Pomplaining is hard to do, especially during Quarantine.

Yes, I know. Quarantine. Not my favorite of topics.
I bet when you watch the news the only topic they really talk about is the virus.
"This amount of people died from the coronavirus today", or "so many people are waiting outside of testing stations to be tested!" or, "This person was tested positive for the coronavirus!"

It's really ridiculous! Now, honestly your probably thinking, "why are you talking about this? We all hear it every day!". WHAT IS POMPLAINING?! (you have to keep reading to find out!)

The reason is, that I want to make sure, I'm not slowly falling into sanity from being at home all day, listening to the news. See I'm ranting, but I want to be positive about it though.
Makes sense?
No?
Alright, let me break it down for you.

I really don't want to boast about Quarantine, because that's negative. Also, that really won't make this blog enjoyable for you people that are reading this, but if you boast about something, people will agree with what you have to say.
So what am I saying?
I want to complain and also be positive about it!
I don't think that's a thing.
pomplaining?
 (oh, there is the word again!)
I just made a new word! Pomplaining! I feel so cool right now.

(now you get it. still no? It's Positive and complaining mashed into one word.)
What does it mean?
It means Positively complaining about something- yea you get it.

 Anyway, yea I don't know how to positively complain/rant about something, but being positive can increase your mood on situations. (like about the virus) Also, you will feel better about yourself!
So, yea okay we might not have the rest of the school year ahead but being positive about it can maybe change how you feel on it! Also, follow the rules on washing your hand and staying 6ft away from other people.

5ft apart... the movie had me crying.

Anyway, be safe and follow the rules and you should be fine.
Also, people should be Pomplaining a lot more, don't you think?
 (no, it makes no sense what so ever.)

-Nya :)

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS #10 - Book Review: Notes From the Midnight Driver

I enjoyed doing the last book review so
much, and I think it went quite well, if I do say so myself. So, I decided to do another one. This book, Notes From the Midnight Driver, is another book by Jordan Sonnenblick, and might I say, it was no let-down from his other fantastic works.

When 16-year-old Alex Gregory drunkenly crashes his car into his neighbor's yard and pummels a very unlucky lawn gnome, the community service he is ordered to do seems to be more than he can handle.  At his local senior center, he is assigned to Soloman Lewis a "difficult" old man with a lot of gusto and quite a bit of a temper. On top of this, his parents are 

getting a divorce, and he has to deal with all the other typical 10th-grade drama (Hint-hint: A beautiful girl) that is thrown his way. Little does he know, these experiences are destined to change his life forever.

Goodreads rates this book a 4.1 out of 5, but this is another book I would rate at least a 4.5 out of 5. Sonnenblick has done it again, creating a book that is both hilarious and heartbreaking, tugging at your heartstrings the whole way through. 

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS # 9 - Book Review: Zen & the Art of Faking It

I have always loved reading. I would read anything             
and everything when I was little (Including my
history textbook), and I just thought it would be
offensive to the world of literature not to do a book
review at one point or another. This book, Zen and
the Art of Faking It, was written by Jordan
Sonnenblick, one of my all-time favorite authors,
and, just like all his other books, I thought he
did exceedingly well with it.

Meet San Lee, your average eighth-grader who moves 

to a new town against his will, where he (sort-of) invents

a new past for himself and gets the school to (sort-of) 

start to worship him, just because he (sort-of) gave the 

impression that he's a reincarnated mystic. As you 

can imagine, things started to go downhill very quickly
for him. Can he patch things up with his family, stop
being an outcast, and even get the girl after all?

I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. This, of course, is because of the heart-wrenching story, cleverly mixed with the light-hearted comedy that we have all come to love from Sonnenblick. The characters are realistic and relatable, and the tension in the book will have you just bouncing off the walls.

SPILLS OF RANDOMNESS # 8 - The Best Poems Of All Time

There are a lot of different types of writing today. There are a lot of different genres of writing,
but there will always be one form that outshines all the rest (Well, only a little. All types of writing
are amazing!), and that is poetry. It is always so beautiful and emotional. And it only has to be a
few stanzas of complete and pure awesomeness, but, often times, are many stanzas of complete
and pure awesomeness. So, without further ado, here are the top 6 poems of all time.

6) Go and Catch a Falling Star by John Donne 

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the devil’s foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy’s stinging,

            And find

            What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be’st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me,

All strange wonders that befell thee,

            And swear,

            No where

Lives a woman true, and fair.

