Nellie - Quick, Succinct and To The Point

So, for the past week or so, I've been essentially drooling over this song.

I'm not sure why I found it, but for some reason it really captured my attention and now I use it as drawin' music.
THEN.
I found the official music video.

...man, what a buzzkill.
That is all.

Love,
Nellie

Tory - I'm So Tired...

I know this isn't my day to write, but I skipped last week's because I was busy and tired, so.

I forgot to take my socks off before I got in the shower.

That is all.

Gus - Lalalala, bullet points because I'm tired!

* My girlfriend is leaving for France!

* I saw Molly this weekend!

* The Red Sox are awful!

Nellie - Human nature?

Ok! Hey, everybooth. It's WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY GOTTA GET DOWN ON WEDNESDAY.

...sorry.


I'd just like to make it clear that, while I know how Wednesday is pronounce, every time I see it in writing I think  of it as wed-nez-day. Every. Time.

Today I'm going to talk to yo about animal cruelty!
I got a whole pile of books out from the library, (Including one outstanding graphic novel, one good graphic novel, one crap graphic novel and a couple normal novels) and the one I'm really psyched about and just generally gaga over is "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat" by Hal Herzog- tagline "Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals". I saw it on the shelf in all it's lurid coloring and I fell in love instantly.

DFSDGF- JUST LOOK AT IT <3

Of course, once I was done plowing through the graphic-novel-goodness, this was the first proper book I started reading. I'm 42 pages in at the moment and, in this case, you can judge a book by it's cover.

It's already touched on a few really interesting subjects- Dolphin Assisted Therapy, for instance. As someone who doesn't think dolphins should be kept captive at all, well, putting them into little concrete pools so people with real problems can float above them and pretend their sonar is bathing them in radiant wonderful mind-healing rays? For $700 bucks an hour? The levels of stupidity and meanness there are off the charts.

BUT. The part that has been most interesting to me so far is the section on the correlation (and there always has been one, allegedly) between a child showing cruelty to animals and that child growing up to commit violent crimes towards other people.

It's long been "common knowledge" that torturing animals as a child is a sign of a psychopath, but in one study cited by this book, 35% of the violent criminals participating had abused animals in the past, and in the control group- and these are normal people, you understand- 37% had committed some form of animal cruelty as children.
In another surprising study, out of 354 cases of serial murder, only 20% of the perpetrators had a history of animal abuse. Huh. May want to re-think that common knowledge thing.

That being said, it isn't why I'm writing. As I'm reading this section, the author asks some of his friends if they ever abused animals as children. The results are surprising- one friend blew up frogs with firecrackers, another killed his puppy when he was five years old by tossing it over a fence again and again, a third said that yes, she had indeed been involved in animal cruelty when she was a child- but she couldn't talk about it.

The part that disturbs me is that a fair amount of people abuse, torture, or kill animals as children. Up to a certain age, I suppose you can justify it- oh, he/she didn't know they were hurting them- but the rate at which this happens is so startling that when reading this section of the book, I was struck by how glad I was that I never killed anything when I was a kid. All of these people, all of the good ones, anyhow, carry around the weight of having done something horrible when they were younger, and having no way to fix it. They have to remember that their entire lives.

I stepped on a snail three years ago, when I was fifteen. It still brings me to tears to think about.

I was talking to my Dad about all of this, and a few minutes into the conversation he asked me if I wanted to hear about the worst moment of his life.

He had a little japanese turtle named Yogi when he was a kid- he had a lot of snakes, rats, turtles, etc- that he  was especially fond of, no bigger than the palm of your hand. One day, while he was cleaning the cage, he accidentally forgot Yogi was on the ground and stepped on him. You could tell, from the way he talked about this, that he hadn't been joking or exaggerating- years and years and years after the fact, he still remembers killing that little turtle, and feels incredibly guilty.

So, in conclusion to all of this, are people just generally messed up? Do all kids need to kill or torture something when they're young, just to know how it feels to have power over something that can't fight back? Obviously, some don't, and the ones who do often seem to be wracked with guilt- but why does it happen so often? And why am I exempt from all of this? (Thank goodness!) Is it just good genetic material that kept me from wanting to pull the legs off of grasshoppers? NATURE OR NURTURE, PEOPLE?

