The Topic of Great Randomness

[smile]

a stream of consciousness

I have no idea how much I read each summer... I usually read every morning, every night, and sometimes during the day. Sometimes I wish my books lasted longer, because I'll spend a long time waiting for them to come out, and I'll finish them in one day. I reread them though (extensively), so it isn't like they are actually finished and gone.

My neighbor just got a new puppy! I desperately wanted her to get a large dog, because I was really close to her dog Elsa when I was younger. I like small dogs, but you cannot play with them as well, sometimes. But Lucy the puppy is a miniature doxen, and even though she will alwasy be tiny, she is extremely sweet and funny. She carried a tennis ball around today, which was as large as her head, I think.

What exactly is fictionpress? I like writing, so maybe I should check it out?

And because I wanted to do something with this news which has been bouncing around in my head--

My Uncle (I cannot find the words to explain how wonderful, sweet, and generous he is) has cancer, in his esophogus. He found it last year, and it went into remission, but it has come back, and he isn't doing well. This round of chemo is taking an extremely hard hit on him, and there isn't any way to tell if it is working. He is considering stopping treatment, to get quality life instead of a longer, unpleasant life. I don't argue that this makes sense, or that it is his choice, or that it isn't what I might do in the situation. It's just that... what if it is working? What if sticking it out for another month will kick the cancer into remission? Because if he stops it and the cancer is still there, not beaten back much, he probably only has months to live. It's his decission, and it's his right, and if it's between a shorter, higher quality life and a longer, meager life, I would choose the quality. I've always thought the quality is more important. I'm just scared, I think, because until last week, I thought it was a simple round of chemo. Not the last round he can be given, not a small hope to save his life. This is the uncle who gives you hugs so tight you might break a rib, the one who almost broke my glasses once. And it's the uncle who walks through the store, and decides me and my sister will like this and this and this. And he buys this and this and this, and gives it to us. I don't even care about the presents, it's just that he is so generous, and... everything. He's Uncle Ted, and that's the only way to describe him.

And thanks for reading that, if you did. You don't have to, if you didn't... I just needed to get it out. Gosh, that was a lot ... I didn't know how much I was caught up on. I feel better now : ) Maybe I'll go relax and sleep now... (I didn't sleep well last night).

do many people use "gosh" anymore? I have a lot of expressions that other people don't use. (I think I get some of them from my favorite books)

[bookgirl]

Smile-I'm so sorry about your Uncle Ted. I've been through a similar experience, my Grandpa was like that (we called him Gramps) so I know just how bad it is.

I use the word "gosh" all the time! And a lot of my friend do too, but then again I live in Utah. We're known for using substitute words. (Gosh, Fetch, Heck, Flip and all those fun words)

I have a daschund, just like your neighbor. They make great pets, I love my little doxie.

I have no idea how many books I read in the summer. I know I read a couple a week, sometimes more. It just depends on the size of the book, and how much concentration it takes to read it. I'm reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" at the moment, and not only is it long, but its an old book so the writing style slows me down a bit. (An awesome book so far though!)

Life is pretty good for me. I'm loving my new job, working 7:00-3:30 is so nice. Being free in the evenings is wonderful. But I am still working part time at my other job, so I still work some nights.

Nothing else terribly exciting to report, though I did buy myself a new iPod. I finally replaced my dying first generation mini iPod. My new one is quite lovely, 120 gb. I'll never fill it up. lol, so far I have all the Harry Potter books, the Peter and the Star catchers series, Eragon cycle, and Twilight Saga all on there. And all my music and about ten movies. I love it!

oh, and Eric, congrats on the learners permit. I remember having to do that, it was one of the most stressful things I've ever done. Almost worse than an audition!

[EricG1793]

^ Wow.... Hopefully I won't need to audition for anything. Do you mean for a play? As far as plays go, I prefer doing off-stage work, such as lighting (which I did for the Fall play at school), sound, special effects (I operated the bubble machine in a production of The Wizard of Oz once ), stuff like that that doesn't really need an audition.

Smile: I'm sorry to hear about your uncle. He'll be in my prayers; I'm sure he'll end up making the right choice.

