Countdown

This moment is exactly like any other moment, in terms of the physical moment itself. A single still-shot of time that never really exists; it comes and then it is passed.

10

The entire planet goes through this moment, but only for one segment of the world does this moment hold any significance.

9

For everyone else, this moment is just another fraction of a second that mean no more than the one after it.

8

Perhaps an hour from now another part of the world will anticipate a different moment. Or maybe an hour earlier the same had happened.

7

Held breaths, beating hearts, excited smiles, broken hearts, new resolves, depressed reflections  anticipations, quiet pray, loud proclamations  regret, hope, fear, love, hate, and counting, a counting of moments to this moment. 

6

Why so much emotion for a single moment?

5

The world doesn't shift, the stars don't realigned, hearts are the same hearts despite resolutions.

4

Why this moment? Why not the one before it? Why not the one after?

3

This moment means nothing. So the clocks blink a different number, and a new calendar must be put up. These are human things. 

2

A moment, the moment, plugs along the same regardless.

1

People kiss, people scream, people cry, people laugh, people die, people live, some for the very first time.

This moment is passed...

...and another one follows it.

A Thousand Days

Welcome to part two of A Thousand Days. The post is really long, so I'm thinking I'll probably go to every ten days, or even once a week or something. 

Day seventeen: I don't mean to sound like a humbug...but really Katy? Why can't you just wait until after Thanksgiving until you play Christmas music? I know that Thanksgiving is less than a week away but still. She's been playing all day today. Tender Tennessee Christmas over and over again. One the upside my mum bought me some lovely curtains for my room.

Day eighteen: Only one more episode of Firefly left. Katy and I are watching the series on Netflix and we only have one left now. Oh why did it have to last only one season?! I finally unpacked my books today, took only about a quarter as long as it took to pack them.

Day nineteen: Bugs, bugs, bugs!! How and why are there so many bugs in frickin' November? They're everywhere, and bigger than they were in Bend. How numerous and huge they are going to be in the summer is only for the realm of my nightmares. Huh, such a culture "shock." It actually makes me feel somewhat like a wimp, knowing there are people out there who on a daily bases deal with huge bugs, and don't even have the ability to go inside away from them.

Day twenty: I'm actually really nervous right now. This morning a sent in an application to JCPenny and not more than two hours later they called me back, and now I have an interview 10:30 tomorrow morning. This is way further than I ever got in Bend, and in Bend I was applying to places like crazy, and now the second place I apply to is interesting? Is it a sign? Or luck? Perhaps a less depressed job market? I kind of psyched, but mostly nervous. Gaaaah. Why am I so nervous?

Day twenty-one: I think I have the job. At least at the end of the interview Amy, the person who interviewed me, said "Well as long as the background check clears out, welcome to JCPenny." So, I fairly certain that means I have the job. And the interview was only five minutes long. She asked me why I wanted to work at JCPenny, and that was it. So yea...now my nervousness seems a little ridiculous.

Day twenty-two: Happy Thanksgiving!! Ate turkey, will eat pie. At Thanksgiving we have this tradition where we go in a circle saying something we're thankful for. I was last so all of the good general ones were already taken, "I'm thankful that we got here safe," "I'm thankful for this house," "I'm thankful for family."  I was sure that I was going to sound like a lame copy-cat. Then, when it was my turn, inspiration struck! I sat up a little straighter, cleared my throat, and eloquently said, "I am thankful for this moment."

Day twenty-three: Didn't the people in this house believe in real light bulbs. I am dead certain that every single light fixture in this house is some weird shaped florescent light. It wouldn't be bad if they were regular florescent light, but they're in the shape of a hoop, or a long flat rectangle, or a pancake.

Day twenty-four: I THOUGHT I WOULDN'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM WITH SHORT ENTRIES!!! I don't know what to write!!! You know what annoys me? The fact that when I turn caps lock, I still have to press shift to get the exclamation point.

Day twenty-five: You know, come to think of it, it is amazing how many things I'm not writing about because I'm planning on posting this thing on my blog. Anyway, I guess Jacob doesn't read this so I go ahead and talk about that. I finally got the stuff to make his Christmas present (I've tried to make all the Christmas presents this year) after I have already been done with everyone else's for over a month. I am making him a sock monkey. Jacob really loves sock monkeys.

Day twenty-six: Guess what I did today. I turned a monkey right side out through its crotch. Bet you can't say the same. I finished making Jacob's sock monkey today, and it looks a little creepy. Jacob probably won't want it, but for now I'm calling the monkey Bert. If Tim Burton ever made a sock monkey character, it would look like this monkey.

Day twenty-seven: I think I am finally getting into the groove of writing this thing. I hope that soon it will be a habit. I finished the outline for A Land Not so Far Away, and man, I got chills writing it. I know, I'm a little conceited when it comes to my writing. 

Day twenty-eight: So yesterday I was called from JCPenny to arrive today at the store at 2 'o clock. I just thought it was going to be a couple hours at the most, just an orientation. Well, the first two and a half hours were, but then the rest of it was training. Quite honestly I wasn't expecting it to take that long. And now I am to go back tomorrow. I have serious mixed feelings about this.

Day twenty-nine: Work, work, work. Why? Why must something that is vital for my existence make me feel so tiered? It isn't that I hate the job, or that it is even hard work, nevertheless the idea of it just makes me want to lie on my bed and never get up.

Day thirty: The men's department in JCPenny is so boring. Seriously. Nothing ever happened. I think there was like three minutes where it was busy, but that was it. On the plus side I think I've finally gotten a hang of actually working and no longer need a training partner. Once I was able to learn how to do the different things on the register it was easy to remember. Oh, I also got to use this weird new thing that is basically a portable scanner and card slider. You can use it to check people out if they are paying with any sort of card. The people at JCP call it the Libbi. I'm not sure why.

