Brain Melt: Another update, sorry

Artist on the Toronto streets, putting his brilliant mind to work much unlike the author during this past week.

My mind has been on holiday for quite some time now, but with the beginning of summer school comes a rescheduling of life, and blogging shall once again be a part of daily, or at least, weekly, routine. At the end of exams and school I automatically went into brain dead mode and indulged in not doing anything that required reading, writing, or any amount of focus longer than 10 seconds. Yes, it was that bad. But now I’m back!

Not that I’ve been completely wasting time, either. We went to the Toronto Pride Parade and Canada’s Wonderland, I enjoyed two barbecues, and even got to spontaneously sing at a parish’s farewell performance.

It’s been about a month since I had an accident dislocating my knee, and the injury is healing very well. It’s still a bit bit upsetting that it should happen so close to summer school (which I haven’t mentioned yet is dance only, and therefore just tons of fun) and my exchange to Copenhagen, Denmark next month. I might write some thoughts about it in an upcoming post.

I have also been thinking about, or rather my parents have been dropping some not-so subtle hints about what I have to do for my gr.12 year. I can’t believe I am graduating so soon and must plan for a career in both dance as well as applying for a few universities in a branch I must decide on shortly.

Lots to do, so let the summer begin! Thank you all you bloggers for continuing to share your experiences and for following my journey here on WordPress.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

The BIG Award Extravaganza! (1/4)

I think it is only fair to share the support and generosity that I’ve received; I have many to thank and spotlight, so stay tuned! Rules are posted at the end. Anyone who feels like sharing their opinion, please feel free to answer the last 11 questions as I am genuinely curious.

The Tag! Award

Thank you to Shaun at his inspiration blog for giving me this one.

11 facts about me:
1. I own a pair of bright neon green converse.
2. I lam ambidextrous. In cartwheels.
3. I always feel narcissistic doing this part.
4. I love amusement parks.
5. I love raspberries.
6. I love blackberries.
7. I love strawberries.
8. Berries are my favourite kind of fruit.
9. I wish I had the willpower to be a full-time vegetarian.
10. I swear by Mozilla Firefox as my internet browser.
11. I collect newspaper comics irregularly.

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11 questions I must answer:

1. What is your favourite colour? green

2. Where have you been to in the world, away from your country? USA, Indonesia, France, Hong Kong

3. If you had a time machine where would you go and why? Possibilities are endless! Besides meeting family, one place I would like to go to is the 60’s or 70’s so I can be a flower child and dance at the disco.

4. What food do you love most? Noodles

5. What is your favourite TV show? Arthur and Big Bang Theory

6. Who is your favourite Actor? Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway

7. When was the last time you were in Hospital? 5 years ago for a fractured wrist

8. When did you 1st fall in love, if not, when would you like to? I fell in love with life before I can even remember.

9. Do you understand String Theory? Nope

10. Where IS Waldo? Downstairs in my basement library

11. What type/make of Mobile phone do you have? Don’t have one. Here’s why.

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My 11 questions for you (I’m going to reuse some good ones):

1. Pen or pencil?

2. If you had a time machine, where would you go and why?

3. Now I’m curious. What internet browser do YOU use?

4. What type/make of mobile phone?

5. What is your favourite household chore, or rather, one you least mind?

6. A bucket list item?

7. Will you check out my blog? (Ok, I’m sorry, that was a cheap one.)

8. First classical composer to pop into your head?

9. What do you think of Canada? (Honestly, spill some dirt if you wish.)

10. Alligator or crocodile?

11. How long can you hold a handstand?

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The 15 Nominees!

1. greenembers – a person full of heart (check out the Rome Construction Crew!)
2. discoveringgarrett – musician in the making!
3. thenerdyscribe – humour and sophistication
4. willowdot – always heartfelt
5. digitalhegemon – fun bits of video and music
6. ambitious poet – diligence in creative poetry
7. myadventureoflife – honesty in everyday chronicles
8. Saunved – thoughtful and artistic pieces
9. TOKIDOKI – diverse photography of San Diego
10. women’swindow – for building a community of inspiration and faith
11. Delawhere Comics – quirky, original comics
12. beyondtheflow – beautiful writing on a “philosophy of life”
13. lblivingbetter – generous with helpful tips and life experiences
14. sandbagheart – thoughtful words (the name is quite an image, isn’t it?)
15. GeoSans – deep meanings in simplicity

And here are The rules:

1.  Post a picture of the award on your blog

2.  Tagback the person who tagged you to let them know you’ve accepted the award.

3.  11 facts about you.

