I'm back. Alive. And smelling of bug spray. Girl's camp was a blast, let me tell ya. The skit, whatever certain critics would say, was an amazing replica of Dora the Explorer. That alone has unlimited possibilities. Then there was feeding roasted starbursts to the first years and chewing out my younger young women about air pollution and make woofums. Certification, hikes, roll-call: Ah, so good. and playing games like "Tree roots"; "Pretzel"; "Big Booty"; "Two Truths and a Lie"; and all those crazy, girly ones. My older sister wore a straight jacket and I did an excellent Swiper the Fox impersonation.
Then there was the Fourth Year High Adventure. And I was a fourth year at last! My best fried, Moriah, gave it a wonderful description:
"...put an obstacle course one hundred feet in the air and tie people to it."
But SO much fun. I would've stayed up there all day if I could.
I would've enjoyed myself much better if it weren't for the fact that half of my stuff didn't follow me there. This is how it went down: While the other girls were packing to go home and the 4th years to go on our adventure, I went to the bathroom, being all pack and ready to go. When I got back, Peter Bressler was up there with his dad, who was helping to drive and being our present Priesthood-holder.
Me: Where's all my stuff?
(Enter Peter)
Peter: Oh, I noticed you weren't here so I put it on the trailer for you.
Me: Oh, Thank you, Peter! That was so nice of you!
yeah, not so nice. He didn't know I was a fourth year and put it on the WRONG trailer, the one that was headed for Rexburg, not Island Park. I'm just glad to say that I have wonderful friends who were especially generous in donating pajamas, sleeping bags, shorts, a blanket for a pillow, bug spray, etc. They were SO kind. But I am now home and singing Girl's camp songs, being well rested for the first time this entire week. For those of you who weren't at girl's Camp, here are some of the G.C. song titles:
"We're a alive awake, alert, enthusiastic"
"Bear in Tennis shoes"
"Noah song"
"What Can Make a Hippopotamus Smile?"
"I'm a Nut"
"Bananas"
"Jello"
"Milk"
"Shark song"
"Sipping Cider"
"Tippy Canoe"
"Father Abraham"
"Three little Buzzards"
"Princess Pat"
"Mormon Boy Rap"
"Mormon Girls"
"Ice Cream & Cake"
"Chey-chey Shikolay!" (No idea how to spell that)
and all the others I can't list off right now.
While on the High Adventure, me and some friends decided why they have the fourth years go on High Adventure: It's so we can do some major bonding time and be the best of friends so that when we're Junior leaders we don't kill each other next year. It worked rather well.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Reasons for Rain
I went on a Pioneer trek with my stake recently. It was fun, with lots of great food and my un-biological family was great; my sisters especially. And walking. Lots and lots of walking.
But this post is about day 3, the last of our trek before driving back home to take much-needed showers. It was the only day that rained. It was also the only day that we went off-trail. Very muddy, very wet were we. Plus, it was through a cow pasture for the most part, so there were also cat pats which we would accidentally run our hand carts' wheels through and get a new whiff every yard or so as the wheels went around. I was in back, pushing with my un-biological sister, Chantelle, when she started coming up with why the rain was a blessing. After a few moments, I started to add on with her. We were merrily thinking up new ways the rain was a good thing the rest of the way. I can't remember everything, but this is a little of our list. We called it: "Reasons for Rain."
No more Mosquitoes
No sunburns
We wouldn't get too hot
It helped wash out some of the manures off our wheels and shoes
Everything looked so much greener
It smelled better, even with the ripe cows
We weren't as thirsty
No more eating trail dust
There was much more, I'm sure, but that's what I can remember. Chantelle taught me something. Among all the other spiritual lessons I learned, this was one of the ones that really struck me: If it weren't for rain storms, nothing green could grow.
But this post is about day 3, the last of our trek before driving back home to take much-needed showers. It was the only day that rained. It was also the only day that we went off-trail. Very muddy, very wet were we. Plus, it was through a cow pasture for the most part, so there were also cat pats which we would accidentally run our hand carts' wheels through and get a new whiff every yard or so as the wheels went around. I was in back, pushing with my un-biological sister, Chantelle, when she started coming up with why the rain was a blessing. After a few moments, I started to add on with her. We were merrily thinking up new ways the rain was a good thing the rest of the way. I can't remember everything, but this is a little of our list. We called it: "Reasons for Rain."
