Everyone (including me) has been so upset lately over one thing or another, I decided to make a list of good things that have happened to me in the past year or so. The big things, the stuff that, when I was little, I thought would never happen to me. SPREAD THE LOVE!

+ I got to go to an AFI concert on a free ticket (And I do NOT want to hear how much you hate AFI. I know. I just don't care.). It was my first concert.
+ I got to go to see Cats! at the Martin Theatre with my mom.
+ I got to spend both Christmas and New Years with my best friend/soul sister who lives five hours away.
+ I got to talk to Scott McNeil on the phone, the man who plays the voice of my favourite character; (Duo, Koga, Piccolo)
+ I got to go to Miami with my friends for a DDR tournament.
+ I got to see Toxic Audio, a band I had been admiring for almost a year. I got to talk to them, and get their autographs. I now have two of their cd's.

+ I'm going to go to my first anime convention this December. Scott McNeil is supposed to be there.

I may add stuff later as I think of it, but I think that's all right now.

So now, I ask for one more "challenge" so to speak.
I simply ask that everyone who comments on this journal say at least one big thing that has happened to them recently that they were happy about.

Listening to: Meteora

Your challenge for today: make three people smile.
----
.The.Challenge.
.Buy.Stuff!.(non-DA.related).
----------
.Tournament.of.Souls.
.Random.Inspirations.
.Characters.(1).
.Characters.(2).
-----------
Just click to donate free money!
|the.breastcancer.site|
|the.hunger.site|
|the.childhealth.site|
|the.rainforest.site|
|the.animalrescue.site|

**EDIT** O.o Come on people. My numbers are going backwards here. Anyone else wanna participate? And not delete it afterwards?

*EDIT* I might want to mention that this is an ongoing thing. If you don't know a person very well now, but you get to know them better later, you can always come back and comment on their journal however long afterwards, just don't take advantage of it, i.e. you're mad at someone so you go and rant on their challenge journal. Make it intelligent, make it mature, most of all, make it true. **

I have a challenge for anyone brave enough to accept. Post a journal asking people who know you to say some good things about you, and some bad things. This isn’t asking for insults, or for mindless compliments that are groundless. This is asking for constructive criticism. Include the two major guidelines: 1. For every bad comment, include at least one good one (not necessarily on the same topic). 2. Don’t just say "I do/don’t like you", in fact don’t say that at all. Say what is not good about the person, i.e. they’re a little too selfish/stubborn/obsessive/etc.

When people reply to your journal, don’t just read the good stuff, or brush off what someone says just because you think they don’t like you. If they’re just insulting you, it will be obvious. But you can learn something about yourself from anyone, including your "enemies". It would be good to not even look at who submitted the comment, unless you really want to know. If someone says you’re stubborn, don’t prove them right by ignoring the comment, really think about it. Think about the way you act around other people, about the way you treat those you do –and- don’t like. The point of this is not to make people change to please everyone else, it’s to try and change for the better, to make you generally nicer and more friendly to be around. Even the nicest people have their flaws. Don’t expect to be able to change everything. Pick out what you think is most important and work on that first.
And don't forget to treasure what people say good about you.

I will be willing to comment on anyone who does this journal that I know well enough, so let’s start here. . . what do you think of me? I wanna know!



P.S. I've decided I will list here all the people who take the challenge (if I know they did). So go there and analyze them. Remember to be polite in how you say stuff, this is the most important part in getting people to understand about themselves
here we go:

ninja-taco: [link]
jimTS: [link]
Montapop: [link]
OmegaZake: [link]
xxihateeverythingxx: [link]
kazicreator-ranma: [link]
chibitora0: [link]


7 CHALLENGERS AND COUNTING!

----
.Buy.Stuff!.(non-DA.related).
.Give.Them.Some.Love.
----------
.Tournament.of.Souls. <--A story idea of mine; help me out!
.Random.Inspirations. <-- read them and do something with them, cause I can't.
.(1).|.(2). <-- Random Characters without homes. Draw them, write scenes with them, do whatever, just please let me know when you do. ^_^:
-----------
Just click to donate free money!
|the.breastcancer.site|
|the.hunger.site|
|the.childhealth.site|
|the.rainforest.site|
|the.animalrescue.site|
|the.literacy.site|

I dunno. Don't ask. Spur of the moment thing.

So anyway, here is the uber-awesome super-special Summary of My Life!

Or. . . maybe just the summer.

This summer has really been a whirlwind of ups and downs.

I officially got my first "real" boyfriend two days before school let out. .

I got to see Jenny like I do every summer, but while she was here, her house flooded. Then, our second day in Jacksonville, her grandmother went to the hospital. She got out of the hospital the day before I left, but then she died at home on July 12 (I think). They cremated her and took her up into the mountains, putting her ashes in a little babbling brook just like she wanted.

