Hello from the last Friday of 2012, aka the most failtastic blog to date. It's really quite a bummer considering all the things I had planned for today. But the two weeks following the beginning of break were filled with many Christmas gift planning and making and then there was Christmas and post Christmas where you just don't really want to do anything (and also a lot of Netflix watching throughout that just could not be stopped - trust me I tried). Plus I found out my dad was at the hospital today. Nobody bothered to tell me until they were going to pick him up. Don't worry, he's fine. Just a minor surgery. Oy, it still would have been nice to know. tsk tsk, trying to save me from worrying.
    So, was it really a year ago that we started this project? It always feels like we just commited a week ago. And it always feels like I just say "oh naw, I'll make a good blog next week", but it is a little different this time. As I've yet to hear a resounding "NOOOOO!!!!", I'll be taking over Sunday in the new year, so it really is good bye Friday. I tried looking up interesting and/or funny things about Friday, but I was completely unsuccessful.
    
-Hold up-
Possible personal winner for weirdest Google search this year. I tried image searching for things that represented 2012 because I was thinking of being all sentimental, but the first 4 images were captioned as Amy, Amy, Amy, and You!
Here, screen shot to prove it:

I just...don't understand Google sometimes. So, um, what? I still don't understand where that came from. Guys! It's AMY! (And I think that's a banner I used to have) (And isn't that one of Amy's t-shirts?) for a 2012 search! What?

    Hello from a somewhat hasty blog. Rachael, Sara, Anna Beth and I are about to watch The Great Mouse Detective after a night out at Hobby Lobby, Barnes & Noble, and GADS. I'm actually looking forward to next year because I think I'm going to change my blogging day. Friday's great and all, but it's always just before all the fun happens. Sunday might be a good day to try out, and it's not like anyone else is using it :P
    This week's been mostly uneventful. Though I did place third in the fencing in-club tournament last night (which is a big improvement over last year). And today in English I got to listen to academic presentations from students on Harry Potter and Disney Princesses (which was Anna Beth's). Needless to say there was a lot of fun and interesting conversation.
    Today's the last day of November, and  I've essentially failed at Nanowrimo :(  I've done quite a lot of planning for the story and setting and stuff, just no actual writing...(I've been busy!....and lazy...). Maybe I'll just consider November "national novel Planning month and leave the writing for December.
    I do have one scene written (that I wrote last year). For lack of anything more interesting to write and because the movie's about to start, I'll share that ok?
I don't really know how to give context to the scene without going through quite a lot of the plot....so no context it is! Haha sorry. (though some of you know the story already, for those that don't, you can try to give me your opinion of the scene without actually knowing what's going on. So....yeah....here it is:
                Alex opened his eyes and groaned. New life lesson: a pool table is not necessarily the best replacement for a bed. Or chair. Or even a rock pit. Still, as he sat up he realized his aches may not have been solely a result of his poor sleeping arrangements. He recognized the pressure in his chest as the same feeling of betrayal he was consumed with just a few hours before. How could he have done it? Could anything become the butt of a joke to Blake? Even his own brother’s happiness? Maybe that was pushing it. Without a doubt Blake tended to blur the line a bit, but surely he didn’t know Alex’s feelings toward Wren?
Wren.                    
         The thought of her name brought to attention the central reason for his pain. Alex leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Right in the center of the pressure was something else entirely: a burning knot that came from the memory of seeing Wren run from him trying to keep back tears. It was a persistent sensation of torture. So much had gone wrong in such a short period of time. Alex didn't know how he could face her ever again and being sequestered in the cabin made it worse. He opened his eyes to stare through the skylight above. The many stars had been his anchor as he dwelled on events of the night, but they were barely visible now. The sky had turned from black to a navy blue with small streaks of dawn starting to show through. It would be morning soon.
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Wren awoke to the sound of a click and the slight creaking of the door opening.
“Hey, Wren,” came a whisper.
She looked up to see Alex standing just inside the room. Well, she thought it was Alex. But just look at where that kind of thinking had ended up. For all she knew it could be the imposter again. She bolted upright.
“It’s just me, Alex.”
            “Wha--? How did--?” She could have sworn she locked the door. It figures the twins would know how to pick locks.
            Her half questions were met with a sheepish smirk.


and yeah, that's essentially the extent of the story I've written which takes place about half way through. lol.
Ok, the movie's on, so I'll leave you with some funny videos my professor showed in Latin the other day
Eddie Izzard on Latin (sorry about the language in this one, but it's funny)
Life of Brian Latin Lessons (Monty Python!)

Love,
Jill

Hello from Black Friday aka my Thanksgiving! Both my brother and my dad worked yesterday so we're celebrating Thanksgiving today instead.
Also, Hello from THE MOST ANNOYING INTERNET GRRRRRRRRRR

    Today's Topic: Disney Horses.
I looked into it and found 15 horses from Disney movies that had names. And since that didn't seem like too big a number, I decided to focus on those fifteen. Note that doens't include Horace Horsecollar from the cartoons who I never liked anyway (he looked more like a cow than a horse). Without further ado, here's my top 15 list of Disney horses:

