really wish they'd have smileys on this thing...

AL was going to come over, but he apparently had too much homework, and there wasn't even any homework this weekend (last weekend before school gets out)! According to his dad, it "piled up throughout the year." Very typical of AL, lol.

And......... school gets out this Thursday! The whole week, we'll basically be watching movies, lol. Tomorrow, we're launching rockets. I'm not particularly excited about that, but I'm more worried that mine works okay (my grade is based on that). *gulp*

We are not sure where to go to dinner. We are still debating it. The Chinese place seems to be what's probably going to be chosen, but we're not sure. (Speaking of Chinese food, I've heard that actual Chinese food is very different from "American Chinese" food. Is that true, ZaPaper?)

I haven't played video games in over two weeks, I think. I'm proud of myself. (I have, however watched TV, but just a bit >_< )

I can't seem to think of a good ending. Oh, well. Bye!

EDIT: zomg the photos! I may forget to get them tonight, but I'll try!

Finally!

Well, school's pretty much over. We get out on Thursday, and the rest of next week is basically just watching movies and signing yearbooks. Finally, no more homework! =D

Nothing much else to report. I guess this is my first official "very short" post. =P

Major catch-up time (or not)

Sorry about this, I've totally flopped in posting. I've been really busy and stressed lately, mostly about homework (evil PT and her end-of-year projects!). So here I am again, racking my brain about what to post of the last few weeks.

The day after I last posted (the 28th) was my birthday. Happy birthday to me, yeah yeah yeah... I got some nice gifts, had some fun, etc. My birthday cake was a cheesecake =D
One of the best gifts I got was an $100 gift certificate for the iTunes store. =D I've been buying like crazy since then, but still have $73 left, lol!

The rest of the days have been regular, except for irregular amounts of homework. Nothing to report, except that I have managed to remain with A's in every class. I can't wait until next year. *rolls eyes*

While typing, I remembered that I still hadn't put those pictures I promised on here. Oh, well. I'll do it tomorrow. =P

EDIT: Since I am very bored right now and there is nothing else to do (apart from some unnecessary homework which I am very bored with =P ) I will give descriptions of my homework projects. You may now wish to proceed to the bottom of the post and skip over this terribly boring few paragraphs. For your convenience, I've changed everything you should skip over into gray.

First, we had to create a feudalistic society. And we had to be creative and come up with silly things! The example PT showed us was called "Fruitopia" and it was a whole bunch of fruits living in a feudalistic society. My friend AL did "Evil Vegetables." Someone else did Pencils. I was so uninspired. I had no ideas, so I had to do the whole thing the weekend before it was due. I ended up getting an 88% on it, which I am happy with (since it keeps my grade at a 95%).

We also had to find and draw our/a coat of arms. I am at the moment finishing mine, which I did on my grandmother's maiden name. My name nor my mom's name worked. It wasn't quite as bad as Create Feudalism, but did it have to be at the end of the year?

Earlier in the year, we had made picture books based on Greek myths. Last Thursday, we actually had to go to an elementary school and read them to first graders. I would have preferred (sp?) to never see my book again. It wasn't actually that bad, but still...

And last but not least, the rockets. I mentioned them in an eariler post. The rockets themselves are actually kind of fun, I hate to admit, but we also have to do an assignment along with them. Correction: 3 assignments. I have two of them finished. I'm thinking of working on the other one, but I think I've decided to put it off until tomorrow. =P Nothing more, since even I'm getting bored of this by now.

If you need some nice music to listen to, go to Moya Brennan's MySpace page. All four songs on there are really nice, but especially Peace Has Broken Out and Molly Fair (I'm listening to the latter right now). The link is to the right. ;)
EDIT2: Oh no! Peace Has Broken Out is gone! =(
I guess this is what iTunes is for, especially if you have a $73 credit =)

So I guess this will be one of those very short posts, and I'm sure I'll think of 1,000 other things to put on here later. Bye. =P

Oh, and does anyone know if it's legal for me to put whole songs as background music on this site?

Yummy Dinner (how exciting)

Yesterday was a pretty regular day (except I didn't play ANY video games 8O ). For some reason, we had dinner arrangements for the whole weekend (thanks to my wonderful dad *rolls eyes* ).