No more Mosquitoes
No sunburns
We wouldn't get too hot
It helped wash out some of the manures off our wheels and shoes
Everything looked so much greener
It smelled better, even with the ripe cows
We weren't as thirsty
No more eating trail dust
There was much more, I'm sure, but that's what I can remember. Chantelle taught me something. Among all the other spiritual lessons I learned, this was one of the ones that really struck me: If it weren't for rain storms, nothing green could grow.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Pet Peeves
-When people ask if you have gum. I find it rude, like asking "Do you have money?" That, and I never have gum: if I did, I'd be chewing it.
-When people imitate you like a second grader and say things you know you never said.
-When girls ask who you like. If I do like some one, why would I tell you?
-When some one you're talking to starts talking to someone else while you're mid-sentence.
-when people peer over my shoulder when ever I'm with my sketch pad and (word for word) say, "Wow, you are such a good drawer. I can't draw." Putting yourself down should not be a form of compliment.
-when you tell someone that a movie/book/person/place/game is so awesome and the funniest/best/funnest/coolest thing ever, and they for some reason don't believe you and instead of taking your word for it, they brush you off.
-When people know they are doing something wrong, and do it anyway.
-When the person you're talking to hasn't cleaned their braces in decades.
-Girls with too much makeup in all the wrong places.
-People who won't try, or even try to try.
-People who make fun of other people, purposefully being hurtful. Where's the enjoyment in that?
-People who complain about the weather.
-Books with cliche characters, plots, or titles.
-Adults who talk down to children or teenagers. They have brains.
-people who can't take a joke and are easily offended by playful banter or good-natured fun.
-People who kill other living things for sport.
-People who will only follow the crowd.
-people with too many pet peeves. It's like, GET OVER IT!!
-When people imitate you like a second grader and say things you know you never said.
-When girls ask who you like. If I do like some one, why would I tell you?
-When some one you're talking to starts talking to someone else while you're mid-sentence.
-when people peer over my shoulder when ever I'm with my sketch pad and (word for word) say, "Wow, you are such a good drawer. I can't draw." Putting yourself down should not be a form of compliment.
-when you tell someone that a movie/book/person/place/game is so awesome and the funniest/best/funnest/coolest thing ever, and they for some reason don't believe you and instead of taking your word for it, they brush you off.
-When people know they are doing something wrong, and do it anyway.
-When the person you're talking to hasn't cleaned their braces in decades.
-Girls with too much makeup in all the wrong places.
-People who won't try, or even try to try.
-People who make fun of other people, purposefully being hurtful. Where's the enjoyment in that?
-People who complain about the weather.
-Books with cliche characters, plots, or titles.
-Adults who talk down to children or teenagers. They have brains.
-people who can't take a joke and are easily offended by playful banter or good-natured fun.
-People who kill other living things for sport.
-People who will only follow the crowd.
-people with too many pet peeves. It's like, GET OVER IT!!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
An Unfortunate Recluse
I went to the college gardens this evening and was in love. I was surrounded by such lovely greenery, lovely flowers, and even found the most comfortable tree in which to roost while I wrote in my journal it was heaven--or would have been if it weren't for the various proposing couples and random single women in wedding dresses getting pictures taken, along with girls whose age I couldn't guess (between ten and twenty-five. Somewhere in there), and individuals with cellphones (what for I can't guess unless it's the only place they can get bars). And I was remembering the time my family went camping in a literally enchanted forest, complete with stream and dark, tall trees, and I was wishing oh so much that the gardens were bigger. I guess heaven on earth can only be an imitation of the real thing. It was like comparing Kraft Singles to Gouda. Just a disappointment. In the end, the experience was worth it, and I guess it wasn't in vain, and Summer would make the place popular for many residents, but still... I felt imposed upon, though for the majority I was doing that to others. At least it kept everyone shuffling around. Exercise, Right?
Sunday, June 28, 2009
There and Back Again
Well, I've just finished the entire LOTR series. *Sigh* they're so brilliant. The ideas in them are so fascinating, with so many mixed-in morals, equipped with excellent character development, and clever, unexpected humor in all the right places makes these four books so enchanting. I hate it when some one thinks of J.R.R. Tolkien as cliche. Allow me to stand on my soap box in order to add a few inches to my 5'4" while I rant at you poor readers.
LORD OF THE RINGS IN NOT CLICHE!!! There I said it. Tolkien was the first to come up with ANY thing like this, see? The first to create a world all its own, with complete races, lineages, histories, countries, and a full out War. All the other high-fantasy, epic, defeat-the-dark-lord are all copies. Christopher Paolini and all his wannabe followers, and yes, even the great Lloyd Alexander is merely copying Tolkien's Originality. Phew. I'm done.
Almost. OK, I'll say one more thing: Since Caitlyn already claimed Pippin, Sam and Aragorn are taken, Legolas and Gimli are busy traveling all over Middle Earth together, and Gandalf and Frodo are basically untouchable, I call Merry Brandybuck. Alright. I'm done now.