15.) Buck    
14.) Widowmaker    
13.) Cyril Proudbottom    

        These are more or less all paired together because they are the only movies eligible for this list that I’ve never actually seen (at least I don’t remember ever seeing them.)  So they’re ranked essentially on subjective premises. Buck is apparently one of the secondary characters in the 2004 film Home on the Range. I don’t really know much about the story or characters, and I only vaguely remember hearing about it or seeing the trailer. The only thing I did remember was the fact that I really didn’t want to see it at all. I can’t really explain it. It just didn’t seem very good. And since I had completely forgotten about its existence until I started looking into my topic and because I hadn’t heard anyone else talking about the movie either, I guess it’s a safe and ok decision to put Buck in the last slot.
         Widowmaker is the horse of Pecos Bill in one of the segments of the 1948 feature film Melody Time. I was rather curious about this one since I didn’t remember ever knowing about it, so I looked up a summary. [Spoiler Alert] Apparently a young Pecos Bill saves the young colt Widowmaker and they become friends for life. Then later Pecos Bill falls in love with a girl named Slue-Foot Sue, and Widowmaker thinks he’s losing his best friend to her and so becomes extremely jealous. Slue-Foot Sue wants to get married, in true cowgirl fashion, while riding Widowmaker and wearing a big bussel with a frame made of steal and springs. Widowmaker gets mad, starts bucking, and ultimately Slue-Foot Sue gets bounces all the way to the moon where she remains stranded. So…yeah, not so happy ending I guess. Idk.
        Cyril Proudbottom gets ranked highest simply because I like his name the most. He’s the horse of J. Thaddeus Toad in the The Wind in the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad movie in 1949. Apparently Cyril gets to be a witness in a court case and gets a funny line…and that’s really all I know about these movies. Have any of you seen them? Do any deserved to be ranked higher?

12.) Bullseye     (Toy Story 2 – 1999)
    Ahh. A movie I’ve actually seen. He is of course the horse of Woody, to whom he is fiercely loyal and obedient. Though he’s a toy horse, he usually acts more like a dog and often licks Woody to show affection. Bullseye is also shown to hate fighting and hides in a can if the main protagonists are arguing. I personally ranked him so low because, well, I don’t find him all that interesting. Not that I dislike him at all. Bullseye is very happy-go-lucky, and he's heroic in the scene where he chases down the airplane. But still, I don’t think he’s the best. Maybe it’s because he’s a bit too much like a dog rather than having enough of his own intelligence. Though I may be being a bit hard on him considering one of my higher choices…

11.)  Achilles  
 (Hunchback of Notre Dame – 1996)
                I’ll admit, I don’t remember all that much about Achilles. I’ve seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but it’s been awhile and the horse is obviously not the first thing to come to mind. That being said, I did find out some interesting things about this horse. Achilles belongs to Phoebus and doesn’t do all that much in the story, though he does provide his fair share of comic relief. According to the DVD commentary, the directors jokingly refer to him as Philippe’s (Beauty and the Beast) dimwitted cousin, and his name was chosen purely for the purpose of making the “Achilles, heel!” joke. As a warhorse, he takes excellent direction such as sitting on command, though this also presents itself as relating the horse to a dog.

10.) Snowball
(Hunchback of Notre Dame – 1996)
                This one’s kinda unfair. I just think Snowball looks really epic (despite his name). I mean, look at him! So pretty! *cough* I mean…regal. Totally. Definitely a regal, handsome, epic looking steed. Though I guess he could look a bit happier in the picture…and you know maybe be a little less evil. Of course, he’s also a very loyal horse, he just happens to be loyal to the villain of the movie.

9.) Pegasus (Hercules – 1997)
                Despite the epic fact that he’s a winged horse, I’m actually not all that fond of Pegasus. I do however respect the amount of personality and character he is given in the film. Zeus made Pegasus out of the clouds as a present for young Hercules and the two were reunited years later. I like to describe Pegasus as being very much one of Hercules’s ‘bros’. Sometimes I just see this frat boy attitude in Pegasus. Maybe that’s just me. He’s also Hercules’s biggest fan, and becomes incredibly jealous of Meg.

It’s weird that rewatching that scene made me so interested in Pegasus’s character. It’s shown He’s not perfect and has his flaws like every other character, and he gets a little more snippet of storyline importance.

8.) Frou Frou (The Aristocats –1970)
                Frou Frou (easily the girliest name, even more than Snowball) is the horse of Madam Bonfamille and friend of Duchess and the kittens. Not only is she a likeable character, she kinda kicks butt despite just being a carriage horse. She helps in the effort to take Edgar down after finding out that he’s the catnapper and is trying to get rid of the cats for a second time.

7.) Philippe (Beauty and the Beast – 1991)

Philippe may get a bad rap for spending the majority of his time in the movie being scared, but I think it’s a realistic scenario. He does a good job representing how a real horse acts. There are no comparisons to dogs, and a lot of horses would spook easily with wolves nearby. That being said, Philippe shows a good degree of intelligence and common sense in his initial refusal to take Maurice’s shortcut, but eventually his loyalty to one of his owners wins out and he takes Maurice down the spooky path. And though he was terrified in his run through the woods, he doesn’t refuse to take Belle back into those same woods to try to save Maurice.
Philippe's first Scene (10:20-11:55) - Sorry it's a fandub, but it's not that noticeable.

6.) Captain (101 Dalmatians – 1961)
                Captain, along with his friend the Colonel the sheepdog and Sgt. Tibbs the cat, aids in the rescue of the stolen Dalmatian puppies. He is the first named Disney horse whose owner is never shown on screen. As a kid I actually assumed the three animals had no owner and lived on their own. But considering the fact that Captain wears a red blanket, they are probably owned by some military officer or something. In the live action movie, the character’s name is changed to Punch, probably reflecting the main purpose of a horse in this movie: to kick the villains.

