Well, I'm leaving for Detroit tomorrow, so I figured that I'd better post now.

I've never been to Detroit, and I'm kind of excited. I'm going with my church, it's for this thing called War Week. It's a missions thing... I'm not completely clear on what we're doing, but we will be working, going around the city (it's not inner-city or downtown), and at one point helping out with a block party. Then there's a lot of worship. Four days!

Yesterday I went to the fair with Genaro and Angel. It was fun... We went on rides (Zero Gravity = Awesome), and eventually found Kaity, who Angel and I hung out with for awhile (played BS).

I'm sorry, there just isn't anything interesting to write about. As soon as there is, I'll be here, in front of my computer!

EDIT: For your entertainment purposes:

Cinema Bizarre's new music video, 'I Came 2 Party' (featuring Space Cowboy, who is awesome)!
It really grows on you. I was a little disappointed at first (it's so different from their old stuff!), but now I'm listening to it over and over and dancing in my chair.

♪I came to party, you came to party, so why don't we party togetherrr♪

Wake

My reading speed seems to have increased greatly throughout the last few days.
Either that, or I've been finding a ton of really good books lately. Last week I started Timescape, then a few days later I read over half of it (about 300 pages) in less than a day.
Last night I picked up a book I'd started a few days ago, but didn't get very far: Wake.

(Please read the description here. You have to scroll down a bit.)
If you're too lazy to follow the link, here's abridged description:

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

On the back, Cassandra Clare wrote blurb.
"A lyrical, shuddersome novel whose images linger with you long after you've turned the last page, like the most haunting of dreams."
-Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author of City of Bones

When I opened the first page, my expectations weren't very high, and maybe that's why I like it so much. The style of writing isn't what I normally read, it was in present-tense. But soon enough, I was able to get past that (and the somewhat slow beginning). It starts to pick up speed when the main character has an "episode" during her job, which sucked me in. and the romance that's intertwined in there kept me reading.
And yes, Cassandra Clare's blurb was right; it is lingering in my mind, even after reading the last words over four hours ago.

The characters have the kind of depth to them that I just thrive in, even the minor characters! (Mellisa, for example.) Janie had the typical amount of personality for a main character, and Cabel had much more that I would have expected. (Ahh, Cabel. Why aren't there more guys like you?) I also loved how much the reader was able to get to know the characters by witnessing their dreams.

I give it 4.75 stars out of 5.

After I finished Wake, I started reading Wintergirls, then stopped. Went to the kitchen. Found my dry-erase marker. Wrote these quotes on my whiteboard.
The first is quite funny, while the second is beautiful in an almost haunting way.
If you can't read them, just ask in the comments and I'll translate. You can click to enlarge, by the way.
I finally found a place for my whiteboard on top of my bookshelf.

Wish me luck with Wintergirls! I hope it's as good as it looks. :3

Post #200

Okay, 1) that photo is hot. It's Kiro and Strify, from Cinema Bizarre.
2) I'm trying to convince my mother that I need to cut my hair like Kiro's (when it was shorter). Not working.

Why I sometimes number my posts in this way:
About a year two ago, on Justine Larbalestier's blog, Justine talked about how annoying it is to have to make up titles for everything, and wouldn't it be easier to just number each novel and blog post and everything?
And thus is the story.

My brother is playing the beer song really loudly right now. >.> There's something wrong with that, if you ask me....

Okay, this is pretty much the best sign EVER.


Photograph (c) Courtney Landon (Me!)
Sign (c) Um, the guy who owns that art studio up town. I think he made it. It's in his front yard.

Random Questions and Photos

Yeah, why not?

A picture in my New York calendar that Angel gave me. Isn't it beautiful?!

One of my bookshelves, featuring Mokona, my favourite manga, and all my Shojo Beat issues stacked next to it. (Those are my hand-made plushies on the magazines.)

Bulletin board next to my comp

[Click to enlarge.]

My tablet! 'Cuz I'm just cool that way.

1. When is the last time you went to the mall?
Two Fridays ago. Went with my mother, bought a book and tried on clothes. (Then waited for what seemed to be forever for my mother to try on and buy some clothes! I should have gone to Hot Topic.)

2. Are you wearing socks right now?
Nope! Showin' off my deep green toenails. :D

3. Do you have a car worth over $2,000?
Do I have a car?

4. When was the last time you drove out of town?
I drove? Quite awhile ago. Haven't driven in ages.

5. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
Nope. But I'm going tomorrow!

