Electric Lib

Rugged Individualism

I just did a project on Rugged Individualism with Kate so that phrase is stuck in my head (we explained how it related to the movie Annie). That was just a small project, but I'm glad to have it done nonetheless. This week has been a very busy week and an even busier month lies ahead. We're beginning to review for the AP US exam, which is followed the next day by the SAT's. Plus we have prom to organize, and then a dance performance coming up (which will be very fun!). Then before we know, it'll be June which means it's time for the SAT 2's and finals. Plus the mounds of homework that teachers feel compelled to give us. Luckily for me, I'm surrounded by a very hardworking group of friends (no, we're not geeks, haha, we just spend most Saturday nights polishing our NHS pins or starting on all those extra credit assignments), so it's not difficult to stay on task. Anyhoo, on one last note, I must again mention my luck in this matter. Nature has once again erased the need for me to wash my car! I guess it's not all that shocking though, it has to rain sometime, just depends how long you're willing to drive around in a filthy car. I swear I'll wash it one of these days.

Long Drive

Oh deary me, I neglected to notice that my previous entry was my 400th! So on with the 401st...

My dear father drove me all the way down to Philadelphia to visit Temple, Swarthmore and Villanova. I decided we'd just do our own tour of the campuses, so we made our first stop at Temple. It was a beautiful sunny day and I loved the campus. And I know everyone has something to say about Temple or it's location, so go ahead, say what you will, I still think I'd have fun there/learn plenty. The next day we visited Swarthmore which has a beautiful campus. The day was a little rainy much to my fathers dismay (he's afraid that the weather will impact my impressions of the schools, aka- Temple=warm, sunny, fun. Swarthmore=rainy, cold, not as fun. But fear not father, I will disregard the weather). Next we drove on over to Villanova. The campus didn't seem like anything too special to me, but all the people were very friendly which makes it appealing. Then we started the long drive home. And we have returned to a house full of people with lots of info about schools and lots of songs stuck in my head from the car ride. Now I will begin wrapping up my vacation and getting ready for school again. I hate to say it, but I actually can't wait till Monday, vacation somehow isn't as fun when the whole population of Montpelier is enjoying it elsewhere. That's all for now!

Picture Time

Okay parents, thanks to Alice's digital camera I am now giving you a chance to spy on your kids hanging out. Go ahead, but don't be too disapointed when you don't see as many pictures of lovely Libby as you'd expect, I was tired that day after all our walking and outdoor activity!

This I Believe

For our interp class right now, we have to write a 500 word essay to possibly submit to NPR's "This I Believe" thing. It's actually a really cool assignment, kind of challenging though to pinpoint and word what you believe in a short, well written essay. I just wrote mine, and shared it with my mother, however I'm finding it's stirring the butterflies in my tum to share it with my friends (despite the fact that I share my writing with people nearly every day on this fabulous little site). Maybe I'll share it with my dedicated readers, however I think I'll wait till I do the final draft first.

Spring!

I love spring when the weather teeters between wonderfully warm and a little cool. So then when you go inside, all the windows and doors are open, all heating devices have been eliminated and you sit there in your t shirt trying to convince yourself that you really are still warm. It really was very nice out today though (still is). I'm proud to say that I spent the majority of it outside walking around, up and down steep hills, all that good stuff. It was very pleasant. And I believe it's sugaring season, so I must get myself some sugar on snow soon...

Just a Note

Just to let you in on a little of what goes into this website, I'll share with you what just happened. On this kind of site, in order to italicize, make bold, underline or make links for example, it involves a little programming. And with programming, every little detail is important. With my last entry for example, I forgot to put the quote marks at the end of the site I was linking to and the whole thing was messed up! Which is why I always check my site immediatly after updating. In order to create a link, one must type (I'm spacing this all out so that it won't actually create a link): < a href = "website" > text < / a >. So there you have it, one example. And the whole entire site is formatted with langague like that. So once you figure out what it all means and how to work it, it's not hard at all! Ok well, just thought I'd give you a little behind the scenes for Lib's website.

