NaNoWriMo: The First Experience

This year was my first year participating in National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization established in 1999, aimed at getting people to sit down and write 50,000 words in the month of November (that's 1,667 words a day, if you were wondering). Did you know that Water for Elephants was born as a result of this program? Over 250 novels that started as NaNo novels were published traditionally.

Sounds great, right?

Try looking at it from the other end of the straw.

As a full-time college student, this proved to be a challenge. November is one of the more busier months since it steadily nears exam time early December. Regardless, I took the challenge. With three days left and less than 20k written, I've simply given up on trying to "win," though I will continue my started novel at a more leisurely pace.

Yes I'll still be in college next year, but I'm still going to try again. Why? Here's three reasons, ones I've seen and heard, then engraved into my Declaration of Insanity, written and Hancocked by me, of course.

1. Bragging rights: You get to say you wrote a novel in a month. Yes, 50k is hardly a novel and the writing you produce will not be pristine, but that doesn't matter. You accomplished something great. You can say you wrote 50k in a month. That's more than fantastic.

2. It's on paper: In a frantic state of trying to match a word-count, you will be spewing idea from the very depths and crevasses of your mind. Worry not about how bizarre, or even how weird it may be, because you probably created a beginning, middle, and end to a great book. Now the fun part begins! You've got a figment of a story written out, and now you can go back in and mold it into something fantastic. You took care of the hard part, and now the fun begins.

3. Discipline & habit: After taking time to write and write quickly, you start to type faster and more consistently. However, you also realize a thousand words might be like extracting a thorn from your foot and spend half a day just trying to crunch out those words, or you could write two thousand within the hour and still be pumped. Either way, you are challenging yourself to write significant amount of words every day, and that is more than anyone can say when doing something as intense and mind-taxing as this.

Moral of the story: Check it out; you won't regret it.

The Spoken Word Endeavor

"No, no, no...absolutely not." I stammered. "Are you crazy? I have stage fright I--"
"Shut up, Hana! Just do it, it won't be bad."
"The piece though, it's not perfect. Graduation is in 3 days!"

This was the beginning of a journey I never thought I'd be taking.

It all started when I was in DC in an arabic intensive program. My friend said, "Hey, have you heard of this guy named Luka Lesson?" I said no, and she showed me this beautiful video right here. Stunning performance! After that, I kept searching for different spoken word performances from different people. I found another girl who did a poem about Syria, and that one was crazy powerful too.

The next day, I got the inspiration to try one myself. It came from the idea that people are always singling me out because I talk different than they do... or something along those lines. So I wrote a piece about writing, about the process of the expulsion of words. The days where you awake in the middle of the night in cold sweat with an idea that suddenly struck you. Writing isn't just picking up a pencil and scrawling on a sheet of paper, writing is a maelstrom in the mind, a maelstrom of letters and phrases, of events remembered, figments of alliterations. I wrote this piece and performed it in front of the mirror. I then showed it to some of my friends, and they said I should perform it for the program's graduation in 3 days.

Absolutely not. I have stage fright. I hate speaking in public. Okay?

They kept pushing me though, encouraging me. I mean it's only going to be like fifty people, about forty of my classmates and a few teachers...so I finally agreed and called the program manager who fit me in. I spent the time trying to memorize the poem, but to no avail. Great. Just great. It was okay though, I read it enough to be able to look up a lot. Which was good enough.

Well as it turns out, a little bit more than fifty people were showing up...make that a little over a hundred. Yeah, I was going to faint. People helped me relax, encouraging me, telling me how to breathe...heh. Yeah, I was really scared. My hands were tingling and twitching, moving on their own accord. Basically, fear possessed my arms, making it very hard to move them, either my movements were too jerky or they wouldn't move.
The production manager came and sat next to me, and after a moment, whispered, "You nervous?"
"That obvious?" I whispered back, looking down at my hands.
"Nah, you'll be fine. Tingly hands?"
"Yeah..how'd you know?"
He shrugged, "It's common. Just don't worry about it, no one's gonna notice."
I nodded and looked ahead, waiting for my cue. When it came, he wished me good luck and I went and stood in front of the podium. The mike swam before my eyes as I tried to adjust it. After some complications, I started talking about the poem a bit, introducing it. Then I went for it. I struggled here and there because I could feel at least two hundred eyes staring at me. Then I forgot about the audience and I got into the poem. I felt the same thrill I did when I said it the first time in front of the mirror. It was exhilarating.

