This morning I made a most horrifying discovery. My mother was working from home and decided we ought to do a bit of spring cleaning in my bedroom, so we took the pillows and covers off of my bed so that they could be washed or aired. When I looked at the black sheet that is under my mattress...I saw little white things covering it. At first I was just disgusted, thinking it was just dust, pillow fluff, or perhaps my own dead skin. But then I took a closer look and noticed that a few of the little tiny white things were moving.
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Labels: bed, bed bugs, bugs, cleaning, dandruff, dead, decay, dust, dust mites, food, house, insects, larvae, problems, rotten, signs, skin, termites, white

My mother has it. It's because she dyes her hair. She is not pleased with the grey hairs that keep showing up, so she dyes them once in a while. I have told her not to dye it anymore. I think it would be beautiful if her hair became completely silver and if she grew it out long, like my science teacher (well, not that my science teacher is beautiful, no offense intended to her...But who knows how she looked in her youth?).

Hair dye reminds me of the Studio Ghibli movie, Howl's Moving Castle, one of my all-time favorite movies of time. You know, I'd like to say that even if a movie is animated, it doesn't mean it's not worth watching. (I liked the movie Up, too, and Finding Nemo as well. All those movies have some hidden messages in them, be sure to pay attention to that too)

There's a scene where Howl, a magician who lives in a big, mechanical, moving structure powered a by a demon (the demon's name is Calcifer, and he appears to be a fire), was taking a bath when his hair changed colors. It was because Sophie, a main character of the movie (she was a girl, but a witch cast a spell on her that made her become an old lady) was cleaning the bathroom and probably mixed up the chemicals. Howl's hair turned red, which devastated him, as he had previously had a nice blond shade of hair. He started to moan about how life wasn't worth living if he wasn't beautiful. Then Sophie got upset and said, "I've never been beautiful!" and stormed out. Later on, Howl's hair darkened to black.

I often wonder during the film if Sophie has low self esteem or something. She always seems to think she is ugly even though she isn't. SPOILER! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want it to be spoiled for those of you who haven't watched the movie. But there is one scene where Howl tells Sophie her hair looks like starlight, which I think is a very nice simile. Sophie seemed to appreciate the compliment, unlike a different time. There was one scene where Howl gave Sophie a gift, beautiful meadows and water. It was a place where he had spent his childhood. Sophie was pleased at first, but soon became saddened, saying she thought this meant Howl was going to leave. She said she wanted to help him, even though she was only good at cleaning. Howl tried to tell her that she was beautiful, but she didn't accept it. She just said, "The good thing about being old is that you don't have anything to lose." But I wonder if that is really true.

Well, anyhow, though many of the Studio Ghibli films are quite nice, I still like Howl's Moving Castle the best. It was based off a book, but I haven't read the book. I actually checked out the book from the library once. However, since I always read books (and eat food, too) in the order of least favorite to most favorite, I didn't get around to it, and unfortunately had to return it. Perhaps I should request it from the library. (But I would like to get one of the newer copies that has the Howl's Moving Castle movie picture on it...)

So I've been wondering, has anyone read the Howl's Moving Castle book? If so, is it similar to the movie? Or is it a lot different? If the book is really good, I would like to read it. (Usually I either read the book/manga for something or watch the movie/anime for it, and occasionally both. But I'd rather spend my time reading books/manga that don't have movies, and watch movies that don't have books or anime)

It amazes me that I haven't really talked much about Howl's Moving Castle before in my blog. Perhaps it was because I watched it in the theaters, back in fourth grade or so, and it became far from my memory because I was distracted by other things. I'm glad I found it again, though. I never get tired of watching good movies and anime. Do you have a movie or show that you love so much you don't get bored of it?

Labels: animated film, anime, beauty, books, boredom, calcifer, cleaning, colors, grey, hair dye, hayao miyazaki, howl, howl's moving castle, movie, old, sophie, studio ghibli, teacher

Usually the term is spring cleaning. But it's not spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, and so I have changed the term to suit my needs. My mom suddenly got it in her head to sort through old, unworn clothes and decide whether to give it away or keep it. Because of sentimental reasons (and because I "don't have a charitable bone in my body" D: ) I still insist on keeping clothes, but my mom eventually persuaded me to give away some of it to my relatives or donate it. I know no one in my family can wear the clothes since there is no one young in this house, but it's still kind of sad.

I remember one time I was suddenly interested in the bathroom sink. I grabbed a rag and started cleaning it, as well as the two knobs for the temperature and the spout. I have been planning for a while to do some interior decorating in my house but I never got around to it. I wonder if this is yet another plan that is going to be put off again and again?

Apparently there is one person in my class at school who has a job, but it's not really an official one. Since he plays golf, he cleans up the ranges by picking up the golf balls. It takes maybe forty-five minutes according to him. And then he gets free golf that week. It actually saves his parents hundreds of dollars. I think he gets free drinks too. Sounds pretty nice to me, having a job like that.

Another good job to have (I am talking about when you are young, and don't have a college degree, and can only work part-time) would be the movie theater. My teacher's son used to work at the theater and I think he got to see movies for free... But I heard he wouldn't eat the popcorn there ever again after he saw how it was made. My teacher says it is very unhealthy since they dump a lot of butter on the movie popcorn. Are you allowed to bring your own popcorn? Carb free popcorn helps you to relax, according to a book I glanced at back in cooking class last year, so that would be a good idea.

I had been thinking of taking on a job at Jamba Juice when I am old enough, because you can get a free smoothie every shift or something like that. But I am a little worried about how loud it would be, what with several blenders going at once. Still, the smoothies are a real temptation. I will still consider it for possible part-time jobs (like during the summer, I am too lazy or too busy to work during the school year).

In French class (yup, yet again) we were given the assignment of making posters that said J'aime le Français, and I wasn't sure how to go about it, so I decided to use my trusty GIMP and the computer. I'm so glad that GIMP works. Too bad it doesn't have anywhere near the brushes it used to. (I keep them backed up on my hard drive so if I want to use a brush in GIMP I can simply copy it from my hard drive to the GIMP's folders. That way my computer doesn't get too slowed down) But I found out something cool - that you can use the Photoshop brushes in GIMP. Just download and move the abr file into GIMP's brushes folder and voila! I wouldn't have been able to use the Eiffel Tower brush I found otherwise. You can see the poster that I made if you CLICK HERE. Click on the image to expand it to the full view. By the way, J'aime le Français means "I like the French" or "I love the French".

Labels: autumn, brushes, cleaning, clothes, french, gimp, golf, interior design, j'aime le français, jamba juice, job, movie, photoshop, popcorn, sink, smoothie, theater

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