Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! Happy Christmas! [whatever word you wish to use] Christmas.

Well, Tenth's Christmas Eve is over, and it was so fun. I was in the choir, as you most likely know, and my favorite piece to sing was "Masters in this Hall" which has such a lively tune that it made me smile. Second in my favorites came "Comfort, Comfort," and then "for Unto us a child is Born". Oh, and then "Ding, Dong, Merrily on High!". Oh, they were all fun to sing, and despite being SO hot in the choir-loft. And I think I most likely over-sang on the hymns. But who cares....

"Time! Time!"

Only two days 'til Christmas! And soon after that it will be 2007. 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!! How odd it that? I remember (dimly) Y2K, and it was six years ago, but you know that. I seem to be noticing that time is going faster the older I get. Specially if i have a History exam or something to write by next Thursday. Thankfully, this being Christmas break I have no History exam or something to write looming TOO close. True, I do have to write more of the story for writing class (currently entitled the slightly worrisome title of "It was the Lamp's fault really...").
However! I lost my "bet" that Sarah Em and I would finish editing The List of Names by Christmas. Given that we are 24 letters into a 71 letter editing process I have rather given up home... Oh, well! It's not like I want to be done with The List of Names, but I desperately want to move on to writing The Room of Darkness (the sequel). Oh well...

Harry Potter Title!!!!!!

J.K. Rowling has just released the title of book seven. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows... What do you guys think? Do you think it fits in with the rest? In case someone out there is reading this blog and doesn't know the titles of them I shall list them. Besides I want to, as this will be the first time I see all seven titles in one place.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I shall ask yet again, what do you think? I think it is a bit corny to have the word deathly in the title but I suppose that it will grow on me, and after all it isn't really what I think that matters. And as J.K. Rowling knows what is going to happen I am sure that it seems like the best title to her.....

Eragon!

Despite everything that everyone else says I really liked the Movie of Eragon. People have said the they left too much of the book out, and that there weren't enough people in the final battle. However! I think that we can't really judge them on what they put in or left out until we have seen all three movies. Because, although they did leave out things that I would say are "important", (such as Roren's Katrina, the child that Eragon blesses, and the Star-sapphire) I think that they will easily be able to put in the child and the Star-sapphire in a flash back and Katrina they will most assuredly be able to put in the second movie, Eldest.
And they did some things really, really well. The Sephira was really good (so cute when she was born, and then really impressive grown.) Brom was exquisitely well done by Jeremy Irons and was sarcastic and jumpy and all that he was supposed to be. Ed Speelers played Eragon very well, making him strong headed and slightly arrogant when it comes to his skills. I don't know HOW they found someone to play Roren who looked so much like Eragon. The Shade, Durza was satisfyingly creepy and mad looking and i really liked how they showed how powerful he was. Because in the final battle he actually made a dragon-sized creature of Dark magic to ride and fight Eragon and Sephira. My favorite character, Murtag(sp?) was also well done.
The only problem that I really found was that sometimes the way the people said things didn't really match the era that the movie is set in. But all in all I really liked it and it is the first move I have seen in a long time that Daddy said the he really liked.

Break!...... and things.

Christmas Break is here! Oh, Happy, day! I spent all day Friday reading, and then today (Saturday) my Grandmother graduated from Lancaster Bible Collage (College?). She is officially the oldest graduate that LBC has ever had. How odd.

I Don't like coming up with titles... my blogs always ramble anyway

I am SO ready for Christmas Break! I am studying and trying to remember all the slightly queer, and generally murderous leaders of the Greeks and Romans. I spoke of them in my last post. Oh, and as if I did not have my fill of Greek and Roman stories, I just finished reading the Odyssey for Lit Class, Hannah told me that since I am studying the Roman emperors as soon as Christmas Break starts, we need to watch "I Claudius".
And speaking of movies, Eragon is coming out on Friday. It is rather convenient as I will have finished an Exam on Thursday. A movie I want to see always seem to be coming out just as I finish my first semester at Westminster. Narnia came out the day after my last exam last year... How odd... I sort of think its cool.

Argggggggg.... School

But it is really my fault that I am behind in Algebra and German. Or the fact that I realized that the best way to study for my History exam would be to type in my notes. All 42 pages of them. I should have remembered to start work on it yesterday, or even Friday, but no, I only remember it this morning. So I worked on it on and off today and, low and behold, I didn’t get it all done. I still have about ten pages of Roman Emperors to type in. How Caligula elected his horse to the senate, and how Nero "fiddled while Rome burned", and how Claudius pretended to be retarded for however many years his nephew, Caligula, was emperor....