This was probably one of the most exciting things I've ever done! I really would like to do more, there's a certain thrill to performing your work in front of an audience.

A Little Bit of Everything

I haven't been posting much because of the summer laziness that had struck me. I still have spring semester classes, but the warm weather put Muse to sleep. Instead of writing though, I've been working out, reading, studying, and doing a little bit of everything. From cooking to drawing to puzzle solving, going to weddings, fashion (and tons of shopping), organizing, and reconnecting with people. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.

I also did a little bit of traveling. I went up to northern Michigan for a family camp with almost everyone I know. Then, last weekend, I road-tripped with my family to Chicago to attend a friend's wedding. It was the first time I'd been to Chicago since I was very little. I was pleasantly surprised, Chicago was everything I wanted it to be, and more. The architecture is stunning and there's an overall pleasant atmosphere in the area. I couldn't visit the famous Bean, or the Sears Willis Tower, but I went to the Navy Pier and just took pictures of the skyscrapers and just strolled around. I also reconnected with a friend there who's more like a sister to me than anything. It was fun to get back together after not seeing each other for a good four years. I know I definitely need to make another trip there, but like I said, I did a little bit of everything.

Chicago!

(More pictures to come later...)

Greeting Strangers

The other day I had a sudden urge to violate yet another social norm. To read about my first one click here. Now as some people put it, our society is prone to indifference to people they do not know. I decided to ignore this foolishness. I waved at a group of girls from a distance and when I got close enough I wished them a good day. They murmured their replies in such a way, as if they thought I was mistaking them for someone else.
"Uh, hi."
The word "Uh." A word of uncertainty. A word that screams, WHAT IS SHE DOING? and IS SHE OUT OF HER MIND? and my favorite, WHAT, WHO IS SHE, WHAT IS HAPPENING. ACT COOL. BUT WHAT DO I SAY?
"Uh, hi."
I gave them a final nod as I walked away, their suspicious eyes followed me until I opened the door to the café where I went to meet my friends.

I want to know why we are surprised when random strangers wish us a good day, or when a random person smiles at another. We have become distrustful of one another and wary of strangers. Of course we shouldn't be naïve and go around a city with a high crime rate at night to just walk around saying nice things to strangers. They might eat you up alive. All I'm saying is maybe we should take up kindness when we see it. If someone greets you, don't automatically assume they have an ulterior motive to mug you.

A Restless Mind, A Cathartic Solution

Today I had a lot on my mind. Nothing in particular and nothing that would interest you, but it was simply an abundant overflow of thoughts that flitted around in there. I couldn't handle it. I thought about how messed up the world is and how we're all going to die and all those wonderful positive thoughts of death and short life bubbled up. (Attention to sarcasm. I am well aware that they are not positive.) Then there was guilt and regret that slipped into the mix, which brought back dreaded memories. Overall it wrecked me. It wrecked me to the point where I just didn't care anymore. I mean, how do you free yourself from yourself?

So I opened up Microsoft Word and started typing. I typed for maybe half an hour straight. Whatever came to my demented state of mind was recorded. Unfinished sentences, horrible grammar, regrets, feelings, emotions, lies, truths, wishes, and so forth. After maybe about a single-spaced page and a half my mind grew quiet with the occasional thought lazily floating by about the weather or the need of a bodily function. I sighed out of relief and closed my eyes. The peace that followed was meditating.

I was at ease, totally content.

This is known as free association. In this case, it's a psychological technique that writers use to clear up the mind. No censorship. No grammar or spelling. No coherence necessary. Now some people like to reread what they write, others simply write it to unclutter their minds to clear up room for more focused writing. It's your decision whether you want to see the incoherence that flooded up your mind. For me personally, I wanted to unclutter to free up room for some hardcore novel writing. Rereading all of that will just drown me in those thoughts again. I saved the file though so I could read it some other day.

Another brilliant idea for using this technique is to let your imagination run wild. Give yourself a topic to write about and just write anything that comes to your mind. If it sounds creative and constructed, that's definitely a bonus, it doesn't have to be though. Once you feel like you've done what you can, give yourself a moment before rereading it. I've done this a couple times and found that in this reverie of writing, I find some sentences that are pretty worthy of note, unique, with interesting words and metaphors to complement them. It's like a morsel of gold in a jumble of muck and grime. You should try it sometime.

