Born of Hope

Do you remember the Lord of the Rings fanfilm The Hunt for Gollum that I mentioned? There is a new film out by the same people.

I have found another Lord of the Rings fanfilm! It is called Born of Hope (see the movie, and the website, HERE). 

It is the story of Aragorn's parents. The story is not told in Tolkien canon (aside from a reference to the gravestone of Aragorn's mother).

I don't have time for a proper review, but I enjoyed this video very much. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you must watch it.

Favicon!

I have wanted one of these for a very long time. :) If you look up by the address bar, tab, or bookmarks on your brower, you should now see a picture of a butterfly (that matches my signature and posts) instead of the Blogger icon!

Its called a favicon and you can get one for your blog HERE. Thanks to Rose for the link! I plan on using some of the other tutorials... many I already use, with heavy modifications, but the scrolling picture links looks intriguing.

Nick's LotR Stories

Today, my brother Nick handed me his notebook. "I wrote some stories," he told me.

Nick is nine years old, has read the Lord of the Rings "trilogy" two times, finished the Silmarillion, and is currently reading either Tales of Belerind or Unfinished Tales (all stories by Tolkien about the Lord of the Rings universe and history).

His stories may not make sense unless you have read both the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. He has also written some other short stories... three pages detailing the conversations we held in a long car ride, several stories that began "There once was a family of eight. They had six kids, Shaylynn, Ben, etc.", and even one about him turning into a Jedi and saving Middle Earth from Galabatorix. :) Here are his two stories, complete with the original spelling!
Part One- Frodo
By Nick
 Once upon a time after the ring was distroyed and Frodo left Middle Earth Frodo went to Valinor to the Valar. Frodo was honored in Valinor. Maybe he saw Melkor a valar who is bad and called Morgoth. He got to be in secret councils and the Valar gave him a fake one ring. At first Frodo thout it was real but he figured out it was fake. He lived to be 100 and 20.
Part Two- Sam
Sam Frodo's faithful servant had 20 children. He was famase. Sam finished Bilbo and Frodo's book. he missed Frodo: When Sam was 90 years old He went to Valinor He was excited to see Frodo. The Valar prepared a feast for him. Sam lived to be 100 and 15.
The End

He told me that his stories aren't the way it happened in the books but since they never exactly say what happens in the books he thought he would write a story about it. I for one cannot figure out why Morgoth would be in Valinor.

Sir Herbert of Snowland

Here is our epic snowman sculpture! (Named Sir Herbert... Sherbert) Made out of three to four inches of snow, shoveling, and lots of love. Dad did most of the face and I did most of the hand!

We've had several cars (including the schoolbus!) slooooow down and look at it. However, our "cranky neighbors" who walk by every day were too buried in their ipods and whatnot to spare a look at the phenomenon standing less than three feet away from them.

I have a gazzillion pictures to upload... Addie's birthday, Nick's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, this past snow day... other random pictures... but that will wait until I have time! Pip, pip, cheerio, toodles!

Upside Down and Inside Out

 "A picture is worth a thousand words."

How often have you heard that?

Writing and art are really backwards representations of each other. Bear with me, please. It is not as absurd as it sounds.

Both writing and art are trying to achieve something: an imitation of truth. (at least, it had better!). It could be a tangible truth, like the texture of a flower or the color of the sea, or something un-sense-able but just as real, like the strong emotions of joy or the glory of our Lord.

 Art and writing are both personal expressions of truth. We try to capture some aspect of it that means much to us. Truth is rather hard to capture and turn into something so small as as the largest painting or fattest book. In fact, truth is so exhilarating that it quite refuses to be captured. Anyone who has written a story or drawn a picture has realized, to both their dismay and relief, that their representation is nothing compared to the real thing.

But that is slightly off-topic. While I could ramble on that tangent for milliennia, I am trying to explain why writing and art are the same thing, only backwards.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Is it?

I have often been astounded at the inability of language to portray what is really meant. How often have you read a book with lengthy descriptions (particularly of landscapes or delicious scents) and come away wondering, "What in the world was that all about?"

In order to read a description, you really have to slow down. (Generally this is done the second time through a book, when you aren't anxiously awaiting the events of the next chapter). You have to take each building block and set it carefully upon the next. Only after all the words have been stacked up and formed into a mental image can you have some idea of what the author meant. When you read, you start with the details and build up to the final product.

Art, however, being primarily visual, throws the whole thing at you at once. You see the big picture and are left to discover the scrumptious details.

Surely a picture such as THIS means more, at first glance, than Alfred Tennyson's poem:
The splendor falls on castle walls/ and snowy summits old in story./ The long light shakes across the lakes...

But both tell the same story. The photograph gives the impression and leaves the details for you. The poem gives you the ingredients and leaves you to mix up the recipe. But both are describing the same sort of beauty. Really, they are the same thing. Just backwards. Writing starts from the ground up and art starts from the sky down. Both cover the same portion of space. You have to stand on your head to see it all at once.

Well, how is that for random? I do so love randomness. :)

This is becoming repetitious

This sort of post tends to be surfacing an awful lot.

I am sorry for being such a bad blogger. I have pictures from my sister's birthday in Novemember, my brother's in December, Christmas, New Years, snow days.... Here is is Feburary the First and I have not posted any of it. Let's hear it for procrastination!

And now that I actually get on to write something, I am unable to post the pictures. You see, the cord that connects the camera to the computer has disappeared... courtesy of Dad, I believe. :) He said something about it having wound up in the bedroom but I can't find it.