Tag-mania

I have spent all morning doing what I have intended to do for a fairly long time now. Label every single one of my posts. I'm not sure why I bothered. I guess it can help add traffic and stuff like that, but I don't care very much about that. It was fun, and somewhat interesting going through my old posts. 

Regardless, I have now done it, and I guess if you have some deep desire you to crawling through my past posts go ahead. 

Also, there is one unique label. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because then it would be easier for you to find it, (not that I think you'll look.) Do not worry about not being able to tell if you've found it or not, if you find it, you will be able to tell. If you find it and want to feel like you won or something, leave a comment in the post labeled with that special label and I'll send you prize. Or maybe not. Only if you ask me to, and if I do it will probably be something lame like a home made book mark, creepy sock monkey, or a friendship bracelet or something. It really all depends on who finds it, (if anyone finds it at all) and how insistent they are about getting a prize. 

Adventures and Experiments in Writing

Salutations one and all, in this post I will be discussion recent actions I have taken in my most riveting and startling writing career, (career used in the less popular meaning of a pursuit, regardless of your job.) Take this as a warning, or a lovely introduction to a wonderful post.

Free writing. Anyone who likes to write has probably heard of the exercise. For twenty to thirty minutes you write, free hand, not thinking about what you are going to write, and you can't stop writing. 

Sounds easy enough.

Holy cow! It was practically impossible.

This free writing is supposed to help with creativity and brainstorming, as you have to come up with something to write RIGHT THEN!!!! It also is an exercise which is supposed to sharpen your mind, to help you focus on something and not get distracted by other random thoughts. The two approaches are these: One, just start writing. Simple as that. Write blah blah blah, or jabber jabber jabber if nothing else comes to mind. Two, pick a topic and write about that. A spontaneous essay if you will.

It was so freakin' hard. I know some people have a fairly easy time just writing on and on, and at first I thought it would be fairly easy for me as well as I can keep up a monologue for a long time. I never realized though how often I paused in my writing. Not necessarily to plan in general what I was going to say, that was easy enough to do. A single topic can do me for a couple of pages. No, I realized with this exercise how often I pause for grammar purposes. I sound like a total idiot if I don't pause! It went beyond not editing. After reading through what I wrote I literally could not tell what I was trying to say. The funny thing is that I don't even notice these pauses most of the time, unless I'm actively trying not to pause.

As well as free writing, I have also finished the first draft of my most recent novel, Earthly Gods. It's kind of like Pilgrim's Progress and Lord of the Rings combined...I guess...if I had to describe it. It's about a boy, named Ashvik, who goes in search of gods who demanded him to be sacrificed.

Yeah...great stuff that. It's better than it sounds...really.

I've started editing Earthly Gods, had have even made decent head way into the outline for my next book, the third and final in a trilogy. The first was Beyond Happily Ever After, the second, Not Quite True Love's Kiss, and the working title for the third is A Place Not so Far Away.

For those of you who know about NaNoWriMo, I'm sad to say I haven't been doing it this year.. This would be my third year doing it, if I was doing it, but I am not, so it won't be my third year. I considered it for a while, but with completely Earthly Gods only recently, and the move to Tennessee there was no time. It almost doesn't feel like November without the frantic writing. Perhaps that's way Thanksgiving really took me by surprise. There was no NaNo to make it feel like November. 

The Pros and Cons of a Big House

As you all should know my family is basically all moved into our new house, (new for us anyway.) It is a lovely home tucked away into a beautiful neighborhood in the center of Columbia Tennessee. It is comprised of bits and parts from several generations of building, most of it old and vintage looking, with random modern parts stuck into it.  

The house is also big.

Like huge, at least compared to the old house. The Bend house wasn't small, per say, but small for seven, eight people to live in. While someone still has to share a room in this new house, each room is just...bigger. The fact that it's bigger is probably the most significant difference between the Bend house and this one, and has been one of the hardest things to get used to as of yet. Like with anything in life, there are the pros and cons.

The Pros: 

Of course the fact that there is just more room. What looked like a ridiculous amount of stuff in the Bend house doesn't seem quite so ridiculous anymore.

Sock sliding. There was no where to sock slide in the Bend house. There is the perfect long stretch in this house. Though sometimes this could probably be put in the Con list, considering it can result in injury, broken furniture, and holes in the wall. 

Nook and crannies. So many nooks and crannies. Such as a small attic room, a garage that has about 13,876,744 rooms in it, and an unfinished basement, really unfinished. It literally looks like a cave down there. You open the door expecting to find just another ordinary room but no, instead you're greeted by rocks full of fossils from the Triassic period and a gentlely flowing stream.

More room for book shelves!!! I know that should be included in the first Pro, but if you're me books shelves take a special priority. 

More space to get away from other people. Or, being less cramped, if that sounds less anti social. 

Cons:

Everything is fifty million miles away. Every time I want something from some other part of the house I need to pack a bag of provisions, put on my hiking boots, and bring at least two bottles of water with me. 

ALL OF THE LIGHT SWITCHES!!!! Especially since it is a new house, a light will be on in some random part of the house and I will have to spend the next fifteen minutes looking for the switch to turn it off. 

Cleaning. Enough said. (Mum is saying amen about right now.) 

There they are, the pros and cons. Not all of them, I'm sure, but enough. Do you have any opinion about big house/small house. Which is better? 

A Thousand Days

For a little up date on what's been going on in my life right now, I present you with A Thousand Days. (Like the heading I made specially for the occasion?) A Thousand Days is journal like thing that I will attempt to keep for a thousand days. Unlike many journal/diary situations each entry is no more than a paragraph long. The idea is to have a short entry every day, but for an extended period of time. In this case, every day for exactly one thousand days. So far it has been surprisingly difficult. Either I almost forget and have to do it after I've already gone to bed, or I don't really know what to write about since it is hard to either pick one thing after a busy day, or the day has just been empty of anything but unpacking. I'm hoping to post my thousand days entries about twice a month.

