The (few!!) poems that reach my heart.

I heard this poem in a movie today ("In My Country," if you're wondering), and I loved it. Abso-freaking-lutely LOVED it. I'm now trying to find a way to put it up on my wall somehow: either in a print, or in stencil, or wire, or something.  Anything!!  LOVED IT.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly
-Langston Hughes

Of course, I had to share it.  It's only half a poem, but the second half doesn't really add anything for me, so I'm good with just those four lines. You can read the rest here if you're interested. You can also read all about Langston Hughes here or read more of his poetry here.

LOVE IT.

I'm not usually big on poetry, but I loved this one. I can now add it to the very few poems I love.
The only other one I love to death is The Riddle of Strider by J.R.R. Tolkien:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Sadly, it wasn't used in the movies where it should have been. The second half was said by Arwen during the Return of The King. I think it was when they were fixing the sword to give to Aragorn. But seriously, I don't care what kind of nerd it makes me, but it is my favourite poem ever.

What else do I love?? Kid Cudi's lyrics (amazing!!) and one unfrogettable line in Bilbo Baggin's birthday speech ("I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.").

Vegas?? YES!!

I've decided that while I'm at home unemployed I should learn something new.  Maybe I don't have enough awesomely random qualifications for jobs, so I'm gonna teach myself a few things I've always wanted to learn.  Or I guess learn more of or be better at.

So I've been reviewing what I know of HTML and learning some new stuff.  I'm also planning to learn CSS.  It's not so bad, since I know the basics of HTML.  Not too much, but enough that it makes sense and I can make you a basic site.  I'm sure it'll get more confusing once I get to frames.  Frames seem kinda crazy.  The CSS is gonna be more complicated too, I'm sure.  But hopefully I'll be able to create myself an awesome site!!  I like the idea of doing the whole blog myself.  Prolly not for this one, but maybe for Since You Asked...

I'm also trying to better my Spanish.  I'm super slow at reading and I suck at writing, so I've decided to fix that.  How you ask??  Well, not with a fancy class or anything.  I'm just gonna take out library books and read them.  Slowly.  That way, I'll eventually learn to read faster, and hopefully my vocabulary and writing will be better.  It's how I learned my awesome English, so hopefully it'll work the same way.  Also, hopefully I'll learn where the damn accents go.  'Cause I can't figure that shit out to save my life.

So those two are my goal.  Once I master those, I may move on to other things.  I also want to do a few more DIYs, but those require work, and I'm kinda lazy.  At least, too lazy to find out how to do what I want, then get the stuff I need, and then actually do it.  But you never know.  If I do, I'll definitely post them on here.  I also want to figure out a way to grow tomatoes on my balcony, but like the aforementioned DIYs, I'm lazy.

Also, I'm prolly going to Vegas in June with Jenn.  It's gonna kick ass!!  I found a deal where we can go for four nights, so leaving Monday morning and coming back Friday afternoon, for $566 (including taxes and everything).  That's for the flight and a room at the Luxor.  I'm kinda hoping we can do it, 'cause it'd be freaking awesome!!!!  We're gonna see if Jarx wants to come, but I don't know if he can get the time off (or if he and his gf already have plans for any possible time off). I plan to once again (and hopefully succeed this time) attemptto have a shot at every bar down the strip.  I was one away from the end last time and I will so do it this time!!  Although hopefully, it won't be followed by an almost 6 hour bus ride that I was still drunk for (at least I was at the beginning!!).

Unfortunately, there will sadly be no concert in New Jersey in May for me.  I'm gonna either be going camping or Tom's trailer.  I'm okay with either plan, I just wish Matt was coming with us.  I like spending time with him and I think he'd enjoy it, if he gave it a chance.  It makes me a little sad that he doesn't want to ever come.  But oh, well.  I'm sure I'll have an awesome time anyways!!

30 Days of Truth: Books that have changed my world.

17. A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.

Hmm. I've been thinking about this one, and I really can't come up with anything. I can't say that there are any books that have made me look at something differently or made me change my life in any kind of drastic way.

The closest I can come to books that have influenced or made changes in my life are "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, "Coming Home" by Rosamunde Pilcher, "The Third Magic" by Welwyn Wilton Katz, and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.

None of them were epic, life-altering, opinion-changing books, but they did have an impact, in their own ways.

"The Giver" is the first book I remember reading and loving. I was like 9, I think, and I thought it was fantastic. It was the first book I'd read that wasn't set in a world that was like mine - they had different rules and customs and way of living. It made me realize that books could show me something different - a different life, world, situation - than mine, and that made me want to read more.  I started to read any and every book I could.  It was also the first book I read more than once.

Honestly, I didn't understand the word 'dystopia' until many years later, but even now, I love books about dystopian societies. "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry, was also big for me, actually.  It was the first book I read about what the Jews went through during World War II.  It made me want to research more into it, although I didn't really do that until I read "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank a year or two later.

"Coming Home" was the first book I read that I couldn't put down.  It wasn't anything fantastical or whimsical, but it was the first 'adult' book I'd read.  It's about a British girl living alone and growing up her parents abroad in Singapore (then Sri Lanka) and spanned from when she is 14 in 1935 until she's 24 in 1945.  This book was hardcover and approximately 700 or 800 pages.  I was only about 10 years old when I read it, but it made my thirst for books so much more pronounced.  I wanted more!!  And suddenly, I wasn't afraid to read books that weren't in the children's section.  It was incredibly liberating.  I was so proud of myself and I felt like a grown-up. Although it's been a few years since I read it (for the hundredth or so time!!), this book remains one of my favourites.

I found "The Third Magic" in a pile of books during 'reading time' at school, and it was the first fantasy book I read.  It was amazing!!  There was magic, and weird creatures, and laws and natural things that aren't like here at all.  I loved it!!  I read it over and over and over and over again.  The best part was that it was about a normal girl, living in 20th century Earth, that ended up somewhere else.  It was incredible.  Even now, those are my favourite kinds of books.  I'm pretty sure I was in grade six when I read it, so I would have been about 11 or 12.

I didn't read "Animal Farm" until I was about 15, and when I did, it spawned an intense love of all things Russian history for me.  I loved reading anything and everything I could get that was related to the Tsars and their stories.  I read anything and everything I could about the revolution and Russia's political life around that time.

So there you go.  Books that made an impact.  At least, those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.