Edit on July 30th @ 12:17am: For the next three days (the 30th through the 1st) I will be in Indianapolis, Indiana with some of my robotics team for an off-season competition. I will be bringing my laptop, and assuming there is free WiFi my goal is to type a new blog and to return comments, though I can’t guarantee anything. If I don’t manage to get on here during that time, I’ll be back in three days!
Oh also, since I’m really proud of my recent bout of productivity, I’d like to direct your attention to the sidebar and the list of updates I have made in the last three days.
DUN DUN DUN… I’ve switched to WordPress! That’s right, I’ve finally conformed to the masses. Well I really had no intention of leaving good ol’ reliable FanUpdate, because I had no reason to switch over. In fact, I still didn’t have a reason to switch over when I did. Well, the point is, when I was working on some premade layouts last night/this morning, I wanted to offer them as WP themes, so I installed WordPress on a subdomain and learned some of the ropes. I realized that it wasn’t as daunting and scary as I thought, so my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to switch over. I’m excited to play around with plugins and things, honestly. 
Also, to accompany my switch I made a new layout. Refresh if you can’t see it! The pictures were taken on a walk with my mom yesterday in the neighborhood across the street from my own. I thought the sign was hilarious: “watch for old horses, blind dogs, and unruly children.” Unruly children! 
I wonder how old that sign is. The other picture is one of the twenty photos that my mom took of me swinging at the little park we walked to, and the layout also features some of my own handwriting. 
The lyrics are from the song “Field of Innocence” by Evanescence.
So watching TV shows when I was little, I always thought it was funny when people were afraid of the dentist. I couldn’t understand how it was possible NOT to love the dentist, what with their giveaways of toothbrushes, floss, and a toy from the treasure chest. Yeah, I loved going to the dentist’s office when I was little.
Well, you know what I realized sometime during the past year? I’m afraid of going to the dentist. What changed? Scary hygienist lady, that’s what.
My last several visits to the dentist’s office, I have been assigned to a hygienist named Kristen, I believe. As if it’s not bad enough that she is she annoyingly perky with this weird smile plastered across her face all the time, she frigging KILLS my mouth. Murderous lady. 
It all starts when it’s time to floss; the floss is her weapon. She tugs at my gums SO HARD with the floss, it’s like she’s trying to rip my teeth out by cutting through their roots with the floss. You think that’s an exaggeration, but damn, it’s not. Then of course I bleed (and did I mention the pain?). BLOOD! OH NO! YOU HAVE GINGIVITIS! So then I get a lecture about how I need to floss more often or my teeth are all going to fall out. Of course the lecture is accompanied with a tutorial, so then she tugs at my teeth some more with her evil floss of doom, teaching me exactly how I should floss so that my gums will get used to it, become healthier, and stop hurting.
Uh-huh, right. Sometimes I’ll floss for like a week afterwards because I’m just so annoyed at it all, but usually I just let it go. In all my sixteen years I have never flossed consistently, and before this Kristen lady it never even hurt. 
Well, today I went to the dentist. I was a little bit nervous, since like I said, I’m apparently afraid of the dentist now, but my mom took me to a different office because she’s friends with the dentist there, and the dentist had offered to cut us a deal. My hygienist was a nice lady named Tracey, and I swear the only pain I felt was from the x-ray things cutting into my mouth. FLOSSING WAS A BREEZE. Even though I still haven’t been flossing, she didn’t say a thing, and it didn’t hurt! I always thought the pain I felt from Kristen’s flossing was mostly due to my neglectful flossing habits, but nope! Man am I relieved. Maybe now my fear of the dentist will start to subside.
WOO!! 1st comment! (hopefully)
I LUH your layout! LUH is copyrighted by Gillian at gvd-paperplanes.com! <3 It's so amazing! And your premades are really good too!
Woo, you're in WordPress now!
The layout seems so personalized with your handwriting and the photography!
Aww, my dental hygienist isn't that bad. She trys to talk to me and stuff, even though I can't talk while she's cleaning my teeth. Haha!
I'm glad you can enjoy the dentist now!
What's your mom's job?
BTW: love the poop smilies!
@ Lauren:
Aww, thank you! LOL and yes, you got the first comment.
My mom works at a coffee shop called Biggby Coffee, plus she works at my brother’s ice rink when she’s needed, and she’s an Avon representative.
Thanks again.
I know exactly what you mean about the dentist! My dentist always feels like that, even if they’re not being intentionally harsh. And when I was a kid, I was terrified of the dentist (note that I had only gone to the dentist twice by the time I was eight). Every time my dad made me get in the car and wouldn’t tell me where we were going, I would start panicking and worrying that we were going to the dentist and generally end up crying.
