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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mudbloods and Childhood Relics

You know what's truly hilarious? When people write out the lyrics to their favorite songs and expect other people, reading them, out of context, to be moved. First of all, it's rare that anyone else in the world is going to give a crap about the emo poetry in your facebook status. Second of all, sometimes perfectly awesome songs make for perfectly awful poems. (Not hating on Marie'; that video's really funny/pretty.) Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah-- I'm deeply, passionately in love with The Mudbloods, and I was thinking today, as I listened to them on repeat with my sad face, how beautiful their lyrics are. One example of very readable songs. While they make the experience even more incredible, you don't need Adam Dubberly's dreamy voice or the haunting melody for "Since March, Since September, and Still" to make you heartsick.

Since March of last year, every time I go to sleep
You're always right here, next to me
Whether I stay up late, or I go to bed early
You're in my life until I wake up in the morning
And I don't know if I love it or I hate it
But it's more painful than I'd ever like to admit
It's masochistic, but it's almost really worth it
To be able to be with you for even one more moment
And every time I have to wake
I come to terms with my actual fate
That the only thing lying next to me
Is a couple books and a pile of CDs
I open my eyes and begin to return 
From either the past, or a future that might have been
Even though it's been almost a year now
It's like you've left me all over again

Isn't that pretty?! I really can't get over it. These are the same guys who wrote and performed the song to which my video "Early Fall" is set. I seriously, seriously suggest that you buy some of their music. (And really, when have I ever led you wrong with a recommendation?)

On a completely unrelated note, after school my second grade class got together to open a "time capsule" we put together ten years ago. TOLauren and I met in that class when we were assigned to share a yellow floppy disk for our computer projects, and we'd sit in tiny chairs for hours on end, writing and illustrating stories together. How cool is it that we've been best friends since we were seven? (Jess and I have been best friends since we were five, too, and Lauren, Sarah and I have been a trio-in-crime since we were ten.) While our most famous and discussed stories, "Stop, Junior!" and "The Small Apple" unfortunately did not make it into the box, I uncovered a handful of gems. A six-page typed story called "Mirisa's Book Challenge," for example, from the era before MS Word provided automatic spell-check. "She ran downstairs and had a boll of live ceryel" (page 3, line 5). I'm amused to find, as well, that my affinity for making up last names is no new habit, as seen in "Mrs. Randar" and "Mr. Ettle." Despite my faulty eight-year-old spelling, I cracked up upon reading this poem I created:

"A friend is someone that is caring.
One whom you can trust.
A person you are nice to
And do not throw in the dust.
If you want a friend you should be caring too.
Then a kid just might say
"I like you"!"

Well, sweetie, the exclamation point really should be inside the quotations, and there are some aspects of syntax I would change, as well as a few missing commas... HAHA. I USED THE WORD "WHOM" IN SECOND GRADE. HAHAHA. Oh, here's another goodie:

"On Sunday morn when
You get home from
The chapel sit down
And unwind and eat
This apple."

"My name is Hayley G. Hoover. I am 8 years old. My favorite food is spigetie. I like to read and write. My favorite colors are violet and lime green. I love Annie, Ramona [Quimby, of the book series by Beverly Cleary] and pecacho (which I'm going to assume is Pikachu). My teacher has a beard."

The now beardless teacher attends my church and works at Royal Family Kids' Camp with me, so I was trusted to borrow the much-coveted video yearbook on VHS. After a few minutes of random action shots, in which I'm seen loudly attempting to direct a play in the corner of the room to a most unenthusiastic cast, I highjack the camera and conduct obnoxious interviews with my classmates for a good half hour. "How do you feel about our class pet giving birth?" I ask a tiny, pudgy version of one of my current choir friends. "Okay," he answers, blushing. Little Hayley exhales furiously and continues digging for dirt. "What if it had been Godzilla? What would you do if it was Godzilla?" Ben giggles and replies that he doesn't know. Little Hayley, tired and bored, spends the rest of the interviews playing with the zoom button and talking in a slow-mo voice. I'm not sure how to import VHS tapes to my computer--Do I need some kind of device?--but if I ever figure it out, I'll surely post it all on the tubes.

