the story of my nerdiness

Hello internet! Long time no blog, eh? Sorry 'bout that. I've been in one of those funks again, or maybe it's just the fact that it's summer now and I can do whatever I want...regardless, I feel guilty for not blogging as often as I know I should be.  But today we're going to be discussing the history of my nerdiness, this mostly pertains to the Harry Potter series. You have been warned.

I have always loved reading, I just always have.  I remember when I really started reading though, more than just the occasional book outside of class.  It was fifth grade when I really got into the Harry Potter series.  I kept a stack of books on the corner of my desk in home room.  The stack always had a Harry Potter book in it some where, I remember it took me a long time to read them, but I loved them regardless; and then there would be three or four other books stacked as well.  I remember I got a Star Student certificate for being, and I quote, "A lean mean reading machine."

Out of all my friends, I would venture to say that I am probably the nerdiest out of all of them.  Don't get me wrong, I think EVERYONE is nerdy about something or another, but I'm really the only one that doesn't care if my nerdiness shows.

In middle school, I went through a hard core Harry Potter craze, it got to the point where my best friend just nodded her head and listened to me talk and talk for hours. There were several occasions when in English we'd have to write certain things, and nearly all of them can be traced back to my Harry Potter crazed stage.  Even now, as a senior in high school, I still have a very deep love for Harry Potter.

I've had a rough child hood, and I could always remember having the Harry Potter books to read and to help me escape whatever it was that was going on.  I felt like I was in a new place and I could be anyone who I wanted to be.  It was a nice feeling to just to let go and let my imagination roam.  I think, had I not discovered the Harry Potter series, that I wouldn't be the person I am today; I'm a friendly and open minded person.  There aren't enough words to express how much J.K. Rowling's writing means to me, she developed something so magnificent that I think even the fans don't even know how much it really affects us all.

On to other nerdy stuff, I absolutely love to write, although writing is one of my weaker points when it comes to keeping up with it.  I tend to start a project and get side tracked, never end up coming back to it.

I have however, have become obsessed with Doctor Who over the last couple of months, and though I just recently started Season 3, I freaking love it.  My goal is to get caught up with the series by the time school starts.  And since I'm talking television shows, I've also become addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I plan that I'll have Buffy finished by school starts as well.

What's your nerd history?

a different town

For all of my 17 years of life, I have lived out in the country, on the same property around the same neighbors.  This past week, my mom and I moved into town into a two story, with a basement, house that had been modified into apartments.  We're on the main floor, and it's really quite nice here, so nice, I've given the place a name; the Nest.  The Nest sits besides the road that bends around from the railroad down to main street.  Let's just say there's so much traffic that I can't even count the number of cars I see, or the trains that pass.  So much traffic, I like to sit on the front porch and wave at people as they pass by.  I'm thinking about making cookies or something and when the trains come by and the cars are all backed up in front of the Nest, go sell them for fifty cents each...but that involves a city permit or something too much work for a simple act of awesome.

Anyway, this is day three of staying in the Nest and there's just so much new stuff.  The sounds are so different from living out in the country.  Instead of hearing birds and wind, now I hear cars and trains.  Really, that's about it, aside from the three birds that were playing outside one of my bedroom windows, and the occasional crappy car that clunks it's way around the road.

I'm about to embark on a journey.  From the Nest down to Main Street to the public libary, walking.  After my hip replacement my surgeon said the best thing to do to that hip is to just walk.  Considering the fact that I enjoy going on walks, and that I wanna do the 5k run/walk that's coming up sometime within the next month, I'm excited to get to walk around the town that I've been passing through and doing various things in for my entire life.  It's practically like it's a new town almost, there's so much "new" things to me.

Oh, and a side note, about two months ago I had started a "50 books in a year" thing, but I lost all my stuff I had written down...which reallly wasn't much.  So I'm starting over, today officially.  And so I won't be losing my stuff, I'll be blogging about it...kind of.  More details within the next days.  Book suggestions are welcomed, I'm always up to try a new book.

come on brain

I'm in one of those funks.  The type of funks that you don't really want to do anything.  Well, actually, I take that back.  I have a long list of things I want to accomplish and work on, but alas, my brain of mine won't put in the effort to work.

