The Old Man

So...yeah...remember me?  No?  I was afraid of that...
Hi!  My name's Bailey!  I...yeah.  Hi.
So I've been gone.  Not that anyone noticed.  At all.  Maybe it's a good thing I haven't been here.  But Junior year is not fun.  ACT prep, advanced classes, ACT prep, college prep, theatre, and ACT don't allow much room for sleep.  Or movies.  Or fun.  Or anything, really.  But while I'm procrastinating, I thought I'd pop on and share a short story I wrote for my creative writing class last month.  I wrote it while out-of-state for my Pap's funeral, and I honestly hated the finished project.  (And I think you could tell that because I had SOOO many grammatical mistakes.)  But I read it again today, and I realized it wasn't all that bad, yada, yada, yada.  So I thought I'd fill this blog with something, and here we are...
I don't know why any of you would do this if any of you will read this, but obviously please don't post this anywhere else or copy it/take credit for it.  I work pretty hard on my stories (after all, they're homework/grades) and yeah...
Sorry I suck.  

The Old Man

The gravestone was a simple one, bearing only the necessities: name, date, and the symbol that indicated his service.  The symbol surprised him: never had they known of his service.  Except for the small bouquet of violets and lilies placed on the side of the tombstone, one would be led to believe that the man had always been alone.  They’d always wondered that, if he had anyone.  Of course, no one had cared enough to ask, fearing what might happen if they became too attached.  Now Matthew regretted it.  Did he have anyone to mourn him?  To tend his plot?  To think about him?  He looked down at the grave and back up, searching for his wife and daughter standing a few tombstones away.  He knew they were watching him, and so indicated to them it would be a while.  Once they turned around and started walking away, Matthew bent down and began pulling up the weeds that threatened to engulf the small gravestone, completely forgetting the dampness of the grass or the fact that his suit was new.

            “I spoke about it today.”  Matthew was surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth but found he couldn’t stop the flow of words.  “It was…well, it was difficult, to say the least.  I’ve been putting it off for a while, actually.”  He imagined the old man nodding slightly, seemingly not listening.  But Matt new better.  The old man always listened, whether you were looking for someone to or not.  That was one of the many aspects Matt had secretly admired him for. 

Fangirl, Huh?

I was going to write a nice little post about how Nerds are all-awesome; however, that did not work out too well...  (Want to see the gif set that inspired the post originally?  Click here.)  Instead, I think I shall define some words in dire need of defining.  They are as follows:

• Fangirl
• Fangirl
• Fandom
• Ship(ping)
• OTP
• Canon
• FEELS

Okay, stop.  Breathe.  This won't be too hard.  Oh, wait.  You weren't freaking out?  Whoops.  Didn't think my heartbeat was that loud...
I don't know how many of you (eight or nine...) are on Tumblr or anything like that, but let me tell you: no one is ever really there to explain these terms to you.  You're welcome; Merry Christmas.  It's just something you pick up.  It's the slang of the fangirl world.  Look, there I go using a word that has yet to be defined.  The point is, unless you're seriously considering throwing the rest of your life away by sitting on your butt all day long wasting countless hours on Tumblr and reading fanfiction, these words won't really come in handy.  Especially considering every normal person has no clue what's being said.  That's when you're really in a pickle because by the time you start using these terms in normal, everyday conversation, you've forgotten the correct, universally understood term.  So, at long last, here goes...!

Fangirl
Really this is just a term for a female fan of anything.  (Without the italics,) this can also be fitted to the male gender: fanboy.

Fangirl
Fangirl encompasses all genders.  We're They're the extremists.  The ones who freak out over the smallest touch between two characters, details, release dates, merch(andise), actors/actresses, shooting locations, etc.  Be warned: context clues are really what are gonna tell you which version is being used.

