Project 365 New Things: Days 39, 40, 41, 42 AND 43...

*slinks into blog through the back window* hey guys...

I don't need to regale you with the reason that I've been absent more than is customary, for three reasons: 1, I don't feel like it. 2, you probably don't feel like reading about it. 3, the version that you will conjure from the depths of your imagination will probably be much more entertaining than the truth ever could be, and I don't want to spoil that for you.

Day 39: I tried a new kind of memorization technique in Shakespeare. It consists of saying a piece of text aloud as one continually draws a picture of what is happening. If it weren't 11pm where I live, I would upload a scan of my cartoonish depiction of Hamlet's soliloquy. Perhaps tomorrow.

Day 40: I learned of the existence of the dhole, a fox-like animal that probably lives in Asia.

Day 41: I watched a Disney short that I had never seen before. Boring, I know, but it was from Tangled. What can I say? I adore that movie, and the fact that Flynn Rider isn't real is a real source of grief for me and often feels like a very physical wound in my side.

Day 42: I finished season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, I acknowledge what a hopelessly lame challenge this is. But let me point out that the reason for my absence on this blog (as you've probably guessed, you clever thing) is that I have been (say it with me) extraordinarily busy and tired this week! So I'm giving myself a pass here. And it is true that I had never done that before.

Day 43: I began season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Deal with it.

Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely week. Onwards and upwards!

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 26

Is it October already? Jeepers.

So, I'm absolutely mentally and physically exhausted, and I'm still fighting this cold. Thus, I shall try to keep this report brief.

For today's challenge, I ate a cupcake with a spoon. I would not recommend this to others, on the grounds that it is a very unwieldy way to consume one's dessert, and I ended up having to fish chunks of cake out of a pool of ketchup. So, technically, I suppose I did two new things today, because in an attempt to salvage the chunks of cake, I tried to eat them. Do not eat chocolate cupcake chunks with ketchup. It only leads to despair and heartfelt sighs. Mark my words.

In other news, I came back to rehearsals today. I was still feeling a little too sick to do this, but I am incredibly stubborn when it comes to my passions, and so I may or may not have let on that I was feeling a little healthier than I actually was. However, I did not pay too dearly for this, as for the first half of the workshop, we all lay on the floor in a dimly-lit area and closed our eyes as we did various voice exercises. It was actually quite lovely and very relaxing. And I enjoyed it from a synesthetic point of view, too, because one of the exercises involved letting out vibrating 'puffs' of sound with each breath. As I lay there with my eyes shut, I got to watch the different colors of everyone's vocalizations in this rainbow of colored dots. It was absolutely beautiful.

In other news, I am out of a dog walking job until congress can act like adults, because my employer is forcibly home from work (she works for the government). I don't know how this will effect my ability to pay for Metro fare to Young Company, and it's actually concerning me a bit. I've got some money saved up, of course, but I don't know how long this madness will last. And that's all I'm going to say about it here, because I'm honestly just sick of arguing, politics, whining, whining about politics, arguing about politics... well, you get the idea. Congress, you had *one* job...

May sunny fields be involved in your future activities.

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 25

The bad news is that I'm still sick enough that I had to miss rehearsal. But the good news is that I turned in all my world history homework, I'm feeling a bit better, and my right ear is no longer ringing in a way that I can only describe as a wall of gray with burgundy specks trying to block out all sensation on the right side of my head.

Because I am still sick, I didn't have a lot of options for today's challenge. After I finished the veritable mountain of work I had to do (whoot!), I was still without ideas. I was going to go on YouTube to find a 'how-to' video for something, but I had the attention span of a fruit fly, and soon I found myself watching Hank Green make mistakes on Crash Course outtakes and I wasn't learning anything (other than how hard it can be to pronounce the names of certain molecules). So, in a fit of brilliance, I decided to go to Wikipedia, click 'random article,' and write a poem inspired by the material of whatever article I got. Desperately hoping not to get an article about anything dirty and/or hopelessly boring, I embarked upon this adventure.

I got this very short article about an R&B song called "Lock and Key:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_and_Key_(Klymaxx_song)

I then listened to this abominable cacophony of noise on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B1IMVKGY8

As my ears (and eyes) were assaulted by this very poorly rendered collage of uncomplimentary colors and sounds, I penned this modern classic:

As I gaze upon the voluminous mass that is this woman's hair,
I cannot help but wonder what she could hide in there.
A teapot, a thesaurus, a pair of yellow sneakers,
A colony of starfish or old computer speakers.
This song is both musically and intellectually lacking;
If I were her producer, I'd simply send her packing.
But she'd be just fine; with a cumulonimbus of hair like that
She'd have everything she needed to bring the '80s back.

As always, lemme know what you did for today, if you're following along! If not, and if you have an idea for something new I could try, I'd love to hear from ya!

