PLANTS!

Two days ago, I started working on my school science fair project. We have to make a display board and a research paper. It took me a while to decide, but I finally decided on what to do the project about. I'm doing the project to determine whether plants grow best naturally (with only water) or with plant food/fertilizer.

The hardest part, of course, was setting up for it. We bought a cart to display the pots and whatnot on. We had to get the pots, plant food, seeds, soil, etc. We bought special Brassica rapa seeds from Wisconsin Fast Plants online. They go through the entire life cycle in 35-40 days, which my dad and I thought was perfect for the project since we didn't have much time. We got Schultz Plant Food Plus, soil and whatnot from Home Depot, and two fluorescent light-bulbs (Fast Plants seeds, rather than requiring sunlight, need fluorescent lights in order to grow). I am growing four plants; two grown naturally and the other two grown with plant food.

We also got these things called HydroSpikes which automatically water your plants for you. They are similar to AquaGlobes, but you need a reservoir at hand rather than just filling it up in order for it to work. We put them in the soil and they work wonderfully. They stopped lots of likely scenarios from happening. If I had watered my plants manually every single day, I could water too much or too little. This would make my project inconclusive, which would not be very good for my grade or for my presentation.

My dad also set up a camera to take a picture of the plants every half-hour. This way, we could put together a stop-motion video of the plants growing. Later, we also decided that I would wake up at 6:30am to turn off the lights so that they could cool down, then turn them back on at 7:00. The same thing at night; I would turn the lights off before dinner, then turn them back on after we were done eating.

Today, the plants finally started to bloom. Buds have appeared and I'm very excited about it! I can't wait to see beautiful flowers blossoming. It will look wonderful. My hypothesis is that the plant food supported plants will grow best because of the nutrients that come with it. I hope that my plants will grow smoothly and that my project is a success. Let's just wait and see!

-Dom

Script Frenzy

More countless hours spent on the computer trying to write a story, but in a different format? BRING. IT. ON.


As most of you know, I participated in YWP NaNoWriMo 2011 (and won!). Earlier this year, I registered for YWP Script Frenzy, which is a challenge similar to NaNoWriMo. During Script Frenzy, you (and maybe a partner) write an entire 100-page script in a month. You can write screen plays, TV scripts, and things of the like. Like NaNoWriMo, I'm going to aim for the same goal as the adult challenge.

Unlike NaNoWriMo, I'm going to have A. experience and B. a plan. I found out earlier that Script Frenzy is hosting elementary, middle, and high school boot camps to prep up for the event. I haven't decided what kind of script I'm going to write yet, but I'm definitely going to find out soon (and if not, I'm going to have to wing it like last time. And that isn't going to turn out very well),

-Zoe

Sick

Being sick isn't something I find enjoyable. Besides the consistent napping and hours of free time reading and doing whatever comes to my mind, everything else is a blur that I want to clear up as fast as possible. Trust me. Sitting at home all week with my ears infected, my head throbbing and my throat clogged up is not something I look forward to.

When I'm sick, I usually read most of the time that I'm not asleep. However, since my mom got an iPad this October, it gives me something else to do. I usually play on an app, watch YouTube or FaceTime with my friend from Germany with it. (TV in the morning isn't very interesting, so it isn't something I do normally on weekdays that I'm sick.)

Something else that makes being sick even worse than it sounds when I get back to school and have to make up for all the work that I missed.

UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Post-Aladdin Reflection

If you don't want to read something dramatically depressing to the point where it seems desperate, don't read ahead of this. I am a writer, so I express my feelings in a way that seems seriously dramatic to the point where it doesn't seem real. This is what is going to happen to me after after every theatrical performance, you see; I will go into some sort of long-lasting depression where I wish to go back in time and experience what I experienced before it was gone. Since I'm unfortunate enough to have a heart made of glass that shattered the moment I stepped offstage today, I needed to post something that could express my dramatically exaggerated feelings that are something I don't want to experience, unlike my experience with Team Aladdin. If you want to dwell with my messed up emotions that never give me a break, read ahead. And because I am a writer, this is the kind of post that happens when I am depressed. :|

The past three months have been three months I can never possibly forget. They're those kind of memories that you never really appreciate as they happen, and only start to realize how precious and wonderful and beautiful they are when they are just. About. Gone. They're those kind of memories where you know that it's going to happen again soon, but that soon just seems so far away and out of your grip.

"Aladdin Jr." was my first theatrical performance. I never thought that theatrical performances would take more effort than you put into something you're doing for your own benefit, or because your best friend pleaded for you to, or for the sake of saying I did this and I am proud. Although I did first audition for this play for all three reasons I've just listed, the effort it took for this beautiful memory to happen was more than you'd think.

I've met amazing people through this, gotten closer to people I thought I was close enough to, and learned from my experience. Although I know there will be another play for me to audition for and meet more people and reunite with everyone I've gotten to know and love for the past three months, today was the last time the same exact cast would perform altogether

Long giggling fits, awkward silences, catchy tunes, familiar voices and standing ovations ring in my head. It's been four hours since we all split up. I've invented a name for my depression. "Post-Aladdin Depression", I call it. I wonder how long it's going to last. I hope it's not too long. My emotions really never give me a break. >:(

An experience I will NEVER get used to

This year, I had another amazing opportunity to participate in my school's spelling bee. Last year, I had participated and won. I was overwhelmed by all the words I had to commit to memory, the long time I had to study that seemed so short, and the competition that worried me greatly.