If thou find’st one, let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet;

Though she were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

            Yet she

            Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three.

5) The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves, no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

4) Cinderella by Anne Sexton

You always read about it:

the plumber with the twelve children who win the Irish Sweepstakes.

From toilets to riches.

That story.

Or the nursemaid,

some luscious sweet from Denmark

who captures the oldest son's heart.

from diapers to Dior.

That story.

Or a milkman who serves the wealthy,

eggs, cream, butter, yogurt, milk,

the white truck like an ambulance

who goes into real estate

and makes a pile.

From homogenized to martinis at lunch.

Or the charwoman

who is on the bus when it cracks up

and collects enough from the insurance.

From mops to Bonwit Teller.

That story.

Once

the wife of a rich man was on her deathbed

and she said to her daughter Cinderella:

Be devout. Be good. Then I will smile

down from heaven in the seam of a cloud.

The man took another wife who had

two daughters, pretty enough

but with hearts like blackjacks.

Cinderella was their maid.

She slept on the sooty hearth each night

and walked around looking like Al Jolson.

Her father brought presents home from town,

jewels and gowns for the other women

but the twig of a tree for Cinderella.

She planted that twig on her mother's grave

and it grew to a tree where a white dove sat.

Whenever she wished for anything the dove

would drop it like an egg upon the ground.

The bird is important, my dears, so heed him.

Next came the ball, as you all know.

It was a marriage market.

The prince was looking for a wife.

All but Cinderella were preparing

and gussying up for the event.

Cinderella begged to go too.

Her stepmother threw a dish of lentils

into the cinders and said: Pick them

up in an hour and you shall go.

The white dove brought all his friends;

all the warm wings of the fatherland came,

and picked up the lentils in a jiffy.

No, Cinderella, said the stepmother,

you have no clothes and cannot dance.

That's the way with stepmothers.

Cinderella went to the tree at the grave

and cried forth like a gospel singer:

Mama! Mama! My turtledove,

send me to the prince's ball!

The bird dropped down a golden dress

and delicate little slippers.

Rather a large package for a simple bird.

So she went. Which is no surprise.

Her stepmother and sisters didn't

recognize her without her cinder face

and the prince took her hand on the spot

and danced with no other the whole day.

As nightfall came she thought she'd better

get home. The prince walked her home

and she disappeared into the pigeon house

and although the prince took an axe and broke

it open she was gone. Back to her cinders.

These events repeated themselves for three days.

However on the third day the prince

covered the palace steps with cobbler's wax

and Cinderella's gold shoe stuck upon it.

Now he would find whom the shoe fit

and find his strange dancing girl for keeps.

He went to their house and the two sisters

were delighted because they had lovely feet.

The eldest went into a room to try the slipper on

but her big toe got in the way so she simply

sliced it off and put on the slipper.

The prince rode away with her until the white dove

told him to look at the blood pouring forth.

That is the way with amputations.

They just don't heal up like a wish.

The other sister cut off her heel

but the blood told as blood will.

The prince was getting tired.

He began to feel like a shoe salesman.

But he gave it one last try.

This time Cinderella fit into the shoe

like a love letter into its envelope.

At the wedding ceremony

the two sisters came to curry favor

and the white dove pecked their eyes out.

Two hollow spots were left

like soup spoons.

Cinderella and the prince

lived, they say, happily ever after,

like two dolls in a museum case

never bothered by diapers or dust,

never arguing over the timing of an egg,

never telling the same story twice,

never getting a middle-aged spread,

their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.

Regular Bobbsey Twins.

That story.

3) Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

2) O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

1) Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief.

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

It’s me!

Hello everyone! How’s life treating you? I apologize if this duplicates, Blogger doesn’t like phones. I love my new school, it’s very big. The entire sv seventh grade is just one section here at Nazareth. The teachers are nice, and everyone’s been very welcoming, though I miss you all. What’s new around the valley? Is Mr Bender still talking about James? What’s happening in math class? How’s Mrs. Furst? At my new school, we’re doing stuff I’ve already done, we’re graphing inequalities right now. We’re allowed to carry our phones here which is amazing, and having a lock on your locker is optional. You’re also allowed to wear slides! (April-November). I do miss you guys, whenever I see something that reminds me of you, I get a deep searing pain of regret that I left so abruptly. Anyways, bye for now y’all! Use big words for me ;)

-Kaleya, former panther
(PS- we don’t face them in football games, but I’ll be back to visit soon!)