Happy New Year!

Before the ball drops in New York City (in 5 minutes!) and 2011 gets here on the East Coast, I just wanted to say, Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a fabulous 2010, and here’s to an even greater one. :)

Thank you for being lovely readers. :D

Best wishes,

Nonie

Happy Holidays! :)

I have a two week break from school, I got all exams out of the way, and I finally got all my presents bought/made and wrapped, and put under our tree. Now, I can just drink some delicious hot chocolate and watch the snow fall gently on our lawn, whilst imagining how this year’s holiday food project for my French class, a Bouche de Noel, will turn out.

Fingers crossed that my log will look like this:

or, maybe like this (without all the ornaments):

I will have pictures posted soon, I promise. :D So, before I start to prepare my Bouche de Noel, I just wanted to drop by and wish everyone, Merry Christmas! Best Wishes to everyone everywhere. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, a great time with family, and lots and lots of merriment (and delicious food)! :)

Ahoy Me Hearties!

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrgh, maties!

Confession: When I be wee, I be fascinated wi' Seafarin' heartys (along w' Spies an' Detectives). I think I read ever' book I could find about them. The most fascinatin' Pirate be Blackbeard (well, he be th' most famous). :D

My favorite fictional Sea Dogs be:

Patchy the Pirate

Red Rackham (an' Captain Haddock)

Captain Hook

an' who can forget Jack Sparrow (or ortin' ta I say Captain Jack Sparrow) an' Barbossa?

(Who do ye find the most interestin' (or who's yer favorite)?) :D

Well, that's all th' talkin' like a sea dog fer today, shipmates. ('Tis tirin'.) Reckon if ye haven't do so yet, go aroun' an' tell someone Arrgh!!

(Oh aye, an' how can't be International Talk Like a Pirate Day if we dasn't play this tune at least once?)

Yo ho yo ho, a Pirate's life for me...

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Fair Winds!

(I translated with English To Pirate Speak. :D )

Ahhh...Summer Vacation...

The final bell rang on Thursday, so basically, yeah, what time is it?! It's summer time! BTW, I don't mind HSM, and i'm just so happy about summer, I just had to put that in. :P And oh my goodness, I have time to read now! And not just my textbooks, but books I want to read, like the Red Pyramid!

I put it on hold about two months ago, and 108 holds later, and I finally got it from my library last Wednesday (yay!). The plot was fascinating and there were plenty of explosions scattered around the story (hehe, basic Riordan style :D). I hardly know anything about Egyptian mythology (Greek and Roman mythology was more fascinating to me), so I enjoyed brushing up my knowledge on Egypt and its' myths. The characters are extremely likable, especially Carter and Sadie's Cat, Muffin (who turns out to be more than meets the eye). Carter's no Percy, but I found his narration to be one of my favorite things about the book. He was adorable. Sadie, Carter's younger sister who's 12, acted more like a 16-year-old, so I thought was a little off.

Ok, now this is such a minor thing, so minor that it shouldn't even be mentioned, but I will

because I have to or I'll go crazy. Here goes: *a really teeny tiny spoiler* I disliked Carter's wardrobe change at the end. I know, I know, it's such a small thing that Rick Riordan did, but honestly, what's wrong with a nice button-down shirt, slacks, and dress shoes? It's professional, sometimes adorable, and as Carter's father says, impeccable. I can't believe Rick Riordan changed that. :(

So, anyway, to put it simply, I savored this book from start to finish. Mythology is again, mixed in perfectly with the modern world. Percy Jackson will always be special to me, so I don't think it's fair if I compare them. The story in the Red Pyramid (without comparison) is simply amazing, even if some plot lines seem repeated, and well, it's fun to be back with Mr. Riordan's writing again. Did I ever mention how much I love his humor and style? Love them.

P.S. On pg. 52, there's a little mention of Percy Jackson which completely made my day. :)

Earth Day!