Also, purebred dogs and their owners really do look alike, but mutts and their owners do not. Go figure.

o-o

Molly - Hopes and Dreams and Ick

Hey Booths!
I've enjoyed all of your writings, and I can't wait to see those of you who are coming to see me on Friday. Mom is bringing me a 5 lb. bag of sugar, so I'm looking forward to that too. Mmmsugartea.

Anyway, right now I am absolutely disgusting (Here's where Gus says "Right now?"). I've caught what is referred to at Marlboro as "The Ick"...basically an awful cold that everyone gets because my school is adorable and pint-sized. My brain is fuzzy and I had a fever earlier and I'm supposed to be reading Aeschylus. Lurvely.

I'm writing this because I want to pose a question to my siblings (and any readers/friends who'd like to respond as well): what are your hopes and dreams guys?

Like, what's the ideal right now?

I guess I'm wondering because mine keep changing. Right now I've decided I want to be an author/English + literature professor but I'm acutely aware that my goals tend to fluctuate depending on what I'm studying atm. I'd also like a couple cats and a cute apartment. Maybe in Boston.

So I call for the first time, a formal response from each Booth. Someone help Jenny do it too, because I'm sure whatever her goals are, they are adorable. Tell me what you're hoping for! A career, a school, a new barbie movie, an outcome at a tournament...what is it?

Gus - A Haiku

Someone please tell this

Stupid service Google to

Stop logging me out.

Jenny/Tory - Squid/Wesley's Haircut

JENNY:

(Slightly edited by Tory for readability, but mostly left to maximum adorable spelling-errorness)

Hi monie guess what! :3 I finally got to install feral-heart (game on computer) and it works now the wolvys can howl and the lions, tigers, and lots of other cats can roar! Anyway i am planing on writing more of "paws daughters feather and rain' the second book of paws! Webly looks funny in a bathing suit by the way.. and he looks funny with his "short fur" hair cut.

Any way bunny farm whent on from 9:00 to something like 12 or 1 in the after noon of course when it started it was morning time. any way all the pets are happy.. and harryit is pretty happy and i think she likes me alittle more seen that she curled up on the pillow when i was asleep.

Also she put her head on my lap when i was sitting down on a chair and she had bin lieing there. Marco and martin the guina pigs are also doing fine and so is all the other "piggys" and as usall tommy is a happy white cuddly fat cat . and shadow same! peanut likes me more too! and stripes is stripes!

Tory and I played "dogs" and I was Lily the Samoyed and she was sugar the German shepherd.

TORY:

Greetings!

I am finally writing, even though i'm kind of stealing a dog that doesn't belong to me to write about. These things will happen when you become an Auntie to a standard poodle, just you wait.

Excitingly enough, this time the 'good groomer that didn't savage his ear hair' was there when Nellie called petco, thus making the haircut much more promising than last time.

At three Nellie and I walked Wesley to his doom haircut, and once we got there he obviously sensed something was afoot, attempting to eat nibble taste fiddle with one of the groomer lady's hands. He then lunged for a toy poodle as she was exiting the store with her owner, causing the lady poodle to bark at him quite ferociously. After being dragged off her, we abandoned him with the grooming staff and walked home.

Nellie was still at work, so Mom and I drove to pick him up three hours after we had dropped him off. When we got there Courtney, the groomer, met us and informed us he had begun to stress out (panting and drooling, it's incredibly charming!) by the end of the hair cutting, so she stopped working on him and he'll be returning tomorrow, breaking it up and causing Wesley less stress.

Wesley came out from the back room looking rather derpy and adorable, still wet with his head poof hair squished down in his eyes, as it hadn't dried into pure fluff yet.

But not really acting adorable as he panted, barked at a Pomeranian that was very concerned and disdainful about Wesley's behavior, and jumped on Mom, desperately trying to...I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish.

I'll call it pure madness from realizing he smelled nice. I made the decision that this called for a bully stick, and he sat on my lap eating his bully stick on the way home, not at all fazed that he was riding in the front seat.

Hopefully tomorrow he'll avoid the wrath of small dogs.

Another day in the life of Wesley + Auntie!

(Must go, I hear the screams of an 8-year-old losing a battle to reclaim a stuffed hedgehog...He's still not quite over the haircut.)

Nellie - Too Pony or Not Too Pony

Greetings, sportsfans, family members, friends, stalkers peering at this blog post through binoculars, and the rest of you. As Molly has reminded me approx. 80,000 times (A simple guesstimation) - wait, make that 80,001, my phone just buzzed-  today is my day to write the blog post. My day.


