Random Fact Thread

[Dante]

-I've been spending a lot of time in bed, reading Pyramids.
-I've finished it now, and I'll start on Guards! Guards! at some point.
-Not right now, though.
-Mother has the radio on, and it's distracting me.
-And I want to spend some time on the computer.
-My father's taken my brother out for a walk.
-And I've got the swatter out, because there was a wasp around at some point.
-Not entirely coincidentally, there should be some hired bug-slayer coming around at some point to exterminate a wasps' nest.
-My father went to the supermarket earlier, and brought me back some more of that Victorian lemonade I like.
-He also brought back a new packet of pencils.
-When I went to put those away, I found myself unable to resist the urge to sort out my pencil cases for school.
-I'd mixed their contents up a bit for my exams, you see, and hadn't changed them back.
-I have a main pencil case for stuff I use every day, and another one for stuff I use less often (compasses, protractors, scissors, glue, that sort of thing).
-Anyway, now I'll fish out some more stuff from the weekly news magazine.
-I just misinterpreted the phrase "grey market" in an article about a new type of Japanese cell phone.
-Mobile phone.
-Whatever.
-"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
--Abraham Lincoln
-"Every joke is a tiny revolution."
--George Orwell
-"There are days when it takes all you've got just to keep up with the losers."
--Comedy writer Robert Orben
-"One-armed butlers: They can take it, but can they dish it out?"
--Comedian Tim Vine
-I think I'll write down at least one of those in my commonplace book.
-I ended up writing down the ones from Lincoln and Orwell.
-And I got myself a pencil from my new pack.
-It's not yet been sharpened, and writes slightly like charcoal.
-I like it.
-I underlined part of another quote which I'd meant to underline, but had forgotten.
-Mother just explained the meaning of the word "iterative" to me.
-That should be helpful.
-In fact, why not write that down in my commonplace book?
-The thickness of the book, and the spiral-bound nature of it, can make it difficult to write on left-hand pages.
-Because I'm right-handed, I think.
-Well, once I'm half-way through, it should be much easier.

[Antenora]

-I write on both the front and back of my notebook pages.
-That's really annoying if the pen is the sort that bleeds a lot, but I still do it to save paper.
-Today was fairly uneventful.
-In Literature, we had a fairly interesting discussion of Catcher in the Rye.
-We're going to read Crime and Punishment, and write journals on it or something.
-I'm staying in my computers class for lunch.
-Hopefully, I'll be let in here in the future.
-I'd check 667 in class, but I don't think I'd get away with it.
-We're not supposed to use the internet for personal use in this class.
-I've done more of my nanotechnology thing.
-There are two others in here.
-Today is Senior Toga Day.
-I saw someone wearing a shower curtain as a toga.
-I never really bother with dress-up days, but it's fun to see how others dress up.

[xangelkimzx]

-The biggest "dress-up" we're allowed to do is put tinsel in our hair at Christmas.
-Sigh.
-I once found reindeer horns, though, and put those on as well as a huge headband wrapped in lots of silver tinsel.
-I'm festive/fun like that.
-I hope my upcoming school year will be fun.
-Year 7 was good and bad: The first half was a bit dull and just settling into high school, and the last half was fun as everyone had their own groups of friends; Year 8 was boring: Nothing much really happened; Year 9 was the best year, even though there was some pressure for revising for the SATs during the middle of the year.
-I just hope Year 10, and 11 will be even better.
-We're going to Strasbourg for five days on a French study trip in October, so that should be fun.
-Wow, I didn't realise there's only a month left!

[Dante]

-Kimia's summed up British schools quite well.
-The most dressing-up we do is on non-uniform days, when we wear our regular clothes.
-Actually, I think Sixth Formers often wear wacky stuff on charity days.
-I've got an image to maintain, so I won't be partaking in such silliness.
-I don't recall ever thinking that anyone looked particularly amusing or interesting, though.
-Kimia, from what I recall, Year 10 and 11 are bad or boring.
-A mix, really.
-If it's anything like my school, then in Year 10 teachers will constantly tell you "Just wait until Year 11, when you'll be buried in coursework."
-Seriously, they have said stuff like that.
-And then when I actually got into Year 11, I barely had any coursework left to do.
-Teachers are such liars.
-I've been reading more of Guards! Guards!
-It's really interesting; I like it.
-I've been clearing out some books I don't like or don't need from my bookshelves.
-I had to stop, though, as Mother ran out of boxes.
-...And bags.
-I remember being allowed to eat lunch in the computer rooms before, but I'm not sure if that's permitted in the new building.
-Probably not.
-So I'll have to eat quickly in the dining hall.
-Although I actually find that very difficult.
-Sigh.
-I'm going to go and watch TV now, and get off the computer for the night.
-Goodnight, all.

