Summer Lists

Well, today I am technically supposed to have my semester exam for this period. However, I have already finished my dual credit class, so there is nothing special about it. There is no exam to take. I have to take fifth and seventh period exams also, but I exempted the exams for those two classes, so I will be in the commons for those parts of the day. Next week, I only have to come to school and check in on Thursday, and I have first period only on wednesday. Friday we have graduation practice, then graduation. Monday we have off because of memorial day.

Nearly every summer, I have this list of songs that I want to make videos for, books that I want to read, and things that I want to do. This year, I haven't made them yet, so I decided to make them into part of the blog post. Let's go!

Summer Songs

• Summer's Not Hot by Selena Gomez
• Come and Get it by Selena Gomez
• Deathbed by Relient K
• Candlelight by Relient K
• A World Without Danger from Code Lyoko
• It's Time by Imagine Dragons
• Mamacita by Family Force Five
• Tank Top by Family Force Five
• Down at the Twist and Shout by Mary Carpenter

Summer Reading

• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• The Great Gatsby
• Catch 22
• The One That Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Doctor Who/Star Trek (A crossover series that I will have to buy online)
• Some kind of manga series that I haven't determined yet... possible fma or something. I really wish there was a Doctor Who manga series...

Not-Bummer Summer List

• Go to the beach
• Get my drivers liscense
• Make music videos
• Read books
• Make a green screen video
• Cover more songs on the ukulele
• Apply for scholarships
• Make skit/sketch videos
• Have a party
• Dye my hair red
• Spend time with Taylor
• Pre-order This Star Won't Go Out
• Watch Les Miserables (the newest movie)
• Buy one of those "50 movies for $8" sets from walmart and watch all the old, cheesy movies
• Make a short film
• Learn ASL
• Get a new SMASH book and finish the old one
• Watch both the old and new versions of The Great Gatsby
• Get books from Half Price Books
• Screen print more shirts, possibly some with the lizardbreathwalker logo on them
• Paint things
• Sew things
• Get mini business cards from Moo.com
• Get another Snow White gig
• Blog more
• Post 365 nerds vlog (on my birthday, July 29th!)
• Start a bank account
• Start actually getting payed for ads and monetized videos
• Go swimming
• Go adventuring with my friend, Sarah
• Vlog more
• Get a WIDE ANGLE LENSE (maybe)
• Modify tshirts
• Go shopping at a thrift store and modify the clothes I buy
• Make a pikachu hat (or buy one)
• Get in shape by playing Just Dance on the xbox 360
• Work on videos for the Knowledge days channel, and be ready to release them when school starts
• Get a better intro video for my youtube channel that represents what the channel is about
• Go to some sort of concert (I would go to boomin' by the bay, but it is no longer by the bay, but in houston, and I only know about one of the artists that will be there, and I don't even care for him that much)

There are probably more things that I can't currently remember but will put here eventually. I feel like some of these won't happen and some of them are bound to happen no matter what. I think I might post an update about half way through summer about how far I have gotten. I am also not going to blog as often during the summer (sorry!). I haven't figured out the schedule yet, but I'm thinking about once a week. I will be posting videos more often though, so that might be helpful. Oh, and if you have anything that you think that I should do or whatever or if you are doing something interesting this summer, feel free to leave it in the comments. Book reccomendations are highly appreciated also.

Love,
Elizabeth W.

The last day...

Tomorrow is my first day  back at drama practice. I really want to just sleep in instead and not go out and talk to people. I just want to be a hermit over spring break, is that too much to ask?

I am currently downloading yet another video editing program. Magix. This has been one of my favourites. I downloaded a lower quality version about two months ago, but my free trial ran out, so I'm trying this one.

I really need to just decide on one program and buy it. Then I don't have to worry about finding a new one and I can learn all the features of the one that I buy. I can spend a lot more time editing too. I would have just used WMM for this video, but it includes cloning, and WMM on windows 8 doesn't allow cloning.

The only really good thing about the practice tomorrow is that during spring break we go to someone's house after practice each day and have a party type thing. I don't know who will be hosting it tomorrow though.

I really don't have much to talk about right now. Although, we got a new car yesterday and it is awesome. A Buick Enclave. There are 7 seats and a ton more room than our HHR had.