5.) Samson (Sleeping Beauty – 1959)
                I kinda love Samson. He really has such a small role in the film but at the same time I was surprise by the amount of character they gave him since it was one of the earlier Disney movies. I don’t know why it was that surprising (it may have been more the similarities to a certain other Disney horse). Of course every horse that was given personality before Samson also had a somewhat dopy-looking, cartoon appearance. Samson was more on the accurate side animation-wise and was kinda the first to have his own wants shown (even if it was just extra oats and carrots) that don’t go along with whatever the protagonist wants. Also, he’s pretty epic in the ending fight scene between Prince Philip and Maleficent.
(1:30-2:50)


4.) Khan (Mulan – 1998)

        There’s a chance Khan may win on pure epicness. The majority of the pictures that showed up in my search showed Khan in some action pose or another. In the film he is portrayed as a very intelligent and confident horse. Khan risks his life to save Mulan in the avalanche scene when he could have just as easily stayed with the rest of the army.  He is obviously very close to Mulan to the point where I don’t think he’d really listen to anyone else. He certainly didn’t help Mushu when they were trying to fake orders from the general, but that may have been because Khan just doesn’t like Mushu.                

                So why did I put the horse from Cinderella above the one that ran into an avalanche to aid his owner? Mainly because of their story. It’s rather cute. It’s shown in the beginning of the film that Cinderella has had Major since she was a little girl. They both lived happily with Cinderella’s father and Bruno the dog (btw, I totally sense a bromance between these two). He’s somewhat proud, but being Cinderella’s friend seems to be the most important thing to him. He happily leads the line of horses pulling Cinderella’s wedding carriage at the end of the movie. I just thought it was kinda cool that the three that made up the original family get a happily ever after together. 

2.) Angus (Brave – 2012)

    Angus’s ranking is kinda personal preference thing. Disregarding the personality of the horses, I’d definitely want either Angus or Snowball. There was a period of my childhood where I adored Clydesdales. The idea of riding this massive was just awesome for some reason. I also like Angus because he’s one of the horsier horses. He doesn’t act like a dog half the time, he just gets to be Merida’s horse. And their relationship is sweet. Merida chooses to be the one to look after and care for him instead of allowing someone else to do it. Angus himself is a bit on the timid side, but it’s something that is easily overcome with Merida’s guidance.

1.) Maximus (Tangled – 2010)

                There was really no question that Maximus would get top spot. I mean, he’s awesome! Tangled was just overall an amazing movie, and I really think the comic relief Maximus provided made it that much better. He’s possibly the most independent horse Disney has ever created. Although he’s seen to have a rider, Maximus doesn’t need his guidance to get the task done. While he doesn’t share the same loyalty to his rider’s that a lot of the other horses do, he does have a large loyalty to the kingdom and is shown to have a large heart when he chooses to stall his capture of Flynn to help Rapunzel. He is also shown to often act much more like a dog than a horse.

    Maximus is brave, daring, bold, and not at all cowardly. He is incredibly intelligent and dedicated to his job. He becomes head of the Palace guard by the end of the movie, is the one to bring reinforcements to save Flynn when he’s locked up, and he even has his own freaking sword fight!!!
                Maximus and Flynn are a really fun twist on the idea of Prince Charming riding his gallant white steed. They don’t get along at first and Maximus is often the one doing the more heroic deeds rather than just being the simple sidekick. In fact:

Really, I should let Maximus’s performance speak for itself.

So yeah, there is no beating this horse. He’s the best there is.



Some Honorary Mentions:

Here’s to the unnamed horses, the background horses, and the horses that aren’t actually horses. Of particular note are Prince Ferdinand’s horse (Snow White) and the Fantasia Pegasi Family. Fantasia is just too awesome not to mention, and I really wanted to make a comparison between the Prince’s lack of personality and his horse’s same lack since they appeared in the first Disney animated movie. And for that matter, Chi-fu and his horse share an interesting similarity as well.


And now a [short] Analysis:
                The main characteristic that all of these Disney horses share is loyalty. It’s kinda obvious that a hero wouldn’t want a sidekick that wasn’t loyal. Disney also generally does an excellent job of showing a healthy and happy relationship between horse and rider.
                I can’t not talk about some of the other similarities these horses share. This blog was practically founded on the weird similarities between Samson and Maximus. Someone on YouTube says it’s like Samson is like Maximus’s great-great-great grandfather or something. If you really get into it, they’re not necessarily that similar. But at the same time, they’re both fairly independent and very heroic. Just swap out the carrots for apples and change the mane color, and there you go. And Pegasus and Widowmaker definitely are similar in their dislike of the female lead for fear that they're losing their best friend.
                And of course, there’s the prevalence of dog characteristics. Other than Pegasus who sometimes acts like a birdbrain, if a horse shares characteristics with another animal, it’s going to be a dog. Widowmaker (howls at the moon), Achilles, Bullseye, and Maximus all act like a dog at times, and the best friends of Major and Captain are both dogs are well. While the overall majority of Disney horses may not be this way, a large chunk are.

Eh, I could go on, but my Thanksgiving is today and the computer has been acting incredibly annoying so I'm done.
(BTW, I would just like to mention how annoying my brother is since he told me today that he searches the blog for his name. Hey Cameron, thanks for making writing this blog ten times more annoying than it should have been.)

