The Zoo!

I went to the zoo on Saturday with my dad and two friends.
Here are some pictures I took:

A heron atop the penguin exhibit.

A penguin getting ready to jump in the water!

Penguin up close.

This sloth bear had a hard time making up his mind.... He kept rushing out of his cave and then rushing back in. In and out in and out.... It was very neurotic.

This frog looked very wisdomous.

The tiger. He kept looking at me. I wonder if he's related to Hobbes.....?

A very pretty bird.

A kookaburra! He wasn't sitting in an old gum tree... He was sitting right next to the glass. See the little girl's hand at the bottom left?

Close up.

This wolf was being very photogenic.

He posed for a very dramatic picture shortly before getting up and walking away (probably to get away from all the on-lookers).

Doesn't he look like he's smiling?

This wolf looked like he was dead.... There were four wolves altogether. They all looked exactly the same.

A bear that also looks like he was smiling.

The animals must have been happy... This mountain goat also looks like he's smiling! He was rubbing his head against the tree. That might have been the source of his happiness.

The Komodo dragon. He's always been one of my favorites. I can remember being a little girl and being super excited to go see the Komodo dragon for the first time (he was new to the zoo way back then). That was during my "dinosaur" faze (because EVERY homeschooler goes through a dinosaur faze).

An orangutan. They seem to always be hiding underneath their burlap sacks.... One got up and started walking around and one of my friends jokingly said, "He's thinking out of the sack!" She was also saying that in the wild, orangutans have giant leaves to cover them but since the zoo doesn't have that particular leaf, they give the orangutans burlap sacks instead.

The elephants were having a fun time eating the grass outside their exhibit.... And walking away from us. Whenever we got to a place where we could see them, they would walk away.

A warthog! I love warthogs.

The hippo always seems to be dozing or out of sight. He's never in the water. On Saturday, we were able to see him! Not very clearly, but that doesn't matter.

Me in the reflection of my friend's sunglasses. I've always wanted to take a picture like this.

A gorilla. =D "Eeee!"

Another gorilla. He's the biggest and I believe the leader of all the gorillas. He whipped the sack around his neck, grabbed a stick, and settled down in this stance. My friend said he looked like Yoda. "Adorable he is, mmmphh."

This peacock wanders around the zoo. He was near the exit on Saturday. A large crowd had gathered around him and he was very upset about it so the zoo workers had to fence him off. Poor animal... It must be so hard to have people staring at you and taking pictures all the time.

He kept turning around and around in agitation. The back of a peacock is just as beautiful as the front.

A drapery of feathers.

Showing off.

Beautiful.

My computer is fixed.... The only problem is that I lost all my pictures and documents. Some of it was backed up (like my American Girl Doll movie) but a lot of my more recent stuff will never be there ever again.... I am most distressed about my American Girl Doll photos and videos (I lost almost all of them.... All the pictures/photoshoots are gone and most of the videos. The Twelfth Night movie is the only thing that survived). I am also very distressed about a story I wrote for my friend Jen's writing competition a few months back. I had written this story based off a whole bunch of Beatles songs and now it's gone forever. You can never take words back, whether it's something mean you say, or something cool you've written that's been deleted forever.
However, I can be very glad that my AG movie was saved! I worked all last summer on it and it would have been a disaster if it has been lost.... I can also be glad that both my novels (the one I wrote last summer and my NaNoWriMo one) were saved as well! The aren't in document form anymore.... But my novel I wrote over the summer was published through Blurb.com and I have five copies of it. If I ever need to re-write it, I'll have to re-type it into the computer, but that's fine. And my NaNoWriMo novel I printed out because I can't edit in word documents. It's easier for me if I edit physically with a pencil on paper.
I am going to have to re-type everything into the computer (which will take forever I just realised...) but I was planning on doing that anyways because so far, I've re-written practically everything.
Although I lost many pictures and documents that I can never get back, I have to keep telling myself that it does not matter. I can't take pictures of documents to heaven with me. In 10 years it won't matter that a few pictures I took are gone. The real thing that matters is my faith in God.
It reminds me of this video:

SIGH

That (above) is my bookshelf.

 

I have a place for my Warriors books to go (they take up a whole shelf....).

I have a place for American Girl Doll books (they also take up a whole shelf.... Except for the one or two maze/search and find books off to the left).

