I'm reunited with HBP. Sweet. [nekare]

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BWAHAHAHA I've conquered you, you stupid metodology, I'M DONE WITH THE HOMEWORK and it was about damn time because aarrrgh, that and the slided form Communication were just soooo much work.

Okay, I lent my HBP copy to one of my uncles like, three months ago, and then my cousins wanted to read it so I was like Okay, no hurries. But Michelle, the youngest of them (and ironically, the one who understands it better) is kind of neat freak, and she was so worried that she had been mistreating my book that she got me a new one. 36 dlls aprox. is a BIG amount for a 12 year old, and I really didn't want to accept it, but what could I have done? Now my mom's mad about me because 'I must have been pushing her too far to finish the book' (which I wasn't, I was only dying to get to speak about the ending with her) and grrr.

I'll get her a nice, semi-expensive book to make up for it, so tell me, any suggestions for a girl that adores HP, and is obsessed with Narnia?

I wanted to go and finish my

remixredux fic tonight, since I'm this close, but I'm so tired that I'll probably just watch one QaF episode and go to bed. I have to get up at 5, after all. (but yay, I wrote 200 words today!)

And pimping still! (You'll just have to bear with me for a while, I'm sorry to say)

inky_fingertips is a brand new original fiction community! Pimp it out!

Mood::

tired

Music:: Bloc Party - So Here We Are

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There are 49 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Oh dear. Well, that was sweet of her, but... oh, silly children.

Don't they have several movie tie-in books that go along with Narnia? They have some pretty nice hardcover versions of the books, too (my best friend has, like, three). Other than that... Um, I would HIGHLY recommend the His Dark Materials trilogy, if they have a Spanish translation of it yet (or if she can read English).

Sweet dreams, darling!

Yeah, I know...

She's got the hardcovers (I only have one of those in Spanish, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, since it was sold out in english XD and everything else is just a mixture of all possible covers imaginable). Uh, whose the author of the trilogy? I've never heard of them... And well, she's not that good yet with English, but my, at this rate, she'll get better than me in no time.

You too!

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Phillip Pullman is the author -- he's won all kinds of crazy awards for it; I think they're making a movie of the first book in the next couple of years, too. I'm really excited about it. It takes place at Oxford University :-D

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One series I would recommend is Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet: Alanna: the First Adventure, In The Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant. She has other books set in teh same world, but those are the best, IMO.

Oohhh, I've been looking for her stuff for ages, but apparently her work hasn't been translated into Spanish, and unless the author's very, very recognized, you can't find the originals here T-T

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Oh, that really is too bad. I love that series. Maybe someone could send them to you?

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I don't know about expensive, but I've always recommended Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci books to people who can't get enough Harry Potter. Actually, I like the Jones books better than the Rowling.

Other good fantasy series are the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Leguin, the Pit-Dragon series by Jane Yolen, the Young Wizard books by Diane Duane, the Abhorsen books by Garth Nix, Tanith Lee's Wolf Star books, and the first four or five Brian Jaques Redwall books. And some popular series include the Series of Unfortunate Events, the Artemis Fowl and Pendragon books.

Individual books you might consider:

The Princess Bride by Goldman
Arabat by Barker
The Neverending Story by Ende
Coraline by Gaiman
The Last Unicorn by Beagle
The Hero and the Crown by McKinley

Oh, so many yummies :) The bad thing is that we are sorely lacking in fantasy here, and my cousin can't read English that well yet, but I'll have to look some of those up. And ooooh, I adoreArtemis Fowl! it's too bad the translation sucks or I'd get it for her.

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Here are some that are available in Spanish (at B&N.com)

The Neverending Story
Coraline
Artemis Fowl
Series of Unfortunate Events

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I was going to reccommend the Neverending Story by Michael Ende too. I read it when I was about that age, a bit younger maybe, and I LOVED it. :) It's quite a big book, though, so I don't know how much it'd cost. Then again, Artemis Fowl really is a nice idea as well.

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Yeah, I've read it too, and it's AWESOME, although I like Momo better by him. Have you read it? One of the fondest memories of my childhood and my dad. :)

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I have to admit I've never read Momo. For some strange reason, I always refused to. Maybe because everyone said it was so good and I felt like they wanted to force me to read it just because of that. I was a stubborn child. ^^'

*whispers* I didn't read the Petit Prince for the same reason. Like I said: stubborn. Also: *bounces* You're online! I'm lonely, and I don't wanna get to work.