I designed some mini business cards yesterday on the website moo.com. They were pretty awesome. I think I might actually buy some, I just have to get some money first. I need to come up with about twenty or so dollars, and that will get me 100. They have a QR code on them too, which takes people to my youtube channel. And on the back there is a full color picture of my account picture ( the one from the cloning montage).

Love,
Elizabeth W.

Free Day Monday...

I almost typed friday, because it would sound good.

Yes, today is monday, and free day monday because it is in fact spring break. I am currently discussing graduation with my grandmother while stealing my brother's french fries. It almost feels like summer.

I am enjoying being away from one act and all of the people associated with it. I miss my friends, Ellen and Maddie, and the other people are fun to be around, but I really don't feel like the practices are enjoyable anymore. I would quit, but I'm the lead actress, and I think my director would kill me. Especially since I have her for drama class also. I just have to muck through it.

I have been kind of lazy all day. I listened to music and watched youtube videos. I watched a movie and washed some clothes and dishes (seperately, of course). Since my grandmother just left, I am listening to vlogbrothers videos while blogging.

I realized yesterday, while watching fun summer-y music videos, that I really want to go to the beach or go swimming or something of that nature. I just have no way to get there. I have several friends who went to the beach this week, and some of them even went to florida. But... I am stuck at home while my parents are out car shopping.

I have also watched quite a lot of movies during this time away from the school-ish place of torture. Like, in the last three days I have watched more movies than I have in the last three weeks. I watched Wreck-It-Ralph, Oz the Great and Powerful, Here Comes the Boom, Red Dawn, and I feel like there was another one, but I cannot remember one. I also neglected to check my stock today and I cannot because the market is closed. SNAP.

I enabled ads on my videos on youtube, but I have not been approved for an adsense account. I do not understand. Google, Y U SO CONSUFING? Okay, that was a terrible typo, but I felt that it was still kind of awesome so I left it there.

I also tried to find some geocaching apps to work on my phone, but I haven't been majorly successful yet. I really want to go geocaching, but I have not gotten a chance to do so yet. And I am now cooking waffle fries and drinking cherry dr pepper. Awesome foods FTW!

I have a sudden urge to go biking, but I am babysitting, so I cannot. And my parents may not get back before dark, so I will probably go biking tomorrow.

I found out today that, thanks to my younger brother who is made of awesome, my grandfather is addicted to Doctor Who. Nerdfighters for the win!

I gotta go do something. Maybe.

Love,
Elizabeth W.

Oh, and go vote for forever the fierce so that they can play Warped Tour. It would mean a lot to them is you did. You can vote once each day.

Ehhh... Close Enough

Well, views got pretty close to 975 yesterday. Only 927 or so, but thats alright. Close enough. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make that big of a difference. This month I would like to reach 1000 though. I think it would be really cool to have 3 months in a row that had over 900 views.

I started writing my documentary script today during Aquatic Science. The teacher wasn't there and we were watching a documentary on poaching and stuff, so I was half watching the movie and half writing the script. I got about two and a half pages into the actual script. That doesn't seem like much, but for a documentary that includes interviews, that is like 15 minutes of the film.

I also wrote an outline/list of things that I want to cover in the film. I think this is a real possibility. I wrote down names of a few people that I know personally, and a few that I hope to meet someday. I think that if I get the equipment and crew and time to actually film this, then I'll write them and ask them to be in it. I think it would be really cool.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to go becoming youtube style and sit and narrate it or use voice recordings over clips of related things. Either one is possible. I don't know if I want me to be the narrator or if I want to hire someone. The only thing that bothers me is that I really can't hire people because I don't have money to do so. If I can get it going, I'll do a kickstarter, but I have to have a fully written and typed script and some publicity first.

The notebook that I started writing the script in is a fancy one that I begged my mom to let me have at the beginning of the school year, but then forgot about until now. Its a crayola "Wild Notes" notebook. It came with a special pen that only writes on the paper in the notebook and when it does, it has a purpleish color with blue and green and pink and yellow and orange spots in it. I think it kind of fits and makes the rough draft of the script more interesting.

I know this sounds really mean, but I kinda want one act play to be over with already. I love the acting and the family feeling with the other actors and the crew. I love spending time in the theatre. I just miss being able to do other things besides go to practice. I have practice today from 4:00 to 8:00. Thats a whole 4 hours! And tommorow we have an eight hour practice. We also have four (three for me) practices on spring break. One Act is a lot of fun and really rewarding, but I don't remember it requiring this much sacrifice.

