Where my mind wanders...

If people from foreign contries have diffuculty pronouncing, and sometimes cannot pronounce, the two "th" sounds, do they ever lisp?

Grandpa Rackers

Please pray for Grandpa Rackers' soul. He passed away this morning. Also, prayers for Grandma and the whole family. Thank you.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Prayers, Please

Please pray for my Grandpa Rackers. He is not doing very well.

Pride and Predjudice

Well, my friends, I have returned from my second outing to Regency England.

It was even better than the first.

The show was sold out!!!! The audience was so into everything that they often cut the actors off with laughter and applause! All the actors fed off that; there was so much wonderful energy up there! I am so thoroughly impressed with the acting... and everything. :D

Ahhhhhh, I'm so hyped I can't calm down for the life of me, even though I should be getting in bed. As Mrs. Bennett would say, "I shall go distracted!" It's a terrible thing, to be sure, getting bitten by the theater bug and having no way of relieving the fever. :D
 

Happy Feast of St. Joesph!

He is the patron saint of families, fathers, and selling houses. He is also my grandpa's patron saint (Grandpa is in the hospital right now). We're asking for his intersesion in a special way today!

Pride and Predjuce

Fine Linen Drama, the same group who preformed Prince and the Pauper and The Pirates of Penzance, is now currently preforming Pride and Predjuce! (Note all the P&P!)

I watched the opening performance this evening, and was amazed by the quality! Every little detail is so fine tune and spectacular. From the wonderful script-- written by the director's daughter-- to the acting, to the costuming, the entire play is a joy to watch.

First off, Pride and Prejudice is just an awesome story. Period. If you haven't read it, go read it. Now. 

It captures the essence of Austen-- quite a feat. The script is so purely Austen, unlike many of the movie interpretations I have seen.

The acting is simply superb. I'm not saying this merely because all the actors are my friends. I'm saying it critically, too. Elizabeth Bennett made me practically cry during the more emotional scenes, and Rebecca played her part perfectly. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are portrayed exactly as I imagined in the books. Sarcastically pompous and hilariously petty. :) I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. Oh, boy, I could go on and on. I could list every single person who acted in the play, along with detailed descriptions of how well they did. But, alas, bedtime is soon and I want to cover other aspects! Just let me assure you that the acting is magnificent.

Costumes. Let us just say the costumes are so good that they become a part of the character, shall we? So much effort has gone into creating these works of art, and making quick changes happen between scenes.

I'm extremely impressed with the set, too. So many set changes, and details, and bits to move around... I was at one of the rehearsals when the blocking was being practiced. Only then did I realize just how many pieces of furniture and walls had to be moved around in perfect choreography.

Music!!! Dancing!!! More music, and sound, and lighting!... The orchestra is, of course, wonderful. The Halls did an excellent job teaching many ECD (English Country Dance) beginners how to dance gracefully onstage... There are other little things that are so often overlooked and are so important. This includes the sound and lighting. I never paid attention to them before, but while hanging out during rehearsals, I realized just how much they affect the mood of a scene.

I'm also going to put in a word for Mrs. Nisbett, the director. Allow me to declare to the whole wide world that she and Mr. Nisbett are total geniuses. :) Their whole family, for that matter. They are the ones who make things happen, and makes them happen the way they should. *applause*

Long story short, you must come see Pride and Predjudce! The remaining dates are below:

Fine Linen Drama now has their own website, for more information: http://finelinendrama.com/ I suggest joining their mailing list!

Get your tickets quickly!!!

The Fine Linen younger actors have a show in April:

Since we are still trying to move, I was not able to audition. Hmph, at the time of auditions we hoped to have been happily settled in our new home. But while I am here, I might as well enjoy time with my friends! I have been the "Phantom of the Theater" during rehearsals. Everyone has improved sooo much. And they are all such excellent people. It is a truly spectacular group. :D

I love being the Phantom, because that means that I can help out and be important five minutes before opening night. I left my soda and coat by Mom, and ran off to find some earrings, a missing brooch, and to help tie bows on an unfinished hat. I then told everyone to break a leg and was told that I am allowed behind the concession stand. LOL

I am taking one of my friends-- who has never yet seen a Fine Linen performance-- on Saturday. I won't be able to go again, so I will trust you, dear blog readers, to go and make a full house and to enjoy yourselves for two magical hours.