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Ah, well so sad, because it plays with the imagination like you have no idea. It's the book for the storyteller, I tell you (must of my creativity today, I must admit, comes from that book) *cuddles her copy that's already falling to pieces for so much use*

I liked the Petit Prince, but It'll never be my favorite. It has some boring parts, I must admit. XD Yaaaay you're here too! I just came back to school, but I've classes at 2 again T-T and then non stop until 9. What do you have to do?

And lets figure it out for good, what time is it there? So I can count the hour difference. I think it's 8 but...

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Hm, well perhaps I'll have to read it sometime after all.

I have to do some research for a group project - admittedly, it's about gay marriage and such, but I'm kinda lazy today and... well, it's just, the people I'm working with... I'd much rather work with my friends, but they're doing something else. It's just that those people don't really - don't really work on the same "level". I want a serious project, yo. Not some pathetic "oh we're all so tolerant!!1!!11!! War is stupid! Discrimination is evil! We're all the same!!!1!11!" outcome. (Because we're *not* the same, because that's what fucking humanity is about nowadays, isn't it? Individualism. *Animals* are all the same. And people just don't get the difference between equality and equivalence, between being the same and being worth the same.) Ah... nevermind me. I'm just unwilling. :S

It's almost seven here, so you were quite close with 8. ;)

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Yeeees, you must. XD

Well, as one of the regularly lazy people I can say that researching something for yourself, and doing it for class (even when you're stil interested in the theme) it's just not the same. For school, it just becomes tedious so maybe that's why they're not cooperating? Dunno, let's just hope you don't end up working for the others, I hate it when that happens.

Ugh, yeah Individualism. It's just such a difficult thing to grasp, isn't it? It's the same with feminism and feminity. Just because we should have the exact same rights as man, it doesn't mean we have to give up everything that makes us a woman. We're built different for a reason, after all, even if we have the same capacities. :)

Ohhh, it's so many hours! The first night in Paris, we all went to bed at 9 from there, thinking 'oh we're so tired, we'll sleep.' well, we didn't, until about three in the morning when the sun was FINALLY setting down by our internal clocks XD that sucked big time (I almost fell asleep at a museum the next day)

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Heh, yeah, but that's why I'm not cooperating, or not as much as I should. I'm awfully interested in the subject and I've written pages upon pages in my head about homosexuality in general, but I'm so afraid I'll get too excited and too worked up about it to formulate even one coherent sentence. My problem with the others is - just - that... aw, do I have to say it?

They are a little. Well. Immature. Slow. I mean, I like them, they're really nice people and they're not stupid, or else they wouldn't be at this school, but my friends and me, we think differently, we... gah. We're just on another level. *flails* Idon'twannasaywe'remoreintelligentpleasedon'tmakeme.

Mmmh, that's what I meant. I just have a problem when people say We're all the same, we're all humans and deep inside we all have the same feelings and all think the same things blabla, because that's just *wrong*. We are different. We look differently, we behave differently, we think differently, we talk differently, we feel differently, we perceive things differently, we treat things differently, we *live* differently. But that's what being human is about, in my opinion. It's our greatest strength, that pluralism of opinions, characters and perspectives, of history and language, of religion and traditions and culture. The point is: no matter how different we are, we are all of the same value, and we deserve the same basic rights, meaning life, peace, food, freedom of speech, education, etc. Because no life can be paid with money. Life in its rawest, truest form has nothing to do with money, it's something completely different, it's on another level entirely. And on that level one should be blind and deaf and mute to anything else than life. (Meaning skin colour, sexuality, religion, race and so on.)

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And there you go. that's what you should present as your work. You already understand it deeply, now you only have to make the other one's get it. :)

Hey, I'm just about to go, so I'll catch you later, k?

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*g* Yes, well, but it hasn't really got something to do with gay marriage, only... loosely. But thanks. :)

Aww, alright... bye then! I don't know if I'll be online later, and I'm probably not going to be there tomorrow because of my afternoon classes and I have to prepare that mousse au chocolat for my dad's birthday - then again, one of my teachers isn't there, so... we'll see. I just wanted to say it's been so awesome discussing with you and Terra today and yesterday. We should definitely keep this up. :)

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*hijacks!*

Piffle. You're smarter than them. We're all, I think, respectively smarter than our classmates :) It's a big egotistical to say it, sure, but... well, if the shoe fits. Ahem.

I have a lot of trouble in distinguishing between types of intelligence at my school. There's my roommate, who can memorize ANYTHING, yet can't write for crap, and there's my best friend, who can study her arse off and get perfect scores, yet not understand anything, and then there's me, who can grasp an abstract concept with ease, yet can't figure out how to divide fractions. *sigh* I suppose that's why I did great in calculus, yet had to be tutored in elementary-level math (when I was 18. I did both at the same time).