For example, I had attempted on several several occasions the last few days to write a blog post about something some what important and relevant.  But my brain basically shut off on me a couple sentences into the post.  I fear my brain is finally getting back at me for over loading it in the fall. I mean, if I was my brain, I would revolt about now.  It's the crucial part of the school year...even if I do take my classes online.  But everything right now effects senior year and if I graduate on time or not.

The only thing that my brain has really permitted me to doing is watching stuff on Netflix, granted though, I'm not entirely wasting my time away watching pointless movies. I mean, the vast majority, and I'm talking about like 99% of the stuff I've been watching has been documentaries. The other 1% has been a mixture of things from Doctor Who to Greek  to dramatic movies.  Just yesterday, I watched three documenties and a movie that I'll most likely end up watching again today.

Such a pointless post.

taking a stand

Yesterday I definitely didn't forget to be awesome.  I attended and participated in the second annual Walk Against Gang Violence in Wichita, Kansas.  I hadn't heard of this gathering before this week when I was cleaning out my e-mails of 2,000 and still counting when I came across an e-mail from my youth leader asking me if I wanted to go.

I had no idea that it would be such a massive event.

I knew that there would be a good deal of people there, maybe five hundred at the most.  Nope, estimations are that there were 2,000 people there.

This year the walk was in honor of a 13 year old boy who had been shot and killed at his home.  The coordinators of the walk changed the route the of the walk to lead by the house where this 13 year old boy was killed.  The family of the boy were standing in their driveway watching as the walk continued by their house, you could see pain on their faces still, but they were happy to see so many people participating in an event that was helping to decrease violence in general in Wichita.

One of the things that I thought about as we began the almost two mile walk around this very sketchy neighborhood, was that people of all races had come out that morning in support of not only the family of the 13 year old boy, for everyone who has been affected in some way of violence in the Wichita area.  The area of the walk was mostly Latino based, or at least that's what I'm assuming by all the Mexican based restaurants and stores along the route we walked.  But it wasn't just Latinos that showed up, there were African Americans, the average white person and Asians.  It just showed that it didn't matter your race, we were all there for one reason.  To stand up for those who can't against violence.  We were all there for one purpose and we made our voices heard.

Yesterday was a day of decreasing world suck, and I'm happy that I was apart of it.

Article about the Walk Against Gang Violence ---> Click
Youtube video from the Wichita Police Department (this is from 2010, but shares the basis of the event) ---> Click


Fish caught this month: 0
Miles biked this month: 0

insanity

If you haven't heard of the wave of tornadoes that have devastated a large portion of the country, you must live under a rock, I'll cut you some slack if you're not from the U.S. though.  Living in Kansas I've been through several very severe storms.  Including a too close for comfort encounter that scared the crap out of me and has made me freak out slightly at the sound of a tornado or severe storm being any where near that location.  Unfortunately for the people of the more eastern states, they've had to experience tornadoes at their worst possible moments.

On April 27th, there was over 160 reported tornadoes across the United States. To a person who has lived in Kansas all of their life, even in just 17 years, I can remember the countless nights during the summer, several nights in a row, watching the local television station cover several tornadoes that had popped up seemingly out of no where.  One particular tornado that I remember clearly was the Greensburg tornado that wiped the town off the map.  Even today, a few years after it happened, driving through the town you can see damages from the treelines.  It's a hard concept to grasp, that such damage could be done all over the nation within a 24 hour range, damaging buildings, vehicles and taking several people's lives.

Another concept, one that is far more complex to me, is how when a disaster of any sort happens, there is a good portion of people who will jump in and do nearly anything including risking their own lives to help people who have been affected.  But it isn't until these disasters occur that we see such a large helping hand of normal citizens.  We're all in this together.

