There and back again....

The past few days we have been in Harrison Hot Springs, which is a fancy-ish resort thing next to a beautiful lake with - you guessed it - hot springs! It was very fun. I've never stayed in such a fancy hotel before.... They had white bathrobes on the beds, just waiting for us to take them to the hot spring-fed pools.

Me and my dad trying to walk 'cool' down the hallway in our white robes on the way to the pool.
We celebrated my Grama's 80th brithday and also burried Grandpa's ashes. It was a very, very wonderful weekend!

On the way home I finally got to spend a gift card to a Christian bookstore that my mom's friend gave me..... My mom bought two piano books, my dad got a CD, and I got two books and we still had 33 cents left over!
I got the sequel to There's No Place Like Holmes which I did a review on once upon a time.... and I got a sci-fi book which looks quite interesting. I think Christian fiction is becoming more interesting (though a lot of it looks like sci-fi/paranormal stuff now.... verses dragon fantasy). When I read the books I'll do a review.

 

Over the weekend I wrote 2,000 words in my novel. I'm about 1,000 behind, but oh well. I'll catch up later.
I also started writing a short story about Daniel and Varina at Harrison Hot Springs where they have to solve a murder mystery. This is my first real mystery - I'm excited!

I haven't really been reading much in the past week... I need to rectify that.

So that's what's been up with me the past few days... How about you all?

Live long and prosper.

Postponed. Oh no, Christmas is canceled!

I am postponing today's Top Tuesdays until tomorrow because I have something important to talk about that I have been thinking about for a few months now.

Fandoms.

Wikipedia says that a Fandom is....
Fandom (consisting of fan [fanatic] plus the suffix -dom, as in kingdom, freedom, etc.) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom).

So basically, a fandom is a community of fanatics.... Some examples of different fandoms would be: Sherlock, Doctor Who, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.... it goes on and on. Anything geeky and popular will probably have a fandom.

Those who know about fandoms and BBC are probably aware of this phrase:

 

I have mostly seen this phrase in correlation to Sherlock... And Doctor Who whenever someone dies. "Right in the feels" pretty much means that something angsty (anxiety, pain, fear) happens (usually a character dies) and because the person behind the screen was so attached to the characters or the storyline that they feel pain at whatever happened.

Now, this post is going to take a random turn... But remember "the feels."

In "A Scandal in Belgravia" (Sherlock season 2, episode 1) Irene Adler says, "Brainy is the new sexy" and I think she's right (despite my dislike of the S word. And of Irene herself). A few years ago you were popular if you loved makeup and Justin Bieber and Twilight and frilly, girly things. And boys and Disney Channel and stuff like that. Now, however, the tables are turning. With shows like Doctor Who and The Big Bang Theory becoming so popular all over the world, the tides are turning towards geekiness. More girls are now becoming obsessed with BBC shows and sci-fi and fantasy are replacing Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place - the Highschool Musical that every little girl dreamed of. Now girls dream of The Doctor coming to pick them up in the TARDIS.
I look at people's blogs (mostly random people) and I see people's Pinterest's (again, mostly random people) and I feel sad. They obsess over these BBC shows and these BBC guys and really, I see no difference between girls obsessing over Zac Efron and David Tennant. I see true geekery as knowing everything about the shows... For example, knowing how to talk in Klingon, or knowing the history of Gallifry, or knowing how to write in Elvish. Knowing the little things. Simply obsessing over something, doesn't really give much depth.... The depth comes in knowing the little things.
Anyway, that's not my point.
I feel SO sad for the people that only obsess over TV shows, geeky or not. For me, it's great to be known as the "Trekkie" at church. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel unique. For other girls, I think it feels good to be "geeky." They want to fit in (and hey, if hot, time travelling aliens are involved, it's just an added bonus!). It's fun to post funny pictures and "get the reference." (Did you guys get the one in the title??? It's from Sherlock!!)
I know I enjoy looking at funny pictures. But... is that all?
It that all there is to life?
No.
Of course not.
But do all the fangirls know that? I don't know. I don't know what they think.
But it makes me very very sad to see people obsessing over TV shows. Things that don't matter. Life should be spent doing better things. Getting a good education.... Working.... Family.
GOD. Getting to know God.
In youth group we just started a new series where we're talking about being a follower, verses being a fan. A fan sticks around the sidelines while a follower... Actually, we haven't talked about what a follower is yet. I believe that is next week (that or I wasn't paying attention).
Similarly, our pastor is always stressing the point that being in the Word of God is very important. We should spend time daily in the Bible, getting to know God.
I think, how much time do people spend watching Doctor Who?
Then I think, how much time do Christians spend watching TV shows. Time that could better be spent getting to know God better.
I know that I spend waaaay too much time watching TV or surfing the wide web. I don't spend nearly enough time with God.
Some say that their teen years are for partying. They use their teen years as an excuse. I am finding that I am using my teen years as an excuse for watching TV. I keep thinking, "I don't want my kids to grow up watching too much TV - ruining their imaginations. I want them to read books. Maybe I won't even HAVE a TV when I get married and have kids! I want them to be closer to God." Then I think, ashamedly, what about me? I could stop watching TV right now. But I'm a teen, I can goof off if I want. I'm a teenager!
I'm using it as an excuse. I realise that. And I really am trying to change. It's hard, though.
Anyway, these are my own personal convictions I've been going through lately... I don't mean to change any of your minds.

