Guess the Book

I took the first two sentences from ten books on my bookshelf. Can you guess the books? If there was an introduction, I skipped that, but prologs I left in. Remember, these are books on my bookshelf. Put your guesses in the comments!

1. The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!

2. "That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk. He was already looking at his book.

3. Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the Hall were laid already, the silver and the glass catching what little light there was, and the long benches were pulled out ready for the guests.

4. When I saw the crowd gathering at the train station, I worried what President Roosevelt would think. I just hope he doesn't get the idea that Jenkinsville, Arkansas can't be trusted with a military secret, because, truth of the matter is, we're as patriotic as anybody.

5. When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie theater, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman-he looks tough and I don't-but I guess my own looks aren't so bad.

6. It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom, Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. 

7. Part of the problem, Nita thought as she desperately tore down Rose Avenue, is that I can't keep my mouth shut. She had been running for five minutes now, hopping fences, sliding sideways through hedges, but she was losing her wind.

8. Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that's true.

9. In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the Times. He laid the paper down, and glanced out of the window.

10. The senior partner studied the resume for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks.

I think most of these are pretty easy. I tried to mainly stick with pretty well known books. A few might be harder. There are two that I think are very easy. Post your answers in the comments, and I'll post the answers next week. I added a couple of classics from the school room shelf to the mix too, since I ran out of books on my shelf that I thought people would be able to guess.

Week in the Life: Day 7

Today is the final day of the liveblog! It was fun, but a lot of work. It was also really, really popular. I think I might try to do something like this regularly, thought maybe only for 3-4 days at a time. I'll try to do one this summer something (July or August), and then, if I can, maybe one in the fall after classes at the community college start.

7:00: Get up.

7:30: Check email, etc.

8:00: Get dressed and ready.

8:30: Eat strawberries.

9:00: Update blog. I'm about to start a math lesson.

10:15: Finish Math lesson, do a bit of history reading and hang out for a while.

11:45: Eat lunch (the last of the leftovers from Sunday night).

12:30: Hang out with Isabelle.

1:30: Do chores in preparation for people coming over later.

2:30: Read, do stuff online.

3:30: Arrange chairs downstairs for class.

4:00: Current events class begins. The topic today is gun control.

6:00: Everyone leaves, and we have dinner (meatball calzones).

7:00: Mom and Isabelle go to do some school, and I get online and update the blog.

Week in the Life: Day 6

It's Monday, and that mean's it's Day 6. Today is going to be the most "normal" day so far of the liveblogging. This is actually more like what an average day looks like than any of the ones so far.

7:00: Get up as Mom is leaving for work.

7:30: Read The Beginner's Guide to Living.

8:00: Breakfast (leftover sandwich from lunch yesterday, plus fruit).

8:30: I take a shower and get ready for the day.

9:00: Hang out with my sister for a while. Update blog.

9:30: Update blog for the first time today.

9:45: Start a math test.

10:25: Finish math test, and start the next lesson.

11:15: Finish Math lesson, then go read and eat lunch (leftover Chinese from last night's dinner).

12:10: Check email, etc. Update blog.

1:25: Start getting ready to go. I also pack a bag for Mom and Isabelle to bring for me later when they meet me in town.

2:10: Leave for the library.

2:30: Volunteer at the library. Normally, I clean books and toys, but since the summer reading program just started, things are a little crazy there, and I had some different things to do. I did do some toys, but mostly I stamped a little gold symbol ( I think it is to prove authenticity) on a ton of coupons that kids get as prizes when they finish summer reading. I'm guessing I stamped about 700, maybe a bit less.

3:30: I finish volunteering, and grab some books that I had on hold, and then sit down to read for a few minutes.

4:00: My friends show up, and we head over to the dance studio, and stop across the street at a chocolate shop. I had chocolate and salted caramel gelato.

5:00: The three boys head over to their dance class, and the mom and I head over to a clothes store nearby to look at some stuff for her.

5:45: We get back to the dance studio and I wait for Mom and Isabelle to show up with my dance bag.

6:00: Dance class. Just hard shoe this week.

7:00: After dance, Heather (our teacher) lets us know that we were invited to dance at a Highland Games a few hours from here Labor Day weekend. As is typical, everyone stands around outside the studio for a very long time talking. Ted (one of the dads), tries to think of something crazy to do to so that he can get a mention in my liveblog. :)

7:30: We finally leave.

8:00: Dinner. We have some sort of past with a creamy sauce that has peas in it.

8:30: We do some cleaning, since we have a class at our house tomorrow.

10:00: We read some more of West with the Night.

10:30: Go to bed.