I got an early birthday present, a new bike, so we could ride this weekend. We rode for about half an hour yesterday, then came home quickly and went to a restaurant. I didn't think it would be that great, but it was delicious! I had a chicken and egg donburi (without the mushrooms), which was basically chicken, eggs, and onions stir-fried and put on top of rice. It was a pretty big bowl, but I finished it and still had room for dessert! =P

This morning we had crepes for breakfast. Yum. I've spent basically the whole rest of the morning on the Internet, browsing around, listening to music, and trying to talk to people on Skype (why's no one on? =( ). We are hosting dinner for two other families tonight (including AL and his family), so my dad's been cooking up a storm.

And... my birthday's tomorrow!!! =D I can't wait, but the problem is I have some homework I haven't done. So I'm either going to have to squeeze it in in the few hours before AL gets here, or do it tomorrow. It'll take a few hours for me to decide. =P

That's about it for today and yesterday. Yet, I don't want to end this blog post because I have nothing else to do. Oh, well.

A boring two days

The past two days have been pretty boring. I'll not write very much as to not bore you to death.

Yesterday was a very uninteresting day. In fact, I don't really remember much about it, because there wasn't anything really to remember. We started building rockets in science (much to my dismay).

Today was a tiny bit more interesting. It was the last day of ping pong in PE, and my friend SH and I were getting close to the top, but we didn't get a chance to get to the top! =(

In Spanish, we had a prueba de vocabulario (vocabulary quiz). I was worried because I hadn't studied, but I'm sure I aced it now. I was sure about every question. =D

We played badminton after dinner, and baked some Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes. They were very good; you should try them! =D (Oh, and btw, we didn't put the liqueur in the strawberries ;) )

Nothing else worth mentioning, really.

And I will have those photos by tomorrow! They're uploaded, just on another computer. I've been too lazy to put them on this computer. ;)

Photoshop fun!

I was bored this evening so I went through my old photos. I found one to photoshop. I'll show you the before and after.


This first photo is the "before." Although it has some potential with the nicely colored shiny flowers, it is way too dreary and the leaves look too blue. You can tell this was taken in overcast weather.



Now here's the photoshopped version. It looks a lot brighter, and everything is less blue. Doesn't it look so much better? And it only took 3 adjustments!

What is this world coming to?

~removed~

Now, about my day.

During science, we watched a rocket launch (which landed on the roof of one of my classmate's houses, who lives near the school). We are starting the rocket unit tomorrow. I am not excited about that. My brother, on the other hand, is, even though he's not in the class. =P

We had a sub today for Social Studies. He was nicer than my regular teacher, TP, but he didn't quite get what we were doing. We were watching a movie and then taking a quiz on it, but it ended up being a disaster. I hope I get a good grade on it....

Spanish, which is usually my favorite class, was frustrating today, because we had a worksheet. I kept doing it wrong, and erasing it, doing it wrong, erasing it... it ended up almost not able to be read.

After school, I had an orthodontist appointment. It was very, very quick (~5 mins). Not very interesting.

And I don't have those pictures uploaded yet. Sorry! =D

zOMG a blog!!

Welcome to my blog! Ummmmm, let's see........ what should I write? I have a rather boring life, filled with interesting things. >_> Umm, that doesn't sound right. >_>

Well, I really am into music. Currently, my favorite artist is Moya Brennan (sister of Enya), but that changes from time to time. The video currently on the right (click on it to watch it at the top of the screen) column is her singing one of my favorite songs, Black Night. I also like the Scottish band Capercaillie.

I also like photography. I have a small digital camera, and I love taking pictures of flowers, especially rhododendrons. I'll post some eventually, but my more recent ones are not uploaded yet. >_>

I also play some video games, though not very seriously (only ~1 hour a day, if that). Although I think it is a bit young for me, I am back into Pokémon (following the release of two completely new games). Although I used to be a serious Animal Crossing-er, I don't play that anymore. The other main video game I play is Brain Age. =P

I do have one younger brother, and he's (unfortunately) obsessed with James Bond. *rolls eyes*

Today was a partially interesting day, since I had a dentist appointment after school. That was the only mildly interesting thing that happened today. It went fine, no cavities. =D

Now I am coming down with a case of writer's block (and remembering that I need to put that video in), so I will close now.

~Twintree :)