A Thousand Days

Everyone has a story to tell, every person a journey yet ahead of them. For a thousand days I will tell mine. I single paragraph a day I will write which may not mean much for one day, but over a thousand, and it will tell a story, it will show a journey.

November 2012

Day one: Uhg, day one and I've already messed up. Technically it is early day two. Also I'll have to write the first several days in a different notebook and then transfer them to the journal I would like to do this in as I have already packed it. Take a deep breath; this is the start of a new adventure.

Day two: This morning when the movers arrived it was all stressed excitement as they arrived early and we had a few things lift. It was crazy frantic stressed energy, then it was a tedious calm while we hung around outside. Cleaning up the house after the movers were done was bitter sweet. I'm moving away from the only house I've ever really known. The house felt so strange and empty, no longer quite the home I knew. While the three little kids sleep over at the Craig's the rest of us are staying at the Red Lion Hotel, the hotel we stayed in when we first moved to Bend. (Not that I can remember but I still appreciate the poetic balance to it)

Day three: Today was crazy. Several hours of driving, and because of incorrect traveling calculating we are going to have to drive a lot more each day. Yea. Luckily today is day light savings time, so at least we get an extra hour of sleep after a long day. Also, time zones are driving me crazy, and we've only passed through one so far.

Day four: Oh my word, today was incredibly awful. There was all kinds of stress, and house and house of driving. Tomorrow should be a shorter day since we will be visiting Megan. It was strange; as we drove through it state each had a certain smell. In fact, the smell changed more frequently than the scenery. The scenery was either brown grass lands, or brown hills.

Day five: Today was much shorter, and much less stressed filled.  We arrived at Megan's house at about 2. We'll be staying all of tomorrow and leave Wednesday morning. Sean made us dinner, and they even invited Sugar Timm, (his first name is actually Andrew.) Since I have nothing much else to say, I'm going to go ahead and talk about the shoe tree we made, since I do want to talk about it since it is kind of connected to the move and stuff. In Bend there was a tree we called the Boo Radly tree, because it looked exactly like the Boo Radly tree. It was near the center of down town off of (insert later.) On Wednesday we ate dinner at Chan's one more time and then threw old pairs of shoes into the Boo Radly tree. Chances are people will just think it was a Halloween trick and the shoes have already been taken down, but it was still fun to do. 

Day six: Buggy is so much bigger now. Today we went to the Garden of the Gods. It was pretty cool, and then after that we went to eat dinner at Chilies. Tomorrow it is back to the grind. I also read a lot. A book called The Name of a Rose. Monks are weird.

Day seven: Another looong day of driving. To pass the time we've been listening to the Dragon Rider book.  When we got to Topeca we had a late dinner at Panera Bread, which was supper tasty. I hadn't realized how starved I was for vegetation until I had finished the entire salad.

Day eight: Today the driving wasn't as long, we finished at about 6. It would have lasted about a half hour longer but the switch to our head lights suddenly busted, in the middle of the highway, after the sun had set. So yea, we stopped at a town about 30 miles before the town we had planned. At the hotel I will probably change the e-mail I use to log into various sights. My old e-mail account uses a cable company which we will not be using in Tennessee.

Day nine: We arrived to Columbia today! The house is absolutely amazing. It's all old and stuff, but not dilapidated. There are all these twists and hidden secret spots and small attics. Yet despite that we are still staying in a hotel as all our stuff is not being unloaded from the moving van until tomorrow.

Day ten: The house is now filled with all of our stuff. It is kind of over whelming. Despite the fact that we're here and so is all of our stuff, all I can see is how much we need to unpack.

Day eleven: The more things we unpack the stranger it seems. Before it wasn't so weird to be sleeping in a weird house, especially since I've just spent the last week sleeping somewhere different. Now that more things are being unpacked, it is becoming real, and surreal, more and more. All of our things look strange in this new house.

Day twelve: All of the days are kind of running into each other. It's hard to swallow that it is November 12th already. Most of the time I feel no different from usual, but every once in a while it will suddenly hit me that I've moved, and for a few moments I feel nothing but this over whelming weight on my chest.

Day thirteen: This thousand days things is harder than I thought it would be, and I'm not even half way through the first month. More same ol' same ol' today. Just unpacking some more and going around the town. We checked out the library (no pun intended, seriously, I'm actually sorry for that one.)  Unfortunately it is a small town library, which means it's small, which means fewer books.

Day fourteen: What to write, what to write. The house is really coming together, which is grand. The house is so big. There aren't really many more rooms than in the old house, but all of the rooms are just bigger.

Day fifteen: Getting to this a bit earlier today, at 8:30 instead of 11. Where has all of the time gone? I can't believe it's Thanksgiving in only a week. Quite a bit of October and basically all of November has been eaten up by the move. Obviously how late it is surprised me quite a bit. Looking up I've realized I've complained about this before.

Day sixteen: The one day I write the entry a little earlier something interesting happens later at night. Well, not super interesting to the rest of the world, but I and my family are weird enough that it counts. Last night we saw a (I think "a", there is a slight chance that it is supposed to be "an") opossum! It was just, walking all around the place outside of Colleen's window. We opened the window and tried to scare it so it would play dead. DIE YOU STUPID OPOSSUM!!!!!! I believe is what I said. Hopefully none of the neighbors knew it was us making the noise. On to today, I've made great head way in my next novel A Place Not so Far Away.