I always thought that the WordPress plugins looked interesting, but I don’t want to install it. XD
OMG! I have a new layout that I made yesterday/today, but I haven’t put it up yet… I’m at Gordon’s house, and we feel like we should spend some time together instead of both being on the computer, especially since it would take me forever to put it up, probably. …Well, I guess not forever… but rather, it would take a long time to upload and put in place every other graphic that I made. Then again, now that I think about it… maybe not. However, there’s a problem with Internet Explorer that I need to resolve. I have some cool navigation in Firefox, but IE doesn’t like it… I don’t know why. XP
Haha, I wanted to reread 1-6 before 7 came out, but that failed. XD I’m doing well so far, mostly because I’ve been too interested in the site to do much other reading. Usually I read ALL summer long, whereas this summer I’ve read… four books? Five, six, maybe? LAME.
By the way, the “unruly kids” sign is hilarious. Gordon and I have been looking at failblog.org for the past, like, hour, and that fits in perfectly. XD
@Rachel:
Whoa that’s so cool! Does your brother play ice hockey?
And how do you make the smilies again?
When you make the next layout, use some of your own pictures, it makes it look more you and I LOVE IT!
Is Avon a makeup company? I think I’ve heard of it.
Sorry for so many questions!
@Lauren:
Nope, my brother figure skates.
He does ice dance with a partner, although his partner of six years decided to focus on freestyle instead (the solo kind with jumps and spins) so now he’s partnerless for the time being.
Um… I just pixel them…
Thanks.
Yep, Avon is a makeup company.
WordPress!!! I love it now, even though I used to hate it and I never thought I would switch.. But It’s a lot easier once you get the hang of it right?? =) Ooh, cool layout! It’s awesome you used your own pictures and that sign is really cool
I don’t really hate dentists, but I really did fear it when I had braces. They used to hurt me so much and the stupid woman I used to get used to talk in a different language with the woman next to her, even though I could understand. Like, slating my teeth T_T and then she cut the wire for my braces so short and started getting all peeved saying “IT WAS LITERALLY 1 MM TOO SHORT!!!!!!!” Ugh. I hate that fruity stuff they give you too. That sucks.
Yeah, I know
I was really feeling drousy yesterday.. I barely got any sleep so it was pretty draining, but had a good time (:
Yeah, Middle mans a tv show. It’s based on a comic, and my brother and I love it.. It’s so random
) You should try watch it if you get it there, because I think they’ve cancelled it now on account of it not being popular.
Im changing my layout into something brighter….once i know how to work wordpress… its not fair!! how come people can do it,when I can’t?????!!!!!!!! I DEMAND AN ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
….*sniff* help??? how do show it on your site…?
Haha, yeah I thought it would be useful because I always thought to myself “Oh that would be good to do for my site” but then I’d always forget. But now I can just put it in my Things To Do list!
Even though I’m thirteen.
I’ll start working on my things to do 
Eww, I hate dentists so much, mine says “Oh yeah, they’re fine” but then he gives me a lecture on cleaning my teeth; and I think “I thought you said they were fine?!” Hahaaa, and he always gives me stickers, and I love that!!
Aw well have fun in Indiana! Hope you win the competition! Nope, I haven’t done anything else recently. I’m lazy
ok, so wordpress was easy to you? lol
i’m using it for my store and i still cant figure it all out. I like your layout though.
please visit my store peppermintpals.com =]
wow i love the new layout !
its really cuuute.
+ ahah, how are you liking wordpress?
and, how’s that competition?
did you find a winner yet?
I’m not sure what competition I was talking about, but it was most likely the American Accent contest. ‘Cause that was fun.
I was trying to get my fringe trimmed (not sure how, lol) so it was the same style as it was before. Sort of to the side/across my face, I’m not too good at explaining. I think the hairdresser moved my parting though, so it just turn out wrong. And she didn’t cut straight, wtf. Hair dressers should be able to cut straight in my opinion. Lol.
My mum was actually reading the recipe when she made them, which is the worst part. She missed out the whole sentence about sugar though, even after she’s baked them a billion times before.
Yay WordPress!! I never planned to convert to WordPress until my site went down and I got an account there. Then I had to install it on my site, just ’cause it was so good to use. Your new layout’s lovely!!
That sign’s strange. Does it literally mean dogs with no eyesight, or is it on about dogs that look after the blind?? Haha, ‘unruly children’. It must be quite old.