If you do end up trying this technique, maybe leave me a comment below on whether it worked or not? That would be fantabulous.

Florida Mishap

I apologize for the lack of posts these past few days (weeks even, if you don't count the Monday Musings). Since Thursday I've been in Orlando with my family as we took a little vacation to the wonderful theme parks there. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, so I was super excited to finally go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. It was everything I'd expected and more. The Forbidden Journey ride was this super high tech ride in the castle that was thrilling. I didn't believe that such a ride could exist. I rode on it twice! Honeydukes was absolutely perfect and I got to buy a chocolate frog while my brother got some Berti Botts Every Flavor JellyBeans. Then there was the Butterbeer. It was fantastic! It somewhat tasted like cream soda with butterscotch, and you can either buy it as a fizzy drink or an Icee. I personally don't like fizzy drinks, so the Icee was perfect. Here's a picture; as you can see, it looks like beer (but it's not! The stuff on the top is the butterscotch. Yummeh!)

Disclaimer: This is not an alcoholic beverage.

Anyway, so around five o'clock, after we've gone through most of the park (thank the Lord for Express passes), my siblings and I decided to go on the ride again. For one who has gone to Universal often, there wasn't much of a thrill to ride every single ride. We could all agree that our best bet was to ride something that we haven't been on a dozen times, so Forbidden Journey it was! We waited in line, discussing the ride and how cool the technology of the ride was, and what would happen if it broke down. Then after a good hour (maybe an hour and a half), it was finally our turn. We got into the ride and were tossed and turned by the usual playfulness of the ride, when all of a sudden it stopped.

We are experiencing some technical difficulties. The ride will be working again momentarily. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Crap. Because of the ride's twisting nature, we were tilted to the left and almost lying down. It was a very uncomfortable position, but this was better than some people, who I heard later were on their bellies. The man next to my brother (since the ride was a four seater) let out a string of curses and I heard groans coming from the carts all around us. 

Well this was just peachy. I looked around and pulled myself up to look below me and only then did I realize that we were fifteen feet in the air on this huge cart that was placed on a track. 

Five minutes later the same announcement came on. Then five minutes after that, and five minutes after that....we heard the announcement nine times. 

We were stuck in that position for 45 minutes. My left arm was asleep and the insides of my knees were sore. If you want to know why, try setting a chair down with its back to the floor, then sit on the chair as if it were upright. After a while you'll be pretty sore too.

After 45 agonizing minutes, the lights turned on and the seats went upright. I felt so relieved to feel my arm again! The announced then that the ride would move immediately, which again, it didn't. So they had to evacuate us cart by cart. The park had closed and they still didn't get us down. We were the last cart to get evacuated and the park closed half an hour ago. We were stuck for two hours and didn't see a single worker for at least an hour. 

When we finally stepped out of the ride, our parents were waiting for us, relief blooming on their faces. They had received news that no one was left on the ride, and they thought the worst had happened to us. Thankfully everything turned out okay. 

This was all just an experience, you know? An unpleasant one, but still. Now you know, though, this ride has hell of a process for evacuation due to its complicated nature. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to go on that ride next chance I get. I just thought I'd share this marvelous experience with you all. 

Birthday

Today was my birthday...or rather yesterday depending on the time...it's 12:34 right now as I'm writing this. I feel so blessed for having such a loving family and friends who made this day so special. When I woke up this morning I didn't feel any different than I did yesterday. Granted, I have been feeling more mature as my seventeen year progressed. The only thing that did change when I got up was that I could officially say, "I'm eighteen." 18. Such an interesting number. For some reason eighteen sounds so much more mature than seventeen. I liked being seventeen; it was not quite child, not quite adult. I could get away with things for not being old enough, but had responsibilities not given to people younger than me. Now it's all over.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm happy I'm officially an adult now age-wise, but it's an odd thought.

College Finals

So...I'm going to rant on a little bit on how much I hate finals. Okay, it's my first semester of college, and guess who has an exam on the first day? Not a big deal? Well, try doing a 2.5 hour calculus exam right after a psychology test. My mind was on the frying pan for too long. It withered and dried; I've used up all my juice.

It's not the fact that I had two tests in one day, it's the amount of energy both tests required that hurt so much. Specifically for psychology, the test required a lot of analytical thinking. It's just so painful...like every thought felt like I was slowly extracting a thorn that was embedded in my head. They're not simple definition questions, they're concepts that must be applied in various situations and the answers sound the same! It hurts me to even think about it.