You know what would be fabulously, positively awesome? If you, dear intrepid reader, joined me in my journey of a thousand days. Sure we wouldn't have all started at the same time, but that really doesn't matter when you get right down to it. If you start now, we'll still have over two years to clasp virtual hands and hearts together in this fantastic quest. Invite your friends, invite your family, invite strangers, invite your enemies, invite your pets, invite anybody and everybody. It will be great!

 To even make it even more official, I present you with my first button ever!!!!! I made it using the tutorial that I found at the blog Code it Pretty. I need a tutorial because I actually know nothing about html code. To use the button just copy the code in the box bellow, and then past it into a HTML/JavaScript gadget if you use blogger, if not, past it in what ever widget thing you need to post it into.

<div class="Brilliant-in-the-Weirdest-Way-button" style="width: 187px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://beccapillsbury.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-thousand-days.html"> <img src="http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc498/BeeaBoBo/AThousandDays2-1.jpg" alt="YOUR BLOG NAME" width="187" height="125" /> </a> </div> <!--end button code box-->

If you don't join, that's cool too. No not really, actually that's pretty lame. Come one! It's one little paragraph a day. this is a perfect journal idea for people who don't actually want to journal.

Five Fairy Tale (parodies) Worth Reading

Recently I have had the joy of reading the conclusion to a series that I have long enjoyed. True, it took me nearly two years to realize that this particular book had been published, and several months after purchasing the book to actually read it. (Quite simply, that is what happens when your to read list five pages long. Yes, I have a physical list of books to read which is five pages long.) This book, while not exactly a "fairy tale" parody, sparked the topic for today's post.

Since you are all probably chomping at the bit to know what the book I read was, it was "I Shall Wear Midnight" by Terry Pratchett.

I have long been a fan of Mr. Pratchett, and this series introduced me to him. Oddly enough the third book was the one that I read first. What can I say, I got "Wintersmith" for free at the library and on the book list inside the books were listed in the opposite order there meant to be read. That list lead me to believe that "Wintersmith" came first and "The Wee Fee Men" last. The Tiffany Aching books are a great series to get to know Terry Pratchett by. (I'll have you know that that preposition is perfectly legal.) It is also great for anyone who already likes Terry Pratchett. I would highly recommend the series for anyone who likes rollicking books which also bless you with being thoughtful. As I said before, the Tiffany Aching series is not really a parody on fairy tales, but anyone who has ever read Terry Pratchett knows he writes in a satirical tone, and this series is almost a parody on epic fantasies.

This next is a book that is a favorite of my sister Katy. It is "Ella Enchanted"

This book is a parody of the well known fairy tale Cinderella. It is a wonderful rendition and manages to capture the original story while being, well, original. I feel the need to mention the works of the author in their entirety as Gail Carson Levine has written several great books, many of them being other fairy tale parodies.

Mmmm, maybe I should not have used the term fairy tale in the title, as the next book is once again not a parody of a fairy tale, but actually of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." The book is "Bad Prince Charlie."

I enjoyed "Bad Prince Charlie" but not enough to check out John Moore's other books, a few of which I am fairly certain are actually parodies of fairy tales. I might see to more of his books, one day, when my to read list gets down to a couple pages instead of five. The book "Bad Prince Charlie" is one of the most rollicking kind of parodies that I have read. Every page was chock full of mocking and ridiculous characters. As far as I could tell there wasn't some deep message though that many parodies try to have.

While the next series is aimed at a younger audience, the books are still a good read. "The Frog Princess."

These books simultaneously makes fun of many of the cliches in fairy tales, but embraces the overall idea of magic and greatness one finds in fairy tales. They are great quick read, books for a younger audience, and good read out loud books.

The last and final book is "The Runaway Princess."

And also don't forget to check out the sequel "The Runaway Dragon." Once again this book book targeted at a younger audience, but do you know what? I like books for younger readers, and I don't care who knows it. I might be a bit more inclined to read books for older people, but the only real difference between kid books and books for adults are the ratings they would need to put on them...if you know what I mean. 

A Busy Week

This past week guess who was pretty much in charge? Well, my older sister was here quite a bit of the time, but I was (STOP IT WOULD YOU!!!!!!!! sorry, my blog page is acting funny right now and keeps randomly moving the blinking line thing to the middle of words) in charge most of the day time as Katy had to go to work. 

Why, might you ask, was I was given the responsibility. 

Well it has to do with the move. Both my parents went down to Tennessee this week. My dad because he had to for work, and my mum went with him to look at houses. The first day was somewhat disheartening for dear Mum, but on the second day she looked at this house. 

Which my parents have now bought. Yep. That quick. Two days of looking and three days of offers and counter offers and my mother found a house. (The blinking line is driving me CRAZY! It's changes spots ten times in this one paragraph.) What can I say? Every time she walks into the "right" house she gets a "vibe." Now me, I would have had to look at all of the other houses as well, because I don't get "vibes." I don't get anything, instead I have to do it the long way and make pro and con lists. Maybe she's secretly a regent. (Only a few of you well get that, because I don't mean she's secretly ruling in place of a royalty.) 

Wait, you might say, I titled this post "A Busy Week." I haven't talked once about being busy. 

I'm going to now.

Being in charge is not all that it is made out be. It is when Mum is going on a few errands in the afternoon, but for a whole week it means those "in charge" get to do all the stuff Mum usually does. Katy did most of the cooking and stuff like that, but I shared in the dare care work and in teaching the kids.

That's right. For an entire week I was in charge of stuffing knowledge into the heads of antsy children. Better yet, the children were my siblings, and we all now how well siblings get along, now don't we. 

All said and done there were only a few disasters, and the only time I slacked off was when I let my little brother skip hand writing on Thursday. I had forgotten to get it out and by the time I remembered we were pretty much done with school anyway. 

It's kind of a funny feeling, knowing that my parents bought a house. It's one thing to have someone buy our house, but it's another thing to know that there is a house in Tennessee which we're going to be living in soon.