Dear Hayley,
I'm all right; how're you? HELL. NO. Sorry to let you down. No, I'm about as coordinated as a wounded duck. You'll realize that pretty soon. Um, yeah, you could say I've "been in a show." About a million, give or take. Yes, I more than "like" to write. I feel the same way about it now that you did then, except now I can spell "really." I guess I can draw enough to get by. Yes, you are eighteen. Good math. You should probably have put a comma before "me" to make sense of that sentence, but I get what you're saying. Thanks!
Love, Hayley

Chipotle burritos this year: 15
Subscribers: 15,853
Days left of high school: 14

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. Wish me luck for the AP Lit exam tomorrow, and thank you soooooooooo much for your continuing abundance of comments. <3

73 comments:

Lauren Mae said...

Good luck on the test! I'm taking it too, and studying hard by reading your fantastic blog. =]

Missy said...

Little Hayley makes me giggle. xD

Erin said...

I'm making a vow to start commenting regularly on your blog since you make the effort to write the posts every day and I enjoy reading them so much. Since you've stopped doing Sexy/Unsexy lists, I've decided to make one of my own.

Sexy: Mixtapes (or CDs, any compilation of music put together with someone else in mind seems really sweet to me, especially after reading Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Eli's No Kiss List.)
Unsexy: Watching someone hear a band play once and decide that it's they're new favorite band because the members are "hot".

eibbore said...

That's awesome, looking at back at things you did so long ago.

I love the Mudbloods so much. That is my all time favorite song of theirs. It is so awesome, yet heart wrenching. Adam's voice just makes me melt.

Oh, and good luck.

Melissa Kendra said...

I love your Early Fall video. I'm pretty sure I did a video response to it, too.
Reading about the time capsule makes me wish that we had done that in elementary school. It would have been a lot of fun, and very... interesting, haha.

Marie said...

Aw, little Hayley was so cute! I'd love to see that video if there's any possible way you can get it on youtube.

I always thought personal time capsules were interesting. A good way to relive the past!

Anyway, good luck on the exam! I'm taking the US history AP on Friday and the Lang & Comp next Wednesday. According to my English teacher, "The only question is whether you'll get a 4 or 5." Unfortunately, the history probably isn't going to go so well...

Anonymous said...

Aww, Little Hayley was adorkable!
And I agree, the emo lyrics on Facebook/Twitter are incredibly annoying. However, the Mudbloods' lyrics you posted are beautiful.
Much much lucks with your exam, you'll be brilliant as usual :) xxx

Morgan Johnson said...

Little Hayley is absolutely precious. Your letter to yourself may or may not made my day. ^_^

Aly said...

I love when bands do incredible things with lyrics - I really like the mountain goats and the decemberists because of their lyrics...like this, from "july july"

"And we'll remember this when we are old and ancient
Though the specifics might be vague
And I'll say your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
When in fact it was a nappy bluish grey "

So good! Also, did you by any chance start writing your name as Hayley G. Hoover after reading Harriet the Spy? Because Harriet wrote hers as Harriet M. Welsch and that was my favorite book as a kid and after I read it I started writing my name with my middle initial on all my stories.

Nokorola said...

Well first of all, good luck on your AP Literature exam Hayley.

Secondly, I think that Wal-Mart(though I'm not a huge fan) will copy your VHS to DVD for a marginally small fee.

Once again, good luck on the exam.

Anonymous said...

"Are you a cheerleader? I hope you are."
HAHAHAHAHHAHA how much you have changed. =]
i wish one of my classes had done a time capsule. i wish i could go back and reflect on the good ol' days of 2nd grade. *sigh*
i want to see this tape badly! there is a way to convert VHS to dvd, so if u could find a way to figure that out, you would be good 2 go.
yeahhh i think i already told u this but i seriously look forward to ur blog every day! don't ever stop! it sooo makes my day and but a smile on my face the whole time i am reading it/thinking back on it and reflecting. lol. basically ur a pretty cool chickadee =]

**have a sparkling day**
<33

Ken said...

The letter you wrote to yourself is cute, I wish we'd done a time capsule thing when I was in school. We did one around the millennium to be opened however many years in the future. Not by us though.