6. Are you hot?
Well, duh. HAHAHA-- No. No, I am not.

Overview of My Week

Last week (or is it still going on?) there was a fair in my best friend's hometown (which is just ten minutes from my house). The fair comes with cattle, rides, delicious fair lemonade, and, of course, a parade.
Since I take karate (Kenpō), I was in it, with the adult class, Angel, and the kid class. All we really did was march while doing punches and kicks, somewhat boring. But what made it interesting was when I saw Genaro... And then saw him again. And again! Stalker! (silly boy, I already have a stalker!) So after we were done in the parade, we ("we" being Angel and I) found him and talked to him for a bit. The main reason we found him was 'cuz I wanted to borrow some monies for delicous fair lemonade, but it was great to see him again! (I still need to get that drawing I did to him...)

After the parade (Angel and I watched the rest with her parentals, and I saw my cousin in a firetruck! He threw a piece of candy to me ^__^) I went back to Angel's house, we hung out for awhile, and ended up going back to the fair, out of boredom. We ran into one of her sister's friends, and Angel and Morgan we pooled our money and bought an elephant ear, and then I ran into my cousin again.
Angel's mother said that we had to be in the door by 10:00pm. We left at about 9:45 or so to walk back, but we were going very slowly, I was stopping every time I saw some candy on the sidewalk left over from the parade and whenever a firefly caught my eye. We were still about a seven minutes' walk from her house when Angel checked her cell phone for the time. I was just casually stolling next to her when I heard a "Oh shi- it's 9:57! RUN!" We both broke into a sprin, ran as fast as we could for about a block, then we stopped and walked a little bit, until the time changed to 9:58, and we were back running! We continued this cycle until we reached her house, where I finally slowed down, thinking I was safe. But no, I was wrong! As soon as I stepped into the house, I guess the clocked changed to 10:00 right as my foot touched the doorstep. I collapsed into an armchair and was forced to listen to Angel's brother crowing about how I was this close to missing the curfew.

Umm.... Then basically I spent the night, and then Angel spent the next two nights at my house. (Those two nights consisting of baking cake in a tea cup, playing in the middle of the road, and taking apart t-shirts to make halter tops.)

Yeah, this post is getting long enough as it is.

Monster

And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads, the names of blasphemy. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
John 13:1-4

As some of you might know, I've been reading Monster by Naoki Urasawa for nearly a year (I started it August of last summer). It is so good. It is very intracatly woven; the plot starts out very simple. Doctor must save boy from bullet wound to the skull. It stays fairly simple throughout half the manga, but then more and more characters are being added to the story, to the point where it's almost confusing, but... It's not. This manga is genius.
It's a thriller, and senein, but only because of all the violence. I know that about 2/1,000 people reading this will actually read the manga, but hey, I found this series by reading a blogged review pretty much the same as this one, and I fell in love!

The only thing I can say now is just read it. Give it a try. (You can read it [here].) The summary's on that page as well. There's also an anime, but I became bored of that (started reading the manga because sometimes the story is a bit slow, and it's easier to just skim through those parts.)

This is the story of a girl...

Who cried a river and drowned the whole world!
And while she looked so sad in photographs,
I absolutely love her,
When she smiles...

Story Of A Girl - Nine Days

I love that song.
Just read the lyrics. Did you know? I've had that song on my iPod for two years, and I never realized that there was a swear word in it!
It doesn't really bother me.

Not much to report on.
The other day I was awake until about 6AM. Yeah, I was awake literally all night. It really sucked, I was totally bored. Actually now, when I think back, I can't remember all of what I did that night... But then again, my nights and days just run together on summer vacation, I can't even remember what I did last week! (Angel dropped by to pick up a pile of books. That's all I remember.)

I went into town yesterday. My mother and I were going to this cool church service (more like just worship and prayer) with some of her friends, and we stopped by the mall before. I was excited about buying that Salvador Dali artbook I mentioned before, but I didn't end up getting it because it only had a few paintings I really liked. (There wasn't even The Persistence of Memory! The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, yes. One of my favourites is The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition. I first saw it in a magazine in art class last year, that's when I fell in love with Dali. <3)

So now I'm going to my grandfather's house. He lives on the lake, has a pontoon, I think we're going to watch fireworks on it, like we did when I was little! (So so exctied! I hope my cousin Tyler is there!)

Sayonara, bitches!

Okay, so two guys walk into a bar...