Finally, I return!

Sorries, been SUPER busy lately, with my job, exam studying (they're next week) and just "plain" life, I've hardly had the time to post!

Now that that is out of the way, on to a more pressing subject: I AM CHANGING MY BLOG TO TUMBLR! Yes indeed, this blog will cease to be updated; my tumblr one will take its place. I've found that I like it much better. I like the different layouts, the way it can link with my twitter account and stuff, and the overall organization of the site.

Just wanted to let those who read this, especially my one follower, imagyst, that this blog will not be updated anymore and that if anyone wants to keep reading my posts, they need to do so through my tumblr blog, which has kept the name "Cranial Offload."

Here's the link to it: sberendt.tumblr.com

Purdue Univeristy

I actually really liked the campus. I mean, I like Rhodes College's better, but Purdue's is pretty nice. The campus isn't all spread out like the one at Northwestern, which is a plus; The campus is a 'walking campus', which means you could walk to anywhere on campus. I guess most campus', if not all, are like that, but at Purdue, you can get anywhere on campus within ten minutes by walking.

The application requirements aren't that 'bad" (meaning they're not really high in my book), and they have a pretty good academic reputation.

There wasn't anything that really stood out to me, except their choice of mascot (Boilermakers). The school is nice, and I would rank it one spot below Northwestern, or at the same level.

School Preference List at the Moment:

• Rhodes
• Northwestern
• Purdue

(I posted the University's link a post or two ago)

TWITTER!

Twitter is the coolest way to keep in touch with friends, family, and hundreds, probably thousands of institutions and places world-wide. For instance, you can 'follow': COSI, numerous news channels, Obama, many Hollywood stars, the list goes on! To get a better idea about what Twitter is, watch this awesome video on YouTube that does a great job at explaining it. I'll post the link at the bottom of this post. After watching it, you can go to the Twitter website and try it out! I'll also post that link. HAPPY TWEETING!

"Twitter in plain English" video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Twitter's site: http://twitter.com/

Another College Trip!

My mom, dad, and I will be leaving soon to go to Purdue. I went to the information session for the school earlier this year, but I am glad that I will be actually there on campus.

So, yeah. I'll be tweeting about it if you want to kind of be here along with me. Don't know what tweeting is? See my next post!


Purdue's site: http://www.purdue.edu/

I GOT A JOB!

I'm going to be working at LoneStar, a steakhouse. I love that place! Now I'll be working there! IMy training begins on Monday; I'm so excited!

I'll be a hostess, but I will dabble in a bit of everything; busing tables, helping waiters and waitresses with the food, etc.



LoneStar: http://www.lonestarsteakhouse.com/files/home.aspx

"The Latin Lady"

There is this older lady that frequently is a substitute in my school district. I'm pretty sure every student here knows of her. Her nickname? "The Latin Lady." As you might have guessed, she loves Latin, and before doing what the sub notes tell her to do, she writes a Latin quote of some kind on the board and eventually tells us what it means, usually after we struggle to decipher it.

I personally like her as a sub, though she can get a bit cranky. I love Latin, though I am very, very far from being fluent. I know a few phrases and words. I plan on taking it in college.

She was my Psychology class' substitute today. She wrote this on the board: "Gravioro quaedam sunt remedia periculis." Apparently, it translates to "Some remedies are worse than the danger." Which is actually true, if you think about it.

For instance, back in ancient times, and through the middle ages, one common way to get rid of an illness was through "bleeding"; using leeches or cutting. People sometimes died from the blood loss if they were being bled too much at once or too often. I assume that they could have also gotten infections and such from the open wounds. They would have been better off ridng the sickness out!

Reflections on Spring Break

I played Sims 2, worked on my book, and kept up with my Storywrite stuff a lot during the week, and I also spent a lot of time with my family. I had tons of fun!
We got the inside of our house painted. It looks very purdy! It is a sort of tan color that goes very well with our furniture.