I sort of gave up on group work, really... Or if I'm forced into it, I try to make a point of telling my professor exactly what I've done to contribute to the group. That usually gets me a bonus point or two, and keeps their respect (I worry most about losing a prof's respect, because I look for their approval so much -- it's sickening! haha)

We'll miss you! Get back soon, eh? Haha. OHHH -- I just went to B&N. And I found a book that is a list of exercises and prompts. It was too expensive to buy it, but here's a few ideas I remember from it:

1. Use opposites. What is the opposite of a kiss? Of a train? Of snow? Of the color red? Use both the item and its opposite in a piece.
2. Take ten random letters of the alphabet, and use them as the first letters of each word in a sentence, which becomes your first sentence for a piece. For example: "AGHKLPTMFS: August gave Henry killer love problems. Time, maybe, fell short."

and... oh, there were other good ones, but I forgot them. I'll try to buy it next time I go back, or ask for it as a bday present :-D

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I'm really, really good with maths (although I hate them), but I can't memorize for shit. I first have to understand the concept, and most of the times my teachers are too old/too close-minded to understand that. Also, I can never pay attention to lectures. Even if it's something I love, I eventually daze out and I have to do something with my hands, or I'd go to sleep. No wonder my notebooks are filled with silly doodles outside the margins XD

WOOOOW I'd never seen a book like that! But ah, that sounds awesome :) (you don't have to buy it, though, I bet you could just take a little notebook and write the exercises you like the most while being SNEAKY. With a trenchcoat on. Because you have to do things the right way. XD) Mmm... loving all those ideas. When do you guys want to start?

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Hmm, as for me... Well. I always got okay grades, even though I only studied for the bigger tests & more important subjects when I was younger. By now, well. Take a look at my final paper and you can Tell where school is located on my priority list. I study A Lot, and I get good marks, but it's not just learning things by heart, because I am utterly unable to do that without understanding everything, so it happens that I completely despair before a test because I know everything by heart but can't quite figure out why something is called the way it's called even though I don't need it and we haven't even talked about it at school. (And still get an A on the test.) Sometimes that really sucks, especially in physics, because that's just alllll theory and formulas, and the *grumblegrumble* guy actually told us that we'll have to fucking work with impulses even though we haven't got the *slightest clue* what they are, and I've just given up trying to get what energy really means and how the hell people can tell us those things exist without telling us how they know that, because of course energy exists, but what the hell does it *really* do in a rolling marble? Does it change its colour? No. Does it make a sound? No. Does it change the marble's course? No. And I just... grrr. *hmpf* I know it's difficult to explain all the mechanics behind something, but I find it incredibly frightening and unsettling if they want us to use a formula without having the slightest idea of what meaning that formula has in real life.
All in all, I think I'm a pretty independent learner. I can tell when a teacher explains something really awfully, but eight times out of ten, I get it nevertheless, when everybody else is just horribly confused. I can figure out an explanation behind things that we don't have to know by myself, find connections, remember little things a teacher said five lessons ago; and I think I get most things pretty fast. But I have trouble imagining abstract and too theoretical things, and that's where I fail. Recently I almost burst into tears about a negative number in an exercise with square roots, because the exercise just *didn't work* in my mind, even though I knew it was supposed to. And I'm shite at remembering things from one or two years ago, which everybody else in my class seems to be really apt at. *sighs*

Oooo yes, group work is awful. It's alright with my friends, because they treat complex subjects like complex subjects and not, you know; the problem is, they are simply unable to do anything if they're not interested, and that's why all the work usually gets stuck with me. We did something on abortion last year - and I was stunned because they literally did everything themselves and I just had to lean back and watch their progress, but we chose that subject ourselves, so that was different. I'm uncomfortable about saying "Oh well, that was a group project, yes, but I did all the work myself to give them the opportunity to talk about lunch break", but most teachers figure it out anyway, because my friends are really shameless about that and don't even pretend they're doing anything. And I hate that they can't ever be serious in such situations, but oh well. I'm not good at working together with people anyways. It's just that sometimes I think I might be better at it if I wouldn't just give up and be happy I can do it the way I want to, but force them to work with me instead (and force myself to work with them), or join another group.

By the way, I am incredibly relieved to hear that there's someone else out there who worries so much about what teachers think of her. ^^' I'm like that, too. And I can't stand it.

