My Brilliant Career

For my literature discussion group, we are reading this Super Spectacular autobiographical book by Miles Franklin (her pen name) about a girl living in the bush of Australia in poverty, and it’s so brilliant. It was written by Stella Franklin as a sixteen year old, and accepted by a publishing company when finished. When Stella sent it to Henry Lawson under the pen name of Miles Franklin, he recognized it was written by a girl; to quote his preface to the book, “I hadn’t read three pages when I saw what you will no doubt see at once–that the story had been written by a girl.” After the book was accepted and reviewed by some dunces, Stella decided to suppress the publication of her book. Which, if you think about it, kind of makes A WHOLE TON OF SENSE. That project was REALLY private and personal and HERS. If someone were to get hold of my journal and want to publish it (you know, because it’s BRILLIANTLY written and INCREDIBLY articulate, and altogether AWE-INSPIRING– no), I would claw their face. Legitimate face-clawing would happen.
Okay, maybe not really. Intense glaring would happen.
Back to Stella, you should read her book. Do it, yes. It’s fantastic, and she’s hilarious and sarcastic in that 1880s way that WE ALL KNOW IS THE BEST HILARITY AND SARCASM.
I have a quote for ye, but first, a little filler:
At this point in the book, Sybylla Melvyn (Stella’s own self in the book– so many different names for her) has established that she is “ugly” and “plain,” and unfit for the “marriage market.” As we know, in that era, basically a girl’s highest goal was to get married to some guy with money, and have children, and obey their husbands to the last command. Yep. So being “plain” would be a simply horrid thing, I suppose. Anyway, because of behaving badly (a.k.a. being a teenage girl and not getting along with her mother at all times, duh), Sybylla is being sent to live with her grandmother, who invited her through a letter including the quote, “She might do something good for herself up her: not that I would ever be a matchmaker in the least degree, but [Sybylla's younger-by-eleven-months sister, Gertie] will soon be coming on, and Sybylla, being so very plain, will need all the time she can get.” The lovely marriage market. Without further ado, Sybylla is travelling to her grandmother’s in Caddagat:

Mr Hawden was not at all averse to talking. After emptying our tongues of the weather, there was a silence for some time which he broke with, “So you are Mrs Bossier’s grand-daughter, are you?”
“Not remembering my birth, I can’t swear; but I believe myself to be the same, as sure as eggs is eggs,” I replied.
He laughed. “Very good imitation of the coach driver. But Mrs. Bossier’s grand-daughter! Well, I should smile!”
“What at?”
“Your being Mrs Bossier’s grand-daughter.”
“I fear, Mr Hawden, there is a suspicion of something the reverse of complimentary in your remark.:
“Well, I should smile! Would you like to have my opinion of you?”
“Nothing would please me more. I would value your opinion above all things, and I’m sure–I feel certain–that you have formed a true estimate of me.”
At any other time his conceit would have brought upon himself a fine snubbing, but today I was in a high feather, and accordingly very pleasant, and resolved to amuse myself by drawing him out.
“Well, you are not a bit like Mrs Bossier or Mrs Bell; they are both so good-looking,” he continued.
“Indeed!”
I was disappointed when I saw you had no pretensions to prettiness, as there’s not a girl up these parts worth wasting a man’s affections on, and I was building great hopes on you. But I’m a great admirer of beauty,” he twaddled.
“I am very sorry for you, Mr Hawden. I’m sure it would take quite a paragon to be worthy of such affection as I’m sure yours would be,” I replied sympathetically.
“Never mind. Don’t worry about it. You’re not a bad sort, and I think a fellow could have great fun with you.”
“I’m sure, Mr Hawden, you do me too much honour. It quite exhilarates me to think that I meet with your approval in the smallest degree,” I replied with the utmost deference. “You are so gentlemanly and nice that I was alarmed at first lest you despise me altogether.”
“No fear. You needn’t be afraid of me; I’m not the bad sort of fellow,” he replied with the greatest encouragement.

