
This Halloween we still had a lot of leftover candy from last year - both from my trick-or-treating and also from just candy we bought but never ate. I thought we should've given it to the trick-or-treaters, but my mom said it wasn't healthy to give people stale candy, so she dumped the candy! D: What a waste. I mean, my mom even left the lights off in the house so no one would ring the doorbell.
It was fun going trick-or-treating, though. I went over to my friend's place around 6:10 or 6:15. Her other friend was there since she'd slept over at her house (I didn't attend the sleepover because I really, really can't fall asleep at other people's houses). We tried to get pictures of the three of us, but we would blink, or someone would get cut off, even if we had her sister take the photo. Anyways, I saw my friend's dog there. Her dog's name is Lucky, and he's really cute! I think he's a mixture of a German Shepherd and some other species of dog which I'm not sure of.
Later my friend's sister's friend, plus her brother and older cousin, came over. We trick-or-treated with them for most of the time, but then they had to go home. The cousin was just there to watch them, I believe. It's great going trick-or-treating in a group. The young people sure are energetic, though. My friend's sister and her friend often ran ahead, and I had to try and keep up since I didn't want to get separated from them. It must be nice to be young... *looks off into the distance*
I didn't get that much candy this year because I didn't go to as many houses, as we kept skipping houses here and there. We couldn't go in some directions because my friend's sister's friend and her brother only knew how to find their way home from certain locations. Something to do with their father's jogging course or something. o_O;; But anyways, the three of them (since their cousin is included) left a bit earlier than us since their parents said they had to be home at a certain time or something.
There weren't that many people out there, actually. It was disappointing. We did see a few people. One of them had a costume that looked sort of familiar to me. The others I was trick-or-treating with didn't know what it was, even when he pulled out an orange mask...Then I realized it was a character from Naruto. (Didn't know the name because I've only watched the show once D: ) Anyhow, the reason why there were less people was apparently because of the swine flu scare, people think they'll get sick from meeting someone who has the swine flu. Ugh! Just get a vaccination and don't worry! (Even if no one knows for sure whether the vaccine works, I'm sure it must, because they test it beforehand, and it's not like swine flu is AIDS or cancer or something)
Looks like the holiday is over for this year. But Thanksgiving and Christmas are yet to come, and then the New Year after that. (Oh, did you know, Halloween used to mark the New Year for the people who built Stonehenge in England? They considered the new year to be the end of the harvest or something) I don't really do much for holidays, but if you do, then it's good for you to be able to look forward to something. (: Brightens up your life, and all that. It'd be boring if the only difference in the days was the seasons.
Labels: candy, costume, dog, energy, group, halloween, holidays, leftovers, lucky, naruto, new year, photography, stale, swine flu, trick-or-treating, waste

I can tell, because the poor little guy had keeled over in front of the local high school. I am not sure how he died, but I have a few guesses... 1) He was run over by a car, but someone picked him up and moved him to the side. This might not be true because picking up a squirrel with your bare hands could result in you catching diseases from it. (Animals may not look sick, but that doesn't mean they don't carry bacteria or viruses) 2) Some mean gangsters from the high school somehow managed to catch the squirrel and torture it. 3) The squirrel was in some way electrocuted while running along the sky highways. (My nickname for electrical lines. Squirrels and birds may be seen using them for travel or rest.) Don't ask me the specifics since I am not an eyewitness, and besides I don't remember anything from fourth grade, the year when we learned about electricity. XD
Recently I have been reading a book called Alanna: The First Adventure. It is the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, written by Tamora Pierce, who tends to write books that are "medieval fantasies" (or so I call them, as they have things like knights and fiefs and pirates, but they also have magic and creatures) I already read a bunch of Tamora Pierce's other books, like her The Immortals Quartet, Circle of Magic Quartet, The Circle Opens Quartet, and Protector of the Small Quartet. Notice she is a big fan of writing quartets. Also, the books tend to have more heroines than heroes, if you ask me. The lead character in three of her series is female. The other two series, three of the four main characters are female. :o I wonder if it is a coincidence or not.
I felt rather foolish in my history class yesterday. My teacher, Mr. Blair, handed us out an 11 point quiz, which I was very surprised by, and began to panic because I had not studied the paper he handed us yesterday well enough to actually take a quiz. I couldn't remember what the names of the popes who fathered children were, nor could I remember if all indulgences were signed by the pope... So I landed myself a beautiful score of 5 out of 11. Mr. Blair said he would offer us a special deal. Since his candy supply was running low (Apparently, the "card club" kept using it up) he said we could buy points to apply to our grade, if we payed him 25 cents per point. So of course, we all bought some except for a few kids who didn't buy any at all (maybe they figured it out, or they just didn't want to spend money). I bought 6 of them, myself, to fix my most recent grade, but some students bought so many...One bought 20, another bought 47, then one bought 48, and a boy actually bought 88 of them.
What happened at the end of the class was that Mr. Blair yelled at us, "You don't owe any money! You're not getting any points for your grade! If you did the quiz, you get 5 points automatically, it won't hurt you! The point of this activity was to show you that you can't buy your salvation. What I did is just like indulgences sold by the Catholic Church." Then all the realization hit me...I'd seriously thought Mr. Blair was really going to let us boost our grades. D: But then again, one of my friends say he might be fired if he was caught doing that, so I suppose not.
My school has a place called the Nature Center. It is kind of like a garden in a way, except it's more like you're in the wild seeing as the paths sometimes have plants blocking the way. Even though one of the ponds is broken and doesn't have any water, I still think it's a pretty cool place. Why, my science teacher even said one of the reasons he works at my school is because of the nature center! There's many trees, so we got to identify conifers, firs, Douglas firs, ginkgo trees, and various oaks. I had no idea what those wormlike, hard things were before. Now I know those are the so-called "male cones". o_O;; Also, Mr. Brown says that due to a mutation, we not only have purple irises (Iris is a flower) but also white ones. Both are quite pretty even if the white ones may look rather plain in comparison. There's a pair of ducks in the nature center right now, and the teachers are hoping that they'll stay and have ducklings here. If I were them, I would find some other place. Schools are filled with rowdy people, and this is no exception. XD
Labels: books, candy, coincidence, death, ducks, electricity, flowers, indulgence, money, nature center, points, quiz, squirrels, tamora pierce, tree
We have this sort of inside joke. I tell her I am "burning up", which basically would mean I am getting angry. Then she says she'll "douse the fire" or "use a fire extinguisher". We have this conversation quite often. This time, she not only spoke her response, but also made sound effects and pretended to shoot me with a hose or something! I seriously was freaked out, because now I know for sure my grandma is not a harmless old lady after all, if she likes to pretend she is shooting people.
Two of my friends and I somehow ended up talking about the propositions during brunch - you know, those things we vote on in the USA. They were talking about people who wanted to vote no on Proposition 8 (which I will just say is regarding whether gay people should be allowed to marry).
Me: Isn't that a good thing?
M and N (in place of their names): No!
N: If you vote no, you're letting gay people marry.
Me: But that's good, right?
*M and N back away*
M: It's not...normal. For there to be gay people.
*I remember a similar comment from my mom, and mom's friend*
Me: But everyone should get to eat wedding cake! Who doesn't love cake? (besides myself)
*All laugh*
Anyhow, I should return to doing my homework right now, and stop being distracted by the Internet and my large pile of Halloween candy. (It is really tempting! I get hungry just from looking at food most of the time. Unless it's some gross vegetable I can't recognize, with sauce and oil all over it.) I've already eaten multiple pieces today! I don't know what I'll do if I can't stop eventually.
Labels: cake, candy, friends, politics