And yet, I think it is important to be able to stop at 10:00 and answer the phone when my best friend calls, and to be able to laugh and giggle with her about the most random things. About how we really do need to finish editing W.O.M. (Short for Worker of Magic, which was a sort of working title for our novel The List of Names) and that we really do need to start T.R.O.D. (Short for The Room of Darkness (Which, yes, is just as ominous as it sounds)). And guess what, I think I feel the better for having laughed at the antics of the Blancon(is that how you spell their name?) boys and at the ridiculous letters Sarah and I wrote to each other, and the Diary entries that we sometimes keep merely for the purpose of going back and laughing at ourselves. I realize that it is good to have a friend like her even if there are bumpy moments when we don't agree...

"Children's Book"

I don't think I knew a school assignment could seem like something I would do on my own. I have been assigned to write a "Children's Book" for writing class. Now a "Children's Book" can be for anyone between the ages of 2 and about 13, but I think what I am working on is aimed a bit more towards the 10-13 age group. It doesn't really have title yet (I hope to name it after the as yet unnamed country that it takes place in,) but the title right now is It was the lamp's fault really... Which just happened to be the starting line. I fear that some of the ideas are somewhat (what am I talking about?) VERY cliched but i hope that it will work out... As we all know, there is nothing new under the sun, right?

Melted marshmallows...

After making rice-crispy treats today, I am fairly sure that melted marshmallows would be sufficient to hold an anvil onto the side of a cliff...

New thing....

For any of you out there who are interested there is a new set of coins that are going to be soon released from the U.S. Mint. They are starting a new series, rather like the 50 State Quarters Program this new one is the Presidential $1 coin Program. Four of them released each year starting in 2007 they are planing on having one for each president. I think it sounds really cool, but then I do love collecting coins...

A suggestion

Fascinating! I was just assigned to complete what my Writing Teacher called The Myers-Briggs Personality test. I found it here and here . I was a ISTJ on the first link and an ISFJ on the second.... I would love to here what you get.

On editing

It' s fun!
Sarah Em and I have now been editing The List of Names for quite some time. I just finished the first editing of the 20th letter (my tenth). Awhile ago I changed Sarah for us to get the first editing of The List of Names done by Christmas. If we work really hard we should be able to do it, but we still have 52 letters to do. However, the farther we get into the story the faster it should go since we will have less we have to change (since we had more of an idea as to what we were doing) that is until Sarah's second to last letter(i think) where two people die who we later decided had to live...
I shall be sure to keep you posted.

Lincoln Drive

This is a poem that I wrote while driving on Lincoln Drive. I hope you like it, and would love to hear what you think...

Willows weep the tears of the world,
Along a winding avenue of fire.
Diamonds sparkle on the river,
Passing glades glow with golden light.
Huge gray-stone arches span the drive,
A tree with leaves like chocolate.
Can we make time for nature?
Can we make time for God?

Glowing trees and fiery reflections
Water rushing form the hillside,
Trees like burning brands,
Bushes green, but touched with crimson,
Stone arches skip across the river.
A gushing river, a crashing waterfall.
Can we make time for nature?
Can we make time for God?

Grant, Send, and Aid

Well, after all, this blog is for my thoughts....

Grant me passion,
Grant me suffering,
Grant me joy
And grant me pain.

Send me forth,
Send me to you,
Send me searching,
And send me help.

Aid me to know,
Aid me to laugh,
Aid me to cry,
And aid me to find you.

Opera!

I went to see the Last Dress Rehearsal of La Boheme (the first 'e' is supposed to have a little thingummy above it.) It was quiet good despite several drawbacks. One was that Sarah Em and I were sitting directly in front of a very badly behaved set of school children, but we were sitting only about five rows from the stage so it sort of equaled out.

The other major problem was the Sarah Em and I had a tendency to laugh (mostly silently) through all the love scenes. Indeed, if it had been a real performance I think that Sarah Em and I would have (at Dorothy Sayers puts it) "disgraced ourselves very badly." The problem that Sarah and I were having was that though the lines sounded great in Italian the English translations were phrased in such a way that it sounded very much like something one of our worst characters would say. It really didn't help that the singer looked quite a lot like Sylvester as well. Now, Sylvester Chesterton is not a good person to the connected to or with. He writes a good amount of what Sarah Em calls "drivel". Since the Opera was slightly better than what Sylvester writes we decided to give it the title "Passionate drivel."So, overall it was very good. Despite having to yell during all the breaks because every one else was....