I finished the fifth chapter of my book; I am so happy with myself! Writer's block has plagued me recently. It's annoying.

SPRING BREAK!

Spring Break is here! I'm elated! I do have to spend some time organizing my room, but I enjoy that, so it's no problem. I finished all of my homework so I basically have a stress free week to look forward to. W00T! I have to update my DeviantArt account, seeing as I have TONS of photos from D.C. and the inauguration waiting to be posted. I'll also update all of my other sites and stuff. So, yeah, breaks are awesome!

Teachers, Oh Teachers........

My school district is officially opening a third high school this coming school year, and it is doing a bit of card shuffling. Some teachers from my school are being made to work at the new high school next year. Other teachers are being moved to the other high school in our district, and a few are even being moved to the middle schools!

On the day of the individual announcements, one teacher at a time was fetched to meet with the principal, people from the district office, etc, privately to discuss their fate. Those who weren't fetched were safe, meaning they are staying here at my school.

Many teachers cried, and not always because they were being forced to work at another school. There were teachers who were being "let go", so to speak. Not quite fired. I can't really explain it. Several teachers were crying because some of their coworkers were leaving, their friends were leaving.

I think at the end of this year, my school should throw a sort of party for all of the staff. I think they would really appreciate it. The class cabinets could set it up.

Numerous teachers and other staff who are leaving are my friends, and I will miss them so much. I will miss them, but I will try my hardest to visit them wherever they will be next year.

"Beware the Ides of March"

Today is the ides of March! For those of you who don't know, today is the day that Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C. Yeppers, he was stabbed to death in the senate house. I watched an episode of "Unearthing Ancient Secrets" that talked about his death. It was weird though, that they played it a week or two ago instead of today. Hmm.

Anyway, the man who was trying to figure out if the "story" of how Caesar died, the stabbing and such by 60 or so of the senators, was actually true. After doing some research and a few reenactments, he decided that it was most likely false. He believes that the ideal number of senators that killed him was about five. The maximum, he theorized, was about ten. Obviously, he can't give concrete proof, but his findings, to me, appear to be very accurate and plausible. I guess we will never know.

The show:

http://science.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=48.13967.125924.37377.7

Rhodes College

I know in my previous post I mentioned that I visited Rhodes College, located in Memphis, TN. I wanted to make a post about it, since I simply LOVE the school and LOVED the campus when I went to visit it.

First off, it's entire student population is less than the total number of students in my high school. It has about 1,600 students, my high school has over 2,100 students; crazy, I know! The campus, obviously, is not the largest, but that does not take away from the college at all! It is quieter, but that does not mean it is any less a place where you can be social. There are many school organizations and clubs, as well as a Greek system and volunteer and leadership opportunities.

The buildings are older looking, almost castle like, since they're made out of stones and such. I can't really describe them accurately here, you should look at them on the website that I will post at the bottom of this post.

The security is also very good there. The whole campus in fenced in with guarded entrances and such. Every dorm, and several other "community" buildings require a special sort of "key-card" key chain that each student receives. I believe they are registered to you somehow so that the activity of it could be monitored. If, say, it got lost or somehow stolen, the college could help you find it by observing its activity. They could see which building(s) it was being used for. Cool, huh?

There is also great abroad and scholarship opportunities; which are big areas of interest for me as well! There is also a family feel to the whole expereice. The classes are no more than 15 or so students, but the average is less than that! The focus of the college is academics, which is a plus. It's like a big family there.

The surrounding are is so awesome, too. I'd have access to the zoo across the street, Graceland, and all the other major areas of Memphis all within a half hour or so of the campus.

I could go on and on about the college, but that would take forever! You should check it out.

Rhodes College Website: http://www.rhodes.edu/

Northwestern University

My parents and I took a little road trip to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. I'd been there for a CTD (Center for Talent Development) session in sixth grade, but I didn't remember a lot about the campus. Going on this visit was really beneficial.

