I love ballads.

I hate making this post so long by including the lyrics, but they are a must. Please read them. ^^ When I first heard this song, it was just a nice song. Then I read the lyrics, and now I'm hooked...
Dear Reader is my muse. (And Anna, of course.)

He climbed into the belly of the great white bear
It's very sticky and it smells a little fishy
But no one will look for him there
He took a moment to pick his thoughts and make them clear

Oh, what a day it's been
Oh, what a terrible state he's in
Oh, what a day it's been
Oh, what a terrible state he's in

Her eyes are wired there's a hat over her thick black hair
They're racing through the snow
Their sweaty hands keep slipping
But they're almost there
Her father's shotgun ringing out now through the cold night air

Oh, what a fix they're in
Oh, what a terrible sin
Oh, what a fix they're in
Oh, what a terrible sinister game

The hunter did play
To give them the hope
That they could get away
When biding his time
He did wait down the line
To bring a disaster
On their youthful dreams of escape

Oh, what a day its been
Oh, what a day its been

Run! there's a bullet in your back
Run! Run! there's a bullet in your back
Run! Run! Run! there's a bullet in your back
But I wouldn't take it back
Run! Run! Run! there's a bullet in your back
But I wouldn't take it back
Run! Run! Run! there's a bullet in your back
But I wouldn't take it back, I wouldn't take it back
Run! Run! Run! there's a bullet in your back
and I want to take it back

I want to, want to
I want to, want you
I want you, want you
I want you, want you, want you, want you
Back

I'm uploading a million photos to Facebook. =__=

But! But! I just bought my tablet!!!
Isn't it beautiful? And so cheap! (Compared to what it would cost if I bought it from the original website... But then, that one comes with Coral Painter and some other programs.... I have GIMP, that's all I need!)
It should be here on Wednesday. (So excited!)

Things I still want to buy this summer:
►Shojo Beat magazine, July 2009 (very last issue!!!)
►Salvador Dali: Portfolio (artbook)
►Willow by Julia Hoban
►Pattern for a dress I want to make
►Fabric for this dress
►A Nintendo DS Lite

My mom offered to stop at the bookstore on her lunch break, but I want to go there! I just love hanging out at bookstores... Even if I rarely end up buying anything.

OMIGEEZE I just found a picture of cookies I made a long time ago that I once posted here on my blog, and now I really have to make some!!!

From Chocolate Strawberries

Not much to report on.

I need to go to the gas station to return a HUGE trash bag of pop cans and bottles later. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the money. I'm [finally] saving up for a.... (duh-duh-duuuh) Tablet!!! I'm excited. I want to do some digital art (even though I'm more of a traditionalist), and it's quite hard with a mouse. I have enough money right now, but I might put a little of that into savings, so I can, y'know, go to college.

Hmm, yes, so I suppose I'm expected to give my opinion on the passing of a certain pop star.
I am actually quite indifferent.
I've never been very fond of MJ. Not disliking him per say, but I never really listened to his music (except when I was little, I loved that song in the beginning of Free Willy) (I'm listening to it now. I still like it!).
When my dad told me that he was in the hospital (possibly dying), I was shocked. It didn't last for too long, but I was most certainly shocked. I just couldn't imagine that man... Dead. But now I'm indifferent again.
(And I'm back to listening to Dear Reader.)

I've started drawing some realism. People. I've only drawn Cyan and Timothy, and now I'm working on Erica. (These are all my OCs, by the way!)
I'm having a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately, no comments on the one I've posted (Cyan), which disappointed me, but then again, no one ever comments on my art. =D (I'm not complaining! I'm grateful for the page views that I get!)
My mom was teasing me when she saw my drawings of Cyan and Timothy. After telling me that they were good (she always does that. But I have learned that I cannot trust her opinion, as she once told me that.... Oh, dang, I must have deleted it from my dA gallery. Well, it was my first anime drawing, uber crappy), she commented that Cyan was "a cutie," then started teasing me for drawing cute boys. >_> I can't help it, okay?! -FLAIL-

Mmm... Okay, long enough post. Gonna go check the mail, maybe my Dear Reader CD came in! (Bought it on eBay for £3.88, and that's including shipping, people!)

