The Car Song

A little ditty I wrote about my car.  My car will be missed during these next six months apart...

I hate

• When people think I'm lying.  I'm a very honest person.  And perceptive enough to tell when someone thinks I'm not telling the truth.
• When adults think it's okay to ask really inappropriate personal questions because you're a kid.  Questions such as "You look heavier then last time I saw you.  How much do you weigh?" "You're twelve now, have you started menstruating yet?" "You're a little old for fifth grade.  Did you get held back?" People, would you ever ask another adult that?  And yes, these are actually real questions that adults have asked me.
• Drinking something, feeling refreshed, then realizing you just drank out of a dirty cup.  It's just so gross!
• Songs that require "audience participation".  If you're song is so lame it needs people to do hand motions or yell stuff at certain parts, you probably shouldn't be sung in front of anybody.  Besides, it makes us feel like we're in preschool.
• Not having cheesecake.  Because I just read someones post on facebook about how much they wanted cheesecake.  And after reading that I really want some now too.  But I don't have any.  :-(
• Cruelty to livestock.  I don't think eating meat is wrong.  I believe it would be healthier both for us and the environment if we ate less, but I believe meat can be a great source of protein, vitamins, and tastiness.  What I think is wrong is how much of the meat we buy in stores come from animals who never got the chance to go outside, but instead were stuffed in cages or stalls with so many other animals there wasn't room to move.  I also believe animals should get the chance to grow into adults before they die.  Not killed as babies, or fed hormones that speeds up the growing process.  And they should never be killed in long, painful ways.  They should be treated gently.
• When people think I can't handle something because I'm young.  You make me even more determined.
• Middle school girls.  I've met some that are amazing, but for the most part I can't think of any group of people who are more catty, two faced, or shallow.  Not all of them.  Maybe half of them at least though.  I never liked them as a kid, because they always acted so superior.  I didn't like them when I myself was a middle school girl, because they were plain mean.  And I don't like them so much now, because even though middle school girls now are different people then middle school girls I used to know, who are now high schoolers or young adults, the new middle school girls now aren't much different from the old ones.
• Heavy vibrato.
• When people way thinner then you complain about how fat they are.  Especially when they do it about people who are actually overweight.  Could you possibly be any less sensitive?
• People who make false assumptions because I was homeschooled.  Yes, I have friends.  Yes, I know how to socialize.  Yes, I graduated.  Really I think somebody ought to write a book titled something like "Answers to All the Frequently Asked Questions About Homeschooling".  Maybe a little shorter though.  And then it should be required reading for everyone.
• When you can tell your doctor is trying really hard not to roll their eyes at you.  It's not my fault I hate needles!  How would you feel if I stuck a huge spider on your arm and said, "Oh, when it bites you, it'll just hurt for a second."  Because I bet a lot of those doctors don't like big spiders.
• When people are so flustered over that crying kid.  You know, the one in the airplane.  Or grocery store.  First of all I want to say there are certain parents who spoil their children, and train the children to be complete brats.  I get annoyed when I see that.  But lots of times there will be some mom who is doing a fine job as a parent, but nevertheless her child will still cry once in a while!  Maybe that baby has a bad cold.  Maybe that little girl had a bad day at preschool because nobody would sit with her.  Maybe that little boy's dog died yesterday.  Or maybe the kid is being a pill, but it's not because he's spoiled, it's because he's a little kid and doesn't know better.  So please people, stop glaring at that mom who is already probably embarrassed enough.  What do you want her to do, stick duct-tape over her child's mouth?
• Mullets!
• When people driving nice cars cut me off or try to wildly pass me just because my car is crappy.  I know my car isn't a ferrari, and I really don't care.  It's a car, and it gets me where I need to go.  And by cutting me off, it's not showing me how much cooler your car is then mine, it's just showing everybody you're a jerk.  Besides, driving aggressively to show off will get you in an accident, and do you really want an ugly dent in your shiny mustang?
• My last name.  I mean no disrespect to my ancestors, but why couldn't you have picked something nicer?  It's hard to spell, and I'm tired of all these complications with banks and drivers-licenses from people spelling it Strangland or Strangeland or Stanglind.  And the sound of it.  It just makes me think of some body part.  Stang-gland.  Just think of some doctor saying, "Sir, I've reviewed your blood tests and it seems like we are having a problem with you left stang gland.  It's secreting pus and seems to be infected, but it's good we caught it early on.  If we had waited any longer it would've started to fester."  I guess most people wouldn't think that, but I always have.  I really want to marry someone with a nice last name.
• Asian people getting eyelid surgery to make their eyes more "western" looking.  Ever since I was a little kid and saw an Asian person's eyes up close for the first time, I've admired the beauty of that almond-shape.  Why on earth would anybody in their right mind want to mess with that?
• 80s music.
• Mozart's music.  I'm not denying he was a genius, (I mean who could write something that complicated that would sound like a song still even if you played it in reverse?) but his music sounds so mathematical and inexpressive.  Not beautiful or moving in any way.  Plus my piano teacher used to make me learn all these boring songs from him when I was a kid, and I always hated learning them.
• Little boys that burn bugs alive with magnifying glasses.  Okay I don't necessarily hate those little boys but I hate what they do to those poor bugs.
• Out-of-tune sounds.  Like this one kid in band who always sat next to me and played flat no matter what.  And never fixed it.
• Vomiting.  Is there anything more gross?  Painful?  Weird?  Uncomfortable?  Freaky?
• Those tapes made for kids that have children singing along to tacky, synthesized background music.  They would play that kind of stuff for us church kids.  Little children with auto-tuned voices singing the same worship songs I heard adults singing, but without syncopation.  It didn't help me learn more about God, it just made me want to punch something.  I love Veggietales, because they make music for kids that's not all watered-down dumb and auto-tuned or sung by voices that make me think of horror movies.