If anyone tells you that the pre-bee jitters only last the first few rounds, that's a lie. That's a big fib. A prevarication. A nasty, no good, filthy, dirty, rotten lie. This was the fourth spelling bee I had participated in and my knees were wobbling until my last word. The big audience, small chance and mind-blowing words take over and your brain doesn't work right. Your knees shake, you start to twiddle with your thumbs and sweat is trickling down your back. Unless you can shove off the hardest of emotions, there is no way to avoid the feelings you are going to feel. Unless, of course, you've got some hardcore confidence in you. That's a different story. Just don't let the emotions overpower you. Be careful with what you say, because before you know it, the dreaded bell might ring in your ears and you'll be sitting right back down.

Never let yourself be too confident during a spelling bee, though. You'll start to spell the words that shoot at you too fast and skip a letter or two. You'll think you've got all the brains, but in reality, your brain is busted. Your confidence will take control. You might even spell the easiest of words with an extra letter.

There is also no such thing as "enough studying". The more words you have committed to memory, the better chance you have. There'll be long, confusing words stuck in your study list here and there. You need to get them in your head as quickly as you can. In my case, the hardest words are usually the easiest to spell because I start studying them first.

By the way, the advice I'm giving you? That was my key to winning again this year.

The Little Things

Since 2011 has come to a close, I wanted to make a list of the really little things that I never stopped to appreciate.


I thank 2011 for

• the little hugs I got from my best friends every morning
• the kiss I got from my parents before bedtime every night
• the small things that I tripped over that made me look like a real klutz
• the thick books I read at school that made me look like a nerd
• the strange outfits that I picked out that made me look like I was color blind
• my first guitar that everyone raised their eyebrow at because it was so small
• the inches that never grew to make myself look taller than Thea
• the soft ear of my stuffed animal rubbing against my nose before I go to bed
• the friends I took for granted that made a great impact later on
• the long talks I had with my mom after dinner that went on for hours
• the short conversations I had with my dad that consisted of nonexistent words and jibber-jabber
• the glasses I put on every morning that helped me see the world clearer
• the books that were there when no one else was
• the tears that I cried that were worth it after all
• the laughs that I held in so I wouldn't look like a freak
• the laughs that came out anyway
• and the years that I have ahead of me that are yet to come.

I am a WRITER

The past month has been a blast. I've written on my computer until my fingers gave in, stayed up late at night trying to reach the final stretch, and spent all the spare time I had, anywhere in any place, writing in a sketchpad and occasionally going back to count how many words I had down.

And I won.

It was late at night on November 30th when I was about to finish. My friend Tyler wouldn't quit sending me messages on my cellphone. He told me to keep him updated, so I did. When I hit 49,000 words, I was freaking out and my fingers were shaking. I could barely hit the "send" button on my phone.

It was late in November when I made the decision to do NaNoWriMo this year. November 11th, to be exact. I had heard about it in 2008, right before it had begun, but I skipped it and decided to try it when I was a little older. Looking back at it, I'm pretty glad that I didn't attempt at the age of eight; it was hard for me to keep up with my word count, even three years later. I didn't even get to ten thousand words until the week after I had started to write.

So, as I was saying, I had sent the message to him and immediately put my phone down to continue writing. I was so close, yet so far. Only a thousand words to go. I could do this. I knew I could do this. I didn't even bother to take any breaks that night; my eyes were ready to droop shut and take a long nap, but I forced them to stay open. I had to write. I couldn't stop writing. If I stopped now, I'd never reach 50,000 words!

Let me go back farther and help you understand.

The morning of that day, I was doubting that I could make it. My friends at school reassured me that I could. I was only at 41,000 before I had come home from school. I didn't have any time to spare to write at school that day; I couldn't go up to open library (pretty much, it's study hall, if you want to call it that) and write because we didn't have it on Wednesdays. I was ready to quit and try again next year. I even had a cold, and I had to go home early anyway that day because I was ready to throw up at my desk.

When I got home, I laid in bed for a while and let my eyes rest. I took around twenty minutes to get myself together before getting out of bed and picking up my laptop. I turned it on and immediately opened up my story. I started to write like there was no tomorrow; I used Write or Die, MyTomatoes, and NaNoWordSprints from Twitter. Sometimes, I didn't use anything at all and just typed without anything to motivate me except for the thrill of getting it all done.

At some point, I fell asleep next to my computer. Could you blame me? I was tired, I felt like I was going to throw up, and I had barely gotten any sleep the night before because I stayed up writing again. The only reason I had woken up was because I heard my dad arriving home and coming up the staircase to say hello to me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes before looking at the clock. I had four hours left, and I still had to eat dinner!

Until dinner and after dinner, I typed and typed and typed. That's all I did. Besides Tyler occasionally texting me and asking for my word count, I had no distractions and had no reason to procrastinate. This was the last day. This was the day that I had to get it all over with; it would all be worth it. I would be done and I would get five free copies of my book once I finished editing it after November, a winner's t-shirt, a certificate, and the pride of being an eleven year old writer.

I was not a "want-to-be-a-writer". I was a writer.

I became a writer when I powered to 50,000 words at 10:45pm on a Wednesday night. I became a writer when I pushed myself to reach my goal late at night, when everyone thought that all hope was lost. I became a writer when I forced myself to face my fear of not reaching my limit after all the time that I had.

I am a writer.


-Zoe