And I'm going to write about ponies.

Lately, (Well, for the past year or so) I've been in a bit of an art funk. I've doodled, yes, and I've come up with a few good drawings, but I've been lazy about even putting pencil to paper and certainly not motivated enough to do what I actually aspire to: Become really good at digital art using my laptop and my tablet and learn better techniques for getting the effects I want.

But lately, I've had a immense change in attitude. I've got plenty of inspiration for digital work, and I've been reading tutorials and using textures and playing with lighting and all of that jazz.

The only problem? All my art if of MY LITTLE PONIES.


A few words of explanation: When I was younger, say, up until maybe 12 years, I was obsessed with collecting My Little Pony toys and forcing my female siblings to have hours and hours of games with them. I never liked barbies very much (Aside from using them to make many ketchup-heavy horror films all focusing on either beauty pageant contestants gone psychotic OR prom gone wrong!) and I was rather dismayed about the lack of male ponies- where the hell did all the babies come from- but there was something extremely appealing about the quasi-equine creatures of rainbow and glitter. We cut off their hair and made the ones with the most androgynous names into guys (Sorry, Shelly).

There were also some movies, which Jenny adored and most of us older kids secretly made fun of for their terrible stories, characters, and animation. Oh, and because there were no guys. (Still wth.)

Eventually, I outgrew My Little Ponies and completely forgot they existed. I collected dragons instead, because they are more badass.
AND THEN.


You may or may not be aware of this, but there is actually a massive fanbase of older people (Mostly men? o-o) who love the new MLP show, Friendship is Magic. I heard the hype and one day, while Jenny was watching it, I sat down and watched an episode.

Ok, ok, show is genuinly cute. The animation is Powerpuff-Girls-esque and very cute, the characters are distinct and funny, and the stories are much more solid. There are even guys! But I did not become an instant Brony. I do not fantasize about hanging out with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Maybe Twilight Sparkle, but not Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. (I kid.)

But for whatever reason, I was really into the idea of making my own pony. I guess because it's such a systematical thing? You pick the tramp stamp (cutie mark) and the m@g!c l33t sk!llz (talents) and a few colors and BAM, you, too, can be having as much fun as the other pony-crazed weirdos appear to be having. Bro-hoofs abound.

So I did, and I named her Sweet Dreams and I made her an Alicorn which is both a unicorn and a pegasus because they are better and I drew her. Once. And, naturally, I uploaded said picture to deviantart.

This is the picture.

50 FAVORITES

50 OF THEM

Favorites are the blood of deviantart, and I have an average of 5-10 favorites per picture.

FIFTY SEPARATE PEOPLE LIKED MY PICTURE.

I mean, I pretend not to want favorites, but let us be honest here: Who doesn't want their art viewed and appreciated and have proof of said viewing and appreciation? It warms ones internet heart to have people looking at your work and enjoying it enough to hit the +fav button. 

Perhaps I should have run then.

But instead, I made another.

ANOTHER.

And I did it again.

This one has snow! :D

And I find myself asking if anyone has a character who  wants to be friends with my character so that I might draw them together, MOAR PONIES!? What is wrong with me?

So here's my question: I've been drawing more. In general, not just with regard to ponies. If you click any of the links you'll see that my gallery has filled up an awful lot on the past few weeks, and I've really been enjoying what I'm doing.

But is this a good thing? My Little Ponies, with their squishy little bodies, cute pug-nosed faces, huge eyes and sparkly accessories, are a subject well within my comfort zone. Part of me thinks that if the only reason I'm enjoying drawing again is because I'm drawing ponies, I should just keep drawing them- But another part of me, the part that thinks that people who draw Sonic fan art day-in-day-out instead of actually coming up with their own work are lame... that one says I should quit the whole idea asap and draw something that came out of my brain, and my brain only.

The other night, that part of my brain tried to take over. The result is a perfect visual example of what happens when fan art and a deep need for originality come together.

...It isn't pretty.

Molly - Homeostasis

One of my biggest worries about moving to Vermont was that I'd change. I know that's kind of the point of going away to college - independence and freedom and whatnot - but it scared me. I've spent the last five or six years consciously trying to develop a sense of self, and what? I move out and have to start all over again?

