MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Have a very merry Christmas!

Oh the loot!

And it just keeps coming!

Christmas Eve Party

Lately I've been attempting to read Skipping Christmas by John Grisham in German. The German book title is Das Fest which does not mean Skipping Christmas for those of you who don't know German. (You really should learn, wonderful language.) I'm reading the book in German and I am not even close to being fluent. However I do know several words and I get the general gist of what is being said. Anyway the story is about these to people who just said goodbye to their daughter who has just joined the Peace Corps and flies out to Peru. Well her parents are going to ba alone during Christmas and the father comes up with the idea of skipping Christmas. Instead they plan to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. Now of course this makes everyone upset and the two characters are called names and made fun of , yadda yadda yadda yadda. Then on Christmas Evee their daughter calls them and surprises them with the news that she is coming home with he fiance! And then they have to hurry and undo all they had done (or not done) and it ends happily ever after. My point of writing about this is because I just finished watching the movie and hey! it's Christmas Eve and the parents in the story act a lot like my own parents. I'm just thankful they haven't come up with the idea of skipping Christmas because if they did they would save a lot of money! My father just told me he stopped counting how much he spent at about $400. That's a lot. Anyway, I'd like to say I am very grateful for Christmas this year and all the people I get to spend it with. And the people that I don't get to spend it with. Merry Christmas!

The Calfbird, the Aye-aye and the Cuscus

The calfbird is also known as the Capuchinebird. Its scientific name is Perisocephalus tricolor. It's a very drab looking bird but has its own interesting qualities. During the mating season the males pick a tree and strip it of all of its leaves (sucks to be that tree, huh?). The song they sing is very strange indeed. Some have described it like the sound of a cow mooing hense the name calf bird and others describe it as the sound of a distant chainsaw. Either way they don't have the 'prettiest' song. Here's a picture:

The aye-aye is another very interesting creature. It is a lemur which is a primate. It has grizzled greyish brown fur and wide eyes for use at night since it is nocturnal. The way it hunts is by tapping the limb of a tree with its claws and by listening to the echo they can tell if the limb has chambers where grubs live. If the aye-aye finds one it chews through the wood with its sharp teeth and uses its extra long middle finger to grab the grub inside the tree. Here's a picture of the aye-aye:

The Cuscus is a marsupial. The first time I saw one was on a show with Jack Hanna. He had a cuscus on his shoulders and was talking about it. It must have been memorable because I still remember it. There are four different groups of cuscus the Ailurops, (includes; Talaud Bear Cuscus and the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus) the Phalanger (includes; Gebe cuscus, Mountain Cuscus, Ground Cuscus, Eastern Common Cuscus, Woodlark Cuscus, Blue-eyed Cuscus, Telefomin Cuscus, Southern Common Cuscus, Northern Common Cuscus, Ornate Cuscus, Rothschild's Cuscus, Silky Cuscus and Stein's Cuscus), the Spilocuscus (includes; Admiralty Island Cuscus, Common Spotted Cuscus, Waigeou Cuscus, Black-spotted Cuscus and Blue-eyed Spotted Cuscus.) and the Strigocuscus (includes; Sulawesi Dwarf Cuscus and Peleng Cuscus). That's a lot of Cuscuses. Here's a picture of the Black-spotted Cuscus:

Long Wattled Umbrella bird and Stoplight Loosejaw

The long-wattled Umbrella bird lives in a rainforest called the Choco in western Ecuador and Columbia. They are considered vulnerable and are fairly easy to hunt. The long wattle makes it difficult to move quickly when pursued. The male has a bigger wattle then the female and probably uses it during the mating season. The first nest was seen in 2003 and not a whole lot is known about it. It's diet consists of insects and fruit. An interesting combination. I found this bird interesting because of the wattle. I never would have thought an animal would have something that would hinder it's ability to move like that.

Here's a picture of the bird:

There are two species of stoplight loosejaws. The northern and the southern. They differ in small ways but enough to be distinct differences. They are fish that can be found worldwide, below depths of 500 meters. They are one of the only fish that produce red light to hunt with and are often called rat-trap fish. Here's a picture to better understand why they are given their name:

The Black Dorcopsis and Other Interesting Animals

This is an interesting animal that I came across while reading a book called Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures And The Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten. It's a very cool book and has lots of awsome animals, most of which I had never heard of before. Some of my favorites were:

Black dorcopsis

Long-wattled umbrella bird

Calfbird

Black-spotted cuscus

Aye-aye

and

Stoplight loosejaw

A little about these six very different animals:

The black dorcopsis is actually a wallaby that lives only on Goodenough Island. It is considered endangered and is also called Black Dorcopsis Wallaby and Black Forest Wallaby. There isn't a whole lot known about it. It was one of the last members of the kangaroo family to be discovered and is also the rarest and least studied.