Love,
Jill

    Hello from the next Question Tuesday winner! Leave me questions in the comments of this blog or yesterday's please :)
Pretty please? I want questions yo!
    Oh and I wanted to thank you all again for an awesome birthday. Camping with you all was a blast. Btw, I showed my brother the machete and backpack with water bottle you all gave me and told him about the flint with steel from last year, and he's now convinced one of these years your 'gift' will be dropping me in the wilderness somewhere and seeing if I can survive with the presents from previous years, lol.
    Tomorrow I'm going to a fencing tournament down in Nashville (Amber, if you have any free time and are still in town you should totally stop by and say hi), and for once I don't have to wake up absurdly early. Foil and Epee have a later start than they usually do so I think we're leaving around 11 or so. Wish me luck!
    I got to see Shelby today (along with Jessica and Becca)!!! (albeit for not nearly as long as I would have liked)
   
umm, and other things happened this week too.
I just asked Anna Beth what I should blog about. She has suggested ridiculous fashion trends or wolves mating.....thanks, AB. (she's not that weird I promise, the wolves mating thing actually came up a little while ago. but let's not discuss the how's or why's just now....)   
    Nanowrimo's coming along...sort of. I keep thinking about the backstory and how things should work more than actually writing the story. Maybe I should change it to National Think about and Planning a Novel and save the actual writing for December. oh naw, I can probably get some of it done, maybe.
    Anna Beth is now suggesting I write about my favorite bumper sticker or my favorite kind of cheese. Think I should start worrying about her? lol.
Ah, a real suggestion: 5 movies I think you all (or some of you) haven't seen that you should.
    These are only going to be the ones that first come to mind because I'll probably forget some important ones.

1) Ferris Bueller's Day off
And because what I'm best at is finding videos that correspond to what I'm talking about without doing any talking or writing myself:

But seriously, it's a great 80's movie. It's funny and memorable and all around great.

2) Homeward Bound
COME ON JUST WATCH IT!!!!! *sigh* At least Shelby understands.

3) Babe
It's an endearing movie about a pig herding sheep. It's better than it sounds, I promise. Babe and Homeward Bound (among others) are just a part of my childhood and it always takes me by surprise when I find out people haven't seen them.

4) Ocean's 11 (and 12 and 13...and Bourne Identity)
Anna Beth, you would especially love these movies. Con men, spies, and action. 'nuff said.

5) Fight Club
I'm not actually sure who, if any, of you would like this. It's a dark comedy. (So Sara probably won't like it). But...it's good. That's basically the best I can do.

And I'm sure there are others I should be mentioning, but I can't recall what they are at the moment.


Ego tu sum, tu es ego: unanimi sumus.*
Jill

 
* (Plautus, Stuchus. 731)

        Hello from the computer lab in Cherry Hall. I just finished redoing (to some degree) my literature review for English 300 and thought I’d try to blog before I have to run to class.
    So…tomorrow’s a pretty cool day  :)
And tonight should be pretty fun as well. Woot camping! andpossiblyfreezingtodeathbuthopefullyntobecausewellhaveafireandaheaterandapileofhumantosnugglein!

And in honor of my 21st birthday on Saturday and because I couldn’t think of anything better to do, I decided to morph Anna Beth’s challenge from a while ago into a slightly different thing (maybe this means I’m actually one step closer to making a '50 things' video…or not :P)

              21 things I’ve done in my 21 years of life

1) spent an hour having an intense argument about Shakespearean works for fun

2) had a conversation with a complete stranger about superpowers

3) had a poem published

4) written a 10 page zoology research paper in one night

5) been burned by acid (well, it was diluted acid, so it only tingled a little until I was able to wash it off, but still)

6) been thrown from a horse

7) shot a flaming arrow

8) Laid down in the springy grass on the top of a mountain I had climbed

9) found multiple rainbows under a waterfall

10) gone phatdippin'

11) used deflated inflatables as slip-n-slides in the rain

12) played cookie roulette and ended up eating onion and chili pepper chocolate chip cookies

13) learned how to swear in Latin

14) drove out into the wilderness at dawn and listened to the beautiful cacophony of bird calls

15) held a teddy bear for ransom

16) held a lion cub

17) fed a giraffe behind the scenes at the zoo

18) slept in a booth at Pizza Hut

19) completely shattered a pot and glued it back together piece by piece

20) ran and dived head first in a pile of mud

21) spent the last 2 ½ years living with the best friends a girl can have



                    21 things I want to do in the next 21 years

1) not die of frostbite this weekend

2) have a picnic in the London Eye

3) travel the world with friends

4) write a novel whether or not it gets published

5) become proficient at parkour

6) fall in love

7) bungee jump at Nevis in New Zealand

8) have a conversation with someone in a different language

9) be able to identify at least 10 constellations by sight

10) I want to spend a day among strangers and feel comfortable and confident

11) still be able to act like a kid at age 40

12) meet my favorite YouTubers next summer

13) Ace my chemistry test next week

14) prepare an entire meal from scratch

15) see the northern lights

16) drive a dogsled team

17) learn to play piano....or guitar....or violin

18) Go from house to house in the fall asking if they would like their yard raked, accumulate as many bags of leaves as possible, and make the biggest pile of leaves as possible to play in

19) Build an igloo

20) go zorbing

21) stay close friends with you other adventurers for the rest of my life

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Sigh, 21 is too small a number for this kind of list. I had to cut out too much. I guess that's a good problem to have.

    In other news, I've been working on a story for Nanowrimo/Noshanowrimo. Though I haven't actually written any part of the actual story yet. I've just been thinking through the characters and the plot. I hope it turns out well.

