AIEEEEEE!!! WE GOT CHICKENS!!!

Aren't they beautiful. They are four days old (except two of them which are two days old) and are settling into their new home. We got all different kinds, which certainly makes it easier to tell them apart. Good thing, too, because we wanted to name them. We got two Ameraucanas, one Rhode Island Red, two Buff Orpingtons, one White Leghorn, one Barred Plymouth Rock, one Silver-Laced Wyandotte, and one Red Star: nine in all. 

This one's mine, Arrietty the Buff Orpington. Like all the Buffs, she's a mellow, easy-going bird, which is why I picked her. She's a strawberry blonde right now, but when she grows up she will be a proper ginger, like this:

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Everybody else in the family got one chicken, too, and Mom got us one extra in case one of them DIES :P. For the longest time, we just called her "The Extra." She belongs to all of us generally, I suppose, but I guess she will officially become the hen of whoever is the first to lose theirs. Oh, and we also got her in case one of our "hens" turns out to be a cockerel. There was a sign above the chicks at the store that read "90% ACCURACY IN SEX DETERMINATION." So, yeah, one of our chicks might very well turn out to be a guy, and in THAT case we shall have to get rid of it. We live in the suburbs, and we don't want a rooster crowing and waking up all the neighbors ... or us, for that matter.

So, yeah! Chickens now, in our garage! Which one is your favorite? If it were not for my loyalty to Arrietty, I would like Hannah's Ameraucana best. It's the little dark brown one you see in the first picture. Her name is Celesteabellbethabell, Celeste for short. But mine is pretty cute too.

Once upon a time, I used to be able to write without emoticons. 

Come to think of it, I suppose I still can. In the stories I write, my sentences aren't dotted with smiley faces, frowney faces, tongue-sticking-out faces, and so on. Don't believe me? I call to witness the chapter of The Princess and The Blacksmith that I posted on this blog a while back! No emoticons in that! Gosh, I really need to write the next chapter :P ... 

AHA. YOU SEE. AN EMOTICON. OBSERVE HOW EASILY IT SLIPS IN. Oh yeah, this, THIS is where the emoticons insert themselves: when I'm just TALKING. Say in letters, or emails, a blogpost, or on Google chat or whatever. I always use emoticons.

I know why I do it. The person I'm talking or writing to can't see me or hear me, and I can't show them through facial expressions or the tone of my voice how I am feeling. So I resort to emoticons. I guess you could say this is a good excuse, but really it's just laziness. "A picture is worth a thousand words," you know, and it's just faster to say, "Cool! :D" instead of "That sounds amazing! I'm happy for you." 

The problem is, if you use emoticons, they can be misinterpreted. For instance, I've heard of multiple uses for the :P emoticon. Is it a foot-in-mouth emoticon, or a tongue-sticking-out emoticon, or what? And either way, what emotion does it convey? And I'm sure there are several meanings associated with other emoticons, too. So, to avoid being misconstrued, I'm going to write out several of the most common emoticons I use, and what I mean by them. I'll start with the smiley faces ... because yes, there are more than one. 

:D
The waitress smile. It's big and bright, but it also denotes a little restraint, a little formality. Friendly, yes, but professional.

XD
The BIG smile. Picture me grinning so hard that my eyes squeeze shut. I use this when I think something is funny, or when I'm really happy. When I use several D's after the X, that means I'm really REALLY happy. As in, "AAAAIIIIIEEEEE I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU TOMORROW XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD." That sort of thing.

:)
This smile has a couple different uses (how's THAT for confusing). Sometimes I use it in place of the waitress smile when I don't want to come off as TOO perky or friendly. I mean, don't want to SCARE people *nervous laugh.* At other times, it functions as a "feelin' it" smile: it's quiet, genuine, empathetic.

8D
The annoying smile. My eyes are big, and my mouth is wide open. I use this when I'm teasing someone, or when I'm over-dramatising something in an attempt to be funny.

... so much for the smiles. Onto the miscellaneous expressions.

T.T
The "seriously?" face. Used more often for comedic effect rather than to convey real chagrin. This is the sort of face you'd get if you told me, "I don't like Owl City." What even, bruh. What is wrong with you.

o.O
The alarmed, disconcerted, or incredulous face. Used in "Y-y-you ate RAW SQUID?" situations.

O.O
The shocked face. I may be shocked in a good way, such as "YOU SAW TOM HIDDLESTON AT THE SUPERMARKET?!?" Or I may be shocked in a bad way. "TOM HIDDLESTON ISN'T GOING TO PLAY LOKI IN THE NEXT MARVEL MOVIE?!?" All depends on the context.