Fandom
The best way I can explain this is a kingdom of fans.  Let's use the ILL (I Love Lucy) fandom.  The "royalty" would be Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and Frawley because they are the main stars of the show.  The fans of the show make up the kingdom's people.  But there are also fandoms for ships/OTPs (see below), in which case (still with ILL), the Ricardos would be your "royalty."

Ship(ping)
Shipping is the act of being for the relationship between two people/characters.  It could be male/female, male/male, female/female, or other...things depending on the...extremeness...Yeah there are some BAD fanfics out there...This is the tricky one.  Once you learn this word and fully understand it, you'll start using it in everyday conversation.  An example for you:  "Oh, Lucy and Desi.  I totally ship it!" or "Oh, Betty Haynes and Bob Wallace: ship it!"  Yes, it is completely acceptable to use this term for real people/couples.  At which point couple names come in handy.  (Jaggie, Brangalina, etc.)

OTP
One True Pairing.  Now, remember this one.  It's so important.  OTP really goes hand-in-hand with shipping.  I guess OTP was originally intended to be your TOP ship from all your fandoms, but no one on Tumblr follows the rules.  Ergo, it is very much acceptable to have multiple OTPs from multiple fandoms.  Want some examples?  Psych OTPs: Shules, Carlowe; CH OTPs: Lucy/Ricky, Nick Charles/Nora Charles, Betty Haynes/Bob Wallace, etc.  There are also BrOTPs, which are like bromances (brotherly romance, but definitely not incest.  See: Shawn and Gus (Shus).)

Canon
Canon relates to OTPs and shipping and refers to established couples (or couples already together) within a show/movie/book.

FEELS
The worst one, the most taxing one.  FEELS are feelings, plain and simple.  However, they aren't especially used in the same context.  FEELS for the fangirl world (the really obsessive fangirls, in case you didn't catch that) are feelings so strong that you basically have an attack.  Like a feelings seizure.  This especially occurs when OTPs (especially when not canon) share a cute moment or something really surprising happens.  Common responses for Tumblr users especially include "I can't" and "asd;klfalskd," or something to that affect.  It basically just indicates that we they are unable to properly function after what they just watched.

Lastly, I did not list this, but I did mention it a few times.  Fanfiction.  I don't know if there's anyone who does not know what FF is, but in case you do not...
Fanfiction is stories written by fans of a show/book/movie, or sometimes even a song/band.  Often it's a good way to get through a hiatus or to get some much needed OTP moments not provided on the show.  Some important terms to know, especially if you read on fanfiction.net are OOC (out of character), AU (alternate universe), A/N (author's note), R&R (read & review), songfic (FF written based on a song with the lyrics moving the story along), one-shot (mostly one page stories, also known as shorts), crossover (where a story is written combining two different shows, etc.), fluff (cute scenes between characters that really doesn't have a plot), slash (FF with same-sex pairings).

For those of you who stayed on to read everything, I hope this helped clear up any language issues you've been having.  I know this isn't really related to the purpose of this blog, but I feel this really needed to be done.  And remember: URBAN DICTIONARY IS YOUR FRIEND!

The "To-Do" List

Dun dun dun.

(This is me writing my list.)

No, really, lists are good for everyone.  A habit I picked up form The Princess Diaries.  <3