Your old hygienist was a total bitch. As if she’d blame you when she was clearly causing you all that pain. Poor Rachel. At least you got a new one, so you don’t have to go through that again.
xx
LOL! Love the sign! Also I think we may go to the same dentist. I could cry because that crazy hygenist hurts my mouth so bad! I mean I TASTE BLOOD for like an hour after she’s done!
Congrats to switching to WordPress! I have yet another WordPress buddy! I love the layout! Looks amazing!
I love the dentist, I’ve never hated them. The only thing I don’t like is when we do that x-ray thing. Those stupid film things are so annoying. But I remember loving the little givaway things. ^^
I try to be accepting but its so difficult.
In the latest movie, I just noticed his hair-do… the way he does that smirk, it’s kind of.. different and not really a good different. And his face lengthened the most, I think. It’s so annoying.
The Middle Ages is pretty interesting but such a large era. The tests on that section…. it was so annoyingly hard.
Haha, when it comes to dancing, you’re just like my friend. She can’t dance in front of other people, she won’t dance at dances which defeats the purpose of the dance!
I’ve fixed the comments box. ^^ I think, it should work now. =)
well the original idea of my layout was to draw her and then scan the picture in,
but no i didn’t draw the one in my layout .
i just found it on google images. lol
thanks for the vote
i highly doubt ill be first since the 1st place person has like 4 times the number of votes i have aha.
hmm, what are you thinking for the style of your comments ? (:
They won’t let me get the givaways anymore. I’m now considered an adult.
I feel old.
Yeah, the bleached hair isn’t very appealing to his face shape. Hahaha, it makes him look paler and .. whiter and .. eh.
The music at dances usually sucks and only one good song comes after every twenty but it’s always fun to go with my friends. That’s what we usually do, go as a group and use it to hang out. ^^
Good, I guess I just had to use CSS,
I didn’t think of that but everyone was like try CSS. I was like, oh yeah. Haha.
lol oh i see .
well i love the comment style though.
i don’t even know how to make mine like yours aha.
+ yeup you’re totally right,
and its not that bad being second.
my sites still pretty new anyway, soo yeah.
ahah, anyways, how are you? how’s life? (:
I got your comment on my site! Thank you! Um…yeah, I am reading about design and photography. I don’t know if there are theories or anything…I am basically learning about how to present your designs in the way the audence would like and everything. And drooling over the images and sstuff!
I’ve never seen Tim without the bleached hair…maybe because I’ve only seen him like that, that might be why I think he looks strange.
Hahaha, when my friends have dates, usually the dates just follow them wherever and so we end up making a circle together and just.. dancing/standing around haha.
I didn’t have to annotate it but I did because it helps me remember stuff. ^^ Plus, if I look back, it’ll be easier for me to find stuff. It took me longer, but I enjoyed this book. ^^ So I didn’t mind annotating plus I marked all my favorite spots and such.
Lmao yeah I know right? The whole thing was so ironic and awkward.
I’m so glad that he finally understood that we were cousins though .. otherwise it would have been worse. 
Yeah about that bitch Cat.
You definitely should tell her off she deserves it. I hate it when people get all “up in your business” lmao.
You’re welcome.
Just keep practicing at Monkey Shaker haha. I notice that people improve dramatically and I’m starting to have a lot of tough competition.. which is a bad thing. 
I HAVE THE MONKEY SHAKER TITLE AND I WILL DO ANYTHING TO KEEP IT. Lmao.
Hmm, I still don’t see how gummy bears and caesar sauce is dirty LMAO. But yeah you’re right.. it SHOULD be dirty.. somehow.
PAHAHHA HOW BIG ARE YOU BAGELS? If I was your mom I would have been like “Excuse me.. you pervert. Back off.”
OH YAH, about that WP coding. It seems like you have it figured out? Or do you? Haha. Do you have msn? We can talk more conveniently that way.
Alright, so I love your new layout. The colors are great.
Congrats on the switch to WordPress. For some weird ass reason, I thought that you always had wordpress LOL, but now I realize that it was Fanupdate.
Omg you actually like the dentist when you were little? Geez I didn’t care about the free toothbrushes and floss, I’ve always hated dentists with every bone in my body, till this day. They’re actually one of my biggest fears lmao and don’t even get me started on the “dentist office smell” .. it gives me goosebumps.
So sorry to hear that you have a bitch for a hygienist.
I hate it when they’re hammering away at your teeth and then blood comes (because it naturally will) and then they tell you that you have gingivitis. Wtf? -.-
I’m glad that Tracey treated you with more care though haha.