[bookgirl]

Eric- Yes, I meant auditioning for a play. My minor is Theatre, so I get to do that stuff a lot. I've done the techie side too, I was on Stage Crew in high school. And I've stage managed a few shows in college.

I'm so happy. I got to pick up my book embosser today. Now I just need to get to work embossing my books. All 200+ of them.

[smile]

Thanks Eric and Bookgirl! It really helps a lot : ) Hopefully, I'll get to see him soon.

And Eric - I also love doing the plays for my school! I like doing lighting and working with the sets... I painted the set of West Side Story this year, mostly the background. I like stage crew, though I haven't done it in awhile.
and congratulations on the learners permit (wow, I need to get that - I've waited ages to do it)

Bookgirl - to me you are really brave for auditioning... I'm not good at things like presentations. I do fine, but public speaking makes me nervous (and I'm talkative, there is just something about standing in front of people and talking).

Are your schools really serious about drama? Because for us, if you are part of the cast, you spend so much time there, you become a family... you stay after school extremely late, until nightime, and then go home and do your homework... it always seems that at one point during the rehearsals, a disease goes around because everyone is tired. The plays are wonderful, but it is a bit extreme. I suppose everybody knows what they are getting into though.

I think I'll go to bed and read a little, then go to sleep, because I'm very tired for some reason. It was probably riding lessons today. i work at my stable afterwards. It's really busy, because my instructor does a camp each summer, partly because she needs the money, and I help out with them. There is a bunch to do to get ready.

And I mentioned using gosh as an expression... I also use "oh dear" (like worried, not "oh, hello dear"). Apparently I have a perfect voice for it and everything, because my mom mentioned I would make such a cute, funny little old lady one day. (which was weird, but my mom is great, sometimes not like a mom, more like a grown-up friend - my dad, too).

And oh my gosh, My Aunt Laurie just called (big family on my dad's side). Uncle Ted is in the hospital, because of problems with his blood pressure, yesterday he was fine, day before he wasn't, today he went to a good hospital. He's on the hospice floor, and I want to visit him (I've been wanting to visit him), but it should be his wife and his children (four, five years older than me - twins (boy, girl), and an older sister). And before I wasn't worried about visiting him - we were thinking we would let him get better, not creat hubbub or anything, just let him rest. So he probably won't have chemo anymore. It could be his cancer or the chemo that messed up his blood pressure. I;m just going to relax, relax and not think about it for a bit. I'm not any help all upset, and now I'll just try to spend as much time with him as I can (without interrupting my cousins and aunt).

dai

[bookgirl]

The Arts were taken pretty seriously in my school. If you were in Productions Company (the elite theatre group at my high school) everyone knew you. My senior year I was really busy, I was in the drama club presidency, Productions Company (in which I was also student director), and Stage Crew. (and choir and dance as well). Wow, I just gave you half of my acting resume. lol.
My school was pretty old, so there weren't a lot of windows, there were some days I'd get to school when it was still dark and stay until after the sun had gone back down, so some days I didn't even really see the sun. But we were like a family, like you said Smile, we were together so much that we got to be really close. (well most of us at least). I've been out of high school for two years now, and I'm still close to my friends from Productions. And we would get the "disease" that would make its way through most of the cast, it was just expected that you would get sick at some point in the production. lol. We didn't really care though, it was just part of it all.

[Stormwind]

Obviously it's been a bit of time since I last posted, Good Luck to all of you in your pursuits, I've been working lots of hours and having fun with my off hours in going on day trips around the area... Hope everyone has a fun summer and to those in Utah I'm going to miss the extra Holiday.....

I miss the theater.... I was hoping to see Phantom when it's in Houston, but the tickets are out of my price range right now... My senior year was insane with doing three productions that year (Musical, Dinner Theater, and Children's Theater) it was so much fun though that I didn't think about anything that I might have lost from the great fun....

[smile]

Hi everybody, I would love to talk about my school's productions, but I might be dropping out for a week (I might also be posting extra, to distract myself - It's rather uncertain)

Stormwind, I hope you get to see Phantom at some point, and if you evr go to New York City, I know you can get some chea, last minute tickets at TKTS (I've been there a couple of times). Sometimes they have really good seats, like tickets saved for people who were friends of the cast, but weren't filled, and things like that.