Peace and prosperity,
~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 14

Disclaimer: Today's new thing may not seem all that exciting to you, but it is a big deal to me. So deal with it.

As most of you have doubtless deduced by now from reading this blog, I am about as coordinated as an intoxicated housefly. As you also undoubtedly know, I am part of a Shakespeare company that I have been rhapsodizing in great detail as of late. I am absolutely loving it, but it is incredibly physically demanding. We do several warm-up exercises that leave me with the general feeling that I have been liberally coated in meat tenderizer. However, the more I do these exercises, in general, the easier they become. Except for (wait for it): The headstand.

Yes, just lean back in your chair and picture it for a moment: A lanky blonde, clad completely in black, surrounded by reasonably coordinated people as she desperately flails like an aerial starfish in an attempt to create a mere, pale shadow of their success, falling over a lot in the process. That blonde is me. During the first day, I couldn't even get my feet off of the ground. BUT. Today --and this is where the new thing comes in-- today, I GOT BOTH FEET OFF THE GROUND. AT THE SAME TIME. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Now, I didn't manage to a) do a complete headstand, or b) keep the aforementioned feet in this position for more than the count of three, BUT. Progress was made. I found (more or less) my 'balance point,' which is apparently an important element of a satisfactory, non-lethal headstand.

I will keep practicing this at home, but I will avoid doing so right next to my book case again, as tonight I nearly knocked it over as my blonde head went sailing through the air on an unexpected journey towards the Earth's core. Fun stuff.

As always, comment what you've done today if you're doing the project too, and feel free to leave any ideas for new things that I could try.

Farewell for now.

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 4

Today I learned how to mend a broken nail with a tea bag. Now, before you tell me how hopelessly boring a skill this is, let me assure you that it was out of necessity rather than just for fun. Ouch. I had so much work to do today that I decided just to count that as today's challenge, because I actually hadn't done it before.

Basically, you cut a nail-sized piece out of the tea bag mesh, glue it onto the nail (I used a glue stick, as I am truly lazy), and then put on clear nail polish to keep it on. And it actually worked pretty well.

And then, because I am truly talented in the art of hurting myself, I topped it off with a Sesame Street band-aid, because yesterday I cut myself a knife bit me. I am actually really happy about the artistic content of my band-aid, and have been wearing it with pride and joy. Why don't big people get cool band-aids anymore!? I'm going to go to the store and buy a whole box of princess and/or Sesame Street band-aids the next chance I get.

And now, I have a special announcement.

My good friend, who is calling herself Cassandra for the purposes of the blogging world, has been following along with the challenge for the past couple of days. If I can speak for her for a moment, she has really been enjoying it. She decided yesterday to start her own blog, so that she can record her own 365 new things as well as opinions and thoughts and other bloggy material. Please check it out! Her url is fireiceeverythingnice.blogspot.com. I'm just pleased that other people are invested in this too, and it's not just me being crazy :)

I've got some ideas for tomorrow. Stay tuned! :)

~Maddie

Project 365 New Things: Day 3

So today, I kind of hit a wall. I'd spent the whole afternoon doing Spanish, and when I decided to take a break to do today's challenge, I could not think of a single thing that I could do. I didn't have the energy to cook something, I didn't have time to memorize a Shakespeare sonnet, I was at home rather than in a densely populated area and in possession of a bouquet of tulips, etc.

So I wandered around the house, looking for inspiration. Out of pure desperation, I picked up a bag of sidewalk chalk, determined to do something, anything with it that I had never done before.

After a fruitless Google search (did you know that you can use sidewalk chalk for the monumentally boring task of polishing silverware?), on impulse I ran into the bathroom, filled up the sink, and tossed in the chalk, just to see if it would float. It did not. I then ran downstairs to the microwave, and an astounding quantity of nothing happened after I heated up the chalk in it for ten seconds. Then I picked up a crayon so that the chalk could have mimed epic art supply battle, but they just ended up becoming friends and doing a dance on the kitchen counter. I then decided that the noble thing to do would be to give up, because I was clearly and unmistakably showing the signs of a textbook case of 'getting absolutely nowhere with these shenanigans.'

So I went into my room and decided to write a poem using the first line of the first ten songs that came onto my iPod when I shuffled my songs. Here is the result:

There's a fog upon L.A.
We made love all day
I'd like to be under the sea
Have a bit of me and a whole lot of you
Sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight
Haven't seen you since high school
She's not a girl who misses much
There'll be girls across the nation that'll eat this up
Cecilia, you're breaking my heart
No, I can't take one more step towards you.

Tadaaaaaaa.

I apologize for the lack of interesting content today. I will do something much more interesting tomorrow! As always, if you're following the project, comment your challenge for today, and if you have any ideas for me, please oh PLEASE comment those as well.

~Maddie