A Different Drum Beat

Reading list

2012-01-31T06:00:00.001-05:00

I love to read. I have always made time for reading that wasn't related to my course work, so even when i was in school i was reading Hobs, Tolkien, Lewis, Ende, Homer, Shakespeare. I found that it helped my brain process the important material, plus it made for great material to add to papers. (my final philosophy paper was about how the Chronicles of Narnia can combat Atheism and support the christian religious experiences.) So I read a lot. I also have a job where I spend most of my day listening to pod casts and audio books. thus my reading has increased tremendously. several of my friends have posted on facebook that they are going to read x number of books. I don't really make goals based on numbers, but rather on books that I know I want to read. so here is a break down of my reading list this year:

Current Reads:
Silmarilion (almost done with it but it will count towards this year's book count) the starter, The Canterbury tales, From Homer to Harry Potter, Interesting Times, The Neverending Story,

Future reads:

Fiction:
The hobbit,
The untold tales (at least for the story that will be coming into play for the movie the hobbit)
The Lord of the rings (which i will count as three books)
all Seven Chronicles of Narnia
All of George MacDonald's Books Starting with the Goblin and the Princes.
at least three Shakespearean plays that I have not yet read
One Dickens' novel that I haven't read yet,
Northanger Abbey By Jane Austen
I plan to listen to these books one right after another in this order: Les Miserables, The tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Pimpernel,
The Screwtape letters
Utopia
The Golden fool

Non-fiction
the beauty of the infinite
writing for the soul
the Abolition of man
The Republic
The politic
The Narnian Code
Exploring the Hobbit

With Greg
Clash of Kings
Moving Pictures
Men at arms.

I am sure that not all of these will get read, I am sure there will new books added, but right now this is the list of books I want to read this year.

The Iliad: Messianic Message Part Two Briseis

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

So Like I said last week there was one other women I wanted to look at when it came to where or not the Iliad has a messianic message. Her name is Briseis. she was just a normal women till one day the Greeks came killed her family and husband. she was then given to Achilles. Now in the Iliad it is mentioned that she might love Achilles, but at the same she was a prisoner of war, a prize I hardly think it would have mattered one bit if she loved him or not. Their relationship is compared to that of Helen and Menelaus which is why the Greeks are camped on the shores sieging Troy. Oh and let me add Achilles killed Briseis' family, I think lust, possession, and survival had more to do with both these relationships then what we would hold up as true love.

Any way so there was another girl who was taken during this particular pillaging her name is Chryseis she was given to Agamemnon as his prize after the battle. but she has someone who cares about her and pleads with the God Apollo to strike the Greeks for taking his daughter. -if anything this could be where the messianic story could be...kind of. Well Apollo decides to listen to his priest, the Greeks get hit by a plague and so Chryseis is sent back to her father.

Now this is where things get interesting. See Agamemnon doesn't think it is right that Achilles have a prize form the battle when he doesn't have a girl to keep his bed warm. So what does he do? Well he is in charge so he takes Achilles' prize. and Achilles whines like a baby to his mommy and refuses to fight in the battle till Agamemnon gives him back his prize. Sounds a bit more like a mixture of wounded pride and boy getting his toy truck stolen by the bully on the play ground then a great and mighty warrior who has come to Troy to killed honorably in battle.

This is the event which sets up the rest of the book. If Achilles wasn't so worried about his own wounded pride then the book would have ended much differently. here is the thing Achilles doesn't start fighting again when he is given the girl back, he is, he starts fighting again because his beloved friend was killed. His friend was killed because Achilles did the dishonorable thing and stayed out of battle. he acted the part of a coward and no longer deserved the prize he had been give. Briseis is the catalyst for Achilles' dishonorable actions, he does the right thing only after Patrolclus gets killed in battle. But that will be the topic for next weeks post.

This weeks post is shorter but hopefully it gets the point across. Briseis is stolen from her family, then as a prize she is passed from one man to another, then back to the first. She is little more then a symbol of the power of the man she is given to. Achilles is not her Messiah, she is not his messiah figure. Instead this relationship reflects poorly on Achilles by wounding his pride and leading him to act with dishonor rather then with honor. If anything this once again points out that the world is a terrible place where the weak are ruled and used by the strong and there is no one who will help the cause of the weak. It is better to be part of the strong.

Real quick note about Chryseis, she is stolen from her family too, but her father is still alive. he begs for her to be given back. but according to the laws of war in the ancient time there is no reason that the Greeks should give up any of their prizes. Luckily this man has someone to go to for help, a god. this could be your messianic message but it is such a minor part of the story that it can hardly be concidered a theme of the book. Better the theme that is here that gets repeated through out the book is be careful what gods are on your side and also do your best to not piss off any of them.

Simple women's Daybook 3

2012-01-28T13:07:00.001-05:00

FOR TODAY January 28, 2012

Outside my window...The sun is Shining, at least that is something good about this not winter but not yet spring time. but still I am tired of this strange season.

I am thinking...my to do list for the day. Like most mornings, particularly on Saturdays, I spend time thinking about what needs to get done, what is happening and what I want to do. I also spent much of my walk thinking and praying for one of my online friends. She is a sweet heart who i think could just use a little extra pray cover. you can read her story here. If you are the praying kind keep her, her husband and her unborn child in your prayers.

I am thankful...For time spent with friends. we had the Alexanders over for dinner on Thursday and had Daniel and the Sutter's over last night for game night, I still can't believe we had 7 critical hits last night!

In the kitchen... lots of fun stuff happened this week, a new cookie recipe -butterscotch chip had to make a few adjustments but they turned out tasty. Greg did something with chicken in the crock pot. plus some great beef curry.

I am wearing... Pajamas,yeah, that is how Saturdays work. Even if I did take the time to get dressed to go for a walk.

I am creating... Finished editing act two of the Alchemist Daughter. and I cast on the first of my Christmas presents. I'm thinking about putting together a box of different knit items for my sisters to pick from.

I am going... I think I will be going anywhere today, it's going to be a day of staying and getting the house put together. game night left the house a bit of a mess, and the priest is coming by today to bless the house.

I am wondering...

I am reading... First off I finished the Inheritance last week. yipee! so my current list is 1. The Neverending story, 2.Simarillion (one chapters left!!!! just have the war of the ring to read and then it is done) 3. The Canterbury Tales, 4. Eric which i am reading with Greg, 5. From Homer to Harry Potter 6. The All Pro.

I am hoping... to get all next weeks posts written today or at least the Never ending story posts. I hate that i haven't gotten them done, though i might have to crawl back into bed, my body is starting to be mean to me again.

I am looking forward to...Spring coming.

Around the house... battle mat and minis

I am pondering... what would the world be like if suddenly it became flat.

A favorite quote for today... "but i though we were getting paid to kill someone what needed killin'"

One of my favorite things... warm baths.

A few plans for the rest of the week: pretty blah week. I think the St. Adian's girls night might be coming up this week.

A peek into my day... Much the same as last week.

You can find more daybooks at Simple Woman's Daybook.

Thankful Thursday 3

2012-01-26T07:39:00.002-05:00

(Grrrrrrr thwarted again about my Neverending Story post...)

any way this week I am thankful for:
1.Strangers who help. on Monday I got a flat tire, luckily I made it to a gas station before it went flat, an older gentlemen and his wife came over to help me, which is good because while I am sure I could figure out how to put on the spare I've never done it before.
2, Ballet and Modern Class. Am I crazy for taking these two classes back to back? Yes, but it works and I love the classes.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful

Colossians 3:15

On the needles

2012-01-24T04:00:00.000-05:00

Awe so there is so much to talk about here. Just got to say, I have had yarn purchases, Needle purchases, gifts, new projects on the needles and even a few finished projects.

Lets start with projects that I have finished: (pictures with captions)

Baby hats the blue one is for Chalise's new boy
and the rainbow is for Heather's new baby

Dish cloths for Amanda, I finished the
ones for Jordan, and Need to get done
two more for Laura.

This is my selfish knit
I used a pattern from my stitch dictionary
when the pattern I had picked out
didn't work out so well.

That means that I am almost caught up with the things I needed to get done. Gifts for the cousins who got married, and two new little babies on the way. So that makes me happy and I can move on to working on other projects. (as if having stuff on the needles ever stopped me from casting on more projects.)

As for new Yarn there is a lot of it. (pictures with captions)

My magpie bye, I love the color
but I have no idea what I will do with it
It's Wool of the Andes Bulky Hand Died Yarn
and the color is called Sweet Shoppe
Any Suggestions?

This is going to end up as the
Morning Velvet Cardigan
it is all Wool of the Andes Tonal
The Really dark one is called Nevermore
The red is called Wine Tasting
The light blue is Blue Violet
and the grey is called Thunderhead

I bought this a while ago but didn't
post anything about it
it will someday be a hoody
it is Swish worsted weight
Bark and Cornmeal

and some other purchases:

My first set of harmony needles from Knitpicks
and a Shawl pin for my very short scarf

and a gift. My mother-in-law gave me this set of interchangeable circle needles that she had bought but didn't like.

Oh my stash has grown...but there is good news and it is called Stash bust army!!!!

well not really but this yarn has been in my stash for a long time:

I love this yarn black

and I am going to turn it into this:

Knitty's SkyIsle Cardigan

I don't have a secondary color yet but it will be a while before I get there. I know this yarn was meant to be used for a blanket but i con't get into a black blanket. i hope the person who gave me this yarn wont mind that i have changed the destination of this yarn.

as for my que, well it has grown, Not only am I once again going to try and knit Christmas gifts for everyone in my family. as well as dish cloths for any weddings in the family and baby hats for every baby this year. but I also planning on knitting my husband some socks, and right now i have the yarn for these two projects:

The Morning Velvet from this season's Knitty. I will be using that lovely yarn I got from knit picks thanks to a gift certificate from my mother in law.

The Let it Flow Vest from Creative Knits. Right now i am planing on using some more yarn from my stash. again yarn that was supposed to become a blanket but i just couldn't get the feel of it as a blanket. I'll talk about it more when it get's cast on.

And yes these are both selfish knits.

The Iliad-Messiah Message? part 1 Helen of Troy

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I would like to talk about Homer's The Iliad. Last year I listened to The Iliad followed by the Odyssey, Followed by the Aeneid. Now The Iliad I remember better because I have read it at least twice, and what I want to talk about is whether or not it follows something my cousin Turner said as a reply on his wife's blog post about Literature. This is what he said:

Throughout history, the best loved and followed stories have always either been allegorical for 1 of 2 stories; Jesus Christ the Messiah or The Holy Grail.

We discussed this for a little (and I mean a little bit) before he basically said 'Meh I'm right, you are just silly.' that is not a direct quote but that was I got out of what he said. I think because one of his examples was Disney that he believes that the Messiah story was that there was someone who was being held against their will and a savior had to go and save that person. he also said that his belief was that the Holy grail was really Royal blood, but that argument is for another day after I have actually read the grail and Authorial Narratives.

Now I want to continue the argument in saying that the Iliad does not propagate the Messiah story, or rather that it tells an anti messiah story. (I don't know if Turner reads my blog, I think his wife does so this could be a very one sided but hey. Oh and Turner if you do stop by I would love to hear your thoughts.)

So what I am going to do is use the story of Hosea as a general guide for a messiah story. just to summarize, Hosea is a prophet who is told by God to go and marry a prostitute, and he is told that she will be unfaithful to him. and she does, at one point Hosea has to go to the slave market and buy her back. This story is meant to be an allegory, Hosea is playing the part of God and his wife -Gomer, what an unfortunet name-is playing the par of God's people.

Now when looking at the Iliad, at first glance I would say there is nothing in this book that has those themes. the book is focused on a war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Particularly about one very famous hero Achilles, his fight against the Mighty Hector, and how he earned honor, glory, renowned, and immortality. And those things are very important because that is what the book is about. Oh and I will talk about that next week. but this week I am going to talk about two minor stories that are either back story to the text or motivation for why things happen in the book the way they do.

First we are going to talk about Helen of Troy. because I think this is the first place someone could go if they wanted to say that the Iliad has Messianic themes. Helen is the wife of Menelaus, She is whisked away by Pairs of troy, and Menelaus takes an army to Troy to get her back, to destroy Troy for daring to steal his wife. This would seem to fit the story. a good man who has taken a beautiful wife who is tempted to run away with someone else and her husband comes after her. That is the story of Hosea right?

But lets take a closer look. Do you know how Helen became Menelaus's wife? well that depends on what story you want to believe. According to my good buddy the Myth Man She was abducted at the age of twelve by Theseus and his pal Peirithous. At age twelve! they then did a little coin toss to find out which one of them was going to be the lucky guy to marry her, when she comes of age of course. But Thesesus and Peirithous went missing with enough time for her brothers to rescue her. Now safe in her father's house the suitors come a calling. they are all enamored over her legendary beauty and are willing to fight and kill over her. Luckily for everyone involved, Odysseus comes up with a great plan, all the suitors will take the Oath of Tyndareus, which says that they will defend to the death whoever becomes Helen's husband. And with that the auction is opened. Menelaus wins, he pays the check to her father and takes her home.

There is a great moment in the movie Helen of Troy that I think sums up Menelaus's feelings for his new bride. At a great feast he orders her to walk across a table where all his guests are lounging bare breast naked. his guests are the suitors who loss, and I believe in the movie this is where Paris sees Helen for the first time-but I don't quite remember. Now up to this point I would be willing to agree that possibly the Iliad could have this messianic theme of the Rescuer coming after his love but here is where it all breaks down. In the prophets we often here about God refer to Israel as his lover, whom he clothed and protected, who is precious to him. Menelaus shows us the opposition here. She is his possession, he won and all his piers lost, now he must show them what they are all missing out on. He strips and parades her around saying "look what I got, isn't she pretty? and she is all mine, my beautiful trophy, look don't touch guys."

I chose this because Orlando is
probably the most hansom
Paris there has ever been

But then Paris comes along. Now Maybe we could say that Paris is the Messiah figure he loves Helen and is willing to risk the destruction of his city and country for her. Or is he just one more man who must possess her no matter what the cost? Let me ask you how did Paris come to have Helen? Oh yeah, Aphrodite gave her to him.

You know the story right? how Paris has to judge who is the most beautiful of the three goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. How does a mortal choose? by hearing what he gets out of it, and Aphrodite told him he could have the most beautiful women in the whole world if he said that she was the most beautiful of them all. What do you think he did? Yep you guessed it. So Aphrodite made it so Helen agreed to run away with Paris. Truly I don't know why you wouldn't take the first opportunity to run away from a husband like Menelaus.

But is Paris her messiah, is he the one she loves? A moment from the Iliad would say otherwise, after Paris has run like a whiny baby back to his room she tells him he is a coward- quite a low blow considering the book is about honor and glory through battle. but he tells her to shut up and lie down on the bed with him. Another lover who values her only for her looks, a prize, a trophy.

Helen's fate is a confused. one it seems that many authors have continued this idea that she is continually abducted by strangers, Before she is killed by a slighted wife. another say that she is put into captivity with the other women taken from troy. Virgil's the Aeneid claims that she assisted the Greeks in their taking of the city, while homer claims that she tortures the men hiding inside the horse by mimicking their wives voices.

So does Helen provide the the themes needed for a messiah story as my cousin would claim is in every book? there are two ways you can look at it. lets say that Menelaus is the Rescuer. his wife was after all spirited away from him. And he goes to war to get her back...or does he? More likely he is going to war to avenge his wounded pride. Helen is just the symbol of that pride. Is Pairs the Rescuer? I mean the Movie Troy portrayed them as to lovers who happened to be caught in the middle of a terrible set of circumstances. In that case he is a lousy rescuer, troy falls and he dies in battle leaving her to go back to the hell she he rescued her from.

This is why I say this is an Anti-messiah story. The messiahs who are available are selfish men who abuse the one they abducted. Helen was only safe when she was a child. From then on she is at the mercy of the men who lay claim to her and the gods. She has no knight in shining armor to rescue her only to accept her fate. if anything this story reminds women that they need to be self reliant because no one will be there when they are in need.

The thing is, all this is back story to the Iliad, it is not what the Iliad is about, but I'll talk about that eventually. next I must look at a second women who is tied up in this mess.

Simple Women's Daybook 2

2012-01-21T13:25:00.001-05:00

FOR TODAY January 21, 2012

Outside my window...Dreary wintry day with no snow and green grass it looks like the part of spring that i most hate, or the part of fall that I most hate, that in between season time when it is not spring, not fall, not winter and not summer. (though the time between fall summer and spring is not as recognizable as the time between fall winter and spring.)

I am thinking... about all the things I have to do today. you kn ow like balance the check book clean house, write draw, knit...so many things.

I am thankful... Ballet class (even though it kicks my butt), Blogging friends, French toast, Comics, and friends and family.

In the kitchen... French toast, eggs, a new recipe for Butterscotch Cookies, and the *sniff* last of the holiday creamers for coffee. it wont be till thanksgiving that the good coffees show back up. *tear*

I am wearing... Pajamas, what? just because it is almost 1:00 doesn't mean that I should be up bright eyed and Bushy tailed. Saturdays are for sleeping in! don't judge me!

I am creating... Lots and lots of stuff, I'll talk about the knitting stuff latter this week, and I am working on those three stories that i talked about back two weeks ago. I think i might be getting somewhere with the Alchemist's Daughters. Not sure yet though.

I am going... No where today, hopefully for a walk latter this afternoon. I like walks.

I am wondering... whether or not to watch Saturday morning cartoons, I have Netflix and a lot of the cartoons i watched in college are on there, maybe i am just feeling nostalgic, or I have been listening to too many comic pod casts.

I am reading...1. The Neverending story, 2. The Inheratance (I need to finish this today because It has to go back to the library) 3. Simarillion (two chapters left!!!! just have the fall of Numanor and the war of the rings! So excited!) 4. The Canterbury Tales, 5. Eric - Greg and I have taken a brake from Interesting Times to read Eric,- 6. From Homer to Harry Potter (this one is one the back burner) 7. The All Pro.

I am hoping... to get all next weeks posts written today... yeah I know I'm crazy but I can dream right?

I am looking forward to... Sharon's 31 party, I have never been to one before

I am learning... Not to breath and drink coffee at the same time, it has very embarrassing conciseness. *cough, hack, cough*

Around the house... Stuff, christmas is down and in boxes which need to go out to the shed.

I am pondering... what I can do to may my book better, and what advise to give my friend to make her book better.

A favorite quote for today... "Some times you feel like a nut."