I have a shelf for misc. books that I love. There's a whole collection of Sharon Creech books.... Inkheart by Cornielia Funke..... The Doll People... Treasure Island... The Freddy Series.... Watership Down.... E. Nesbit books.... Journey to the River Sea..... Lord of the Rings.... other books.... and (OF COURSE) Tintin!

Then there are the above books....
Usually they look like this, piled in front of (and on top of) my other books:

My books have overflowed off of my bookshelf. Yet I still bring home more.

Do you, my readers, have this problem as well? I bet you do. Unless you have more than one bookshelf... Which I'm sure you do.

Most of my family's bookshelves are overflowing.

What can I say, books are amazing!

But I haven't come just to talk about my bookshelf.... I have come to talk about the perils of being a book-loving-writer.

If being a book lover isn't bad enough.... People who both love books AND write never have a free moment. Add music lover in there and your set for life....

I happen to fit all three of the above criteria.

Books have a way of sucking certain people into their depths and once you get a taste of a good, well-written story (*cough cough* Classics! *cough cough*).... Well, let me just say you will NEVER be the same! You will want to get your hands on any and every book that comse your way. You will find good books and bad books.

As a writer, you also get pulled into the abyss of words.

Once you start to write (and find that you are passionate about it) you can never go back. It's kind of like Facebook.... Once you start, you keep going for life.

Book lovers and writers will collect their favorite books (note: never ask a book lover what their favorite book is unless you want a detailed list of every plotline for about 100+ books) and litter papers with half-written plotlines everywhere.

Add sheet music and a few instruments to that and a house will clutter up pretty fast. I have a dreadful suspicion that when I move into my own home I will have books, music, and paper everywhere, with my piano crammed somewhere in the middle. I have a vision of me sitting at a desk in a cluttered, one room apartment writing furiously with stacks of paper and books around me with Beethoven blaring in the background.

And that is exactly how I want it to be.

A very long blog post (but worth it!)

My computer is broken.
And since I am lazy on the internet... I haven't logged out of my mother's blogger account and onto my own. But now I have. Because I feel the need to blog.
Also, because I'm tired of this whole "30 day challenge" thing (since it's not really a "30" day challenge anymore....)  but am determined to finish it, I am going to finish it right now! In one blog post!

Day 24: A movie in which no one would expect you to love.
I am going to do this day a bit differently.... I am going to do movies and TV shows no one would expect me to love.
No one would expect me to love "Thomas and the Magic Railroad."

Thomas the Tank Engine was my childhood. I spent hours playing with my train set. First I had to build and re-build the railroad... Then I would play with Thomas and Percy and Lady and all the other engines I had (I always wanted Edward and Henry but, sadly, never got them). Whenever we go to a certain store that I know has Thomas trains I go and look at them and memories come flooding back.

A few TV shows no one would expect me to love are...

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

Arthur

Leave It To Beaver

The Andy Griffith Show

Many of you are probably familiar with Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Arthur. They are both shows for younger audiences.... But I love little kid shows. They are usually soooo clean and teach you simple lessons that everyone should remember.

Leave it to Beaver is a story about the Cleaver family. June Cleaver, the mother, is often made fun of in today's society because she was so "perfect" which she was. It just made Leave it to Beaver better.

I love old black and white TV shows.

The Andy Griffith Show was introduced to me by my grandparents. It is a show about Andy Griffith (last picture, the guy without a hat) and his fictional son Opie. Andy is sheriff of a small village. Barney Fife (guy with a hat) is his deputy. Aunt Bee (the lady) takes care of Opie. It's a great show with a great theme song! *goes off whistling*

Day 25: A recipe.

Boeterkoek

1 kop boeter

1 kop suiker

2 kop meel

1 ei

1 thee lepel almond

1 thee lepel baak poeder

Kneed alles met de hand of vork.

Schep het dreg in een pan. Plat maken.

Sprenkel met een beetje melk.

Stop in 350 oven, 30-35 minuten.

Eet smakkelijk!!

Boeterkoek is a Dutch recipe for butter cake. It's really good! ....If you can translate the recipe.