LORD OF THE RINGS IN NOT CLICHE!!! There I said it. Tolkien was the first to come up with ANY thing like this, see? The first to create a world all its own, with complete races, lineages, histories, countries, and a full out War. All the other high-fantasy, epic, defeat-the-dark-lord are all copies. Christopher Paolini and all his wannabe followers, and yes, even the great Lloyd Alexander is merely copying Tolkien's Originality. Phew. I'm done.
Almost. OK, I'll say one more thing: Since Caitlyn already claimed Pippin, Sam and Aragorn are taken, Legolas and Gimli are busy traveling all over Middle Earth together, and Gandalf and Frodo are basically untouchable, I call Merry Brandybuck. Alright. I'm done now.
Monday, June 22, 2009
A Rose By Any Other Name...
Wouldn't smell as sweet.
My dear sister and I were discussing Shakespeare's Observance, and she didn't agree. She thought that a rose smells wonderful in part because roses are supposed to smell wonderful. She made the impression that their reputations precede them, so whether or not Roses really smell good at all is unimportant. Some one who had never smelt a rose before would expect it to be sweet-smelling because everyone knows roses smell absolutely delicious, so even before their first inhaling, a person would already be expecting a rose to smell sweet.
I'm using this as a reference to the names of Characters in books. I got on the idea of the effect of a character's name on how the reader perceives them after looking up babynames.com in their writers' section. I am a hobbyist writer myself and use Baby Names as a common source for christening characters. They give tips on what you should base names on and having them correct as far as gender, ethnicity, and time period goes, as well as being memorable. Everyone remembers Frodo & Sam. The names just roll off your tongue and stick in your mind like bubble gum in braces.
No one wants to read a name like John or Jane. Eck. Ew. Grody. No. Boring. But names like Katniss, Hermione, Vesper Holly--those are the kind of names you find no where else and remember.
On the flip side, I like to play with normal names given to normal characters: names that are so normal, they're almost abnormal. Or better yet, take a normal name and play with the vowels and consonants till it's completely original.
I once took a regular name e.g. Richard and played with similar consonant sounds until I got something simple, but new, e.g. Wickard.
Names label characters with connotations and stereotypes, just like children on a playground: Chuck sounds simple-minded or overweight; Courtney and Brittany sound like ditsy blond cheerleaders; Jack is edgy or rebellious; Josh is a pretty-boy, while Joshua is either old-fashioned or rich and posh. Visual imagery begins the second a reader hears a character's name.
In short, don't name your kid Eugene.
My dear sister and I were discussing Shakespeare's Observance, and she didn't agree. She thought that a rose smells wonderful in part because roses are supposed to smell wonderful. She made the impression that their reputations precede them, so whether or not Roses really smell good at all is unimportant. Some one who had never smelt a rose before would expect it to be sweet-smelling because everyone knows roses smell absolutely delicious, so even before their first inhaling, a person would already be expecting a rose to smell sweet.
I'm using this as a reference to the names of Characters in books. I got on the idea of the effect of a character's name on how the reader perceives them after looking up babynames.com in their writers' section. I am a hobbyist writer myself and use Baby Names as a common source for christening characters. They give tips on what you should base names on and having them correct as far as gender, ethnicity, and time period goes, as well as being memorable. Everyone remembers Frodo & Sam. The names just roll off your tongue and stick in your mind like bubble gum in braces.
No one wants to read a name like John or Jane. Eck. Ew. Grody. No. Boring. But names like Katniss, Hermione, Vesper Holly--those are the kind of names you find no where else and remember.
On the flip side, I like to play with normal names given to normal characters: names that are so normal, they're almost abnormal. Or better yet, take a normal name and play with the vowels and consonants till it's completely original.
I once took a regular name e.g. Richard and played with similar consonant sounds until I got something simple, but new, e.g. Wickard.
Names label characters with connotations and stereotypes, just like children on a playground: Chuck sounds simple-minded or overweight; Courtney and Brittany sound like ditsy blond cheerleaders; Jack is edgy or rebellious; Josh is a pretty-boy, while Joshua is either old-fashioned or rich and posh. Visual imagery begins the second a reader hears a character's name.
In short, don't name your kid Eugene.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
First Impressions
I've been visiting the Good Ol' Library a lot this summer and have found something: I DO judge a book by its cover! Call me prejudice, but if a book has some idiotic picture of a teenage girl/boy/Dragon on the cover with the look of outrageous astonishment (See cover of 'the Gammage Cup', 'Nancy drew,' etc.), I'm not going to check it out. Period.