Reflection

Almost titled this post "Good-bye September." I'm always almost naming my posts different things. It does take me a rather long time to make up my mind, and I am to last minute mind-changes. The reasons I didn't are obvious in a slightly more subliminal way than not, so I don't think I could explain why on a practical bases why I didn't. It would just seem weird, kind of like the word weird. 

This post, a type of post I will probably be doing at the end of every month, is just to go through some things of the month that happened, or I saw, that I haven't spoken about. 

Through this entire month basically my sister Megan, and her four month baby. (The little boy is my brother Jacob, in case you were confused.)

The baby's name is Hannah, but more often than not we called her buggy, or bug-bug. (The reason why should be obvious.) Now that I'm an aunt, I really see no reason what the fuss is about. I suppose I was supposed to feel instantly connected to my niece on a deep and subliminal way that I only can with my niece. And I guess I was also suppose to think that Hannah was cute. Maybe somehow being my niece would suddenly make her break the laws of physics and actually be the cute adorable thing that babies were claimed to be. Quite frankly I think it is a conspiracy that transpires in a subliminal level that everyone pretends babies are not weird looking so when they become parents they can pretend that their babies are actually cute, and no one tells them any different. 

I finally watched the more than iconic episode of Doctor Who "Blink."

I know that was back in season three, and season eight (I think? seven maybe?) is the one that is airing right now, but I started watching after it started airing, and it is only watched when everything show has been caught up on. While "Blink" was still a pretty intense episode, I still don't think anything could ever replace "The Empty Child" on creepy factor. 

Are you my mummy?

The house has been sold! It wasn't sold within the first twenty-four hours, like the first time, but it was eventually sold to the first people who looked at the house again. The house has passed inspection and it was also appraised yesterday. "Oh house, you are such a good house. Don't let other mean houses get you down, you are such a wonderful home for anyone who will live in you."

...Hello Fall

I debated for a long time on what to title this post. A part of me wanted to call it "Hello September" so it would match my post from about twenty days ago Goodbye August. The two are supposed to be a set, hence the placement of the periods. You know, Goodbye August, Hello Fall. It's lame, I know. Best to roll with it. 

One strange thing about Central Oregon falls. When you think of fall, you think of crisp days with just a bite of cool weather, leaves turning a brilliant array of colors. Not so in Central Oregon. We don't really have a "fall." We have an Indian summer that lasts till part way through October, and then it goes straight to winter. The only two seasons we have in Central Oregon are winter and August. At the moment I'm still wearing shorts and tee shirts. 

Anyhoo, it is fall now, and so I shall celebrate that. Here are some things I look forward into the fall, and the colder months that follow.

Hot Chocolate: Recipe courtesy Alton Brown 

I would write the recipe out, but I'm too lazy. Instead if you click the picture you should be taken to the recipe on a separate website.  

Knitting and Crocheting 

 

Don't ask me why, but I always get the urge to knit and crochet in the fall. Not so much in the winter, but my fingers literally itch to wrap yarn around hooks and needles and make things out of it. The picture on the right  shows a pattern I'm actually using. The pattern can be found in Coats & Clark #J27-0014, Weekend Causal. 

Fall Color

If only we got more fall color! I admit, there are a few trees which turn a nice shade of red, and a few trees which turn a yellow, but the main color is brown. I used to like it when the leaves fell more, but I'm getting a little old too actually play in the leaves. Though I still do. Occasionally. I have little siblings, okay!

Pumpkin flavored everything.

Literally, everything.

Fall shows.

Fall cloths. 

Not that I'm particularly fond of fall cloths, I like them just as much as any other form of cloths, but the first few weeks are always exciting, (yes, I'm that vain.)

Those are just a few things I'm looking forward to in the fall. Of course, there are also the typical fall things that no one looks forward to, overly much, things like school. Events and holidays, such as Thanksgiving. Other quintessential Fall things.  

Why The Avengers Did Better in Theaters than The Dark Knight Rises

Yes, the epic debate that has been crawling all over the internet for months. Nerds and comic book fanatics arguing over with series is better, which turns out to be remarkably complex and somehow the quality of those two movies includes the over all quality of all Marvel and DC comics. The interesting thing about this argument is that the epic-ness is basically one sided.

I've only really seen arguments as to why The Dark Knight Rises should have done better, and why The Avengers, (and Marvel comics in general) is less awesome than Batman. One almost can't call it a debate since it is so one-sided. There are a few who argue for The Avengers, but all the articles and ranting blog posts I've seen talk about the movies on a more DC vs. Marvel bases. And yet The Avengers made $468,471,111 more than Batman. If there are so many more people talking about why Batman is superior, why do the numbers say other wise.

That's where I come in.

A couple quick disclaimers though. First, I have not actually seen The Dark Knight Rises, though I have seen  The Avengers. I have watched the first two Batman movies though, and have read reviews and epic "debates" about Batman, and I think I have a good enough feel of what the third movie will be like. Second, this isn't really an argument for The Avengers, or against The Dark Knight Rises. In fact, I like the Batman movies better than The Avengers series. I'm simply going to list the reasons why I feel that The Avengers did better. In fact some of the reasons why it did better are reasons Batman fans say the movie The Avengers is inferior to The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 1: The Hype

There was quite the hype for The Dark Knight Rises, but there was probably more hype with The Avengers. The Avengers had more movies preceding it, which would add an epic feeling; every year there was a new Avengers movie, pulling more people into the whole Avengers hype. Plus there were the little clips at the end of each movie, which would get people excited about the next movie. 