Seventeen

My Inkheart Movie Review

I watched this movie, Inkheart, yesterday.
I actually enjoyed it, even though I was fully prepared to be disappointed.
There were a lot of points where the movie went off the track of the book, and most of these were completely unnecessary! Pretty much, the movie producers took the idea of the book, kept the plot path pretty much the same, but then rewrote everything else.
Example:
Rather than opening the movie with Meggie reading in her bedroom of their old farmhouse, storming outside, they opened it with Mo and Meggie at a bookstore, Mo looking for Inkheart.
They did this with most of the movie. I find it extremely frustrating. I would understand if they changed a scene that would be hard to film, but no! They just changed most of the movie, and in my opinion, some of the original scenes that would have been easier to film!

The Characters
I'm not going to go into how most of the characters looked nothing like I imagined them, because that's just my imagination versus many others.
But I will go into how some characters weren't anything like they were described in the book!
There are only three examples of this, and only one really good example.
1) Fahrid had long hair. In Inkspell, it stated that Fahrid had tried to grow his hair our like Dustfinger, but ended up cutting it even shorter than before.
2) Elenor was very thin. In Inkheart, a number of times they called her "fat," but that's a pretty weak argument so I'm not going to go into it any further.
3) Resa. This is what really annoyed me. In the movie she has short, blonde hair. In the book, it clearly states that she has dark hair, turned from blonde because of Capricorn's dark heart. I don't, however, remember exactly if her hair is short or long (though I always imagined it long).

I also hated how much of an idiot they made Fenoglio. "I'm sorry, I had to do this. But look, it's Basta!" He was laughing pretty much 24/7, unless I missed something! He was even laughing when he foolishly told Dustfinger about his death!
The best part of this movie, and Angel agrees, was Dustfinger.
We were both very disappointed that he only had his shirt off for about two seconds. XD (Which you can see here.)
I was also disappointed how the movie portrayed him. Yes, he was a bit selfish in the book, but he never would have just left Resa to defend for herself from Capricorn's men!
Or left Meggie and Fenoglio for death.
But Dustfinger has always been my favourite character, and I think the movie really would have sucked without him.
(I won't talk about why I love Dustinger, no worries. This post is getting long enough as it is. ;P)

Oh, yeah, and the end of the movie blowed.

Okay, so finally, I would give this movie a 7.5 out of 10, losing a lot of point due to inaccuracy.
But I would reccomend it to the next person. I quite enjoyed it.

So, it turns out that I sleepread.
That's right. I read in my sleep.
I knew my parents went wrong somewhere.

Okay, so lately I've been having troubles sleeping. Well, not sleeping exactly, more like... Not waking up at 5 am to open up the window that is dangerously located directly next to my bed, the window of which my mother constantly fears that I will one day roll out of.
And sometimes my mom will come into my room around that time and tell me something, and I will reply to her, and perhaps even hold a conversation, despite the fact that I am 98% asleep.
So last week I was lying in my bed, fast asleep, when my mother rudely intruded upon me. I awoke upon her arrival, and even when she asked me some very odd questions, I answered her as if they were completely normal.

"Have you been awake all night?" (Mom)
"Yeah." (Me)
"You should take *names a drug that I sometimes take to help me sleep*."
"No, it's too late. I have to take that earlier, it takes awhile to kick in."
"Well, try to get some sleep."
"Okay."

Now, when I look back on this memory, there is one strange thing I see (besides the fact that I held up a conversation as if I was wide awake): I was sitting up.

The next day I was talking to this mother-creature. I don't know how the topic came up, but we started talking about my complete lack of sleep.
"Wait... What are you talking about? You woke me up!" (Me)
"Huh? No, you said that you'd been up all night! You were reading when I walked in!" (Mom)
"No, I was sleeping!"
Both: "Wait... What?"

