October

Is there no better time for introspection? I've been busier than a bee with all of my AP classes and work and life in general, but I certainly am keeping my head above water. In AP Latin we're halfway through translating Caesar's De Bello Gallico. We've translated books I, IV, and now we're on V. I think we're translating all the way through book VI. It is frustrating at times, but oh! how I do love it.

I wrote an essay for AP Lit all about Hamlet. I examined how elements of humor throughout the text impact the tragic elements of the play. Tonight is wednesday and I don't have school again until this coming Tuesday. My bones are restless. Of course I have homework to do over my break, but I am not thinking so much about that right now. Over the past month I had a little bit of a romantic fling with a friend of mine, and it was very fun. Rather fulfilling for the most part. But I ended it on the weekend. I was too frustrated because our schedules clash and it was too much effort for something that was just messing around.

Now I'm sat at home, wishing someone were here with me. Decisions. I want to hang out with someone tomorrow before I have to go to work, but we'll see what happens. I may just spend the day working on Chemistry assignments and translating Latin. Perhaps I will just try to finish translating the rest of book V (I'm halfway through translating 5.33, I'm not sure how many are left after this one). I just checked, looks like my text goes through 5.48. We'll see how much I can stand to translate tomorrow. I'm not sure why, but translating isn't a chore for me. I look forward to doing my Latin homework. After we finish up with Caesar, we're going to move onto some of Virgil's poetry. I'm excited to translate poetry, it will be a nice break from all of this war-talk and history (I feel as though I must use the term "history" loosely, haha).

Here's an album I listen to a lot while translating (it keeps me focused): xoxo

Life has not stopped changing drastically for me ever since sophomore year. I must say that I love it. There are surely days where I become frustrated, and I go through periods where my depression gets back to a concerning level, but I am a much more level-headed and strong person than I was before. Spending time alone has taught me how to reflect properly and how to comprehend the things that happen in my life.

Such as tonight, I am feeling very introspective. I've been listening to a lot of music. I had baton practice, and it was very hot in the gym but I've really been enjoying the routines we're working on for this year. They're very fast and upbeat. A nice change of pace.

Here is a poem I wrote a while ago, I'm still not sure how I feel about it:

08/25/14

Oh, hold me close but don’t choke me

Flower petal imprints can still be seen

Light pink in rings around my neck;

I’m alive and my eyes are swollen yet

My heart is beautiful like the sea is clean:

Daises don’t grow in the bottom of the ocean.

Sanitize the burns with salt water,

Nothing may grow but it will be clean,

Choking throat and clogging lungs

The salt water stings the lamentations

I’ve streaked out on my body,

I forgot that salting the soil stops all growth,

My veins reek of Carthage.

Write me a melancholy filled

Solely with flower petal footprints

In murky river water, not on my skin,

I know that it burns less.

The tall grass and bright summer-

Time blooms are rushed away by

Fresh running water. Write me flower

Picking in early June. I need it back.

I want to revisit memories with a different

Version of myself: no petal-like

lesions across my body.

 I may revisit it someday soon. I need to edit a lot of the pieces I've been working on lately. My brain has been too preoccupied for that though as of late.

Here are some Latin quotes I've gotten recently and they are worth sharing:

Ebrietas mores aufert tibi, res et honores
"Drunkness takes away your character, your things, and your reputation" (Medieval).

Ex ore tuo te iudico
"I judge you from your own mouth" (--)

Such great quotations, maybe once I've gotten some other good ones I'll post those as well. Hope whoever reads this has a nice day. I doubt that anyone besides myself still reads my blog. I have cut out all the people from my life who used to read it. Honestly I prefer it this way.

Vivamus- "Let Us Live".

Three (3) songs that are pretty cool that you should listen to. 

Halloween, Amongst Other Things

My Mirror Speaks by Death Cab for Cutie is actually a really spectacular song, don't even deny it.

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I actually don't care that much about Halloween personally, but I do think it is a pretty fun holiday. It adds something a little different to the drudgery of high school. I mean, I guess I'm excited to go to school today. I hope I plan a SUPER FABULOUS Halloween outfit, but no promises on that yet :( I woke up at, like, 4:45 and I was starving, so I ate some Cap'n'Crunch and I guess I'm just feeling inspired right now.

If I do have on a cute outfit, I'll post an outfit-of-the-day picture. I've secretly always wanted to do that </////3 

Goals

Now that I'm getting a paycheck every two weeks and have a little extra money to spend, I've decided that what doesn't go into my savings will be put towards buying a nice camera. Not necessarily one for taking photos, though I do love doing that. I want a nice camera for vlogging. Right now the family camera I use is very good, but it's not specifically what I want. And if I want my own that no one else is allowed to use, I have to pay for it with my own money. Which I don't even mind doing. I love buying things with the money I earn. It makes it feel more worth it.

