"Don't Ever Change, OK?"

Hey there, there's something that's been on my mind lately. Its something that's happened in the past but recently happened again. It's when someone tells me "Don't ever change, OK? You're perfect the way you are."

A friend of mine said this to me a few weeks ago and I understand what she meant: She meant that I should just be myself and that I don't have to change in order to be her friend and stuff like that. And I really appreciate that. I'm one of the weirdest people you'll ever meet (or read the ramblings of...) so to be accepted in all my strangeness is actually a really big deal to me.

But after a while I started thinking (because I over think everything...) and I thought about it and reflected on it for about a week and came to this conclusion:

As friends, shouldn't we want our friends to grow and experience new things and ultimately - 

to change?

I know that I'm talking about two different types of change here. One deals with acceptance and the other deals with growth.

But I've seen so many people hold their friends back - I've even held back my friends before (I ain't no saint!) - all because they don't want things to change. They want to hang out like always or see each other often, and those things are great.

But a big part of life is change. Our bodies change as we grow up, our tastes in food, clothes, and music change (sometimes by season), the colors we like change, the people we look up to change. We are rivers constantly flowing, not stagnant pools of water.

The point is, people change. And as friends, I think that we need to learn to support our friends and help them make the best choices for their future. Even if it means they won't have time to hang out on Thursdays anymore. Even if it means they have to move across the country, or even across the world. Or even if nothing will change right away.

And you know what? Even when things do change drastically, true friends will always make time and be there for you,  no matter the distance or obstacles. That is one thing that will never change.

Hey, long time no see

Hi there, yeah, I'm still here. ^^

Do you ever have those times when you have the worst sleep schedule ever? I'm having one of those times right now...

So, I'm on the west coast visiting my brother, have been for the past four months. It's summer vacation so I've gotten into a different sleep schedule anyways, but add on to that the fact that my brother's sleep schedule is much more like a night owl than I'm normally used to during school... So, it ends up being well after midnight by the time I get around to going to bed and normally that's fine because I then wake up at maybe 10 am (which is, like, 1 pm back home on the east coast... getting used to that again is gonna be a pain...).

But lately, even though I've been kind of trying to go to bed earlier so as to get a head start on getting used to east coast time again (school starts two days after I get back, so I better be ready) I end up not being able to go to sleep, then when I do manage to sleep I wake up ridiculously early in the morning (like today when I woke up at 5 something am).

This is all leading to a very big lack of sleep, not to mention some feelings of nausea and headaches. And the worst part is that most days once I'm awake I can't get back to sleep at all. D: I just don't know what to do.

The review I talked about...

Hey everypeoples!

So, in my last post I mentioned that I was working on a review-type-thing on a book I was reading and I said I'd have it up in "a week or so" right? Something like that.

Well it's been more than a week or so and it's still not up here. Ya, I know, bad author. :P

Well, some of my school work was more disheartening than I like, so I had to put off working on this review-thing for a while. So! I am still working on it when my schoolwork isn't eating my spare time and sanity. ^-^ (You know, I kind of want to graduate sooner than later...)

Anyways, that's my update for now! XD I'll see (er... write!) again sometime soon!

Melancholy

I've been feeling rather melancholy lately...

Maybe it's because school started again and I feel like I'm getting nothing done, but I think there's something else that's been bugging me lately as well.

Anyways, I'm reading a book that my friend lent me and I WILL be writing about it here because I think that, while not perfect, this book has some important points about society and food consumption/processing and where it is going and what our children will have to deal with in the future.

Anyways, I'm actually gonna work really hard on that so, please be expecting something good in the next week or so!

Thanks for reading,
Joy

Renewing Reviewing?

I've been thinking of starting to review books again. Would anyone enjoy book reviews? Let me know!

The Secret Garden

I finished reading The Secret Garden!!! It was amazing, just as I thought it would be. ^-^ and I really want to see the movie for it now! So I'll be looking for that.