So the moral of this story is: if you ever see a weird Courtney-person on your doorstep at 5 o'clock in the morning, a screw driver in her hand, please kindly point her in the direction of the nearest bed or sofa and go back to sleep.

I just came across this group on Facebook:

"For everyone who just can't get enough of Dr. House and the rest of the team. Especially for the ones who still have to watch the reruns so they don't go through 'House withdrawals.'"

I have only one thing to say: I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes through 'House withdrawals'!
(Seriously, you should have seen me on our vacation in Florida. We didn't have USA, so I couldn't watch it every night! I can only imagine how I looked when they were showing the newest episode on Fox and we weren't getting back to our condo in time! XD)

I've just been thinking lately that I don't really have an obsession right now.
The closest thing to an obsession right now is probably still Tsubasa.
....Maybe I should go draw some Tsubasa fanart or something. :/

I was playing Kingdom Hearts II last night. No, it was this morning. 4:00 this morning, to be precise.
See, there was this huge thunderstorm.
And my dog is terrified of thunder.
So she came into my room at about 2:30 and woke me up. I let her on my bed once I realized how big this storm was (I still need to clean those sheets....), but after she was in my bed, I also realized how freaking hot it was.
And it wasn't just my room, it was outside, too, so opening the window would do nothing.
So I lay in bed for a few minutes. Became very restless. Turned on the Inkheart audiobook. Became even more restless.

I'll spare you all the boring details, but I ended up going downstairs, watched Family Guy (which was at almost the exact spot of the exact same episode that I had turned off three hours ago. Creepy.), my mum woke up and put the dog in my brother's room, I found Kingdom Hearts (it was in my Sims 2 Pets case!), and played that for awhile. I did finally fall back asleep at around 5.
=___=

But, eh, if anything good came out of this extremely restless night, it was that I finally got through the Beauty and the Beast arc in KHII and finished Evernight.
But at least I wasn't sleep-reading, right?

Bleach, Naruto, and lots of Sailor Moon...

Ah, yes. The anime club thing was yesterday.
And it was so much fun!
I just love hanging out with boys. Their conversations tend to me more interesting than girls' (well, the boys I choose to hang out with, at least. The odd ones!)
We watched five anime episodes:
►First of Sailor Moon
►First and third of Naruto (we skipped to the third purely for Kakashi's "A Thousand Years of Pain" XD)
►First of Dragonball (the original!)
►First of Bleach

No one really talked much during Sailor Moon (though there was a lot of snickering when "Tuxedo Mask" introduced himself.) (Unfortunately, we watched the dub, which sucks.)
The conversation really started up during Naruto.
"Hey, he appeared later as a weird tiger guy, right?"
"If Naruto failed that test a few times before, why is he the same age as everyone else?!"
"'I just got a shiruken to my spinal cord, but I'm still going to fight!'" (Seriously, I have never understood that injury!)

And it was pretty much a running commentary throughout Dragonball. XD
My favourite part was when the boy threw the log in the air (by the way, he could carry that huge sword over his shoulder like it was nothing, but he was sweating when he tried to lift the log?! wtf?) and chopped it when it was still in midair.
One of the guys said, "Wait for it..."
And the logs fell on top of each other, one by one, in a neat stack.
"What the heck?!"
"Physics does NOT work that way!"
"How did that even happen?!"
"Guys, this is the physics of anime. Do not question them!"

But I was able to watch Bleach peacefully. ^_^ Which I am not addicted to, by the way, along with Sailor Moon. (Both of which I have never seen before.) (I still like Tokyo Mew Mew better than Sailor Moon. The plot is more solid.)

I'm glad I invited Emily! It wouldn't have been as much fun if I didn't have a friend there.
(Maybe next time Donald and Fetus will come. ;D

So now I wait. Wait for a Nintendo DS and 358/2 Days.

O&O

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment. And I think my mom wants to go on a bike ride.