Woo Hoo

Yay, I'm well on my way to becoming a genius programmer. I'm such a smarty pants that (with the help of dear Joshua) I was able to figure out the programmer lingo and reconfigure my site a little bit. If you take a look to the right side of the screen you will see that the links section and the recent entries section have been relocated to sit nicely above the archives section. I did this for a few very simple reasons. The first being that the archives list was getting a little long so in order to view those other two shorter lists you had to scroll down a bit. Second of all, I did it to benefit the authors of my linked websites. Because, using simple logic I determined that most people were likely to view this page, read the entry and then leave. However, the links section on the side is much more likely to catch their eyes if it's up at the top and then, the same reason people always buy candy at the grocery store when it's up at the counter, they'll click on it and read the other sites. So anyhoo, just thought I'd let my readers in on my logic. Farewell for now!

ALLEN ALERT

Don't worry, there's no big alert about Allen (a very peculiar concept I've tried to explain earlier on this site, don't worry if you don't get it, there's nothing to get). Anyhoo, I was reading my allenbud's websites, Julen and Alice that is. And they both inspired me enough to write a whole new entry (phew, what work). First of all, I would like to say that Alice's use of the word "fuggenist" (it means the absolute ugliest) reminded me that before long I ought to update on our newest deformed words! Second of all, Julie inspired me to write because she mentioned honey briefly on her site and I was going to be done snacking for tonight, but maybe now I'll have to get some honey toast. Just goes to show what an inpact one persons website can have of you. So the fact that Julie mentioned honey on her website will inevitable lead to me getting some honey toast for myself and if she continues with such irresponsible behavior then I'll keep eating these sugary foods and eventually become severely overweight and then I'll have to sue Julie for being a bad influence. Sigh Julen, when will you learn? Yes, yes I was just kidding. Do not be fooled by my convincing words, Julens inspiration for my honey toast will probably in fact lead to greater energy for when I wake up, which will make me more productive which means I will have a more satisfying day, so for that Julen, I thank you! Now I really must sleep, for I'm getting off topic and I didn't have a very solid topic to begin with, never a good way to begin an entry. Go read the New York one if you haven't, it's more worthwhile.

Tales From New York

So my journey to New York City with my economics class began yesterday morning at 7:30 when we left in three minivans headed for the big city. The car ride was full of music listening, 20 questions (on walkie talkies with the other car, most of my car got bored pretty quickly though), and more music (although, after being in the car for fives hours listening to the radio, you end up hearing the same songs quite a few times). We drove into the city to the Youth Hostel we were staying in and then rushed over to the Fed and saw all the gold! It's stored in the lowest basement of all of New York, and we were standing on the bedrock of Manhatten with gazillions of bars of gold! Nope, I didn't steal any and they didn't seem to worried that I would seeing as it would be pretty much impossible. They can shut the entire building in only 28 seconds.

From there we took the subway to Times Square and got free time to walk around (without adults! How neat is that in New York City? We were very responsible and had our personal tour guide - Abra - who directed us a gazillion blocks to this fabulous candy store). After that we walked the gazillions of blocks back (after making a quick stop at Sephora to get some make up and then having to sprint back to meet everyone) we met everyone and took the subway to where we had dinner, Carmines (which oddly enough is where we ate when I took the trip with my buddies to New York to see Abra and Julie at Carnegie). Then we pretty much wandered around for a million more years, until 12 or so (my legs were/still are SO sore). Then it was back to the Youth Hostel. But wait a minute, the fun didn't end there! Before heading off to bed Abra, Becky, I and yes Tyler and Emmett did a quick yoga session (Abra leading)! Ok so then we went to bed.

The next morning we got a taste of Jerry Seinfelds life by going to Tom's Restaraunt (which is where they always go in the show). Soon after, we headed to CNN studios for a tour then stopped to shop a bit, then it was over to where the World Trade Towers used to be. That was a very powerful moment of the trip, because it's a very historial site and it's always strange to be standing somewhere where something super important happened and to see the change that resulted. After checking that out we headed to Merril Lynch (this is of course an economics trip) and got a quick tour from one of the brokers. Then we got lunch and went back to the hostel to prepare to leave! It was a long car ride home filled with music, 20 questions (sans the walkie talkies and everyone in the car got really into it). And that brings me home! So overall it was a truly fabulous trip. I felt we really explored every economic angle - we saw the gold in the "bank for banks", we saw the stock market at work, we saw the news that reports our economic situations, we put our money into the economy by shopping, we saw neighborhoods that varied greatly in economic situations. So good work to Mr. Castle for organizing such a wonderful trip, and our two other chaperones Mr. Bate and Mrs. Beem for driving and accompanying us!