Patterson Parallels (The Almost Minecraft Club/Practice Makes Perfectionist)?

     Hello, all.  G-star here, reporting from my school's Almost Minecraft club.  I say 'almost' because, for the last month, Minecraft has not been working on any of the lab computers.  The only reason we haven't changed our name to the general computer club is because, if we did that, we would end up with a bunch of programmers and who knows what else.  It's better knowing that all the people here actually enjoy the game.
     Anyway, one of my friends here (technically, my only friend here) has been teaching me an interesting roleplay game ...that I still don't quite understand.  It has to do with vampires.
     He's the guy who was in my snow day pictures; the blonde named Leroy (or at least nicknamed as such).
     I've been reading two different series lately: James Patterson's Maximum Ride (comic book version; what?  It's great) and his Witch and Wizard.  (Unfortunately, book two is not currently in the library.  It's depressing.  I really like Byron.)  I've discovered some interesting relationships between the two series.  You know the New Order, AKA the center of the entire Witch and Wizard series?  Well, it's actually mentioned near the end of the Maximum Ride series; when the Flock is just about to be 'retired' at the school, one of the scientist explains their entire evil plot, and specifically says "we will bring about a new order".  It's not capitalized, but it's definitely implied that the School actually brings about the government takeover of the N.O.  I find this interesting.
     ...Honestly, I have absolutely nothing else to say.
     Well, I guess I am working a picture for the comic.  It's turning out reeeeaaally well~ It's Zane in the midst of his transformation...I suppose this will only make sense once I finish the comic and/or explain the plot.  Speaking of which, over the weekend I plan to work on that a bit more.  I'm still on the first page, though, and haven't touched it for a month....
      ....
      I think all this side picture practice, however, is increasing my skill.  My feet and hands look a lot better now, not to mention my shading and legs. <3  It's always good to practice.  It's almost living up to my dreams of artful perfection...  I'll post the picture just as soon as I'm done inking it, and while I'm at it I may as well scan that angel picture I've been talking about for months but never put up.  Sorry, guys.
     Well, that really is all I have to say, so I should just stop talking before this gets boring.  Until next time, this is G-star, signing off.

The Immediate FAIL (Cruel and Unusual Punishment/The Moral-less Movie).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  Back from the BOB competition with a guilty conscience and an annoying tune stuck in my head.
     Before I begin, you should know two things: despite my energetic and smiley personality (which you can't tell on here, because, really, how do you make typing energetic?), I'm a horrible pessimist.  I come up with the worst possible consequence for every action.
     Secondly, I'm ridiculously competitive.  I have to win everything.  24/7.  It's terrible.
     We practiced in the car the whole way there, and we did pretty well, so I was confident.  When we got there, I borrowed a pen (in the process nearly forgetting who lent it to me), sat and listened to an hour-long assembly about the rules we had read on the way there, and went off to our first battle.  It went decently; we were evenly matched and every now and then caught a question the other team answered incorrectly, but were beaten both times.  After that was the tournament, before which two teams from the preliminary rounds are eliminated.  When they finally put up the tournament schedule, I went into shock.  Why?  WE WERE LAST OF THE 16 TEAMS TO MAKE IT AND THEY HAD PUT US UP AGAINST #1.  THIS IS CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT!!!!  Those jerks.......they should at least give us a CHANCE.
     We tried to keep our hopes up by saying to each other that they probably just had such a high score because the other team sucked and they picked up a bunch of questions, but as to be expected, we lost.  Badly.  Well, we did pretty well in the first round (In Which Book), but lost a bunch of questions in the second.  I was pouting the entire time, and I think one of the girls, our alternate, got ticked off at me...
     I didn't respond well to any of this because of my competitiveness, and I was a little depressed afterward.  (Well, you'd be, too, if you'd spent six months reading and practicing just to get out in your second match.)  Fortunately, my family went out and (finally) saw the Lego Movie in a local theater.  It was a really tiny theater; only two movie rooms, and people only started showing up when the movie was about to start.  Speaking of which, the theater itself only opened 15 minutes before the actual movie started. ^_^'  There were a ton of commercials, but one of them had Kurt Hugo Schneider, one of my favorite Youtubers, in it; he had posted the ad on his channel a while ago, and it involves him making music by tapping on empty Coke bottles.  It's really cool.
     Now to the actual movie...it was actually really good.  I was happy that the '80s spaceman (Benny) wasn't just a minor character.  Those astronauts are the only Lego characters my brother and I ever actually played with.  They would have adventures on distant planets, use jetpacks, ride space-scooters, and battle aliens.  Ah, fond memories...
     We were both cheering Benny on the whole time.  SPACESHIP!!!! SPACESHIP SPACESHIP SPACESHIP!!!
     The only thing was it didn't really seem to have a moral.  At first it seemed to encourage being special, then working as a team, then...family?  In other words, learning-wise, it was pointless.
     Afterwards, we were all starving, so I convinced my family to go to this oddly named grill...that had a soda fountain.  (There was a billboard up, and that sentence was what caught my eye.)  After a lot of complaining from my brother (who wanted pizza) and some doubtful comments from my parents (who thought it seemed suspicious, for some reason), we ended up there.  I had a patty melt with this amazing BBQ sauce...ohmygosh....it was so GOOD.
     Then I had a Wod Fam Choc Sod (or what passed for one; that was an Adventures in Oddyssey reference, by the way) and my brother, finally satisfied, had a crudload of birthday cake ice cream....that tasted exactly like yellow cake.  It was weird.
     Anyway, then we went home, and I have to stop typing now.  Out of computer time.  Until whatever next time I post, this is G-star, signing off.