I'm going to start pricing cameras. Wish me luck! x

What I'm listening to today:

Algebraic! from lordmcconnell on 8tracks Radio.

I found out about this genre of music called "Math Rock". I've listened to a few mixes on 

8tracks, and so far I've liked what I've heard! Here's a pretty good one...

Music

Here's some music for your ears.

I'm a Member of the Midnight Crew (Post Punk Version) 

Song for the Painfully Indie 

Moving On

Don't Look Back

A Little Irony

Postcards from Italy

Rockin' the Suburbs

Do you have a favorite?

Well, It Seems I'm Back!

/break in hiatus

Sorry, I won't be here for long, but I have a few things that I want to discuss with y'all before I continue on with my hiatus.

Order of Business #1: Unfortunately, I still haven't been feeling inspired to write. I've written some poetry, but it is pretty personal and I highly doubt that any of you would be interested in reading it. Some of it treads into teen-angst territory, and I know we all don't want to go there.

Order of Business #2: My youtube channel is pretty successful! I currently have 33 subscribers, which is more than I ever dreamed of having. I've made some really nice friends (see Order of Business #3), and I love responding to comments on my videos. If I haven't self-promoted enough already, here is a link to my channel.

Order of Business #3: The only reason I am writing this is because one of my youtube amigos has kicked my butt into gear. She's also a new member of my blog! Let's all give a warm welcome to Farran Arabella! Besides having a totally kick ass name, she is a total sweety pie, and she herself is participating in a book challenge this year! She's trying to read 50 books, and is documenting her experience on her wordpress blog. You should go check it out!

Order of Business #4: Did I mention I got a new dog? Unless you know me in real life or follow my vlogs, you may not have known this! We rescued her, and she is seven years old, and a beagle. Her name is Daisy. Also, she is missing one of her legs. But it doesn't slow her down one bit! She's quite strong actually, and can balance on her back legs quite well. If she had abs, they'd be made of steel. Yesterday my mom did an impromptu photoshoot of her, and this is the result:

Order of Business #5: I got my driver's license! I turned sixteen back in November, but I didn't get around to getting my driver's license until last week. I did my inaugural first drive by myself yesterday. I went to the grocery store and bought mini cupcakes. It was quite an experience. My mom felt it necessary to document the event with a photo. 

I was not excited to be photographed. 

Also, since Order of Business #5 is sort of a misc. OoB, lemme tell you all that I recently learned to play guitar! I'll probably post a video of that at some point, once I become less terrible at it ;) 

/starts hiatus back up again 

Hannah Gets Mildly Existential

I think I should go to bed right now, but I have a headache and don't feel like laying down. I figured blogging might help relax me and get me off to bed!

Anyway, tonight I was riding in the car with my dad, and we were blasting the oldies. What I've noticed, which holds true for most oldies stations, is that only music from the 60's,70's, and 80's are played. I can't help but wonder if those decades will be forever defined as "the oldies", or if eventually music from the 90's will be added into the mix as well. Who is the person that draws the line that says "This is oldies" and "This is not"? For example, why isn't music from the 1920's up through the 50's not played on the oldies station? Those songs certainly are old, aren't they? Does that mean that the 90's will be excluded from the oldies club just like music from the 50's?

Obviously, there aren't going to be exactly clear cut lines. Just the other day I was listening to my city's "modern hits" station, and they started playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Last I checked, the year 1991 wasn't exactly modern. At least when you compare it to music of today, anyhow. It confuses me to think that the same station will play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and then follow up with "Call Me Maybe". How will our musical generation be defined? Will it be from the 90's up through the 2020's? Only time will tell.

That was my drabble for this evening. Feel free to try and answer my rhetorical questions in the comment section below ;P

Living My Life on 8tracks

For those of you who aren't aware, there is a music sharing website called 8tracks that I absolutely adore. I found it a year ago back when I would use StumbleUpon to find new websites. Basically what people do on 8tracks is make unique play-lists with music from their iTunes library. While I must admit that you have to sort through quite a bit of crap, there are some very  good mixes on that website. I've made a few myself, and while I wouldn't say they were particularly bad by any means, it is very hard to become "8tracks famous". There are hoards of people who frequent that site, so my pipe dream of getting a mix that becomes popular is a long way off.