4.  Answer the 11 questions I’ve asked you.

5.  Tag the same amount of people as their are letters in your name.

6.  Ask your OWN 11 questions to the people you’ve tagged.

7.  Contact the people you’ve tagged to let them know they’ve been tagged.

Phew! That’s it, Part 1 is done. It only gets better, so stay tuned!
Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

What Now?

I haven’t been writing much since the end of NaPoWriMo and to be quite honest with you, I don’t know the answer to this question myself. What I do know is that I cannot wait for summer and that I hope to continue writing in at least these ways:

1. Living up to my name
Posts regarding ballet as an art form, experiences of a dancer, and book reviews will return. An amazing week of a dance festival with 18 different ballet schools has left me inspired, and I am also working on reviews for two graphic novels as well as a funny biography.

2. Scholarly Series
Works I’ve written over the past few years in high school will be shared for anyone in the midst of studying Shakespeare, Lord of the Flies, Paradise Lost, literary devices, and things of that sort. Oh, and I just love the word scholar. I thought it a better replacement for the word ‘school’ or ‘student’.

3. A Big Awards Extravaganza!
It is exactly what it sounds like. Just to give you an idea of just how big, it will take at least 4 parts to be completed. I think it is only fair to share the support and generosity that I’ve received; I have many to thank and spotlight, so stay tuned!

4. Life is unexpectedly surprising
Since starting, I’ve realized that I am inspired to write about everyday occurrences and random thoughts as much as from dancing and reading. Each day can be wonderful, stressful, exhilarating, or serene, and I want to capture some of these moments. So some personal stuff will be scattered around. And yes, that heading title was repetitive.

5. Creativity continues
As I’ve said, my first NaPoWriMo was a lot of fun and I will be writing poems, though inconsistently. I love writing short stories but due to limited time, poems are often a more efficient and equally expressive choice. Creative writing is my favourite kind of writing, and I want to do more of it in the near future.

So as I’m rummaging through a box of themes and ideas, I thank you for your interest and patience in the meanderings of this blog. I know the closer we get to the end of the school year, the busier I will be, but I’ll do my best to write a post every few days.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Take the pencil (NaPoWriMo #20)

(From quotesnsayings.net)

Like a cyclops wearing an eye patch, we’ve never been able since our birth
To know what has been printed on life’s next chapter
Like a pig snuffling truffle treasure buried deep under the earth
Detectives searching for clues hinting a happily-ever-after

Like a grain of salt in a spoon of sugar, how every choice will affect
Our daily cup of tea or coffee, is an elusive mystery until
The present is a ghost, we watch curled up on the couch to reconnect
Reading the miraculous events recorded from our will

Like holes in swiss cheese, what makes or breaks an ego
Can be answered twice by what we do or what we don’t
Identity as fluid as seaweed in waves, hidden in the gutter – no.
Wait anxiously for the turn of each page? I won’t.

I will be the generator of my own word.
And my story will be heard.

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Life is too short for waiting so take that pencil and write! Fill the blank pages with the future you’ve always dreamed about, because you are the only author of your personal book of life.

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Bittersweet Nostalgia (NaPoWriMo #12)

At a best friend’s cottage.

I miss you.
But I don’t know
If it’s you,
Or the you I knew years, or even months, before.
You’ve changed.
Or maybe I’ve changed.
Or both of us have since taking our own risks and choices.
We said we’d keep in touch, but did we?
Every time I see you
A flood of memories flash before my eyes
And then I’m not sure if I’m really seeing you
And I wonder if you get this confused vision too.
Time has a funny way of dividing reality and memory.
Conversations, jokes, games, plain old sitting at the table,
I remember.
I know you do too,
Because best friends don’t forget that stuff.
Time moves on but we talk of past moments,
Precious but irrelevant to the stories we each write now.
Time has a funny way of dividing people sometimes.
I can see my nostalgic sadness reflected in your eyes.
And somehow our goodbyes
Are never-ending.
Because forever can last forever in your mind.
Until we meet again,
I just wanted to say that
I miss you.