One of my favorite things... Christmas flavored creamers. *sniff sniff*

A few plans for the rest of the week: Well I have the 31 party tomorrow, ballet on Wednesday, and game on Friday. not to packed of a week.

A peek into my day... it is not exciting in anyway, cleaning, writing, organizing, balancing. nope nothing exciting at all.

You can find more daybooks at Simple Woman's Daybook.

Thankful Thursday 2

2012-01-19T08:36:00.000-05:00

It has been a long week and I am sorry I didn't get the next part of the Never ending story up. I've had some problems with the regulation of my time. my lunch breaks this week have been filled with stuff. and I keep getting distracted. And on that note I am going to take to day and express my thanks for several friends on the inter-webs that I would not still be in contact with or would never have met without the internet.

1. Liz Stewart (Bowel of Stew(art)) Liz is one of my friends from College, and I am afraid if it wasn't for her blog and the fact that i also blog I wouldn't be in contact with her. we were good friends in college and we still remain good friends. I love her blog where she brightens up my day and has always been an encouragement during NanoWrimo. She has given me several ideas which have come onto my blog. whether she is sharing a discussion she had with Favorite Athiest or talking about her struggles to keep her house clean and eat right or just talking about her cats Inu and Kima. (I believe that Inu is Japeness for Dog) she is always a treat to read.

2. Stephanie (Ward) Perry (Mother am I) One of my best friends form college. she has only reasently revived her blog, and I missed her! now she blogs about her knitting, and spinning and her kids. one of who i have never met and Hana I haven't seen sense she was little little. Steph and I have a history, we went through a lot in College, so I am very glad that thanks to the inter-webs we are still in touch.

3. Matthew Rose (The Matthew Never Knew) I'm going to take this moment and say a huge welcome back Matt!!!!!!! I have missed this guy. he is funny and smart. at his blog he blogs about stuff he likes in pop culture -including a huge series about the Gilmore Girls- about theology and different passages he is preaching on. I am so glad he is back!

4. Darci Cole (Page Traveler Tales) this is a Cousin-in-law that I have really wanted to get to know better. Sadly distance and other things have made it very difficult for us to hang out. but thanks to her blog I get to be a part of her life and hear about her son and husband. sometimes she can get a little cheesy, but I love hearing about her life and helping her with her writing. She helps me become a better writer.

5. Ames (My Infernal Journel, and Chapterhouse Lane) I met this chick through Darci. I don't know if she likes that I lurk around her blogs, but that is how it goes. her personal journal is a fun place to stop by and hear about how her life is going. what I really enjoy is Chapterhouse where she 'publishes' her books. Sometimes they are good stories and sometimes not as much but I admire her for putting her stuff out there and letting people read through it. I've always been very self conscious of my own work which is why very few people have seen it. I hope to make that change but right now I have to give her props. even if some times i get a little harsh in my critic of her stuff, I really do admire her for taking the critics.

well those are the bloggers I am thankful for. Love you all!

Let the peace of Christ Rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be Thankful

Colossians 3:15

From the Art Desk 1

2012-01-17T18:18:00.001-05:00

I haven't done much in the way of drawing sense November. I did get working on a couple of things but I didn't have time to take pictures and things aren't done yet either.

I used to draw a lot. I went through periods where i would get an idea for a drawing and draw it. sometimes putting it aside if it didn't meet my expectations. these days I haven't been drawing as much. I have't been motivated enough. I mean I have a huge project for the church sitting on my table that is getting no where. which i think might be part of the problem.

It is too big a project, I can't just sit down and draw, it is elaborate and then there is the small problem that I think I lost the Icon I was supposed to paint it on. really this area of my talents has been disappointing me a lot.

it has been very discouraging. the last time I worked at my art desk I thought everything was going great but then by the end of it i had erased all that I had done. Dejected I turned off the light and came out to watch what ever football game happened to be on. and I haven't been back in the art room sense.

It think there are two problems I am dealing with, no maybe three:

1. every project I am currently working on is a figure drawing of some kind. I'm out of practice on these and probably need to mix up my work some. Perhaps a wildlife drawing, or a landscape, or even a good old fashioned still life. Maybe I should try to set up a very simple still life for an excessive, I mean that is some of the first things you do in art classes right? I like having multiple projects going on my needles and I never have only one story I am working on, maybe some variety will help me to get back in the grove of things.

2. I really miss the community I used to do art in. my art class was a loud and noisy place, where if you were stumped you could make the rounds and talk to everyone and look at how everyone else's project is going. and by the end there was either encouragement or challenge to help you press on through the difficult parts. then there was also any number of people who came up to look at how your project was going and offer advice about a difficult place.

3. well this is embarrassing. I was going to sight a video that my cousin Draci posted on her blog but i can't find it. basically the gist of this problem is that I have good taste, I know what I want my work to look like but I am not at that level of ability. the video she posted talks about this and I thought it put the issue in a much better way then I can. any way i am at a point where I can keep working on it or you know just give up.

So I have possibly identified the problem, now what am I going to do about it? Well I am going to take a break form the figures for a while. not completely mind you I wont get any better at them if i just switch gears. I am going to try to give myself some smaller projects, projects that can be finished and i can look at and say look I finished it I am not that bad of an artist. It's really all I can do right now. Not a great plan I know but at least it is something. To be More specific I am going to try to draw about two to three hours a week.

Neverending Story 2 Fantasitca in Danger

2012-01-15T19:41:00.001-05:00

In this chapter we get our first look at Fantastica, we meet four characters and with in only a few moments of exposition we know the plot of the story.

Fantastica as a world is vast, it is called unbounded and the people from every part of Fantastica are as different from each other as possible. we can see this very clearly in the first four characters we meet.

There is the bouncing ball of light that is Blubb the lost will-o-the-wisp, who is from Moldymoor near lake Froamingbroth. (by the way he is the first character to not make it to the movie.) also the giant Pyornkrackzark, the rock chewer (not biter) who is from the Cheesie-Wheezies -mountains that look like Swiss cheese do to the Rock Chewers eating them- which are inconceivably far from the howling forest where this little party is assembled. the fuzzy Caterpillar like Vooshvazool is a night-hob who's species is fairly widespread so they are found in any number of places in Fantasitca. And last but not least there is Gluckuk the Tiny who is from an entirely different part of the boundless Fantastican Empire, even farther then the rock chewer. these four characters show us that fantastica is made up of many wonderful, strange things. But just how overwhelming the diversity of fantastica is comes from the stables of the Ivory tower. Here is the description:

"In this stable there were many other mounts; two elephants, one pink and one blue, a gigantic griffon with the forequarters of an eagle and the hindquarters of a lion, a winged horse, whose name was once known even outside of Fantastica but is now forgotten, several flying dogs, a few other bats, and several dragonflies and butterflies for especially small riders. In other stables there were still other mounts, which didn't fly but ran, crawled, hopped, or swam."

Fantasitca is indeed a place with many divers creatures.

Now before we get to the Ivory Tower itself I'd like to take a moment to talk about Bastian. we never leave Bastian behind. it is one of the particular features of this book. we get Bastian's thoughts and actions and even some of his interruptions though out the first half of the story. just as the small party divides each believing the others in he party will slow them down in their hurry to get to the Ivory tower the school bell rings. here we see how Bastian views his world, Humdrum, dull where the writer is almost always trying to convince him of something. He doesn't like reading his school books because he get enough of the humdrum events in the very humdrum lives of humdrum people from living in reality. Bastian believes that the only thing he is good at is imagining things, he can see and hear the characters and their environmental. he counts himself lucky that he is up in the attic reading the perfect book for him while his classmates are studying nature by counting pistils and stamens. this is of course one of the reasons this book is my favorite, I too have the feeling that I get enough of real life in well real life. But back to the story.

For Bastian the world is dull. and his teachers teach dull subjects. it is interesting that it is a science class which focuses on the material world. this is going to be important as the story goes on. Because soon we will find out just how important an imagination is. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I hate to use the movie concept of this,
cause it is just not right.

on to the Ivory Tower, which is not really a tower, it is a big as a city and looks more like a Mountain peak twisted like a Snail Shell. it is made completely of the purest white Ivory, every wall is decorated by carvings that are so delicate that they revel the finest lace. This is the center of Fantastica, the home of the childlike empress. It is her home but not her fortress. no one in all the unbounded world of Fantastica would ever think of attacking her.

But First, the Nothing. What is the Nothing? It is nothing. The movie that was made quite a long time ago now portrayed the nothing as a storm, clouds rolling in an aggressive and dangerous way. But it would seem that the nothing simply is nothing. where once there was something there is now nothing. as if you were suddenly blind but only in that one place where the nothing is. Blubb tells us that it would start with just a small chunk, no bigger then an egg, but it would grow. and if someone put something into the Nothing, like a hand or a foot, it would be gone. there would be no pain, but that part would be missing. he also adds:
"Some would even fall in on purpose if they got too close to the Nothing. It has an irresistible attraction-the bigger the place, the stronger the pull"
No one is safe, no one can explain it and most horrifying is that it would seem that people are willing to become part of it. but there is something more frightening that this little group of characters find out when they get to the Ivory Tower. Their hope is wrapped up in the Childlike Empress.

Only she can help them, and Gluckuk gives us the terrible news, the Childlike Empress is very very ill. Nobody knows what is wrong and all the doctors have been called to find a cure for what ever is causing her illness. but even at this point there is the though that what ever her illness is, it is connected to the strange calamity threatening to destroy Fantastica. But that is another story to be told at another time. this is the closing statement that is said when the characters leave the story to have their own adventures. I hope that doesn't break your heart too much, we will not see Blubb, Gluckuk, Vooshvazool, or Pyornkrachzark ever again.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

I'm sorry this came so late, it looks like I might not be as good at keeping this going as I was hoping but it is a new week and you might just get two more updates on this book before the end of the week. Again I ask if you my readers think that this post is too long?

Thankful Thursday 1

2012-01-12T08:03:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful that:
1. ballet has gotten started back up. I missed it and this year i am taking a second conditioning class. this means I will be in dance class from 5:00-7:30 any of my crazy fit persons have any suggestions for how to keep my body from rebelling for that 2 1/2 hour intensive exercise?

2. My Husband, Yes I am always thankful for my husband, the thing is that just about every week he reminds me why I married him or makes me wonder why he married me. I don't know how he puts up with my crazy, he is a God send. and Guess what... it'll be 1 year on Sunday! Crazy huh?

Now, Our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

1 Chronicles 29:13

The Neverending Story 1: Beginnings

2012-01-11T07:54:00.000-05:00

To start off: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, Copywrite 1979 in Germany-Die Unendliche Geschichte.

In the introduction we meet three characterless Bastian Balfizar Bux who is this story is about, Mr. Carl Conrad Coreander the grumpy old shop keeper, and the Neverending Story.

It will become clear as we continue through the story how the book is a character but what we want to focus on Bastian. we meet Bastian as he bursts into Mr. Coreanders shop because he was running from some bullies. it is very clear that Bastian is the kind of boy who would be the target of school yard bullies. He is fat, weakling, a scaredy cat, and ridiculed by his teachers. So this 9 to 12year old has no where to hide form those who ridicule him . his mother is dead and his father is detached form the world by his own grief.

Bastian's only refuge is books. books are his passion, he makes his own stories, with is own words and names. the world finds little value in him and he can't help but agree that he is a coward, and quite possibly a simpleton. it only makes sense that Bastian would find refuge form his tormentors in Mr. Coreander's shop.

See Mr. Coreander's Shop is an oasis surrounded by a grey noisy world. Here there is silence and books, mountains of books. books are the entry points to other worlds, So the book shop is a a magical borderland place. the smoke from Mr. Coreander's pipe wafts around the books like smoke signals. here Mr. Coriander is unaffected by the changes of the world outside. his primary concern is the books he is the keeper of. You can see this in his view of children, they are loud and most of all they destroy books with their jammy hands.

But there is magic in the book shop, as there always is in those places between what we will call the real realm and the realm of imagination. this magic is a magic that can only be felt by those who share Bastian's passion for books and stories. Bastian burst into the book store, and he is drawn to a very special book. To magic calls him and he knows that the book belongs to him.

...Bastian knew he couldn't leave without the book. it was clear to him that he had only come to the shop because of this book. it had called him in some mysterious way, because it wanted to be his, because it had some how always belonged to him...

This is the first time the book is given attributes, but make no mistake this is a magic book and it is calling for Bastian. it is like a Grimoire or and Artifact form some other place or time, completely other worldly. and just like any mystical artifact it seeks after the one who can use it.

But back to Bastian. He takes the book and runs out of the shop and into the real world. this is Bastian's wilderness. it is antagonistic towards him. now outside the safety of the book shop all his arguments seem to melt away, he is a thief, he can't go home what if the police come after him. with only his feet guiding him bastion finds himself at the school. he is very late so there is no one around and this gives him the idea for where he can sit and have his adventure with the book, the forgotten attic.

Now that is my name for it, it is just simply called the attic but is the place in the school where all things broken and out of date have been put to forget about. it is above the rest of the school and it has became a mystical boarder land place just like the book shop.

Bastian has begun his journey, he even already knows the book is connected to him even though he doesn't understand what that connection is. we will leave Bastian here today with this quote fro the text:

"I wonder,' he said to himself, "What's in a book while it's closed. Oh, I know it's full of letters printed on paper, but all the same, something must be happening, because as soon as i open it, there's a whole story with people I don't know yet and all kinds of adventures and deeds and battles. and sometimes there are storms at sea, or it take you to strange cities and countries. all those things are somehow shut up in a book. Of course you have to read it to find out. but it's already there, that's the funny thing. I just wish I knew how it could be."

Quick questions, how do you the reader feel about the length? I couldn't decide if it was too long on not for a single post, if you think it is too long let me know and I will change in the future so that it is two posts on a day instead of just one. Thanks for reading.

Out of the Note Book

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

I know I said I was going to talk about my what is coming from my art desk but right now I think I need to work on my writing and so this post is a mixture of an update on my writing and of me thinking though how to get to my goals for the year. My goal is that next January I will be looking for an agent. I have three pieces that I have been working on that I think I can finish if I work hard enough on them. Writing goals for this year. I want to get my three pieces done this year. Here is my to do list:

Book one: Alchemist Daughter

Write first draft,

Send off to Alpha readers

write second Draft

Send off to beta readers

Writer third Draft

Last send to readers

Final draft

Book two: Ashes and Snow-

Finish act 2 write

outline Act 3

write act 3

write first draft

send to Alpha readers

write second draft

send to Beta readers

write third Draft

last group of writers

final draft

Book three: Rescue-

Finish act 1

outline act 2

write act 2

outline act 3

write act 3

write first draft

send to alpha readers

write second draft

send to beta readers

write third draft

last send out

final draft.

Quick note the pictures are Images that I found to kind of give an feel for the story. If I was a better and quicker artist I would draw my own cover art any way.

I know that I can write 50,000 words in a month when I put my nose to the grind stone, and last November I did still have a life. So is it possible for me to write ~25,000 words a month? This of course would be about 300,000 words for the year. that is a lot of words. not as many as Scott Sigler is planing on writing this year (his goal is 1,000,000 words this year!), but he gets to be a full time writer. Now that works in one sense but I am wanting to do a lot of editing... and that is hard to judge by word count becomes sometimes during a successful editing session can leave you with less words then you started with. But I think I figured out during Nano that I could write about 1,000 words in an hour, so maybe I should just make it a goal of 25,000 words or 25 hours of editing or any mixture of the two which will add up to 25,000 words or 25 hours. Amy? Darcy? Liz? What do you think does that equivalent work? Oh and this doesn't count a project for Nanowrimo. I don't know am I crazy? eh let's see what happens come December. Okay thanks for hanging on though this long rambling post. I did the math and if I was to write or edit every day it would be 822 words a day or .822 hours a day. even though the year has already started I still think that would be less then 1,000 words or less then an hour of editing every day. crazy.

The Canterbury Tales 6: the Wife of Bath's Tale

2012-01-09T04:00:00.000-05:00

The next couple of weeks (at least) will be focused on the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I have listened to it in its entirety once and then when I was thinking about how to talk about them I decided to break it down into the individual tales and give a post of each one. I am going to limit my self to one post per story because some of them are so full of interesting things that I could post for a month and still have more to explore.

Bold was her face, and fair and red of hue.
She was a worthy woman all her live,
Husbands at the church door had she had five,
Withouten other company in youth;
But thereof needeth not to speak as nouth now
And thrice had she been at Jerusalem;
She hadde passed many a strange stream
At Rome she had been, and at Bologne,
In Galice at Saint James, and at Cologne;
She coude* much of wand'rng by the Way. knew
Gat-toothed was she, soothly for to say. Buck-toothed

So before I do my hundred word Summary of this one I want to talk about the Wife of Bath's prologue. this is the most confusing part of her story. her prologue is longer then her story. She establishes her self as an authority on marriage because she has been married five times, and she says quite frankly that she welcomes the sixth when ere he comes. now on the one hand I like this women she basically says you know what I like having sex, and I don't see why I shouldn't marry again. over and over I was surprised by how many references she made to antiquity. And I thought look here is a women who is well read... only to find out that she miss quotes the people and books she claims to be quoting which makes me sad.

apparently her prologue follows the style of a medieval genre of allegorical Confession. in this confession she admits and proudly defends that she is what the church at that time would call a wicked women. From the start she puts herself in conflict with the patriarchal society. Often, because of this, people look to this story as one of the first Feminist Stories but the problem with that is that the wife of Bath also confirms a number of the anti-marriage stereotypes, thus actually supporting the male dominant society.

one other thing about her prologue is that The Wife of Bath constantly calls attention to the fact that she is a habitual liar. So how can we trust anything that she has said in her prologue? In the end how much of her experiences should we believe? or was it all a performance?

Summary

Once there was aknight who raped a maiden and the Queen. she sent him out to find outwhat women want. He searched and found an old hag who gave him theanswer he needed for a price, when she saved his life he had to marryher, which he did. however on their wedding night he couldn't bringhimself to do his duty. Because she was so old and ugly. she gave himthe choice. either she would be old and loyal, or young andflirtatious. He gave her the choice and she became both young anddevoted.