Is she the most marvelous, drippingly sarcastic person ever or what? I LOVE HER.
“He twaddled.”
HE TWADDLED HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

twad·dle   [twod-l] noun, verb, twad·dled, twad·dling.
noun
1.
trivial, feeble, silly, or tedious talk or writing.

Twaddle. *laughs to tears*
“I replied sympathetically.” Oh my gosh, just be my best friend, please.
All right, in conclusion, read this book because it’s stunning and hilarious and truthful.
Much love,
Ellie

Titles Are So Irritating and Stunt My Thought Process

…so I’m not giving this post one.
I just want to blabber about things and not make sense today. I am sick with a cold-ish thing that requires me to be constantly making and drinking tea (don’t worry, I’ve got some decaffeinated English Breakfast; it’s all good) and have a tissue box within in three feet of me AT ALL TIMES- WAIT WAIT I HAVE TO SNEEZE I HAVE TO SNEEZE

Nope. Nope. It went away- ACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
I hear this in the other room, where my siblings are chomping on popcorn and imitating Hermione in English accents.

“Viktor, I love you! Viktor, I do! When we’re apart-”
Erm, yeah, anyway. Yesterday I had an orchestra concert which was GOOD and everyone was wonderful, except when I was fake-playing, but we don’t really have to talk about that, right? Good. We closed the performance with a Pirates of the Caribbean medley, which was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and a jumble of jollity to play. Before that piece, there was this gift basket drawing and award giving thing, which is great and all, but it was SO LONG and UNBELIEVABLY ANTI-CLIMATIC and, looking back on it, LAUGHABLY DULL. I mean, congratulations to the finalists, and graduating seniors, and concerto people, and the gift basket winners, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, SO, SO DULL.
*sniffles* *blows nose* *makes tea*
Whew. Lately I have been drawing a lot, and I WOULD take pictures, but– actually. I will. Right now.
THIS IS GOING TO TAKE FOREVERRRRRR.
Okay, done.
Yes, I know, the shadows around the drawings are utter rubbish. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t figure out our scanner…

This one was inspired by the song Mariella by Kate Nash, which I listened to on repeat while drawing it. Brilliant song, by the way. I featured in my First Loony Tunes Ever post.

This one is all blushing and cute and straight hair and eyelashes and stuff. Aw. (Not my favorite, but nor horrible.)

Favorite one. I drew this one while giving a spelling test to my sister (ha, homeschooling). Her hair is all curly-wavy-cowlick-y, and she has this big hair bow, and a cute collar, and a chain around her neck that begs to suggest a locket- basically, she’s my favorite and stems from the recent obsession I have with retro fashion and girlhood.

Hahahahahahahahahaha. Evil balloon and a cartoonish girl with braids holding her breath, eyes poppin’.

The noooooooooooose.

I like to think she’s contemplating her existence with her expressionless mouth and stony eyes. But she’s probably grinding her teeth at the state of her lusciously abstract main.

A lily that I sketched while JAMMIN’ to the Smiths and Morrissey and my Best of the Girl Groups album. The shadows are SO BAD, I KNOW.
All right, that’s all for my sketchbook.
Also, at my orchestra concert, I left my purse which had my DEAR LITTLE IPOD in it, and when we went back for it at 10:15 at night, the purse was…gone. Luckily, my conductor grabbed it and has mailed it to me today, as our season is now finished and I will no longer ever see him again (*pretends to be sad* *reminds self that conductor is nice enough to return belongings to self*). But…I’m still without my iPod, and that means I’m without my TUNEZ and such for a couple days. Which kind of reeks, but at least it wasn’t stolen by a DESPICABLY EVIL passerby.
And and announcement! I have finally begun my collaboration blog, Seven Up, with six other marvelous girls. This is our very first week and I INVITE (Read: beg) you to check it out! This week’s theme is interviewing one another with KWEST-SHE-AWWWNS just to do a little introductory post. I hope you like the blog, because I will be shamelessly advertising it here forever and ever.
Last, but certainly not least, I wish a happy birthday to my poppy!
Now, I think I’m finished with this post, but soon I will return! Sorry for my absence and lack of videos lately. I vow I’ll make one soon.
Much love,
Ellie (the Dancing Elephant with a Cold-ishy Illness Thing Involving Bacteria, Probably, Definitely)
Edit: New background made of BOW TIES and SPECTACLES! I love it. What about you?

