"In the beginning was the Word..."

"...and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."



Merry Christmas!!

I found the above picture through Google search, but here's a funny story: originally I typed in "christmas images", and everything but one picture on the first page of results was of Christmas trees and cartoonish penguins and snowmen. How typical, eh?
However, both my mom and I have noticed that this year, many more people in stores and stuff were saying "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays". It was a VERY pleasant switch, believe me. But you probably know yourself from past experience, right?
So did y'all have a good Christmas? Mine was (and is still) terrific! ALL my family was (and again, still is) here, which was a total switch. Usually one or another of my brothers can't make it a certain day, or arrive after another one leaves or something. But this year, my oldest brother arrived early Christmas Eve morning, and two other brothers arrived Christmas Day, in the morning. (Although the times were much different...one came at 3 a.m. and the other came at 11 a.m.) It's been loads of fun. :D And it's really weird having eight people at the table again! I got some really awesome Christmas presents, my favorites being the set of the Anne of Green Gables movies (and the complete set of the books), two $25 Borders gift cards (you can't even imagine how excited I am to splurge with those!!), a piano music book (Ennio Morricone), and 35 pairs of earrings. Yup, 35. ;D I actually just got my ears pierced, so this is really exciting. There are some really cute pairs too, and some really pretty ones. I can't wait to being wearing them all. =D

Anyways, hope you all enjoy the rest of the Christmas season! It lasts awhile, you know. Oh and by the way...our Christmas tree is 13 feet tall. Seriously. It's totally wicked. I mean, we have an Ent in our living room! It's great! :D

May Baby Jesus caress you with His tiny hands, bless you with His newborn smile, and hold you in His open heart.

-Limwen

Roller Coaster Life

First order of things...
One of my guinea pigs died Sunday. :( I was devastated. I had been sleeping over at my friends' house Saturday, and came back Sunday after church all happy and cheerful, only to be met with the news that Toasty (that was his name) had died. I won't go into details, but let's just say I was pretty miserable. I've gotten over it pretty much...of course I'm still upset, but it's not like I'm bursting into tears every five seconds. I've realized, from past experiences, that well...life goes on. Death is inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it except pick up your cross and go on.
Anyways, here are some pictures of Toasty (and family):


This is Toasty when he was newly born...that's his mama Buttercup and one of his siblings next to him (Toasty is the darker baby with the white stripe)


Toasty with his dad Skipper (Skipper is the orange one)


Toasty with his...shall we say...wife, Kawaii ("Kawaii" means cute in Japanese)


Kawaii with her and Toasty's babies

Aren't they cute? I'm so proud of my guinea pigs. :) I used to have eight altogether, but I gave away one (one of Toasty's babies) and now Toasty died...the weird thing is, he wasn't the oldest guinea pig. I still have his parents, Skipper and Buttercup.
So yeah...prayers would be welcome. :) I become very much attached to my babies, so it's hard for me to say good bye.

On another note...
I'm entering a poem into a poetry contest! The first prise is $500, and there are three honorable mention prizes, each at $100. So yeah, it would be pretty amazing if I won. :D

Also...
"Born of Hope" is OUT!!!!!! :D :D :D I'm SOOOO excited!! I started watching it yesterday, but got interrupted before I got even ten minutes into it. Oh well, I WILL be watching it fully through soon. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, "Born of Hope" is an independently-made Lord of the Rings fan film. It looks very well done. It's about Aragorn's father and mother, Arathorn and Gilraen, and also about many other Dunedain. Anyways, WATCH IT. If you have time. You can watch it at the website: www.bornofhope.com



I will be replying to all your previous comments shortly, I just never seem to remember or have time to do so. God bless you all!

Blessings!

-Limwen

"What a strange person."

