Credits, credits, credits.

Because I was oblivious and a homeschooler, I only recently comprehended the glory which Alberta diplomas have to offer. Upon bringing up the idea of acquiring one to my mum, she, being careful to shy away from other more gung-ho homeschooling mums, she set me up with THE SYSTEM and my credit-count began. Now, having started so late in my credit-collecting [I currently have a total of 5, with 95 more required] I have been thrust into the stressful realm of PRESSURE. I do not want to be 21 and just finishing highschool curriculum! Indeed, completing over 15 courses will take me a while, but my goal is to work steadily enough as to finish just after [or a little before] I turn 20. GAH! SO LITTLE TIME!

I'm already feeling the awful effects of having to work on several subjects at once in less than half the usual amount of time given to public schooled kids. IT'S PAINFUL. I don't seem to have any time for myself, my friends, or my books anymore!

All the same, I will have an Alberta diploma at the end of it, which will make getting into a university a lot easier. I mean, homeschooling is wonderful and I don't regret having been involved in it or anything, but it certainly has its downfalls once post-secondary swings around. Imagine wrangling with portfolios and upgrading and spending forced years at a Bible college when all you needed was a piece of paper! Luckily, my mum is less a public-system hater and more a lover of practicality, and I have escaped such counter-productive messing about. HUZZAH!

So for now, with my social life and loyalties to classical homeschooling languishing, I study what THE SYSTEM wants to teach me.

now that I have money

There are some things I need to buy...

- 10 gauge stainless-steel earrings

- a Rubik's cube

- navy-blue or black All-Star converses [high top]

- a jet-black Zippo lighter

- winter-green TOMS shoes

- meters of thick, army-green material [a new bag!]

- a 2 gallon fishbowl

- large headphones

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

mum's other children

Celeste, the white orchid

Henry, the banana plant

Maggie-May, the bearded dragon

Luella, the Christmas cactus

Summer Books

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Watership Down by Richard Adams

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

The Collapse of Evolution by Scott M. Huse

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Exodus [New American Standard]

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft

The Stand by Stephen King

A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This is all my ears partook in this weekend:

I seriously recommend that you give The Wall a listen. Pink Floyd is the absolute bomb.

a list for May

Today, a few days early, I flipped my Escher calendar page to face May. The yellow, interlocking-seahorse paradox made me feel that this month deserves my utmost attention and must not be wasted. Some goals of prevention came to mind.

- don't eat after 6:00 [a healthy habit my mother has been trying to put in place for years]

- wake up before 9:00

- run in the morning

- drink more tea

- listen to opera, like I used to

- write a good short story

- practice driving [conquer the scary highway!]

- get personal with my Elna

- start work on my grad dress [I have a flapper-style Simplicity pattern, stiff, dark blue material for the outside, and off-white, butterfly-strewn cotton for the lining]

- eat more vegetables

- finish all the books I've begun to neglect [and loathe]

- start new, fun books [very much not by Stephen King, but by E.M. Forster and Stieg Larsson]

- watch more films off the AFI 100

- wear skirts

- become re-acquainted with my Indian ink, fountain pen and parchment [what fun we used to have!]

- see more people

- continue watching 007 [they need to be watched before Bond 23 next year!]

- memorize Proverbs 3

a tribute to El Roi

" I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; I lay down My life for the sheep. " 43.10.14

" But he was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. " 23.53.05

" These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart! I have overcome the world. " 43.16.33

" Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.' " 43.14.06