Wildlife... and the not so lively wild

CRICKETS! Well, we all know the trials of those little bundles of noise and hop. They aren't loud during the day, but if you happen to wake up at a reasonable time (something I do not always manage) you will find an entire choir (with the exception of Bellaire's bunch who are more like a jazz band) all ready to serenade (or blast) you through your breakfast. One of them (and a very large one at that) has been walking (yes I DO mean walking, have you ever seen a cricket walk? It is a rather sad yet highly amusing sight) around out basement. Which just happens to be where I spend most of my time. Ah, wildlife!Our cat, Biscuit, has gotten serious about catching her own food. Oh, she still shows up outside the back door and yowls for her canned tuna, but in the last several days we have found no less than THREE squirrel tails in out yard. So that is the not so lively wild...

Ramblings

Well, I am back. I wasn't really gone, just really busy. I learned this weekend that I share my Birthday with Camille Saint-Saens (a Composer) and John Lennon (Beatles (is that spelled right?)), as well as with three people at Tenth. it was very odd.

Did you know that music can be inductive to creativity? While at a concert I wrote five pages of my story in about two hours.

On the way to the said concert we saw a football teem, all between 9-12 (about) standing in the downpour. It was so sad...

And now, I have rambled for a bit and I am going now, this is the end, I'm leaving, Goodbye...So sorry, I got pulled into a quote...

A random thing that made me laugh
And I hope that it will make you laugh as well. Tenth's Choir Directer sometimes writes poetry other than Hymns. He wrote one for Christmas, which I will undoubtedly post nearer to that time. But now he has graced us with yet another of his poems.

Written by Paul Jones to honor Bruce McDowell and Phil Ryken on reaching their 50th and 40th birthdays.
A rumor's been heard in our halls
And through Tenth's innermost walls-
It seems that among us,
With no lack of ruckus,
"Birthdays 'r Us"-hit the malls!

Forty years old now is Phil.
He's officially "over the hill."
But few have writ' more
Than he in two score
With so much panache and great skill.

With six parishes under his care
And pastoral needs everywhere
'Twixt time on his knees
He's still able to squeeze, in
Some board games and Cardinals' fare.

At fifty is our good friend Bruce,
He's older than Bullwinkle Moose.
With five decades done
He's still on the run
And often seen bounding up Spruce.

Among his most obvious features
A moustache that may hide small creatures,
But everyone knows
That wherever Bruce goes
He's loved by both converts and preachers.

The two men oft' travel the earth
From pulpit to living room hearth
Turkey, Columbia,The cape of South Africa,
Of teaching and missions, no dearth.

The "Birthday song" seems a bit trite,
(The short version's also not right);
This requires a toast
In which we can boast
Of the grace God bestows 'midst the fight.

Therefore, today from Tenth's tribe,
To God, our due thanks we ascribe,
For brothers now older,
Whose service is bolder,
And so "to their health," we imbibe!

Semper reformanda!

Triumph!

Well, I have managed it at last! While lunch at school today Laura was reading The List of Names... At a certain point while reading one of my letters she shrieked, really she did, and whacked the book. Then turning to me she was like "How! How can you do that! How can she do THAT!"It was really quite satisfying.....Today also is the day that the first person (other than Sarah Em and I) has finished reading The List of Names...

It's a Small World.... Smaller than I had thought

Yesterday I posted about the shooting at the Amish school. It said it was strange to know that I saw one of the helicopters that took some of the girls shot to the hospital. It truly seemed strange to have been so close to something that made headline news. Hover, this News Item has gotten even closer. On NPR (National Public Radio) there was an blurb on the shooting. You can listen to it here if you wish.It tells of how, despite shunning most modern conveniences the Amish have rather taken to the idea of Mental Health. A Mental Health team was sent to the aria of the shooting, by Phil-haven, a Mental Health institution. It has recently built a 16 person lodging on its grounds that meets the standers of Amish living. It just happens that my cousin Ben works specifically in that department because he has grown up around the Amish. There is a high possibility that he is working on cases that result from this incident.