Today is, as we all know, Earth Day! Hooray! :D Last year, I made an environmental blog for journalism, and for my very first post in the blogging world, I wrote a bunch of awesome (and some frightning) facts about our very own planet. I just thought I would pull them out again in honor of today:

-The Earth is actually pear-shaped! Scientists have found that the top is pushed in and the bottom bulges out. Weird, isn't it?

-Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface, now they only cover 2%.

- The largest ocean on earth is the Pacific, which was named after the pacifists who were killed and tossed into it by pirates and malevolent mariners.

- 80% of all life on earth is found under the ocean surface.

- Roughly 2,000,000 pounds of space dust enters the atmosphere from space every year and reaches the planet's surface. Some scientists claim that they bring space microbes that cause the flu!

- There are about 10.5 million species existing on the planet now.Environmentalists are predicating that more than half are predicted to go extinct.

-There is 97% of salt water and only 3% of fresh water. (Since we're consuming the fresh water so fast, that 3% is probably soon going to disappear.)

I think Nathan Hale put it perfectly when he wrote today and said, " I am glad that we have an Earth." :)

---

Every Earth Day (and actually every holiday), I always look forward to the Google logo! Last year's was this:

This year's is this:

Which one do you like better? I still like last year's, but this year's is very pretty too. (BTW, yes I do like to save all the fantastic, special Google logos that I see :D) Anything special you do in school or other places for today? In one of my classes, we ate a scrumptious Chocolate cake with a tree on it. :D (Oh, and we went around and cleaned our campus, like we do every year :P)

A Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

I don't know if I ever mentioned anything about it on this blog, but I adore Calvin & Hobbes. I've always loved them. The Christmas comic strips are one of the most funny, heartwarming, and touching ever.

(Sorry the pictures didn't exactly fit right. I provided a link to the strips if you can't see it properly. :-D Hope you like them!)

This one is hilarious and shows Calvin's dads' sense of humor (which I find very close to my dad's sense of humor):











Calvin writing a letter to Santa:

I have to admit, this strip makes me tear up a little whenever I read it, and it's one of my favorites.

I love this one a lot too.

And finally, because it's Christmas Eve:

Wishing everyone a wonderful, joyous, and a very merry Christmas!

This Thanksgiving....

I'm thankful for:


- God
- life. :)
- my family-Though they do drive me crazy sometimes (especially my brother), I can't imagine living without them. They support me, and encourage me through my hard times, and keep me on track in life.
- my friends- Who else laughs at my sometimes not-so-funny jokes and helps me out when I need help in Algebra? ;)
- laughter
- love
- good health
-My high school- Yes, like my family, it sometimes makes me want to rip my hair off my scalp, but I'm thankful that I go to a place where everyone cares about giving the students a valuable education and life skills to help us in the future. All of the staff are super nice and funny (even the security people). It's an overall great place, and I'm glad that I'm going there. (Oh, and our school has houses :-D.)
- music
- books, of course!
- ...and movies!
- coffee shops that are homely, warm, and smell great
- Google (because their google reader, docs, mail, and other products are so efficient!)
- the holiday season :)
- funny people and things
- sleep. Getting more sleep time is great.
- scarves
- tasty food
- my home
- this blog- I started it for book reviews, but it later turned into a place where I can post some random thoughts, so it sort of turned into a journal/review blog. Now I have this deep attachment to this blog.
- you! Thanks to anyone who visits this blog! :)
- my "giving thanks" mood.
- anything else I forgot to write in here but I know I'm thankful for it.

Hope you all have a delightful Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

This year instead of taking my neighbors out for trick-or-treating, I'm just going to stay at home and watch all the Halloween specials on TV, while passing out the candies to everyone. That way, I can steal some candy from our stash in the pantry whenever I feel like it, and I won't need to put together a costume at the last minute! Muhawhahhaw! (Yes, I can be very evil sometimes. :P)

Anyway, hope you all have a safe, fun Halloween! Don't get too scared by all the witches, ghouls, skeletons, pirates and fairies walking around your neighborhood. :)

(image from google images)