 So pictures are to come later. I must warn you: when I do download them, you will get around 20 updates (if you have me on facebook or are subscribed to the blog feed). Just to warn you. :)

Confirmation Saint

   
     After months of deliberation and procrastination, I have finally chosen my patron saint for Confirmation! This spring I will (hopefully) be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. I say hopefully because, well, long story short, it depends on if we can sell our house and move in time. In the St. Louis diocese, they confirm in eighth grade rather than eleventh like here.

     I know many of my friends are not Catholic so I'm going to explain why we choose saints at Confirmation. Saints are those people who we know are in Heaven. When we receive Confirmation, we choose a patron saint. We ask saints to intercede (pray) for us in a special way, just like we ask our friends to pray for us. A patron saint... I really don't know how to explain it, they just pray for you extra. :P Also, their lives are virtuous and are examples for us to follow.

     I had thought about several different saints. St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) was one of my top choices because I loved her Little Way and her book, A Story of a Soul, was very touching to me. I also considered Edith Stein (St. Benedicta of the Cross) because of her courage (and the fact that the 1940's are one of my favorite time periods to study), but I really didn't know much about her. St. Catherine Bolonga was another option, becasue she is the patron saint of artists.

     I thought I had to choose a female saint, but I asked Fr. Monsingor Cox right before the Christmas Eve Mass. He said I could choose a male saint, if I made the confirmation name feminine!

     So I choose St. Thomas Aquinas. I could fill up pages and pages with a biography of St. Thomas (this website certainly did!), but haven't the time. St. Thomas is the most famous for his book Summa Theologica-- which is humongous and very scolarly. He is known as the saint of reason, logic, writing... many things. :) In his fifty years on earth, he wrote over 60 works! Here is a short biography of his life.

    One of my favorite ideas from his works (I don't know if it was just an idea he got across, or an actual phrase he used) is Fides et Ratio-- Faith and Reason. If I haven't already written a lengthly blog post on that in the past, expect one in the future. :)

     Oh, and my Confirmation name is Thomasina. :)

Butterbeer

I've always loved making crafts or other things with a "theme"... drinking tea always reminded me of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, or perhaps Mr. Tumnus' tea in Narnia.

J.K. Rowling's books are crammed full with many interesting foods. Most of them are entirely made up. All of them sound delicious. So guess what I decided to do? Make some. Food of choice? Butterbeer.

Butterbeer was the preferred drink for teens at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade (adults went for the firewhiskey). Here is a recipe (with some improvation by yours truely):

• 1 cup of cream soda
• 1/4 cup of butterscotch syrup (you could conceivably use butterscotch chips, or grown ups can use that butter snap thingie)
• 1/8 tbsp butter

Melt the butterscotch and butter in a cup in the microwave until the butterscotch starts to bubble and the butter is entirely melted. Stir. Pour in cream soda. Drink should fizz quite a bit. Have it warm on a cold winter day, or chilled to cool you down.

You can experiment... I haven't tried these, but I imagine that milk, vanilla, and brown sugar would all taste good in Butterbeer!

This butterbeer has a very strong flavor-- don't plan on anyone being able to drink any more than half a mug. You could probably water it down a bit with some milk or extra cream soda. I don't know how the Hogwarts kids drank full mugs of it. :P They must have had a different recipe! Anyway, my family loved this drink, I hope you do, too!

English Country Line Dancing-- The Scottish

I finally found the videos I took at the Christmas Ball! Grandma and Papa gave us their old camera; it saves as a different format, hence the reason my searches didn't find it. But the good thing about the different format is the fact that it takes sound and can go on Blogger. :)
This dance is one of my favorites, although its not technically "English". We call it The Scottish, and it is the most tiring dance. It is so popular that they have to do it two times so everyone can have a go. It is a looong dance, and I taped nearly the whole thing. You do not have to watch all ten minutes of this. :)

A Post Without A Point

Welcome, 2010!!!

...where are the hover cars? Teleportation? Time travel? I'VE BEEN GYPED!

Well, I do have a a tiny little touch-screen device that is essentially a mini computer (iPod touch), so I guess its okay. :) BluRay players are sharper than movies in the theaters... It is strange to think that in 1950, a computer scientist predicted that in fifty years, computers would be able to fit inside one room. It is also strange to think that when my parents were children, a movie was made in which a guy drove to the future in a DeLorean. They traveled to 2015-- five years from now-- and found flying cars. But the electronic windows were covered with static.

I guess it just goes to show that you can never know what will happen. In 2008, could I have ever predicted that we would move (or, heh, be trying to move) away from our big/tiny town/city? No.

I could do a "Year in Review" post, although by this point, it would be "Last Year in Review." That would be a logical thing to do, since we did not send out Christmas cards. (I believe this is the third year that such an atrocity has occured...) But I haven't the time or the energy at the moment, though I might still do it. :) Besides, even though this is a Shaylynn's blog/FAMILY blog, I think that 3/4 of my followers are friends, not family. So if I do do such a post, it will happen later.

I honestly don't know what the point of this post it. I thought about telling everyone what we did on New Year's Eve... but 1) I haven't even done that for Christmas, and 2) It was rather boring, and would only bore you out of your minds.

So I have decided to be merciful to your poor brains and not detail New Year's Eve.

And, as such, this post really has no point other than to say HAPPY NEW YEAR and May this year be blessed for you and yours!

So... I shall shut up now. 

Oh, and I do have a gazillion pictures to upload-- mostly Thanksgiving and Christmas ones-- but our back computer is being temperamental and the laptop doesn't have the editing software. So that will come later.