Reason number 2: Multiple Heroes 

In the Batman movies you have Batman. In The Avengers you have Ironman, Captain America, The Hulk, and Thor (plus Black Widow and Hawk Eye, but they don't have their own movies.) If you're not to fond of Batman, you're not exactly going to go and see the third movie. If Ironman is your favorite super hero of all time, even though you weren't fond of any of the other three, you probably went to go see The Avengers. It also helped reason number 1, the hype. Here was the movie were all of the super heroes got together and formed one epic team, making for one epic movie.

Reason number 3: The Villain

The Bane. Psh. Who cares about The Bane? The Joker was awesome, but quite frankly The Bane isn't the most interesting villain in the world. Like I said, I haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, but other than how people can't understand him, I have heard nothing about the villain quality of The Bane. Now Loki on the other hand, people like Loki almost as much as they like the Joker. (I think, in part, that has to do with Tom Hiddleston playing Loki.)

Reason number 4: Less Darkness, more Laughs

Now, I know people like me enjoyed the Batman movies more than the Avenger ones, but quite frankly I was more "entertained" by The Avengers. The Avenger movies are lighter, easier to digest, more fun to watch. Not everyone can appreciate the dark slant the Batman movies have. In fact, for someone lacking at least a slightly grim sense of humor, the Batman movies would seem simultaneously too serious, and not serious enough. It's so dark and scary, but seriously? It's about a man who dresses up like a giant bat, and he fights crazy people who wear makeup and strange masks. The premise is a little ridiculous, so unless you can appreciate the slightly ridiculous, and laugh at the slightly gruesome, the Batman movies are not for you.

Avengers on the other hand. Well? Those movies don't take themselves seriously at all. It's easier to swallow the more ridiculous aspects. There's at least a couple decent one liners in each fight scene that lighten the mood, laugh at the kind of ridiculous premise, without hurting the intense action.  

Reason number 5: Wider Fan Base 

Yes, despite what I said earlier about The Dark Knight Rises having more crusaders than The Avengers, the latter has a wider fan base, much due to the reasons already stated. This may seem paradoxical, but the simple fact is that Batman has fewer, but more dedicated followers. The type of people who will become obsessed with a single super hero and defend him as if he was a real person are more likely to be attracted to Batman. Casual fans are more likely to enjoy The Avengers. This fact is mostly due to reason number 4. It appeals to more people, even if not people who become as dedicated to it as Batman fans.

Plus, men probably found it a lot easier to drag their wives and girlfriends to see The Avengers than The Dark Knight Rises. 

Reason number 6: Robert Downey Jr./Ironman 

Yes, he does deserve his own reason. No, this isn't just because I'm some man obsessed woman who will enjoy a movie just because I think an actor is attractive. I honestly believe that the super hero of Ironman is what has made a lot of people attracted to The Avengers. You know that saying, "Be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman." Honestly, all noble prejudice and righteous aspirations aside, which person would you rather be, Batman or Ironman? Ironman is awesome, and has one heck of a good time being a bad-ass hero. Batman is awesome too, but his life is one hysterical breakdown from being a bad drama.

There are my reasons. You may agree with them, you may not. You may be sitting there in a huff saying to yourself  "But The Dark Knight Rises was better." It may have been so, but The Avengers did better, and there really is no arguing with that. 

...And We're Back

Hello everybody in the world, please take a moment to look at the picture below.

That is the house I am currently living in an it is finally, FINALLY on the market.

Wait a moment, you might say, didn't you say back in July that you were moving, shouldn't you have put your house on the market already? 

Well yes, originally that had been the plan. In fact, the house had been on the market once before.

In mid June the house was put on the market, around the 20th. Within twenty-four hours someone had made an offer for it. There were counter offers and more counter offers. Meanwhile my family is living in a constant  frenzy of showing the house to people who will come whenever-ish. Finally, the last last counter offer to the previous counter offer to the other offers from the first offer we received from the first people to make the first offer was made, and everyone thought the house was sold.

They thought wrong.

There is something very curious about my house. It isn't hunted, no one has ever died there, and it's not like the house has pour structural integrity.

According to the city, the lot line for my family's house is nine feet more than it is in reality. (We're fairly certain that is has something fishy to do with the original contractor and inspector. Either they were idiots and missed the fact they gave nine of our feet to the next door neighbor, or there some bribery somewhere and the house got passed even though the lot line was incorrect.)

Also according to the city we are not allowed to sell the house with the lot line incorrect.

So the deal fell though.

It wasn't as if we were the people who got it wrong, (or were bribed,) we just happened to notice it.

Oh, by the way, to correct the lot line you're going to need to have your, and your neighbor's property completely surveyed, and then the new lot line must be cleared with the city, then the county, then the title company, then the county again, and then last but not least we mosey on back to the city. It probably is not necessary  but I'm going to go ahead and tell you that this took several weeks.

And it cost several thousand dollars besides.

Technically, some of that craziness is still going on, but it is near enough to being done that by the time we sell the house, and the escrow is over, it will all be done.

Basically for the past two months we've been in house limbo. Unable to sell the house, therefore unable to buy any houses in Tennessee. We couldn't pack, I really couldn't get a job, unable to do anything but twiddle our thumbs and wait for the city and county to take as long as they possible could to adjust our lot line.

But finally, finally, we have the house back on the market.

  

Ten Words I'm Surprised are Real

The English language is very rich and diverse, receiving a heritage from many languages.Which is probably why it is such a mess. The grammar is convoluted, the spelling arbitrary at best. Why do we say better instead of gooder? Why is it alright to say faster, but not funner? Why is it i before e, except after c, unless there's an a as in neighbor and weigh? Weird, no? Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who who is obsessive about being correct in her grammar, but unlike most grammar Nazis I understand that one must approach the English language with caution and the understanding of the flexible nature of the language. (Spelling can just rot though.)