Speaking of gardens, I just got a really pretty plant that I named Blanca (after the lady who gave it to me) and I was tending my blueberry plants the other day too! Maybe I can plant and grow some other things too! My mom is doing square foot gardening and so we have four boxes made of wood in our garden. The plants are doing really well in their boxes! The only trouble is that our chickens like our garden too and I have to chase them out (which is actually really fun! XP)

Hope you people out there in the web of the Internet are reading books that make you smile too!!!

Books update

Hi all! What's up?

So, books I've been reading, am reading, and will be reading:

I just finished reading The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I had really wanted to read that since I watched The Secret World of Arrietty (which I posted about here) so I'm really glad that I finally had the time to read it! Very good book. ^-^

I'm starting The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of my favorite books when I was younger was an abridged version of this book. I still have it too and sometimes I read it and look at the artwork, so I figured I should read the real, unabridged version. I have a thing against abridged versions of books anyways- when I read Little Women, my dad had the abridged version and I didn't know what that meant, so I thought I read the whole thing and I hadn't and my friend started talking about the part of the book that had been cut out and I was so lost, so I had to read the whole unabridged version and I kept checking to make sure it was unabridged. It wasn't so fun for me because I didn't like reading back then. But I loved the book. ^-^ Anyways! The Secret Garden! I'm reading it!

After I finish The Secret Garden, I have Emma and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen that I want to read. Well, Pride and Prejudice is a re-read, but it's one of my favorite books and I just got both these books for my birthday last month, so I want to re-read and read these two books.

Yup, that's all for now! depending on how quickly I can read these I may have another books update in about a week or so. ^-^ should be fun, but there are other things to do too. Life is good for living and doing things and you should enjoy it while you can.

See ya!

Picture Blog Update

OK, I went thru with it and started a picture blog. ^-^
Please view it here at Picture a Day.
^-^ See you soon!

Picture Blog

I'm thinking of starting a picture blog where I post a picture every day. It sounds pretty fun honestly, the hardest part about it would be updating every day. ^-^ I'm gonna think it thru a bit more first I guess.

I'll most likely link to it if I do start one. ^-^
See ya!

The Secret World of Arrietty!

Here in America, the Studio Ghibli film "The Secret World of Arrietty" was released today! ^-^

I was so excited when I saw the trailer for the first time! (Which, can you believe it, was only about a week ago!) I am a big fan of Studio Ghibli anyways, so it's normal for me to get so excited. ^-^;

So, since I can't really go out to the movie theater, and I would rather hear it in Japanese anyways (because dubbing is almost always awful) my friend helped me find the Japanese version of "The Secret World of Arrietty"and that is what I watched today. By the way, everything in this post is my opinion and you don't have to agree with any of it.

OK, to begin: AMAZING.

I mean, I can never quite wrap my head around all of the detail and thought put in everything in Studio Ghibli films, but this was amazing! Everything seemed so life-like and effortless and natural. And the "Doll House" was amazing! So cute too! ^-^ Also, the way that the difference in size between the worlds was shown was really cool, especially the scene where Arrietty sees the kitchen for the first time.

Even the characters have such depth to them! How Haru is so nosy and curious and how Arrietty is courageous and excitable, yet still has a slight shyness to her. I just love how much thought was put into everything.

And the music! So gorgeous! (Of course, my family is music people anyways.)
But even the sound effects of humans walking from the view of the Borrowers, as well as all of the different sounds when Pod and Arrietty are on her first borrowing. I loved how they made all the sounds in that scene!!! XD

Ah, "The Secret World of Arrietty is amazing and I will definitely watch it again. And again... and again and again and... so on. :D

Well, watching it made me want to read "The Borrowers," so I found the copy that was hiding in our bookshelf and I am going to read it! (Along with some other books from my Read Japan Plan.) And I may do a post comparing the two some time later. ^-^

Well, I hope everyone gets a chance to see "The Secret World of Arrietty" because it is amazing (and has a much better ending than Ponyo... I was so disappointed with the ending of Ponyo...)

For more information on "The Secret World of Arrietty", please enjoy the link to Wikipedia provided. ^-^

Thanks for reading and I'll see you again some time soon! XD