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
-Helen Keller

*UPDATE: A few weeks after writing this post, I ran into my friend at a ballet awards show. It was a thrilling surprise and we got caught up for a few good hours. Funny how life can offer you the best coincidences… *

Thanks for reading,
thebookybunhead

Note to self when falling into a pit of hopelessness on a super hard, super long test

That moment when you’re only halfway through a test with only twenty minutes left, scribbling furiously at the page and gasping in air to stop yourself from fainting while your thoughts whirl into a tornado of chaos that causes you to forget everything you studied all night and doubt all the learning capacity and self-worth you’d gathered throughout your life?

At this particular moment, I must tell you, just DON’T PANIC (A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy would be handy here). Stop for a couple of seconds and get yourself out of the downward spiral into the pits of darkness – fast! And at the end of writing in scrambled focus, you probably feel absolutely awful. I know that it is even more painful when you have prepared and studied, and can come up with most of the answers in the few minutes after the paper has been handed in. I know failure sucks. But I can assure you, you didn’t fail. It may not be the perfection you always aim for, but it was your best on this day at that hour.

Don’t go over it again and again in your head, torturing yourself by reliving this tragedy, there’s nothing you can do, it’s over. Move on because there will always be something else you need to focus on. And know that these negative feelings will pass, I promise. Just think of other past assignments that made you feel this way, but that you’ve forgotten as they’re completely insignificant (like that A- Grade 3 math test that created floodworks). Keep moving forward. A bad test will not destroy your life. There is much more to explore and an entire future to experience.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill

Well, this happened today. And yesterday. Two giant science tests two days in a row is not exactly the best thing to return to after a break, but what can you do. Sorry for the completely unconventional post, just needed to vent about this for my emotional health before I explode.

thebookybunhead

The Wallflower Game: An informal social experiment

Yesterday night some of my friends and I invented a game. It is very simple. You find a discrete corner or wall while at a social event and quietly stand there until someone talks to you or asks you what you are doing. It sounds kind of dumb but apparently there’s lots to be learned from being a wallflower.

(Credit to Damian Foxe, May 2011 wallpaper dresses – so neat!)

I must say watching others can be quite entertaining. That sounds so creepy, butI feel like some wildlife explorer such as Jane in Tarzan, except that I’m studying my own species, and the complicated behaviour of those creatures called humans. (It’s also a good way to test ninja skills to see how long one can remain unnoticed.) Who’s with who, what they are doing, what their mood and body language is, how they react to you staring at them (mind you, we knew our relationships with our adopted family would not be scarred or altered in any way by these encounters but rather looked upon with a grin or a hug); it’s amazing how much of your surroundings your brain can take in with just one sweeping gaze across the room.

In the spontaneity of a party, personality aspects usually locked away in an emotional safe are unleashed, leaving you wondering where that composed friend of yours went. Stepping away from the action into quiet observation can definitely give you new insights to people you’ve known for many years. It also gives you time to think. We decided that the definition of a wallflower is someone whose presence wouldn’t change the observed scene at all. What we see is what the place would be like without us. Kind of sad. But eventually your imagined invisibility disappears when someone calls or pulls you over and the game is done unless you decide to take up your unengaged alter ego again sometime later.

The thing is, I’m not sure whether my alter ego is the quiet, reserved me or the loud and crazy me. I guess that analogy with the hats is true that we have several versions of ourselves to be on different occasions. Still, I have a feeling I usually prefer to be a milder me. Of course I dance and belt out notes to our favourite songs, but not on household elevated places, and I laugh, but not in attention calling shrieks. I have good conversations, but am not so good at making random, nonsensical, remarks that make people squirt milk out of their nose or something. I let loose, I just don’t show it as much as others. It makes me wonder if I’m boring sometimes.

Anyhow, our record for the game was never longer than two minutes, which is comforting. So, our findings? It can be fun to stop, look, and listen in a busy scenario for a bit, and wonder why and how humans are such social beings. Then again, it’s just as fun to join in the shenanigans and put on the boisterous hat for awhile. Anyone can be a wallflower, and anyone can be the life of the party, and whoever you are will attract people of similar disposition. And of course there are those that will like you for you no matter what.

Well that was a longer post than planned. It’s more out there and personal than usual so I don’t know if I will write more of this random stuff. We’ll see.

Thanks for reading,
-thebookybunhead