As for copying your VHS to the computer, there are machines you can buy but if it's just the one VHS, you'd be better off taking it to a copy place to get it done. Yahoo answers suggests Kinkos... but I'm not American, so I don't know how much help that is to you.

Ken said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gavin said...

As coordinated as a wounded duck... I love it.

Good luck on the exam, no doubt you will breeze through it.

melissa said...

Haha, that's so neat. I made a time-capsule letter when I went into grade 9, and I get to read it next year when I graduate. I'm excited 'cause I completely forget what I wrote :\.
Good luck on your exam!!

Christy said...

Good luck on your AP Lit. test tomorrow!
I have some poems I wrote like that! Mine are probably worse. If I ever find one, I'll post it as a comment. We'll have a second grade poetry battle! Yes!

Anonymous said...

SO. CUTE. nothing better than a nice apple on a sunday afternoon.

we made time capsules in sixth grade that we...oh my god, I GET TO OPEN IT THIS YEAR!!! TEN YEARS! I'M TURNING 21 NEXT MONTH!!! ...sorry. wow. that's scary. okay.

i adored writing when i was little, too... as well as memorizing poems out of william bennet's gigantic book of virtues. and debating semantics with my parents.

5 year old carla: (looking at the frozen river on my way home from school) wow, look at the river, mommy! it's all stiff!
mommy: honey, it's not stiff; it's frozen.
5 year old carla: what's the difference?
mommy: ...the water is ice. it's frozen.
5 year old carla: (exasperatedly) is the water MOVING?
mommy: no--
5 year carla: then. it's. STIFF!
mommy: okay.

i can't wait to see those videos! :)

Dan said...

Aww little Hayley sounds so adorable.
I wish my school had done a time capsule thing. My primary school was boring and we did nothing fun at all.

Good luck on your exam, I hope you pass with flying colours!!

abbs866 said...

Aww, you're mean to little Hayley! So cute. Clearly you were hayleyghoover the video star from a young age :)

SnakesAndWorms said...

Hearing about people when they were kids always makes me melancholy. I don't mind it though, it's a sort of beautiful kind of melancholy.

Anonymous said...

I could have sworn my elementary classes did these, yet I've never been contacted to be at the grand unveiling. Knowing past me, though. I probably wrote something unoriginal like, "Hi! How are you? This is fun. See you in a few years!" Yours at least had a bit more substance. :)

Unknown said...

You had pretty good hand writing for an eight year old. And that time capsule thing is cool, I wish my school had something like that!

justjustine said...

omg I'm taking Lit on the same day as Hayley G Hoover! :D (you guys do Lang first?)

Good luck! I'm definately writing about Huck Finn if at all possible. :)

acroatic said...

goodluckgoodluckgoodluck! I'm gonna be taking AP tests meeself, and I'll need the help, so, in the hopes of appeasing the karmic forces and for genuine care that you do well (and I'm sure you'll do fantastically!)... goodluck!

joy isobel said...

That is possibly the greatest thing I've read all day. I wish I had a time capsule from when I was 8. Wait, I take that back. That would be the most horrific, embarassing thing ever. I was also an aspiring cheerleader *facepalm*.

Good luck on the AP test! I'm sure you'll do fine :)

KT said...

That was fantastic.
I am extremely jealous that we didn't do that when I was in second grade.

Sara said...

good luck on the AP Lit test! I'll be suffering through it with you, pray for an easy question three (nothing about an essay or the personification of an object or whatever)

meaghanlittle said...

oh extra good luck on those AP exams, they are killers. But they will be super helpful when you go to college and if you do well on them :)

Adrienne said...

good luck on your AP test!! your eight year old poetry could kick my current poetry's ass :)
that tells you something.

anna said...

I think we all need a little luck on the AP Lit exam.

I'm pretty sure I wrote poems just like those when I was in second grade. My punctuation, I'm sure, was appalling.

Catherine said...

I'm sure you're aware of this already, but your last post has 107 comments.

I love reading things from little me. I find journal entries sometimes when I'm going through old notebooks. It always makes me smile.

Catherine said...

And I forgot to add that "Since March, Since September, and Still" is my desktop background.

See the picture here:
http://dark-fairy-76.deviantart.com/art/Sinch-March-Since-September-103877150

Anonymous said...