Tuesday Emily is coming over and my dad is taking us to the library. They're starting an anime club (not the library I regularly go to, mind you), and Emily likes anime, so I invited her. (Plus, she hasn't been over in seven years! A sleepover is WAY overdue!)

Wednesday I guess we're just going to hang out. I'm going to help her set up a deviantART account (yay)! I'll probably post the link here when it's made (and art is submitted).

Thursday I think I'm going to go to karate and Angel's house.

And I have nothing planned for Friday!

...I'm sorry, I'm at a complete lack of good blog fodder.

Just a quick post.



I saw this last night with Angel (and her sister and her brother). We all agreed that we've never seen anyone dance like that before! I really liked it. Of course, my favourite dance is still....

As I headed outside, Angel's dad walked through the back door. He took one look at me and said, "What are you doing here?" As I passed him, I smiled to myself and replied, "I live here," and continued on my way outside. I could hear him in the house, sounding almost bewildered, asking "What did you say?!"

I grabbed a hot dog from the grill, and Angel came out after a few moments. Laughing, she asked me, "Did you say you lived here?!" I told her why yes, I did. She replayed for me the converstion that took place after I left:
Angel's father: Did she just say that she lives here?!
Angel: Um... I think she did.
Angel's father: Wow... I should come home more often.

~*~

Just a tiny excerpt of my hilarious [not really] life.
This happened today.
And don't ask why it's written like this.

Changing the layout, so look out for that.
Ooh! Ooh! I revived my old blog!
Well, kinda. At least I put the old template back on!
Ahhh, memories.
Courtney

Edit: darn, looks like the cursor doesn't show up in Firefox. It does work in Internet Explorer, though, so I hope you IE users enjoy having Sephiroth following you around!

OC Meme

<sub>(originally posted in my dA journal here)

Feel free to steal this, anyone!</sub>

I kinda feel bad for spamming my profile with this looong entry... But I just had so much fun with it!



Character meme
1. choose a few of your own characters. Five at the most.
2. make them answer the following questions.
3. then tag three people.
4. feel free to go ahead and add some questions yourself!!

Cyan ・Erica ・Andii ・Timothy ・Amica


How old are you?
Erica: Seventeen.
Amica: I’m twenty!
Andii: And I‘m seventeen, Timothy’s eighteen, and Cyan‘s sixteen!
Cyan: Hey, come on, let me talk!
Andii: Nope. You were too slow.
Timothy: ...


What's your height?
Andii: Timothy’ the tallest! (Too tall if you ask me!)
Timothy: I’m 6’2”.
Andii: And Amica‘s the shorty!
Amica: Yep! I‘m pocket-size.
Cyan: Andiiii, stop talking for everyone!
Erica: I‘m 5’2”.
Andii: -glares at Cyan- I‘m 5’6”. And Cyan’s six foot, since he‘s not offering it up.


Who's your housemate?
Erica: I share a room with Amica, when she bothers to come home...
Amica: Oh, so you‘re saying that if YOU were in college and had all the freedom in the world, you would come home every night to your parents’ house?!
Erica: No, well…
Amica: EXACTLY.

Do you have any kids?
Amica: Yep.
Erica, Andii, and Cyan: WHAT?! O_o
Amica: I‘m KIDDING. Geez, did you really believe me? I have to say, I’m quite offended.
Timothy: I‘m surprised you don’t have any yet. You‘re a partier, right?
Amica: !!! You little--! *tries to tackle Timothy*
Andii: Amica, no! You- you can‘t do that! *holds Amica back*
Amica: That no good dirty rotten... *grumble*

What's your favourite food?
Erica: Fettuccini Alfredo!
Amica: Oh, yes, she always inhales that whenever Mom makes it. It’s tough for anyone else to get any!
Timothy: I like pasta, too.
Andii: Aww! ...Me? I like pretty much anything. Fruits! Lots of fruits! Strawberries especially. They‘re just so cute!
Cyan: My favourite food is pizza. So is Fox‘s, Dad always has to pick up an extra pizza so he and Mom can eat. :D
Andii: Where is Fox, anyway?
Cyan: Courtney didn‘t seem to feel the need to include him in this meme. *glare*
Courtney: Well, there WERE only five slots. And he‘s had the least character development out of all of you...
Cyan: I don‘t care. I’m still angry at you. _Cheesehead.
Courtney: I‘ve been dissed by my own character...