:P
Hm. I should really use the :T face instead of the :P face for the connotations that I associate with this emoticon. Instead of looking at it as someone sticking their tongue out ... which I think this face teeeecchnically indicates? ... I kinda visualize someone twisting their mouth to the side in an apprehensive or apologetic sort of way. It's sort of a "whoops" face, or an "oh, no" face. So, yeah: sometimes it's apologetic, sometimes it's apprehensive. But I don't stick my tongue out when I'm apologetic or apprehensive. WHO SAID THESE HAD TO BE LOGICAL?

XP
This one indicates extreme disgust. As in "Go camping for five days with no access to a shower? Hahahaha no."

... and then, of course, there's the sad faces, :(, :'(, etc. I don't particularly like the sad faces. They're not ... SAD enough. So I rarely use them. More often I just say something like *weeps*, *cries*, *sobs grotesquely*. Yeah. I really don't like the sad faces.

So, there you have it. My extensive, but by no means exhaustive, emoticon chart. How about you? What emoticons do you use, and what do you mean by them? Do you use any of the same emoticons I do but mean something completely different by them? I wouldn't want to misconstrue your emoticons! :P XD. Post your answer in the comment box below.

XD

Morning, all! I thought it high time I posted some of my art on my blog, so here it is! I drew this for my friend for her birthday. She gets to be in Ravenclaw house, because she's just about the smartest gal I know! 

 Ah, Hogwarts clothes. Love them so much. This outfit was inspired by Cho Chang's ensemble in the fifth movie. Except Cho wears a button-up cardigan, while I made this one a pullover instead.

By the way, which Hogwarts house do you think you are in? I used to think Slytherin for me, but now I'm not so sure. I might be Ravenclaw. How about you? Send your answer via your owl, or just post a reply in the comments box below ...

Mischief managed.

Comfort Zones

2015 has been one of the most exciting years of my life.

Actually, strike that. I must go back a bit. 2014-2015 has been 

one of the most exciting years of my life. 

It all started with Ensemble at art school. I had never sung in a choir before. It was really exciting to work with different people and to learn so many new songs so fast. At the end of it all, we got to perform at The Festival of Lights at The Grotto. (Don't click on the link if you don't want to hear Christmas music at the end of August. DAWWWW, lookit our choir. Our little rag-tag ensemble in mismatching outfits. I so proud of us.) Far from being just the highlight of the holidays, this was one of the highlights of my life. I've always loved the Christmas season, and musically, carols are just about my favorite things in the world. I was so happy to actually be a part of the tradition of making music at Christmas time in such a special way. 

Another exciting thing that happened to me this year: partly due to my involvement in Ensemble, I became friends with a certain homesteading family, a rough-and-tumble cow-herding song-singing gun-shooting study-booking Bible-thumping homeschooling clan called the Whitlocks. Spending time with them entailed firing a gun for the first time in my life (thank you, Cori; the credit for the photo goes to her, by the way), getting powder-burned, charging through a veritable wall of blackberry bushes on the back of a mule, and nearly getting gored by a cow in the pasture late at night (at least, that's how I remember it. Cori may tell you something different). And let's not forget the time Cassie got a horde of people together and dressed us up as goblins and robbers and rangers and elves and a Gollum-esque creature (Cori did the face-paint for the ruffians and the Gollum-esque) and we all acted out a massive Lord-of-the-Rings-type adventure for their cousin's birthday. And then there was the time I went with them to the Mother Earth News Fair and got to watch Cori blacksmith pretty much the whole live-long day ... well, yeah. Just about everything I've done with the Whitlocks, I've never done before.

To top it all off, this year I got to go adventuring with a friend who is practically the real-life version of Finn the Human from Adventure Time. I climbed up steeper inclines than I've ever climbed before; what's even harder, I climbed back down them again. It was scary, but also one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. And at the end of it all, I got to stand at the edge of a precipice and look out over vast wooded slopes, with no trace of civilization that my eyes could see. The world outside my comfort zone certainly is beautiful.

It's funny, though, isn't it, how quickly the world outside your comfort zone becomes your comfort zone. My horizons expanded. Things I look forward to now, I never would've dreamed of doing just 12 months ago. The fun is still there, but the element of stepping-out-in-faith is gone. I want more of that.

I want to continue to grow. Sure, I have been stretching my mind a lot, which is what you would expect in the course of getting a BA in English. But there are other parts of me that need stretching, too. I need to work hard. I need to seek God's will and let go of my own. I need to try new things and not worry about looking bad. My comfort zone has expanded, you see. And I need to step outside of it again.

