Tim Burton can't possibly do better than this. And by the look of those previews, he certainly didn't.

I'm back again from camp, and this time for good.

Wait, is this France? Everyone is speaking French, but it feels like I fell into California, complete with warm weather, palm trees, and surfing. It's exactly like my half-brother's home in the suburbs of San Diago, only with less sand.

I'm in a small town by Rochefort, which is about four miles from the Atlantic Ocean. My family consists of a mother, father, two daughters (ages 12 and 16), and a son (20 years old). Everyone seems to be quite nice, even if I've become something of a weird celebrity among the girls' friends (who I've never even met). The father is a sculpter, the mother is his secretary, and the son is the guy who really should be from California. Lizbeth, you would want to be here right about now.

Haha, somehow everyone is under the impression that I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp and Harry Potter. As a result I have posters all over my wall of said subjects. It's kind of funny in a very sad way.

I get to take German and Russian in school! Yeah, I have no prior experience or credentials, and it's a very difficult language, but hey! Russian!

The library here is even smaller than the one in Argenton-Château, and that's saying something. It's a small room with one big shelf. There are no CDs, DVDs, or anything of the sort; everything is made of paper, and half of the books are borrowed from the library in Rochefort. At least they have better taste. I checked out Le Parfum by Patrick Süskind, and fourteen pages in I'm already intrigued. Way to go small towns!

And there is a fencing club nearby! Maybe I'll be able to get some practice in after all.

Final proof that my family is just a little weird: our idea of a Christmas tradition is to read David Sedaris books aloud.

EDIT: And yes, I know that the coding on the meme is out of whack. Click at your own risk.

( Meme that has nothing to do with anything )

1) Is it possible to get diabetes or any other unpleasant disease from too much overly-sweet Christmas music?

2) Why is the Vienna cast recording of Cabaret split between English and German? Do they expect the audience to be perfectly bilingual?

I know exactly what I want to be (professionally speaking): An art editor. I want to make a living critiquing art at the artist's request as a sort of cross between a teacher and a critic. Pointing out flaws, giving creative advice, and making judgements are all things I love to do with writing, so why not visual media? They share the same basic principles, after all; a line amounts to the same thing as a word. I know enough to catch errors and enough tact to be nice about it. With the right education this would be ideal. The only problem is, there is no education - this career doesn't exist.

I've talked to one of my teachers who informed me that only those who rule over graphic designers can do anything like that, and I've also poked around some colleges with no luck. According to Maman, artists have the wrong attitude  to ask for any aid of that nature.

Merde

For whatever reason, my computer has this nifty little feature where whenever I hold the mouse over a word for a certain period of time, a little blurb pops up with all the possible French translations.

For example: Journal - Revue; Journal

Just for fun, I let it linger over the word "spam". Amusingly enough, it refused to translate it. SPAM, apparently, is the exception to all language.

And it's four days long! Which means, of course, that I need to get something done. Which means that those of you who still haven't given my your adjectives need to do so. What I'm doing with them takes time, and I've only got two so far (Apathetic and Sexy are now taken). Really, you're getting something out of this. I promise.

The video version of Ethan Frome is unbelievable. The '98 Valjean not only plays the lead, but his face-in-knitting moment is the most disturbing presentation of cunnilingus the world has ever seen. Yeah, Wharton was all about the UST symbolism; that was the entire book. Now really, though, did we need to see that? You don't go down on a random piece of fabric! You just don't.

Girl Behind Me: "What's stem cell research?"
Mr. Voss: "I need drugs to deal with this class."

That man is my hero, even if the course sucks.

Everyone who goes to my school should check out The Rock. You know, the one out front that people paint all the time. And no, these red stains on my hands have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Getting most of my non-musical music from fanvids has to be unethical from one standpoint or another. I get the songs for free, and, to make matters worse, because of the clips they're paired with, they get taken completely out of context. For instance: I cannot understand how the subject of "One Week" could possibly be a woman. It just doesn't sound like it. Nope, that's definitely a man, and the Barenaked Ladies are going to show up and arrest me for treason. Damn. (No, that didn't need to make sense.)

Mm, pushups. Perfect for those who have no access to proper equipment but still feel the need to build up muscle mass.

Posting here mainly out of habit. There isn't too much going on right now that's worth mentioning, or that doesn't sound like whining. Amazing.

Whoever plays Valjean in the PRC is my hero. I just went and listened to it again, and "Comment Faire?" had me on the edge of tears. Could be those bloody hormones again. But, regardless, that's a bloody good performance right there.

Ethan Frome/ Mattie Silver is the original canon UST couple. It got to be so annoying that I laughed at the ending. Who commits suicide by sled, anyways?

Anyone want to throw a crack!fic prompt out for javert_valjean? No knowledge of canon required.

Alright, assorted friends, you were exactly right. I do look like Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club, now that I've had time to look.

(For the convenience of anyone not familiar with the series, the link above is to the first episode on YouTube, and the icon is of my peculiar double, Fujioka Haruhi.)

Had a slight breakdown after school when I went to give Vander Ark his newspaper back. This could be a problem.

annalina, blue_mango, captainpellew, darkchicken, hottydottygirl, mungol: I need all of you to describe yourselves in one word. Just post on here with it, and don't ask stupid questions about why, because I'm not answering them.

Alright, you know what, people? STOP THE BLOODY NEGATIVE ADVERTISING! We are not impressed by what your opponent can't do; show us what you can. If you stand for something, tell us about it. Quit the fucking mudslinging already and do something productive. If you donated some of that money instead of using it for silly commercials voters would be much more impressed. You are why write-ins exist on ballots. I've encouraged people to vote for Poe for various offices because a dead guy is better than you louses.

Between my art classes and English, life is a crazy spiral of half-assed creativity, made worse by a visit from an art college today. If those reps don't quit flocking, I might be tempted to actually attend one of their schools. Bah! I've seen some of the admission work, and it's leagues above my level. The cartoon for Drawing II is...really not helping. For lack of a better idea, I took the teacher's suggestion and did a semi-autobiographical story that really hurts to write. Being emotional about it is humiliating, especially since it's so vague that no one is going to have a clue. I mentioned English before because I got my descriptive essay back. I wrote it to be unclear, and to make sense to only a few people, if any. I recieved an 'A' by the skin of my teeth, and only because the writing was excellent.

So, that was a long way of saying that I have serious issues with letting anything personal out into the open. Why? Could be because I'm trying to be polite and let other people speak, which is translating into an inability to express in any media. Could be that I'm so used to lying about how I actually am that it's uncomfortable to tell the truth. Could be that I'm reading into this too much and need to do my AE3 homework and go to sleep.

Just so everyone who doesn't attend my school knows, I got a haircut. My ten pounds of hair has been reduced to about two, and I look very much like a guy. That, combined with some unexpectedly-acquired white t-shirts, has me feeling better than ever.