What's your favourite ice cream flavor?
Andii: STRAWBERRY! Of course!
Amica: Mint. Yumm, yes! Mint chocolate chip…
Erica: I love peppermint! Too bad they only sell it during Christmas time…
Cyan: Vanilla‘s pretty good.
Andii: *scoffs* You‘re so simple, Cyan!
Cyan: *very offended*
Timothy: Caramel Caribou.
Andii: Geez, now I‘m hungry!


Have you killed anyone?
Andii: Nope!
Amica: No.
Cyan: No.
Erica: ...
Timothy: In a way.
Andii: What?! Erica! Timmy! WHAT?!
Amica: Are you yanking our chains???
Erica: ...


Do you hate anyone?
Erica: Yes. *points to Timothy* Can‘t stand him.
Andii: Aww, Erica, that‘s rude! You KNOW you like him!
Erica: No. I do NOT. I used to, but now I do NOT. He‘s horrible.
Timothy: I AM standing right here, you know.

Have any secrets?
Cyan: Once I was mad at Fox so I let the air out of his favourite basketball.
Andii: Aw, Cyan, that‘s horrible! *wraps arms around Cyan*
Cyan: ...You are really getting on my nerves today.
Andii: Would you feel better if ERICA hugged you?
Cyan: *blush*
Erica: I do have a secret... But even I don‘t even understand it yet...
Timothy: Could you say that my whole background is a secret?
All: YES.
Andii: No one knows anything about you, Timothy! It‘s actually quite annoying!
Timothy: *rolls eyes*


Do you love anyone?
Amica: I have a feeling that no one here will be willing to admit to this question. *nudges Timothy*
Timothy: Don‘t touch me!
Erica: ...?
Amica: You are SO clueless, Erica! But I guess that‘s what makes you so cute.
Erica: Amiiicaa!
Andii: A doting mother and daughter!
Cyan: They are, aren’t they?!
Amica: Eh? What did you say?
Andii: Noothiiing.

What is your job?
Erica: Full time student!
Cyan: Full time? Is that even possible?
Amica: Have you SEEN her study?
Andii: I have a part-time job at the local ice cream shop.
Cyan: I work at the art supply store. (Employees‘ discount!)
Timothy: I don‘t have a job.
Amica: University library. And I‘m part of a book club.
Erica: Bookworm!

Boy or girl?
Andii: Cyan‘s supposedly a boy, but sometimes we wonder… And I’m sure you can figure out the rest.


What do you do to relax?
Erica: I don‘t need to relax.
Amica: Party!
Timothy: I do math puzzles.
Andii: Hang out with my besties!
Cyan: Draw. :D


Family tree information?
Amica: Erica and I are sisters!
Cyan: Fox is my [identical] twin brother, but he‘s not here. He’s the older one, by the way.

Do you have any background in previous stories?
Erica: Actually, we‘ve only been in one story so far, one that is currently being written. Unless you can count a few poems and some sentences Courtney had to write in English? But there’s not much background there.


Did you ever see each-other naked?
Cyan: Um… No…
Amica: Oh, yeah, Erica all the time when we were younger! She used to hate her clothes… Would strip them off at any given opportunity!
Erica: *blush* AMICA! I was TWO. Stop telling embarrassing stories!
Andii: I accidentally saw Erica naked once while she was changing. Scarred me for life.


Describe the perfect vacation!
Erica: A vacation from myself. Literally. Does anyone else ever feel that way?
Timothy: Every day of my life.
Cyan: Um, no, not really. I‘m pretty satisfied with myself. But I would love to visit Paris… Or New York… London… A city like that…
Amica: Beach, totally! Hang out with my friends, play truth or dare, check out hot surfer butts…
Andii: O_o …I’d go with Cyan to one of those cities. I love big cities!