"The opposite of a kiss" - ooooh. *ponders* :)

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Hm...sounds mostly like your school is just crap. Then again, I suppose most required schooling is like that; I just never noticed it myself, because I was always in the "honors" courses or "gifted" courses, where they taught us things at a quicker speed and with greater depth. In college, you get nothing but theory and preciseness about exactly how things work. When I was taking computer science courses, I learned every single detail -- I even know how the binary codes work, lol. We had to translate programs from binary to BASIC, and there's about five steps between -- and BASIC is the most base computer language that normal humans can comprehend (translating from binary to there involved a lot of code-breaking with numbers and things, which is kinda cool, but gets old after awhile). Math was difficult for me for a very long time because I only ever had one good teacher who understood I needed to know how you got from Step A to Step B, and she was the one that eventually tutored me in all the things I'd learned before her class, but had never learned learned. And then when I took calculus, I kind of just threw caution to the wind and did exactly what I was told to do, and wound up with the highest grade in my class. Weird, how well submission works, eh? lol.

Oh, I'm the same way with group projects. It helps, I suppose, that my college profs have been a little more understanding that, often, one person does all the work. And so they ask for reports on our progress, and it's in those that I can specifically say what I've done, omit the other person, and let them say whatever they want to say about what they've done for themselves. Usually they even forget to do it, so then the prof knows that I'm doing all the work, haha. It's a great indirect way of getting my point across. Oh, I don't think it would be better to give up at all -- it just makes things harder for you. I mean, really, could you stand to see the entire group falter just because you resent the work? I would feel guilty if I did that... that, and it's so much easier to bitch about having had to do all the work than it is to bitch about not having things your way :) So... bright side! ;)

Haha, oh gosh. I've always been so concerned about what teachers think. It drives me to the point of perfectionism. I'm currently upset that I only got a 95% on my British history midterm last week -- and I had my exam time cut shorter than I'd expected while I was writing the essays! I won't admit that to anyone in the class, of course... I think quite a few people failed it for the same reason. I just don't want my British history prof to be disappointed in me, lol. He's such a cool guy and I'd like to have his respect.

(and do teachers scare you a lot of the time? Like, could you ever consider them friends? Because I can't. Maybe my advisor... but that's only because she and I talk Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the time, lol!)

I Knooooow! I saw that prompt and immediately thought you, particularly, would love it. I can see a lot of possibilities in that one prompt 0.o

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Oh, gosh. I didn't mean my statement about your school to seem so rude. I'm sorry. I just mean to say that it seems rather lame that they don't teach you any of the things you need to know. Like... I certainly don't think you're the only one who thinks that way. And I'm a big supporter of educational improvement -- most schools are just terrible! Mine was horrible, but I managed to escape a lot of it by taking honors classes. That still didn't help me much in the math area, but oh well.

It'll get better, the higher up in education you go... unfortunately, there's always the crap teachers anywhere you go :-P

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Heh, no, I didn't think you were being rude, just saying your honest impression. :) I like that about you. That you can be honest without sounding rude. Though I've no idea how you do it. O.o

My school... hm, well. As my dear friend Chris keeps telling me, we've just been elected one of the 25 best grammar schools of Bavaria; how they define "best", though, I have no idea. It is a good school in the sense that its students have fairly good overall results and such. We're often told the teaching methods, testing and preparation are harder here, because our students are required to do a lot by themselves and learn independently and know a lot. But that's perhaps also our problem. Our school is very conservative, old-fashioned; our headmaster for example keeps denying us the option to take Spanish instead of Latin or English after tenth grade, he (and all the others before him) are really big supporters of ancient languages and such. The most important thing for them is grades and achievements and all that. So there's a lot of pressure, I suppose, but it can't be much different at other grammar schools. And it depends on the teacher, of course, though we have mostly old teachers, which can suck a lot, or we have trainee teachers (many of them, actually; we're a teacher training college or something like that), which most times sucks even more. And many students don't make it. My old class, for example, started out with about 30 students, of which maybe 12 remained. Okay, my old class was also an exception(ally stupid class), and not more than, pff, five students or so have left the class we got put in back then, but my new class is also an exception(ally wonderful class), I guess. :)

I've been told about those gifted programmes you have in the US; I didn't know about them before because that's not common here. Sadly, because I for example was able to read and write before I started school, and I was incredibly bored during those first months. ^^' I'd have been glad for a challenge. And: your maths teacher sounds brilliant! :O I'd've needed one of those, too.

About group work - you are so right. Bitching about how you're the one who always has to do all the work can be so much more satisfying, sometimes. *g* And of course I'd never let my group down because I couldn't *stand* the thought of us not having any results in the end. But that's also how they always get me. *sighs* They know exactly which buttons to push.