Ooh and to answer your question about how Tommy never knew we were realated.. well I think the main problem was the language barrier. I would have thought that his grandpa told him that they were meeting up with family.. but he probably didn’t understand. On the other hand, his grandpa might have just told him that we’re meeting up with some family friends and he only understood the friend part LMAO. OR, when he saw me he thought that there was no way that we’re related since we’re different races.
Cause when I saw him, I found it hard to believe that we were related as well. I’m just so thankful that I asked my dad about it.
Ok, sorry about this massive comment.
Bye now.
ohh aha, i see.
well it looks good, so no worries.
LMFAO, you’re kidding to think your site isn’t popular.
its more popular than mine. 
lol.
ROTFLMFAO good one.
ouu, you’re entered in a robotics competition?
what do you do? it sounds cool.
+, im doing good.
not as interesting as your competition . lol.
just updating my site and talking to friends.
Yay, WordPress!
Are you going to convert the pages too? I am tempted to convert my site and visitor section too, haha. 
Ugh, that hygienist sounds like a real bitch. I don’t really like flossing, and my old dentist used to do it quite roughly and make my gums bleed. My current dentist is really nice though.
There was a time when I had mild gingivitis, because the gum around my braces at the back had become swollen and bled quite a bit. Not good.
I usually floss every night though. My mum kind of got me into the habit.
Haha I just ate lunch so no banana bread for me. I could do with some lollies though…
Yeah, she didn’t tell me, so I don’t want to ask. She still keeps all her other affiliates… urgh, bitch. I was really close to her so I’m really quite offended.
Haha we don’t have caller id. Not on our home phone anyway. It’s pretty expensive, I think.
The constant beeping just reminds me of the freakish dial tone!
Hahahah nice. I am proud of you! Well, if you don’t manage to go online while you’re away, I will be adding smilies. Muahahhaa. I don’t know why I’m excited or decided to tell you. But yes.
Yeah… I was like… “why did I convert all my reviews, what a bloody waste of time.” Then I realised I wanted comments on them. :|
I think I was a little too ambitious then…
Yeah, we do.
Well, it comes up on a mobile phone unless the person has a private number, but not on home phone (which is where all the telemarketers roam). 
Haha you’ll be back before you know it. <3
I’d never judge your usage of fanupdate… considering I use cutenews. haha.. But congrats on converting to wordpress successfully…. Oh, and the layout looks gorgeous! I love the blue with the neutral colors.
The header is awesome.
Uhm… now I’m scared of the dentist, too.
ah, you’re right.
we should just be happy that our site looks good . lol.
omg, that sounds really cool !
and that’s excellent that you won in 2003.
you guys must be like really pro then.
how many people are in your…team?
+, how many robots have you built?
Hey how are you? Just wanted to ask you if you want to have a link exchange with me.
LMAO. That’s hilarious that your mind went to monkey hand job thing..
Now that I think about it.. I don’t think I would do “ANYTHING” because I can never see myself giving a monkeyy a handjob. Whoas. HAHA.
Omg I love urbandictionary. That site is so awesome. It always cracks me up. And a lot of the definitions are very true. I once searched my name and one of the definitions was:
Gillian
the incorrect way of spelling “Jillian”.
my sister’s name is Jillian, if you spell it Gillian she will cut you.
LMFAO. It made me laugh so hard, because I get so mad when people spell my name with a J too.
HAHAHAH those bagel definitions were too funny, especially the one about the male private part? Geez, anything can be made dirty these days.
Thanks for your msn. I’ve been thinking about if I should make a separate msn for my online friends since I’ve come very close to being exposed many times when my other friends are over and on my msn account.
Anyways, once I decide whether or not I’m going to make a separate one, I will add you. 
Haha yeah gingivitis is probably their pathetic way of covering it up.
Instead of just admitting that they’re violent killer dentists.
LMFAO, wow that’s some dream that you had.
Pretty disturbing haha, hopefully if it ever happens to you in real life, he WILL understand when you tell him that you guys are cousins.
Tom actually looks nice in that picture. ^^ WIthout the bleached hair.
But he looks kind of younger.
Well because usually when we have dates, they’re more like “friendly” dates. Not anything couply or serious.
Yeah, annotating helps most definitely. It comes in handy when I take tests because usually I’ve written the answers, to help me remember.
I’m too scared to try that, I’m so wimpy
Yeah I dropped mine too, that may partially be the reason it’s broken, but…ehh, who knows?
Nope, but I’ve heard of it
Good old FU is nice, but shiny wp is better!