Day 26: A childhood memory.
Oh dear... I have been thinking a lot about my childhood lately. And I'm not even out of high school yet! I feel so old though....
Hmmmm.... A childhood memory. I can remember getting embarrassed an awful lot when I was small. I would say something and people would laugh and say, "Oh how cute" and I would be shamed and would think I was no good. I remember once being at a relatives house for Christmas and my little cousin received a gift and I said, "Is it what he always wanted?" and everyone laughed and I was soooo embarrassed. I hated being laughed at when I was little, even if I made a joke. I think it was because I was very shy. I always kept by my mom's side. I never wandered very far from her. As I got older, I hated putting myself out there and talking to people because I was afraid they would laugh at me or think I was stupid.
Then I took Shakespeare.
This wasn't any ordinary Shakespeare class, though. This Shakespeare class was more of a "Get-you-out-of-your-comfort-zone-by-silly-acting-games-with-Shakespeare-on-the-side" class. Boy did it help! Since then, I have been putting myself out there more and talking a lot more. I often think, "What does my youth group think of me now?" (in a laughing way) because my first year in youth group I barely talked. I was the shy girl who sat in the corner alone. Now, I don't care what my youth group thinks. If they think I'm a weirdo, crazy, nerdy, sci-fi lover, geek..... Well, all I can say is.... I AM! That's who I am. And if anyone has a problem with that, that's there problem. Because I am me. I'm not saying I'm perfect. In fact, I'm far from perfect. I'm still a work in progress. I'm still being molded into who God wants me to be. I've given up caring what people think about me. I only care about what God thinks of me. Because really, He's the only one that matters.

Day 27: A physical feature you love.
ACCENT!! No question about it. I absolutely love accents. Especially English accents. I could sit and listen to an English accent all day. Perhaps that's why I love Sherlock Holmes so much? And Jane Austin? Everyone in those books/movies has an accent. Even Tintin has an accent!
But enough about accents.... My mother wants the computer so she can do a blog post so I'd better finish this up.

Day 28: A scar you have and it's story.
Here is the scar-

No it's not the big brown thing. It's the little white thing next to it. I feel a few summers ago an scraped my knee while camping. Me and my friends were playing tag with some other kids in the campsite and I slipped and fell on gravel and skinned my knee. One of the other tag-players came over and asked if I was ok and I said yes and continued to play, even though my knee was burning. I tried running... Then I looked down at my knee. It was gross. It looked like this:

I am very glad that it has turned into a small scar.

Day 29: Hopes, dreams, and plans you have for the next 365 days.
I could go on and on with this one.... But I will narrow it down to just a few things.
1. Start taking singing lessons.
2. Read the following books:
    a. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
    b. Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
    c. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
    d. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
    e. The Young Sherlock Holmes by Darrell Pitt
    f. The Steampunk Detective by Andrew Lane
    g. The Tintin Novel based off of the movie by some whose name I don't know.
3. Finish editing my NaNoWriMo novel.
4. Plan this year's NaNoWriMo novel (I have an AMAZING plot line floating around in my brain!! It's full of detectives and secret weapons and trench coats..... But more on that in some other post.)

Day 30: A motto of philosophy.
I am going to do a quote instead. Whether it is philosophical... You can decide.
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim for earth and you will get neither."
-C.S. Lewis.

On a closing note, I am thinking about changing the title of my blog to "Random Ramblings." What do you guys think?

Hopefully, I will get my computer fixed soon and then my posts will be much more frequent again.

Until then, have a blessed week!

Day 23: A way in which you want to be remembered

I want to be remembered as the first female president! Oh yes!
Oh no.... Actually, I would not want to be president. Do you know how much work they have? They have to read every single bill that comes out of Congress. Unless of course they want to pocket veto the bill.... Which means they stick the bill in their back pocket for, I believe, ten days. After the ten days, the bill "expires" so to say and it has to go through both houses of Congress again. If it makes it through a second time, the president has the choice to read it again.
I really have no idea what I'd like to be known for. I guess I'd like to be famous for things I write someday.
=D

Day 22: A website

Well this works out perfectly!
Tonight I joined this blog:

http://moderndayinklings.blogspot.com/

It's called "Inklings" after the literary group that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were a part of. I'm really excited! I'll be able to share some of my writing with other writers and get their opinions on it.

So check out the blog and look out for posts from moi.

Have a good week!

Day 21: Something your know you do differently than other people

This one is easy. =D
I dress differently than other people.

Who else would wear these pants? (Regrettably, I don't think I'm allowed to wear them in public....):


Red. Oh yeah. It's even better when I wear a solid red shirt with it. =)

I also wear this on a regular basis:

Yes. That IS a skirt made of ties. (Notice the Star Trek tie?)

