I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

What are we holding on to, Sam?

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

It is time for another Blog-post

So while in the US nothing incredibly exciting has been happening. I leave for DC tomorrow, which will be amazing, hopefully. So with that in mind, allow me to give you a complete summary of all the movies which I have seen recently for the first time:

On the plane I watched "I Am Legend"

Good, good movie. Some might say it was a tad scary, but I really enjoyed it. Overall, I really can't think of any problems that I had with the script, plot, or otherwise. I loved the idea of a "cure for cancer" going wrong. Oh yes, Will Smith is a great actor.

At my cousin's house I *finally* saw "I, Robot"

I have to say that it really is about time I saw this movie. Once again, Will Smith is a brilliant actor, the plot was great, the futuristic technology was spectacular, etc.

In the theater I saw "Prince Caspian"

I have to confess, I was expecting to hate it and ended up loving it. Caspian, who I was expecting to be terrible, was great. The whole Spanish/Italian Telmarine thing really, really fit Lewis' history for the Telmarines, and Reepicheep stole the whole show. My only problems were the script deviation from the book (major deviations, there) and the fact that Peter was... Well... Not magnificent. I couldn't stand him. But overall, "Caspian" was great.

Just last night I went and saw "Iron Man"

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, considering that I really am not one to geek out over superheroes, I cannot recall ever picking up a marvel comic, and the only movies involving superheroes that I've actually seen are the X-men movies and the first Spiderman. With that in mind, I really, really enjoyed "Iron Man." The main character, Tony Starks, was obviously a very messed up guy at the beginning of the movie, and throughout the movie we really got to see his character develop. Great character development, there. The Iron Man armor was really fantastic, the plot was good, there were a few twistings and turnings of the plot, and overall I really liked it. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone under 12--not even 12 year olds unless they're quite mature, but it was very good.

And that, my friends, is all. Unless you would like me to tell you about the complete experience of sharing FoTR and TTT with my grandparents--which as you all know, would probably result in several pages of rambling.

Namarie,

Manwathiel

Dream Big

I'm still an Elf with an Elf-bow and I promise, this time I will actually tell you about the Archery (in other words, part III)

So, where was I? Oh yes, taking aim with the arrow. So, as soon as I strung my bow I looked straight towards the target and let it fly--the arrow spun forward like lightning and struck the target smack in the middle! Ok, so that's what I *wish* happened... What really happened was the arrow fell of the T (see previous post to know what on earth I'm talking about. You still might not know). Very impressive. The arrow fell off the T. Well... so I put the arrow back on. But I couldn't aim properly. So after several tries and the arrow falling off the bow, the very nice teacher-person showed me how to tilt my bow to the side (which looked awesome), so the arrow wouldn't fall off. So I aimed and shot the arrow, and surprise surprise, I hit the target! Not only that, I hit about the third circle, which was very nice. Oh, and I also killed my arm. Not very nice. I believe I finally know what the point of the arm-guard is. And instead of hitting the arm-guard the string (it snaps forward, propelling the arrow off the bow, obviously) hit my arm. Hard. It's swelling up into a lovely bruise now. It hurt, but of course I would never admit that. Oh wait, I just did... But anyway. Was a little wound going to slow me down? Of course not! I grabbed another arrow and shot again. Well, this arrow went straight over the target. Alas for me.

Now, the third arrow.... Ok, so you don't want a complete analysis of every single arrow that I shot. So I won't give you one. But GG and Kristine were shooting too. They did great! Both got an arrow a little over an inch from the middle. So we kept shooting. It was the funnest (is a word) thing ever! I didn't want to stop! So we kept going... After about an hour Kristine stopped, but I kept going. Ohh, it was so fun. Finally GG said that we had to go... So I asked for one more round. GG said alright, so we shot another round. One more? Yes. So we did one more. And then one more. On my very last round I *finally* hit the yellow (middle circles)!! And here's the best thing....I hit closer than anyone else! Ok, so only about a centimeter closer than Kris' and GG's close arrow... Maybe even less. But it was a bit closer! I was so happy. So then we went home. But oh, I didn't want to stop. But I had to. So I did. But it was so fun! I am going to try to somehow take up an archery class somewhere, somehow. And that, my friends, is all. And I did finally get to the archery part!