More on the others later

A little Religion and Animals go a long way

My father sent this to me:

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said,

'Jesus knows you're here'

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off and froze.

When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook his head and continued.

Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard.

'Jesus is watching you'

Freaked out he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

Finally in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.

'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.

'Yep' said the parrot and squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that Jesus is watching you.'

The burglar relaxed, 'Watching me, huh? Who in the world are you?'

'Moses,' replied the bird.

'Moses?' The burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'

'The kind of people that would name a rottweiler Jesus.'

Jack the Kitten

Okay instead of going to Jacksonville yesterday we went to get some kittens. We were originally going to get only two. There were fiur kittens and it was hard to choose so we took all of them. there's a grey tabby, we called him Willis. There is a tortoisshell one, we called her Monkey. There's a gold tabby, we called her Marie and the last one, mine, is a cream tabby, we called him Jack. Jack really is a character, he wrestles and plays with everyone and he is very curious! Here's a pictures of him:

Now let's here from Jack:

v vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvzzzzzfk===mmmmmmmmmmm yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyxcxcxcxcxcxcxcyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy%%%%%%555555Rmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn;;;;;;;

bzx4

And that's all he wishes to say. :D

Illinois Constitution Test, Physics test and a Superfrog Attack

Today has been pretty exciting and it isn't even done yet! My second period is Modern US History (It isn't very modern, we only got to the Vietnam War. Waste of time if you ask me). Anyway, the Illinois Constitution test is 25 questions and it is soooo easy! I really don't understand how you can fail it, let alone fail it six times!!! (That's the record for number of times failed in my teacher's class.)

In fifth period we took the last test of the semester. I felt really good about it, I understood all the questions, and only one question confused me but I worked it out. Hopefully I did all right.
I'm pressed for time now, so I gotta hurry. We're going to Jacksonville to eat with a couple of Sister missionaries we know.

Last period, German I unlaoded all of my origami frogs onto my friend it was hilarious, mostly because I just kept pulling handfuls out of my pockets!!! Ah, godd times good times. German would be a lot more fun if the teacher wasn't so strict when it comes to roudiness.

End of the Semester Finals

The last week of the semester is always the hardest week. Mostly because of finals but also because there's that last scramble to do good on last minute tests and quizes in an attempt to get that grade up just a little more. And then there's the bribing of teachers and the tears and explaining how your parents will kill you if you get another B. It's extremely exhausting. Those of you who don't have to go through it anymore should be very grateful. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. Happily, this year is my senior year, which means, I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE FINALS!!! XD. Key words of course being have and to. If I want an A when I have a B, I gotta take it. Although in one class I have a nice solid B. It's about as B as you can get, I doubt I'll be able to pull it up (no pun intended). But if there's a chance I just might go for it, I really have nothing to lose. I'm not bad enough in the subject to completely bomb the final. :D That's a comfort. Not a big one, considering I wanted an A in the class. Oh well, you can't always get what you want, sadly. Of course I could just write it off as character building, it'll be my third B and hopefully my last.

I actually have two Bs at the moment, but one is only .2 points away from an A and there are no more grades between now and the final AND the teacher rounds up. YES *does a little dance* I have nothing to worry about there, thank goodness. That class is AP Stats, an incredibly confusing and frustrating class. The last test we took I studied quite a bit and I still got a C on it. Seriously, I get a better grade when I put absolutely no effort into it. Very frustrating, when you study the grade is supposed to go UP not DOWN! Sorry about the rant, gotta let off steam somehow.

A Little Frog

In German yesterday I was really bored. I can't even remember what we were talking about... Anyway, to combat my boredness I made a lot of origami frogs out of post it notes. The great thing about using post it nots to make frogs is if you make it correctly you don't just have a regular old frog anymore you have a tree frog, complete with stickiness. After making the first two I stuck them to the chair in front of me. Growing bored with that I decided to put them on the guy in front of me, who is a friend, we've been friends since elementary school. I put them in his hood and on the neck of his shirt. During the class he leaned back in his chair once and knocked the two frongs I had stuck to the chair off. One fell on the ground and the other on his seat.

Well he didn't find out all the frogs were their until someone said something. That's when it got funny, because they were everywhere! I had been sticking little origami animals in his hood for awhile, to see how long it would take him to guess who was doing it. Its fun to do this with this guy because he is so oblivious! XD While he was attempting to get all of the frogs off him he stood up and there was the frog that had fallen onto his seat. Stuck to his bum!