Week in the Life: Day 5

Sorry this is late, today has been kind of crazy.

8:00: Get up.

8:30: Eat some strawberries, get dressed.

9:00: Generally collect stuff.

9:30: Leave for Highland Games.

10:00: Arrive at Highland games, and begin organizing and warming up for first performance.

11:00: First performance! 

11:40: Done dancing for now. We eat some lunch, and watch the bagpipers play some.

12:45: Return to stage for second performance.

1:00: Dance.

1:45: The first performance ends and we do a group dance where we teach audience members an easy dance, which was really fun, particularly since half the audience were friends of mine. 

2:00: Hang around for a while. I bought a snow cone, and lots of of bites of everyone else's food. Through everyone else giving me food, I ended up having some cherries, a bit of a pretzel, some caramel corn, some lemonade, and some chips.

3:00: Return to stage for last performance.

3:15: Dance again. It was really hot and the stage was pretty slippery this time, plus we were all pretty tired.

4:00: Finish dancing, collect stuff, and get ready to head out. We went to look at some of the vendors on our way out.

5:00: Get home.

5:15: Update blog for the first time today.

5:45: Crash on couch. Read for a little while, but mainly just sit there and be tired.

6:45: We ordered come Chinese food for dinner, and Mom goes to pick it up.

7:00: Dinner. We have broccoli beef, almond chicken, and BBQ pork fried rice.

8:00: We watch an episode of Gilmore Girls.

9:00: Check email, and other internet stuff.

10:30: Go to bed.

Week in the Life: Day 4

It's Saturday, and Day 4 of this liveblogging project. Yesterday ended up being a little quieter that I expected it to be. Today, being a weekend, should be the first really different day so far. It'll be a busier day, tomorrow will be way busier (and I probably won't be able to post about it until the evening), and Monday will be busy too. Here are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

9:30: Wake up.

10:00: Eat a scone leftover from yesterday, hang out with Mom and Isabelle, check email, etc.

10:30: Update blog.

11:15: paint nails, and watch Crashcourse Lit videos. I always have to make sure I am watching something when I paint my nails, because otherwise I try to do stuff right afterwards, and mess up the paint.

12:00: Eat lunch (leftover pizza from last night).

12:30: Read, play computer games, hang out outside.

1:30: Go to a dance shop in town to look at leotards, and buy tights.

2:30: Go to Starbucks. I have a giftcard.

3:00: Get home, do laundry, read some more.

4:00: Clean room a little. My room is a mess, and needs way more cleaning.

5:00: Read some more. Let the cat in and out about fifty times.

6:00 Eat dinner (broccoli and cheddar calzone), while reading the children's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream to mom and Isabelle.

6:45: Change clothes.

7:00: Leave for the ballet of Midsummer Night's Dream, which has some friends of mine in it.

7:30: Ballet starts.

9:30: Ballet ends.

10:00: Get gelato with a ton of friends downtown.

11:00: Get home.

A Week in the Life: Day 3

It's day three, and we're still here.Today, I'm actually not sure yet what I'm going to be doing for a lot of the day, so it could be boring, or it could be busy. Here is Wednesday, and here is Thursday. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day again, so I'll probably end up outside, wherever I am.

7:00: Get up, and eat some vanilla scones with blueberry jam.

7:25: Check email, Facebook, news, blogs, etc.

8:00: Update blog for the first time today. Try to plan out the day, which is challenging, since I don't really know yet what I'm going to be doing.

8:30: Read A Feast for Crows while I wait for the hot water to warm up enough so that I can take a shower.

9:15: I decide that the water is has hot as it's going to get at the moment, and take a shower and get ready.

10:00: Math. It's a long and relatively frustrating lesson, but I spend a lot of time on it, and as a result have a much better grade than I did on yesterday's very similar lesson that I didn't spend as much time on.

11:00: Set up my account on the new Teen Summer Reading website. It's pretty different from the past few years (FYI - local teens), but I am kind of excited about it. It could be cool. I then waste a ton of time looking at everything there.

11:30:  Update blog.

12:00: Lunch (pasta).

12:30: I read a few chapters of The Inferno.

1:30: Watch a few youtube videos.

2:00: Do a few chores, and clean up my desk.

2:45: We had been thinking about going to a friend's house for the afternoon, but that didn't really work out. I ended up spending most of the rest of my afternoon just wasting time reading and playing a few internet games (like Matuesz Skutnik's newest game, Escape from Jay is Games).

5:30: We leave (after my mom gets home) for a friend's house for dinner.

7:00: We leave from there to the community college to watch a play (actually a collection of student written one act plays), which a few of my friends were in.