[Ironically, I'm majoring in psychology, but it doesn't mean I can't complain. Anyway, I got my scores and was thrilled to see I got a good score.]

Anyway. After the psychology exam, I got something to eat and studied a few more concepts I was shaky on in calculus. Then, time came to take the test. I was nervous out of my mind! I wasn't doing so hot in that class to begin with, and this was the mother of all tests. It was worth 200 points and proved to be a real pain in the butt. I could do the questions (well, most of them anyway), but they were so time consuming! [Insert more painful mental imagery here.] Then there were those few questions that I look at and remember seeing on a previous quiz...but I had forgotten to look over them! Oh joy. Some of them I even recalled looking at and saying, "She won't put that on the exam."

She did.

Thankfully, only a handful of them were like that, the rest I think I did pretty well on. I'll just have to wait until the scores come out. Wish me luck!

A Moment of Regression

I vaguely remember little me talking in front of a bathroom mirror, giggling. I was contemplating the idea of being a "grown up", saying, "when I get older, like eighteen or nineteen I'm gonna be this tall and I'm going to have this and that, and I'm going to be super different and I'm going to have this problem and that problem, but they're cool problems like having to stay up late and do homework and mamma can't help me since I'm a big girl now. I'm going to have big college books that are so heavy and so thick but I'm gonna study them all day long and I'm going to be super smart! Yeah, and I'm going to have glasses, but they won't make me look nerdy, just cool and grown up. I'm going to be so neat and awesome when I get my own room. My stuff will be organized and cool... I can't wait to grow up!"

Yes, it was filled with random thoughts that flitted from one topic to another, splurging ideas that just popped into my head of some amazing future. Guess what friends? I'm turning eighteen in thirty days and the thought hit me like a bullet. I'm not exactly that girl I imagined myself being, but I'm not that disappointed either. I'm not as organized as I had hoped to be, but I definitely am as ambitious, I do have those really big heavy textbooks( though I don't read them), and yeah I'm staying up late doing homework (but only because I have a huge procrastination problem). Though what surprised me was for a minute there, I regressed back to my little self and I felt like that young person I used to be was thrust into my body now, and she looked around in awe at what she'd become. It's not her cookie cutter, idealistic view of what she wanted to be, but I think she's fairly satisfied. Her new technology, a bookshelf full of thick chapter books that are a sheer sign of comfort for her...her desk. Sense of style. Her witty personality. It's all her.

It's all me. And I can't believe it. Maybe I'm in denial that I'm turning 18, maybe I'm regressing to my childhood before it's officially over. Maybe my childhood is reminding me that getting older is actually a good thing. Whatever the case may be, it was nice to be greeted by little me so she could assure me that I'm on the right track.

The Worlds Between Covers

Imagine yourself walking into a bookstore. You enter through those doors and immediately the warm smell of wood and newly printed books greet you. You stroll in and walk to your favorite section and run your finger along the spines of the neatly aligned books, each one whispering read me, each one pulling you with invisible fingers, gently caressing your mind with the wonders they contain. You then pass by a book that you've already read and it looks at you with friendly eyes as it catches your attention. Though you have already read it, you are fond of its contents. You open the book and are immediately reeled back into the world it contains. As you sift through your favorite parts you can't help but sigh in contentment at what you've experienced. You gently place the book back on the shelf and continue your stroll, but the book still lingers in the back of your mind.

This, my friends, is how books feel to me. This is my experience at a bookstore. Since I love to read a lot, and I buy more books than I can read at a given time, my room was crowded with them. A little too crowded for my own comfort, if I may add; so I bought a bookshelf to put in a corner of my bedroom. A place where I can experience the magic of my books anytime I want to. Just passing by it, I can hear the whispering of the hundred tales I own and it truly is magical.

Here's the stockpile before putting it on the shelf 

(well, the ones that were in my way anyway, the rest were in the storage area):

End result!