I absolutely LOVE the Mudbloods. I randomly sing their songs when I'm driving. A Cauldron Full of Unrequited Love makes me want to cry every time.

I also love your reply to yourself because you were so...you, I suppose. No bias towards younger you whatsoever. ^_^

Unknown said...

Hahaha! You're pretty condecending to your grade 2 self. I hope they don't invent time travel any time soon or else you're really going to upset yourself. XD

Hannah Missouri said...

Do you mind if I ask a question? I understand how exams are, so take your time with the answer. I am really wanting to buy some wizard rock, but no one will tell me which songs I should get. What are the top ten wizard rock songs I should buy?

Katyisgoing said...

Oh, I wish my elementary school did that. I'd love to dig up all those old memories!

Allyson said...

"Since March, Since September and Still" is beautiful. Is there somewhere we can download it?

Leah said...

I love that you included little drawings, so that future!you could make an accurate comparison-- because I TOTALLY DID THAT. Wonder what happened to that letter...

And that poem about the apple? It seems almost like something I'd study in an english class. Li'l Hayley wrote by accident what a lot of adults attempt. Because BREVITY is MEANINGFUL.

Brianna said...

I love reading my old journals from elementary school.

megkatjo said...

Good luck tomorrow! I'm dreading the open question...

Jordan said...

I love the Mudbloods, but I don't like sad face Hayley. Less of that, kay?

Faith said...

Good luck! I love going through my old notebooks of stuff I've written. Although, I'm generally thinking "I actually thought this was good?"

itjusmar said...

Good luck on your test!

Its pretty easy to transfer your VHS footage to your computer actually. You just connect your camcorder to your computer using the firewire, then connect the RCA cable that comes with your camcorder to the VCR in the output section. Make sure you can see the footage on your camcorder while its recording onto it. Then you basically capture it onto your computer from the camcorder. I hope that helps. :)

Pip said...

That is the most adorable thing I have ever read. I wish my second grade class had done that.

I'm taking AP Lit, too. Should be a good time (read:torture). Good luck!

Hayley_leesha666 said...

Good luck for your AP Lit exam! you will do great! :) thanks for sharing that with us :) absolutely fantastic! i have done a mini version of that recently.. on futureme.org, so when i receive that in a few years... pretty exciting! haha! thanks again for sharing yourself with us :) you really are awesome!

Leesa said...

You ought to make another time capsule. It might be worth opening in 22 years.

I loved this post.

Matt said...

Your response to the letter from 8 year old Hayley had me cracking up. Thanks for the laugh! I needed it today.

And best of luck on your AP exam. I got a 3 without so much as looking at any study questions, so I'm so you'll do fine.

Indigo said...

I love the Mudbloods, I wish they were on itunes. THey always sound different than other wizard rock.

Good luck on the test!

Anonymous said...

LOL! Awwww, Little Hayley is soooo cute =) Especially her spelling and grammar.
I did a time capsule letter in Gr. 2 or 3 as well, but if I remember correctly I'm opening it sometime in my 30's. The only thing I remember about it is that I misspelled my name which is sad.

Anyways, GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EXAM!

Kate said...

I wish I could relay to you some diary entries from when I was eight. It will make you feel a whole lot better about little Hayley's spelling skills.

S.Kubera said...

Hey Hayley!
It was great seeing you the other day at school. Last year our time box opening was rather depressing because our box was attacked by mice so most of our stuff was chewed up and he didn't have our video. I hope you find a way to upload yours! I would love to see it, haha. Also, let me know when your grad party is. You can't go off to college without reminiscing with me again about Pokemon and bus rides!

Sara

Trudy Gine Amoranto said...

haha. words you REALY need to treasure. :D

Kaitlyn w/ a K said...

Your childhood poems are so much more endearing than mine! It's not fair. And your use of the word "whom" proves that you've always been brilliant. Good luck on the exam!

VicMorrowsGhost said...

The easiest way to get video off a VHS is to find one of those stores that rip it to a CD for you.

To get the video off your VHS your self you'll need a cable that fits the output from the VCR, probably a Component cable (Red, Green, Blue for the video, Red and White for the audio) or a Composite cable (Yellow for the video, Red and White for the audio).