[xangelkimzx]

-Thanks, Dante, I agree.
-Year 10 and 11 aren't good then? Sigh.
-Are you going to college now, Dante?
-I can't remember if you're one or two years older than me.
-Wait, I think it's two. Am I right?
-I'd best go pretty soon too. Damn British timezones.

[SF]

-so far my sophmore year or "year 10" is the best year for highschool
-I haven't been on much lately...
-did you guys miss me!?
-My mom has limited me to two hours of computer a day
-Pootie (best friend Lisa) might be sleeping over tonight
-Hopefully she is
-Sometime this weekend I think I'm going to hang out with Andrew (boyfriend), Nick and Riss, which should be amazingly fun
-Today during flag football I accidentally pants-ed Nicks little brother Zack trying to get his flag...
-I have mud all over my gym pants now...
-I need to tell my mom I need a new gym shirt and hoody (hooded sweatshirt)
-My hair is wet... I just took a shower
-I'm tired
-I was going to take a nap but then I remembered I had to call Pootie
-And now I'm on here....
-Hmmm...

[Antenora]

-We're forbidden to eat in the computer lab.
-Sometimes I do so, anyway.
-I've been eating granola bars for my school lunches.
-They're not particularly messy, so I guess it's somewhat acceptable to eat them while at a computer.
-And nobody monitors me all that closely.
-It turns out we don't have to do Government journals until next week.
-So that's one less thing I have to worry about in the next few days.
-We don't have a copy of Crime and Punishment.
-I guess I can get one at Borders tomorrow evening, or whenever I go there.
-I'd like to get started on it this weekend.
-We have to do some writing assignment for this book, choosing a paragraph from it and analyzing the tone and symbolism and such.
-And we have to do 20 of these total, finishing the book by the end of September.
-I'm wearing some odd jewelry.
-One pendant I'm wearing is a tiny dragon, resembling the one on the Welsh flag.
-I found it in a jewelry box I haven't opened for some time, and can't remember where I got it.
-I'm also wearing a large goldfish pendant Mother gave me.
-It's about two inches long, made of enameled metal, and jointed.

[Charles Vane]

"I love my dad, I just dont like it when he acts like a parent."
My super sweet 16 makes me laugh.
Though I almost died when the mother said she spent over $100,000 on the birthday part.
That really makes want to cry.
Then the other people spent 40,000 on Sugarcult and one of his kids had to ask her friend who they were.
I want french silk.

[Dante]

-How long do each of those writing assignments have to be, Antenora?
-I wondered where you'd been, Snicket-Face.
-Kimia, I'm two years older than you.
-I could go to college, but I'm going to Sixth Form instead.
-And Year 10 and 11 are probably alright if you get decent teachers.
-I once had to do, over a holiday, a bunch of practice essays in preparation for my Y9 SATs.
-Or is it SATS?
-I can't remember.
-But anyway, we had to do about two, and we were given a sheet with nine choices, but I ended up doing them all because I'm neurotic.
-I finished Guards! Guards! last night, and I'm going to start reading Faust Eric soon.
-It looks pretty short.
-I can hear the clock in the lounge striking nine o' clock.
-And I should be eating breakfast right now.
-To my right, on the dining table, there is a large four-picture jigsaw.
-It's on a piece of card, for easy transportation.
-And for some reason, there's a place-mat on this desk.
-I'll move that back to its proper place.
-And now I'm going to eat breakfast.

Edit:

-Practical Joke Gone Wrong

[Antenora]

ffwf said:

-How long do each of those writing assignments have to be, Antenora?

-I think we're supposed to write a paragraph or so.
-The teacher said "at least half a page".
-My handwritings' large enough to fill up half a page pretty easily, if I can actually think of things to say.
-Then again, this is one of those assignments where you copy down the passage on one side of the page, and write your response on the other.
-So I won't have to write extra-large.
-I've started Crime and Punishment, but was too tired last night to read much more than the first chapter.
-I cleaned my room some more, and got rid of some more books.
-My floor looks a little tidier now.
-Mother wants me to clear out the area in front of my west-facing window.
-I'll hopefully finish that over the weekend.
-I need breakfast, and coffee.