So, spending more time with God is my first point.
My second point is family.
Tonight I have been watching family videos from a family reunion on my Dad's side in 1998. The whole family was these - every child and every grandchild (except for my Favorite Cousin, who was not yet born). That is no easy task... My dad has quite a few siblings who each have a few children of their own.
Anyway, my dad was videotaping the whole event. He was asking everyone to tell a story that they remembered of Grandma and Grandpa (or Mom and Dad, for his siblings). He was also being teased for always videotaping. He said at one point, "It's all part of the memories!" and I couldn't help but think, "OHH! RIGHT IN THE FEELS!"
You see, my parental Grandpa passed away last July. For the last 10 years or so, he had been suffering from Alzheimer's, a heightened version of dementia (says Wikipedia). All I know, is that Grandpa didn't know anything when he passed away. His soul was gone and all that was left was an empty shell.

 

Near the end, all he would do was sit with his eyes closed. He would have to be fed and bathed and put to bed. Through it all, my Grandpa loved him and took care of him - everyone in the family did, really.
It was a blessing when God finally took him home. The memorial service was a really really good time. Stories were shared and it was a time of rejoicing in my Grandpa's life.
I never really had a close relationship with my Grandpa, because his Alzheimer's was already pretty bad when I was old enough to have any sort of relationship with him (though from what I hear, he was a pretty hard person to get to know). It was really good to hear stories about him. I kind of got to know him through hearing other people talk about him and I am so grateful for that. I really regret not being able to "get to know him" or even just to observe him. He was my Grandpa, after all.
Anyway, on this family video that I'm watching, he's there. He's not just there, he's there. As in, his mind hasn't gone yet. He was interviewed by some of the family. He was talking, telling stories, telling jokes... And all caught on camera! I was really happy to see that as well.
Tonight I was going to watch Star Wars but I popped this in instead since it was sitting there and I had been wanting to see what was on the tape.
I am SO glad I did.
I am enjoying watching this SO much more than watching Star Wars or Doctor Who or any other TV show.
Watching TV isn't bad. Watching movies isn't bad. But too much TV, to the point of not doing other things, is bad.
Someone said (people say it is Einstein, but I don't know) that "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots."
I think that day has come. We are so caught up in our own little worlds.... We can talk over the internet but it is so impersonal. We watch TV shows and feel like the characters are our friends... Is that right? Shouldn't we be spending more time getting to know our friends, family, relatives, and God? than getting to know TV characters?
I'm not a fangirl. I try to make that known to people. I enjoy TV, and occasionally it becomes more important than other things... But I try really hard not to let it overtake my life. I don't want to be a fangirl. I don't want to spend my whole life talking about TV shows and characters because there is no substance to that sort of life. It is an escape, sure. But for how long? We all have to come back to reality sometime. And when we wake up, we'll find ourselves all alone because we've spent more time watching TV or cat videos than building relationships with people. I don't want that kind of life. There's nothing to that life! It's so dull and surface! There's no depth!
Watching these home videos, where everyone is laughing and talking has really opened my eyes, I think. (And when people weren't laughing or talking they were all sitting in the same room reading. Hee hee. How times have changed... Now we sit in the same room glued to our screens.)
Anyway, this is all my own opinion. It's just stuff I've been thinking about lately.

And seeing my Grandpa smiling and laughing may just be the best thing I will see this month.

O, Canada

Remember my bookshelf?

Well, now it looks like this:

See that box? Guess what's inside.
That's right, books!