Your computer probably won't have the right port to plug that cable into directly so you would probably have to copy the video to a video camera first (they often have a plug for video and audio) and then you could import it to your computer from the camera like you had filmed it.

Scott said...

I just read some of my Grade 2 short stories the other day, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. I wrote one about a magical floating door (okay, I had just read Narnia for the first time- sue me) which, when entering the correct password "98765432123456789", would take you to a kingdom which was ran by a doppleganger of my teacher where it was impossible to be sad. The point of the story was that sometimes we need to be sad to be able to realize how lucky we are to be happy and be able to love others.

I know, I know. I was a metaphysical genius at the age of seven.

Good luck on your English exam! I hope it goes great!

Anonymous said...

Best of luck with your exam!

Your little self was so cute, it's amazing how we look back and realise some things haven't changed much!
:]

Lotte said...

That's just the cutest thing EVER!!! I wish we'd done things like that in school...but we didn't haha.

Moo said...

This was an excellent read! I'm sitting in my university library grinning at my computer screen - I think I've given away the fact that I'm not working on my essay right now...

Anyway, my family used to LOVE Ramona the moaner! Thanks for Little Hayley's reminder of that gem. :)

Keep up the blogging, it brings extra sunshine to my day... cheesy but true.

Adam said...

That was SO ADORABLE.

Britty said...

I must admit, I'm VERY guilty of posting song lyrics on my blog when I'm feeling so much but I don't feel like writing how I feel. Sometimes (okay, most of the time) I'm pretty freaking sure that no one cares. But in a small simple way, stealing the words of others that so perfectly explain my thoughts and emotions works for me.
That Adam, he's a musical genius!

I'm going to make a concerted effort to comment on here more often, but I really do enjoy reading your blog.

Oh, yeah, that chick Arya said...

That is so adorable! Its kind of funny that you wanted to be a cheerleader. When I was about 5 I always had this fantasy to become a cheerleader. I took a class at our local erm....whatever u call it and I reallly hated it. I just kind of knew I wasn't flexible. I can't do a cartwheel. Or anything. And to make things more odd- I now iceskate. So some of those moves may come in handy. hopefully not.

Anonymous said...

Mannnnnnnnnnn I wish my school had done something like that.

Kristina said...

You are so frickin cute.

I really wish I'd done some kind of time capsule. That's amazing.

Anonymous said...

Good Luck :D

Becka said...

When I was a kid, I loved spigetie best too. Only I used to call it pastgettie.

You were a really adorable child :D I wish I'd done something like that.

Lucy said...

I love stuff written by little kids. One of my diary entries from when I was 6 said "I was angry because Mummy was talking to Stephen [my brother]" only with plenty more spelling mistakes.

I would like to see the video if you can find a way to convert it (although it may need some serious editing).

Good luck with the test!

Shmandarin said...

I think you should make a facebook or twitter status with poems from your 8 year old self. That'll throw those emo status's out of the water. LOL.

Marley said...

Good luck Hayley! My brother just opened a letter from when he was young too. :)

Nicholas said...

Your video to "The fall" is one of my all-time favourites on YouTube. I wish I could buy it somewhere... the song, that is.

Haley said...

Okay, I know we're not supposed to talk about the test for the rest of our lives, but I just took it... NO POEM ON THE ESSAY SECTION!! Did yours not have a poem either?? I just had some moronic excerpt from Henry VIII.

Um, okay, yeah. That's my comment.

Glenn Garvin said...

Hayley, you are just such a firecracker. BAM. I showed your YouTube video at RFKC Leadership Conference. It was a hit. I said, "if Hayley can say it in a minute certainly you can tell the world about Royal Family Kids' Camps." It was funny. Well, add me to your fanbase and thanks for all you do on behalf of the fatherless.

Glenn Garvin,
Director of Mission Fulfillment
Royal Family Kids' Camps

Emily said...

How'd your test go? Mine was pretty fantastic. Though ones brain feels slightly dead after cranking out 3 essays. Ugh. I analyzed too much Shakespeare.

Tass said...

I received a letter in the mail a couple weeks ago from my second grade self. It was accompanied by some rather amazing drawings of my family. My letter wasn't as amusing as yours. I guess I thought that in 16 years I would forget who my family is and that I had a dog.