I love the dentist! I only hate it when they hit my teeth with the mirror. Some of the dentist at my office decide, ehh I don’t enough time, lets check her teeth with the actual mini mirror. Not the other end my friend, but with the mini mirror thing. And they don’t tap, nooo…they hit, BANG! Kind of interesting we both of dentists with weapons
So i just finished reply my comment and when i hit submit, my internet decided to act up. I should have copied it lol
Anyways as i was saying, I started liking Draco in the recent harry potter that came out, something about it just made me like him.
Ugh i completely hate going to the dentist, i will never be happy to go lol. Congrats on the wordpress, its really nice and helps a lot. I make most of my pages on there lol
Hey, Rachel! I love this entry because it’s so true. I used to freaking love the dentist because I essentially came home with a goodie bag full of awesome stuff, and GUM, which I never got otherwise. Man, those were the days. I would kill for a free new toothbrush, let me tell you what.
I agree. Something strange happens when you enter adulthood in reference to your relationship with your dentist. All of a sudden, you’ve got OMG CAVITY WARNINGS and you never floss enough. Eff my life. I floss my teeth within an inch of my life every night now and still I can’t ever appease my dentist. What happened?
I miss being a kid so much sometimes.
Also, I’m so sorry for the tardy reply. I am back on the internet and blogging after my move to L.A. and can’t wait to keep reading about everyone’s summer!
Much love! xxx
Yep, WordPress isn’t scary as we thought. I was using cutenews before I switched to WordPress. I thought it would be difficult to design it since I’m a newbie with web designing. But it turns out to be easy as I thought. I have been using WordPress since two years ago and I’m so glad that I have switched too.
No, I don’t think it did rain. which is surprising considering the size of the cloud, haha.
I don’t even have a passport so I couldn’t use that. And on my birth certificate I think it says you can’t use it as proof of ID, which is stupid.
Have fun at the competition!!
xx
I would be afraid of the dentist too! Did you ever tell anyone else how rough she was?
Glad you got to go to a better/nicer one this time!
Love your layout! and welcome to the wordpress world. be prepaired for constant updates! lol
Hey Rachel
I hope they get that damn thing fixed soon, too! I’ve been waiting for two weeks now! That is more than enough time to get it fixed! Yeah.. maybe a new one would be a great solution! The last time I gave them my headphones because they didn’t work any more, they let me wait three weeks and when I picked my mp4-player up I got a completely new one
Which was awesome, because it was a lil bit bigger than the original one 
Yeah I use a PC, not a laptop
Hahaha
“Not the best history with guys” isn’t even close 
Her ex-boyfriends were complete assholes and she never got it 
No matter how often I told her.. I think they are figuring things out now.. which is good. They are overall a cute couple 
A friend of us is leaving school because she got a job (we all would’ve graduated next year) and so we thought we’d make her a lil goodbye-party. It was a great time and she made us all cry or almost cry
Hehe.. yeah I hope so too! It takes a lot of planning to keep a party secret from the person it’s given for
This is an awesome new layout and congrats on switching over to WordPress
It is pretty good actually – even though I have a lil hate-love-relationship with it 
I do like it most of the time, but sometimes I could kick WordPress little ass 
Urgh.. I don’t like the dentist either
But you know what is even worse? My old dentist was my neighbour. And what is even worse: I saw him walking around completely wasted and stuff.. that doesn’t help me to over come my fear 
But my mum is at a pretty good dentist, so I decided to switch too. And this lady is pretty cool and nice and stuff 
I am 20 and am afraid of the dentist 
That’s ridiculous – but true 
I hope you over come your fear for the dentists, now that you changed 
Bye and have fun in Indiana <3
Congrats on covering successfully. You’ve joined the masses. DUN DUN DUN. LOL. Yeah, it looks cool. I like your new layout Rach, it looks wonderful. It’s so personal.
My little broter’s child minder has a sign similar to that. It’s says “Never mind the dog, beware of the kids”. It’s like maximum cheese factor, isn’t it? LOL.
Sorry to hear about your dentist. She sounds like a tart. I love my dentist. He’s a scoucer and he amazingly hott.
I am like “AAAWWWW” everytime he tells me to open wide, secretly hoping he’ll kiss me. huhahah. I only see him once every six months though which sucks.
Oh and plus he’s married. LOL.
Congrats on all your updates. You’ve been busy!!! Did you manage to do your twitter application thing? I think I’ll have a look for it now.
Enjoy your mini vacation. (if you can call if that. =] )
I guess one you get the hang of everything its finally clear to you why people love to use wordpress. its pretty handy.
The only thing I liked about the dentist when I was little were the little toys.
And WordPress looks so lovely.
Welcome to word press! Love the layout.
Have fun at your competition.