Unicycle

I feel like both bragging and despairing about my unicycle skills. I've been riding more often lately--enough to actually learn skills like turning and such.

I'm not much of a daredevil risktaker, so I probably spend alot longer on each skill than your average unicycler...

My unicycle skills so far:
Riding straight for who-knows-how-long
Mounting with only one hand holding something
Turning left--both wide and sharp
Turning right--both wide and sharp
A wide figure eight
Riding uphill
Riding downhill
Stationary freemount (this took a long time to learn)
Rolling freemount (I learned after stationary, without intending to, actually)
Back dismount
Front dismount

Things I have done on a unicycle:
Riding for a mile-- both up and down the steep hills in our neighborhood
Riding in a skirt
Swordfighting with my brother (who was on the ripstick)
Riding on grass
Riding up/downhill in grass, with lots of bumps
Never fallen on anything but my feet and occasionally hands

Skills I am working on/want to learn 
Idling
Backwards riding
Hopping
Spinning
Jumping
One foot riding
Not using arms for balance (so I can do things with my hands!)
...and much, much more!

Things I really, really want to learn:
How to make the soles of my feet NOT cramp up while on a unicycle. I just don't get it. I mean, my feet cramp and get sore alot, but on the unicycle?
How to ride without making my bottom go numb after fifteen minutes

Skit Idea

So, instead of falling asleep and enjoying a peaceful rest last night, I stayed wide awake daydreaming about a skit! Very random, I know.

It started off, I think, by me thinking about some of the, whatchamacallits, preformances at OAT's talent show.

It consists of:
Someone doing a very good job singing a very operatic song
Me not being able to sing
Who's on First-- a teeny bit of it
Unicycle
Mime
Unicycle AND mime
Violin-- if only!!!
Acting
Awesomely random hilariousness

T'was fun. :) I have it entirely planned out, maybe I should write it down. Particularly if I ever learn how to ride a unicycle properly with all the tricks and such.

Bit on Narnia

I was looking for articles to use in my HP research paper, and while searching for info on the HP article published in Gilbert Magazine, I ran across this blog with an article on Narnia. Read it here. Also, my friend Elena sums up her feelings about the Narnia movies, here.

Here's hoping that Voyage of the Dawn Treader lives up to our expectations. PC was my second-least-favorite Narnia book (the least being A Horse and His Boy-- but I still liked it). Voyage of the Dawn Treader is one of my very favorites.

Bits and Pieces

• We have shown our house twice in the last two weeks. The first was a first-time homebuyer. They wanted to make an offer an a house that day. We were told they had a family and wanted a large house; perfect! But it turns out that their family is grown up, and they went for the $30,000 more expensive house that was smaller, had granite countertops, brand new carpeting and paint, and absolutely no privacy. Argh. We don't know how today's showing went. After having shown the house some 20 or more times this past year, moving seems to become less and less real and we've been living in perpetual limbo. :P 
• I got very little school done today because the people coming to see the house were late and we stayed out of the house for over two hours. That's two hours of hard schoolwork this evening.
• UNICYCLE!!! Today I rode two miles, up and down the Ozark hills of our neighborhood. Very tiring and it made my bottom go numb. I am trying to learn to idle and so far it has been an epic fail.
• Yesterday, while it was raining, and while wearing my very flowy skirt, I decided to hop on the unicycle. Aside from difficulties mounting modestly in a skirt, even with leggings, it is quite fun. Everytime I turned, I felt my skirt spin. :) The rain only made it more magical.
• I've been updating my art blog!!! www.shealynns-faerie-shoppe.blogspot.com Please check it out! And use the Navigation on the sidebar, it makes it much easier.
• As you will see on my art blog, I have been crocheting. I made my very first crochet cardigan, check it out! Click "clothes" OR "crochet" on the Navigation.
• Pride and Predjudice starts this week! Many of my very good friends are in it, I am very excited. Check out Fine Linen (the drama group)'s website for info:

http://finelinendrama.com/

*tear*

I am working on a picture book at the moment (okay, so I have the story and I have illustrated a grand total of... ONE PAGE). I was in the process of doing the second set of pages (they are two page spreads), when we had to show the house. So my papers got clipped onto an oversize sketchbooks and shoved behind the head of my bed.