I found that I really liked the campus, the parts I did remember and all the new parts that I saw for the first time. The campus is much larger the that of Rhodes College down in Memphis, TN, which I and my parents visited in February. (I didn't make a post about it; I forgot to update my blog, again.....). Even though it is bigger, I don't think that will be much of an issue.

Its academic reputation is outstanding, and a great academic focus is one of the big things I look for in a college or university.

I love the university over all, and I will definitely be applying. I probably won't apply for/at early admission, since doing so, as the university's policy dictates, is like signing a contract with them. If you apply for early admission, you have to withdraw all your other applications, and if they accept you, you have to go there. Harsh, I think, but not if you are dead set on going there. But for me, I love several colleges/universities, and I don't want to limit myself to one.

Northwestern University's Website: http://www.northwestern.edu/

TomTom!

Guess what.....I just got a TomTom! It's an awesome GPS thing for your car! My dad has one, and now I do too! Mine will actually say the streets and stuff I need to go on, not just saying "turn left" or "turn right", etc. I will be using it as I get my hours in. Yes, I haven't finished the required driving hours I am supposed to be working on...I've been slacking a bit. ;)

SOOO AWESOME!!!!!!


On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/TomTom-ONE-S-3-5-Inch-Portable-Navigator/dp/B001N2NPJM

Aristotle Quote of The Day

The Aristotle quote that is showing today on the right side of my blog is "Misfortune shows those who are not really friends". How true is that? If you fall on some hard times, the true friends will be there with you all the way, helping you get through the rough patches like you would do for them. Yeah, it's always nice to know who your true friends are.

Alanna, The First Adventure

This book, by Tamora Pierce (one of my favorite authors!) is about a girl named Alanna. She and her twin brother want to do different things with their lives than what their father wants them to do. In this medieval tale, Alanna wants to become a knight, and her twin, Thom, wants to learn sorcery. Their father wants them to do the opposite.

Alanna convinces her brother to go along with her plan: she'd pretend to be a boy and go to the palace to become a knight while Thom would go and learn magic. A radical idea, surely.

This book follows her adventures and hardships as she makes friends, and enemies, struggling to keep her secret a secret and fulfill her callings in magic and the path to knighthood.

I really loved this book and I plan on finding copies of the others in the series and read them as well.

Rating: 8 or 9 (out of 10)

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Alanna-First-Adventure-Song-Lioness/dp/0689878559

DeviantArt

I don't think people look at my blog much, but they should, I'm actually a pretty cool person.

Well, back to the topic I meant for this to be. DeviantArt. I'm on it. You should check out my photos. People have made many of them their favorites, and one person even featured one of them (not to sound conceited or anything). I so proud! If you look to the "author info" thing or whatever on my blog next to the picture I use as my profile pic, the URL to my page on the site is towards the end of the block of information there.

Happy viewing!

*This has been a self promotion, hate it, then ignore it! :)

My DA Account: http://sberendt.deviantart.com/

Random Observation On Last Post, etc.

I know this is random, but did you notice how LONG my last post was? Yeah, so random comment, right?

On another note, I'm so proud of myself, I've been keeping up with updating my blog! Yay me!

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is, like, in the top five list of my favorite games of all time! Love it, love it, love it! It's super fun to sneak up on the guards and stealth assassinate them and watch their buddies run over and look around, like, WTF? (laughs). Yeah, much fun to be had in that game.

The graphics are very nice, too, so is the overall game play. You play Altair, a skilled assassin who, because of a mistake he made and his abundant arrogance, has to start at the bottom of the food chain as a novice. He has to kill these nine men listed in a list his Master guy has made. They are supposedly evildoers who need to be taken care of. As you progress through the game and make your kills, etc., you gain more of the abilities, skills, and weapons that you had lost when you had been demoted.

You have to pickpocket, eavesdrop, and interrogate/intimidate to gain the information you need to be able to be cleared to go through with the assassination. There's also extra things that you can do, like saving innocent citizens of the city, collecting flags, and just creating havoc with the guards for fun.