Then there are the cliche titles like, "Norgblats, the Dragon," "The life and times of Susan Decrue," "Love, Jim"... basically if it has "dragon-(Insert intense-sounding noun here)" or Some woman's name and the picture of white birds on the front, or anything with Scarlet, Black, Gold, or Midnight in them.
On the other hand, there are the perfectly wonderful titles, "Does My Head Look Big in This?" "Stargirl," "Of Mice and Men," "Evil Genius," "To Kill a Mocking Bird," and others that completely grab you.
I also judge heavily on the first sentence (which, coincidentally, is the hardest part about writing for me). The first sentence will tell you everything about an author's writing style, and whether or not it'll be any good. The second I read, "There once was--" I slam the book shut and throw at the opposite wall. We all know "Once upon a time," and "Long ago, in a land far, far away," are all overused, but so are things people use when they think they're being original, like when they start with an Onomatopoeia. Boom! Wham! Pow! If you think I'm on the edge of my seat, I'm not. I'm slouched even farther down and groaning. Of course, Onomatopoeia's aren't all bad, so long as they're different enough to make me actually concentrate when reading them. Not to the extent that they take attention away from the story, but that they make the reader actually pay attention, making them wonder, "What on earth makes THAT noise?!" Like Kap-TWING! SHLOOP! Thwallump!
C.S. Lewis is the perfect example of originality. 'The Horse and His Boy.' It's different, and you start asking questions before you even open it, "Wait, isn't the boy supposed to own the horse?" "What's so special about this Horse, anyway?" "Why does he HAVE a boy?"
The title was equipped with a beautiful, water-colored cover, with a Horse. And a Boy. So simple. So intriguing.
And then, In a different book the same series of Narnia, "The Dawn Treader," where the first thing you read is one of the best sentences a book has ever been started with: "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Different, Funny, something we can all relate to in someway: Brilliant!! It started with a usual, "There was..." But then a name that was familiar, yet so different, followed by a phrase we can all understand without further explanation.
The point of a book isn't to just Plop the entire plot and characters in front of the reader and say, 'here it is.' The evidence of mystery is why people read! titles/covers/first words should create questions instantly in a person's head, then slowly answering them while still making new questions as the story progresses. Stories shouldn't be handed to us on silver platters, we should have to work for them, fighting for our own understanding and interpretation of characters and morals in the book.
Then there are the cliche titles like, "Norgblats, the Dragon," "The life and times of Susan Decrue," "Love, Jim"... basically if it has "dragon-(Insert intense-sounding noun here)" or Some woman's name and the picture of white birds on the front, or anything with Scarlet, Black, Gold, or Midnight in them.
On the other hand, there are the perfectly wonderful titles, "Does My Head Look Big in This?" "Stargirl," "Of Mice and Men," "Evil Genius," "To Kill a Mocking Bird," and others that completely grab you.
I also judge heavily on the first sentence (which, coincidentally, is the hardest part about writing for me). The first sentence will tell you everything about an author's writing style, and whether or not it'll be any good. The second I read, "There once was--" I slam the book shut and throw at the opposite wall. We all know "Once upon a time," and "Long ago, in a land far, far away," are all overused, but so are things people use when they think they're being original, like when they start with an Onomatopoeia. Boom! Wham! Pow! If you think I'm on the edge of my seat, I'm not. I'm slouched even farther down and groaning. Of course, Onomatopoeia's aren't all bad, so long as they're different enough to make me actually concentrate when reading them. Not to the extent that they take attention away from the story, but that they make the reader actually pay attention, making them wonder, "What on earth makes THAT noise?!" Like Kap-TWING! SHLOOP! Thwallump!
C.S. Lewis is the perfect example of originality. 'The Horse and His Boy.' It's different, and you start asking questions before you even open it, "Wait, isn't the boy supposed to own the horse?" "What's so special about this Horse, anyway?" "Why does he HAVE a boy?"
The title was equipped with a beautiful, water-colored cover, with a Horse. And a Boy. So simple. So intriguing.
And then, In a different book the same series of Narnia, "The Dawn Treader," where the first thing you read is one of the best sentences a book has ever been started with: "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." Different, Funny, something we can all relate to in someway: Brilliant!! It started with a usual, "There was..." But then a name that was familiar, yet so different, followed by a phrase we can all understand without further explanation.
The point of a book isn't to just Plop the entire plot and characters in front of the reader and say, 'here it is.' The evidence of mystery is why people read! titles/covers/first words should create questions instantly in a person's head, then slowly answering them while still making new questions as the story progresses. Stories shouldn't be handed to us on silver platters, we should have to work for them, fighting for our own understanding and interpretation of characters and morals in the book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)