SO you ask what is it that women want? The sovereignty. All worldly women most desire to have the sovereignty in their marriage. It makes sense in light of Genesis where it says your desire will be for your husband but he will rule over you. Also it makes sense in the light of the battle of the sexes which is always being pointed out to us. I'm just going to put this one up for discussion, is that what women want? is that what you want? I see my marriage as a partnership. we have different roles to play but my husband doesn't rule over me nor do I rule over him. but I am curious, readers what do you think?

the part of this story that I really liked was when the Fairy talks about how the age is a great protection for a man against becoming a cuckold- by the way an other awesome word, it is great word. she tells him 'oh you don't like me as an old women? are you not afraid to become a cuckold?' here we talk about the value of looks and the value of age. An old women has learned from experience, she now knows why she shouldn't be running around like a cat in heat. a young and beautiful women has many admirers, she is tempted and doesn't have the experiences to tell her why she shouldn't play around on her husband. it is like the fairy says 'look I can be what you want, I'll be pretty. You and your house will suffer because if you force me to become what you want I will act out, I will play in other men's beds. but if you are willing to accept me for who I am then I you will never have any worries.'

What is interesting is that he decided to learn from his lesson. he took a girl against her will and was in danger of death had it not been for this fairy, so he says,'well why don't you decide what is best.' giving her the sovereignty. knowing that he will not be a man to chase other women's skirts, that he is hers she then says, 'I will be to you both.' Because it is her choice. and then they lived happily ever after.

It is interesting to think about the association of age and youth. the miller's tale told us about the dangers of having a wife who is very young when compared to her husband, and there will be another tale that is similar. I wonder if it is simply a difference of experiences, the young don't want to believe that some experiences are not good and instead they believe the old are trying to steal some thing good from them. it is something to ponder. -I don't know maybe I am just rambling. But anyway I will leave you with the last lines from this story:

"And may Christ Jesus send us husbands meek and young and fresh abed. And then the grace to outlive those we wed; I also pray that Jesus shorten lives of those who won't be governed by their wives. As for old niggards angered by expense, God send them soon a mighty pestilence!"

Simple Woman's Daybook 1

2012-01-07T12:49:00.002-05:00

For Today: January 7, 2012Click here for more day books

Outside my window...I'm in my kitchen so out one window I see the out of control hedge which is an evergreen plant so that is nice. it is all ways nice to see a little green. out the other there are winter trees waiting to feel the shift in the earth when spring will come shining through. and there houses and telephone polls which all remind me that i live in much to dense an area for my true liking, but that is what this little barbarian has to deal with sense she left the empty mountains and married a rogue from the city.

I am thinking... about how glad I am that it is Saturday. and also about some of the world building of my top secret story project.-I hope for it to be six books long and it is my Magnom Ompus. I will be very hush hush about it because well i really want it to be a surprise and I don't know how long it will be before I actually get around to writing it. for now I just play with it. but here is a little taste, there are two kinds of magic stone magic and tree magic. Most anyone can who is bent that way can use tree magic but very very few people believe in stone magic.

I am thankful...For Epiphany. that was yesterday. we have now left Christmas Tide and move into the season of epiphany a time to think and reflect on the life of Christ. yesterday is also known as three kings day because it is the day traditionally when we recognize that kings from the east came and worship the lord as a very young child.

In the kitchen...remnants from last night, I do dishes in the morning so I haven't started them yet. but there is something very special Yingling Lager from New Jersey.

I am wearing... My favorite Lounge clothes, my purple PINK sweats and my purple camisole.

I am creating... Knitting: getting last year's Que cleaned out. so lots of dish cloths and baby hats that need to get made. Drawing I will talk about on Tuesday, and writing is just getting revved up for the new year.

I am going.. Go shopping with Lisa today. Our humble little ballet class has been incorporated into the the Academy so we now have to get our dance clothing up to the dress code.

I am wondering... if I can actually finish Inheritance this time around. I just got it again from the library hopefully I can get it read soon.

I am reading...The Inheritance by Christopher Paolini just restarted it on my walk home from the library. I have three chapters left of The Silmarillian by Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, I have given up on Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish it is too graphic, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse it did. it started out with the kind of sex and gore that is found in Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (which by the way Greg and I finely finished!) but then it took three steps farther and I decided that I didn't want my head filled with that kind of crap. seriously I thought The Other Boleyn Girl was bad, this was worse! What else, What else....Oh Yeah I am also reading From Homer to Harry by Dickerson and O'Hara, and The Neverending Story By Michel End. and Greg and I are rereading Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett. Oh and I am still working on my careful reading (by which i relisten to each story for a week or that was the original plan till i hit wife of bath) of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. -yeah Darcy it is probably a good thing we aren't reading Pride and Prejudice right now apparently I have a lot that I am reading right now too.

I am hoping...To get some more drawing done.

I am looking forward to...Shopping with Lisa! it is always fun to hang out with her.

I am hearing... Greg milling about the house.

One of my favorite things... Saturday morning walks.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet starts up this week, we might make it to bible study this week, Greg's game is going to start up this week. um....I think that might be it.

A video I feel like sharing... In honor of Epiphany I give you Straight No Chasers We Three Kings:

goals for the new year

2012-01-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big fan of resolutions. Most the time I think people are setting themselves up for failure. A year is an awful long time, and that means it is a long time to procrastinate. I have made peace with this part of my personality because if I didn't then I would sit and worry and feel like a failure because I didn't get things done on time. This is not to say that I am always late or that I can't make deadlines. I like deadlines, just not arbitrary ones that I set for myself, because those aren't real dead lines, they are something that I made up. And that is how I feel about New Years resolutions.

I also am a fan of little steps. For example like most everyone else I have a goal for the year that is to lose weight. my big thing right now is to try and do 10 minuets of palates every morning before I go to work. no this isn't much but it is something and something is better then nothing, plus it doesn't mean I have to get up earlier or go to bed earlier so it doesn't change my lifestyle to much.

I like looking at my week and saying someday I want to be here, but this week I will try to be here. like I'd like to write most every day, I'd like to clean every day, I'd like to draw every day, and I'd like to knit every day, and I'd like to read every day, and I'd like to blog every day. but there are only about 16 hours that I am awake,and eight of that is eaten up by the job that pays some of our bills. then there is down time and recharge time and cuddle time So things don't always happen the way I want them to.

All that being said I do have some goals for the year:

1. By the end of this year I want to be looking for an agent-let's face it either i start really working towards being a writer or it is time to quit.

2. I want to draw more often, like maybe 3-4 hours a week. I'll talk about why this is a priority next Tuesday when i talk about what is on my drawing desk.

3. I want to design my own line of knit wear. I love knitting I love creating and I have some great ideas for some geeky patterns, as well as some steam punk.

4. I want to start writing in the academic world of literature. I have a really fun i dea for an essay about Tolkien studies.

5. Oh yeah and I want to lose 20 pounds

okay now my blog writing time is spilling into my exercise time, till next time.

Review of 2011

2012-01-05T01:00:00.000-05:00

So now that we have reached an arbitrary date for new year the general practice is to look back over the year and think about the good and that bad. what went right and what didn't go so right. Some times it is depressing. for example I had hoped to lose 20 pounds last year, well I gained ten. isn't that nice? but i have to say that 2011 will always have been a good year. I mean I got married that was pretty cool. My cousins Jordan, Amanda, and Laura also got married this year. my family grew by quite a few, Stryder, and Ellie. I think Lafe and Lacey had a little girl. As far as I know at this moment that is all, but please correct me if I am wrong with such a big family it is easy to forget someone.

At St. Adains Jessica and Sharon had their baby girls. they church had it's first birthday. It is hard to believe that we have been a church plant for a year now. and we are still there.

I don't remember my resolutions from last year. I could look them up, but that might just be more disappointment then I would like to deal with right now. Io instead I will look over the year, see that I have more good memories then bad. there fore whether I made my resolutions or not I'd say the year was a net gain I know I am a better person today then i was a year ago and that is more important then meeting some arbitrary goals set at an arbitrary date.

As far as this blog is concerned, I made more posts this year then any year prior. I also had more page views then every before. what does next year have in store? Well I talked about that yesterday a new look a new series and a goal to post every day. will that happen? who knows, for all I know something big could happen and I drop off the face of the planet. but let's hope that doesn't happen.

Changes

2012-01-04T04:00:00.000-05:00

In the year 2012 I have decided that it is once again time to up date and make a few changes to my blog. My reason for blogging has changed and the type of stuff I want to blog a bout has changed. It used to be that this was a place for me to basically keep a journal, then it was a place to share some of my ideas on life love and other mysteries. Now things have changed again.

I'm not in school anymore which yippee I don't have to deal with the crap that goes with having to write papers, read books, take tests. but I often feel a sense of longing for assigned readings and papers. I miss writing essays and having someone care about the quality of my papers.

This last fall I thought about making this blog take the place of my more academic pursuits. Some times it worked some times it didn't. Right now I hope to make that work more then not.

As you can see I am updating the look of the blog, trying to make it look like it has 'grown' up a little. I have decided that one of the things I am passionate about is literature and so the blog is going to take a very different feel, focusing on this love. Some of the topics that I really enjoy are going to stay. I will still be participating in Thankful Thursdays, and The Simple Women's Daybook. I also will keep Tuesdays as my Crafty updates, but Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays (crossing my fingers so I don't jinks myself) will now be for my thoughts and discussions of literature. -Monday the 9th should have up the long awaited Wife of Bath up.

Monday I will discuss different books that I am reading for fun and have random thoughts about, this series has been called Coffee Table Book Discussions but I have changed this to Coffee Shop Melodies. Wednesday and Friday will be for my twice weekly Commentary on Fantasy Books which is going to be called Fantasy Ballads. -beginning with the Never Ending Story.

all this said there will be times when randomness happens, and I put up a post that doesn't fall under any of these categories so I may break off for something else, and I will be taking time off of the blog if I go on a trip and there will be regular brakes, for example I will be taking time off around Christmas and most likely during holy week.

So there is the weekly line up for the blog but you may have noticed some other changes. the tabs under the the title. Jazzy Creations this is where anything goes that is connected to my Knitting, Writing, or Drawing. My Song was at one time called My Journey, Coffee Shop Melodies is where you will find what was Coffee table book discussions, and Fantasy Ballads is where my new series will be collected.

Jazz Creations

2012-01-04T01:00:00.000-05:00

I am a creative person here is where I have organized the different Crafty things I do or write about.

Writing: The 9 Basic plots Stories I have Written Out of the Note book

Knitting: On the Needles

Art: From the Art Desk

On the Needles

2012-01-04T00:30:00.001-05:00

collection of all knitting up dates
2011-1
2011-2
2011-3
2011-4
2011-5

Fantasy Ballads

2012-01-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

Where I collect my Commentaries on Fantasy Literature.

From the Art Desk

2012-01-04T00:00:00.001-05:00

all my Art up dates:
2011-1
2011-2
2011-3

Out of the Note Book

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

A place where all my Writing updates can be found:
  2011-1
  2011-2
  2011-3
  2011-4
  2011-5

Holiday Notice

2011-12-25T23:34:00.003-05:00

Sorry to any who read my blog regularly but I have decided to take the week off while I am in NJ. will be back on Wednesday the third.

Advent Singing Count Down 1: Who Spiked the Egg Nog

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Another from Straight No Chaser, I love these guys! Their Christmas CD is one of my favorites I have listened to it pretty much non stop. This one is just fun and well it was Christmas Eve.

Advent Singing Count Down 2: Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel

2011-12-23T00:00:00.001-05:00

This is THE advent song, oh come Emanuel, come God with us, for we wait and long for you to come to us. this has been my church's call to worship ever week during advent.

Advent Singing Count Down 3: O Holy Night

2011-12-22T04:00:00.000-05:00

Every year my grandfather sings this song as the Cole Christmas gathering, I'm not always there but i often think about it, it is one of my fondest Christmas memories. Sadly sense grandpa's stroke he doesn't sing as well as he used to.

Advent Singing Count Down 4: Christmas Time is Here

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

What Christmas is complete without the Charley Brown Christmas Special?

Advent Singing count down 5: white Christmas

2011-12-20T08:04:00.001-05:00

there is something about this movie and this song. particularly this time in the movie when he sings it. there is just something about him standing there in front of a backdrop of a snow covered village singing to the men in uniform with their weapons stealing a few moments from the war trying to forget that they are in Europe fighting a war far away from their family and friends this Christmas. To all our men and women in uniform thank you for giving up so much for us. this one is for you.

advent Singing count down 6: Christmas Can-Can

2011-12-19T07:37:00.000-05:00

why do I love this one? well first it mocks the craziness that Christmas has become, points out one of my frustrations that Christmas starts sooner every year, and gives a little nod to the other holidays that happen this time of year.

Myth and Fairy

2011-12-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

Myths and Fairy stories get a bad rap. they are about things that don't exist in the 'real' world and there for are nothing but mindless fancies and promote Escapism. That is at least ow may people treat fantasy. yet for some reason fantasy has become one of the most popular genres in literature. Yet these books deal with untruths and therefore are not worthy of any kind of real thought or inquiry.

Matthew Dickerson and David O'Hara start their book From Homer to Harry Potter with an introduction which discusses why people miss understand the literature of faerie, why it is dismissed and reduced to a single "easily digestible platitude, moral or allegorical meaning." (22) and even farther into "equating myth with falsehood, fantasy with escapism, and fairy tale with the nursery."(22) these are dangerous places which attempt to make the Faerie stories and those who read and write them of a lower intelligence then those who do not read such immature and foolish work.

The worst equation by far is the idea of escapism. it is not strange that the idea of escaping danger or prison is generally thought of as a positive thing? We do not criticize those who have escaped from Nazi Prison camps, no they were brave souls who would rather die that live in those conditions. women who escape from polygamist compounds are daring women who believe there is something more then the life they are living. to escape from danger is a good thing. Why is the concept of escapism so negative? Perhaps it is because most people accept the status-quo of the world and any one who says that the real world is not all there is- that there is something beyond the material world- is just too pathetic to deal with the real world. of course that would lead me on another tangent on what is real and how Screwtape tells Wormwood to do to manipulate the human's understanding of real life. But asking the question what is real life is another post for another day. back to faerie stories.

So what is a myth or faerie story? it is very difficult to pin down what their definitions might be. sence fanasty as a genre really got started at the beginning of the twentieth century it is not uncomon to think that it is a reaction or responce to the enlightenment (23). I would extent this to say that it continues to be a response to the postmodern ideas as well. Dickerson and O'Hara explore the definitions of myth given by the dictionary but find these definitions to be circular or missing the point. for the most part if something is a Myth then it is simply Not true, it is a false hood. (this is why I think so many people have a problem with Santa Claus, he is a myth and therefore a lie.) The purpose in this definition is to devalue myth, if it is nothing but a pre-scientific world trying to understand the nature in myths then it has no purpose what so ever in a world of science, it should be thrown out with the rest of the refuse.

In fact sometimes I wonder at how two worlds seem to be at war with each other the Movie Troy got rid of all the gods and goddess of the Illiad, Author stripped away any idea of magic as anything more then cheep tricks. both in an attempt to make the stories real. there are even some that say that the movie The 13th Warrior is a demythologized version of Beowulf. And yet at the same time movies are being made of the Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter.

So if the age of myth is over with the advent of Science then why does fantasy continue to be so popular? in this age where science has become the thing that we use to understand reality we have two general choices, to reject all myth and faerie stories as nothing more then something for the amusement of little children, or to deny that they are myth. this second option does not contradict the idea that myths are fundamentally false but that things that are called myth aren't really myth.

Dickerson and O'Hara offer a third choice, "that Myths might be Fundamentally true and yet still be 'mythological'" (32) they point out the root for mythological is Muthos which is a synyonym for Logos a word used by John to describe Christ. both muthos and logos came to mean an account or story. Muthologeuo where we get the word mythologize meant to 'relate word for word'. Owen Barfield and Tolkien both understood myth to be a cosmological way to understand the world. And that it also existed before language. C.S. Lewis suggested "that Myth does not exist in words at all- that is, it doesn't exist in one particular telling" (29) The truth of myths then becomes not reliant on history or language, their truth is something different that informs historical truth. Walter Wangerin Jr. referrers to myth as the mother of all truths, truth that is independent of time, place, or culture. it is transcendent and objective, describing something that is beyond and ancient. Myth and faerie stories "give an account of the world and a glimpse of ourselves" or as C.S Lewis put it "they not only reveal truth about our experience but actually add to our experience." (37)

It looks like Myth is a truth that is beyond matter- hence why materialists don't like it very much. it is a truth that gets under our skin and shocks us more fully awake as CS Lewis said in his introduction to George MacDonald's Fairy tales.

(All quotes are from A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy: From Homer to Harry Potter by Matthew Dickerson and David O'Hara, Copyrighted 2006)

Thankful Thursday 12-15

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am thankful for Advent Time, (I'm trying to get used to this idea that advent is the time before Christmas day Christmas time is the twelve days after Christmas day. which guess what: boxing day is part of Christmas not some strange Canadian second Christmas.) I love the colors and the lights, but I really wish there was snow. I know I will have plenty of snow when I get to New Jersey, but I really want snow now, it doesn't seem like Christmas without snow.

I am thankful for my church and the way my church is doing Christmas, I wish I could be here for the actual Christmas eve and Christmas Day services. Oh well that is just the way it goes sometimes.

I am also thankful for the postal service workers this time of year. You know what they work extra had this time of year and mostly all they get is yelled at by people who are so caught up in their own worlds and what they have to do to make the holidays seem right they forget that the holidays are meant to be times of love, hope, joy, and peace. so if you have to go to the post office this Christmas time be sure to give the postal worker thanks, most likely if they are rude to you it is because they have had nothing but rude customers.

Out of the Notebook 5

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

(yes I know I usually do my art up dated on the second Tuesday of the month, but Ii still haven't drawn much hopefully by next week I will have something to talk about)

This Month's writing update is Still a little Nano heavy, I mean really I worked on that sucker for a month and only that sucker. But any way I am working on a new system for these creative posts. So anyway here we go Form my writing workshop this month

Polishing: Because once a piece is formed and shaped it must be polished so that it's true beauty can shine through and reflect the light. Right now I am working on polishing my Nanowrimo piece which has a beginning, middle and end, plus all the important bits that happen in the middle. for now the story is called the Alchemist's Daughter. I have most recently been doing a lot of work on the history and back story of many things in the story. The country has a very in depth history that effects a lot of what goes on in the story, some of it is the recent history of the Range War- a lot like the United States's Civil War- But I discovered that there are other things at work in the way that the different characters treat each other. It is a world that has very deep set prejudices that are based on each race's history and past interactions with the other. There was also a war that happened almost 1,000 years before the humans came and colonized the continent called the great fey war. I think this is the funnest part of writing, the discovery of all the pieces that lead up to the story. I also still need to figure out how magic works in this world. with the way magic works right now my characters are going to be too powerful for there to be any real dangers or challenges.

