Last night Jo went to take Sid for a walk, and texted everyone saying the Northern Lights were out! It was -20 something out, but I hadn't seen them in a long time, so I quickly bundled up and went outside. Here are a couple pics!


Overhead! The moon was really bright though, and probably made them less colorful


My phone takes better pictures than my "regular" cameras ever did! Weird. They weren't active enough to stay outside in the cold for too long, but it was still cool seeing them again :D

Last night I watched another bad disaster movie, Arctic Blast. You know it's going to be interesting with a synopsis like this: "when a solar eclipse sends a colossal blast of super chilled air towards the earth, it then sets off a catastrophic chain of events that threatens to engulf the world in ice and begin a new Ice Age." Haha what?? That's..not how solar eclipses work LOL. And apparently you can fix a hole in the ozone with lightning?? So dumb lol. One of the actresses kinda looked like Dana!

Cool!

( nov. 20-21 )

A book about a social justice issue: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (Oct. 1-5). Challenge finished! P-p-poor Billy Bibbit :(

The Arctic Fury by Greer MacAllister (Oct. 6-16). I'd been dying to read this since it came out, and had to read it first after finishing the challenge. It wasn't quite as good as I hoped, but still an interesting read (a woman expedition looking for the Franklin Expedition, which didn't go very well)

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Oct. 16-18). The "Murderbot" main character was too lazy to murder, and liked to watch TV instead: "I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure." LOL awesome :P (Denise loves this series too lol)

Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner (Oct. 19-25). Donna loves this book, but I just found it depressing :/

Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World by Alexandra Witze (Oct. 26-28)

Billy Budd by Herman Melville (Oct. 29-31). Well THAT was depressing, and the movie was even worse..Billy was so cool and positive! Evil master-at-arms using Billy's stutter against him! (He pretty much couldn't talk at all if he was upset enough.) And I see why people have trouble getting through Melville's books..wow O_o

This weekend I saw Dune with Ryan and Jo..it was pretty good, though a bit long. I kinda want to read the book now. Jo and I were drooling over Timothée Chalamet LOL..yum. :P It was also pretty warm this weekend because of a Chinook..temps were in the 40s, 20 degrees above normal! The last time Fairbanks reached 40 degrees on Halloween was in 1995..wow. Most of the snow has melted again haha..crazy

( oct. 30-nov. 1 )

Today's trivia: In order to give Obi-Wan Kenobi a desert-worn, rugged look, Alec Guinness would lay on the Tunisian desert floor and roll around in his costume

Yesterday we did go up to the Mogollon Rim, and went on a trail mom and Ryan went on when Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dean were here a couple weeks ago. It was really pretty, and a nice day! I love the ponderosa pines up there. <3 After that we went home, had dinner, and played Betrayal at House on the Hill. Christi had never played, and she thought it was fun! Me and Jo have had fun looking at my old school stuff, and he laughed SO hard at "me encanta Viggo Mortensen" written on my Spanish folder, instead of regular homework haha

Today was gorgeous too! We didn't do anything super exciting lol, except for Christi making her awesome spaghetti and meatballs..delicious!! I watched Big Hero Six with mom and Jo (I wanted to finish it! Haha). Such a great movie!! I can totally relate to Baymax when he's tired LOL, I can't speak properly!! :P

Tomorrow we're taking Christi to Phoenix for her flight home, and then driving to Yuma. It's been really fun hanging out with Christi, though my social battery is very tired LOL. It'll be cool to see a new place and hopefully see Dana again! (I think Yuma is almost three hours from Phoenix)

( pics from the last couple days )

9. Do you have any embarrassing usernames? I have one called "shiny-italy" I made years ago, which makes me roll my eyes LOL

10. Have you ever did well on a test when you didn’t study? I think so..

Me and Ryan and Jo got our second shots on Saturday! We had trouble sleeping that night, and all of us felt achy and headachey on Sunday, but Motrin helped with that. Hopefully we're now well protected against covid!

A few minutes ago, the person who lives below me knocked on my door and thanked me for being a quiet neighbor! I try hard, so that was nice. He was worried he was too loud, but no, I never hear him. Aaaand then he basically asked me out, wondering if we could hang out at his apartment and drink juice..of course he had an ulterior motive LOL. Those situations are always so awkward! I was like "uhh..maybe after covid is over?" I really just want to be left alone, but at least I know I'm a quiet neighbor :P

It's finally gotten into the 40s, and everything is melting like crazy! It's nice not to have to have all that winter gear on now haha

Dear whoever made the movie Greenland: it did not escape my notice that you were 100% filming in ICELAND. Despite its name, Greenland is NOT lush and green, and the waterfall the plane flew over was definitely Skógafoss. Nice try though LOL :P

( april 10-13 )

Today's trivia: No number before 1,000 contains the letter A

8. What will you miss the most when the world finally runs out of petroleum? *shrugs* Who knows, maybe they'll have everything electric by then?