But I was also looking forward to a less hectic schedule - I was anticipating that I would probably exercise at a less alarming rate, sleep in, drink more tea, and spend a calm semester getting to know the school. I wanted to be a more relaxed person in general, so I was looking forward to that change.

And when I got here, I did all of those things!

I slept till eight every day, I registered for a dance class and mainly used that for exercise, I became obsessed with tea, and I was careful to give myself a reasonable class schedule. I even ignored my planner!

This lasted for about two weeks. Slowly, Spring Semester '11 Molly elbowed her way back in.

For example, this morning I woke up at six and ran four miles before breakfast. I am beginning to wean myself from abundances of caffeine again. I'm starting my work study position today, and I'm interviewing for a Film Intensive tomorrow. My planner looks like that of a mad man's.

The truth is, I don't think it's in my nature to be relaxed. Those two weeks I attempted to chill out more, I often felt nauseous and freaked out. As it turns out, I really like to be busy - I like to have things to fill almost every time slot of my day. Fighting it, strangely enough, is too exhausting.

Without my trying, I've slowly returned to patterns I cultivated eight months ago. Maybe college isn't going to drastically change me - maybe I'm too set in my ways for that to happen.

So, so far, I can only document a couple changes in myself since I've come to Marlboro:

1. I eat way more vegetables, and so little meat I am dangerously close to becoming a vegetarian. But this is not because I find it morally impossible to eat bacon, but more just the dining hall soaks all their meat in some form of corn-syrupy sauce or cakes it in corn-starchy breading.

2. I'm a little shy. This is the oddest sensation in the world, and I honestly don't remember the last time I felt shy. Maybe when I first started working at AAT? But I remember feeling comfortable pretty darn quickly. Regardless, it's a strange thing for me not to be able to make eye contact with people, or feel nervous walking into the dining hall. This is slowly fading the more time I spend in the classroom - I'm such a loud mouth in there that I guess it just carries over to my social life.

Anyway, thought you guys would like to know that I'm still me, neurosis and all. I hope everyone's having a wonderful week; I can't wait to see you Booths the next time you come to visit. Jenny, there's a rumor you're the fastest kid on your soccer team, and I wanted you to know that doesn't surprise me at all. I would expect nothing less from The Fast Dragon.

Gus - Wait, hey, this isn't a happy song!

I got on the subject of songs that have melodies that really don't match the lyrics song in a conversation recently, specifically about the song "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People. I think some people, including one that I was talking to from school the other day, find the juxtaposition of the music and lyrics of a song to be somewhat disturbing. I actually really enjoy the discord between these two parts of a song; don't get me wrong, this is far from the only kind of song I like. But I like it when the songwriter deceives the listener into thinking one thing with the music, then switches it up with the lyrics.

This is the Foster The People song I'm referring to. It's very easy to find yourself humming along the cheerful-sounding chorus, especially during the parts where the band members whistle. The chorus has a tune that suggests the song should be about falling in love--since "love" is what about 90% of all songs are written about, anyway, why not?--or at least something happy. Like discovering that the Pittsburgh Steelers just got creamed by their archrivals 35-7 and turned over the ball seven times! Or, you know, having a good day or something. I don't want to get too specific.

Thing is, the song's about shooting people. It's a wonderfully dark ditty about how the other kids better "outrun my gun."The cheerful chorus serves to obscure this at first to the casual listener, and then later on we discover that there's something creepy going on here once we start listening more intently. And the thing that strikes me about this is as being so cool is that the song mirrors the message so well; people think of the teen years as such a carefree, happy time...when they're on the outside, looking in. Look a bit closer and there's some really messed up stuff going on, culminating in some places in Columbine-like events. It's really heavy stuff.

Foster The People are hardly the first performing artists to utilize this sort of way of sending their message. Lily Allen's "Fuck You,"--not be confused with Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You"--is another song that you can find yourself humming along to happily-what a pleasant tune! And then you hit the chorus, and you start paying attention, and you realize that the song is not about butterflies and rainbows and the boy she just met. It's a song that bashes the closed minded masses; the card carrying members of the flat earth society who claim it's not alright to be gay, or different from them in any way, and the jerks who still cling to our society like leeches in this supposedly enlightened age.

Above all, the thing I really like about sending a message this way through music is the "oh, snap!" moment the listener gets while listening to the song. It makes the message hit harder, and it makes you think. Thinking's a good habit. Winky face.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled sisters.