Oh just to let you know those who have access to my privet Story blog I will not be updating there till I have finished at least my second draft. Then that is what I will used for alpha readers.

Sculpting: The molding of clay, and the chiseling of stone to reveal the story underneath. There are two stories in this section. Two stories that I need to get back to and hopefully I will get back to them soon. The first is The Rescue. I am still working my way through act one. but I believe i at least have the second act mostly mapped out, hopefully I will finish up the map and be able to finish the story and get it ready to be polished. Then there is Ashes and Snowflakes. I have act one fleshed out, act two mapped out, I need to get act three mapped out and start really working on getting this one done. Both these stories are fun and I really am looking forward to doing quite a bit with them. I have high hopes for them and for what may follow and come out of them. but first I have to write them.

In The Furnace: For ideas that are just starting to be put in a malleable state. this would be my story that I sometimes take out and play with, right now it is called the Champion of Sisillia. It is a a good old fashioned Medieval style Fantasy. a city under sedge waiting for help that is most likely going to come too late as the hordes of the Necromancer come ever closer to conquering it. It is based off an idea that i had after watching the return of the king.

Shinys: Because new ideas are distracting like a sudden glimmer of something different. this month's Shiny is an idea I got after listening to one more rant about how girls have self image problems and that instead of tell in a little girl (2-5) that she is cute ask her about the books she is reading and try to stimulate her mind so she will maybe want to some day be a Nobel Peace Prize winner, rather then a competitor on America's Next Top Model. As unhelpful as I thought the article was it had a point, it wasn't the point that it was trying to make, girls need to know that they have value because they are who they are. Self image issues have to do with knowing that they are beautiful. The problem with focusing on beauty, in its most superficial means is that no living person can ever measure up to or always be that beautiful. my thought is to write a series of Mid-grade (I think that is the correct label) fantasy books that help seven very different princesses find that their unique personalities are what give each of them value. I hope to explore this had have it ready when the little baby girls in my life are starting to grow up and learn who they are and how God made them special.

This concludes my writing update.

Simple Women's day book 23

2011-12-10T10:24:00.001-05:00

For Today: December 10, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window...the sun light is shining though the blinds. I need to get curtains that are easier to open and close each day. but there is sun shine which is a rairity these days.

I am thinking... about all that has happened this year. I know it is a little early to be thinking about that but the year is waning (isn't that a great word? that and waxing such great words) and i find my self thinking over all that has changed, it has been a crazy year, a long year. I don't understand how people say that time continually moves faster, i have had several times in my 'adult' life that time has seemed to slow down to the pace of a snail just as often as it runs ahead like a rabbit.

I am thankful... For my friends and family. we had a nice little get together last night. best freakin' high mass ever! It is nice to be around people who love me.

In the kitchen... the cupboards are getting bare, I didn't do a very good job shopping last time. we are out of many many things. breakfast today is the last of the oatmeal.

I am wearing... Jeans, my brown jacket thing that might actually be a kind of cardigan. My rainbow scarf and a purple camisole.

I am creating... Knitting: The cowl is my primary concern lately I want it done before I head off to New Jersey.

I am going.. to the Jones' house. Jeanette is celebrating the fact that Hannah is weened so we are all getting together to drink wine and be crafty.

I am wondering...

I am reading...I am loving The Inheritance by Christopher Paolini! it is very much the light hearted epic fantasy I am in need. And I am still working on The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish.

I am hoping...To get all my Christmas "shopping" done.

I am looking forward to...Crafting day today! So excited I love doing artsy things in a group. I do better when I do art in a group. I really miss that about my art classes.

I am hearing... Gilmore Girls.

One of my favorite things... Christmas lights and Candles. there is magic in the way the lights dance over the snow...except there is no snow yet...

A few plans for the rest of the week: Let see, Bible study, hopefully game night, Greg's company Christmas party.

A Link I like... http://radio.mymiddle-earth.net/ This radio plays music that is inspired by Tolkien Literature. they have several specials including the Tolkien Professor, The Hog's Head, and other updates on Tolkien and Narnian news.

Something New

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Okay so this is something I have been thinking about for a while now. I love fantasy, the dragons, the wizards, warlords, warlocks, unicorns, wendigoes, minotaurs, heroes, princesses in towers, Secret royal, mystical items, heroic adventures, all of it. So I read a lot of it, Tolkien, Lewis, Hobb, Ende, Martin, Rowlins, Pratchett and others for the modern stuff, and I read the classic myths, Homer, Arthur, Wife of Bath, Irish Myth Cycle, Norse Myth, Grim Brothers and others.

In the last year I found a pod cast called The Tolkien Professer. where Dr. Corey Olsen discusses topics in Tolkien studies; gives lectures on The Hobbit; shares lectures from classes he teaches at Washington College; and leads a reading group though The Silmarillion. His pod caste has inspired me to look over some of the fantasy that I love to see why it is I re read them. I thought about doing this with was the Harry Potter series, to see if Harry Potter could be more then a book enjoyed by this generation and then forgot by the next. Then I found this pod cast over at the Hog's Head Pub. There Travis Prinzi and several others discuss topics concerning Harry Potter. From their point of view Harry Potter is worthy of academic study. I enjoy his pod cast and the topics he discusses. (by the way Prinzi is teaching a class about Harry Potter at the Mythgard institute. I am really tempted to take the class, really cheep -$500 for a three credit course!!!- because they are completely online seriously everyone should check this place out.)

So Between Dr. Olsen and Mr. Prinzi -oh and I should also mention John Wilson over at The Amazing Spider-man Classics pod caste- I have been inspired to talk more about the books I love in a way that helps others see their value. So at the beginning of the year I am going to be sharing my thoughts as I read. The books will be books that I have read at least twice prior to my read through for the sake of this project. the posts will be by-weekly (hopefully Wednesday and Friday) and cover only one to two chapters a post. I hope that for some of the books I can get guest writers who also love the stories to talk about different themes. I also will pull from things that may have already been written about the Book.

My plan for now is to start with my absolute favorite book The Never Ending Story, This will probably be followed by something that has a longer series either The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Till then on Fridays I am going to be posting about a different book. One that I bought back when I was living in Bismark ND but have only now started to read- From Homer to Harry Potter; A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy but Matthew Dickerson and David O'Hara. It deals with this idea that fantasy is just as reliant and insightful as non-genre fiction. It has already inspired me to embark on this project and seemed fitting.

Thankful Thursday 12-8

2011-12-07T21:43:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful for
1. Getting Christmas decorations up. it was kinda crazy getting out my Christmas decorations and putting them up, I had for gotten what most of it was.
2. My job, it may suck for many reasons but it is a paycheck and that is more then what some people have right now.
3. our house. it is small and sure somewhere that we will probably not live for a while but it is warm, dry, and affordable.
4. I'm Thankful that I came to my senses and realized that Greg is the only man in the world for me. I don't know why I was the last one to figure that one out but I am glad I did.
5. That I have gotten out the majority of our thank-you cards from the wedding. yes I know we are coming up on the one year mark but I found out that so long as you get it to people with in a year you are still okay. So says Emily Post.

They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD. They were to do the same in the evening.

1 Chronicles 23:30

Thoughts During Advent- Who is Christ part I

2011-12-07T07:09:00.001-05:00

Something that is different about being in a 'high' liturgical church verses a 'low' liturgical church is that Advent is Advent and Christmas is Christmas. See in the church calender these are two separate seasons, growing up I knew them as being the same thing. Advent/Christmas time started the day after thanksgiving and ended Christmas day. Really Advent Starts after Thanksgiving, the last Sunday of November and continues till midnight Christmas Eve. Christmas is then 12 days long. Starting Christmas Day and ending on Epiphany, January 6th.

Advent is, like lent, a time of preparation, a time to focus on the coming of Christ however it's focus is not on the historical coming of Christ in the manger but on the second coming of Christ. The Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent is the Christian new year, Christ the King Sunday. Focusing on the day Christ will return in victory bringing his kingdom. (as an aside I'm going to say that I don't know when this will happen /though it probably won't happen in 2012\ or how it will happen I've been burned out by the rapture tribulation debates and have come to realize that it doesn't matter another day I will talk about this). Advent follows and as everyone starts thinking about Christmas the day used to mark the Day God became man it is a good time to remember that Jesus is coming back. And that has been a little strange. see Greg and I read the scripture readings as put forth in the BCP (Book of Common Prayer), and the readings have not been the nativity readings, they have been from the end of Jesus' ministry in Mathew, and from Revelation, and from Amos. Last night we read about the two greatest commandments, and about John's vision of Christ the King. Amos, is about judgement.

But what I thought was strange was Matthew was about the two greatest commandments. "love the Lord your God with all your mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

this stuck out to me from the readings because I have noticed an increase in debates about the trinity lately. And people get very very passionate in the debates. People today get very heated over it. St. Nicholas Punched Arius' representative int he face over it. Some would say that the idea behind the trinity was created at the Niciean Council, but it has it's roots father back then that. Yes there is Athanasius, Augustine, Amborse, but there is also Irenaeus (wrote Against the Heresies in ~180), Justin the Marty (103-165), the Epistle of Barnabas (written between 70-131), And Clement's Second letter to the Corinthians (140 -160).

But here is my question, why is this debate so important? Can't we all just get along? Today the general understanding about religion and tolerance of religion is that as long as they are good people then it doesn't matter. generally if they (any person of any religion) Follow the second of the two great commandments then they are find. however the first part of these two commandments would imply that it is important what God someone is worshiping. that it is important to be following the right God. Now if Christians take seriously what Christ said about the road to hell being broad and the road to heaven being narrow then this understanding of who God is, is important. I hate seeing people argue about this because it always seems to end with both sides not giving an inch and thinking that the other side is just as stupid as they thought. this doesn't build the kingdom... but then my thought following that is but who's kingdom are we a part of?

I have to go now but i will pick this idea up again soon, hopefully next Wednesday if not before.

On the Needles 5

2011-12-06T07:14:00.001-05:00

Well Knitting has been busy despite the fact that I was spending most of my time writing last month. I have been playing at the idea of actually starting to design Knit wear. I've mentioned this a few times here and on facebook. it is a strange little idea that I just keep dabbling with, for the last couple of weeks it just doesn't want to go away. I've been getting inspiration every where on what I could knit, who would want it and be willing to pay money for it. But anyway let's get back to talking about what I am knitting.

Finished Finished Projects: I have only finished on project this month. which is one project more then what I had planned. I really didn't think I would be knitting very much at all. but my Goddaughter Hannah turned one last month and Greg suggested that I make her mittens. So I found a pattern and made her mittens:

These Mittens are made from that wool I bought months ago when Lisa and I went on a yarn shopping spree. It is Sock weight super wash Marino. the fun thing about baby mittens? they have no thumbs which makes them very very easy to knit.

Works in progress: here there are a couple of things. The blanket which has just sort have stayed on the needles waiting patiently for the time when i feel like working on it, which is few and far between but it is nice to have a big project laying around to pick up every now and then. I cleaned out my knitting box, because i couldn't find some of by needles (by the way if anyone needs to know what to get me for Christmas I need something to keep my needles in order) and found a forgotten project or two. I think this is what they would call on the knit more girls an ufo bin, I don't know the acronym stands for but it is Un-finished something. any way it has been brought out to see if it can find the light of day. it was maybe my first Design thing. it is wrap skirt that I was trying to make for ballet. I'm not sure if I will try to finish this but it is nice to have another project in the works. I also have a BYOB bag (that seems repetitive) on my size 7 needles. this project I started and didn't get very far. I'm knitting it with Recycled Cotton. the last thing on my needles is my Cowl which I hope to have done soon. though to get it done soon I have to work on it and I have been enjoying other projects far too much.

Design ideas and Projects: This will be a new section. I have two big things that I am working on trying to design. one is a hair net and the other is leg warmers. the Hair net sounds strange I am sure. but I was watching Charmed and I really like this hair net that Phoebe was wearing and I thought I bet I could make on of those. the plan so far is to use this lace pattern I found with sport weight yarn, making the 'brim' by doing a 2x2 rib. I tried this once using size 7 needles but the lace pattern didn't have big enough holes so I have upped it to a size 10 needle. we will see what will happen. as of now I haven't gotten it cast on. the other idea i have the leg warmers I haven't gotten very far, this idea came while i was back stage with the dancers at the Wilmore Christian Ballet Company performance. some of the girls' legs were cold and I agreed it was cold back there after having been it he dressing room.

Future projects: well let's see, I would like to make something for Michaela, I would like to make a Christmas present for Dottie, and for Hannah. I have two baby hats to make (but I think I ran out of blue baby yarn) and I have 6 dish cloths to make. I would live to make my family Christmas presents but I think I might be out of time.

Simple Woman Daybook 22

2011-12-05T07:09:00.001-05:00

For Today: December 9, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... Sun's not out yet, and it apears to be raining again.

I am thinking... how facebook and Google Plus games are too addictive. I went for a long time not playing any and I was happy now I am addicted to two.

I am thankful...That the ballet Performance is over. I couldn't believe how much talent there is int he Wilmore Christian Ballet Company. those girls are amazing and I can't wait to work with them again next term.

In the kitchen... Dishes that need to be put away.

I am wearing... Green and Sea green Striped pants, a sea green camisole and my brown knit jacket. all under the Penguin blanket.

I am creating... Knitting: The cowl is cast on and it seems to be going just fine. I'll talk more about this tomorrow Drawing: none hopefully that will change before next Tuesday. Writing: well it being December I am focusing on editing my nano novel. it seems to be going fine, I keep discovering things that I need to think more about. Like I need to get the history of this town figured out, and I still need to figure out the system of magic. I think I am going to medieval cosmology, and also an ancient idea of wilderness-being a place of demons and madness.

I am going...Well I might go to work it depends on if there is work to be done.

I am wondering...How interesting it is that we have to think that our current location in history is the most intelligent time of and that anything before was stupid and backward.

I am reading...I finished The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs and I can't wait to get my hands on the next part of that trilogy The Golden Fool. The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish. and I have started The Inheritance by Chrisopher Paolini. So far so good. already he is bringing up how the people are having problems with the idea that the elves are coming out of hiding and seem to be conquering thier cities and villages.

I am hoping... to get thank-yous out. I've started sending them out but there are some that I don't have addresses for. and I keep running out of stamps. Maybe I will get Christmas decorations up today. That would be nice.

I am looking forward to...High mass, this week we are going to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas. which is also Kindersda which is the dutch holiday when Santa Clause comes and gives them presents. I love this holiday it was an awesome holiday when i was living in Suriname (former Dutch Guiana)

I am hearing... very little it is a quiet morning, a while ago there was a massive amount of traffic but it seems to have quieted down.

One of my favorite things... Ballet. it is beautiful. I am not sure where I stand on the use of liturgical dance in Sunday services but I do know that the beauty of it defiantly calls me to praise God for his creation. Also, because I am currently reading the Silmarillian, the ballet that Hannah and Isaiah did during the recital protion of the performance kept making me thing about the romance of Thingol and Melian. it was so beautiful and I think someone should write a ballet about the Simarilion. or at least about Thingol and Melian and about Beron and Luthian.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet party, maybe i still haven't decided if i am going, Bible study, and we might be playing games at the jones' on Thursday, and high mass. there really isn't anything else that i know of happening this week.

Christmas Post 1: All I Want For Christmas

2011-12-02T12:24:00.001-05:00

Is my two front teeth....No wait, All I want for Christmas is you...
Nope this post is a direct rip off of a post my cousin-in-law Darci posted, which she took from her cousin-in-law, who I do not know but hey thought I would take a minuet to give credit where Credit is due.

So the idea is if Money was no object, and all your dreams could come true what would your Christmas list be, be selfish for a minuet and just open up and be honest with your dreams. these are not the grown up Christmas wish, this is pure and simple I want, not I need, if i had unlimited funds and my family had unlimited funds what would I ask for? Well....

1. To be able to be with both Greg's family and my family for the holidays. I know this one may sound like the exact opposite of what I was saying this list was supposed to be but you see Greg's family is all on the east coast in New Jersey and Florida, and My family is all west of the Mississippi (except You Uncle Charley I don't mean to leave you out.) but lets skip the extended family, to do this we would either need a privet jet so we could fly out to Wyoming for my daddy's birthday and and then turn around and fly to New Jersey to be with Greg's parents, or we would need a transporter. then we could have Christmas eve with one family gathering, Christmas day with an other and some how make it to the Christmas festivities at our church. I seriously wish I could be at three places at once the holiday with my Family, with Greg's family, and with my church family. Oh and if there was a way to make it to the Cole Christmas gather in Arizona I would be there too.
2 A house in Wilmore. Something not too big but a place that we could living for long time. with room for us to have a family, and to have guests come and stay, and so we could have social gatherings.
3. to be able to quit my job and be a full time writer, artist, and Knit wear designer. these are things that i love to do and wish I could do all the time. I wish I could make a living on them. by knitting and selling specialty idem, by drawing and painting anything. and of course by writing SF&F. Something happened during nano that has never happened before I might be able to do it, to actually be a writer. my nano novel isn't much and needs a lot of work but i have finished a piece, and now it is time to edit and i am excited to see where the editing will take me.
4. to take a trip with Greg to Europe, to see the place where history comes from. Maybe travel around visiting the sites from the history of Rome.
5. massive over-hall on my vehicle. I don't need a new car, but what I really want is to take my care to the body shop give it a fresh paint job, fix the front bumper, put in a new windshield, Replace the air conditioner so it stops making that sound.

Okay that is my ex-termly dreamy wishful thinking Christmas list. and in closing I leave you with a much simpler Christmas list:

And the Day After....

2011-12-01T07:18:00.001-05:00

Well I did it! I wrote 50,000 words. my story has a coherent plot, a beginning, middle and end. a wonderful cast of characters that I am very happy with and are finding their voices and identity.and I am excited about editing it. I may not have been able to validate it because Open office considers things words that most word documents don't but that is okay.

I plan to post this story on my other blog, So those of you who have access to it I hope to hear your feed back. maybe tomorrow I will post a blurb here for the story.