Do you plan to show up later in different universes/stories?
Amica: I sure hope so!

What was the most dreadful thing your creator has done/ can do to you???
Timothy: She gave me a horrible past. I refuse to forgive her for that.
Courtney: Aw, come on, why are all my characters picking on me today?! I‘m sorry Timmy, but you would be so BORING with a normal past!
Timothy: You had no right to do that.
Courtney: Oh-ho! Ya wanna bet? I can take you down any day! I‘ll write you right into the It’s A Small World ride at Disney World! Believe me, that‘s worse than any past I could give you!
Timothy: .......

Last words?
Amica: Bye!
Andii: Everyone says FAREWELL! (I am SO not waiting for everyone to say goodbye one by one so I‘m just gonna say it for them!)
Cyan: In the time it took you to say that, we could have all said bye.
Erica: Thanks for reading!
Timothy: …Bye…
Andii: Oh, so you all go ahead and say it anyway! Well, don‘t expect ME to help out any more!
Cyan: Andii… Calm down… And quiet down! Geez, you are always so loud!

Part II
(Read Part I here)

We really didn't do too much at my house. Eh... What DID we do? *racks brain*
♪ Can we pull through this avelanch? Avelanch, avelanch... ♪
*cough* Um... What?

Oh! Right! Her mum dropped us off at the elementary school (because her sister had a softball game or something), and we walked home. I think. For some reason, I'm having a very hard time remembering the details. Yes, we went home. Then a little later we set out again, with Dustfinger (my pinecone), and went to the library and gas station. (A lot of people were staring at my pinecone on a leash! It was great. XD) We ran into Fetus, Damien, and Josh, who were coming from the gas station as we were going to it. Talked briefly (Damien gave us the great idea of putting bolagna on someone's car), bought a HUGE Monster.
On the way back, we passed a somewhat cute guy mowing his lawn. He looked at Angel, sort of smiled at me when I smiled at him, but that was only because he was eyeing Dustfinger! I opened our can of Rock Star and took a sip, then Angel said something funny and I sprayed everywhere!!! I think some may have come out of my nose, too. XD This was just after walking a few feet after the Cute Mowing Guy... >_> He wouldn't look at us (especially after we plopped down in the middle of the street to rest from carrying our heavy bags, I think).

Today we visited all the local business (on the main street, at least), asking for job applications. The furniture store was the only one that actually let us fill one out. (u_u)
So Angel and I are gonna put up babysitting flyers. Because she wants an iPod, and I want a moped!

...And thus goes my life.

I've just been walking around town so much lately!
It's much more fun with a friend, of course. Angel came over yesterday (and spent the night), and we walked around town a lot. But more about that later.

I had major issues with buses on Tuesday. -__- I nearly missed the bus Tuesday morning (the driver honked at least five times!), and in the afternoon I was looking all over the school for the yearbooks! When I finally found the right classroom, I had to stand in line. I had three minutes to get on the bus when I first got in line, and when I was finally given my yearbook, I ran!
.....Theeeen I couldn't find Angel's bus. Accidentally got on Emily's, but I'm glad because she told me that Angel's was two down. To my surprise, when I found the bus, it was already in motion!!! I had to flag it down while running towards it, but she did stop for me (thank God!). When I boarded the bus, people were like, "You made it!" XDD

Then Angel and I went to Karate, hung out with some friends outside the bowling ally for a little bit (we were going to go bowling, but it didn't open until 4!), then we became bored and left hem to go to the park. After that, we decided that it was time to go to the supermarket to stock up on energy drinks for that night, and stopped by the Dojo to watch Sensei throw down some guys (XD). I'll try to keep the details down, so after that we just mowed the lawn (yeah, I pushed mowed. Their mower is amazing!) and went to the bowling ally (they were gone! So Angel and I just bowled a quick game and left)... Then it was to my house!

Part II coming soon! I don't want to make these posts TOO long!