A Post Foretelling a Post (Dragons Have High Calcium/My Imaginary Social Life).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  I really don't have anything to talk about, but I figured I should post so you wouldn't think I was just ditching you.
     ...Again.
     Anyway, you don't have to worry about not getting your weekly dose of daily life; I'm just putting it off because I have the regional BOB (Battle of the Books) competition this Saturday.  (MC is in my group as well. ^_^)  Since that's going to end up being a fairly long post by itself, I thought I would post on Sunday or Saturday afternoon and that would be my main entry for this week.
     So look forward to that!
     For now, though, I have to work on an article for health.  We're supposed to write two factual articles and one creative.  The first thing that came to mind when I began my creative page was dragons.  Surprisingly, the idea was immediately approved, as long as I also inserted something health-related.  For some reason, my teacher suggested a...recipe for vegetarian dragon stew?  And the vegan dragon blows bubbles...?  I really have no idea where he was going with that.  I may mention something about dragon meat providing a high level of calcium, though.
     I've been spending a lot of on +Google, mostly because I have no interest whatsoever in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and I need to get my anime pictures somewhere, right?  Well, I've gained three new anime buddies in the last week.  Two of them were introduced to me thanks to Fai D. Flowright, wizard (from CLAMP's Tsubasa :3).  Ah, Fai-dono.  He is my imaginary boyfriend, my comedy show, and my social life.
     Oops, did I say that out loud?
     Well, I'll tell you how BOB goes soon, so wish me luck!  G-star out.

Holiday Mini-Ramble: P-Please...This is For You!

     Hello, all!  G-star here, and happy Valentine's Day!  I'm sure you were looking forward to this.
     My school does this called "Cupcake-Grams" (they did something similar at Christmas with Candy-Grams) where you pay them a dollar and they deliver a cupcake with a handwritten note (from you, not them) to a person of your choice in class.  In fourth period, a girl in my IHS group received a cupcake and an anonymous confession poem.  Thing is, it didn't have a "To" name on it either, so the delivery people just said "this might be for you, it might not; if it's not, then pretend it's from me."
      I delivered all my valentines today, all except one...it was meant for the librarian who runs the Battle of the Books club I'm in, but I accidentally left the bag with the valentine in it in my last period classroom.  Along with all the candy valentines I had received and put in there. T^T  With any luck, it may be returned to me Tuesday...if not, then I will be disheartened.  I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a surprise valentine, but today was pretty good overall.  I have this one red t-shirt (the only red article of clothing I own) that I wear every Valentine's Day with a denim jacket of some sort, and no other day.  I've never really liked that color.
     Speaking of BOB (Battle of the Books), we go to our regional battle next Saturday.  But this is my Valentine's Day post, so I'll save the details for next week. <3
     Here are some Valentine's Day treats.  Enjoy, and see you next week!  G-star out, and still single.