• finish Insurgent
• Actually write my admired person speech out about Rosie.  I may know way too much information to be considered a normal amount, but that does NOT mean I can get up in front of everyone and make sense.
• study for my camera test tomorrow
• change the layout of my Tumblr page (Though I am NOT happy with it...  >:/)
• add tags to all my posts on this blog
• organize my picture folders some more
• completely update my CH Movies Seen slideshow
• finish watching No Man of Her Own
• finish watching Parnell because I just remembered today that I never did
• get some actual, good sleep
• CLEAN.  MY.  PIGSTY.  room.
• sort my clothes and get rid of the old ones
• order some new CH movies/CDs/autobios
• charge my iPod
• make an attempt to keep my bed made (though there's almost absolutely no point because I'm one of THOSE sleepers.  You know: the kind that twist, toss, and turn in their sleep and end up kicking their sheet to the end of the bed and throwing their Harry Potter squishy doll on the floor and completely turn my bed spread around and yeah...)
• organize my school binder
• PRACTICE MY CLARINET
• organize my bookshelf
• write.  and just write.  on actual paper.
• clear off my desk
• cross off the days on my calendar, which is on said desk, covered with papers and such
• throw out all these gift cards that probably only have 30 cents left on them
• GET TO SELLING THOSE UGLY OLD TWILIGHT THINGS.  That obsession is LONG over, B.
• tape up some things and take down others (from the walls)
• answer Ashley's Tumblr messages
• clean up this "mess" I've been leaving behind over behind the scenes at Film-Classics.  (Don't tell anyone, but all the ILL episodes I've unlocked have yet to be relocked.  But not for long!  (I hope.))  (And I got the Films section clean up, too!  :D)
• write my letter to Rosie for Nat's latest blog-a-thon
• get a life

Awful long list...better get started.

~Off to write a stuffy essay that won't help me much, then study for a test that hopefully will be easy to pass.

Oh.  And make tomorrow's lunch.

P.S.  We had our first history test last week and there was a question on there whose answer is quite honestly obvious: True or False: Queen Elizabeth I divorced her 3rd husband. 

Quite obviously false.  My reasoning for it being so quitely obvious?  SHE WAS THE VIRGIN QUEEN.  SHE NEVER MARRIED.  

Why does no one seem to know this but ME?!  (And my 6th grade brother.  But he doesn't count.)  Not even my dad, my history buff father, knew that.  Who else did they think VIRGINia was named after, if not for the VIRGIN QUEEN?!

GAH.  THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END.

"How To Avoid Sleep" by Bailey

Yes.  It's 10:50 on a Sunday night and I have school at 8 tomorrow morning.  Which requires getting up at no later than 6:45 to shower.  We can see how well I am at putting off certain things I really need (SLEEEEP).
Last week (actually, exactly 9 days ago), I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth.  If you've never read this book or the series at all, get out of here.

Okay, now come back.

Really, you're very lucky because I have been constantly attacked by FEELS (feelings, for those of you who do not kill countless brain cells on Tumblr) these past days.  I read Divergent in 7 hours last Friday and I now have about 100 pages left of Insurgent.  Wow.  I.  CAN'T.  TAKE.  IT.  I never thought anyone could be as cute as Lucy and Ricky/Lucy and Desi.  And then I found Nick and Nora Charles and they almost were.  And then there's Juliet and Shawn/Maggie and James.  Do you know how many FEELS that is?  On top of it all, I now have Fourtris (the main ship for the Divergent trilogy) to cut my heart in half.  And Insurgent is NOT.  HELPING.
In other news, reading Veronica Roth's blog is "inspiring" me to write.  So instead of paying attention in Algebra like I should tomorrow, I will write.  Because that's what I do.  Because that's how that little bump on my right ring finger came about.  That's right.  While normal people (or maybe that's just Jo March) have ink or lead or something on their hands, I have a bump.  No, it's not a wart.  I don't get warts.  I've had this thing for YEARS.  See, when I write, I hold my utensil with my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and rest it on the side of my ring finger.  Now maybe a normal person would not have a problem with this.  But I write fast and I write hard.  The utensil pushes up against my ring finger, thus creating my little writing bump.
And that is my main writer's trademark.
Plus, has anyone ever (at least slightly) studied handwriting analysis?  I find it so fascinating.  I always like looking at my handwriting and how I form letters and words.

Cool picture of the day:

(Taken from judyforever)

~B.
(P.S.  And, yes.  I am now trying out the first initial sign off thing.  I need a change in my name life.  You can't really get many nicknames from Bailey, and, though I've recently been contemplating Bai, that name has long been strictly reserved to cousins and other family members.  And even then I hardly ever liked it.)