That brings me to the topic of this post. There are words in the English language that quite frankly don't make sense. Why would we even have that word? As well as the words that seem like they shouldn't be real, that sound made up. Here is a list of ten words I'm surprised are real. This isn't an official list of the ten most bazaar words, just ten words that made me do a double take. Some are fairly common words, some  are obscure, and others are weird slang. 

Splutter-a confused noise (as of hasty speaking)

Now this may be a surprising word to be in the list, but as embarrassing it is to admit, I only realized it was a real word in the last couple years. For the longest time I merely thought it was a deliberate and comical mispronunciation of the word "sputter."

Hooliganism-rowdy, violent, or destructive behavior. 

I knew hooligan was a word, but hooliganism sounds like someone was too lazy to find a different word, so they just slapped an ism at the end of the word hooligan.

Chillax-to calm down

I totally thought I made up this word. I don't remember having ever heard it, and when I first used it, it was after I thought I was being clever for combining the words chill and relax together. I was surprised (and slightly embarrassed) when I finally learned it had been a common slang since the late 90's.

Defenestration-the act of throwing someone or something out a window

Do we really need a word for this? I mean, in what context would you use this word, or even want to? It's like using antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence. The few times you could use it, there is probably an easier way to say the same thing. 

Finnimbrun-a nick knack* 

An entirely superfluous word, but fun to say. 

Wallah-a person who is associated with a particular work or who performs a specific duty or service. 

It is a common enough word that I have known the meaning of a long time, but I can never take it seriously. 

Nocular-a word which can substitute any word.^ 

Now this word is basically slang, you can't even find it in any reputable dictionaries. The only place I could find  it was the Urban Dictionary There is a weird story behind this word being among the chosen. Many of you will recall a strange ice-cream (sort of) treat called dip an' dots. The containers they came in were roughly shaped like binoculars, and I said as much. Katy, my older sister, misheard me and thought I said the containers were nocular. From then on it became a thing in my family to call something nocular if we weren't sure how else to describe it, more as a joke than anything else. One day I actually looked it up, curious to see if it was a real word. It may only be found in the urban dictionary, but I was surprised to see that the way we had been using the word was a way that others had been using it as well. 

Tyrotoxism-to be poisoned with cheese*

I feel this word speaks for itself. 

Inimitable-not capable of being imitated

This was actually the word of the day at Marriam Webster and when I saw the definition it seemed to break every single assumption I had made about the word. I guess I just though that it should mean the opposite of what it actually does. In is a very strange prefix, at times it mean in the positive, such as the word inflammable  and invaluable. But apparently it can also negate the meaning of something as well. 

She'd've-she would have

Seriously? I admit, I use contractions, but a double contraction seems a little excessive. Unless you're using 'tisn't, but only because it sound Shakespearean.

Even though not everyone will be surprised at this collection of words, it can not be doubted that at least of few of them are truly weird, 

* Definition reworded from my own brain. ``

^Definition from Urban Dictionary ``

``All other definitions from Marriam Webster.  

Good-bye August...

So sad, I know. I was going to write, "Good-bye summer" so as to include June and July as well, but summer doesn't technically end until September 21st, and mentally most people are saying good-bye to summer  way before then. Summer as an ideal, a thought, a feeling ends, when in reality summer doesn't end for another twenty days or so. All these solstices and equinox in the middle of months seems very sloppy, and annoying. Who came up with that? I suppose I could wait until September 21st to do this post, but by then everyone is onto hot chocolate, fires, playing in the leaves, school, and mitten. No one, including myself, won't really be saying good-bye to summer, as an idea. 

August fades (I would say summer, but I've already had this discussion with my computer screen) and the only thing I can do is reflect upon the bright summer days that it has represented, represented deep in my soul as days free of care and schedules (to a point) that will stay with me forever, or at least as long as I can remember them. August fades, like the flesh of a person who is dead, growing pale because the blood that once kept them strong and beautiful has stopped moving and the days grow cold, again, much like the flesh of a dead person. When a person dies, a memorial is often appropriate, and so I shall give August a memorial, mentioning the highlights of the summer.

The first thing I would like to mention in this memorial of summ...August is parks. Specifically Farewell Bend park. If you live in Bend Oregon, you will probably know what I'm talking about, for everyone else click on the picture. 

In the connection to parks and such, is the river float. It is one of the things that are very near to defining Central Oregon summer/August. One is not a true Central Oregonian until he has floated the river, and it is a perfect way to spend a day hanging with family and friends outside on a hot day.

Kenny Chesney. Is there any other music artist who captures the carefree days of summer? Should I take your silence as a resounding no? Steel drums, guitars, the fact that the majority of his songs are about summer? There is no competition.

Roasting marshmallows. 

Going to the movies.

Bun Head. (Basically it's Gilmore Girls, exactly, but with ballerinas.) The show aired this summer, plus the show is set in California. If there is any state in the world, (or, I guess, in the United States) that is summer-esque it's California. 

Iced Chai

Munchkins, the game. It's a bit like Dungeons and Dragons, but with cards instead of a game board and dice and no role playing. I know this isn't a very summery thing in of itself, but my sister Colleen got the game for her birthday and I played it a lot this summer. A lot. So much that when I think of this summer, it's one of the things that comes to mind. It's meant for younger kids, but I think actually liked the game more than my younger siblings. I got pretty good at it too. 

Barbecues.

Watermelon.

Ice cream. 

Lazy days, but not in the slothful, sluggard kind of way. Just more in the, there isn't an over whelming amount of stuff to do so I'm going to take my time to do things and take my time to enjoy it. I could think of no better picture to represent this than the iconic "lazy frog" picture.

I would continue to add things like beaches, staying up late, sleeping in late, beaches, hot days, and summer cloths, but the first three are things I didn't participate in. The forth didn't really happen that much this summer. I think we had about on month of authentic summer heat through the second half of July and the first half of August. It used to be hotter during our Central Oregon summers, but recently it's been staying cold until July, but then staying hot till November in the fall. Global warming? More like global season shifting. And as to the last I couldn't find any decent pictures. 

