So I've been half-dead from a chronic sinus infection since the last journal I made. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just makes me sleep constantly. I've been getting more migraines and snot is draining down my throat constantly, but mostly I've just been sleeping or sleepy. Naturally this has cut down on my leisure time so I haven't been online that much or making that much art. I have been taking a good amount of fall photos, at least. I'll pick the best of those to upload in a bit.

Also the fall school semester is almost over! It seems like classes just started and I finally learned everyone's names. Oh well, I should be getting ready to take the ACT next month since apparently the school demands that I do it.

I'm finally mostly moved into my new house. My sister and I decided to share a bedroom so we could make the last bedroom into an art room, but it isn't all set up just yet. I'll take some pictures of it once it is though, it's gonna be so nice

I'll start uploading stuff and checking my messages soon, so sorry if I haven't been getting back to you recently.

Also school has started again. I'm taking three classes this semester, and all of my teachers seem really nice so hopefully they'll be good. We shall see if I still have a 4.0 at the end of the year

It's that time of year again,with crazy storms popping up at random.The other day one such event occurred. I was taking a nap when I was awoken by the tell-tale banging of hail. Thinking it would stop soon, as it often does, I remained in bed for several minutes. It kept going, however, and seemed to be falling with a particular intensity. So, begrudgingly I got out of bed to be sure there wasn't a tornado about to demolish the house, an event not all that uncommon here.

My brother was in the living room when I stumbled out,mouth agape as was my own. It seemed as though death was raining down from the sky, clobbering everything in site, and yet there was almost a glow in the air much unlike the darkness that would have been appropriate. He was on the phone with my mother and sister, who were out shopping at the time. I went to grab the camera to try and take a video of the hail falling, but just as a started recording it stopped.Just like that, the clouds seemed to part and the sun began shining. At seemingly the very same moment my mom and sister pulled back into our driveway and we ran outside to meet them.

On the other side of the house a rainbow was beaming in the sky against the bleak clouds that still remained. We all started picking up the hail that littered the ground, already beginning to melt away into nothingness. The clouds kept on moving away and the sky quickly opened up into a happy blue expanse, just as nothing had happened. It was one of those strange and special events in life that feels extraordinary at the time, and seems to last forever, but was really only a fleeting moment. As though if you were to blink, you would have missed it. It was also one of those events where you just had to be there to get it.

There are crazy squirrels at my bird feeder again. They came to eat the delicious berries off the mulberry bushes and noticed the feeder. After that it was only a matter of time before they noticed me, and more importantly my cats in the window. Now, I don't know what it is about squirrels that makes them so bold when they know you're behind glass, but every time one realizes that the cats can't get it, the squirrel has to flaunt it. This of course means getting face to face the cats, who are scrambling on top of each other to try to get the best view, and eventually smack into the window in vein.

This particular squirrel seemed extra bold, bugging the cats on his first day. And while reluctant to tackle the actual feeder, settling for the seed on the ground, it had no qualms about about diving head first into the window on the other side of the cat's face. I think they do it for fun, because I can't think of another reason why. I hear other people speak of crazy squirrels taunting their cats too, so maybe it's like their favorite pass time. Who knows?


Also I'm moving to the city where the main campus of the University is. It's only like 30-40 miles away, but it means I'll be moving out of a sub-tropical climate and into a temperate climate Also it's a much nicer city. We start looking at houses next week.

My mom and I were in the car yesterday driving between two towns and the farmers were scuffling their fields(I am informed that scuffling is when they pull little spiky things through the fields in between the crops to pull out the weeds)which was stirring up a ton of dust. Pretty quickly we started to notice there were dust devils all over the place, which are kind of like itty bitty tornadoes made up of dust. [link] (video example)So we were just driving along watching them in the fields, when we see a fairly big on starting to move out of the field toward the road. As we got close to it, it looked kind of like it was disappeared until a big gust buffeted the minivan and we swerved off to the side for a second. I'd never actually been hit by one before. It was sort of funny.

In other news, my internet was dead for almost a whole week. It was horrible. It was like I was living in the 90's or something, can you imagine?

Also, best game ever, or worst game ever? I can't decide. Stalin vs Martians [link]