Photos and articles from the April tornadoes ---> Click
Map of reported tornadoes in April ---> Click
Facts and radars from the Greensburg tornado ---> Click
Article on the anniversary of the Greensburg tornado ---> Click

remember when

 

circa December-ish 2007 (8th grade)

concessions at a basketball game 

This was me four years ago, and I've come a long way.  Straight teeth, somewhat controlled hair that isn't always shoved up into a ponytail, an outspoken personality.  I can remember when this photo was taken, it's one of the few occasions from middle school that I actually remember, or at least I haven't blocked from my memory.  I remember when I found my love for Harry Potter two years previous this photo, and eventually became obsessed in 8th grade.  I was actually good at math, or at least I passed with a B or higher.  I remember this was around the time I got into theatre.  This was also the time I decided I wanted to be in the film industry.

 circa April 2011 (11th grade)

Kenzie on the right, myself on the left after our club sponsored Mr. Wildcat Pageant.

Fast forward four years to the present. I would have never thought, four years ago that I'd have changed my mind several times about what I wanted to be when I "grow up" and eventually land on wanting to be a history teacher.  Never would have thought that I'd still be obsessed with Harry Potter, though I do admit, I have kind of backed off a little in the last couple years...or that I, who absolutely loves acting, gave up a chance to be in one of the most classic musicals we've done at Mulvane High school to be behind the scenes.

It just goes to show that nothing is for certain, I might change my major in college, though I find it difficult to believe I would because I'm so happy with the decisions regarding college that I've been making recently...but I could.  And though I find it hard to believe that, I wouldn't mind it.  If it's what my heart and gut are telling to do, and it'll make me happy I'll end up doing it.  I wouldn't be where I'm at personally if I didn't follow my heart and gut.

I had a moment during sophomore year where I just wanted to quite theatre.  That it wasn't going to help me later in life and that it was taking up too much time from other stuff, and I wasn't quite concentrating that well on school.  But I eventually rolled around into my senses when I unofficially joined the costuming/makeup department of our theatre department during our spring play production of Fools by Neil Simon when a senior trusted me and only me to help with his quick change.  And that then lead to me cleaning out and organizing the costumes and makeup cabintes and closests later that spring.

 

circa November 2010 (11th grade)

Curtain call for Fiddler on the Roof

I took over as head of costumes and makeup junior year, and put together a new system and trained new crew members while I figured out what the hell I was doing.  Honestly, I don't know what the hell I was thinking that spring, and that summer, and then that fall when I went up to our drama teacher after class and said that if he would let me I'd take over.  Let me give you a little background, previous to Fiddler on the Roof.  I couldn't braid hair, I couldn't curl anyone's hair if my life depended on it.  The only makeup I could do, was stage makeup, on my own face.  I had never used special affects, including spirit gum and the similar likes.  I had never in my life been in charge of clothing 30+ people.  And then on top of this, I was in charge of my crew, who was basically as new as I was to the costuming and makeup side of theatre.

Junior year of high school has been my worse, and my best year of high school thus far.  Fiddler on the Roof is a good example of this.  Late October, early November was when I really began having bad hip issues.  And if you want a detailed summary of these issues, go back to my other blog posts in the beginning...I somehow managed to continue everything that I was doing through this horrific pain I was experiencing when half the time I could barely get out of bed.  I ran my ass off during that show, literally being every where at once, and it seemed like I never let myself breathe.  The last week and a half of the show, I worked in my wheelchair.  I couldn't walk much.  But it was me pushing myself to not let down anyone, and make everyone shine that helped me.  This show, as much stress as it gave me, it payed off.  I really found a part of who I am in the process.  Even the things we thought we could never do, that could never work, could work.

The unexpected can be a great thing, we just have to give it's chance.

And to think, it's killing me sitting here, having absolutely NOTHING to do with our current spring show that I can't work on because I'm currently home schooled due to having my hip replaced.  I mean, Night of the Living Dead.  Black and white version, I've freaking freaked out over this several times, that I'm missing this awesome costuming and makeup chance to shine...

bubby

 Bill, 17 and I, 1 1/2 in our family friend's pool.