Lots of books. Lots and lots and LOTS of books! 32 in fact.
A few years ago the Vancouver Sun (I believe it is a Canadian magazine or newspaper) came out with a collection of 32 classic books (unabridged). My aunt and uncle and cousin owned these books but my aunt decided to give this collection away. She asked me if I wanted them and even though my bookshelf is overflowing I said YES!! Of course!! =D

Here are the books that came in the collection.

I can't wait to start reading them! And re-orginizing my bookshelf! That will be happening in August. My family and I are going to be doing a complete clean of our house. We will be getting rid of everything useless and hopefully making room for everything useful (like books!).

Canada was great. On Sunday it was Canada Day and my dad, cousin, two uncles, and two aunts went downtown Vancouver to see what we could see. It was packed! But very fun. It was an adventure walking down the street where all the pubs and rock stores were.... Yeah, I don't think my dad knew where he was going (although we eventually made it to where we were going).

Rosey had fun playing with her cousin Ruffles.

And we visited my aunt and uncle's dog Lucy.

She would not leave me alone.... She kept staring at me. And when she wasn't staring, she was smelling the Rosey and Ruffles on me.

It was a great weekend! But I am happy that I can be home for the next few weeks.

Adios!

P.S. Well, I finally did it. I watched Doctor Who! So far, I loooooove it! I can't wait for the next disk to come in from Netflix!

A random assortment of things pertaining to American Girl Dolls and dog tags.

First of all, WHAT?!?!?! American Girl came out with new outfits and I didn't know about it!! It must have just happened within the last day because I recently checked the AG website.
Among the new things are, new doll outfits (for My American Girl/Just Like You dolls, Historical doll Julie, and Girl of the Year Mckenna), a new pet (Meatloaf - love the name), an old pet (they retired Licorish, they brought her back. Personally, I like the old Licorish better. Dad says, "I can't tell the difference." *shakes head* ), some new black boots (cute, but I already have, like, 4 or 5 pairs of black boots for my dolls 0.0 Oh well, they go great with the Star Trek costumes), and.... A DOLL SIZED CAR!!!!!

Is a little Bug! How cute! And blue, my favorite color. Unfortuneately, this car costs $350..... For a doll sized car. You could easily make your own car for virtually free. That's what Anna at basilmetos did.
A cute car AG, but a little too expensive..... Alright, a lot too expensive.

Every month or every few months I go on an American Girl Doll rave. I dress and re-dress them. I make videos with them... Most of this happens during the summer when I have time.
While I dress and re-dress my dolls, the clothes that I take off of them pile up on my desk. The desk was originally supposed to be a writing desk.... But most of my writing takes place elsewhere. I don't know if I've ever sat down and written a story at my desk. Probably 'cause it's usually overflowing with American Girl Doll stuff. Hee hee.
Currently our living room floor is also scattered with AG stuff. Outfits and hair accesories and shoes.
Tonight I dressed 5 of my dolls in the Kit Kittredge outfits I have (6 dolls including Kit, but she was already dressed).
And since I really don't have anything else to blog about and this blog was originally supposed to be an American Girl blog (but has spilled out into all the other areas of my life), I will show you my collection of Kit outfits.

From left to right:
Jamie wearing Kit's Christmas Dress (in the books, the dress is a hand-me-down from Ruthie who has outgrown the dress. Kit angrily refuses it because Kit thinks Ruthie is giving it to Kit because Kit's family is poor - the books are set during the Great Depression. In the end, Kit takes the dress.)
Felicity is wearing Kit's Birthday Dress (in the books, the dress is made of feedsack - you know, the stuff chicken feed comes in? Aunt Millie made the dress for Kit after buying the family some chickens. Kit feels so embarressed to wear the dress because a feedsack dress in the Great Depression lets the whole world know that you are one step away from the poor house. Luckily (and probably thanks to Aunt Millie) it doesn't come to that. Felicity is wearing shoes that came from Michaels Crafts.)
Rena is wearing Kit's School Dress (with the bow from one of Samantha's dresses. I honestly don't remember anything about this dress from the books... Only that it is on the cover of "Kit Learns a Lesson.")
Ruthie is wearing her Meet Outfit.
Kit is wearing her Reporter Dress (which never shows up in the books, only the movie.)
Jess is wearing Kit's Meet Outfit.

So there you have it.... I might do all of my Samantha outfits next, since I have tons of those too.