I have quite a few youtube videos that I have been ready to edit but I haven't gotten the time to do so yet. I have like two music videos, a mini documentary vlog, and like two vlogs. I should get to upload at least one over spring break. Maybe.

Since it is friday, I might as well leave you with an amusing meme or picture, so here we go...

Just kidding, all I could find on short notice was this. Enjoy!

Love,
Elizabeth W.

BOOOO! CONFRONTATION!

BLECH! I have to go talk to the counselor again today. I have to get more transcripts and a scholarship application and get a paper filled out and all sorts of things. I really don't want to. However, I think I might have to do it during this period, since she is rarely there during lunch.

I have started on the book I am writing, but it is not a book. Its a screen play. A movie script. Really and truly.

I've had this idea for a while, I have just never put it down on paper. I don't want to reveal too much, but I will say that it is historically based. I know, I'm such a hypocrite for that. Most of the details are really fuzzy though, so I can make up most of it. Its a movie, so that gives me even more right to make it inaccurate.

I don't want to give away too many details, but I will say that it is a serious story and is rather curious. The key word? Elephant. Seriously, that is the current name of the almost-movie. I haven't thought of anything better.

I am only about a page into writing it, so don't expect it in theatres any time soon.

I really wonder how different it is in writing a stage play and a screen play. Same basic stuff. Except for special effects, why couldn't screen plays be performed as stage plays?

I didn't get to look for my old stories yesterday. Instead I watched a movie on Vudu with my family. Brave. I've seen it before, but thats okay. Its still a good movie. Its funny, because I have a friend who looks a lot like Merida, and she has relatives with the white streak in their hair like Merida's mum.

Well, I better get off to the counselor's office. I really don't want to go. BLECH. Don't forget to comment names for the bear contest. It ends on the last day of February. Goodbye.

Love,
Elizabeth W.

Les Miserables

So, this weekend I watched Les Miserables, the 25th anniversary version with Nick Jonas, all the way through. The plot was so sad, and I felt like it ended really abrupty. Practically everybody dies. Everyone but Marius and Cosette, and Marius came close to dying. I find it weird that Marius and Cosette play rather minor roles compared to Jean Valjean and Javert, but they are the ones who survive the whole tragedy. Either way, I look foreward to seeing the movie version sometime, even if I have to wait until its on DVD, though I really want to see it in the theaters.

I really don't have much to talk about.

Second period, in aquatic science, we got to make fish out of play-doh in order to learn about fish morphology. We did a little bit of learning, but mainly we talked and played with play-doh. I taught everyone that a few drops of water can help bring play-doh that is drying out back to its original consistency. I thought everybody knew that.

All weekend I was distracted by the thought of a certian boy. I got to see and talk to him today, and I cannot wait until fifth period so that I can see him again. I really enjoy spending time with him, but I only have two classes with him. I can see him before and after school though.

I started writing another children's book. This one is more of a fairytale. There is an actual plot and whatnot, but I don't think it is very fantastic. I just felt like doing something yesterday, so that is what I did.

This weekend, I made a TARDIS locker cover. The only problem is that I made is out of posterboard and when I put it on my locker, it was about six inches too short. I guess I'll just have to find something to stick on the bottom. It still looks cool and makes my locker different than everyone else's.

Love,
Elizabeth W.

Storyboards are fun!

338... Yep, you all have overcome the 300 view mark. Now, onward to 500. FOR NARNIA!!! But, seriously, thanks to you all for doing this, I can't say how amazing it is to feel popular for once. Okay, that was kinda cheezy, but thats okay.

This is the last tuesday of 2012 that I have to go to school. I have exams tommorow and the next day, but I only really have one exam to take. AP Government. Gross. Having to take government is hard enough, but makingit AP is like kicking someone while they're down. Shooting a dead horse. Burning a demolished building. Torturing a dead man. Adding insult to injury. I really am not looking foreward to the two AP tests I will take at the end of next semester.

But, because I only have one exam to take, I get to have free time in most of my other classes! Whooooo! And what shall I spend that free time doing?

STORYBOARDING!!!!!!

