Blog Award

Our friend The Diva nominated us for a blogging award! Thank you, Diva! You can check out her blog over at https://momsprincesspari.wordpress.com/. 

Here are the award rules, copied from her blog (and with occasional commentary from us in parentheses):
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their blog.
2. Answer the questions that the blogger who nominated you has provided. (Diva, our answers are at the very end of this post!)
3. Nominate four other bloggers.
4. Create ten questions for your nominees and notify them of their nomination. (We're breaking this rule a bit - we'll ask just three questions rather than ten.)

(EDIT: If anyone doesn't understand the concept of this whole award thing, check out this very helpful and detailed explanation.)

Award nominees, we understand that your lives are busy. Please don't feel obligated to participate if you'd rather not. That said, we enjoy your blogs and want to give you some recognition! Therefore, we nominate:

http://thehoneydroppost.blogspot.com/

https://freckledmermaids.wordpress.com/

https://catmooselane.wordpress.com/

http://touchesofeuphoria.blogspot.com/

These blogs each have their own unique flavor. Take a minute to check them out, and if you like what you see, let them know!

Our questions for the nominees:
1. Who inspires you? You can name anyone - someone you know personally, a historical or literary figure, a world leader, a celebrity... absolutely anyone that pops into your head.
2. What hobby would you like to try with which you have little to no previous experience?
3. What book do you recommend we read to discuss in a future Sister Projects blog post?

The Diva's questions for us:

A. Who would you love to be, if you had a chance to be someone else?

B. One food you need to taste before the world ends...

C. Your dream job?

Sarah's answers:

A. Well, as long as this is just a short-term sort of thing, I would choose to be someone from an important time in history, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder.

B. I like to think I'm a pretty adventurous person, but I cringe at the thought of exotic dishes such as squid, escargot, or even sushi. Maybe someday I'll get over myself and seek out opportunities to try these foods. For now though, I'm just going to stick with my goal of trying gelato. It doesn't sound weird or scary. It just sounds fabulous.

C. Given my stage of life, this is something I think about a lot. I'm still weighing lots of options that sound really great, such as writing, teaching, or pretty much anything theater-related.

Katie's answers:

A. Hmm... I'm going to cheat and say I'd like to be a better version of myself. ;)

B. There are a bunch of foods I'd like to try, ranging from eggplant to escargot to fried calamari. However, if I had to pick just one food I've never had before, I think I'd pick poutine. That's right, the famous Canadian dish - fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. A strange choice, perhaps, but that's my answer.

C. I don't know! I ask myself this question all the time. What should I do with my life? What career should I pursue? I'm at a loss. If I have to give an answer, I think I'd like to be an editor.

Thanks to everyone who supports us. We appreciate you guys so much. :)

Bonus Post: Follow-Up

We'd like to give you a run-down of what's going on with the goals we've set for ourselves in past posts.

First, the mighty checklist:

We can check off the following:

• clean room
• go to a museum
• go to an Old English country dance - We went twice, actually!
• participate in Camp NaNoWriMo - Results are discussed in part two of this post.
• attend the two Shakespeare plays that are happening near us this summer
• surprise our little sister with a tea party - see here
• kool-aid dip-dye our hair - see here
• plan some birthday hoopla for our best friend
• go swimming - Just once, unfortunately... we need to work on making this one happen a lot more often.
• watch "Sherlock" and "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" - We've gotten about halfway through both of these.

These items have not yet been accomplished:

• go on a picnic
• visit the farmer's market
• grow a plant
• exercise
• work on drama stuff
• go to the zoo
• play flute and piano together
• practice harmonizing
• attend the outdoor jazz concert that happens near us
• write a story together
• read "Go Set a Watchmen" by Harper Lee and discuss it together - Katie finished the book a couple of weeks ago, but it can't count as a completed "Sister Project" until Sarah has read it, too.
• put together a time capsule
• organize pictures and possibly make scrapbooks
• make t-shirts for the Taylor Swift concert we'll be seeing in the fall!

Second, our NaNoWriMo results:

Neither of us did well word-count-wise; we each made it about half-way. But writing was accomplished, ideas were formed and expanded, lessons were learned, and new goals were set. Since these results are the true point of NaNoWriMo, we're counting this past camp session as a success, even if we didn't reach our word-count goals.

In closing:

One of our NaNoWriMo friends, whom we know simply as "The Diva" was kind enough to nominate us for an award on her blog, which you can check out here: https://momsprincesspari.wordpress.com/. We're going to devote yet another bonus post to passing this award on to others this Sunday.

Disney Cult Classics

There are dozens of great animated Disney movies, many of which are enduring classics known to all. These popular films are held as iconic entertainment, and rightly so. However, we would like to bring to light a few of the cinematic gems you may have missed in your Disney adventures. The list you're about to read contains some of those masterpieces which sustain a devoted underground following, but never received the promotion that they deserve. We grew up with most of these movies, just as we grew up with Snow White, Aladdin, The Lion King, and many other well-known Disney classics.

The Rescuers (1977), The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Rescuers and its sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, feature a group of mice in an organization called the Rescue Aid Society. In both films, two mice from this organization, Bernard and Bianca, are sent on missions to rescue kidnapped children. These movies present one of the rare cases where a sequel is as good as its predecessor. (Hm...maybe it helped that they didn't try to crank out a direct-to-TV sequel right away?) 