Well, this morning I realized with a jolt, "I haven't worked on that for a week!" I pulled out the sketchbook (which somehow found its way to hiding behind my desk, not my bed), only to discover...

Someone had scribbled on it with blue pencil.

*tear*

Hopefully I will be able to go over that with a shadow... quite a dark shadow, but I don't want to start all over again.

Also, if I have never said so before, I will say it now: It is very difficult to draw people to look like specific people. Especially is said people are camera shy and aren't around all day. Oh, it is also very hard to draw three inch people... with thick chalk pastels.

You May Laugh...

Last week I finished my exams for Quarter Three. I barely survived. :) Learning the stuff is so much more enjoyable than studying and memorizing the stuff. My Theology test asked the most obscure questions...

Now I am starting Quarter Four. For the first time, History and Literature are sharing a book-- The Great Diolouges of Plato. The Republic is for History and other dialogues for literature.

This morning I got started on reading History. It is infinitely more interesting than Thucydides, and doesn't hop around like Herodotus. But it is insane. I have no idea how I am going to survive another nine weeks of this. Look at this quote from my work today:

"So then in general, in the use of each justice is useless, but in their uselessness useful?"

SAY WHAT?!

Edit: I have since figured out what that sentance means, and I now proclaim to all the world that Plato is rather cool. Socrates (he's the character in Plato, long story) has a delightful habit of turning everything upside down and inside out-- and I get to do that to him in some of my essays. :)

Unicycling Meets Ice Skating

I was looking online to see if there were any videos of backwards unicyling (a skill which still escapes my grasp!), and found something that simply astounded me.

This looks like ice skating/ice dancing-- on a unicycle. Ice skating already has a great coolness factor... but this unicycling has an even greater one, in my opinion. :) I've seen videos of mountian/cross country/extreme unicyling, but I think this looks prettier. :)





Pairs:


Hope you enjoy!
It should be an Olympic sport... :)

Another Chesterton Quote!

Lots of new posts all at once, after a long absence, eh? lol. Please take a moment to read this amazing quote from G.K. Chesterton. I am enjoying Orthodoxy immensely, even though I am currently in the middle of... three other books, and about six other books for school. :) Can't have too many books, can we? Just pick up the one closest to you, and read away. Besides, Chesterton is one who you read a chapter or two, and then take a break and really think about it.

To the insane man his insanity is quite prosaic, because it is quite true. A man who thinks himself a chicken is to himself as ordinary as a chicken. A man who thinks he is a bit of glass is to himself as dull as a bit of glass. It is the homogeneity of his mind which makes him dull, and which makes him mad. It is only because we see the irony of his idea that we think him even amusing; it is only because he does not see the irony of his idea that he is put in Hanwell at all. In short, oddities only strike ordinary people. Oddities do not strike odd people. This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time; while odd people are always complaining of the dullness of life. This is also why the new novels die so quickly, and why the old fairy tales endure for ever. The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel the hero is abnormal; the centre is not central. Hence the fiercest adventures fail to affect him adequately, and the book is monotonous. You can make a story out of a hero among dragons; but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world. The sober realistic novel of to-day discusses what an essential lunatic will do in a dull world.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

So, I am really quite terrible about this whole "reviewing" thing... I love reviewing books, movies, games, etc. but keep forgetting. So the reviews you readers get are going to be rather short, random ones...

Awaking, by Claudia Cangilla McAdam, (edited by one of my favorite authors, Regina Doman) is a story about a girl who finds herself transported back to Jesus' time... She is now a Jewish girl-- could she really have ever been an American teen in the twenty first century? But Ronni/Seraphina knows what will happen to Jesus. And she believes she is meant to stop the crucifixion.