    I know Halloween’s over, but I felt like sharing this anyway:

Hello from late blog is late. It's 12:40 and Rachael, Anna Beth, Amy, and I just got back from off campus adventures. And I may have forgotten about blogging until now. (don't give me that look :P)
Anyway, we're watching Tales from Earthsea now. (we were planning on having a Disney Princess marathon, but that kind of failed.
In other news, I've been planning out some things for the story I'm writing for Nanowrimo/Noshanowrimo and it's been quite enjoyable.
I'm finding it hard to both watch the movie and write this....so bye for now. sorry about the lame blog.

Here's something interesting:

Hello from another lazy Friday.
        There's nothing interesting I can really think to blog about this week. I was thinking it could be interesting if you all gave me a topic that you want me to try to blog about next week, but that may just make me seem even more lazy and I don't guarantee that I'll actually do it. But if you want, you all could give me a topic. or not. whatever.
    Anyway, this week I thought I'd share something I found on my computer from several years ago. Rachael and Amy, do you remember that day in high school pre-calc  after a test when to kill time we started to write a story a few sentences/words at a time? I found part of it. And I wanted to share. It's kinda crazy and doesn't have an ending, but enjoy:

    Once there was a guy who didn’t realize that he was all powerful and owns a goat. He didn’t know why he didn’t know that he owned a goat, but he did. One day he and the goat were swimming in the ocean and met a water fairy who also had a companion: a dwarf. “So, what are you and your goat doing so far out in the ocean,” questioned the fairy.
    “We’re looking for a magical seahorse that will grant us three wishes,” answered the guy. “I would like to wish that my goat friend could talk. My second wish would be to become a prince. Not a king because they have too many worries. My third wish is to be able to talk to all living beings. I wonder what trees talk about as they stand in the same spot day in and day out.”
    “Well, good luck with that!” cried the fairy. “And because you seem trustworthy, I’ll grant you a fish sandwich for lunch and my dwarf, Harold, to guide you.”
So the guy, whose name was Warren Peace by the way, set off ON A QUESTE with Harold, the goat, and the fish sandwich. As Warren followed Harold past the shore and sand dunes into the nearby forest, he heard a peculiar sound coming from the pocket where he put the fish sandwich. Oh no! A little, miniature kangaroo was eating the sandwich! He took out the little animal and said, “Hey, kangaroos don’t eat fish!”
    “Too bad, I’m magical,” replied the kangaroo.
    “Tell me little carnivorous kangaroo, do you know where to find a seahorse that grants wishes? Harold seems to be lost,” said Warren.
    “I’m not lost!” said Harold, and he scampered off into the trees. When Warren followed, he saw that Harold had pushed a secret button to open the secret mines of the dwarfs. The Kangaroo ran after Warren in the hope of eating the rest of the fish sandwich.
    “Hold on! Wait for me!” the kangaroo yelled.
    “Baa!” exclaimed the goat as they squeezed through the passage.
    Though it was dark in the caves, there seemed to be an eerie glow just out of the corner of each of the questers’ eyes. There was the sound of trickling water that became louder as they continued. When they reached the source of the sound, they saw it was an underground stream flowing into a deep pool.
    “This is where I leave you,” sighed Harold.
    “No! You can’t leave!” said Warren.
    “Baa!” said the goat.
    “Fish sandwich!” said the kangaroo.
    “The water fairy said you would guide us but you’re leaving us in underground passage?” continued Warren. “Where are we supposed to go? How will we find the seahorse?”
    “You won’t need me now that you’ve found the magical kangaroo. As long as you have the fish sandwich, he shall do your bidding. It seems luck is on your side. Plus, I must hurry and go back to the fairy. She promised that we will play chess today,” said Harold as he dived into the tunnel.
    “OK,” said Warren to the kangaroo. “Where do we go next little kangaroo? Tell me and I’ll give you a bite of the fish sandwich.”
    The kangaroo stared at Peace for a moment and replied, “First of all, my name is Lil’ Loo and second, you go into the pool – don’t worry, it’s filled with magic so you can breath underwater.”   
    With a sigh of relief, Warren held out the sandwich. Lil’ Loo snatched it away and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth. “How did you do that?!” yelled Warren. “That was, like, a 2 pound sandwich, and you’re 5 inches tall!”
    “I’m magical, remember?” answered Lil’ Loo as he started to hop away.
    “Wait! Come back!” yelled Warren.
    “Haha! You can’t catch me, silly human. The only power you had over me was the fish sandwich, and now – ” Lil’ Loo was cut off as he was suddenly jerked off the ground. He looked up to see that the goat had appeared and had snatched him by his scruff and now stood holding Lil’ Loo in his mouth. “No, don’t eat me! I’m magical. You’ll die just like the princess with the 7 dwarfs. You don’t want that, do you?” he yelped and pleaded to the goat. But his cries fell on empty ears for the goat was already moments from eating him. Using his arm and legs, Lil’ Loo held his mouth apart and continued to yell. “Don’t just stand there, tell this beast to stop!”
    Warren replied, “Only if you promise to lead us all the way to the magical seahorse and then back home.”
    “Oh, Ok!” cried Lil’ Loo, and the goat dropped him. Brushing himself off, Lil’ Loo said,     “I was going to follow you anyway to make sure you didn’t get in trouble.” And so the threesome continued their journey. They followed Lil’ Loo’s instruction to dive into the underground pool and swam downward. The water got darker and darker as they continued to dive. Eventually, Lil’ Loo tugged on Warren’s shirt and pointed to what looked like an underwater cavern or tunnel. Warren pulled the goat along with him as they advanced toward the opening. Holding his finger to his mouth, Lil’ Loo indicated to Warren to be quiet. Using his fingers, he told them that ‘guarding the cavern was a gigantic sea creature who is asleep. Once he is awake, he will yawn and cause a whirlpool that will suck them to his stomach.’ Still using sign language, Lil’ Loo asked Warren if he had any extra food. Digging through his pockets, Warren found that he had 8 sunflower seeds.
    ‘That’ll do’ signed Lil’ Loo. ‘It will be just enough to throw into Sentrax’s mouth when he’s yawning to stop the whirlpool, leaving him shocked and momentarily blind so we can go into the cavern.’
    Warren stared at Lil’ Loo and fingered, ‘How do you know the creature’s name?’
    ‘Me and Sentrax play poker every other Thursday.’
    'Can’t you just ask Sentrax if we can go by?’ fingered Warren.
    Lil’ Loo answered, ‘No, Sentrax is way too much of a workaholic for that, but the sunflower seeds will work.’
    While they were having their signed discussion, the goat wandered/floated toward the opening of the cavern. It was suddenly knocked aside by a giant tail the color of the rocks around it. The goat was pushed back toward Warren and Lil’ Loo who looked with shocked expressions at the tail and what it was attached to, which was a giant serpent-like water dragon. The dragon stared at them, baring its teeth and flaring its nostrils while water around it began to boil.
    ‘Oh hey Sentrax! How’s it going?’ said Lil’ Loo.
    Sentrax suddenly sneezed and then looked confusedly around him. “Oh it’s you Lil’ Loo. Did you come back to pay off your debt or to lose some more. We are now at 999 to 1 with me in the lead,” yawned Sentrax. “Since I don’t see/smell any fish sandwiches on you, I would guess the latter. So what’ll we play…today,” Sentrax said sleepishly. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and glowed green as he caught sight of Warren and the goat. “Who are you?” questioned Sentrax in a deep throaty voice that totally contrasted with the voice he had spoken to Lil’ Loo with.
    “We’re a Mariachi Band!” yelled Warren who doesn’t work well under pressure.
    “Heck yeah!” said Sentrax. “I love Mariachi bands! The word is so funny!” When the serpent-dragon gave a bellowing laugh, Warren threw the sunflower seeds into Sentrax’s throat.    

