Recently, part of my science homework was to find where the real direction of North was and to mark it on a map of the sky. The North I had originally labeled was not "true North" because I had kind of guessed where North was. (I didn't really know, since I lost my magnetic compass, and my parents only gave me a vague idea of where North was.) So I searched for the constellation of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major, whatever you like to call it, because you can use it to find the North Star, which is always North or at least very close to it. To find it, look for the shorter side of the Big Dipper and go up (and diagonally?) five times the length of the shorter side, and you should find the North Star. (To confirm it is the North Star, look for the constellation the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor. The North Star is part of the Little Dipper)

I was unable to find the Big Dipper, since I haven't really gone stargazing for a long time and I've never actually located a constellation before. (Sad, but true. According to the Everybody Votes channel on my Wii, the majority of voters could locate more than one constellation) I had my dad give me a hand finding the constellation. He saw something which he thought might be Big Dipper and showed me. I couldn't figure it out at first, but eventually I realized it was indeed the Big Dipper. And there, shining quite brightly, was the North Star, Polaris.

I think I have underestimated my dad for a long time. He has his uses, even if they're not exactly...the most useful or obvious things. For instance, he sometimes says the phrase, "It's not over until the fat lady sings." (This is not meant to be an insult to overweight people. It's a reference to opera, since there is a woman singing at the end, and supposedly bigger people have stronger voices?) I heard this quote at school, on the announcements. One of the girls' sports teams was not faring too well. I think they lost 7-0 in a game or something. The announcer was saying that they shouldn't give up, and then said the very quote I had heard from my dad not long ago.

Recently I obtained a video game from the library. My library has Nintendo Wii games. I came up with a scheme...I can check out all the games I want and play them on the Wii, and so I won't ever have to buy them, I can just keep requesting them from the library, over and over again. It'll save a lot of money and that will benefit me, as well as the environment (though it means less profit for the game makers, sorry!). The video game was Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. Actually, it was my mom's idea to get that, so kudos to her. Or brownie points. Or whatever you want.

If you haven't played the Harvest Moon games, I'll explain a little bit... Here you can play a boy (or a girl, depends on what game; some let you be both and others only have one). You're a farmer, but you can do other things like fish and mine. And there are other characters you can interact with...You can get married and have a child eventually, too. o_o;; Some of the games sort of have a story, which usually has something or other to do with the Harvest Goddess.

I noticed that there were a lot of similarities when I compared Harvest Moon to Animal Crossing games, such as...
- Being able to befriend villagers and give them gifts
- Fishing
- Receiving mail (you can get mail in Tree of Tranquility, not sure about other games)
- Putting furniture in your house, and remodeling your house
- Using an axe
- The triangle thing (when you're talking to someone, there's a little triangle sometime which shows they have more to say)
- Saving at your house (but in Animal Crossing: Wild World and Harvest Moon handheld games you can save anywhere, not just the house)
- Having a phone (you can't call anyone in Animal Crossing, though. It's just for changing your settings. And it's Wild World only, I'm not sure about City Folk)
- Seasonal changes (the difference is that Animal Crossing follows "real world time", so it's based on what the time of your console is set to)

Unfortunately, I kind of spent too much time playing Harvest Moon and wasted a lot of my weekend. This is one of my problems. You see, I'm afraid to make accounts on websites or buy new video games because I know what will happen...I will probably be addicted at first because I want to explore the whole thing, and then I'll reach a difficult part or I'll lose interest, and then it'll go to waste. D:

Labels: animal crossing, big dipper, constellation, fat lady, father, harvest moon, library, north star, opera, polaris, quote, sky map, stars, tree of tranquility, true north, ursa major, video games, wii

I don't actually know if this is a real term already or not, but I made it up, spur of the moment. It still seems to be in full swing at my school, anyhow. The theme of the most recent dance had Michael Jackson's Thriller as its theme. Also, just the other day, I noticed that there was a new poster on the door of the girl's locker room. It said "RIP Michael Jackson 1958-2009" among other things like "I'm Bad" (reference to his song, I suppose) and there was a picture of a tombstone and two hands sticking out of the ground. I thought the arms looked very fake, but I guess that's good since it would be creepy to see someone's arms sticking out of their grave after they've died. D: Oh yeah, and sometimes, like on Wednesdays when we're doing "boot camp", Michael Jackson music is played. Especially that one that mentions sunlight or something like that.

Recently I also saw a commercial where some people in costumes were dancing, I think it was advertising a store. They played the Thriller song in the background. But there was no moonwalking. D: Moonwalking is when Michael Jackson appears to be walking backward almost like he's being dragged by an invisible force. Well, it's hard to describe, so look it up if you aren't sure. I always thought the moonwalk was cool but I can't do it at all.

I, however, am devoted to a different kind of Jacksonism entirely! Instead, I am a big fan of one of my teachers, Mrs. Jackson, who was my language arts teacher last year. She's a great teacher - has a sense of humor, but can also teach well, and plus she has shiny buttons on one of her shirts. (Of course, that last one doesn't make much sense, does it?) I wonder if she would be creeped out or flattered if she knew that she was my role model. XD

I was sorely tempted to join her new Leadership class this year (it's different from last year's, we'll be more involved in the community instead of planning dances and making calendars like the year before) except for one thing - It was in Zero Period! This means I would have to get up an hour earlier and go to school. I really would hate to do that because of my experience at the beginning of seventh grade. I had chosen Intermediate Orchestra as my elective, but it was combined with Advanced, which was in Zero Period. At first I tried to bear with it, but it made me way too busy, and tired. So I gave that up and pulled out of orchestra, much to my chagrin. There is nothing like orchestra, even if applied arts and French are fine electives.

Well, on to other news. Today the whole eighth grade went on a field trip to the theater at the local college to see a play. The play consisted, actually, of four different stories, "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "The Monkey's Paw", "The Necklace", and "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". The first three stories can all be considered horror, so I was not too fond of them. My personal favorite was The Necklace, a rather ironic story about a French woman who longs for the aristocratic lifestyle but gets just the opposite. The big problem was, in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, there wasn't a real frog! Not even a cute stuffed animal! But instead, they had an actor dress up as a frog... -_-;; I know it would be really hard to try to make a fake frog move, unless they used special technology (like robots?), but it's still a mighty shame.

Lately, I have been addicted to eating True North crisps. I've eaten the Almond type and the Pistachio type. (After all, almonds and pistachios are two of the nuts that I'm not allergic to) They are oddly addicting. I like the taste better than regular old chips (like Doritos, Sun Chips, Lays, Cheetos, Pringles, and whatnot). I should stop eating them, though. It's bad for my health to eat too many of them and I won't have any appetite for dinner. D:

Labels: almonds, chips, idol, jacksonism, leadership, michael jackson, orchestra, pistachio, play, teacher, thriller, true north, zero period

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