*Just in case any of you were wondering, yes that is Sigmund Freud sitting on the fourth shelf and on top of one of the piles of books. He's staring at the psychology books that I own, and in the top picture he's sitting on top of them. Just a little fyi. :-)

**The whitish wood you see is my temporary headboard, hence its lack of not matching with my shelf. Just saying.

Back to the Bones

Lately I've been trying to work through some bumps along the road. My life has become monotonous and boring. I have no motivation to do anything. All I'm doing is lollygagging, studying, wasting time online, eating, and sleeping. Why am I on Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and all those sites for hours on end? Why am I complaining about procrastinating and having so much to do, rather than doing it all and getting it over with? Why do I always say I have to hit the gym and I don't even make an effort to try? Why do I say I have to get a job or an internship or something and I haven't even applied? Why do I make schedules and not follow through with them in the end?
See what I'm getting at here?
Those are some of the questions I've been asking myself. I'm not living anymore. I'm surviving, sure but I'm not really living with this day by day constant boringness and stress. So like in Wall-E, I'll say this:

I want to live my life by achieving my goals, not by idling around and only doing the necessities. 

I'm compiling a list of things that I want to change about myself. It's like I'm on a pursuit of happiness. I'm going to work slowly on getting things where I want them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not miserable, I'm just...not very...efficient and it's driving me crazy. So let's see how this plays out, and with any luck I might see the light. I'll keep you all posted on my progress and things I've figured out, and I'll put it under the label goals. 

Care to join me on this endeavor? Come along, it'll be fun!

College Frantics: Finding My Way

This is a new series I like to call College Frantics. It involves any college experience that has resulted in some kind of anxiety, often comic when looking back at it. If you have any of your own you would like to share, feel free to comment below.




So I had this written in my drafts from when I first started college in the fall...looking back, I couldn't believe this was me.

The night before starting at a local university was busy. I packed my bag the night before, my outfit folded neatly atop my dresser, my car fueled, alarm set. I was so nervous but excited at the same time; with new experiences comes a new chapter in one's life and new memories to live in, which is essentially what happened the next day.

I thought finding my classes was going to be difficult. It wasn't. The problem was I had forgotten my schedule at home. I rummaged frantically in my bag for any sheer sign that it would somehow be there but it was hopeless. I had no idea where I was going or what building to go to, with 30 minutes until classes begun. Though I'm commuting, I can't go home since I live 20 minutes away, arising another problem; I can't look up my schedule online because I didn't bring my laptop. Great. The only thing I could think of was to look it up on my phone using 3G without a data plan, so I would be paying per kilobit? I wasn't sure but I silently hoped my phone bill wouldn't go up too drastically, but quite frankly I had no other choice.

As if things couldn't get any worse, I got locked out of the website, getting an error message of some sort. This scared the crap out of me, and I was starting to get worried. Fifteen minutes until class. I tried again and again and again and again, deciding that if it doesn't work in the next few minutes I'm going to have to call someone to look it up for me, but that would involve waking someone up at 7:45.

Ten minutes. Somehow it decided to work. I thanked God with tons of silent prayers and wrote my schedule on my hand. Then there was the challenge of finding the classroom, but thankfully it was simple enough. I walked in five minutes before and relaxed, mentally noting that next time, I needed a backup plan.

Violating Social Norms

Confession: I am a people watcher. Not only do I like to watch what people do, I like to do little tests to see how people react in certain situations. First though, before I tell you of my scheming ways, I need to give you a bit of background information on social norms.




Social norms are unwritten "rules" that people tend to do without really knowing that they're doing them. Let me give you an example, I'm pretty sure you've all been in an elevator before (if not, you're missing out). Now, ever notice that when people get into an elevator they turn around to face the door? I guess the only time someone wouldn't face the door would be if there was a mirror on the back wall or another door, but that's a different story.

Anyway, for the most part, people turn around, and it would feel weird not to. I dare you to try it. Walk into an elevator and just stay with your back to the door. You'll probably feel uncomfortable and people might look at you as if you just took off your pants. No joke. There is one exception though, and that would be the Elevator Psychology Experiment which deals with conformity. Highly entertaining and quite funny, I recommend you watch it. If you want to read more about elevator behavior, click here, and if that doesn't satiate your quench for more, there are plenty of other experiments and things, but sadly I can't link them all here ...but maybe I'll put another one here just for fun and another that relates to that one if you're really interested.

Another common one is the "buffer chair". Ever notice that when you're sitting in a theater, there's always that seat that separates the different parties from each other? I mean if the movie is sold out, then of course it's not weird, but if it wasn't, could you imagine sitting right next to someone in a relatively empty theater? They would be deathly afraid then, and you will feel out of place.