Good-bye August, and good-bye all of the things that we think of as we think of you. While I am still unsure if it was appropriate (ethically, not logically, speaking) or not to compare you to a dead person, I hope you will appreciate this memorial when you have a chance to see it when you reincarnate next year. 

The Shield, Sword, and Crown

If any of you can recall, or care to go to the columns this is a book review. The problem is, I read a lot of books, at least one a week, sometimes more, and quite frankly I did not feel like writing that many book reviews. Luckily, I came up with a clever solution. 

I read a lot of series, and I could cut the number of reviews I would have to write if I lumped in all the books in the same series into the same book review. Look at this as more of a place of recommended books really. If a book is terrible I probably won't bother posting about it, unless of course it is to warn others. 

The series I want to talk about today is a trilogy called, The Shield, Sword, and Crown by Hilari Bell. 

The story is told from the perspective of three people. Weasel, an ex-pick pocket who is now a clerk of the law, Arisa, the daughter of the rebel bandit the Falcon, and Edoran the young prince of Deorthas. The shield of stars, the sword of waters, and the crown of earth are items of legend, and all three must be found to return balance to the politically unstable kingdom of Deorthas. 

The series is fantasy, and could probably even be classified as epic fantasy, but it doesn't have that over-the-top thing that many fantasy stories have. No sweeping epic battles where the forces of evil and good battle in an unbelievable power match where the action is explained in overly flowery language. There is magic present, but it feels almost natural and believable. The villains in the story is realistic; regular people. The characters are well-drawn with good development, and are just as realistic as the villains. I personally liked how the series handled the idea of religion. Technically none of the religions on the books were actual religions, but the series still did a good job and presenting religions in a real light, whether you are religious yourself or not. 

There is some mild language and violence, but other than that the books were very clean, which I also enjoyed. For future reference, I plan on using the rating scale from Fiction Ratings, and I would give this book a K+. 

And for the other form of rating I give this series 4 out of 5 stars. While this series was written with a younger audience in mind, the author doesn't dumb down the ideas of evil, or right and wrong. In fact a saw a depth that is lacking in many books written with adults in mind. I think the series is a good read for anyone who likes fantasy.

A Very Interesting Topic

In light of the title for today's post, I am very sad to tell you that it isn't true. Not even a little bit. So here is a video that you should all watch, whether you found this post by following my blog, or you found me on google, or some other way that I probably don't want to know about.

Once you're done laughing or being angry, please read on if you care to. An explanation of sorts can be found below. 

My last post, if you will remember, was about the Olympics, and how I wasn't going to watch them, and how it was cool that Matt Smith carried the Olympic torch part of the way, even though it would have been better if David Tennant would have done it. Well, I noticed something. 

A lot more people were viewing my blog than before.

And I mean a lot. Way more than when I ever consistently blogged about the very interesting things you all loved so much. Looking through the provided by blogger, I discovered that the majority of those views were due to people looking up "David Tennant Olympic torch." Though they must have been pretty desperate for any kind of information on "David Tennant Olympic torch" because when I looked it up on google I gave up looking for my blog by the time I got to page five. How many pages did these people sort through before they found my blog? That got me thinking. Could I possibly use this as an underhand way to get more people to view my blog.

Yes, yes I can.

But the real question. I'm I really vain, petty, and superficial enough to do it? Maybe, maybe not, but if there is one thing I know, it's that apparently I like conveying the the same thing, but saying it slightly differently, three times in a row. 

Then I realized, this has nothing to do with being vain, or petty, or superficial, this has everything to do with being an amazing blogger. I must do this, so that others may come to my blog and see for what's it's worth!  They day you see my blog is the day you change, and change for the better, or at least change in a neutral way. Not change in a bad way, that would be bad, and I probably would have gotten complaints. 

So if by now you still don't understand what the whole point of this video is here are some lists of some of the most googled things. Hey, don't judge, I'm only helping those who need to find me, find me. 

Rebecca Black                                     Google +                                     Ryan Dunn 

Casey Anthony                                     Battlefield 3                                 iPhone 5

Adele                                                   Fukushima I Nuclear Plant           Steve Jobs
iPad 2                                                  The World Cup                           Olympics
Haiti EarthQuake                            Oil Spil                                          Ash Cloud                                   Justin bieber                                         Nicki minaj                                  Friv

Myxer                                                  Katy Perry                                  Twitter

Gamezer                                              Facebook                                    Chatroulette

Sorry about the funkiness of the list, I'm not sure what happened about that. No wait, I meant to do that to be artistic.

2012 Olympics

Hello everybody! I am posting here today in honor of the 2012 Olympics. Most days I walk up early and either run or do some strength training/cardio thingy. Yesterday though, in honor of the 2012 Olympics, I slept in and did not work out at all, unless of course exercising my ability of free will counts. I don't really watch the Olympics. Not even a little bit, unless I'm really bored and there is some funny sport on at the time like curling. (It's so funny to watch. Especially the more serious teams that yell at each other as they play.) I'm not much of a sports girl. If I had to choose between watching sports in the best seat of the house, or a documentary about paint, I would choose the latter. I will officially have nothing to talk about with the majority of people for the next several days.

The only thing which makes this Olympics of any importance to me is that Matt Smith carried the Olympic torch for part of the opening ceremony. Now for those of you who don't understand why this is such a wonderful thing, I'm so sorry, you get to stay in the dark. If you don't get it now, you don't deserve to know.

I was really hoping for David Tennant, (he will always be my favorite doctor) but I'm enough of a geek that I think it's really awesome that Matt Smith got to do it.