Give It All Back

I could listen to this song a trillion billion million times, and now that I’ve edited a video with the song in it, I have! Great.
It is a nice song, though.

Give It All Back from Ellie Shackelford on Vimeo.

Bubbles are nice. Thanks for watching, and I hope you liked it , even a teeny bit.
Here is the official music video, in which some kids with RAD hair are awesome, and older versions of themselves wear equally large and exciting glasses. It was actually very worth watching, and remarkably amusing in the sense that THOSE KIDS HAD AWESOME HAIR, SERIOUSLY, and also, ya know, whimsical notion and ambitious kids and stuff. Watching it again right now, and I LOOOOOOVE IT.
If you comment below before anyone else (on Vimeo, OR my blog) what the mistake is in MY video, you will receive a priiiiiiiiiiiiiiize that will most likely be candy, or bubbles, or something similarly fanciful, so have fun with that. I’ll contact you, deer.

I reward you for pointing out my mistakes. Think about that a second. To what is the world coming to? *dramatic fall to knees*
Much love,
Ellie

Doctor Who Trocks

I remember when I didn’t know what Doctor Who was. I suppose it was maybe, oh, 2 and half-ish months ago. Sometime in November I began watching this brilliant British television show with my father, ten-year-old brother, and seven-year-old sister.
And now the Doctor and all his enemy aliens have consumed my life, just like Jo Rowling and all her beloved characters did in fourth grade. (My life is sitting in her vault, making tons of friends with all the other lives it contains.)
Doctor Who is a sci-fi show featuring an immortal Doctor from an alien planet who time-travels and continually saves the world from extraterrestrials.
You already love it, right?
Don’t pretend, I know you’re super excited to hear more.
The show was off the air for over a decade until it resurrected in 2005 starring the fantastic, cheerful, lovely Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, who in the first episode met Rose Tyler, portrayed by Billie Piper, who worked at a department store in London until she became the full-time companion of the Doctor. The pair of them travel through space and time fixing history and fighting aliens and continuously saving universe and human race.
It makes me happy.
My favorite Nine/Rose episodes are the ones with gas mask children and- oh, wow, that one is SO terrifying but SO GOOD. So if you’re one of those fans that only watches the David Tennant episodes, go watch the gas mask zombie episodes on Netflix NOW. I mean it. They thrill me so.
And then at the end of the Ninth Doctor series, CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON CHANGES! His form changes! He looks different! He looks like…OH MY GOSH, DAVID TENNANT! David Tennant plays the hilarious, lovely, amazing, spectacular, fabulous, brilliant, and very marvelous Tenth Doctor! -cheers- And Rose sticks around. Which is fine. I like Rose. ALTHOUGH SOME PEOPLE I KNOW OR MAYBE EVEN LIVE WITH AND LOVE THINK SHE IS A “BIMBO”. Rose is very clever. Most of the time. So be quiet.
David Tennant lasts as the Tenth Doctor for awhile. I’M ONLY ON HIS SECOND SEASON, OK, I’M NOT THAT FAR, OK, I CAN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT
So far, I really like Ten’s regeneration episode. CHRISTMAS INVASION BEST EVER YES YES LOVE LOVE And the Time Vortex and stuff…and also his Scottish accent in the werewolf one. And when Lady Cassandra kind of possesses him kind of in the cat-nurse episode, and he says “foxeh” AND IT’S FUNNY HAHAHAHA
Okay, so yay, David Tennant. You’re brilliant and…brilliant.
The other awesome thing about Doctor Who is the HUGE fandom that comes with it. There are comic books, backpacks, mugs, toys, t-shirts, SO MUCH STUFF, and it’s all amazingly cool. Another fairly new thing is TROCK. “Trock,” or “time lord rock” is a genre of music all about Doctor Who. I’m dead serious. The lyrics are about Doctor Who. Have you ever heard of wizard rock (wrock), the scrumptiously dorky genre of music concerning Harry Potter? Well, this is the time-lord-y, Galifreyan version. ARE YOU EXCITED, ARE YOU EXCITED?
The first ever trock band, Chameleon Circuit, was started in 2008, formed by four British Doctor Who fanboys in their twenties, Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, Liam Dryden, and Eddplant. Their first self-titled album documents seasons one through four and CHEERS MY NERDY, WHOVIAN SOUL. When I say “It’s brilliant”, I mean “I AM A FANGIRL AND I LIKE THEM VERY MUCH YAY WHATEVER QUALITY THEIR RECORDING EQUIPMENT IS THANK YOU FOR MAKING FUN OF THE QUALITY CERTAIN BLOOD RELATIVES I AM ACQUAINTED WITH IT’S THE LYRICS THAT COUNT ALL RIGHT”. Anyway, after this first peek into the universe of music about Doctor Who, tons of fans began to follow Chameleon Circuit’s footsteps, including one of my loveliest friends, Tasia! Tasia recently has begun a trock band with her friend, who I will call Salamander, called Fishfingers & Custard, and it makes me happy. So, SHOUT OUT TO TASIA AND SALAMANDER, I HOPE I GOT YOUR BAND NAME RIGHT THIS TIME!
*cough*
So if you’re looking for a fun TV show to start watching with lovely accents and captivating special effects, please check out Doctor Who for my sake.
Maybe we can even dork out together some time.