Oh god, I know what you mean. When you hate yourself because you got a couple answers not completely right and you feel so ashamed and don't even want to look at the teacher again - and you just can't *say* anything because it'd be so tactless and ungrateful and rude since others got much worse grades. I usually bitch and moan about it to my mommy, who then tells me I should be nicer to myself, and I say yes I'll try mommy, and the very same night I can't sleep because I feel so awful about something I didn't know or should've formulated differently or whatever. Guh. And yes, it's also that fear of teachers being disappointed in you - because, for one, you think they think since you're good you always have to be good, and also because you think you should've known that and that the teacher will somehow not have such a good image of you anymore and... *groans* I hate that. It's so... hmpf. And I can't talk to anyone about this, because I'm embarrassed, and my friends would laugh, and other people would think I'm just an attention-whore and... -.-

(I so know what you mean with the wanting to have a cool teacher's respect. And yet, anytime I walk out of the classroom after a lesson with him, I feel so incredibly stupid and ashamed of myself...)

If they could be friends... I don't know. But yes, they scare me. Kind of. They make me nervous, make me straighten my back and put on a cheerful smile and greet them politely, when inside I'm terrified that maybe I'm not smiling enough or not speaking loud enough or something equally silly. I'm always so afraid of doing something wrong, or them misinterpreting something, or... doing... I don't know. I mean, they can have god knows what impression of me. That scares me, often. But I don't know if that's what you're meant?

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What *you* meant.

O.o

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Weird, that's the part where I'm different from you guys. I never care of what the teachers think of me. Most teachers like me, since well, I actually work, but I've never really sought any respect from them. Last year, I seated in the first row against my will, and I kept drawing or writing ALL THE TIME, not caring the teachers saw me, and my calculus teacher liked me enough to let me SLEEP in there and not tell me anything. Then again, I aced calulus.

*shrugs* My elementary and middle school had a montessori-like system, so teachers never told us what to do, they just told us to figure it out yourself. We called all our professor by their first names, we talked to them, and I even had a really strict teacher that believed in hug therapy or something, since we couldn't get inside her classroom if we didn't hug her first. From then on, I've never treated any teachers very differently that I would a friend, and I've even had a couple of them that I actually can talk to about books and anime and art and such. Dunno, I have a problem with authority as it is, and even my dad gets mad sometimes of how much like a friend I treat him instead of a father. And well, I was terribly rude as a child XD when someone interviewed my mom on the street, she said 'I'm 25', and I was like 'noooo, mommy, nooo, you're 29, I know you are!!' and she just about died from the embarassment. XDDD

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You know, I feel kinda stupid. You're all talking about calculus and though I have a vague idea of what the word means... eh. It's just that we don't really give it a name, or we do, but people don't use it. It's just maths here. Some time ago we still had algebra and geometry, but. We just say maths now. O.o Do I make any sense? Probably not. ~~AAA WHY DO YOU ALL HAVE CALCULUS AND I DO NOT?!~~

Haha, that sounds cool. Reminds me of what mum told me about those... aw, come on... I know I knew that name... anyways, special kinds of schools where the kids completely decide when and how they want to learn what, even basic things like reading and writing, and... hmmm... grah, come on, the name has got to be somewhere in that messy head of mine... :@ Something like Sudbury schools or... nnghhh.... I'll ask mummy later...

Nyah, Neka, I envy you. I wish I could be so relaxed about it. *sighs*

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Well, for us, calculus=evil, not math ;) Calculus is actually the reason I changed my major. *sigh* It's that way for a great many people, unfortunately. It is the bane of our existence.

Hmmm...Yeah, you pretty much got the gist of what I was trying to say -- and I think we must be two peas in a pod or something, haha. Exactly the same learning style, yet on opposite sides of the world! Go figure.

My high school was very much like yours -- we had award after award and it was supposed to be one of the best schools in the state and then in the country (public schools, that is. Private are always better). But... I learned nothing. It was absolute crap. Like, the administration (the people who raise our money and decide where to allocate it) would waste everything on sports and computers and then we wouldn't even have enough books for everyone to take one home -- we had to leave our textbooks at school so other classes could share them. Or they were more than twenty years old. THAT was annoying, let me tell you.

And then they just keep building new schools, because my town is growing so fast. *sigh* That's the biggest pain of living in the suburbs, lol.