Most Bible-time-travels stories are rather... well, boring. But Awakening isn't. Ronni's story is intricately entwined with Biblical figures. I learned alot about the Jewish culture and little facts about the Gospels that I hadn't known before. Best, the story is genuinely exciting. I always love a book that leaves me asking for more.

A quick and easy read that is entertaining and enjoyable. What could be better? :)

Skateboard Crash

Poor Will. He busted his lip, skinned his nose, scratched/broke his glasses, and banged up his hip. Here's the story.

Today I pulled out my unicycle for the first time in months (winter is not a good time for cycling). Within an hour I got my freemount down, did several figure-eights up and down our hill, fell over as I tried going backwards, and managed to idle for six full seconds.

Then the boys came out to play. I decided to go for a distance ride, and started pedaling up the very steep hill. I turned around and spotted William. He was riding the ripstick (a kind of skateboard, but oh so much cooler) up the hill, just as fast as I was cycling. We raced to the top (I barely beat him), and then I crossed the street and continued my trek through the neighborhood.

I had gone at least half a mile and gotten my legs very sore. Then, suddenly I heard a strange noise. It wasn't a car... It sounded like plastic wheels on rocky pavement. Well, it was, and it was Will. He had ripsticked (skateboarded?) all the way, following me. I was going downhill (quite a long and tiring ordeal on a unicycle), and William shouted that he would beat me.

Well, he zoomed on down. And down. He gathered up a ton of speed, and once he was ahead of me, he tried to get off (realizing he was faster than he meant to be and that he would likely fall off).

So he veered off to the side. He said he was trying to land in the neighbor's grass, but instead he did a magnificent summersault onto a steep driveway. I think he'd hit a rock.

His face was bleeding. I handed him my unicyle, told him to sit still (of course, he didn't... he walked home), and sprinted all-out, reaching our house in record time.

He's okay-- he busted his lip (thankfully no harm to his braces), and scraped up a bunch of his skin. He is milking it now, of course. Drinking milkshakes, watching movies.... :)

At least he will have an amazing story to tell when people ask about his scraped up nose. Going full speed down a hill on a skateboard, I ask you! Unlike Ben, who broke his foot simply by walking on that old floor by the theater's bathroom two years ago...

A Walk to Rivendell

How's this for a New Year's Resolution that has actually lasted?

Don't believe me? Will you believe me when I say it is Lord of the Rings related?

Yes, I am such a geek that turning exercise/P.E. into a Lord of the Rings adventure suddenly makes it much more exciting.:)

A group of my online friends from the Fairytale Fourm and I are Walking to Rivendell. Please see our blog, HERE. (And I'm rather proud of the background I made for it...)

We keep track of the miles we exercise (see the explanation post on the blog, it explains it all) and plot our journey from the Shire to Rivendell, following the path of Frodo and the other Hobbits. We chart out our miles on a map of Middle-Earth. The journey is 500 miles.

You heard that right! 500 miles! I'm getting close to 100 miles now :)

The idea is to have a goal of at least ten miles a week, and our Fellowship writes a story on the blog in keeping with that. However, no one has been posting and I got tired of being the only one to do so... Even if no one posts on the blog, I am still going to travel all the way to Rivendell.

I printed out the map and charts (see the blog's explanation page, again). Every now and then I pull out The Fellowship of the Ring, find the place where I am, and read that bit. The "three days passed in dreary wetness" bits are not fun, but the bits about Tom Bombadil or Bree are hilarious. :)

Laptop Plans

picture from stock.xchng

Our laptop is nasty. Horribly, terribly nasty.It loses internet connection randomly. It locks up and destroys half the essay you are in the middle of. It overheats after two minutes. It takes at least ten minutes to power up. We have had to send it in numerous times for repairs, gotten extended warranties, etc. But to no avail.

My latest plan is to transform our laptop into a phoenix. For those who are unfamiliar with that particularly delightful legend, a phoenix is an immortal bird that spontaneously combusts, dies, and then is born again out of its own ashes.The Phoenix is often used as an allegory for the Resurrection.

The laptop has been acting up so much that today could very well be its dying day. It will overheat, explode, and spread ashes all over the place. Then, it will... remake itself.... and we will have a brand-new, dazzling, functioning computer.