9. Do you wake up by yourself, to an alarm, music, or have someone else wake you up? Either Abby wakes me up or I just wake up naturally usually

10. Finish the sentence: There are two kinds of people in this world... I like Tina's answer: "those who can come up with a witty answer to this and those who cannot" haha

I'm so happy 1917 won the Oscar for Best Cinematography! I would have been VERY surprised and sad if it hadn't! It also won for sound mixing and visual effects. I'd never even heard of Parasite, but it seemed popular lol. I didn't even recognize Emenem lol, and I loved when the man with Down's Syndrome presented an award <3

( pokemon update )

Today's trivia: A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years

1. What’s the best striped food? Cookies
2. What’s the best spotted food? Do chocolate chip cookies count?
3. What’s the best layered food? Cake, etc
4. What’s the best swirly food? Cinnamon rolls, ice cream and chocolate sauce, etc
5. What’s the best black-and-white food? Oreos

Ryan and Joe did Thanksgiving with their friends yesterday, so we're doing Thanksgiving with them today..I can't wait for yummy food hehe

It's so funny watching movies set in Alaska by non-Alaskans..yesterday I watched one with John Denver in it, and judging from the scenery and a shot at a flying log (it had places like Gustavus on it), it was set in Southeast Alaska..but they mentioned they had to drop off supplies at Kotzebue, which they arrived at that night. Umm..Kotzebue is on the far western part of the state, above the Arctic Circle, and there definitely aren't trees there. There's NO way a small plane could fly to Kotzebue in a few hours from Southeast Alaska lol. Mom and I had to roll our eyes at that :P (I also didn't know John Denver was in any movies! Cool lol)

( Day 328-332 )

1. What’s a movie that makes you feel patriotic? The Patriot haha
2. When you first started driving, what’s something you did mostly because you could? I've only driven twice, once in a parking lot sobbing because I was so scared haha, and the second time was driving back home from a restaurant near my parents' house..it wasn't very long, but I still got a headache..weird
3. What’s a good song whose title contains some form of the word “free?” "I Want to Break Free"-Queen
4. When did you last unexpectedly receive something for free? Recently
5. What’s something you’ve given freely in recent weeks? Time

Yesterday my parents had a barbecue, so me, Ryan and Jo came over and sat outside and soaked up the cool weather before a massive heat dome decided to park itself over Alaska today lol (it was NINETY degrees in Anchorage yesterday?!? That's crazy! A good day to hike on Byron Glacier :P). Ryan made SUPER delicious bread..I've definitely missed his baking since he moved out lol. It's supposed to be 88 degrees on Sunday..ughh D:

Mom and I saw The Secret Life of Pets 2, and the most accurate part was the cat casually knocking things off a cabinet and getting on its owner's bed, meowing, and putting its paw on her face when she didn't react..100% Abby LOL

( Day 182-185 )

Day 116: A song by a lead singer you think is too handsome/beautiful for words:

I miss Roy Khan lol

Day 117: A song by a lead singer you think is too homely for words: *shrugs*


Day 118: A song with your name in it:

Cool :)

Yesterday mom and I saw Avengers: Endgame..a long, wild ride haha. Those movies are so fun :P

( pokemon update )

Today's trivia: Winston Churchill suffered from narcolepsy

Hello from California! Yesterday our flight to Anchorage left at 8, so we had to get up at 5 something..ugh. At least we were rewarded with awesome views of Denali, Mt. Foraker and some glaciers! All three of our flights were under three hours because of an awesome tailwind! I watched How to Train Your Dragon (HOW had I never watched it till now?! That movie is amazing! Toothless the dragon reminded me of a cat LOL) and a lot of How to Train Your Dragon 2 (must finish it on the flight back!!). I saw some cool mountains and glaciers flying out of Anchorage, but then on my side it got cloudy! I looked over at the other side and it looked clear for miles! When the clouds did clear, my side was just ocean..it's a good thing I've seen the glaciers on that side before, but I'm always sad to miss them anyway. :P We flew in to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, which I hadn't been to in YEARS. Everything looked so green flying in!! That always amazes me after a long Alaska winter lol. We got our rental car and drove to the hotel in Costa Mesa, which is pretty close to the airport. It was nice to relax, I was SO tired lol..getting up so early makes me feel awful the whole day :P

Today we had breakfast and geocached our way to nearby Newport Beach lol (really stressful when you're not used to lots of traffic and don't know the area!). I think we found 5 or 6. I don't remember ever going to Newport Beach before (as a kid I mostly went to Redondo or Hermosa). It was pretty nice. We got some yummy food (I'm pretty sure California is more expensive than Alaska, wow D:) and walked on the piers and fed some pigeons..poor things must have a rough life, some of them had deformed feet and one had fishing wire wrapped around its feet and maybe part of its wing..OMG so sad. :( :( :( I tried catching it, but it was still too fast for me. :( That probably happens often, sadly, judging by their feet. Poor things. :( After that we relaxed at the hotel and then Aunt Susan met us for dinner..weirdly, she works at Newport Beach! (She lives near Torrance, 37 miles away.) It was nice to see her again! We ate at a Mexican restaurant, where they make guacamole right in front of you! I don't usually like guacamole, but this looked too yummy not to try. It was indeed really good! Fairbanks guacamole is sad LOL. We talked for a couple hours about dad's health and stuff, and then Susan drove us back to the hotel. Nice seeing her again!

Tomorrow is Scott's game, woohoo! I hope they do well lol

( pics so far! )

Today mom and I saw Aquaman..OH MY GOODNESS

*SWOONS* Jason Momoa is awesome lol (when we got back home, dad was like "is Khal Drogo ok?" haha). I was very disappointed I didn't see the scene of him in the water with icebergs, and after I Googled it I discovered that scene is in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MOVIE! OMG LOL. Guess I need to watch Justice League next. :P Judging from the scene at the end, there might be a sequel..works for me ;)

And I think I have a new Cherry sighting!

It looks like the clothes he wore, and his stance is very Cherry-like lol..some pictures I'm like "hmm, is that him?" and in other ones like this one I get a definite Cherry Aura haha (a fun "rushing" feeling!). Yay! (Searching for Cherry seems to be a Holiday Tradition now LOL..too much time on my hands :P)

( December 22-24 )