Today I've been thinking about my family and a lot of things that I remember over the years from family trips, to reunions to just random moments that stick out in my memory.  I wanted to blog about something family related today and had no idea what exactly, but then I read Kayley's blog post about her brother Andrew, and decided to do something similar.  No, it's not my brother's birthday or anything, we're not really close seeing as there is a 15 year gap between us, but he's my brother regardless.  And even though he goes by a variety of names including, Billy, Bill though his name is really William.  I still call him Bubby after 17 years of being his sister.

• Waiting for the bus together one morning when I was headed off to Kindergarten.
• Getting lost at Disneyland together when we got separated from mom and dad.
• When he gave a NSYNC cd for Christmas that he bought overseas...partially because he didn't really know what to get me.
• Forcing me to go on Space Mountain, when I was terrified of most rides. Promising he'd buy me ice cream.
• The one day I had missed the bus and dad's keys were no where to be found.  The first time I had ever been driven to school by my big brother.

• The night when mom sent us to Sonic to get her tea because the Legion didn't have any that night and eventually led to driving the back roads around town in his new truck.  And then tried teaching me how to drive, but was too terrified of wrecking his new truck I refused.
• The day, years later when he finally bought me my ice cream from riding Space Mountain with him.
• Fishing at the family pond together.
• Riding for hours on the four wheeler.
• The mud war we had the spring of '08 involving ALL the neighbor kids...mom is still kind of mad about that.
• The garage sale down the road from us when he bought the remote controlled bulldozer and then proceeded to teach me EVERYTHING about it, inside and out.
• Being mistaken as father and daughter at the local grocery store.
• Attempting to help him study for his CDL.
• Teaching me self defense.
• Fireworks with dad. We're still getting in trouble for that too.
• Teaching me how to shoot.
• The roadtrip to Missouri for fireworks with mom and the best friend.
• That fourth of July, when we got in trouble for blowing up a good tupperware bowl in order to light all of the firecrackers so mom would give us more money to go get more fireworks.
• Seeing Chicken Little at the movie theatre's at like midnight, and then going to Wal-Mart.
• Helping him and his family move into town.
• The day he tried taking me and my nephew into a shooting range and couldn't shoot because he wasn't my parent.
• Surprise 30th birthday party we threw for him down in Texas. I'm still trying to get over the shock on his face.
• His wedding day, taking photos together and tricking me into making weird faces.
• Taking me out to shoot the 12 gauge.

These memories are all the ones I can really remember, and are most of them.  Bill was in the Marines for several years, and was away a lot of the time, and hasn't really been around too much except for the time he moved back in with us when he first got out of the military.  I've said some hurtful things to him, but he's still my big brother that would probably do anything for me.

You probably won't see this Bubby, but if you do at some point, just know I love you. Even though I don't say it as much as I should, it's completely true.

who is...

Top 10 Google searches for "Who is..." and my responses.

Who is Rebecca Black? Search her on Youtube and you'll figure it out.

Who is A in Pretty Little Liars? I have no idea, although it could stand for apple, art, aardvark, alpaca, arrow or apple pie among other things.

Who is A? Since this is a pretty popular question, I'm gonna take a safe bet and say that A is trying to keep their identity secret.

Who is God? God. Is there need to explain?

Who is Cupid? The baby that shoots arrows at people on Valentine's day.

Who is on the dime? If you're talking about presidents, that would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Who is the editor of the national review? Some editor who isn't famous enough for their work because people are Googling it to find out.

Who is ip? Do you mean, "What is my ip?" ? Either way, I have no freaking idea.

Who is the Governor of Kansas? According to Google, and yes, I'm from Kansas and I had to Google this, it's Sam Brownback. I was going to tell you Kathleen Sebelius.

Who is Justin Bieber dating? No idea, but it could be A the aardvark from Pretty Little Liars...