NaNoWriMo: two days

2011-11-29T07:03:00.001-05:00

Two days to go, 43,500 words written and I reached the end of what I had plotted out. the novel which as expected didn't stick with the original outline Has reached the end of the story, the sun rises on a new morning of a new day the bad guy is beat, my characters have reconciled, some people are dead some people are alive but really it is the start of something new. now if this wasn't nano I would say that it is time o go through and get rid of the squiggly lines, fix any obvious grammatical errors that i can find (which I'll admit aren't many) and they read for continuity and to see what still needs filling out. But that falls under what I call editing, and in nano there is no editing. So last night i spent some time thinking about what things I could add. See I have a tendency that when I think of something technically, like I need to find a different name to call the towns in general in a curtain part of the world, I make a note of it at the end of the document so I have it when I go to edit. but last night I made a list of things that i could do that were probably needed that I could probably add some stuff to. Of course the big think that might help is that because this is a fantasy and well lets face it how much of the technical stuff do you want to read in the story so I might just add some appendices, that should take care of my word count.

any way that is all I have to say on that topic to day now to get ready for work and find out how many hour's i'll get today. (really my last check was so pathetic 6 hours, not even $50 grrr)

Simple Woman's Daybook 21

2011-11-28T07:05:00.001-05:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... Sun's not out yet, and it apears to be raining.

I am thinking... how Heresy and Cult or two different things but people seem to get them confused and make them out to be the same thing.

I am thankful...Cuddling

In the kitchen... Chocolate cake.

I am wearing... Conglomeration of sleep wear.

I am creating... Knitting: The cowl is cast on and going great! I'm not quite happy with my desine, i want a bigger holed lace patern but it does look good, so maybe i will just make it a hat. Drawing: none, writing: Nanowrimo word count is at 38594,still pretty far behind but there is still a chance i will make it, if i write 4,000 words a day.

I am going...Well I hope i get to go to work.

I am wondering...Why silly ideas persist even after they are proven to be wrong.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish. I jsut got Inheritance yesterday so I will be starting to read that soon.

I am hoping... to get thank-yous out. really there isn't that much more to do on them.

I am looking forward to...the ballet recital this weekend.

I am hearing... very little it is a quiet morning

One of my favorite things... quiet slow mornings

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet, and all the fun stuff for the recital, I am helping with the smaller children.

Picture I feel like sharing...

this picture has been making the rounds on social networks and I think this is pretty neat.

Plots

2011-11-27T12:52:00.001-05:00

Now that I have finished my series on plots here they all are for your viewing pleasure. the nine basic plots and the Hollywood Plot method.
I Character vs Character, II Character vs Society, III Character vs Fate, IV Character vs Unknown, V Character vs God, VI Character vs Self, VII Character vs Nature, VIII Character vs Machine, IX Character vs Circumstance, X Hollywood method

Hollywood Formula (plot X)

2011-11-24T23:55:00.001-05:00

As a last part to my series on plot I give you a method of understand character and motivation and what can make or break a story. this probably works best or at least more clearly in a story that is character vs Character, however I think that it can be applied to any of the plots because what ever the vs. is it should be represented by something that the Main character can fight or over come.

briefly to give credit where credit is due a lot of the information for this post comes from an Episode of Writing Excuses (6.18) during an interview with Lou Anders of Pry Books, who got it from Dan Decker. I found if very interesting and helpful and I hope any of my readers who are also writers may find it interesting and helpful as they are trying to push out words for Nanowrimo. or just as they are trying to work on whatever novels they are working on.

okay so this formula focuses on three characters: the Protagonist, the Antagonist, and the Friend. The Protagonist in the story is the person that the story is about, there is something that he or she wants. The antagonist stands in the way for the protagonist to get when he or she wants. and the friend pushes the The protagonist to realize what they want and go for it.

The story ends when when three things happen, 1. the Protagonist overcomes the the Antagonist, 2. The protagonist achieves his goal, 3. the Protagonist and the Friend are reconciled. the closer these things can happen together the more emotionally invested the reader will be. kind of cool huh?

not every story follows this formula but it is a good one. and it seems so simple, but this does not understand that antagonist is the same as bad guy, the antagonist is simply the one who stands in the way of what the Protagonist wants. there for the critical thing is to know what the character wants. also it must be somethng tangible even if there is some sociological stuff going on in the story the goal must be something that can be attained.

So, examples, well I was thinking about using Harry Potter but I think it may have been too long sense I read the series.

However I think we all know that Harry is the protagonist. the next question is what does harry want? there are several things we can say he wants but what would be the one that is over arching to the entire series. we could say that he wants revenge, but i think there is something deeper he wants which is exposed in the first chapter of the first book and then continues to pop up. I think he wants a family, a place where he is loved and where he belongs. I think we can see this by what he sees his parents in book one, in book three what happy thoughts he uses to try and call forth a Patronis, How he views the Weasleys family-whether it is how he reacts to the Christmas present in book one, how he loves living with them in book two, his adventure with them at the start of book four, in every book Harry spends time with the weasleys and though they see him as another son and brother (mostly) and this will become official when he marries Ginny he is always on the outside wanted what Ron has. his desire for family is what makes his relationship with Sirous black so important and an important view into this desire.

So who stands in the way of Harry getting what he wants?

Well It's Voldemort. Voldemort kills Harry's parents, nearly kills Ginny, Separated him from Sirius Black, then there is the strange thing with the wands when they meet in book four, he orders the death of iSrius Black, the death of Dumbledore, the death eaters crashing of the quiditch cup, the crashing of the wedding at the Burrow, the way the piece of his soul poisoned Ron and harry against each other. Harry has to face Voldemort if he is going to get what he wants, a real home.

Now here is the real question, who is Harry's friend? who pushes Herry to get what he wants, who is reconsiled to harry in the end, who is it that guides harry? there are lots of candidates. It could be Ron, Herminone, Dumbledore, Sirus black, Lupin. But some of them die early int he series, and others... others don't have any massive need for reconciliation. Some of them encourage and stand with harry, some of them guide him, but not one of them really cause him to move outside himself and do what it is he needs to do to aceive his goals, none of them really modivate him towards what his goal is. sure Dumbledore guides and pushes Harry towards a goal, but is it for the modavation that harry has? or is it because it is the right thing to do and Harry is the only one who can do it?

That is right I thin kthe friend in this situation is Snape. Why? well first off there is massive need for reconciliation. Snape is almost always conected to why harry does the things he does, he feeds the modivation of harry and there is a breach between them. Harry doesn't understand Snape, or why Snape does the things he does. the don't make sense until the reconciliation happens. when Snape is killed Harry gets to see a series of memories of Snape's which fill in all the gaps. they explain Snape's motivation and his guilt, and thus his actions. With out Snape Harry would never have done what he did for the reason. unlike Dumbledore Snape is more connected with harry's parents then anyone else. yes he was mocked and tortured by James, but he loved, really loved Lilly. he and harry are reconciled and thus Snape is reconciled with Lilly. And armed with this reconciliation Harry is off to face the antagonist for the final showdown.

So Harry Potter Fans what do you think? Do you agree with me or think I am a nut?
also taking this formula how would the dark knight break down? you may be surprised by the answer.

Thankful Thursday 11-24 Thanksgiving Edition

2011-11-24T22:07:00.001-05:00

This week, there are many things this week of all weeks and of all days to be thankful for. After all it is thanksgiving. So for a little bit more then my usual post for a Thankful Thursday.

1. My family, Texts from my mom, Messages from my cousins and aunts and uncles through the wonderful world of the Internet. whither facebook and the blog world. Messages that encourage and challenge and strengthen me. and just plain sometimes remind me that I am connected to a great big wonderful group of people.

2. My church family, they are a great group of people who are commuted to each other to help each other grow together to become more like Christ. We are a family and it was great to be together on this day. it is a family built around love, trust, encouragement, honesty, and a desire to walk together as we become more like Christ.

3. My husband, I have said it many times and I will say it again I am thankful for my husband, he is a great man of God and Cares for me more then I deserve.

4. My friend Lisa and her husband Josh, they have been and will always be great friends. Lisa had been with me sense the beginning of my time at Asbury. we have lived together and been there for each other in some dark times and some great times. I have know idea where I would be without her.

5. My friends Daniel and Jeanette these two are my friends who become more and more like family every day. they are people who I thank God are in my life. they are sweet friends and people I know I can depend on.

Simple Women's Daybook 20

2011-11-21T07:29:00.001-05:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... overcast skies, looks like another rainy day. .

I am thinking..How much I want the Twilight series to disappear

I am thankful...For electric blinkets

In the kitchen...oh those Science projects in my fridge have got to go.

I am wearing... A nice silky flora nighty

I am creating... Knitting:The cowl is cast on and going great! And I've started designing! I am very excited to see how this works. Drawing: none, writing: Nanowrimo word count is at 28517, way behind but It is thanks giving weekend and even though I have several things to do depending on how work goes i may be able to catch up no problem.

I am going...To Work, amazing, I get to go to work to day. I wonder if it will be the only day I work this week.

I am wondering...Why more people don't read classics? I mean really why don't people read Chaucer, Beowulf Austin, and Shakespeare. it is very sad to me.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish.

I am hoping... to get thank-yous out. really there isn't that much more to do on them.

I am looking forward to...a big thanksgiving dinner and Rock band Christmas party!

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible, Hebrew's 8

One of my favorite things... Books

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet, Thanksgiving with the McLouds, Rock Band Christmas party at the Jone's

Link I feel like sharing: One of my favority online comics-goblins

Jane Eyre: Magic and Fey

2011-11-19T10:38:00.001-05:00

I am going to take a break from the Canterbury tales to talk about Jane Eyre. It is the most recent of my reads and despite my back log there are something that I really want to talk about and I have been thinking about in this book for a few weeks now so here we go.

If you don't know the plot of Jane Eyre it is basically a Cinderella story. Jane is an orphan and is fostered by her Aunt. Her aunt hates her and young Jane is sent to a school were she excels in her learning and become a governess to the family of Rochester. the family of course is made up of a Mr. Rochester his fostering and his servants she falls in love with him but on their wedding day a secret is reviled that is so heavy that she must leave. from near death she is rescued by a reverend and his sisters. she becomes a teacher at a country school. after some strange coincidences She finds out that she has a fortune and what she has always wanted, freedom. She goes back to find out how Mr. Rochester is and discovers that the thing which kept her from marring her is gone and so they marry and live happily ever after.

Now I am going to say that I am not a big Bronte fan. this is the only book from the sisters that I have read and will probably read. I read this book back when I was living in Bismark and I remember liking it. But I got into a conversation with a friend about it and he said that the whole book was basically about Jane complaining that she was ugly. and there definitively is part of the novel it is not the over arching theme.

Anyway how is that for an introduction? Now on to what I would like to talk about today, the use of fairy language in the book. it may be surprising to learn that a book that is completely grounded in the real world would use as it's imagery Magical language and symbols. the first time the realm of fairies is mentioned is when Jane tells us in the narrative that that as a child she had looked for fairies and never found any so she believed that if there ever where fairies they had long ago left this world.

the first time that she meets Mr. Rochester it is in the fog and he calls her some kind of witch or fairy queen. He refers to her often as his fairy and at the end of the book she says that if she is a fairy then he is most deffinetly a Browne. emphasizing that he is not the handsome prince charming of stories. there is the strange happen stance of them being able to hear the other's voice over the distance of miles. And interestingly even thought it is not call so, Bertha's madness is also feyish in nature. see at one time the word fey was used to indicate madness. Someone who had been fey touched was mad. this may have been that it was believed if a mortal were to enter the realm of fey it would be so wholly different in nature that their sanity would break.

Plot IX Character vs Circumstance

2011-11-18T10:02:00.001-05:00

So this plot took me some time to find movies and books that have this plot. Not because it is not a very good or popular plot, it is just a little different. I suppose that is the way to do it. actually when you really start to think about it. Sometimes it is a back ground to the story that is being told, or the story that is being told would not be told if the circumstances had been any different. The story is about a person who for what ever reason they can not do what they want. the society says you can't do that. now if the character says well I guess that is the way it is and goes home, then there is not story, but if the character says no I'm going to do this, I worked to do this and I am going to do this. See this story is based around the idea that something isn't fair.

Really there are many movies about this, they generally take place in a time that we know was a time when it was hard to be a person. Now sometimes that is a black person during the civil rights movement or before the civil rights movement. movies like Remember The Titans, or Ernest Green Story.

The school is dealing I with having to be both black and white students. Their world is all turned up side down, especially if they have to play for a black coach.

Danzel Washington's character is a black coach coaching a team that has been all white for years, he has to get his team to work together despite the fact that they are predisposed to hate each other.

Now if when the rock got thrown into his window he had decided to say you know this is they way it is and moved his family away where they would be safe then there isn't a story. If the former coach had decided to not stand up against the ref who was calling the game so the Titans would lose then there wouldn't have been a story. but Coach Yoast says not that's not fair, "you call this game fair!"

The Ernest Green Story is about a black young man and 8 others who want to go to school. they are the only 11 black students in the school in 1957. it is the story of the Little Rock Nine. these nine students go to school and they are picked on and treated horribly and eight of them say no this is not fair we want an education they want to go to school.

one of them Minnijean Brown didn't make it. now she was treated horribly and was given a chance at a different school. but the other 8 stood firm were and they made it. here she says it is not worth it, this is the south in 1957 it's just the way it is. and she transfers to a school in New York. (this movie was one of my favorite moves growing up I have the greatest respect for all 9 of these students. I am talking about this story from a plot point of view.)

But the other 8 said, no this isn't fair, and we are going to do this.

Now lets move to a different era. In the 1930s it was hard for everyone, Seabiscuit is a great because that horse embodied the struggles of the working class of the 1930s. and the movie does a great job of taking us through the thirties by use of pictures from the era. here is a horse that is wrong, a jockey who is too big, and men who are all at the end of their rope. so what do they do when people tell them that they can't possibly be considered part of the horse racing world.

they spit in the eye of convention and do it. "it's not fair you can't keep us out just because we don't meet you Qualifications."

Of course that is the whole point of this plot. first the character has the ability to do something, and the desire to do it. but something in the way the world works says no for some arbitrary reason desired by Polite Society.

Thankful Thursday 11-17

2011-11-17T07:14:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful for many things.
1. I am thankful for the way Nanowrimo helps me to prioritize, and on one particular piece of writing. I am currently at 25433 words. a little behind but I will catch up again. and I have come up with some really stuff. I really thing that when this is done if I only get to 50,000 (which is really just a detailed out line) I will have very little that will need to be scrapped.

2. Today I am actually thankful for my job. I know that is strange sense I hate my job but for some reason it hasn't seemed so bad lately. I don't know if it is because i am looking for a knew job so i may be leaving it soon, or if looking at what a new job is going t require of me is making me appreciate curtain aspects. like the way my hours are set up, like how my breaks are set up, like how i can listen to my I-pod all day and not worry about anything, like how I can be in my own world. those things are all nice.

3. I am thankful that the holiday season is here. I love the holidays, from Holloween to thanksgiving to Kinderstad or more commonly known as St. Nicholas day, to my daddy's birthday (yes it is part of the holiday season,) Christmas eve, Christmas day, New years, and of course the Superbowl. there is very little i don't like about this time of year.

4. I am thankful for my husband, yes I am always thankful for my husband. he is a great man of god who loves me, encourages me and truly wants me to be happy.

5. I am thankful for my friends in Kentucky, you are my surrogate family and I love you.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.

Ps. 7:17

Out of the Notebook 4 (Nanowrimo)

2011-11-15T08:59:00.001-05:00

Well it is November, so I have been writing a lot. not as much as I should write probably but more then normal. besides I don't get to go to work today so I will probably do a couple hour write-a-thon, maybe this afternoon. watch facebook for updates.

So as normal for November I push aside all of my different projects to focus on one. This year I have chosen a western style fantasy, oh I just thought of something I need to see if I can add to the story, Mexican Stand Off, I don't have one of those yet. hmmm.... could be fun.

any way it is going pretty well, better then last year or the year before. I am at 20915, but I need to be at 25000 by the end of today. I have added a new character and maybe if things get bad i'll watch some of my favorite westerns to get some ideas.

this is what my work board looks like. it always has what ever project I am currently working on. the yellow cards are character cards, the purple cards are act one, the red are act two and the green are act three. each piece of paper is the original scene list that I Mapped out in the planning period back in October. these will be updated when I give each scene a card in my editing phase. up in the corner is a sketch i did of one of my main characters. and of course my two inspirational things that are always on my work board: the holy ghost, and the novelty key card made for the special conference we hosted at the Best western Ramkota inn, in Bismark, they had Casablanca as their theme. on the card is Humphrey Bogart saying, "Here's looking at you kid."

so that is my writing up date this month, however be on the look out for more nano updates.

Simple Women's Daybook 19

2011-11-14T07:08:00.001-05:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... School bus just went by. the trees are black against a light blue over cast sky.

I am thinking..it chilly.

I am thankful...For friends New and Old.

In the kitchen... a mess that has to be cleaned. Seriously I have science projects growing in my fridge.

I am wearing... My purple Eeyore pj's that says moody sense .1966.

I am creating... Knitting: i am almost done with a pair of mittens for Hannah's first birthday present- Greg's idea. I re cast on my cowl, but i think the differences between a size 6 needle and a size 7 needle is bigger then i originally thought. it looks really big. Drawing: none, writing: Nanowrimo word count is at 20915 So I am 700 words behind. I'm not really that worried but hey it's all good. I should be able to catch up by the end of the week.

I am going...To Work, Then I have several errands to run.

I am wondering... about knitting for some reason I have been inspired to start designing knit wear, to sell, and to try and make it part of a living. it is a thought i have had for a while now, but I am not sure what to do with it , if it is just a passing fancy or something that could actually work.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish.

I am hoping... Still trying to get thank yous in the mail, that is just a continuing problem. I have gotten most of them written i just need to take the time to put my address on them and put them in the mail. and thatwork thing with work it's self out.

I am looking forward to...Hanging out with friends.

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible, Hebrew's 8

One of my favorite things... watching children grow.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet, bible study, hanging out at the Jones' and having people over on Friday.

Link I feel like sharing: I haven't shared a picture in a while but here is a link i found that I'd like to share. Standard action is an independent series about a group of adventurers. the acting is good the set is amazing and really considering this is independent production and pretty much a bunch of friends getting together it is really good.

Write a thon

2011-11-10T08:12:00.001-05:00

I know I know another post about Nano, but you know what it is November what do you expect? any way Because my job is a little lame and there is not enough work to go around i don't get to go to work today. So sense i fell behind the last couple of days I'm going to do a write-a-thon today. my goal is to get to 20004.

Crazy? Yes but hey that is the way It is going to be. I'll up date here and on facebook and on Google plus as the day goes on. Now excuse me my first hour has turned into 45 minuets while i have been writing this blog post.

edit: did not make the goal of 20004, but I did make it to 17540, I'm gunna call to day a win!