Molly - Reflections on Lake Champlain

Hello Booths! Greetings from Vermont! *insert post card of Hurricane Irene*

At my new 4-year school, Marlboro College, all new students (even us oldey-moldey transfers!) go on a week-long orientation trip with other new students. Adorkable, I know. My trip was a kayaking/camping trip, and it was frickin' awesome. Among other things, every night we would sit around our camp fire and say our "Rose" our "Bud" and our "Thorn" of that day. Meaning the best parts of our day, what we were looking forward to for the next day, and what maybe-kinda sucked about that day. We all did it with a sense of humor, but took it pretty seriously too. Adorkable, I know.

Anyway, that's what I'd like to share with anyone who's reading this - the best parts of my trip, the little annoying things, and what I hope for as I begin my first semester at Marlboro. Cheesey to the point of puking, yes...but have you met me? Cheesey is what I do.

Roses:
-The people. I was afraid of going on this trip and getting sick of everyone super quickly - that each day would get worse socially. In fact it was the opposite, and each day made me love everyone more and it was kick-ass. I made some awesome friends who I get to sit with at meals every day now, and cuddle with. It's a beautiful thing when people aren't annoying.
-Kayaking. We got to kayak in solo boats AND two-person boats called tandems. We spent some time on both smooth and choppy water, and I feel like my kayak skills reached a new level. We also spent a lot of time singing "I'm on a Boat", and other Lonely Island songs as they applied.
-Singing. We sang. A lot.
-The Butterfly Funeral. We found a stunningly pretty dead butterfly at one of our campsites, and held an impromptu funeral, joining hands and singing "Taps". It made me feel super confident in my choice of school, because obviously the people I go to school with are dorks like me. Also, I accidentally got the lyrics wrong at the end and sang "God is high" giving a whole new meaning to the song.
-Mindfulness. We were so busy every day - moving boats around, setting up and taking down camp, cooking all of our meals...I had zero time to be homesick or grumpy. I lived in the present for a whole week and it was blissful.

Thorns:
-Allergies. I had some issues with the tents and my sensitivity to air-borne stuff. One morning I woke up very early with one eye completely sealed shut, and I took a zyrtec and sat out on the rocks, waiting for the swelling to go down and admiring the lake. Then I saw a naked man chilling on his boat. So maybe that was a Rose too...
-My hair. I didn't get to wash it. It was gross, and it bothered me a lot. You can ask my fellow trip-mates...when I did get to wash my hair I cried I was so happy. Or maybe I didn't, it was raining so that's still up for some speculation.

Buds for Marlboro Fall Semester:
-I hope my roommate and I continue to be the awesomest roommates ever. There's no reason this wouldn't happen, in fact it's definitely going to continue to happen. Claire is awesome; I love her. Also, we have a doormat (Thanks Nell!) that proclaims our room "Party Central" and we have received many compliments on it.
-I hope to meet even more people who are interesting and wonderful, although it seems everyone here is so I guess that's a guarantee.
-I hope to stay in touch with the people I love in various states across the country.
-I hope my classes don't kill me.
-I hope my family doesn't forget all about me and turn my room into a swimming pool or a pie factory.
-I hope to grow creatively and intellectually. That's why I'm here. Durrr.

Anyway, I hope all the Booths are doing great, and I can't wait to read your posts! That includes you Jenny...I want to read Paws!

Gus - Post One

Oh hey, this is the eldest Booth child, chiming in. My name is Gus, I'm 24 and I just graduated college this past May. I worked at Blueberry Cove summer camp for the next three months--fun and exhausting!--but now I'm finally back home and enjoying some downtime while I fix my computer and read...read...read. The books I just picked up with my graduation gift card:

* Hammer's Slammers, Volume One, by David Drake

* Imperial Glory, by Richard Williams

* On Basilisk Station, by David Weber

* Blood Pact, by Dan Abnett (I already have this one, but I'm a huge Abnett fan and I wanted a paperback version)

* The Infection, by Craig DiLouie (which needs to hurry up and arrive in the mail!)

...which is a pretty good haul. I've been cleaning up at the bookstore lately since I'm looking for more good science fiction/fiction material to inspire me to create my own stories. Plus, well, I am a total book worm.

Be right back, Orelia the Fire Hydrant needs saving.