I'd like to point out, that I find it interesting that I knew who was on the dime, but not even the governor of my home state.

the real kansas

I'd like to think of my self as a pretty well rounded traveler. I've been to several states but mostly I've kept to around the tornado alley region.  The one thing that really gets me is when someone finds out where I'm from, from Kansas, nearly everyone comments on the great state of Kansas as the "boring" state.  I beg to differ, there is so much to Kansas that even people who have lived here all their lives have not experienced.

The other day my dad and I went out west to Pratt, Kansas where the Department of Kansas Wildlife and Parks headquarters are located to get our fishing and hunting licenses for the year when I begin to think this through.  I've thought about this several times before but never in this much depth.

I've noticed a lot that society tends to look and live for the material things in life.  Whether it be nice hotels down to five star restaurants and even having the most up to date technological devices.  I think things like these is part of the reason why several people think Kansas is boring.  Yeah, we're a flat state but there's more to us then that and a bunch of wheat.

Every where you go there's one thing in common but it varies from place to place. A little thing we call nature.  I've been extremely blessed to have been born into such a good family that has let me experience nature in it's many forms, whether it be through traveling, camping or even just a walk down the road.  Our family, especially when I was younger would go camping frequently, we've nearly always had some form of camper that we would take out nearly every weekend to various locations around the state.   I never appreciated it then, but nature is great.

Kansas is great.  People generally have a name by association thing they do when they hear about Kansas.  We've got wheat, lots of it.  We have that famous or infamous depending from where you're at, Kansas vs. K-State rivalry, and a lot of other stuff that frankly I'm too tired to really make my mind remember at the moment. I'm sure though that you, the reader, probably have other things that you associate with Kansas...Oh and tornadoes, lots of those in the summer.  What I'm trying to get at, is that people, don't take the time out to really get to know a place.

When I was out in Pratt earlier this week, I stood on the edge of a stock pond at the KDWP and I couldn't believe how connected I felt to nature, probably more connected feeling that I have felt in a very long time.  I'm the type of person that I would probably change my major to marine biology just to be able to work with the state of Kansas and get to work hands on first glance with the land that I love.

This probably seems like a lame blog, but when I was thinking about it, it seriously sounded better in my head then what it turned out to be.  Nature is a wonderful thing that many people take for granted.  It'll always be there but many people never really get to experience it first hand.

mind blown

Oh my.

...

I don't know what to say for a change.

...

I just finished watching The Disappeared staring Harry Treadaway, Tom Felton and Ros Leeming.  Honestly, I'll admit it, I don't watch scary movies because I feel like I'm one of those people who will be frightened easy.  I decided though, since I had looked into the movie slightly that I'd order it off of Netflix and give it a try.  I mean, I get slightly freaked out, even after years of watching Ghost Hunters and even Destination Truth at times.  I think it's a brain game I play with myself, thinking I'll be freaked out and then I get all jumpy.

Anyway, I started the movie when it was still light out, just to be safe, because I didn't want to stop the movie and have to finish it tomorrow when the sun is out.  I have to admit, I found the first like hour and twenty minutes extremely slow and at times painfully boring.  But I toughed it out, because there are several movies that I enjoy immensely just because I stuck it out and watched it in it's entirety.

The ending though, oh my.

...

Seriously, I'm still at a loss for words.

The ending of the film, left me wondering who in the hell would write such a fantastic piece of work...and leave people wondering things at the very end....when there's nothing left to watch.

And then I completely thought it through, of course, that was probably intentional.  But still, my point, is that I have so many questions.  I guess you could say that I'm left kind of dazed and confused on a few points.

And just flat out confused on a few things.

But then, I read through the small synopsis a second time that was on the DVD cover in the Netflix envelope, and I realized that this was the extent of the movie.  I was supposed to feel confused, or at least left wondering.  It was after all labeled as a "psychological horror film".

...

When my parents asked me how I liked the film, I bluntly told them that I'm happy I took a chance and tried a horror film of sorts, and that I had to give props to the Brits who wrote and produced the film; they really made an American think their ass off.