Thoughts on a New Car

Here I am once again to speak (or rather type) about something random that you most likely don't care to much about.Daddy just recently bought a new car. Well, really the story starts back in July. In the beginning of July we bought a Green, Volkswagen Passat TDI. We really like the car and it has been a good replacement for the old blue Mercedes Wagon.Well, Daddy decided that he needed a new business car. After all his black Mercedes leaked whenever it rained. Then when it got warm it was rather like a sauna. So, he snooped around on the Internet and after a lot of looking decided to by yet another Volkswagen Passat TDI. As I said, we are very pleased with them. However, the one that he finally bought is also green. So now, sitting is our front yard are not one, but TWO, Green Volkswagen Passat TDI cars. It is quiet funny. They look identical and from far away the only way you can tell the difference is by the hubcaps.I don't know about you, but I find it highly amusing....

Library and things....

Mom and I walked to the Library today. It was very nice because now I have books to read. Given, I don't really have that much time to read them in, but now that I have dropped chemistry I think that I shall have a bit more time. At least I will until My teachers at Westminster (my co-op) start giving me larger amounts of school work. Sigh...Well, since this post is supposed to be about going to the library I really should tell you what I got out. I got out four books all of which I have read before. And I would recommend all of them to you as very, very, good reads.Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (number 3 in the Artemis Fowl series)Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (number 4 in the Artemis Fowl series)Dealing with Dragons (number 1 in the Enchanted Forest chronicles)Book of Enchantment

Wondering..... And Saddened

What are we meant to think when something that we think is completely safe and peaceful is suddenly ripped open? It is even more startling when you realize that it was closer to you than you first thought.The big news on every News Station is the School Shooting at an Amish one room school house. In Lancaster. I man shooed all the boys out and blockading himself inside, shot all the girls. Seven of them have been hospitalized.I have grown up driving the two hour drive up to Lancaster PA. It has been a regular thing for me and I am used the the peaceful views of cornfields, and Amish farmers. I have been in Amish stores. Why any one would do such a thing is incomprehensible.It makes it all the more real for me because it is not just a news item. I had a doctor's appointment today and while mom and I were driving I looked up and seeing a helicopter said, "It's going to C.H.O.P.?" I saw that it was blue and wight. Later, at about 3:45, I was myself at C.H.O.P. for a short time. Thins evening while watching a bit of the news with Daddy I learned that three of the girls were in-fact flown to C.H.O.P. and the news program showed a picture of a helicopter. It two was blue and wight.

On Novel Writing...

I don't think that it has really hit me yet. Sarah Em and I have actually managed to finish writing a novel. Well, really if we go by some information that we found online our story really counts as an Epic. That's wright, an epic!135,989 Words341 Pages3,401 Paragraphs576,418 Characters (no spaces)!If you are at all observant you may gather from that rather odd list of random numbers that I just rattled off that I am a bit excited! Ant that is completely unedited!!!!!!!The List of Names: A Most Singular Story of Magic As Told By Two Young Ladies of High Quality In This Exhaustively Researched Collection of Letters Written Jointly by Annora Rosalind Bellfast And Darya Demetria Viscardi And Brought to Our Attention So As to Make This Tale Known to the General Public Be Ye of the Magical World or OtherwiseYes, that IS really the title. I know that it is completely mad but that is the title and I doubt it will ever be changed, because we love it! And we Love the story as well. We have decided that we love our Characters (Darya and Annora, or Tria and Ani if you will) far too much to simply give them up after only one bout of writing them. Therefore, we shall be starting a new story as soon as we finish editing this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Editing it is going to take FOREVER! Specially since Sarah Em and I have to fit it in around School. I have however found that spending a good solid amount of time studying about World War One (or in-fact any other School Topic) helps get the Creative Juices flowing...

Random reflections from a Sunday afternoon

This world never ceases to amaze me. There are always things to look at and strange things that you end up seeing. But there are also things that are not what you see every day. Here are just some of my random observations from this Sunday afternoon.A Basset Hound puppy that managed to step on its ear while being walked.35 first through third graders being able to supply words for the teacher for the hymn Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.A man managing to walk in more or less a straight line while listening to music in headphones, and reading a magazine.22 second and third graders standing in a circle while being perfectly silent.A teacher trying (and mostly succeeding) it teach second and third graders how to breath properly for singing but using a large, expandable, plastic, ball.My very first choir director Paul Reece (who is also working at Schola Cantorum this year) standing in the middle of the street with a very, very, very, very orange crossing guard vest on with one hand up stopping to traffic so that the children can cross over to Tenth.Well, that is all for now.