I Hate New Year’s Resolutions

Salutations, [insert endearment here]!
I’m so glad you’ve visited my blog. It warms my heart and cheers my soul.
I’d first like to say that a new video will hopefully be up in the next few days, and that I’m sorry about not being on time, but you know. New Year’s! Christmas! I mean, clearly I’m a party animal, no time for silly vlogs!
*cough*
New Year’s often calls for resolutions, something you’d like to change about yourself in the coming year. It seems like everywhere is littered with these weak promises to change that…admit. They’re mostly always broken. If I’m going to change something about myself, I’ll change it WHENEVER I WANT, DARNIT! Needless to say, I have no resolutions. I have plans.
My first plan is to write. A lot. I want to start all the story ideas I have swooshing around my head, bouncing of the walls of my mind, and get them down on paper. I just want to have them there to remember, and if they work, maybe I’ll write a whole novel. It might happen.
My second plan for 2012 is to complete the masterpiece that is my Wall of Awesome. So far, this work of art holds three collages, two visual and one wordy, a Sound of Music poster, several drawings, random tidbits of scrumdiddlyumptiousness letters from dear friends, and the jewel of this colorful piece, a Twinings English Breakfast Tea ad.
Oh yes.
My third plan/hope/product of madness is to start a collaboration blog. A collaboration blog would be a group of a few people posting once a week and THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES ME EXTREMELY EXCITED AAAAAAHHHHHH. I was thinking it could be…fun. A sort of group of teenagers or something all writing whatever they want once a week and getting to know each other and…this is going to sound really cheesy really soon. If you’d be interested, you are my favorite, and feel free to contact me, the human. Links and information are where you know to find them.
And my fourth and final plan is to take over the world. *cue evil music and laugh* That plan is coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself…
To sum this post up so you don’t have to read THE WHOLE THING OH MY GOSH NOT EFFORT EWW, I’m going to try to write a book, tape things to my wall, start a collaboration blog, and I’m taking over the world this year. While sipping tea.
I ADORE ALL YOUR FACES YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL AAAAGH
Love the Rather Sophisticated and Totally, Completely Articulate Ellie