(Quote from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail')

I need inspiration. Ever since NaNoWriMo stopped, I've been in a mire of laziness, when it comes to writing. Maybe it's more of just taking a break. Anyways, all I've been doing lately besides the everyday chores and duties is practicing pool. I'm getting to be quite the pool shark. :D We have this new pool table, you see, and I'm determined to get good at it.
What else has been happening lately? Well, my family and a bunch of my friends put together a surprise birthday party for me yesterday. It was so sweet! I've always wanted a surprise birthday party, but that's not exactly something you can ask for, you know? Anyway, it was really nice. And I WAS surprised. Apparently, my dad had been dropping rather obvious hints here and there during the week before, but somehow I missed them all. :D

Speaking of my birthday, guess what's coming Wednesday, that my parents got for me? And iPod!! :D :D :D :D :D I'm so excited!! It's not one of those fancy touch-screens, but it's pretty darn sweet. It has a camera/video camera built in. I can't wait for Wednesday!! ;D

Someone else's birthday is in December...December 16th, to be exact. And that would be one of my favorite actresses, Miranda Otto. :)







Woot, yeah, pretty ladyy. <3

Btw, has anybody ever heard of or read any of Robin McKinley? I just heard about her...she sounds like a pretty awesome fantasy writer...but I was wondering if anybody had read any of her stuff, and if they liked her writing.

Pax,
Limwen

To Write or not to Write

Well, I never got to 50,000 words with my NaNoWriMo book. I tried, really I did. But near the end, it just got too insane. I couldn't write anymore...for a number of reasons (I'll explain later). However, if I come up with another great story idea between now and next November, I may just try again. ;) Anyways, I'm quite glad I participated, because it helped me ALOT. I laid down a really good groundwork for my NaNo book during that time, and I wrote some really cool stuff. All in all, it was extremely helpful. Also, one of the emails from Chris Baty was extremely encouraging for me:

"Group Three: The Go On Without Me's. For you, November turned out to be a very bad month to try and write a novel. Life went completely crazycakes, and you faced a never-ending series of demanding work or school projects, health emergencies, social obligations, and/or tech meltdowns. You managed to get a few good ideas down on paper, but never quite found your novel's rhythm. You're thinking of bowing out, and planning on giving it a try next year."

Yeah, that was me. But then he wrote something really nice later on for 'Group Three':

"For the Go On Without Me's: This is going to sound really weird, but you're in the best shape of all three groups. You're off the map, but that's the point of this escapade. NaNoWriMo is to there to put you in such an impossible situation that you can stop worrying about perfection and achievement and just savor the thrill that comes with making and doing. Think of the remaining days in NaNoWriMo as an anything-goes creative retreat. You sacrificed your novel to the world around you this month, and the world around you appreciated it. But you now get some time for you. You may not write 50,000 words, but you still have plenty of time to create something smaller and equally wonderful. Return to the page—there's still a beautiful adventure waiting for you."

I found that really nice and encouraging, so yay to Chris Baty for being a super cool dude. :D

So what exactly did happen that stopped my novel from getting written? It was mostly parties, really. See, now that we have this huge new house, we want to share it with other people. So it started on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Of course that was all Thanksgiving preparation. Then Thanksgiving happened, and that was more preaparation and (of course) eating. Then Friday, my brother hosted a party for his soccer teammates. Saturday, we were invited to a birthday party. Sunday, we hosted ANOTHER party, for our homeschool teen group. Sunday was the second to last day of November, and by that time I was so washed out I couldn't even try to write Monday (the last day of November). And of course I had little or no time to write during that party-prep stretch. So yeah. Now I'm just glad it's all over.
I'm pretty proud of myself, though. I managed to write over 30,000 words. That's an accomplishment. I don't have the awesome-looking NaNo award to proudly post on my blog, but at least I can say I participated. Congrats to all you NaNo winners; you guys rock. (Yep, that means you Hannah. ;D)

Oh yeah, and tomorrow's my birthday. Whew, I can't believe I'll be 16. o_0

God bless!

-Limwen