I'm kind of expected to be friends with my professors by this point in my education, and I just can't do it... like, I can't imagine them as friends. They're still an authority figure to me and thus, I'm still too concerned with leaving a good impression of myself that I can't behave as though we're friends. It's kind of sad, I suppose.

As for me being honest without being rude -- lol. Wow. I've never heard it put that way before. I've no idea how I do it, either. Typically, I just think I am being rude. One person once called me "genuine," which I guess is a good way of putting it, but not quite so succinct.

Aaaanyhow, I'm glad to hear that we're so similar. It helps to understand our shared passion for writing :-D

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So we're peas now, eh. *g* I like that. What do peas do? Pea around? *peas around* Kinda not fun, actually. *is green* Whee, I'm green, look Terra, I'm green! ...What do you mean, I'm not green, of course I'm green! *huffs* Spoilsport! I don't think I wanna be a pea anymore. Psh. Not green. Pah. Must be colour blind... *mutters*

I know what you mean with the books. We were lucky this year, but last year our whole class did not have any books for more than three subjects! And 80% of those that do exist fall apart when you so much as gaze at them, or they're scribbled on so badly you can't read anything, or pages are missing, or they still bear inscriptions like "Printed in Western Germany"... *sighs* It's part of the reason why I buy the most important books myself.

Yeees, it just doesn't work, that friend thing. Cause they're *still* authority figures, still... teachers.

Genuine, yes, that definitely too. :) But I really never had the impression you were being rude; I find it strange myself, because I tend to feel uncomfortable around people who always say what they think as they are often tactless and just - to put it bluntly - don't know when to keep their mouths shut, but I never thought that about you. Weird. Perhaps that's just... you know. Something about you. Perhaps you're just truthful *and* friendly. *g*

Hmm, absolutely. :)

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Aye, we're vegetable nutrition goodness! Children hide us in their napkins and mothers try to force us down their kiddies' throats! Go us! :-D

And you are more than welcome to be green, it is St. Patrick's Day after all :-D

Perhaps I am just an anomaly. People have been telling me lately that they can trust me to tell them the truth, and I'm all, 0.o? Since when? Ah well, I'll consider it a good trait and leave it at that. Haha.

I'm friendly I'm totally friendly! Except when my reason for being nicknamed "Moony" manifests itself and I become a total beast, but that's a story for another day, hahaha.

btw: i have that original short story finished now and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind looking at it for me? I seem to be having trouble finding people that are willing to beta creatively -- though I've no shortage of offers to check my grammar. It doesn't need to be finished till Monday, just thought I'd ask ahead of time :) Thanks!

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Peas for president! Let's make this world a greener place! Let's found an organization called Greenpeas hahaha... *is terribly amused* It shall be St. Patrick's day forever when we take over the world at last. Or, well. Actually I have no idea what St. Patrick's day is about.

Rowrr, Moony, how animalistic. :D

You know, I was going to offer to beta it for you anyway, so yes, of course I'd like to :) I don't know if I'll get it done today, though, because I have no idea when I'll get out of my study group, but I can do it tomorrow, if that's okay. You'll get a creative beta job anyway, since I'm probably not the best person to ask for a grammar check *g* So, just send it over! Do you still have my e-mail address?

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lol, Greenpeas, oh my.

St. Patrick's Day -- St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. So all the Irish people celebrate by wearing green (the color for Catholicism) and getting really drunk ;) It's getting to be a bigger and bigger deal every year -- or maybe I just notice more because I'm in college and eveyone is looking for an excuse to drink, haha. (and it seems like everyone I know is at least part-Irish...)

I am an animal! Hoooo-oooowwl!! ;)

Oh, gosh, you are an ANGEL. I looooove you. Tomorrow is perfectly fine! I, actually, will have a few things to tweak on it after you get to read through it, because it's about a Jewish boy (and a Jewish funeral), so I'm asking a Jewish friend of mine for some details to put in to distinguish it as Jewish. But they won't be anything that will change the plot or the characters or whatnot -- just details to "enrich" it, if you will.

I believe I still have your email address around here, somewhere. If not, I'll leave a comment over on your journal, cuz I think we're probably amusing Neka to death by having such a long conversation on her journal ;)

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Hehe, Greenpeas. I am so easily amused. Don'd mind me while I slip under that blanket and chortle some more.

I knew that it had something to do with Ireland and green clothes, but I was wondering why so many people in the US were celebrating it and thought maybe it had some other meaning...

:) Whee, an angel! *jumps out the window cause she believes she has wings* Whoopsie, good that my room is on the lowest floor ^^'

No, that's perfectly fine; I'm not exactly an expert on, um, Jewish, um, things. *g*

Haha, sorry Neka. ♥

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We need icons. "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GREENPEAS CANDIDATE!" or something. Hahaha.