My Uncle Ted passed away this morning, his wife and children were there. Thanks to everybody, and everyone who saw my posts, you guys really made me feel better...

(and guys is used for guys and girls, here... I know it is in other places too, but just in case your place isn't one of those...)

I'm trying not to get caught up in sadness (like sitting around the house, beuing upset) because I'm sure it's the last the Uncle Ted wants. So you need to be sad, but not lost in sadness.

dai

[wizardsrreal]

So I havn't been keeping up with the conversations here so I'm just going to be random as the name suggests. A little thing popped up when I opened the forums today and it told me that I should post something because I havn't done that in a while. I've had a super busy summer so far but I'm home for about two weeks then I leave again for 9 days. So I'll probably get that message a lot considering how much I'm going to be gone. Oh well. How has everyone else's summer been?

[kk]

Smile: *hugs* I'm so sorry about your uncle! I will definitely be praying for you and your family, this week.

Hi WizardsrReal! I've been having an okay summer... Getting some reading done, which is good. I'm almost done my library's summer program, so I might complete it twice, just for fun.

What summer reading programs are any of you guys signed up for this year? Mine is stupid; just 15 hours!

Speaking of which, dai! Gonna go read....

[EricG1793]

Smile: Yeah, my school has a strong music/theater department. We have a play in the summer, and a musical in the spring. The chorus teacher directs the singing and music and the Theater Workshop teacher directs the acting (usually that's how it goes). In the past, the musicals have been Into the Woods, The Wizard of Oz, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Little Shop of Horrors, and more that I can't remember.

There are a few chorus levels, and three theater classes (Intro to Theater, which I took, Theater Workshop, and Musical Theater). There's even a monologue-focused summer program, taught by... I think the Intro to Theater teacher.

wizardsrreal: Welcome back! Hope to see you around.

kk: I just looked at what your avatar said, and it's so true! It's never just one!

[SaxySullivan]

<insert random pickle>

[Lazy Leopard]

Random pickle selection might make an "exciting" gastronomic experience, especially if you pick something totally inappropriate. Who knows, you might discover the next restaurant sensation. Strawberry ice cream and pickled habaneros, anyone?

[Tuttle]

<insert random pickle>

So you know, despite this being the topic of great randomness, we do try to have our randomness have meaning. Just like in other threads, one thing to generally avoid is having "one liners" - that is short meaningless posts. This is because DD pays for the boards herself. I'd recommend reading the board FAQs to see the general rules.

--

Hm, just played in an interesting role playing game. Was a d20 modern game (think rules similar to D&D (3/3.5)), where you create yourself as a character, then give your character to someone else to play, and then its set in current times in an apocalyptic situation. We ended up dealing with cultists and zombies. It was interesting. Though now we're stuck because its raining and would need to walk over a quarter mile in the pouring rain to get home.

It's been almost a year since grandma died. I still haven't dealt with everything that came with that. Part of me feels like a horrible person for it, even when I know how hard of a year I've had. I just want to get over everything and get better. But its being hard and people aren't getting what its doing to me. I still can't really talk about it and get irritated when people expect too much of me.

Blah. Am being tired again and trying to socialize via the forums to not hide from people and its not working. I think I'm going back to being private again.

[kk]

Today, I made blue pasta. I felt very YW obsessed, because I read two of the four chapters of AWoM in the premium content section, and have been rereading TWD... My mom thought that I had lost it, because the blue pasta looked really unappetizing to her.
It was really good; I put blue dye in the sauce, too; so it looked and tasted amazing!

I wish more people knew about this series... My library is even getting rid of some of its copies of the books! They no longer have TBONWM, or any other cat-wizard books! It's sad, and depressing.

They say that they can't re-add them to the collection, because they've been out of print for a while. The people at my local bookstore have never heard of it, either.

They do have an online catalog, though...I could ask them to add the ebooks to their downloadable materials section.

I'm bored with my summer reading program, because I've already read more than the required amount. I'm wondering what books they're giving out as prizes this year; hopefully something good.

I'm at my library, and all of these little 8-yr-olds are running around in the plainly stated "Teen Area, for ages 12 to 18" area. It's depressing, and noisy.

How has everyone's summer been so far? Mine's been pretty good, except for the kids messing up the library