NEW BLOG

I'm NO LONGER posting on this blog. here's my new blog. It's way awesomer, so please check it out! :")

Paris Photos

Best food I've ever tasted.

 Pretty cool view!

Even better view

L.A.

Right now, I'm in a inn room. I have nothing to do, but I'm havin' fun! Tomorrow, we start our three day acting camp! We are just kind of getting settled in. Let me show you a picture, of L.A., just to refresh your little brain. :)

Anyway, I'm going to be pretty busy in the next five months, but i'll try to keep you posted.

Update/SUMMER VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been kind of busy. Anyway, we have two more days of school. I'm sooooo exited for summer. We're going to be in L.A. for most of it, and we're visiting our family a bit, but we're also going to Europe for a couple of weeks. (And I know a lot of you corner viewers live in Europe and don't think it's a big deal, but it is for me. I live in America.) I've been to Europe once before. A couple of years ago. It so so beautiful. We went to Paris (which we're visiting again), Venice (my favorite by far last time. Sadly, we're not visiting it again), and Sarlat, (we're not visiting it this time.)

This time, we're visiting Paris and Annecy in France, and Pisa and Cinque Terre in Italy (not Venice, sadly).

Anyway,  I'm going to try and start blogging again.

Farewell, peoples of the world and beyond.

Corner View~My Favorite Actor

My favorite actor is Julie Andrews. She's been my acting and singing idol for a long time. Some of my favorite movies of hers are: The Sound of Music, Princess Diaries, and Princess Diaries 2.

If you follow my blog, or just check it a lot, you probably know I want to be an actress and a singer.
Julie Andrews started singing when she was a kid, like me! :) She started performing at an older age, but still, she acted and sang! Just like me. Her voice is so smooth. It never cracks.
She is also good at a lot of different kind of acting: Drama, Comedy, Being proper, Being fun.

Anyway my point is that she inspires me, and one day I hope to be like her. :)

Corner View~Evening Sky

I'm sorry. These are from Google images. I was really busy with my stupid homework today and don't have time to take pictures of the evening sky. I hope you like the ones I picked out, though:

Corner View~Organic Form

These are some pictures of organic form I took! I hope you like 'em.

Corner View~The December Holidays

Christmas is a lot of people's favorite time of year. When I was younger, I remember as soon as I opened my eyes I would get out of bed, wake up my older sister, Skylar, (we used to share a room), and then go upstairs to my dad. My brother, the youngest, would usually wake up first or at the same time. My sister, my brother, my dad, and me (we still do this) would wait for my mom to get up. Unlike a lot of kids who just jump out of bed, and grab the loot, we wait for everyone to get up, and then we take turns, opening one present at time. when someone's about to open your present, you get just as exited as when you're about to open one. You see the look on their face..... I love making people underestimate what I'm going to give them. (For example: I've been saying to my brother, I'll probably give you a rare Pokemon card for Christmas. And if you're really good, and cooperate with mom, I'll maybe give you a legendary card. But in truth, I'm going to give him a card even better!)
That tradition hasn't really changed, except that I don't wake up Sky (she'd kill me!) :)
We spend the whole morning playing with our new toys. And no, me, a 12-year-old does not play with train sets and dolls. First of all, it's modern toys (remote control cars, trading cards) and second--oh never mind. I guess I do "play." Lets face it :) We have lunch. We're not one of those families who eats Christmas dinner at 3:00. We "play" some more. Maybe have a little family time.
Then we bake and cook (unless we're going to a friends house for dinner, which we sometimes do. We spend the rest of the winter holidays wishing we could have Christmas all over again, but at the same time, feeling satisfied.

Corner View~Traditions

Since I was 6 1/2, Skylar and I have sang and played guitar at an ashram in front of a pretty big crowd every summer. We also liked to play for relatives and friends. Skylar stills plays the guitar, but I usually just sing. I sing for friends and relatives all the time whenever they come over. I love singing.  It gives me such a happy feeling that I never want to stop. It's the same feeling that I get right before I open my presents on my birthday.

Corner View~Improvising

Recently my dad has taught me to improvise with the scales on piano. It's basically like doing harmonies on the piano (for those of you folks who don't know what the heck I am talking about). For a while, okay maybe like 5 years, I was kind of out of my piano phase. But this harmonic scale has really gotten me back into it. It's beautiful. It's like an orchestra you can control with just a light touch of your finger.