Yeah, it gets celebrated big-time in the US because so many people are Irish descendants. My grandfather was entirely Irish, and my dad was partial, so I'm about half... and Ohio, particularly (where I live), is Irish, so it's a big deal here. We have festivals and everything.

Oh dear. A fallen angel, then? ;)

lol, oh, neither am I. I'm just glad I have the Jewish friend to ask for details and things!

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cuz I think we're probably amusing Neka to death by having such a long conversation on her journal ;)

YES YOU ARE! And I'm joining Greenpeas too, btw. Just so you know XD And don't they pinch people for St. Patrick too? A friend said he'd pinch anyone in that day...

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Ok. We'll be a party of three, then. Hahaha. Wow.

Umm, well, the tradition is that if you're not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, you get pinched.

I didn't learn until this year that that means you get pinched if you're not Catholic. IE, Green is the color of Catholicism, and Orange is the color of Protestantism, and if you're not a Catholic, you're supposed to wear orange. So people pinch those who are not wearing green/are not Catholic.

It used to make me paranoid during school, because I forgot one year and everybody pinched me like crazy! lol.

(But I'm not really Catholic -- my mom is, but I was raised Protestant. I still wore green every year, though, because it was "tradition").

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Oh, and don't even get me started on the university "GREEN BEER DAY" tradition, lol... madness, I tell you! Madness!

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Ooooh, well that explains a lot. In here, we only celebrate it because well, there's lots of alcohol XD. And look at that, I've been a Catholic my entire life and I didn't know it had a color!

Oh poor you! All pinched XD *pats* I think I've only been pinched once. I think...

Really? So your mom goes to a different church than you do? Or is your family like mine and never go but on especial ocassions? *loos shifty*

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Nah, well, it's pretty complicated.

My grandmother was the last full-Catholic in my family, as my (Irish) grandfather was Methodist (Protestant). So when he married my grandmother, he promised that his children would be raised Catholic, and they went to mass and stuff, but he wouldn't let my mom and her siblings go to Catholic school. So my mom never got attached to Catholicism. And then she married my dad, who is also Methodist, and decided that she'd rather be Methodist than Catholic. And we did go to church for a long time, but stopped when I was pretty little. I went back to church when I was about 16 or so, and liked it for awhile, but now I'm back and forth between liking it and not.

But, yeah... I've had some pretty bad experiences with the Catholic church. It's too exclusive for me -- I was really pissed off when I went to a Catholic wedding and I found out I wasn't allowed to take communion with my Catholic friends. I understand why, but it's the principle behind it that infuriates me. *sigh*

As a family, we don't really ever go to church, so it's all good :) My grandma just goes to mass by herself a lot, and she tries to make me go, but, well, I refuse :)

In all honestly, I think I'd rather be Jewish, because the Old Testament is infinitely more interesting, lol!

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Uh, Catholic school isn't that much of a great deal, believe me. ALL of my schools have been that way, and the kids pretty much ignore it. (then again, almost all of the private schools in here are Catholic, heck, almost everyone's Catholic, and the government schools suck for the must part. That one being my current college XD).

And oh yeah, Catholicism is awfully exclusive, but I hardly notice anymore since in RL I only know personally like, four people that have other religion. *shrugs* I like the faith, and the loving message, but the insitution is basically rotten.

And my grandma tries dragging me along as well XD She was the one that put the Fear of God in me as little, I tell you. Yeah, the Jews are cool, but the no pork at all sounds somewhat silly to me, in all honesty. But then again, just what isn't silly anymore?

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Ohhh, mousse au chocolat... *drools*

Yeees, I wish we could all be online together more often, I love our discussions. :) Ah, if only I didn't get back from school so late... T-T Good luck with your dad's b-day!

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Read it read it read it.

That's the 1944 English translation.

There's even a French version online.

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Thank you :O I do have the book at home, though. ;)

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Oh, the I do have the neverenging story, I didn't remember XD (Have you read Momo by the same author? It's one of my all time favorites)

And she was the one lending me A Series of Unfortunate Events, so I guess I'll look Coraline for her. Thanks, hon!

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Seconded the Diana Wynne Jones one (my fav. is Howl, obviously)

And Robin McKinley (my fav. is all her fairy tale adaptations)

My easy-comprehension book rec list

Get her Le Petit Prince!111!elventyone!