I've already beaten the game, as you've probably guessed, but I decided it would be fun to play it through again. I actually played it not too long ago. I only played for an hour or so, so I haven't gotten back many abilities, weapons, etc. I really do miss the throwing knives........ -

COLDNESS! AHHH!

The weather was soooo nice about a week ago, now it's turned for the worse! (Yes, I AM being a bit dramatic). Well, it's not as bad as it could be, or as I make it out to be, but you try "surviving" 20 degree weather when it was 60 degrees not even a full week ago!

Okay, dramatics over. I'm not really like that, truly, just sometimes. :)

New Template

Yeah, I changed the template of my blog. Not a momentous occasion to publish a post about, but I felt like doing it anyway. I can't really decide if I like it better than the one I had before. It does match the pic I used for my avatar..... Hmmm..... guess I'll sleep on it.

Greywalker

Greywalker, by Kat Richardson, is quite an out-there novel. Harper Blaine is a PI and really does only small-time gigs. After being assaulted and left dead for two minutes by a client's step-father, she starts seeing things coming from a grey mist. She was made a Greywalker through her "death". Harper is able to move between our world and the world where things like vampires and ghosts exist. This book is about how she struggles to accept who she is and deal with the creatures and evil artifacts that come calling.

It's a bit slow in the beginning, which is kind of annoying, but towards the middle, things start picking up speed and get more interesting.

*Rating out of ten: 5 or 6

(0 is the worst, 10 is the best)

Storywrite

I joined a group called "Novels Only Please", and I am so glad that I did. I just posted the first chapter of my book, and I have gotten so much feedback. It has helped me make it even better! I have four chapters up in a list, so when anyone reads a chapter, they are shown that there are other chapters in the same list. Assured reading and commenting. Awesome times!

If you're a writer and want to get quality feedback, you should join Storywrite. You can sign up as a free member and buy memberships to upgrade and get cool benefits. I won't go on and on about it, but if you're interested, go check it out!

(Sorry for the advertisement, I just really think Storywrite is an awesome site! :P )

National Honor Society

Almost done with the application process. I have to write my two essays and finish filling out the orange two-page packet thing. Just those and one more signature. W00t! I really want to be accepted and inducted!

Is It......Drizzling?

Really, it's drizzling? Maybe early spring? Yeah right. Yay rainish weather! (and total randomness!)

Warm Weather!

Can you believe it? It'll be about 61 degrees tomorrow, in February! Well, I guess it's not that unbelievable, but still. It was snot-freezing cold a week or two ago. Where I live, we sometimes get snow in march, so I'm surprised it'll be so warm. On Halloween, it was in the mid-thirties or something crazy like that. I'm rambling a bit, so I'll just leave. ^_^

Work, Work, and More Work

I am STILL finishing up make-up work from the time I was gone for the inauguration. Ugh. I have to finish a test tomorrow, and finish a project and a simple book assaignment. I am almost done, thankfully. W00t!

SNOW DAYS!

Yesterday and today have been snow days, which is totally awesome! I plan on doing some so called "nerdy" things like working ahead with homework and stuff. I'll also play some Sims 2, and any games on the PS3 that I feel like playing. Maybe there won't be school tomorrow? (probably too much to ask..... :P )

New Sites......

Yeah, I now have accounts with Facebook and DeviantART. Wow. I now am a part of many websites. Yeesh, that's a lot to keep updated, if they are "supposed" to be, anyway!
*Determined to keep them updated*
The list: Twitter, Facebook, DeviantART, Storywrite, Netflix, Amazon, Kwiry, blogger, and.....oh, that's all of them. Yeesh (again!)

Inauguration

I WAS THERE! I was at the inauguration of Barack Obama! It was so amazing. The ceremony brought tears to my eyes. It was really cold, but it was an overall great experience. I made sure to get lots of pictures.