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And that's as far as the computer file goes. I believe I still have a hard copy somewhere at home that has more on it. Hope you all enjoyed it (and don't judge our writing ability by it. It was just for random fun).

And this week's video sort of ventures in Amber's territory since it's a song, but I like it just as much for the video so here you go:

        Salve a cameram meam. Guess what we’re going to do today? If you guessed Latin lessons, you win a prize: a Latin lesson! If you guessed wrong, well, you get a Latin lesson. I’ve been enjoying my Latin class and didn’t have any better ideas for this week, so I thought I’d try teaching, not that I’m particularly good or anything. And everyone’s been so topic-y lately that I thought I’d try it out. For this week I’ll just tell you about nouns because, sadly, there is a lot to learn about nouns.
        But before that, I’ll give you a rundown of correct Latin pronunciation in case you would like to practice through chanting (which is the best way to practice). And if you were wondering, yes there is enough evidence for a standard in pronunciation despite Latin being a dead language. If you would like specifics on this evidence, I’ve cited my both my Latin textbook and its primary source for a pronunciation guide*
        For the most part, Latin has the same pronunciation of letters that English does with a few exceptions. For example, J and W are not a part of the Latin alphabet.
        The letter I is used as both a consonant and a vowel. I think I may have mentioned that in a previous blog because I found the concept of the consonantal vowel fascinating. The reason J and j look so similar to I and i has to do with J being a modified I to better differentiate between the distinctive vowel and consonant sounds. V, likewise is used as both a consonant and a vowel. But anyway…
            Back to pronunciation exceptions:
B is the same as in English, but ‘bs’ is pronounced as ‘ps’ in ‘taps’ and ‘bt’ as ‘pt’ in ‘apt’.
C is always hard (has a K sound) as in ‘cart’
G is also always hard as in ‘get’
H is never silent
I, as a consonant, has the y sound as in ‘yawn'
R  was probably rolled
S  always has the sound as in ‘serpent’ and never makes a z sound
V, as a consonant, always makes a w sound as in ‘wet’
X  counts as a double consonant and makes a ‘ks’ sound as in ‘axe’
Z   is also a double consonant, making a ‘dz’ sound as in ‘gadzooks’ ßyes that example came straight from the book.
ch is pronounced as in ‘character’
ph as in ‘people’
th as in ‘tea’           (note: Mark Antony vs. Mark Anthony)

oy, now the vowels.