The funny thing is, I forgot about this website after winter break of 2011, and I just started using my account again this summer. I think part of the reason is because I associate 8tracks with a time in my life (the beginning of freshman year), that was very stressful for me, and I knew that this website helped me calm down. I would literally just listen to 8track mixes and surf blog spot all day at school first semester of last school year.  I think I may just have to resort to that again. I've actually found quite a few new blogs these past few weeks, and I've followed them, so hopefully blogging joy will abound.

I just made a mix on 8tracks today because I was bored, so feel free to check it out! I made the mix as a sort of "Final Hurrah" for my freshman year. In other words, I just took all my favorite songs from when I was a freshman and plopped them into one mix. Link is here!

Side note: My profile picture on 8tracks is the Swag Snowman. More than likely that is the best piece of artwork I have ever come up with.

I'M BACK AND MORE FABULOUS THAN EVER

I suppose it is high time I explain my extended absence of posting. It's not that I wanted to let good 'ol Infinitely Pi grow dusty, but I didn't have much of a choice. What is even more distressing for me is the fact that the post that was front and center on my blog during my absence was about my journaling blunders of long ago. I'm quite positive that is going to be a post I will not be able to live down for a long time.

Now, the actual reason I was gone for so long was because, drum roll please, I was at a baton competition. I believe I've alluded to the fact that I twirl batons in my free time, but I've never actually written a whole post about it. Basically from Sunday through Thursday of this past week I was three states away from my home at the biggest competition of the year: Nationals. There were probably well over a thousand other guys and gals who were all participating, and I met a lot of amazing and extremely talented individuals. Not only that, but I also learned a lot about myself on this trip, such as the fact that I can eat a jumbo pretzel in under two minutes. A few other things I learned on my journey of self discovery include:

• I can only play the card game "Trash" so many times before I start to lose it.
• That sitting in a gym all day allows you to see people's dark sides.
• Drinking three bottles of water in a two hour time span is a terrible idea.
• "Hannah, you can't possibly eat that entire thing of fries."

           "Just you try and stop me".

These, really, are just the highlights of my week spent away from home. There is so much more I could talk about, but I'd really rather not bore you all with a long and drawn out explanation of the ins and outs of my whole week. I will say, though, that the worst part of the entire trip was the car ride. It was ten hours there, and another ten hours on the return trip. My father refused to travel by air plane, so we got to spend twenty some hours in our Ford Escape together. And for anyone who has ever had to travel a long distance with another family member, they'll know it can be a little bit maddening. About four hours in on the way home, I tried to get my dad to play a game with me. The rules went that we played the song "Revolution Nine" by The Beatles and time ourselves to see how long we could last before changing the song. Most unfortunately, as with most other games of my own creation, my father was unwilling to participate. In retrospect, it was probably a good idea we didn't follow through with it. 

All I can say is that I am extremely glad that I am home now. I missed my family, my dog, my friends, and of course I missed blogging ;) 

Edit: I realized I might not be posting again for a week or two, so I thought I would post something to help tide you all over for the next drought. Here's some songs I listened to constantly during my trip. I hope y'all enjoy them as much as I do.

Modest Mouse: The World At Large

Weezer: Keep Fishin'

Alex Day: Forever Yours

The Kooks: Junk of the Heart

Iron and Wine According to Hannah

A couple of months ago I was really into the band "Iron and Wine". I really cannot bring myself to listen to it anymore, because of reasons that are hard to explain, but if I had to put it in words I guess you could say I "got sick and tired of the music". This is a brief explanation of what happened:

In the beginning all was well. I listened to "Iron and Wine" on a daily basis, listening to a majority of the songs. Life was good. 

After about a week and a half or so, I started to get tired of listening to the same songs over and over. I was starting to get a little anxious whenever an "Iron and Wine" song would come up in my Itunes shuffle.

After about a month I was left confused and upset and I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. The lyrics to the songs didn't make any sense to me, and the mystic singing voice was starting to make me uncomfortable.

Case in point: if you don't want this to happen with you, don't go on an "Iron and Wine" binge. I care about each and every one of you who reads my blog, and I just want to prepare you for the worst. Proceed with caution. 

Edit: I got the idea for this blog post in the middle of the night on Wednesday. It seemed a lot funnier at two in the morning. 

We Need Music

As of right now I've decided this blog needs more music on it. Not my music, per se, but just more music in general. That's why right now I'm going to post some of my favorite songs from the past few months:

The Vaccines: Norgaard

The Killers: Human (Armin Van Buuren Club Remix)

Alex Day: Lady Godiva

Guster: Satellite

I have absolutely no idea if posting these songs counts as copy right infringement of some kind, but I don't really see why it would be, since I am not taking credit for these songs, and they were on youtube in the first place. Anyway, I listened to all of these today, and I like them all quite a bit. I don't know which is my favorite. Which do you like the best?