Since I am an actress and a musician I'd like to also talk about another kind of improvisation. In acting improvisation is very important. If you mess up in front of a live audience you have to ad lib, which means to improvise. When you make a speech you should never memorize it, you should just memorize ideas.  You do this because if you memorize the speech and you forget it, it will be a disaster. If you just memorize ideas it will be like a conversation with the audience. I learned this today in home school.

Later, my peeps!

Corner View~Rain

 I didn't take these. I'm not that good of a photographer! (But hey, let me off the hook, I don't have my own camera!) When I get my own camera, I hope I can take great pictures too!

 

Taekwondo Update

One of the first posts I ever wrote was about Taekwondo. It's been about a year and a half since we started doing it. (Although we travel in the summer every year so I guess you could say we've been doing it for a year.) What is Taekwondo, you ask? It's the perfect sport that exercises the body and the mind. Or for you simpler folk, it's a martial art. Me, my 14 year old sister, Skylar, and my 7 year old brother, Shawn, all do hour and a half classes twice a week. My sister and I have been high blue belts for a while. We're getting ready to test for red belt in a couple weeks. My little brother just tested for his low blue belt. Although I didn't get to watch because I was on a trip with mom. :( [Although :) for the trip with mom.]
I was just practicing this morning. There are techniques and forms and Korean language. And the necessary knowledge keeps expanding for every belt. The belt order goes like this: White, yellow, orange, purple, green, blue, red, brown, candidate, black. Then there's black with up to nine stripes. And there are so much requirements for each stripe, that it counts as it's own belt. My main instructor/master, a black belt with six stripes, and her husband (yeah, that's right! She's a girl! girls rule!) run the dojang (translation: training hall). They're strict enough but hardly strict at all, compared to a lot of martial art teachers. In fact, they're super nice and not strict compared to anybody. With them in my life, I'm sure to achieve my black belt.

Corner View~Anything Goes

This is a great day to do anything goes because I just did a play tonight (definitely something worth writing about). It was called "Ernie's Incredible Illucinations" by Alan Ayckbourn.  It is a story about a boy who imagines things and they come true.  He goes with his parents to the doctor to get a diagnosis and tells him some very weird examples, which we had to act out.  Finally, to prove to the doctor that this is real, Ernie makes the doctor get caught in an illucination himself. 

I wasn't a main character but I did have one major monologue. Here it is (and this is without looking at my script just to show I know it). (I'm playing a barker at a fair.)

"Just about to start ladies and gentlemen! A heavy-weight boxing bout, featuring the one and only unofficial challenger for the heavy-weight championship of the world, kid Saracen. The kid will be fighting this afternoon for the very first time. A demonstration contest against the new sensation from Seattle, Eddie, 'Grinder' Edwards. In addition ladies and gentlemen, the kid is offering a hundred dollars - yes - a hundred dollars to any challeger who manages to last three three-minute rounds."

I had some other parts too, though. I had a great time, and almost the whole cast went and got ice cream, afterward. I made some new friends, within the cast. It was really fun, and I hope I get to do another play soon.

I honestly don't really like fall very much. First of all where we live the leaves don't even fall so we don't get to jump in leaves or anything. Second of all, fall is when I go back to school. Not that I don't like learning or the school year, but it's hard to go from fun summer days to extreme homework issues. I mean I barely had time to write the corner view today 'cause I had to finish up a report. (So that's why I'm doing this late. It ain't my fault, I didn't ask for extreme homework!) But I guess in some places the fall is pretty. Here it's a little cooler in the morning and we get more clouds, but that's all.

Corner View~Famous

This summer we went to LA. We went to the walk of fame on Hollywood Blvd. I was really excited because I was going to see Michael Jackson's star and Julie Andrews' star. Julie Andrews is one of my favorite actresses. She has inspired me. Here is a picture of me next to her star. I hope I get to be an actress someday and have my own star!

Corner View~Pondering

I like to think. A lot. I'm a big thinker so this is a good topic for me. I think about bad stuff. Everyone does. It's human nature. But I also think about good stuff.

Honestly, what's on my mind half the time is fun stuff like Pokemon and video games, because I'm a kid.

Kids should be kids. And most kids' lives are all about fun.