Vowels can be short or long. Beginning Latin students generally put a macron (little line) above vowels with long sounds, but I’m too lazy to do that on the computer plus real Latin doesn’t have so you won’t either. :)

A  (short): as in the first ‘a’ in ‘await’ or the ‘u’ in ‘cup’
     (long): as in ‘father’

E  (short): as in ‘pet’
     (long): as in ‘a’ of ‘fate’

I   (short): as in ‘fit’
    (long): as in the ‘ee’ of ‘feet’

O (short): as in the ‘o’ of ‘soft’ or the ‘au’ of ‘caught’
    (long): as in ‘hope’

U  (short): as in ‘put’
     (long): as in ‘fool’

Ok, one last section then we can move on to real words: Dipthongs. Latin has six.

ae - as in the ‘i’ of ‘high’
oe - as in the ‘oy’ of ‘toy’
ei - as in the ‘ay’ of ‘day’
ui - as in the ‘wi’ of ‘twin’
au - as in the ‘ow’ of ‘how’
eu - as a combination of e + u

Noun time! (cuz I’m totally skipping stress accents)

Latin nouns are characterized by 3 properties: Number (singular, plural), Gender (feminine, masculine, neuter), and Case.
And Case is where all the fun happens. There are six cases and each case adds a certain ending to the noun stem to give it a certain meaning. Here are the six cases and their uses:
Nominative – indicates the noun is the subject or predicate nominative of the sentence
Genitive – used to qualify or limit another noun in various ways
            Aka: adds the word ‘of’ to the noun
            Example: The Latin noun nauta means sailor. If you were to put it in the genitive                 case, it would change to nautae and translate to “of the sailor”
Dative – translates to using “to” or “for” with the noun
            For example: “to the sailors” or “for the sailors”
Accusative – indicates the noun is a direct object
Ablative – when translated to English, uses the words “from”, “with”, “by”, “in”, “on”
Vocative – used when directly addressing the noun

Want to learn some words now? Too bad. I have one more thing to tell you about. (I kinda sound like Stephen, lol. “Just one more thing, guys. Ok, another thing. Only one more I promise”)

Declensions
There are five families of nouns, called declensions, that dictate how a noun will change within each case and number. Every Latin noun belongs to only one of these declensions and each group has a distinctive set of case endings. You can tell the different cases apart by looking at the genitive singular form of each noun. We’ll start off just using 1st declension nouns, which are mostly feminine and are identified by the genitive singular ending of –ae.
And here are the case endings of 1st declension nouns

                              :          Singular        :        Plural     : 
Nominative  :              -a                   :          -ae              
Genitive          :             -ae                  :        -arum         
Dative               :             -ae                  :           -is              
Accusative    :             -am                 :          -as              
Ablative          :              -a                    :          -is               
Vocative         :              -a                    :           -is                              

Important note: the ablative singular, dative plural, accusative plural, and ablative plural all have long vowel sounds. The ‘a’ in –arum is also long.

So, you’ll notice several of the endings are the same. How do you tell them apart? Context with in the sentence. It’s basically been the go-to answer in my class recently. It’ll only become more prevalent as you get into the other declensions and into verbs.  English is a very word heavy language. Latin on the other hand is very concise.  

 Want to know some actual words now?
The following set up gives you the nominative singular followed by the genitive singular and then the English translation. All of the following are 1st declension nouns and are classified as feminine with the exception of ‘agricola’, ‘nauta’, and ‘poeta’ which are 1st declension masculine. There are no neuter 1st declension nouns. You don’t really need to know about the use of a noun’s gender just yet, but it comes in handy later on.

Anima, animae: breath, life force, sou
Dea, deae: goddess
Fama, famae: report, rumor, reputation, fame
Femina, feminae: woman, wife
Filia, filiae: daughter
Insula, insulae: island
Italia, Italiae: Italy
Patria, patriae: country, homeland
Puella, puellae: girl
Regina, reginae: queen
Pecunia, pecuniae: money
Ira, irae: anger, wrath
Sapientia, sapientiae: wisdom
Vita, vitae: life
Via, viae: way, road, street, path
Agricola, agricolae: farmer
Nauta, nautae: sailor
Poeta, poetae: poet

Now let’s decline one of these bad boys. To decline a noun (aka give it a case ending), you find the stem which you locate by looking at the genitive singular and taking off the genitive ending. This same rule holds up for all the declensions. So the stem of poeta is poetae – ae = poet

And one handy-dandy chart later:

                              :          Singular        :        Plural     : 
Nominative  :             poeta             :         poetae              
Genitive          :            poetae            :       poetarum         
Dative               :            poetae            :          poetis              
Accusative    :            poetam           :         poetas              
Ablative          :             poeta              :         poetis               
Vocative         :             poeta              :          poetis                              

And you can follow the same set up for all the other nouns I’ve given you.

        One more other random thing before I end this Latin session: you can decline names! It makes things harder but it’s kinda cool. Like Julia can be declined to be Julia, Juliam, Juliis, Julias, etc
        It’s kinda nifty. And from this I finally get to understand something that I’ve been curious about for awhile.
        You know the famous line “Et tu, Brute?”
I’ve known that it means “and you, Brutus?” but I never knew why it was Brute and not Brutus. It’s because you decline names. The vocative singular form (if you remember, vocative is direct address) of Brutus is Brute. So because he was talking directly to Brutus, “Brute” was used. I found that pretty interesting.

Your homework is to take one of the above nouns, decline it, and give the approximate English translations.
(Example:
Poeta – nominative singular: "Poet"
           --vocative singular: "Poet!" (direct address)
           -- ablative singular: from the poet, with the poet, by the poet, in the poet, on the                         poet
Poetarum – genitive plural: "of the poets"
Etc…
No, you can't use Poeta)

        Okay lesson over now. I’m curious if any of that was understandable from just reading. Let me know if you all are somehow interested in another lesson (or you can get out the torches and pitchforks and scream “NEVER AGAIN!!!”) You know, whatever ;P