[Dante]

-Those writing assignments don't sound too bad, then.
-Aside from the sheer number that you have to do.
-Having to do something that isn't overly hard or boring lots and lots of times is deadly dull.
-As I've learnt from my Maths lessons, where we had to do pages of questions from books, and all the questions were basically the same one.
-The only thing different about them was the numbers.
-The clear-out of my room will soon be complete.
-We just need some more boxes to put books in.
-But I think we should be able to start taking stuff off my wall today.
-I only intend to leave up my calendar, and possibly the Dalek poster I got from the TV listings magazine, just to have something to fill in the space.
-And I might leave up my ancient clock until we can find a new one.
-But that's really my parents' choice.
-I've just had lunch.
-It was a sandwich with some form of smoked bacon inside.
-"Oak-smoked," my mother says.
-Oh, and more of those stuffed olives.
-They're still rather too strong for my tastes, but I prefer them to the other olives, and anyway, my parents probably still have plenty left.
-I'm pretty sure I've got a cold.
-Or am getting one.
-It's all this dust and hard work.
-It's not good for me.
-Especially the dust.
-The hard work would be fine, but combined with the dust...
-I filed one of my nails a little too much yesterday.
-Actually, the end was peeling off, so it was short anyway.
-But no matter how much I filed it, it didn't seem to be enough...
-I'm surprised it's not bleeding, really.
-I think the only window in my bedroom is south-facing.
-And it's partially obscured by either a large bush, or small tree.
-Or some sort of hybrid, neither one nor the other.

[Antenora]

-I don't think I've ever eaten anything that was "oak-smoked".
-If I have, it wasn't identified as that.
-I've had mesquite-smoked meat, which tastes pretty weird.
-For some reason, I've been randomly recalling bits of The Garden of Proserpine these last few days.
-"Here, where the world is quiet,
here, where all trouble seems,
dead winds' and spent waves' riot
in doubtful dreams of dreams..."
-"That no life lives forever, that dead men rise up never..."
-http://users.crocker.com/~lwm/proserpine.html
-I heard that they were thinking of naming the new tenth planet Proserpine, or Persephone, but I haven't heard anything about that in a while.
-They've got to name it at some point.
-And it certainly qualifies as a planet, as it's bigger than Pluto.
-Maybe they'll just stop counting Pluto as a planet, since there are all those Kuiper belt objects almost as large as it out there.

[Dante]

-From too much love of living,
From hope and feat set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be

That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

-I've got those two parts memorised.
-Seems to me that they're extremely quotable.
-And I like them.
-I should print out The Garden of Proserpine, and stick it in my commonplace book.
-I'll start on that after this post.
-It's gotten very hot all of a sudden.
-I don't actually like the oak-smoked bacon too much.
-It's got rather a strong taste of...
-Well, something.
-I can tolerate it, though, just as I tolerate those strongly-flavoured olives.
-I'll have to go for a walk later, and then I'll have to help cook dinner.
-How tiresome.
-I don't get any days to myself.
-Mother's taking a nap right now.
-I think Father might be as well.
-*sigh*

[Antenora]

-I don't like olives.
-My sister loves them, though.
-She likes a lot of strong-tasting foods that I really can't stand.
-However, she can't stand spicy food, and there are some spicy foods I really like.
-I found a big archive of Discworld fan art.
-I love this Got Milk poster.
-That's the Death of Rats on Death's arm.
-I think he first shows up in Reaper Man, one of my favorite books in the series.
-I have a vague idea of what to write for my first Crime and Punishment journal thing.
-There's a paragraph near the beginning that vividly describes the setting, and I could come up with something to say about that related to the tone and mood of the scene.
-Besides the ongoing Crime and Punishment readings, I have no homework this weekend.
-Actually, I have a small project for Spanish class, but part of it's finished and the other part can wait.

[Dante]

-I've finished printing out The Garden of Proserpine, and sticking it in my commonplace books.
-My interfering parents couldn't resist the opportunity to ask what that noise was which was recognisably a printer, or the sound of tape.
-On top of all that, I had to get Mother a glass of water.
-They really are ghastly individuals sometimes.
-They will probably get more ghastly over the years, in a deliberate attempt to get me to move out.
-It's exactly the sort of thing they'd do.
-And if they're going to try that, which they are, I'll spite them by staying as long as possible.
-Then they'll see who's laughing.
-That Discworld fan-art is pretty neat.
-Speaking of which, I should read some more of Moving Pictures.
-Oh, and I tried to ring the person I go to school with, N., earlier, but nobody was home.
-Or nobody was awake.
-I'll try again this afternoon.
-And I'll probably ring the school anyway, at some point, just to check.
-Although I'll probably end up going in on Tuesday at the normal time, anyway.
-Or a bit earlier, to give me time to find out what number my new form-room is.