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
This movie is an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes - sort of. Basil, the Great Mouse Detective, and Dawson, his compatriot, are clearly based on Sherlock and Watson, but Basil also happens to live underneath 221B, where Sherlock Holmes resides. At a couple different points in the film, silhouettes can be seen and voices can be heard which are clearly those of the human Sherlock and Watson. The case this story centers around involves a young mouse named Olivia, who seeks Basil's help in finding her kidnapped ("fathernapped?") father. Basil is originally uninterested in the case, until he learns that Ratigan, his arch-nemesis, may be involved. 

Oliver and Company (1988)
Oliver and Company is very loosely based on Dickens' "Oliver Twist." It's set in New York City, and Oliver, as well as Dodger's gang, are represented by animals. Oliver is an unwanted kitten who gets lost in the city and is taken in by a man named Fagan and his dogs, of whom Dodger is the ringleader. Fagan is living in poverty, trying to repay a large sum of money to an evil man called Sykes. Oliver is swept up in the misadventures of his friends as they attempt to get the money by any means necessary. For us, one of the highlights of this movie is that Billy Joel voices Dodger and sings one of the featured songs. 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
This movie is an example of the darker side of Disney (though it's not nearly as dark as the novel on which it's based). It tells the tragic story of Quasimodo, a bell-ringer who is cruelly treated by those in authority because of his disfigurement. The film follows his efforts to overcome this mistreatment in order to help a gypsy friend named Esmerelda who is also undergoing the persecution of society. Incidentally, Esmerelda is one of Disney's greatest female role models, though she has received little attention for it. She possesses qualities and a personality that we don't often get to see in the film industry, which is extremely refreshing. In addition, she sings one of the best Disney songs of all time (God Help the Outcasts). In fact, the music in this film is fantastic overall, and the villain is both intriguing and highly disturbing.

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
The narcissistic Emperor Kuzco learns some valuable life lessons when he is turned into a llama by his recently-fired advisor, Yzma, who wants to take over the throne. To regain his original form, his dignity, and his leadership, he is forced to enlist the help of a peasant named Pacha, while being deterred at every turn by Yzma and her hilarious sidekick, Kronk. This film is filled with a brand of strange, self-aware humor that is atypical in Disney movies. We also enjoy the frequent use of one of our favorite cinematic devices: the shattering of the fourth wall.

Lilo & Stitch (2002)
This is the story of a girl who adopts a "dog" who turns out to be an alien from outer space. Yes, you read that correctly. There are many awesome things about this movie, not the least of which is the relationship between the titular character Lilo and her sister Nani. (Katie would here like to say: while I love Elsa and Anna as much as the next Disney fanatic, my vote for best Disney sisters goes to Lilo and Nani, hands down. I could write an entire blog post on just this subject, and perhaps someday I will.) The concepts of family, being different, and seeking acceptance are big themes in this film. A Hawaiian setting, unusual plot, kooky characters, and the very realistic problems they face make this one of the most unique Disney films ever made.

If you haven't seen these movies, watch them! If you have seen them, let us know your own opinions! If you notice gaps in our list, enlighten us!

In closing, we just want to give you a heads-up that there will be a bonus post next week. Among other things, we want to let you know how our list of projects has been progressing. Thanks for reading!

Adventures in Cleaning

   We share a room with each other and our little sister. The three of us all have tendencies to let stuff accumulate, and with all three of us living in one room, it's almost like we feed off each other's bad habits in this regard. As a result, our room is messy far more often than it's clean. It can be quite embarrassing at times, and can make it very difficult to have friends over. We kind of have hermit tendencies anyway - it's not that we don't like being social, it's just that our personalities make it hard for us to be the instigators of planning social events - so the last thing we need is a messy room constantly discouraging us even further from inviting our friends over.

Therefore, this weekend we've been working on what we refer to as a "deep clean," which involves not only dusting, vacuuming, and putting things in their places, but also going through every single one of our belongings and GETTING RID OF STUFF. It's the kind of task that's an interesting insight into our minds. There are always those items which make us ask ourselves, "Why the heck did I keep this useless piece of garbage for so long?" In a similar vein, there are items we still kind of want to keep, but deep down inside our souls, we know they also belong to the family of useless pieces of junk. These things should probably join their brothers and sisters in the trash, but for some crazy reason, that helpful little voice in our minds insists on contributing it's rationale. "What if you need that eventually? What if someday you find yourself raging and cursing because you didn't keep that random scrap of paper with the ramblings of your ten-year-old self?" Or, even worse, there are those items that you've never used, but for some reason you think you will someday. Like, "I've never had any interest in ____, but who knows? Shouldn't I be prepared for any hobby I want to try on a whim?" or "It was a gift!" or "It seems so wasteful to just get rid of it."

Now, we should clarify: we're not hoarders. We'd rather not have large amounts of stuff - it just somehow seems to collect. We genuinely would like to cut down on our personal belongings, free up some closet space, and make the task of moving out someday far less daunting than it is currently.

This brings us to the fundamental question: Are we insane, or do others share our problems? Furthermore, how should we determine which items to actually keep? These aren't hypothetical questions - if you have advice or answers, please share with us! Most of you have more than one way to contact us, and you can always leave a comment here. This weekend room-cleaning venture is our last big project before school starts - yes, we both ended up with weirdly late starts this year - so we'd really like it to be successful.