I have a lot more things, but I can't think of them right now.  Soon I'll make a post about things I love.

Paying Attention.

One thing that I'm worried about with this whole YWAM thing is the lecture phase.  Yes, it's called the LECTURE phase.  What an awful name...when I hear the word "lecture" it's not exactly music to my ears.  I picture my dad explaining why I have to mow the lawn an exact certain way or something like that.  I mean I know these lectures are a different kind of lecture, not a "you did something wrong, blah blah blah" kinda thing, and are supposed to be interesting, but just for the sake of my brain can't they call it a Talk phase?  Teaching Me Stuff phase?  Speakers Come And Speak phase?  Something that doesn't make my ears flinch?

On the website it says "You can expect 40 plus hours weekly of challenging, life-changing classes from world-renowned speakers."  I'm exited about life-changing.  I'm exited about the challenging part.  World renowned sounds pretty cool too.  But 40 plus hours?  We get weekends off, so that's like seven, eight, nine hours a day of listening to speakers.  I have nothing against speakers or learning stuff, but I have ADD.  It's not going away and it means that I've always sucked at sitting there listening to people, especially for long periods of time.  It doesn't even matter if it's interesting.  They could be talking about wild monkeys, sky-diving, pickles, jazz, or whatever would make me exited, and my mind would still wander.  So I need prayer please for me to be able to listen that long.  I hope I get at least half of it!

One thing however that I have gotten really good at over the years is acting like I'm listening.  Throughout my life, while listening to sermons, teachers, or anything that has to do with cleaning the kitchen, I've gotten real good at finding ways to stay awake.  Now before I get in trouble with my pastors, parents, or teachers who might read this, I just have to say I really do try to listen to you!  Many times, especially if it's something relevant or interesting, I really do listen and take stuff to heart and learn from it.  Just not all the time.  So for your entertainment, (or maybe help, if you have the same problem I do and need ideas,) I've compiled a list of things I do to keep me entertained when I just really want to close my eyes and doze off.

• Find a word or phrase the speaker is saying a lot (like parallel angle, humbleness, responsibility, etc.), and replace it with a different word. (Like banana, toilet flusher, yo mama's face, etc.)  You'll hear in your head some really entertaining stuff.  Stuff like "Now if we divide the x component with yo mama's face," or "We need to be like Jesus and really show others love and bananas in whatever we do."  One good thing about this is that you actually do hear and pay attention to a lot of what the speaker is saying.  The bad thing is that you might find yourself cracking up when it's not socially acceptable to do so.  Not that I of course ever do that myself.  ;-)
• Look at the speaker (or anyone in the class for that matter, just make sure it's someone in front of you so you look like you're paying attention) and imagine you're taking him or her on some TV show and you get to give them a full, head-to-toe make over.  Think of how you'd do their hair, make-up, what outfit you'd pick out, whatever.  Really think of every single last detail.
• If the speaker is especially animated with their hands, just imagine if they were holding a magic wand instead of their dry erase marker, and watch as everywhere they point imaginary rainbow dust shoots all over the room and makes stuff explode.  If the speaker is animated but not pointing at stuff or holding anything pointy (like a pen), picture instead them holding a small animal, maybe a cat.  As they wave their hands around in the air, just imagine that poor cranky cat flying furiously from side-to-side, hissing and spitting at the speaker holding them.
• Try to picture what the speaker looked like is a kid, if they're old, and if they're young, try to picture what they'd look like with a bunch of wrinkles.
• Try to picture what the speaker would look like if they were the opposite gender.
• Take everything the speaker says and repeat it in your head in a funny accent.  Make the voice funny too.
• Look at everybody in the room and pretend every one of them is a fraternal twin.  Try to pair up who would be who's twin judging by who looks similar.
• Whatever you do, don't listen to your iPod or text.  It's just rude.  The speaker, even if they are terribly boring, probably tried really hard to prepare their lesson or lecture to make it interesting and helpful.  So even if they epic failed on the interesting or helpful thing, realize that they have feelings and can really get discouraged if they see people blatantly ignoring them.  If you get bored and do any of these ideas to entertain yourself, do it secretly so the speaker won't know you'd rather be somewhere else.

Random Whistler Canada Trip!

So my dad wanted to get a father-daughter last minute thing together before I go, so a few days ago he said, "Hey, set you alarm early tomorrow, we're going to Canada to zipline!"  Well it was a longer version then that but that sentence sums it up.  Anyway I wanted to post a few pictures and stuff.  :-)

First of all I think I should post a picture of my dad, since he's the one responsible for the awesome surprise trip.  here he is!  (And me too, if you look in the reflection of his sunglasses.)

Secondly I want to post a picture of the most random thing ever.  My friend Olivia.  Not that she's the most random thing ever (although she is pretty random).  It's just that whenever I'm in a faraway state, let alone a different country, I have this feeling of "Oh, I can do/act/dress however I want.  It's not like I'll see anybody I know in a place like this!"  But I was just walking along in Vancouver when suddenly I hear a happy squeal, and then I get hugged, and it's my friend Olivia!  It was so funny and random.  Low and behold, here's proof that I actually did run into one of my friends in a different country.

They had this professional photographer guy take pictures of us zipping, which I was pretty happy about.  My little green fuji camera just wasn't cutting it.








Wheee!   <———Link to a video I took while zipping along the longest, fastest zipline in Canada.  It was pretty sweet.

Thanks for reading!  <3