7:30: The play begins.

10:15: We head home.

12:00: Bed.

Week in the Life: Day 2

It's day 2! Yesterday went pretty well, so here's another one. Today, we don't have a lot going on during the day, but a busy evening. Tomorrow, things will pick up a bit more, and stay busy for a while. As with yesterday, I'm going to update this post periodically as the day goes on. I'll try to get some pictures today if possible, since I didn't get any yesterday.

Disclaimer: While one purpose of this is to show that all homeschoolers aren't unsocialized and that we don't sit around all day, I'm just one person and this does not reflect the lifestyle or schedule of all homeschoolers, just of me. 

7:00am: I get up, just before mom leaves for work.

7:20: I check my email, Facebook, the news, the weather, Feedly, etc.

7:40: I start this post for the day, and update yesterday's post with last night's happenings, and send  few emails.

8:00: I eat some breakfast (leftover rice from last night with sweet and sour sauce).

8:30: I get distracted by a trivia game on Kongregate. I usually don't like those kinds of games, but I'm actually really good at it, and play for a while.

9:00: I get dressed and ready for the day.

9:20: I do some history reading. I read one speech made by a priest about the importance of going on the second Crusade, and then the introduction and first canto (chapter) of The Inferno. The introduction was a little long, but really, not that bad. The one to the Iliad was about 70 pages, so now I compare all introductions of classic literature to that. :) This one was less that 15 pages.

10:30: I debate between the various pieces of school that need to get done. Nearly all of it needs to be done on the computer, and it's such a nice day that I really don't want to sit inside on the computer all day. Eventually, I come up with a plan, and watch a few youtube videos.

11:15: I'm actually not totally sure what I did for this hour, but I know it involved planning out my outfits for the next few days (a complicated process, considering all the stuff we have going on), debating whether or not I should go to the store to get green nail polish to match my scarf for Sunday, and letting the cat out and in and out and in and out and it many, many times. I also read this rather interesting article, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I like this blogger, though I certainly don't always agree with her, because her arguments are always well thought out and well articulated.

12:00: Lunch (hot dog and carrots). I spend a while hanging out outside with my sister and eating. I also finish The Tragedy Paper.

1:00: I come to do some math, but get distracted reading about The Wil Wheaton Project (Wil Wheaton's new tv show on SyFy) on Wil Wheaton's blog. I then somehow accidentally manage to attempt to gain access to view it online via Comcast, which I didn't want to do (and couldn't actually even do anyways if I had wanted to), so then I had to finish setting up the online Comcast account so that I could go and delete said account.

1:30: Having finally sorted that all out, it's actually time to do some math, and update the blog with the latest happenings. Also, I just looked at my Analytics account, and the page views from the past few days have been through the roof! People are actually checking back through out the day to see what I'm doing, which is encouraging. This is a lot of work, so it's nice to know people are actually reading it!

2:30: I finally finish a long and frustrating math lesson. I then see a link to this article (that's a no follow link, since I certainly don't want to help Slate any). Obviously, I don't agree with anything there.

2:15: I color for a little while. I am never sure what people are going to think when I say that, because people think of coloring as such a little kid activity. But, whatever. I do a lot of it, and I enjoy it. I'll add some pictures of what I've been working on later. I love color and design, which is mostly what coloring is, so I enjoy it and almost find it therapeutic sometimes. It's one of the only art forms I really feel confidant about my abilities in. I have really steady hands, which is important, but also is one of the reasons I hate taking albuterol for my asthma, because it gives me hand tremors (the official term. I get really shaky) for almost an hour after I take it, and then I can't color, and can barely even write.

One I finished recently.

The one I started this afternoon.

3:30: Blog update! Now, to I am going to finish some history. I have to write half page biographies of a bunch of people including Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry VI, Catherine de Medici, and John Wycliffe, among many others.

4:15: Done with history. I also managed to add some pictures above. Now, I'm off to try to read a little more of the Inferno, and do a few chores, before I need to get ready to head off to dance. I change, and get my stuff together.

5:15: Leave for dance. Right before we leave, I see that there was a shooting at SPU, which is not that far from here. It's weird how it's kind of easy to overlook those kinds of things when they're far away, but suddenly, when they're near you, at a place where people you know might potentially be, it's very different.

5:30: Dance. It's the last rehearsal for our performances on Sunday.

8:20: Leave rehearsal, and eat dinner at a burger place downtown.

9:00: Get home, check email, Facebook, news etc.

9:30: Read a little, get ready for bed. Update blog.

10:00: Read West with the Night for a while with Mom.

10:30: In bed.