Anywho, I will be in Canada for the weekend so no blog posts (I will actually be in Canada on Canada Day for once!). My dad's family all lives in Canada, eh? I guess you could call this my vacation from the vacation I just took.... I would be upset to go except for the fact that my favorite cousin will be there and we always have a blast playing Mario on our Nintendo DS's. And playing at the park around the corner from our Grama's. We always end up playing freeze tag or hide and seek or the Alien Game or making up our own running/tag-ish game (like Lord of the Rings!) with our Dad's.
The last time I was in Canada, the dad's wanted to go back to Grama's so they said, "We'll leave now. You come 5 minutes later. We'll try catch you before you get to Grama's. If we catch you, you lose. If you get to Grama's, you win."
So my cousin and I were thinking we would sneak around to the front entrence of the neighborhood my Grama lives in and get in that way. So we walked and walked and walked and we went into this neighborhood thinking it lead out to the main road.... It was a culdisack. So we walked all the way back. It took us a good 30 minutes. We snuck back to Grama's and almost got in... and then the Dad's caught us.
That was the absolutely funnest adventure I've ever been on. =D

I took a World War 1 and 2 class last fall/winter/into the spring. I completed all the requirements (memorizing 3 quotes, memorizing 3 Bible verses, watching WW1&2 movies, reading all the books on the book list, memorizing the poem Flanders Fields, completing the weekly opinion papers - 13 in total, writing a 3 page+ hero report on a hero from one of the World Wars {I did George M. Cohan}, and giving a class presentation on one of the countries during WW2 {I did Holland because my Grama lived during Germany's occupation of Holland}). If you completed all the above requirements, at the end of class, you got your own dog tags. Three of them. One with your name and the date of the class, and two with quotes that you got to choose.

The first one (in the red silencer) says, "Do Hard Things" (fantastic book, by the way. Everyone should read it).
The second one says, "Freedom is never free."
I won't show the one with my name. ;)
It was a very cool ceremony. We went to an old people's home and the veterans told stories. There were even two men that had served in WW2 there! It was very fun.

Well, I've ran out of random things to say so I shall leave you with a picture of Rosey. Or maybe two or three.....

(Rosey and Davie. Davie is the dog of the people who watched Rosey. His tail is a blur because he spotted his owner coming home and kind of went crazy).

(Rosey being adorable and hogging Davie's bed.)

(Hanging out the window on the way home.)

P.S. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. Spellcheck isn't working!! AHHH!

Victoria and Dolls

Over Thanksgiving weekend my dad and I (Mom stayed home for a quilting weekend because she wasn't feeling too good) went up to Canada to visit relatives. First we went to Grama's house for a nice Thanksgiving meal of chicken, stuffing, beans, brussel sprouts, and bread, finished off with cheesecake and a pumpkin desert.
The next day we headed over to Victoria (which is on Vancouver Island) by ferry. It was a very, very nice ferry that made hardly any noise! It was very big as well.
My favorite cousin and his family live in Victoria and my dad and I had a BLAST with them! I never laugh as much as I do when I'm with my cousin playing Super Mario Brothers.
On Saturday we went sightseeing around Victoria. We first walked around the outskirts of the capital building which is HUGE and very beautiful. I hope sometime to go inside it and see Parliament in session.
Here is a picture, with a statue Queen Victoria off to the right.



The next stop was the Empress Hotel which had about a million Christmas trees in it all decorated with different themes! It was beautiful. The whole hotel is beautiful. Wouldn't it be fun to stay there?


Next stop was Craigdarrock Castle where my dad used to have "piano lessons". Instead of playing piano like he was supposed to, he hid in the bushes until his mom came to pick him up. The castle is amazing and although we didn't get to take a tour, I hope to next time I am in Victoria.


Our final stop before lunch was a mountain that was more of a hill.
Here is a picture looking at San Juan Island (without the camera zoomed in). Almost EXACTLY across from where I am standing is the Lime Kiln State Park Lighthouse where my family and I, along with some friends, Orca Whale watch yearly.


On Sunday after church we went for a walk along the ocean. There was a whole rooftop of pigeons puffed up, hiding from the windy and cold weather.

My cousin's dog Ruffles was a bit ruffled from the weather to.


And of course we had time to play a few board games!
Defenders of the Realm:


Dominion:
When I got home I found a Star Trek Spock shirt waiting for me! Thanks Mom! =D

Here are all my Star Trek costumes for dolls. From left to right they go, random Original Series dress, Captain Kirk outfit, Spock outfit, Captain Picard outfit, Borg Doll.


Just a few days ago I put all my dolls in their Christmas outfits and gave them fancy hair dos. Today I took a photoshoot with them.
MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS! =D