But not all bad stuff happened at Jenny's. We ended up one night talking for a couple of hours about stuff that neither of us had let loose before, and we've become even closer friends (if that's possible ). And while I was at her house, Danny called me from Texas. . . from the middle of a huge anime con there. Specifically, from the line leading to the man who dubbed the american voice for DUO MAXWELL. Only my favourite overall character EVER. She let me talk to him when she got up to him, and he was so sweet it was unbelievable. He still sounded exactly like Duo, even though Gundam Wing is at least a decade old. Before he gave her back the phone, he recited a quote from the show that I recognized partly because I'd had the sound file of that quote on my computer. "I promise. I -will- become the God of Death once again. But right now. . . I need some sleep." *Duo passes out*
To top that off, Jenny might be coming to live with me next summer, to stay with me for a year while we start college at the community college here. I can't wait.

My mom finished her cancer treatment, now everything's through- the chemo, the radiation, all of it's over, her hair's growing back thick (and mostly grey ) and she's happier for it.

My uncle Tim and his girlfriend Annie came down for just under a week, and I had fun showing them around town and shopping with them. I GOT THE NEVERENDING STORY!!! Yes, the book that I've been reading and wanting to buy since sixth grade, is finally mine. In hardback. With coloured text, full-page chapter headers and everything. That has to be my favourite book ever. And that's a damn hard decision for me to make. The movie SUCKS. If you've seen the movie, or even if you haven't, you should read that book.

We found out yesterday that we have to move. Our landlords want to move back into the house they were renting to us, so now we have until the end of august to find a new house, and move into it, all during the FIRST MONTH OF SCHOOL >.<

I had a scare with my shelves because of the construction outside my neighbourhood, and almost had a repeat of the time when they fell on me, breaking several collectibles from out of state, and generally embedding in me a fear of falling shelves. O.o I applied for a job at a couple of places, they would have been my first job, but no one called me back. Our old computer finally died completely, taking with it several of my files that are irreplaceable. BUT
We got a brand new computer, a Compaq Presario with Windows XP, a cd burner and lots of other useful junk. I got a check for $55 from my aunt and uncle (not the ones that visited) for a late birthday present, and with it I got ten books and four movies (Last Samurai XD) I have seen more movies in theater this summer than I did probably in the last two years before. I've been playing ddr as much as two and three times a week at the least, and I've improved extremely since the beginning of the summer. When school got out, I was barely on standard. Now I'm working on heavy. I've also lost about 5 more pounds, adding to the ten that I've managed to keep off since last summer.

Well, there's less than 24 hours left of this, the most eventful summer of my life. By this time tomorrow, I will be in school for the first day of my senior year of high school. Scary. O.o I don't know what to expect. Many of my friends are going to be juniors, so for once in my life, I'm one of the oldest, not the youngest like usual. I'm sure this year will be tough, I only hope I can make it through.
So here's to great summers and great beginnings.

I just found out that my best friend's grandmother died yesterday at 4:30 am. She and I have been together since 4th grade, and I loved her grandmother almost as much as she did. Still do. When I spent a week with her at the beginning of the summer (we live 5 hours apart) her grandma had to go into the hospital, and when she got out a couple days before I left, Jenny's mother said she probably wouldn't last the summer. Well, she was right. I suppose it made sense, but I guess I was holding on to some hope that she would live. I knew a girl at my school year before last who died, and I went to her funeral, but I didn't know her -that- well... this is the first big death in my life, and I guess it's gonna hit me pretty hard. Hopefully I'll be able to go to her funeral, I've got to work it out with my dad....

Jenny's grandmother was an awesome person, and her influence in everyone's life was very subtle. I never really thought about how much she's done for Jenny and their family, and just how big a part she played, until she got sick.

God, my hands are shaking as I type this...

...so if I'm not active on DA for a while in a week or so, you'll know why... I'll probably be in Jacksonville if I can work it out.

listening to: Amazing Grace

I am so sick of fighting my computer to do the simplest things... and now I'm having to fight deviART too, and that I just cannot take... >.< So I probably won't submit anything for a while, until they sort this whole thing out...

Anyway, on a better note... I had the -best- birthday party ever! I held it at the arcade, and 20+ people showed up, and we played ddr, ate pizza and chips and hung out for hours. I got $75 from just my friends... and supposedly there is more coming in the mail from my aunt and uncle, and my grandma and grandpa. ^.^ And yes... all the money I got is already gone. But I'm happy with what I got... lessee... *thinks* a couple movies- Blade, Bruce Almighty, and some anime called Kimera, which I haven't watched yet... a cd from Projekt, and three mangas: Angel Sanctuary 1, Petshop of Horrors 2, and Ceres 2, all very good. ^.^ I especially loved the Angel Sanctuary, and I have been sketching some pictures from the book, so maybe I shall have something to submit soon.

Trancey and I went and played ddr today... my legs still hurt from saturday, but that's okay. ^.^ Except that I skinned my toe in the middle of a pretty hard song, and didn't know it until the end of the song. (And no, the stinging sensation in my toe as I danced didn't give it away, either... ) so yeah... now I've got one skinned toe, one jammed toe (running barefoot full speed through the arcade only to trip on a floor socket), a blister on one foot, and my calves hurt like hell...
But hey, I'll live.

One more thing before I bore your ears off... I have decided to put up some poetry, but not all of them... so I will post a few of my old poems as soon as I sort through and decide which ones are worthy of such artistic eyes.


Okay, enough rambling, I'm done now. ^.^

Currently listening to Projekt