A Tsubasa picture.  Of course. <3

This is how I've always wanted to give a valentine.  The cute way.  

(Heck, even I think this is adorable.)

Isn't this cute?  I'm working on Pokemon X.

...And this is for MC.  You're welcome.

Everything You Didn't Want to Know About What Valentine's Day Means To Me And More (The Deadly Double-Space).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  Sorry this is a little late, but I've spent the last three hours making valentines. ^_^'  I promised myself I'd do them yesterday, but I was distracted by this little thing called the internet and so nothing got done.  Every year, I make handmade valentines for all my friends and assorted teachers and tape candies on them.  It bugs me when people buy those mass-produced cardboard things with an animated character saying "Happy Valentine's Day!" on it.  Though I'm not absolutely sure myself if my way is worth it...
     Speaking of Valentine's day, do you have any plans for tomorrow?  I sure as heck don't.  Never dated, never been in a relationship (though I came close, but that's a story for another day), and I've never received a romantic valentine from a boy. '^'  I get my daily allowance of romance from shojo manga, and they overdo it, even if it is fun to watch.  I read a mini story by...um...honestly, I can't quite remember who wrote it (maybe Hari Tokeino?), but it was about a girl whose dream was for it to snow during her first kiss; or a better way of putting it (since that makes it sound like she wants God to celebrate that landmark with her), wants to have her first kiss while it snows.  This inspired me (but really, what other kind of inspiration can you get from shojo manga?) to have a really cheesy dream: to kiss a boy for the first time on Valentine's Day.  It's always been my favorite holiday because I get to see just how much the people I love care about me by how much thought they put into their cards...and because I get a bunch of candy. -3-  That's also why I enjoy Halloween, by the way.  Anyway, someday I want to write a love comic about Valentine's Day.
     But what is Valentine's Day, anyway?  (This is starting to sound like a documentary.  Not a good sign.)  When I was a kid I would listen to these CD dramas called Adventures in Odyssey.  (I spent most of my childhood trying to figure out what state "Odyssey" was in.  Still don't know.)  Sometimes they would record reenactments of Bible stories or historical events.  This included the story of St. Valentine.  To make a long story relatively short, St. Valentine was a priest who would secretly marry illegal couples.  In that time, there was a huge war going on, and soldiers were legally prevented from marrying in order to keep them fighting well and homeless families cropping up from husbands who'd died in the war.  Valentine was sent to prison where he met a blind servant girl and...wait, I think I may be mixing up my stories.  Whatever.  That's who St. Valentine was.  He was martyred later.  My French teacher mentioned today that Valentine's Day really had no romantic purposes until some year I can't specifically remember, but that's really not true.  In fact, the whole holiday was based around true love. <3  Romantic, isn't it?  Lots of death....
     Today I had an orthodontist appointment.  (Dramatic subject change power, GO!)  Evidently I'll be able to get my braces off in about three months.
     I just thought that was important.
     We're working on a final essay for the book we've been reading in IHS Lit., The Samurai's Garden, and today we did some peer editing.  The teacher walked around to help some students personally, and when she passed my table she pointed out that, when I write, I put two spaces after periods.vvMy response was "What?  Um, yeah, that's what you're supposed to do.  No dur. -_-"  She chuckled (chuckled?  What the heck?) and said "Oh, well, you don't normally do that unless you're using a typewriter.  But it's quaint."  WUH?  QUAINT?  THIS OBVIOUS FACT OF TYPING?  We have a problem here.  Apparently no one else I know does this.  My mother and computer teacher both taught me all my life to double-space after sentence-ending punctuation.  THIS IS NOTHING NEW.  Who's right?
     After some Binging, I have discovered various articles on the question, none of them agreeing with each other.  The first one that came up was by someone ranting about how you absolutely shouldn't use two spaces and if you do YOU DESERVE TO BE KILLED BY YOUR WORD PROCESSOR.  (Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but there was some serious hatin' going on in that essay.)  Another person said that it was okay, and was "a holdover from the typewriter days", but wasn't absolutely necessary.  Heck with this.  I've been typing this way for ten years and I'm not stopping now.
     Well, I've been chatting away aimlessly for several overly long paragraphs, and you deserve a break.  Anyway, I'm probably going to post again tomorrow for a specifically Valentine's-Day-oriented entry.  Not that I really have anything more to talk about...stupid constantly open mouth.
     I hope your true love admits his dedication to you tomorrow.  Or you at least get a chocolate heart or too.  Until then, this is G-star, signing off.
     