Storyboarding is something that I love to do. I have never done it for a film, but I have done it for a few (2) music videos. I did it for the Zombie video that I filmed in October. Note, the video did change some in going from storyboard to actual video, but the main concept stayed the same. Some things have to change, thats just the crative process.

Every time I go to storyboard things, I think of two people: Tessa Violet and Isaac Dietz. Tessa because she, nanalew, and some guy from australia or something are making a kind of mini-series and posted a bunch of stuff about it and storyboarding it on youtube. Of course, their storyboarding involves post-it notes on a corkboard. My storyboarding involves drawing four boxes on each page of my notebook and drawing a picture in them, then explaining it with text on the right side of the page. It reminds me of Isaac Dietx because I have watched the video he posted of him explaining the treatment for the official Zombie music video. He has the song playing and he is running around this little room, explaining what should be happening at that point in the song. I found it rather entertaining. In the video, theres a little part in the corner that shows what the actual video looks like at that point in the music, and you can compare it to what he is explaining.

Right now, I am storyboarding a music video for Deathbed by Relient K right now. I have only worked on it today and yesterday and I already have 6 pages with four lyric segments on each page. I storyboard by lyric segments because it helps me set the video in my head with the timing of the music, and I am able to storyboard even when I don't have the music playing. I just know the lyrics and how the song goes. It also allows me to go back to the beginning and play in my mind what the whole thing would look like. The thing is, Deathbed is like a 10 minute song, and I'm only about 1 or 2 minutes into it on the storyboard. This should last me through the holidays.

I like storyboarding because it allows me to get the messages across that might be hard to explain otherwise. I can also jot down my music video ideas and have people look at them even when I have the inability to make the music video or show an already made music video to them. I think the next storyboard I'll do may be a skit or something. I've never storyboarded a skit. I can't wait until I go off to college so that I can actually have a large space to use to storyboard with post-it notes and stuff. I could use an entire wall in my dorm room and storyboard whatever I wanted to. I will have to invest in some sticky notes though. Christmas presents and graduation presents anyone?

I think I actually have a picture of the Zombie storyboard on my instagram. Feel free to stalk me on instagram, because I probably won't get a twitter anytime soon. You can watch the pictures I post and figure out what my day-to-day life is like. And I won't spam your feed. @lizardbreathwalker

Well, I want to go back to storyboarding, because I find it rather entertaining and fun.

Love,
Elizabeth W.

Directing a play! and some other things...

So, I am the director of one of our class plays. Technically, its the same play twice. I direct one, and another person directs the other. It is like crunch time for the actors though. Today, we had a half day, so we only have about thirty minutes in each class, and thirty minutes isn't much rehearsal time. We plan to rehearse the early parts of next week. Hopefully everyone studies their lines over thanksgiving break, because we perform like the end of next week.

Its cool but stressful to direct a play. You get to tell everyone what exactly to do, but also have to make sure that everything gets done. It gets kinda hectic in the last few days. I am glad that I got to do this though, because I want to be a film director. I am kinda an amateur director now (ugh, I hate the word amatuer). I hope to be able to work with people like Isaac Deitz someday. Who cares about Steven Speilberg. JUST KIDDING! I would love to work with Speilberg someday also, its just that Deitz is more of a possibility right now.

I am constantly learning more about film. I did a spanish project last year that was a "telenovela". Its kinda like a spanish soap opera. It turned out kinda bad because I used two cameras, but only one had decent audio, and the finished product seemed really choppy. I think that I know how to fix it though. I simply needed a seperate source for recording audio AKA: a boom mic. I looked on Amazon.com yesterday and I think I might be able to manage one for about fifty dollars or so. I just have to get fifty dollars first. I keep finding things like that that have the ability to make my videos so much better, but I lack the funds to get anything. But I am asking for some of them for Christmas, so there is a chance for some of them...

I think its wierd that I am a conservative going into the liberal field of theatre/film. I feel like I'm a contradiction, or a rarity. I'm totally okay with that, its just that its hard to find people in that field that are like-minded.

I also have this strange ability to sense when I am around really stupid people and start hating them, just because they are stupid. I guess its just a bad habit. I don't really "hate" them, I just really dislike them and wish for them to be of normal intelligence levels. WHY CAN'T THEY HAVE INTELLIGENT CONVERSATIONS? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! But, seriously, stupidity gets on my nerves. I know that God made everyone a certain way for a reason, I just wish he had made some of them a little smarter. I guess thats why God made me a teacher. That way, I can give them wisdom and hopefully turn them away from their ways of stupidity.