Random thoughts on the publishing world

2011-11-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

Today is normally the day I would talk about what is on my art desk. guess what I have not drawn a single sketch all month. it sucks but that is my problem. I have had other things on my mind. like getting my Cinderella socks done, and well writing. it is November after all. so much of my time the last month has gone into that. and that has been going very good. yesterday was the first day when i didn't write hardly anything, but I had a bad day yesterday, the kind of day where you think I just want to hid under a blanket till this is all over, type of day.

any way today is a new day, and I have decided that it will be a good day, even if i don't get to go to work today. there is plenty of reasons this day will be far better then yesterday. -anyway enough discussion on my life, on to the subject of the blog.

I've been thinking a lot about the publishing world. I want to be a writer someday and Sometimes the publishing world looks full of possibilities, and other times it looks like a dark and scary place. Let's face it anyone can publish these days, with amazon leading the way in e-books the prices of such things are setting the bar very low. the audience wants their entertainment for free or very little. not going to lie I've listened to several free audio books through pod casts. books that I wouldn't have read other wise. and I've read a couple of books on blogs that I wouldn't have read other wise. then there is also the problem where everyone who participates in NaNoWriMo thinks they have something worth publishing and when a publisher wont take it they publish it on the web. yes that is a generalization but there are those who do it, what would be an editor's Slush Pile is now cluttering up space in the world of electronic publishing. The thing about the publishing companies is that they had quality control.

This makes wanting to break out as a writer daunting. but I have had some thoughts on something else, Serialized Novels. Many Classic books were written this way. it is how comics were written and still are. in fact the internet has made it easier for comic artists and writers to break out because they have the ability to get their product out to their reader group. and that is awesome, why can't writers (novelists in particular) do the same? I know some people do this through their blogs, but why can't the media of the internet and e-publishing betaken advantage of to make the writing more accessible and make a little cash on the side?

By the way Current nano word count: 12175

Simple woman's day book 18

2011-11-07T07:32:00.000-05:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... A dim sun rise, thanks to daylight savings I get to have sunshine in the morning again for a little bit.

I am thinking..about what it means to be a writer in this world, what ever happened to serialized novels and could they be brought back?

I am thankful...a husband who prays for me.

In the kitchen... Pumpkin cookies, and chocolate cake

I am wearing... My Pink panther Pajamas, and my brown house coat.

I am creating... Knitting: Cinderella socks are done, blanket is still on the needles, a bag, I also cast on my cowl, or tried to, sometimes I get confused when reading charts. Drawing; Icon, and some fantasy sketches are still on the art desk but I haven't worked on any of the in over a week. writing: Nanowrimo is of with a blast, I am at 12000 words and going strong.

I am going...To Work, I hope, then i have a job interview at 5:00, I don't know what I want that to result in.

I am wondering... If a writer to make money again by switching to the old style of Serialized novels. it was the way that many classics were written. I wonder if that model could work again.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by, S. Lawrence Parrish

I am hoping... Still trying to get thank yous in the mail. and that I get feeling better. and that I figure out what I should do about this job.

I am looking forward to...Hannah's first birthday party.

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible, Cars driving by.

One of my favorite things... The electric blanket.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Interview, Ballet, bible study, Girls night, and Hannah's first birthday party.

Plot VIII: Character VS Machine

2011-11-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

Oo oo, I love this one!. this one is scary, this one is real. okay any of the plots can be real but this one, it is at the heart of movies like I Robot, Terminator, Space Odessy, and the Matrix. Machines are stronger then we are. we may have created them but what happens if some day someone creates the super computer which some how either becomes sentient or because of its cold logic realizes that the human race is self destructive and can not act in its best interest. Or R.U.R could happen, which was a lot like what happened in the matrix although in R.U.R the Robots took over because humans had become lazy using the robot slaves to do everything.

But then even if the Machines don't some how make the super computer that needs to make the human race logical or domesticated. there is always the fact that machines are built to do tasks better then humans. more efficient. A single machine can make jobs obsolete, then people are out of work. That is the whole idea behind the story of Paul Bunyan. here Paul is having a good old time working with the loggers who then meet their match in a machine who can chop more wood. its the story behind John Henry, only difference is that john Henry wins his match against the steam powered machine that is drilling holes through mountainsides for the train to go through. interesting how the white man loses against the machine but the Black man wins? Just a random thought

but you know what is really scary about this plot, we use machines ever day. they make our lives easier, they do all kinds of tasks for us, what if they suddenly turned on us? that is what happened in Space Odessy. the computer that did everything for them, that they took for granted that would always do what it was supposed to turned on them and killed everyone in the space ship. again this is scary stuff.

Thankful Thursday

2011-11-03T09:47:00.000-04:00

Today I am thankful for My dearest friend Ryan Andrews. Tuesday was her birthday and I wish that i lived close enough to have spent some time with her. See Ryan has been my friend for as long as I can remember. there was no time in my life when she was not my friend. we grew up together. I refused to miss her wedding, and she was my Matron of Honor. My life would be missing something if she was not in it. we have been through a lot, her dragging me around the supermarket because she learned to walk first, sharing pacifiers, playing hide and seek amount the clothing racks at stores, pretending that my mom's water bed was a tramp (nearly ended very badly for me cause the window was open and I fell thank God for Ryan, she saved me that day), Having funerals for moths, camp, vbs, navigating high school, men and college. and now here we are hundreds of miles apart and still friends.

And it starts...

2011-11-02T07:46:00.002-04:00

Today is day two of NaNoWriMo. and I think I am off to a good start. Nothing amazing, but I wrote over 2,000 and I hope that this will continue. See I am Kinda worried because this first week of November is actually pretty busy for me. Monday was spooky time on main which my church was doing stuff with, yesterday was the feast of all saints, today I have bible study, tomorrow I will be going over to my good friends' house to play games all night, and Friday I will be having friends over to once again play games all night. I hope to keep up the word count. then on Sunday I have a pot luck to go to at another friend's house. a little girl's first birthday party.

but luckily I will not be traveling this year for thanksgiving, though there will be thanksgiving dinner somewhere, either with the McLouds or the Jones, and of course the first annual Christmas party.

Oh and to top it off my job has entered a state of insecurity. Part f me doesn't care because well it will come back, but another part of me remembers that this is one of the problems with my job, it is completely unstable and unreliable. So depending on what that does I may be job searching. fun times right?

Okay enough of this whining. I really need to get some cheese good luck on day two to all the nanos, or wrimos which ever title you prefer.

current word count: 2072

On The Needles 4

2011-11-01T07:27:00.000-04:00

Well, when I first sat down to talk about this month's knitting i didn't think there was going to be a lot to share. but I made a trip to the knitting store, so there are somethings to share.

Lisa and I went out to explore the knitting stores of Lexington and this is what we came back with. ReBella was nice and small but the help was not very helpful. I don't know if She figured we knew what we were looking for or if she just didn't want to be bothered. Stitch Nitch on the other hand was big and felt a lot like a used book store with stuff everywhere. the ladies were amazingly helpful.

So a Break down of the yarn i bought. the first two on the left are super wash Merino and I am hoping to make some socks from them for my sisters. the next one is recycled cotton which I am using to make a BYOB bag to use for transporting recyclables and or groceries. Next is a tweed Sport weight which i hope to make a gift out of for Nikki. and Last but not least my un-dyed Alpaca. oh I love love love this yarn it is so soft and amazing. I found it at the store and couldn't stop petting it. I can't wait to cast on the cowl I plan to make with it.

Finished progects: I got a dish cloth made for Lucia's wedding present.

On the needles: well my Cinderella socks are almost done I had hoped to be able to share them today All I have left are the cuff. I re cast on my blanket with yarn that my mom gave me years ago. and my BYOB bag is cast on.

Future projects: Nikki's Christmas gift. a doll for Dottie, a bear for Rocken, an Elephante for Hannah, Maybe Christmas gifts for my parents, two baby hats, 4 dish cloths, and Greg wants me to make him a pair of socks.

Simple Woman's Daybook 17

2011-10-31T07:31:00.001-04:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... I hate being up before the sun, it makes the world seem Dark Dank and Dreary.

I am thinking..how people view language, why some words are offensive, why others okay, the purpose of expletives, and why people get offended.

I am thankful...a husband who takes care of me when I'm sick.

In the kitchen... Well we are just about out of food, so not much it has been slim pickings recently.

I am wearing...Pajamas, and my brown house coat.

I am creating... Knitting: Cinderella socks are almost done, blanket is still on the needles, a bag. Drawing; Icon, and some fantasy sketches, writing: a new novel has been outlined and is ready to be started after midnight tonight.

I am going...To Work, then I have to do some running around before going to help at Spooky time on main with the ministerial community.

I am wondering... again about language. Like when people say "god told me..." or when people use "it's okay," or "It's not a big deal." instead of "I forgive you." and why there is a difference.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Allpro By Scott Sigler, Shape Shifters by,

I am hoping... To get thank yous in the mail, today. and you know get the house clean before people come over on Friday. and that I get feeling better.

I am looking forward to...A week filled with friends and Fun.

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible, Cars driving by.

One of my favorite things... Cuddling under blankets

A few plans for the rest of the week: Today: Spooky time on Main, Tomorrow: Mass of All Saints, Wednesday: Bible study, Thursday: Jones' house for games, Friday: our house for games, Sunday: Harrold's house warming! Gunna be a buissy week.

Nano Planning up date

2011-10-30T00:18:00.001-04:00

Well to day has been a crazy day for Novel Planning. But I have finished my planning for Nanowrimo. well the most important stuff. I don't have my map made up yet which is sad, I'm writing fantasy which means unless I am Terry Pratchett I need a map. but geography will have to wait. I am really impressed with how much I got done today. I put up three new posts on my nano blog, describing the mysterious races that are in my world. well mostly some of it I am not completely sure of still. But that was fun. I made some fun little cards with character information and my plot points written out on them. then preceded to map out the three acts. and there are a grand total of 47 scenes. that is scenes not chapters, but still that seems like a lot.

any way I hope everyone else's planing is going good. I am just happy that now I get to sit back and relax till tuesday comes. I am all set and ready to go. I have never been this prepared for nano before. I hope this plan works. I am excited about the novel the world and the characters. It promises to be a good year. And the best of luck to everyone else who is going for this crazy endear.

The Fruit of the Spirit

2011-10-26T07:41:00.000-04:00

Tuesday nights I go to ballet class. my ballet classes meet in a church. Our dressing room is in the Sunday school area, and the focus lesson of their children's Sunday school classes is the fruit of the spirit.

when i was little one VBS (vacation bible school) that i was a part of was based on the fruit of the spirit, and the thing about VBS songs is that they are forever carved inthe deep recesses of my brain.

So after class I look at the funny little cartoonish representations of the fruit of the spirit and start singing..."the fruit of the spirit shows God's love in your. a seed of love is planted and grows and the spirit shines through.... but you gotta have love, joy peace patients kindness for this is the fruit of the spirit it, you gotta have goodness, gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-control for this is the fruit of the spirit."

this song soon gives way to this one... "Love is part of the fruit of God's spirit, Love is proof that God lives in me, Love is one of the ways I am like him, Love is part of God's plan for me. God's love in me grows like a tree, I want everyone to see God's love in me. Joy is part of the fruit of God's spirit, Peace is proof that God lives in me, patients is one of the ways i am like him, Kindness is part of God's plan for me. God's love in me Grows like a tree, I want everyone to see God's love in me. Goodness is part of the fruit of God's spirit, Gentleness is Proof that God lives in me, Faithfulness is one of the ways I am like him, Self -control is part of God's plan for me. God's love in me Grows like a tree I want ever one to see God's love in me."

Last night as I was waiting for Lisa (because she is my ride, but she is in the ballet performance for Christmas) I was thinking about these songs. And why I liked them then and why I like them now. thought about VBS and how much I learned about God during those weeks of never ending fun. I mean I went straight from being a participant to being a leader. (seriously the it has only been sense coming to Kentucky that i have not been involved with a VBS.)

But any way particularly the second song is saying some interesting things. Now there could have been 9 verses long and done what the writer did for Love for each of the fruit of the Spirit. I particularly like the lines, X is proof that God lives in me, and X is one of the ways I am like him. because I tend to focus on all the ways I fail. all the ways I miss the mark. I remind myself for ever little thing that i do wrong, a miss spoken word, a hateful look, when i am mean, or impatient.

however while my failings are important, and are signs that i have not yet reached Sanctification, it is also important to remember that when I am Faithful I am like God, when I show love I am proving that God lives in me. Sometimes we should focus on the times when we are manifesting the fruit of the spirit rather then the times when we don't.

Canterbury Tales 5: The Man of Laws Tale

2011-10-25T07:41:00.001-04:00

"Sir Man of Law," quoth he, "so have ye bliss,
Tell us a tale anon, as forword is. the bargain
Ye be submitted through your free assent
To stand in this case at my judgement.
Acquit you now, and holde your behest; keep your promise
Then have ye done your devoir* at the least."

well after the cook's half baked tale, the Reeve's twisted tale of revenge and rape, and the Miller's tale of adultery it is nice to see the Man of Law come along and give us a tale of honor, fidelity, and constancy.

100 word Summary:TheBeautiful daughter of the Emperor of Rome Caught the eye of a paganking. He could not live without her so he agreed to convert. Hismother didn't like this and sent an army to kill the girl and thosewho traveled with her. The army put the girl adrift in the sea.Somehow she made it to England where she met and fell in love withanother king with a mean mother. Onceagain she found herself drifting in a ship on the sea. But this timeshe drifted back to Italy. Where her husband found her and they livedhappily ever after.

You know what is nice about this tale? it is a nice tale about good people. after the Miller's tale, and the Reeve's tale, and the disappointment that was the Cook's tale, it is just nice to hear a story about a damsel in distress who in the end gets to live happily ever after.

This tale is very much like a fairy tale. we have a pure heroine, evil 'stepmothers', miraculous salvations, and a good king (or prince).

So we have a young girl Constance who is the pure virgin girl of faith. She was raised in a good family and was beautiful. so Beautiful that the king of Syria was willing to convert to Christianity for her. This is interesting to me at least because many times we see the female saints were often martyred because they refused to marry a pagan. So I think it is very telling about this king that he would order his whole house hold to convert to Christianity So he cold have this women. however she doesn't marry the king of Syria. and the troubles of her life come falling around her. In fact every time her life gets good something bad happens. She floats to England in boat, she makes a friend, the friend and husband convert to Christianity, the friend is murdered and Constance is blamed. she gets married, but her mother in law can't stand her. so forged letters are created and the girl finds herself a drift at sea again, but this time with her infant son. and yet in the end the bad guys get theirs, and Constance and her husband reconnect and live happily ever after. I just love that this one has a happy ending. you know it is kinda like the knights tale...

But this one has a good old fashioned moral to it, just like any good fairy tale. Good may suffer but it will not be concord. Something interesting about Constance's story when compared to Snow white, or Cinderella. Constance may be long suffering, and she is quiet about her suffering, but her knight in shining armor doesn't just walk on the scene to give her a kiss and break the spell so they can live happily ever after. The king Alla comes home to find that his mother, who hated Constance, had tricked him and all those in his service. this is of course treason, and his mother was put to death. but the interesting this is that Alla felt he had to do penance for the killing of his mother. he had acted justly in putting her to death but for him that did not change the fact that he had commuted matricide. what rule or judge does penance for fulfilling the requirement of the law? and the thing is, if he hadn't gone to Rome to do penance he would have never found his wife. And that has it's own beauty. Particularly because it comes from a man who practices law. what would our courts be like today if lawyers were required to do penance for their actions?

any way join me on Saturday for the Wife of Bath's tale.

Plot VII: Character vs Nature

2011-10-21T07:30:00.000-04:00

Ah now this is a good one. when it's not just that someone or something is out to kill you, but when the world itself rises up to destroy you. that is scary, I mean why else would there be so many disaster movies? Armageddon, Twister, the Day after Tomorrow, Titanic. This is the plot to every disaster story. It is a kinda cool plot from where i stand as a christian, not only have people been corrupted, bent and broken, but sin has even corrupted bent and broken creation. after all Creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth. in it's waiting for the true king to come back its pains are expressed in the form of national disasters.

Jack London Nailed this plot. if you want to know how cold Alaska is just read his books. with descriptions like "the Yukon, where to lose a glove was to lose a hand." or "the man spat, it crackled into ice before it hit the ground" The very world the character lives in is out to get him or her.

This is what is cool about a fantasy that takes place in a desert or in the north, its not just the monsters, it is the world itself that is out to get the characters. George RR Martin has Winterfell and the reminder that Winter is Coming. an ominous saying where we learn that winter can last for years and there are dangers north of the wall that will come down south when the weather changes. Then there is the Dark sun world where Magic has disrupted the normal world and outside of the 'civilized' world is a desert waist land filled with monsters with no reprieve if the characters wander to far from the city with to few supplies, there is no if we die, there is only when we die.

That is scary, the world is a scary place. sometimes in real life it seems that the world is out to get us.

Okay how about an example of this plot that is not so frightening. Robinson Crusoe. here is a guy who just wants to get to his new property, but there is a wreck and he is the only one who lives. So he gets all whining on the beach, but see he is a man, and as a man he can think and reason. so he finds a way to have fire, he finds food, he makes a shelter, and so he survives. take that movie put it into a modern time and put Tom hanks in a s the leading actor and what do you have? Castaway. Pretty cool huh?

Thankful Thursday 10-20

2011-10-20T07:13:00.001-04:00

today I am thankful:
1. To be a part of a community that prays for each other and loves each other.

2. To have a husband who loves to cook and is pretty dang good at it.

3. For the friends and family members that I can stay connected to through blogger.

4. For my church family in general.

When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; his love endures forever."

2 Chronicles 7:2-4

Freedom!!!

2011-10-19T07:43:00.002-04:00

Today I want to talk about something that took me forever to understand: Freedom. and I still don't fully understand it, but I believe I understand it better now then I ever did in the past.

See when I was younger and even when I was in college, and even when I was at my first Job as a pastor I struggled with the burden of perfection. I knew I wasn't perfect but I wanted to be. I was raised in a good evangelical church, I knew about entire Sanctification. But I didn't get the paradox of Freedom in Christ but also Being Perfect.

It is a paradox.Paul says, "it is by faith and not by works so no man can boast." Yet James Says, "faith without Works is dead" and Jesus said, "If you love me you will follow my commandments." It doesn't make sense, we are free but there are still laws. now growing up I heard all the explanations of how this paradox works itself out, I went to bible school, I have had multiple hours of theology classes. I participated in holy week, and went to camp meetings. Sanctification is a big deal to Wesleyans.