In-School Snowball Fight (Talent Show Update/Half Band)!

     Hello, all.  I remembered earlier this week that the talent show came and went and I never told you guys what happened. (Sorry about that.)  I ended up changing the key of the song, but it turned out well anyway.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but there were cash prizes for first, second, and third.  I didn't win (a little disappointing, but to be expected).  Instead, this guy who performed an original piano piece called "Spontaneous Combustion" (Chemistry club, anyone?), and performed it well.  It was INTENSE.  He deserved it.
     You were able to buy roses (or maybe some of them were carnations?  I'm not positive) before the show or during intermission to send to the performers backstage.  Smore sent me one first thing (<3 love ya, marshmallow chick), but the odd thing was that during intermission (I was in act one) I received another rose from an anonymous group of "junior girls" who said "<3 you're awesome!!"  Awww, thanks, guys. ^_^  I really have no idea who they are, though...I thought it might be Perk and Lee (I've mentioned these two before; they go to my youth group and are juniors at my school), but they weren't at the show.  It's things like this that make life worth living.
     It snowed today.  Everyone agreed the local school grid was completely idiotic to allow school to go on as planned.  By third period, everyone had cabin fever and were just jumping around, trying to make a snowman in the classroom by catching snow out the window (this actually happened <_< Obviously, it didn't work), and incessantly asking the teacher whether we were going to be let out early.  We weren't.  (The jerks.)
     Apparently, I was the only one with enough sense to wear gloves, although they were the fabric kind and weren't particularly waterproof...  At lunch we all scarfed our lunches (when I say 'we all', I mean Smore, MC, half of MC's friends and I; the whole school was, unfortunately, not in on this) and shot outside into the courtyard to 'build a snowman'.  As soon as we did, Stulte, Bibbidy (a girl from OBOB club; I call her this because she's always wearing a powder blue hoodie that reminds me of the old color of my room, inappropriately labeled "Bibbidy Bobbidy Blue"), and Link (friend from Minecraft club) appeared out of nowhere, along with a girl who had a bright red streak in her short black hair (none of us had ever seen her before and she disappeared after five minutes without supplying her name...).  Our 'snowman' ended up being a three-inch high lump.  But the snowball fight we had was fun.  I have pictures!  I'll put a couple up at the end of the post.
     About five inches fell today, so it'll still be on the ground (and frozen solid) tomorrow.  The school network has finally let out a sigh and let us go.  ^-^  Patveli sent out a text copied from the school website announcing the closure.  He may as well have said "WOOP WOOP!"  Tomorrow was going to be a half day anyway, so it won't really affect the rest of the school year (those several snow days we had back in November broke the limit for our days off, so they had to take out a bunch of furlough days; any more full days off and we'd have to continue further into June).
     The Handshake Dynasty (I'm just giving up on keeping the name private...if you read this blog, you probably read my other mini-blog for the HSD anyway, so there's really no point anymore) is still hard at work on forming a band.  Patveli is trying to teach Stulte drums, but it's not really getting anywhere...Patveli has another friend who wanted to form a band and plays drums, so he may join.  We've altogether decided to form two separate bands, one with lots of vocals (that I'm in) and with...um...gentler songs, and another with mostly instrumentals to show off their (partially nonexistent) musical skills.  We'll see how this goes.
     Is it just me or was this post slightly more subdued than most?  Ah well.  I feel calmer today.  Probably because I made some good memories during lunch...or maybe because I really just have nothing to be particularly exited for.  *metaphorical shrug*  Or maybe because I need to finish writing in ten minutes.  That's likely it.  I'm in a rush.  Well, until next time, this is G-star signing off....enjoy the pictures!

P.S.
Top pic: from left to right, myself, Leroy, Smore, Stulte, and that hidden person in the blue jacket down there vv is Bibbidy.  Second picture's Smore and I, third picture's Stulte and last one's me.

Leroy wants me to say that, in one (unshown) picture, he screamed "SWEET FROSTING OF THE GODS" and flopped down to do a snow angel.

MC didn't get any pictures.

She's camera-shy.

I'm putting up one for her next post.