 But sometimes I go into creative spurts, and get new ideas for a new book. Or just for the book I'm writing. I think about my acting career, and where my life is taking me. I think about the people suffering in India and Africa, and all the cruelty in the world and it makes me sad. I think about all of the universe's mysteries and what is the meaning of life. Are we all just an illusion? God's dream? If so, do any of our desires even matter? I think in bed a lot. I'm not a person who falls asleep quickly.
Thinking is a beautiful thing. You can imagine anything you want. Anything in the world. There's no law against it. You are free, in your mind. That is, if you know how to control it. My dad tells me that your mind can be your friend or your enemy. Your servant, or your boss. Your mind can drive you crazy, or it can turn you into a spiritual master. My mind is not very controlled yet. I have a weird fear, and sometimes, when I start to think, Oh, this fear is about to come true, my mind makes me more and more worried, until I start to believe it. But then, if I get distracted, I start to feel fine, and I realize it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I hope your mind is your servant.

Corner View~Holiday Part 3

Here's part 1, and 2 for those of you who have not read them.
We also went to Future World, which is like the Disney Land of France, but for my last entry of this corner view, I'm going to focus on Venice.
When we arrived, I was in shock. It was so beautiful. So un-polluted. There were no cars. Not one. There were plenty of boats, and we took a taxi boat to our hotel. We settled in. The next few days were a blur. I remember walking everywhere. Going to little far away towns to buy little home made glass knickknacks for a high, tourist rip-off price. (But hey, we were tourist's!) Half the time, we spent eating, or-at least, I wish we had! We would go to a restaurant every night. There was the best spaghetti I ever tasted. There was lasagna, with hardly any marinara sauce, so it was like cheesy pasta. There was buttered spinach and
raw salmon (which my dad said was great, but I did not try. I could keep on going, but I might flood your house by making your mouth water so much.
So bye, bye until tomorrow when there's corner view again!

Skylar Tribute

 Skylar and I when we were little

      I was just browsing on YouTube, and I was looking at a video/song that Skylar wrote and recorded when she was seven, and I was shrouded in memories of our childhood. I remember her doing that, but back then 7 hadn't seemed like "young" to me. In fact, I was about 5 so it seemed old. She's 14 now and I'm 11. I realized how talented she is for a 7 year old to write something like that. Actually I should say some things. She recorded a CD with 6 or so songs when she was 7, and has been recording CDs ever since. Now she has recorded 3 amazing CDs and is working on a 4th.

     Skylar is very talented at music and at being a good sister. When I was little, we used to play together all the time. We went to the same school usually, so we spent every second together. She always helps me with my homework, even now! We made up a game with dolls that even now we still play it!

     Yes, Skylar and I are very close--but we're not perfect, so we fight sometimes. When we are in a fight it makes me sad and uncomfortable. My sister is a big part of my life, and helps keep me grounded. But the good news is, when we do fight, we always make up within a few hours, because we're sisters, and we love each other!

Corner View~Holiday Part 2

If you have not read part one and want to here it is.

After Paris, we went to Sarlat (another part of France).
We stayed at an old couple's house (on the top floor and they stayed on the bottom.) While Paris had been wizzy, 'cause it was in the City, Sarlat was in the country, with old fashioned towns. The house we were staying at was near a forest, with a garden. We were in complete nature. It was wonderful! We went out to dinner some of the nights, and the food was (duh!) heavenly. The kitchen was old fashioned, with honey, hot cacao, and walnuts and a walnut cracker. We were allowed to use and eat it all. One night mom and dad went out to dinner and Sky babysat. One day our car broke down, conveniently in the middle of nowhere, where no one spoke English, so for a while, we couldn't get anyone to help (not a fun day).
Overall, we had a great time!

Halloween

Halloween is coming up soon. In case any of the people from Europe are reading this post, it's an american holiday where you dress up in a costume. Most people dress up like monsters or ghosts, and some people pt scary decorations on there houses. Kids come from door to door in their costumes. And the adults give the kids candy. (Begging for candy? Now that's my kind of holiday!)
I, however, am not dressing up as something scary (I never do). I'm going as piper McLean. She's a book character from the follow-up series of well known, Percy Jackson. The heroes of Olympus. The first book, The Lost Hero, just came out. I've almost finished it. I also convinced Shawn to go as Leo, another mane character in the series. Piper has a power called charmspeaking, which makes people listen to you. So maybe on Halloween, I can get everyone to give me their candy. Who knows? Leo is a sort of fire bender. He can crete fire with his hands. He is also inhumanly good at mechanics. like he can take a few nails and bolts and stuff out of his pocket, absentmindedly, and create a toy helicopter that totally works!
Anyway, I'll have a good Halloween charmspeaking people into giving me all their candy.
Bye!