I
am
so
bored
!

By the way, the video I posted yesterday was the one that got so many views in like 48 hours. You should watch it if you haven't already.

You know something else that annoys me? Energy drinks. They say they will energize you, but they take an hour to hit the bloodstream and barely do anything. And people drink them religiously. Then, you hear about people dying because of the 5 hour energy things and monsters and stuff. If it doesn't really work and it might kill ya, why do it?

Thats enough anger and conservative bias for one day. Or at least a 30 minute class period.

Question of the day:

What is the most contradicting thing about you and your life/career choice?

Well, I'm tired of blogging and I lack anything else to blog about right now.

Hasta la vista muchachitos!

Elizabeth W.

Senior Year

So, this year is my senior year in highschool,if you haven't already figured it out. Its wierd to be doing some of these things for the very last time. Today, I am feeling extra nostalgic because of the fact that I will attend my last peprally today. They will play a special song for the seniors and we'll all run down to the middle of the gym and I'll probably cry. I always get emotional over things like this. I keep thinking of how I will soon be moving on. Some of these people I will never see again (PRAISE THE LORD!) and some of them I will really miss. I start thinking about college and what type of things I want to have in my dorm and what kind of new people I will meet. Then I take a big jump ahead to the future where all of us will be married and some of us will have kids of our own. I have friends who have been in relationships for a year or more and I sit and think, will they be married the next time we meet after high school? It seems that these years go by so fast.

Personally, I am in no hurry to leave my hometown. I don't hate my family or the tiny community that I live in. I wouldn't mind staying here all of my life. But I know I am destined for bigger things. I want to be a movie director. I know that directing is something that I am really good at and enjoy and I also know that there is very little chance of me staying where I currently am and making my dream a reality. I know I will probably have to move to a big city or possibly California (Eeeeeewwww! Liberals! No Offense...) in order to find a job. I would love to work kind of free-lance like Issaac Dietz and Tessa Violet do. Those two filmmakers are my heroes at the moment. I don't know if I'll ever become as famous as Steven Spielberg or Charlie Chaplin, but I know I will become a director somehow.

On a completely unrelated note, I really don't know why I have begun blogging again. I know that I want to keep track of the fun I am having during my senior year, so that is part of it. I also know that many famous people who I am a fan of blog when they have nothing else better to do. Currently, I have very little else to do. I could write essays for scholarships but I am way too distracted today. I have no real work to do in my online college class at the moment. I just felt thinky and needed to get it out.

On the subject of YouTube, by the way (Wow, I am being really random today (Hey! That rhymed!)) I am working on getting some neew editing software. I shot a music video on like October 27th but I haven't edited it yet because of the fact that Windows Movie Maker is a really crappy video editing tool. I want to be able to use Sony Vegas someday, but it is way out of my price range at the moment. My current budget is $0 to whatever my parents will buy me. I think I might just download a free trial of PowerDirector and make the music video from there. I have worked with PowerDirector before and it seemed decent. The music video is to the song "Zombie" by Family Force 5, and it has actual people in it besides myself and my brother. So, be on the lookout for that sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas. I will probably do some how-to/blog videos and covers before then, so don't worry. And if you get to bored with my videos, feel free to watch the many videos of Isaac Dietz, Meekakitty, and Nanalew. They are all pretty amusing. And amazing.

Wow, I have taken up a whole 20 minutes just typing this. Dual Credit class really is useful for something after all. I really should do this more often. I keep having these random ideas of things that I want to do. Today, blogging was one. I also came up with a senior year music video idea today. I have my camera in my backpack, so I should be able to start it today also. I want to start my own charity/mission type of thing. I want to help people while having fun and have a way that others can help them also. It still in the developmental processes of my brain. I have been meditating on it for several days. I kinda want to make it into a movie project also. Isaac Dietz did a thing called "Search For Joy" that was really interesting in my opinion. I want to do something similar.

And now, because I have run out of ideas for what to type and because I just want to be EVEN MORE RANDOM...

Question of the day... errr, blog... or week or something like that:

If you could replace a single hour long segment of your day with an activity that you enjoy, what segment would you replace, why, and what activity would you replace it with?