What I have been up to lately.

Three things, actually. First, I've been rereading the Harry Potter series, which I'm also going to bring with me to China (actually, just books 1-4). I'm now on the Chamber of Secrets--really good so far, of course, because J.K. Rowling is a writing goddess--and I really want to watch the movies again, even though I'm not that big a fan of some of them. Except, the only movie I have is the Sorcerer's Stone, and that's on a VCR tape. Plus, our VCR player won't work, so...nope, no Harry Potter movies for me this week.

The second thing is this:

There's a difference between these four books. The first two are the ones I bought at Walmart two days ago because the bottom two were decapitated and...dead. You know the bottom two versions of the Goblet of Fire and the Order of the Phoenix are a few years old because their bindings are different from the first two: they have patterns instead just a single solid color like those <--. They also have pages that are browner and thinner, and they're extremely worn. In fact, they're so worn, that they were once split into parts: The Goblet of Fire was split into thirds (with 1/3 missing) and the Order of the Phoenix was split into sevenths (with 2/7 missing). I had to hunt all of the pieces down, like horcruxes (ha ha ha, bad Harry Potter joke :P). Then I hot glued the pieces together and taped the bindings. With book five, I had to make a whole new binding. Now I have two book fours and two book fives.

And that, everyone, is the second thing I've been up to.


The third thing is of course PSAT studying. Lately I've been diligent and committed to my prep book, but I think I'm about to crack. There's only so much studying a fourteen year old can do when she isn't even going to take the test until September.

This picture over here --> are some of the PSAT notes I took on sample problems covering what the prep book calls "basic math". It includes rate, average, symbols, and special triangles. I don't know why I took these notes. Math is supposed to be a subject where, you know, you either know it or you don't. There isn't too much studying required (or so everyone says). Just practice, practice, practice.

But not for me. I take notes. I make detailed step-to-step notes on how to solve a specific problem, and then follow it up with an explanation why. I don't know why I do this...and now that I look at this picture, I'm like, "Outlining math problems? What the heck was I even thinking?" Maybe this is my writer side coming out.

And, just for the heck of it, here's a song I really like by a band I haven't listened to in awhile, that reminds me of the last book of my demon slayer series.




- E