I'm sure there's one in Spanish...(there's even Latin and Hebrew translations, so)

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Ohhh, thanks! I'd kill Diana Wynne Jones to be published in here. HMC was one of the most expensive books I've ever bought, since the shipping was almost the double of the book itself T-T it was worth it, though XD

I dunno if she's already read Le Petit Prince, but I think it's somewhat simple for her (I read it at what, 9? 10?). I was considering Spiderwick, since while I haven't read it myself, the drawins make my inner illustrator weep in joy. Buuuut, I'll see.

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Try reading it again!111

It's one of those books that you have different reactions to at different stages of your life.

I first read it (the 2000 English translation) when I was 18, and was in the beginning of my first love. The fox made me cry. Seriously.

Then at 19, I read the Chinese translation. And cried again. Why did the little prince die? Why?!111!elventyone!!!
I was officially in my first relationship at that time.

I picked it up again...last April? And (you guess it) cried again. And I started writing I am Responsible for My Rose at that time. It's all HP characters, but with the Little Prince plot. I only realized then how _organized_ the book is, although it seems v. v. inorganized and arbitrary at first glance.

I was _so_ obsessed that I remember pretty much all the intonation and inflection in the 2000 audio performance by Richard Gere (surprisingly good narrative voice) and Haley Joel Osment (surprisingly bad voice acting).

Currently I have the original French, the 2000 English translation, three Chinese translations (one with pinyin), one Taiwanese translation (traditional characters), one Japanese translation and one translation in my mother tongue.

Can you tell that this is my #1 fav. book of all time? lol

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Can you tell that this is my #1 fav. book of all time? lol

Oh no, not at all! XD

I dunno, I still like the whole 'elephant in a boa = hat' thing, and the idea of the little prince, alone in his little planet with a growing baobab still breaks my heart, but I've no idea where my copy is, and if I'm honest, I never liked the fox very much (don't hit me!). Dunno, I guess I really should read it and see just how my outlook of life has changed.

God, you certainly have more than enough copies! You can read all those langugaes? I'm currently struggling with japanese, but I've only studied it for a year and a half. Uh, what's pinyin? educate me, I loooove learning stuff about other countries/languages. :) And what's your mother tongue?

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I still like the whole 'elephant in a boa = hat' thing, and the idea of the little prince, alone in his little planet with a growing baobab still breaks my heart,

Yes! yes! ;_;

Esp. you know, what bugs me is: where the heck did the corpse of that lazy man (whose planet burst apart because of baobab roots) go? Litter out of space?

I never liked the fox very much (don't hit me!)

lol ok. So your fav. character is the little prince then?
Why don't you like the fox? Manipulative?

Dunno, I guess I really should read it and see just how my outlook of life has changed.

Yes yes! Read it and I'll read Momo also ;-)

You can read all those langugaes?

Well, yeah. I have to read Chinese _slowly_, and I read traditional characters _even slower_.

Nihongo ga wakatta--demo ne, chotto muzukashi desu. I studied intensive first year Japanese last summer, and will be studying intensive second year this summer. I can read hiragana and katakana and understand some kanji, but obviously I don't understand many of the vocabs in Little Prince (Hoshi no Ooji-sama)

Uh, what's pinyin? educate me, I loooove learning stuff about other countries/languages. :)

Well, during the 1950s, IIRC, the communist Chinese govt. wanted to increase literacy, which was quite abysmal in Mainland China. So their ambitious project was to romanicize all Chinese characters, and get rid of Chinese characters all together. This romanization is called pinyin. Well, the plan didn't go through, obviously.

To facilitate learning, the Chinese govt. at that time also simplified many Chinese characters. Some of this simplication is from shorthands that people use when writing letters, the rest are introduced by the Chinese govt. This set of characters is called simplified characters as opposed to traditional characters.

This movement met resistance, mainly by people in Hongkong, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese. They still use traditional characters to this day, although they're usually able to read simplified characters too. I think the only Chinese outside mainland who uses simplified characters are the Singaporeans.

Let's see...for foreigners, it's easiest to learn in this order:
1. pinyin (get your pronunciation and vocabs down right)
2. radicals (the building blocks of Chinese characters)
3. Chinese characters

That's how Mainland Chinese teach their youngsters too nowadays. The hardest education ever is the Taiwanese, who uses a system called pe pe me fe, which is uhh...sort of like katakana? I never learned it, so I'm not too clear on what it is either.

And what's your mother tongue?

Guess ;-) It's derived from the lingua franca of South East Asia, and was only officially a language in 1928. My country became independent in 1945, in the vacuum of power between Japan's surrender to the Allies and the Dutch swooping back in trying to take over.

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December