        I thought about writing more about my week, but seeing as this blog is a little late already, I’ll just end it here. Sorry if you don’t like Latin. This post must have been extremely boring to you. Or it may have been boring even if you like Latin, I don’t know.
        But I will leave you with some awesome YouTube videos. Contiki, a travel company for 20-30 year olds, has been  sponsoring this awesome European roadtrip through Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and England over that past week or so featuring some of my favorite YouTubers. They’ve also been producing a short show every day until the trip ends. I’ve put the first one below, but check out the other ones because the activities get more exciting (I particularly like the one in Austria with whitewater rafting). On the trip are Charlie Mcdonnell (charlieissocoollike), Bryarly Bishop, Michael Aranda, Corey Vidal and his ApprenticeA team, Kathleen Elliot (Katersoneseven), Charles and Alli Trippy (Ctfxc), Jack Douglass (Jacksfilms), Jesse and Jeana (PrankvsPrank), Jimmy Wong, Meghan Camarena (strawberry17), Nadine Sykora (heynadine), Tim Deegan, and some awesome Contiki staff (who are Australian :D). It’s been awesome watching all their traveling, competitions, and interactions. It makes me REALLY want to see Europe now, too – not that I didn’t already want to travel there. If you want more to watch, well, there's a ton more footage on everyone's respective channels. Ctfxc, Katersoneseven, ApprentiveEh all do daily vlogs. I think prankvsprank may too. Michael Aranda and Jacksfilms have second channels with some short clips as well. Well, most everyone has or will have videos and vlogs of their adventure, so if you're interested, there's plenty to see. Not to bombard you with links or anything…….

Vale,
Jill
                  
* Learn to Read Latin. (2004) Andrew Keller and Stephanie Russell
   Vox Latina. (1965) W.S. Allen

(why yes, that is my own made up citation style. Thanks for noticing my refusal to correctly cite things)                                                                   

Day 1 Contiki Video:

And ApprentiveA/Eh's announcement of the trip, just cuz.

            Hello from I have no idea what I'm going to blog about. It's 10:30. I'm sitting alone in my dorm room having been avoiding blogging since I got back from dinner with my family at 8. Let's see what I can come up with in the next hour and a half, shall we?
           There a little something: "shall". I don't remember if I knew this beforehand, but the word shall was originally only used for first person. So "I shall" and "we shall" = correct. "You shall" or "They shall" = incorrect. But that's grammar. And languages change all the time. So....yeah, I'm failing at the whole 'being interesting' thing I guess.  It was just something that became a  bit of a joke in my Latin class in the past week.
        So yeah, it's Fall Break. Rachael, Amy, and I went to the library yesterday. I've missed that place, but I don't know why I let myself go there. I picked up 4 books, none of which I really have enough time to finish. *sigh* I am over halfway done with the first one though (of course, there are a number of things I should have been doing instead, but I've missed reading for fun and not class). It's called 172 Hours on the Moon, and is about these three teenagers who win an opportunity to be the first teenagers to set foot on the moon, which hasn't been visited by humans since the end of the moon missions in the seventies. But something sinister it waiting for them, an enigma that has been kept secret from the earth's population for decades.
        Honestly, I'm halfway in and still not all that thrilled by the story. They've only just made it to the moon, and the way the author chose to present the narrative of them getting there was just a little....off putting. It jumps around from person to person while not being entirely linear (at least I don't think so. I guess it's a bad sign if I can't tell if the story is being linear) and not in a cool, amusing "Catch-22" way, either. Maybe things will start to pick up now that they're 230,000  or so miles from earth. I hope so, anyway. In any case, it's giving me some ideas on how to and how not to write a certain story for Noshanowrimo/Nanowrimo.
        Ok, I tried for like 10 minutes to come up with a satisfactory transition here, but it's just not working out for me. Last night I watched quite a lot of hula dancing. Not like just pretty girls in grass skirts swaying from side to side but actual hula dancing. I found some videos of competitions and festivals online and was kinda fascinated. Although a traditional dance, hula's really for anyone: men, women, any age, any nationality. Idk, I just get interested in various things for unknown reasons. But, you know, it's fun to get interested something outside your own life or culture sometimes. You can learn some cool things.
Here are two that I found particularly good if anyone is interested.

And since Sara mentioned she hadn't seen the cool Coca-cola commercial, I wonder if she's seen this? (not quite as moving as Coke, but I like it a lot)

Another good example of commercials being art (also flashmobs. haha, I hadn't thought about it before, but flashmobs can totally be considered art). This is the first thing to come to mind while reading Anna Beth's post from last Thursday (that I kinda forgot to comment on, so I'm just doing it now). Also, kudos on the STA example. It's by far the best in my opinion and not the first thing I would have thought of.

And for no other reason than that I want to share it with you, here's a cool magic trick video I remembered seeing a few years ago.

Hello from I just uploaded a video to our AdventureSaysHello YouTube channel!!!
Last Friday Anna Beth, Rachael, Sara, and I filmed a response to Alex Day's survey and I finally got around to editing it. So check it out:

    I'll be editing the extra bits/bloopers sometime soon as well. So look forward to that :)
Sorry no topic based blog from me. I thought about it, but I think we're about to go out adventuring soon. Maybe next week I'll have something interesting to say. (the video's enough for this week right? I spent enough of today working on it)

But I'll leave you with some more videos and links to keep you entertained (cuz that's what I do)
Since several of us have been stressed about school recently, I thought this may help to give you all a bit of a smile:
http://thenicestplaceontheinter.net/

And here's something to help you relax. Load all three sites at once.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsD1zoI7NYo
http://www.rainymood.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znJGiSqfbas

(stress relievers courtesy of KickthePJ)

And for Pokemon lovers/science nerds/people that weren't overly found of digimon:
click here

I believe that's all I have for today.

Love,
Jill