So, here's to a new school year! I'll be teaching choir for the first time; honestly, I'm terrified about it, and so I guess it counts as a valid first step outside my comfort zone XD. Love you guys, and thank you all for an amazing year. 

Also, speaking of children's choirs, this is the best.

Let's play a game! It's called, What Stage of Society Would You Like Best to Live In?!?

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It's easy! Here's how you play. I will describe for you four different stages in the progression of societiey. All you have to do is post an answer in the comments box about which one you would like to live in, and why. Ready? Here we go! Also, brief aside, the titles of the stages of society are pretty self-explanatory, so if you want to guess at what the titles denote and just skip my descriptions, go right ahead. Y'all are smart. Your guesses will probably be close enough. 

Stage 1: Hunter / Gatherer (Nomadic) Society

In this stage of society, the people don't raise their own crops or keep livestock. They live off of food that they gather or game that they hunt. Because of this, they often have to move around the land to follow their sources of food. Some Native American tribes were nomadic. 

Stage 2: Agrarian Society

In an agrarian society, people raise their own crops. The economy centers around planting crops and keeping farmland. The era of farmers, planters, craftsmen. 

Stage 3: Industrial Society

I'll quote Wikipedia on this one (don't you judge me): "A society driven by the use of technology to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour." This always makes me think of the Victorian Era in England. Factories, steam engines, railways ...

Stage 4: Information Society 

That's where we're at now in the U.S. Again, I'll quote Wikipedia on this one: "A society where the creation, distribution, use, integration, and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity." This is the era of software engineers and Google. 

Sooooo, which sounds most to your liking? Post your answer in the commet box, either below or on Google+. 
Thanks for playing! 

Good morning, everyone. Today we're going to talk about bucket lists. 

buck·et list

noun

informal 

1. a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

verb  informal

     to maintain and actively attempt to fulfill items on a bucket list

People have different opinions regarding bucket lists. One of my friends bucket lists prodigiously; he adds things to the list on a regular basis and is better than most people at actually getting them done. The last item he added was participating in the ongoing nighttime massacre of the invasive opossums that are destroying New Zealand's ecosystem. (Yes, this is really a thing, and frankly it sounds like a worthy cause. Forget Sauron. WE MUST SAVE THE SHIRE FROM THE OPOSSUMS.) 

Another friend of mine does not see the point in keeping a bucket list. His thought is, "Why the rush to do awesome things on THIS side of eternity?" I suppose I see his point. Most secular people keep bucket lists in a sense of desperation, I expect. They don't have the hope of eternity, and so for them, this life is it. They've got to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro before they die because they aren't going to get a chance to do it afterwards. With Patrick the Starfish, they bellow, "I'LL TAKE IT EASY WHEN I'M DEAD."

And yet there are Christians who keep bucket lists, too. I'm one of them. For starters, I've got this hankering to see Aurora Borealis. So what if it's the old earth version of Aurora Borealis? It's still beautiful, right now, right here, today. As King David said, "The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork." The heavens DECLARE, he wrote, present tense: they're declaring God's glory right now. 

I think that it's great that Christians have a desire to experience and enjoy this world God created in ways that resonate for them in particular. But here's the thing: I wouldn't want to go see Aurora Borealis at the expense of forsaking God's plan for my life. 

That's always the ticket, isn't it? Instead of declaring legalistically that CHRISTIANS SHOULDN'T KEEP BUCKET LISTS or CHRISTIANS SHOULD KEEP BUCKET LISTS, I'll just say this: I think you should do what God is calling you to do. If God is calling you to massacre opossums in New Zealand, go for it. If God is calling you to go see Aurora Borealis in Norway, do it! Lord willing, I'll see you there. And for those of you who DO have bucket lists ... what's on them??? Me wants to know. Post your answers in the comment box below :).

The 777 Challenge

So, Becca challenged me to do the 777 challenge, to post seven lines from the seventh page of one of my stories. Here's seven lines from the seventh page of my story about a boy who gets tangled up with figures in Norse mythology:

She drew her sword from its scabbard. A sharp ray of sunlight flashed on the steel. Faldir’s stomach felt empty, but only for a moment. Then all at once, the Valkyrie seemed to fade away. Faldir was whisked back to that day long ago, when he opened the door of the longhouse to find a bloodied messenger standing on the doorstep. “Stabbed clean through the heart, he were,” he heard the messenger say. “We found his body on the field after the battle.” The man’s hand half-rose, then dropped to his side again, as though he had considered putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder but changed his mind. “I’m sorry, lad. He was a good man, your father.”