But it all came back to the actual living out of this idea which seemed to preach free but not free. and I was not perfect, In fact I didn't understand some thing that people pointed to as what a perfect person did and believed. In some ways I gave up the idea that could be perfect. Sometimes it felt that everyone else was perfect and had arrived be me.

when I came to Seminary I was so tired from trying to be a good example for the youth, seeing church as a job, and feeling that I could do little right that I decided that while at seminary I was going to not live under the rules and regulations I had given myself. For example I was going to take one week off from church every month. this was a big deal I was not allowed to miss church in college, and never did unless i was sick or the weather was really really really! bad. and even in high school I had rarely missed. but that one week a month helped me to breath, it wasn't something I had to do anymore.

The thing I didn't do was 'forsake' the gathering of believers. I was with other Christians all the time. and I met some Christians who had completely different views on things then me. where I had always thought that every Christians was a republican (for example) I met people who had real issues with that party. I found people who cared about things that were more important and less self centered then the way people dressed and talked. I had always known in my mind that perfection wasn't my job, and that freedom wasn't the ablity to do whatever I wanted. but somehow at Seminary when I desided not to care about the rules society had placed on my I really began to know that perfection wasn't my job, and that I could really be free.

Sure I still make mistakes but that is why i love being at a church that has an older liturgy. every week we say: Almighty God, Creator of all, you marvelously made us in your image; but we have corrupted ourselves and damaged your likeness by rejecting your love and hurting our neighbors. we have done wrong and neglected to do right. we are sincerely sorry and heartily repent of our sins. cleanse us and forgive us by the sacrifice of your son; remake us and lead us by your spirit, the Comforter. we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And then the priest reminds us all that we (himself included) have been forgiven by saying:

Almighty God have mercy on you forgive you all your sins though our lord Jesus Christ, Strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life Amen

Some times it is just good to say aloud, "I missed the mark again, either by something I did or something I left undone, in thought word or deed. and then to be reminded that God still forgives. it is why I need confession every Sunday, and to go to the Lord's table every week. that is how i am reminded that despite all my failings I am forgiven, I am free in Christ.

Out of the Notebook 3

2011-10-18T07:49:00.001-04:00

This month my writing world is a good place to be. actually this month has been good for all my artistic endeavors. but of course this is supposed to be about my writing. Because it is October that means it is NaNoPlaMo, or National Novel Planning Month. See November is Nation Novel Writing Month. A month when People all over the country and world think I have always had this idea for a novel, and they go ahead and try their hand at writing. Now Some of these people just want to try it for the sake of trying it, Some people think that by participating in NaNoWriMo they are actually authors and flood editor's slush pile, and then there are people who are like me who use NaNoWriMo to focus their writing and know that the product they have at the end of the month is Draft Zero, not even worthy of First Draft.

Any way more on that project in a minuet, I have many other projects.

1.Ashes and Snowflakes I finished outlining the second act of this book, but I haven't started typing it out yet. this is because of where I have been on other projects, before October 1st I Started working on Act 3. it is very exciting to have this one so close to being done. It wont be done it time to do what i wanted to do with it but maybe next year.

2. The Rescue: This was my Nano project last year. I have been fleshing out act 1 and ran into some problems. So I had to add a couple more scenes for the purpose of character development. I have one more to write, then I can continue with the rest of the scenes already written editing because of the changes that showed up in the new scenes.

3. The King of Sisilia: this project is my shrug project. what I mean by that is this project is the one that is just purely for fun. It is not about anything more then practice. the notebook this project is in has its home by my bed and when I crawl into be but am not quite ready for sleep I pull it out and play. I find that telling myself stories helps me to get to sleep, which is important when I have trouble falling asleep. I don't know if last time I did an Out of the the Notebook post I talked about how I had written myself into a corner with this book, maybe I did and talked about how I though maybe if I introduced more characters that might help. well I really didn't like the idea of adding more characters because I want this story to be from one point of view. well I found a new way to fix it without putting in new characters. I simply back tracked a little and started again from that point. But it is now going smoothly.

4. NaNo: Well Nano has begun. well at least for me. Let me explain. I am trying something a little different this year. I found a blog post about Nano and he included two things, that if you wanted to succeed at Nano then you should participate in NanoPlaMo (October is National Novel Planing Month) and NaEdYoShiMo (December is Nation Edit Your S** Month) and I am going to do that because I want to be a writer and Use Nanowrimo to help me become a better writer. this year I have started a Nano Blog called Plan Write Edit, I do want it to be a privet blog but I am more then happy to send out invitations to people so they can read it. I will be talking about my planning and my editing as well as my writing, I will probably post excerpts of the novel there. This year I am being back to life a little story that I wrote years ago that I would like to change into a Novel. It is called the Alchemist's Daughter and a bit of an over view is:

it has been 10 years sense the range war, which ended with a single deceive battle, in which a strange explosion occurred that killed most of both armies, left many others devoid of human life (now called twisted) and others forever marked by strange lightning bolt type scares.

Wren is alone in the Range, the home that she new was destroyed and now she wonders alone with a power she can't control.

Brook is never alone, but as an alchemist she is an out cast and must keep her abilities secret.

but when the twisted continue to hunt Wren down, and a village decides to burn brook at the stake their lives come together and they learn that there is a greater threat to the peace of their country, one that only wren can sop, but only if she learns how to control the power of the Philosopher stone Shards embedded in her body.

Simple Women's Daybook 16

2011-10-17T07:09:00.002-04:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... No Sun rise yet, we are entering the sad part of the year.

I am thinking..That this is a new week and it is going to be full of Surprises.

I am thankful...For a relaxing weekend

In the kitchen... A mess because i didn't want to do dishes yesterday, or Saturday.

I am wearing...Blue Eeyore pj pants, a gray tank top, my tan knit house coat, all cuddled under the jewel tone blanket given to us by the wonderful ladies at the church of my childhood.

I am creating... Knitting: Blanket, Cinderella socks, I think I need to cast on some more stuff. Drawing; Icon, and some fantasy sketches, I'll talk about what I am writing tomorrow.

I am going...To Work, then a list of Errands to do.

I am wondering...Still trying to figure out what book to listen to at work.

I am reading...The Fools Errand By Robin Hobbs, The Silmarillian By Tolkien, The Starter By Scott Sigler,

I am hoping... To Get thank-yous done this week,

I am looking forward to...High Mass on Friday, (feast of St. Luke)

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible, Night bugs, Cars driving by, it is very busy this morning.

One of my favorite things... being able to take the time to do things that are not important but edifying.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Cleaning the house, High mass, Ballet, and maybe some other stuff.

Canterbury tales 4: The Cook's Tale

2011-10-15T11:20:00.001-04:00

THE Cook of London, while the Reeve thus spake,
For joy he laugh'd and clapp'd him on the back:
"Aha!" quoth he, "for Christes passion,
This Miller had a sharp conclusion,

The Cook liked the miller's tale, that should tell you enough about his character. if you still doubt that he was a churlish sort then take heed that the host of this glad company said that his cooking was not always good or 'fresh' and that more then once the cook may have given his patron's food poisoning.

100 Word Summary: There was an apprentice who like to play dice, and woo women. when ever he could get out of the shop he did. One day his master cast him out and this apprentice when to live with companion who had a prostitute for a wife....

Well it seems that the cook's tale was unfinished. It feels like a joke where some one forgot the punch line. I have nothing else to say about this. Join me next week for the Man of Laws Tale.

Nano up date

2011-10-14T18:24:00.000-04:00

Hey all, I just wanted to have a way to let people know, I have started a privet blog for Nano, I will still be posting here but I am going to only post word count updates here. on my Nano Blog depending on how this experience works out will have different information on my planning for Nano, and about my editing of the nano novel. I am hoping that this blog will give me extra incentive to get the novel done rather then giving up half way through. If you would like to follow you will need to leave me a comment here, on Google plus, or on Facebook. If you have Google plus I will be adding a circle specifically for people following my Nano Blog.

Any way that is all for this announcement. hope everyone's nano planing is going well for those who are planning on entering the madness that is nano, everyone who is not, well I hope you are looking forward to mocking those of us who are silly enough to do it.

Plot VI: Character vs Self

2011-10-14T07:48:00.000-04:00

This plot is somewhat fascinating when done well. When done, not well it is well for lack of a better word, meh. the conflict in this story is caused by inner rather then outer forces. Basically something goes wrong and the character has to fight against something within him or herself to resolve the conflict. it is Sicological and delves into the heart and soul of what the Angst is.

Now Angst is a bit of a dirty word because it brings up ideas of teenage angst. And there is a place for stories about teenage angst have there place but of course these are generally the examples of how inner conflict is done poorly and more often then not done horribly.

The Night Gallery and the Twilight Zone use this plot a lot. generally whoever the protagonists is placed into a place where they find out that they might or might not be crazy.

But a great example is a western called High Noon which is based on a short story called the Tin Star. this story is about a sheriff who is retiring. Now he has cleaned up the town that he has been sheriff, they can have a church, women and children don't have to be afraid to walk down the streets. He is marrying a Quaker and on their wedding day a telegraph comes in to say that Frank Miller is out of jail. Frank Miller is the quintessential western villain. But the Sheriff's Wife is a Quaker who will have nothing to do with violence. So when Will (the Sheriff) makes the decision that he is going to do his duty and protect the town that he has protected for years. She tells him she is going to leave. the rest of the movie or book is Will trying to get together a group of people to help him and no one will, and Her being resolved to leave if he decides to turn to violence. something that is cool in the movie is that in the back ground is a song that says "do not forsake me oh my Darlene..." any way he faces the Bandits all by himself because everyone in the town has forsaken him and he is out of bullets Frank Miller is about to kill him and suddenly there is a gun shot and there is the wife. it wasn't just high noon for Will, but also for her.

Just one final thought: Grey cooper is amazing in this movie you should all see it.

Pre-Nano 2011-1

2011-10-13T07:40:00.000-04:00

Today we have 18 days left before Nanowrimo starts. It is crazy that it is so close, I was still thinking that October had just started, and then I saw a post on facebook from my cousin and realized that holy chap i was going to do massive amounts of pre-work and well opps I haven't hardly started. So that has to get fixed this week.

I have just gone on to the site and it looks like a lot of things are changing at the website, so if you were one of my writing buddies from the past or would like to be my writing buddy this year I am Gloria.Cole. what can I say the first time I logged in I was tired of trying to come up with funny cool online names.

I am very excited about this year. this will be the first year when I am not at school. So no nasty little papers getting in the way of my real writing, no wedding planing to gum up the works. (seriously what was i thinking last year?) No slow internet, and a very limited social calender.

This year I am once again reanimating an idea that I had in the past and did some work on. it is curently called The Alchemist's Daughter. I have two protagonists Wren and Brook. It takes place in a western style fantasy world about 10 years after a massive civil war between the Civilized East, and the Wild Range. Brook despite her young age was a general (of sorts) in the Range army, because she is an Alchemist. It also includes Strange Zombee like creatures, a Ciborg/golem, the power and devistation of a Nucular bomb, and a Philosopher's Stone.

Hope that sounds interesting, and I hope to see you all on those brief moments that I come behind the massive piles of coffee cups, and glaring computer screen.

Are you going to join the fun? if so what are you ideas so far for your novel?

Suriname

2011-10-12T07:14:00.002-04:00

I haven't actually found a connection from this trip to how I ended up in an 'ancient faith' community, but this experience did shape the rest of my life. the people I met, the things I experienced forever changed me.

I learned that I was not cut out to be a missionary. It just didn't fit. Don't get me wrong I loved this experience, I loved the people, I did not freak out with culture shock. I just didn't fit, I didn't belong there.

Part of this I didn't realize as much when I was there as when I got back. But really by the time I left i knew I would probably never be a full time missionary. Specifics are hard to say because really this is more a feeling then anything else but there are some specifics.

First, I don't think that any of the people thought there was anything wrong with me but my personality and the way I saw the world did not jive well. This actually did not become obvious to me till I got back and I got an email for one of my friend which told me that I needed to grow up if Iexpected to be taken seriously. it was an email that stuck me as strange, part of what I value is to always try to see the world new, to keep an innocents about myself, and not forget the wonder of the world. Like when I say that I can't find something in my purse because there are brownies living in it, or when I see mushrooms suddenly pop up that the fairies must have visited last night. Some how this was viewed as immature, and that hurt. and so I realized that maybe it was best for me to find a ministry in the states.

Second I like living in the states. I love the seasons, and that if find places to fit, where I am able to be myself.

Third this was one of the times that I knew that I wanted to be a writer more then anything else. I came up with some really neat ideas for stories, some of them are still in the idea stage but one day they may see the light of the world. this was something else that was hard for the people I worked with to understand. that I loved to write stories of things that weren't real. I should mention that this is a country that doesn't really read anyway so that probably had something to do with it.

So this experience I why reolized I was not cut out to be a missionary. that was too high and lofty a position for me it seems. It was surprising how not sad I was at this I had wanted to be a missionary for many years.

From the art desk 3

2011-10-11T07:52:00.000-04:00

Frustration and Hard work continue at my art desk! It is kind of sad, I decided to create these series of post to help me have some kind of accountability to get more drawing done, well and knitting and writing, but drawing is the one that I put off the most. Some of it is because I am busy, some of it is because i am tired and some of it is just because I am just plain lazy.

any way this month of drawing was concentrated on one small section of the Icon. It is the space above the head of Christ where a group of 10 Angels fly. The book Francis and the San Damiano Cross Says about this section:

"in the heaven'ts above Christ's head on the San Damiano cross is an assembly of ten gesturing angels who seem to be monitoring, observing, and perhaps attending the happenings on earth below. they seem vigilant, poised, content and encouraging." (Sing 51, 2006)

The Section is difficult. I actually had to separate the figures and work on them in smaller groups before putting them together. And yet I still haven't gotten it all together on the sketch of the whole cross.

However I was able to get a new sketch going. I got into my fantasy drawing going again. I really hope i am able to work on this more but for now this sketch will have to do. eventually she will be a water and acid soul Genasi swordmage. I'm very happy with how this sketch looks I have great hopes for it and for the others that will hopefully follow.

Simple women's Daybook 15

2011-10-10T07:06:00.003-04:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... Darkness... the one thing I hate about this time of year, how short the days get.

I am thinking...I wantta go back to bed!

I am thankful...being married

In the kitchen... interestingly enough Greg cooked all last week,

I am wearing... one of greg's shirts, grey sweats, and my house coat cause it is chilly this morning.

I am creating... well I got some new things cast on, the blanket mom gave me yarn for years ago, a bag, still working on the Cinderella Socks. I'll talk about drawing tomorrow, and as for writing I need to keep working on the rescue (which i have had to add a few scenes to), and Snowflakes and Ashes, and lastly I have been working on the king of Silisa again which is fun and exciting.

I am going..To work, this is one of my short days, then I have to do our bills... blah! stupid beginning of the month!

I am wondering...what this week holds, it is going to to be a laid back week, no ballet, and no plans on Friday yet.

I am reading...Reading The Fools Errand and the Simmarillion, listening to the Starter and Jane Erye. it is taking a while to get through these, not that I mind the Fools Errand is just fun and the simmarillion is the most beautiful thing i have ever read. Jane Erye is nice but i am reading it to look for how much of a theme the fact that Jane is plain is.

I am hoping... To finish thank-yous, Yeah these aren't going so well.

I am looking forward to...Having a nice quiet week

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible.

One of my favorite things... hot chocolate.

A few plans for the rest of the week: going to the Jones' on Thursday, bible study on Wednesday, like I said, a quiet week.

Canterbury Tales 3: the Reeve's tale

2011-10-08T11:37:00.001-04:00

WHEN folk had laughed all at this nice case
Of Absolon and Hendy Nicholas,
Diverse folk diversely they said,
But for the more part they laugh'd and play'd; were diverted
And at this tale I saw no man him grieve,
But it were only Osewold the Reeve.
Because he was of carpenteres craft,

The Reeve is an old man, but don't let his age fool you, he can and will play the miller's game with no hesitations.

100 Word Summary: There once was a miller who had a beautiful wife and daughter. This millerwas a beguiling sort who stole flour from the grains he milled. Twoclerks came and vowed they'd keep the miller from stealing theirgrain. but the crafty miller stole over half, and the clerks wereforced to stay the night. In the room while the miller slept in adrunken stupor the clerks swived both the wife and daughter. thenmade their get away. Thus A guiler shall himself beguiled be.

First can I say that one of my favorite things about reading Chaucer is the new words I am learning? this week it is Swived which means had sex. Oh words are so much fun! And old words are the best!

Any way the two things that I want to talk about with the reeve's tale are death and revenge. so...lets talk about death, that is a cheery topic right?

Like I already said the Reeve is old. but he describes life and death in a very interesting way, this is in his prologue by the way. he says that his tap has run for a long time. he is describing life as a big beer barrel which a tap is put in and as we live life the beer streams out of the tap. eventually the barrel runs dry and that is when we die. I like this picture, it is very practical and I like beer. the thing is that there is no way to add more beer to the barrel. the barrels are sealed to keep the beer good. if you open the barrel there is a chance that something could get in that will destroy the beer. So from that we only get one life, and only so much of it. but here is the other thing, if life is a beer barrel then the tap is running and it is running so other people can share in the goodness that is beer. (okay I understand if you don't like beer but please stay with me) So our tap of life is meant to be shared. it is never good to drink alone. So you only get so much life and that life is meant to be shared with the people around you. I could develop this more and maybe some day I will but there is something else I want to discuss.

The Story told by the reeve is mostly about revenge. But a very strange sort of revenge. it is a Bawdy story, belonging to a medieval genre called fabliau. which is a story that has adultery in it and many times a motif of a cradle switch to get someone into the wrong bed. The Revenge starts with simply why the story is told. the miller just told a story about how a carpenter was make a complete fool by his wife and his wife's lover. the reeve takes offence at this because he is a carpenter. I find this amusing, the Reeve tells a story about how a miller is made a fool of.

Generally as a culture we like stories of revenge, we like to see the bad guy get whats coming to him. this story, had hugely disproportional revenge. The miller was a bad man, make no mistake. He was a thief and he prided himself in his abilities to steal even from those who were going out of their way to make sure he didn't steal. So the miller ruins the day of the two clerks, not only does he steal their flour and bake it into a cake, but to get them out of his mill he lets their horse lose so they have to spend the day running after the horse through the mud and the muck. Now the miller tells them they can stay in his house and he sets them up a bed in the same room as himself and his children. (his daughter is 20). One clerk says to the other: there is a law that sayeth thus,

That if a man in one point be aggriev'd,

That in another he shall be relievd.