So now that you get the general gist of what I'm saying, here it goes...
Similar to the whole "buffer" idea, I decided to violate a social norm by sitting next to someone in the library. Allow me to explain. The campus library is lined with study desks. Though the desks are all connected, they are separated by wooden dividers and the desk itself is about 3 feet wide so every student gets ample space to work in. Thing is, people do the whole "buffer chair" norm and there is at least one desk in between each person. The chairs are fairly far apart so it's not like you would be sitting right next to the person like in a theater! So I decided to try it for myself to see what would happen if I sat in the desk next to someone and act like it's totally normal.

It was hilarious.

The minute I set my stuff down on the table, he looked up at me and I just smiled wanly and went back to unpacking my study materials. I rummaged around my bag, getting out my laptop and my books before taking a seat. He was still staring at me a bit, but when I turned around to face him he looked away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look over a few times, probably making sure I wasn't going to kill him or anything. I was biting my lip to keep myself from laughing, but I busied my time on the computer, just to see how long he would sit there. I gave him about ten minutes and sure enough, he packed up and left, the tension leaving with his receding footsteps.

Isn't it strange how people do that though? Why is it such a big deal to sit next to someone, even though they're four feet away from each other? I know for a fact that I would be weirded out too, but why are we humans like that? 

I Hate Spiders

I'm deathly afraid of spiders. If I see one inside I would probably leave the house. It's something I can't get over, really. I tried to get over it by looking at pictures of spiders, but I only broke out in goosebumps and something I like to call "mental hives". Thank god I don't break out in hives, but my arms and thighs get really itchy, but there's nothing there, and it's an all around terrible experience. I will avoid spiders, and I did for the longest time.

Yeah right, my mind troll sneered, your next blog post is about spiders. It needs a picture! Go on...type spiders in Google Images. Better yet, you want a BIG spider on your blog, search that. 

Worst five minutes of my life. 

My mind was all like:

PROBLEM?

Why am I posting this exactly? Well you'll find out soon enough. :)

The Interlude

I apologize for not posting in over a month! I've been busy, then I went overseas to Turkey...again! These are a few pictures that you may enjoy:

 The water really does sparkle in Turkey. It's so breathtaking!

 Pillar with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it.

 The Basilica Cistern! An underground aquifer that has over 300 columns!

There are actual fish that live down there too! I wonder how they got there...

 One of the columns had Medusa's head under it. 

It's meant to be lopsided because as the legend goes, when her head is upright, she could turn people to stone. 

 Blue Mosque!

 Dolma Bachi Palace! So big it doesnt fit on one camera frame...unless you step back A LOT.

I stepped back...A LOT. And this is just part of the gate (from the inside)!

I'll be back very soon with more posts, I promise!

Frantic Waving

So I haven't post anything lately because I've been away on vacation. Destination?
Istanbul, Turkey!





Istanbul is a very beautiful city that has loads of sight-seeing; from grand architecture like palaces and hundreds of mosques with at least four minarets on each one, to little shops that sell little glass trinkets and odds and ends of all kinds! It was like a fairytale city with a flavor of colors bursting with every building.


When I was over there, I decided to conduct an experiment. While I was on the tour bus, I would wave frantically to every passerby I saw while grinning from ear-to-ear.

The response of the people? Well, some would look away, others would stare at me, frown, and then look away. Finally, my favorite: some would smile back and wave! But that's not the best part, the best part was one guy waved back with a huge grin on his face, walked away, and came back with his friends, they all pointed at me and waved with the happiest smiles I've ever seen.

Don't ask me, I have no idea why they were smiling, but it made my day.

A Child's Irony

I think one of the funniest things in life are the things little kids do. It's cliché, I know, but I feel like since they do it out of the blue, without actually meaning to be funny, just makes it even funnier. 

Take my little brother for instance. A cute seven-year-old kid. He is totally obsessed with making videos on Photo Booth on the Mac. He makes—oh, I don't know—three or four videos a day of just random talking, fidgeting, and my favorite... making infomercials! 

Here's the ironic story: This one time, my brother starts the video then grabs his shirt with both of his hands and says, "Don't forget to buy shirts." He then goes on to talk about various things. Five minutes later, he just walks away from the computer, and you realize he doesn't have any pants on. Oh the irony! 

Thing is, the story doesn't end here. Well, the irony does end for the most part, but there are many more stories like this one. Maybe I can even try to upload some of the videos to this blog. We'll see.