I also dress my dolls strangely.

Ruthie is rocking the yellow stockings.

I'm not the kind of person to pick out her outfit days ahead of time. I'm more of a, "Oh... I guess I'll get dressed... What should I wear? Sweat pants and a red shirt... Suuuure."

The only time I ever dress up is for class, choir, church, and special events like weddings.

I'm also a very conservative dresser. Wearing low cut, skin-tight, and skimpy clothes makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't know how girls can wear such things everyday.
We're God's daughters, princesses! When was the last time you saw a princess wearing nothing? We should be wearing modest clothing! You can be modest and cute at the same time.

Perhaps I will touch more on this subject some other time when I don't have to get off the computer.

Have a good week!

Day 20: A hobby of yours

One of my hobbies is going to thrift stores and second hand book shops (WARNING: Do NOT let me go into a second hand book shop with a full wallet! My money will be ALL gone!).
Today my dad and I hit most of the thrift stores in our area and I came home with less than I usually do... Just two books.

The first is, "The Doings of Raffles Haw" by Arthur Conan Doyle.


You may know Doyle for writing the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. In reality, Doyle actually strongly disliked the character of Sherlock Holmes. He thought that the Holmes mysteries were not his best work. He even killed Holmes off so he could write "better" stuff. He didn't want to be known for Sherlock Holmes.... But he is! Funny how that worked out.
I had meant to look up some of Doyle's other work to see why he thought it was superior to Sherlock Holmes so when I saw this book at the thrift store, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it! Especially since in the back of the book there are two Sherlock Holmes mysteries as well ('The Red Headed League' and 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery')! The inside flap of the book says, "Copyright 1891, 1919 A. Conan Doyle" so I'm guessing this book was printed closer to the second date.
Whenever it was printed, it's an old book. And I love old books. It's also in really good condition, which is good!
I looked up the synopsis of the "Raffles Haw" story and from what I leaned from wikipedia, it's a book about a millionaire who tries to give his wealth away but becomes disillusioned and the story ends in tragedy.... It will be an interesting read, that's for sure!

The second book I bought is "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson.


Like "The Doings of Raffles Haw", I haven't read "Kidnapped" yet. But it's been on my mental reading list for awhile and I keep telling myself I'll get it from the library.... As soon as I read it, I'll probably want to buy it, so I thought, 'Why not buy it today?' Plus, this is also an old book. Not as old as "Raffles Haw" but still old. 1949.
There are also full color pictures in "Kidnapped" which always add to the reading experience! =D

So yes, my hobby is going to second hand shops and buying old books and other things (such as American Girl Dolls - when I can find them).

Now I will post this and get back to watching the Tintin movie. =)
Have a good weekend!

Day 19: A talent you have

Hmmm.... A talent....
Well, I'm really good at burning bagels in the toaster! Nearly every time I stick a bagel in the toaster it burns so I have to make another one.
I can also touch my tongue to my nose. I was going to take a picture but I decided you guys don't need to see my tongue touching my nose....

Of course, I have some real talents as well. I have a good ear for music and I like to think I give good advice to my friends. I don't know, you may want to ask my friends about that one.

I'm off to choir! Have a good day. =D

Day 18: A day where you felt passionate and alive.

It wasn't really one day... It was a whole weekend. I went to this AMAZING Christian seminar thing a few years ago where they focused on reaching out to non-Christians.
It was an eye opening weekend for me and I realized that I wanted God to be my Father; I didn't just want to be a Christian because my parents were. I wanted to be a Christian because I realized God is my savior and I can't live without His guidance in my life!

In my World War 1 and 2 history class, I am doing a presentation on Holland during the World War 2 German occupation of Holland.
All I can say is W.O.W. what a fascinating time!
Holland was going to be neutral during the Second World War, as they had been in the First World War. Germany said that they would honor Holland's neutrality but the very next day, they invaded. The Dutch army tried their best to defend their country, but they failed and for the next five years, Holland was under German occupation.
Here is an amazing pictures of Allied parachutists coming down over Holland in 1944 (Operation Market Garden) in an attempt to liberate it.

I absolutely love this picture - it's my desktop background. =D

I'm always so awkward when finishing blog posts.... I never know what to say. I guess I'll end this post with "Tot ziens!" Which means goodbye in Dutch.