Our corn is stol'n, soothly it is no nay,

And we have had an evil fit to-day.

And since I shall have none amendement

Against my loss, I will have easement:

Okay so he decides that sense the miller has ruined his day, he has the right to have sex with the miller's daughter. Well then his friend thinks, "well that isn't fair, my day was just as ruined as yours, why don't I get easement?" So he plays a trick on the miller's wife. she falls for the Cradle-switch and crawls into the wrong bed. she does't know that it isn't her husband that up leap and laid on full sore.

Of course they didn't think about what to do in the morning. Silly cocksure clerks. Well violence is always a good answer right? So they beat the miller to a bloody pulp and run away with their bread.

So let me end with this question: Is this what the thieving, beguiling miller deserved? sure he was a bad man, but was he really as bad as all that?

I could go on- I really like this tale but I will end it here, next week: the Cook's tale.

Plot V: Character Vs. God (or in the old Greek the gods)

2011-10-07T07:57:00.000-04:00

Personally I don't like this plot very much. because at first glance I think oh come on, what kind of plot is that? but you know what this plot has been around forever and is quite possible the plot that all of us deal with in reality. in some ways this is the plot of our lives.

This plot is the central theme to one of the great theological and philosophical questions: "If there is a God why good people suffer? or babies die horribly, or Concentration camps, or Genocides?" it is this idea that that an all knowing, all powerful and all loving God would not let bad things happen. It is a challenge called the problem of evil. of course for the most part they are challenging Christians with the wrong question. they forget hat God is holy righteous and good, therefore can suffer nothing sinful to exist: so if there is a God why are we not all burning in hell? because there is none righteous, not one. answer would be grace, and that God would love that which has rejected him enough to pay the ransom with his own blood. But enough theology. we are here today to talk about Plot.

the basics of this plot (at least the 'christian' basic we will talk about the older sense in a minuet) is that we get a chance to actually ask the question why God? for example: Job.

Job, was a righteous and upright man, the most righteous man of his time. And his reward for being the Lord's favored? I am so glad you asked: he gets ea horrible disease, his kids all die, and all his livestock die. his wife tells him to curse god and die, his friends tell him to repent of his sins. of course he says "but i haven't sinned!" So finely he asks God, "I want an audience! I want to know why you let this happen." and what does god do? he gives Job an answer. he asks Job his own questions like, "remember when I made the great things of the sea? how much input did you give me on that?" Job has to answer "um I wasn't there." "that is right." says God, "now when I made the air you breath? remind me what was you help in that?" again Job can only say "I didn't help." and this goes on until God basically has shown that he is the creator of the universe and Job has no right to ask him why he does anything.

Now we don't like that answer much but latter in the bible we are told that "my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts." but again that is enough theology we are talking about plot.

the older form of this plot is Character vs. the gods. and this is more satisfying because the gods are usually flawed and can over come. The first example that comes to mind is the 5th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Glory is not the smartest god but she is a god. there is a great scene in which the council has come to Sunnydale because Buffy has realized that she is in over her head and she needs to know what the council knows about Glory. after several hi jinks the representative sits down and sighs saying, "She's not a demon, she's a god." the weight of that sentience ends the episode, and the viewer is left with one thought; how the heck is the slayer going to defeat a god?

this is actually a great fantasy plot. (last example I promise) in the pod cast critical Hit (one of my personal favorites) the Characters must find a way to destroy a group of Gods who are encroaching on the world. they are the gods of the void who are mostly crazy. the Gods of the world in list these characters because they (the gods) are unable to defeat the void gods. So the questions are: how are they going to do this? what are the items that they have to find to make a devise to defeat the void? is Randus going to be able to make this thing? Will Torq and Ket find a way to get the dark council on their side?

All in all despite what I said at the beginning of this not being my favorite plot, it is very viable and very interesting. and Hey who doesn't want to ask why bad things happen to good people or defeat and evil god?

Thankful Thursday 10-6

2011-10-06T07:02:00.002-04:00

This Thursday I am thankful that Greg has a 'new' job. really he has just changed from working with the students to the faculty. and he is so much happier, which makes me happier.

I am thankful that today is Thursday we have some very fun plans for tonight, and in a fun way our weekend starts today. not that we don't go to work today and tomorrow, but we have some fun plans with friends tonight and some fun plans with friends tomorrow, and some more fun plans on Saturday with some more friends. Needless to say I have been looking forward to today and the next couple of days all week.

lastly I am thankful that i have had a schedule change at work. work is getting more bearable. my job is still mindless and purposeless but I have found that i have more time to work on the things I want to work on.

Value Judgments

2011-10-05T07:47:00.003-04:00

I have been having a lot of thoughts on value lately. what makes someone valuable, how do we show that we value other people, what gives one person value and takes value away from some one else. I think I might have to write an essay or paper on this some how, I'm just not sure how. what direction to take, how to approach it.

my thoughts came from a couple of pod casts, one about women and their roles in the original Star Trek, another about writing the other, and a third about Gender roles in fantastic and science fiction. what each of them said was provoking, and started my pondering and musing on this topic.

it started what makes a person valuable, which lead to what makes them a person? how is a person valued differently by their equation and is that right or Good. how do we show value to people that we disagree with, how do we show value on those who are the other? this then led me to the question of How do we as Christians show value for those who are not Christians? then even farther how do we as as Christians who are living in this time where the kingdom is breaking into our world yet has not yet come show value for those who are not yet part of the kingdom? How should what is popularly called 'Kingdom Living' effect who we value, and how we show that we value that person?

These are the questions I have, and perhaps i will find a way to unpack them and organize them into a coherent thought process.

On the Needles 3

2011-10-04T07:27:00.003-04:00

This month, I have gotten a little more knitting done. and I am happy to report that I have more to talk about this month then last month. I don't know how much more but it is more. couple of things, from here on out i will only be posting pictures of the projects when they are done, and I will also talk some about the pattern when the project is finished.

Finished projects:

I finished My brother's Christmas present! that means that of the 10 Christmas presents I wanted to make this year I have gotten 3 done! okay I know that doesn't sound like much but considering that last year I had planned to make 5 and only got one done, So I have already done better then my 10% success rate of last year. I am now 30% done! any way one to what you all really want to see:

This is the watch hat from the Book Knits Men Want by Bruce Weinstein. it can be found under Rule 10 about knitting for men: when in doubt make him something basic. I love this book and I can't wait to knit more out of it. This book is a fun book about Weinstein's experiences working in a knitting shop and watching his many female friends make mistake after Mistake when they knit for them significant others. he also shares in here a very interesting explanation for the sweater rule (if you knit a sweater for a man who is not yet your husband he will break up with you.) But any way I really recommend this book for anyone who is knitting for the men in their lives. the patterns are simple and set up for any size and can be made with any gauge, type of yarn, or needles. which is one of the things I love of about it. seriously I find cute patterns all the time but because I can't stand knitting with anything smaller then a size 3 needle I can't do it.

It is a little strange that i am talking about and posting pictures of Christmas presents on line, but I really don't think that any of my immediate family members actually read my blog so I really don't think it is a big deal.

Oh I also finished a baby hat on Sunday for a baby shower on Sunday. I don't have a picture of that one because well I finished it about 40 minuets before I needed to be out the door and I needed to get the other half of the gift.

Current projects

well right now I have two projects on the needles. The first is the dish cloth, (I have about 6 of these to make thanks to all the weddings I am connected with) and my very own pair of Cinderella socks. I haven't been to the yarn shop in a wail so I don't have a lot to talk about, I hope to cast something new on today, Maybe a blanket... you know sense mom bought me yarn to make that and i just need to find the right blinket pattern to start working on it. the last one was kind of a drag.

Future projects

Lets see there are the 5 more Dish cloths i need to get done, most of them require me to go and get more yarn. there are the 7 more Christmas presents (socks for dad, something for Mom, Nikki and Megan, a stuffed animal for Hannah, a doll for Dottie, and bear for Rocken.) two more baby hats, two more cousins have gotten pregnant. I want to make my self some Cleaves, a blanket (mostly to say that I have done one and to get my stash back down) and a sweater. Oh and I want to try and knit a reusable bag. I think that is all for the month, we will see what all gets done and what doesn't.

Well that is all this month so as Miss Kalandar would say, "the next time someone makes fun of you for knitting in public just laugh and remember that after the zombie apocalypse you will have a useful tool and they will just be food."

Simple woman's Daybook 14

2011-10-03T07:35:00.001-04:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... a Purple Dawn

I am thinking...I wantta go back to bed!

I am thankful...For new Life

In the kitchen... Mess

I am wearing... My Favorite Pink sweats, Purple tank and my house coat.

I am creating... Knitting: Dish cloth, Cinderella socks. I hope to get some other projects cast on. Drawing: the icon I hope to add some other projects here. writing Ashes and Snowflakes and The Rescue.

I am going...to work, and then to get groceries. my week has changed up a little. no my Monday nights are empty.

I am wondering...how I will use my afternoon now that I have changed my work schedule around so I only work till 2 today.

I am reading...Reading The Fools Errand and the Simmarillion , listening to the Starter and Jane Erye.

I am hoping... To finish thank-yous, we got enough done to have five guys on Saturday, but not quite all of them . this weeks reward: a fresh growler for Greg and a Lambic for me

I am looking forward to...going to the Jones' on Thursday, having friends over on Friday, and game night at the church on Saturday! it is going to be quite the week!

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible. and the school buses going through the neighborhood.

One of my favorite things... Warm blankets.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Ballet, lots of games, Lots of Pizza, and lots of time with friends.

Canterbury Tales 2: The Miller's Tale

2011-10-01T14:14:00.002-04:00

The Miller is a churl, ye know well this,

So was the Reeve, with many other mo'

And harlotry they tolde bothe two. ribald tales

Avise you now, and put me out of blame; be warned

And eke men should not make earnest of game. jest, fun

The miller is a very dirty old man. His tale is quite the opposite of The worthy knight. who told a grand story of high chivalry and of a beautiful girl who was chaste, honorable and became a worthy wife. his tale is about a much different sort of wife. (I apologies, just as Chaucer, there will probably be some mild swearing in this)

100 word summary: Acarpenter, who was wealthy and old, took a wife who was beautiful andyoung. Nicholas and Absolon, fell in love with her. She lovedNicholas and they hatched a scheme. Absolon discovered them and saidhe would not go till he had a kiss. So she let him kiss her, on herass. He vowed revenge. Latter he asked for another kiss. This timeNicholas put his ass out the window. Absolon was ready and smote himwith a hot poker. His screams woke the carpenter, but the plan workedso that the neighborhood thought the carpenter was a silly man.

What first strikes me as amusing about this tale is that it follows the knights tale. the miller is drunk and refuses to let anyone else tell a tale, his must be next. And in his prologue he talks about how husbands should not trespass on God's or their wives privacy. while the knight exhorts a women of beauty, the miller explains why a beautiful women might not make a very good wife.

The story is really about the foolishness of the carpenter. his first mistake was to take this young girl as his wife when he was so much her elder. because of his decision to wed her he, he chose to play the cuckold husband. For she was bound to catch the eyes of younger men who would have no respect for the old Carpenter. which she did, one played the part of the out right lover singing at the married couples window (who was Alison was not interested in) and the other played the part of the sly lover who schemed his way into the bed. this was Handy, Worthy Nicholas.

their plan was simple, fool the old carpenter into believing that Noah's Flood was coming a second time and they must find a way to survive it. the funny thing is that he believed it. It is easy to say that this was because he lived in a time when people were superstitious and foolish. of course if a Soothsayer (which Nicholas was) said the flood was coming he would believe him. it was a silly and believing time. But then I ask you: how many people bought the story earlier this spring that the world was going to end in May? how many People are afraid that the Mayan calenter really products that the world will end next year? how many people thought Y2K was going to be the end of the world? How many people think Nostradamus really saw the future? You see there are still very silly people in the world who are that "sucker born ever minuet." people are generally still afraid of the end of the world. why else would that be a popular plot of movies and books?

of course because the towns people are told about how the Carpenter was so sure that Noah's flood was going to happen that he bought three big Kneading Tubs and begged them for company, they all thought him very silly and despite the fact that he had been duped and made a cuckold (I love learning new words) the people of the village gave him no sympathy, all the harm done to him was turned into a jape.

the moral of the story? if you are old don't marry a young women there is no way to make sure you don't end up her fool.

Now to say something about the joke played on Absolon, the poor man. he tried so hard to woo the married women and all he got out of it was kissing Alison's butt and Nicholas farting in his face. It is just plan funny. and all I can say about this one is that it pretty much should let us know that there were just as many fowl writers in the olden times as there are now.

Nutrition, exercise, and me

2011-09-29T08:01:00.000-04:00

like most women my age I struggle with my weight. It kinda sucks. I didn't used to, but when you go for a year feeding your depression with microwave pizza because cooking anything is just too much of a hassle you can quickly go from 115bl to probably close to180. yep and I got stretch marks to prove it.
I was doing really good with keeping up with the really nice work out routine I had found on at the knot.com, but I gt settled in my life and going all the way to Wilmore to work out at the gym I have a membership at just was to much of a drive. Now you say just change the membership over to a closer gym. well here is the thing, i don't pay for my membership at the seminary's gym. and I can't afford a membership anywhere. it sucks. and i don't really know what to do.
I think what is really hard is that I don't want to over hall my life. I like my life, I like bread, I like cookie dough. and it seems that most stuff I read, think hey what is one or two healthy things I can do to change my diet basically says to do a complete overhaul and radically change everything. But I don't want to have a radical change.
Now i have been using livestrong.com. it is nice and the people who head it up seem to be the kind of people that say hey just find something that works for you. and that is nice but I still find a lack of motivation. I have a ballet class that meets once a week, and a work out tape that I like. I have a three mile loop around my neighborhood, but I still can seem to figure out when to work out. which is basically me saying but I don't want to right now, I'd much rather do.... well nothing. there has been a general lack of motivation lately. and then that leads to bad feelings of what is wrong with me. But hopefully I will figure something out soon.

The Simple woman's daybook 13

2011-09-26T07:34:00.000-04:00

For Today: July 19, 2011 For more day books

Outside my window... Rain. kinda gloomy

I am thinking...The strangeness of the dream I had

I am thankful...Relaxing Sundays

In the kitchen... Left overs

I am wearing...Purple Pj pants, white tank, and my house coat.

I am creating... Knitting: Dish cloth, Cinderella socks. I plan to cast on a new baby hat. Drawing: the icon I hope to add some other projects here. writing Ashes and Snowflakes and The Rescue.

I am going...To the Jones' tonight, like I do most Mondays.I'm also going to change up my hours at work.

I am wondering...If i can actually make my new plan for getting stuff done work.

I am reading...Reading Mansfield Park and the Simmarillion , listening to the Starter and Jane Erye.

I am hoping... To finish thank-yous (then we get Five Guys on Saturday)

I am looking forward to...Having Josh and Lisa over for dinner on Friday.

I am hearing... The Daily Audio bible. and the school buses going through the neighborhood.

One of my favorite things... Cookie dough

A few plans for the rest of the week: Games and pizzia at the Jones', ballett, bible study, and dinner with Josh and Lisa.

Plot IV: Character vs The Unknown

2011-09-23T07:37:00.001-04:00

There is something out there, and it wants to kill us. That is basically the gist of this one. everything is going along smoothly and suddenly your character realizes that there is something that is causing problems for them. they don't know what it is or why but it wants to at the very least make his or her life miserable.

I have two examples today. The first is Signs. What I originally loved about this movie is that M. Night Shyamalan did something that Hitchcock was known for which was don't show the monster. You knew there was something that no one could see and it was dangerous. then the showed the monster and well he wasn't very scary looking. and i don't mean when the fingers come out from under the door, nope I mean the green thing walking across the open area. that movie would have been much scarier if we had never seen the alien. But any way.

Second Example is Star trek. the basic plot of pretty much each episode is something out there and it wants to kill us and we are going to find it and kill it first. think about it the ship is cruising along, the captain is making thier record and then something strange happens. they don't know what or why but suddenly they know they are under attack by something. the rest of the episode is about finding out what it is and basically killing it.

Bethany student ministry: Rivervalley prayer team

2011-09-21T08:05:00.000-04:00

Today is the last day I will talk about how Bethany effected my spiritual journey. it is probably not the last way that I was effected by my college years in this realm but it is the last thing I am going to talk about.

in my junior year I was invited to do a student ministry with several of my friends Dan and Joy Pusey, and Stephanie Ward (now Perry). we were going to be running a prayer night at Joy's Dad's church. And because we were Idealistic college students we decided to have all kinds of fun.

Now the thing about Rivervalley Wesleyan church was that it was a newer church. it had only moved into its building maybe 10 years prior. and they decided to have chairs instead of pews so they could change the format of the sanctuary. So every week we set up prayer stations. there was a place to pray for healing, to journal, a cross set up so you could pray for someone's salvation. there was a place for intercessory pray, and most importantly there was a place to part take in communion.

Something you should know about the Wesleyan Church their tradition is that communion must be served once a quarter. this is because it was not uncommon for this tradition to have circuit riders and this way each church was assured to get communion at least once a quarter. no a days it is just they way it is done.

So there were two things that happened while I worked at this student ministry. 1. I started to learn more about prayer and how to pray, 2. I first experienced communion on a regular basis.

the interesting thing was this was taking place at the same time I was doing or had done a couple of other things. that semester I wrote my paper on Transubstantiation, that spring I participated in lent, and that new years I had resolved to become a person who prays a lot.

1. learning how to pray: It is hard to say that this free style form of praying would eventually lead to me loving community prayers and praying a rosary. but there was a focus to it. and I should say here that the service changed considerably over the coarse of the semester to end as an old style prayer meeting where we all sat around in a circle and prayed together as a community. but I would say that the way this ministry taught me to pray was that it forced me to carve out a time in my week to pray. It was two hours that I had to spend in prayer, there was little else to do.

2. Communion once a week: once in youth group our leader had talked about a church he had visited that had communion every Sunday. we couldn't believe it why would you have communion every Sunday? (the tradition i grew up in falls into the memorialist understanding of the Eucharist) Some how between my paper and this experience having communion on a regular basis made me realize that the ones who have communion every week are the ones who understand communion. there was something empowering about receiving communion every week. it was not till I was back in a church that served communion once a quarter that I realized that I wanted to be at a church which served communion every week.