I'm an Elf with an Elf-bow doing Elf-archery (Part 2--the part with the archery)

Yes, this is the moment that you've all been waiting for (or not). Now that I have told you about the pottery in my previous post, I will get on to describing the archery. Well, as you can imagine, the moment GG mentioned that she had done archery previously with one of my cousins I leapt at the chance to do it. Kristine and GG loved the idea of doing it too, so the day before yesterday we set out to do some archery. First we went and picked up our bows (they were red), arrows (half were broken), and arm-guards. After a bit of trouble we managed to get our arm-guards on (mine was backwards--thankfully, a guy at the archery range told me and I was able to switch it before I started) and drove over to the archery range. At the archery place there were many, many different kinds of targets. There were the ones with twelve circles, the big standard targets with one big circle, big bags of hay or something, etc. They were all different lengths away. There were two men there, one obviously the teacher and the other the student, who moved over and let us have the...*cough* I'll admit it, the closest target. But it was still pretty far away! The teacher was also nice enough to show us how to shoot. And you know, the Elves make it look sooo easy. You have to stand with your left side facing the target, your legs spread out slightly. You take your bow and tilt it to the right (you know what way to hold it because there is a piece on it where your hand goes that is kind of shaped like a T. the line on the T goes above your fist). With your left hand you take an arrow and place it on the left, top side of the T (the I in the T is lined up with the bow itself), then there is a notch at the other end of the arrow and you stick it in the middle of two plastic pieces. Then, holding the bow itself with your left hand, you take the string in your right hand, with one finger above the arrow and two below, and you... Oh. I have to go.

I promise, the next post will actually get to the archery part!

I'm an Elf with an Elf-bow doing Elf-archery!!

*cough* So I suppose I should start before the archery... Before the archery comes the pottery. Anyway, as most of you know, I am in FL with my grandparents having a blast. We leave tomorrow =(. I know that I'll have fun back at my cousins, but I'm having fun here too! Speaking of fun, did you know just how addictive doing acrilic paints on pieces of pottery is? Highly addictive. Almost as addictive as archery. But I'm starting at the beginning.
Well, GG took Kristine and I to a little pottery-decorating place downtown. You could do glazed pottery, but that took a week to be fired and we didn't have that long; or you could do fuzed glass pottery, but that took a class, which we didn't want to do; and finally, you could do acrilic painted pottery, which only took a day to be sprayed and to dry. Naturally, we chose acrilics.
First we got to pick out our piece of pottery. GG picked out a little plate shaped like a fish, Kristine picked out a statue shaped like a fairy, and I, after much inner-argument, chose the most adorable little box. Yep. A box. The box itself is shaped like an egg... Egg, you're thinking, ooh. Yay. Adorable. Naturally, you are thinking this in your most sarcastic tone of thought. But then, you would be wrong. On top of the lid of my egg-shaped box is a alligator. A baby alligator! It is sooo cute. And it's legs are kind of over the side of the box. Basically, it looks like a alligator egg is hatching into the most adorable baby gator that you've ever seen (have I ever mentioned how much I love alligators?). So we painted them, GG's fish was gorgeous, mostly yellow, with spots and stripes and the names of all her grandkids on it. Kristine's fairy ended up absolutely stunningly creepy (I think my love of creepy fairies is rubbing off on my sister), with silver hair, sparkly pink dress, and pale green eyes. My gator ended up soo cute. The egg was white and the gator was green. Surprise surprise. But it was shiny green and had a cute little smile! And red eyes. Glittery red eyes. I love it.

Oh well, I have to go get ready for bed (we have to get up at six tomorrow), so no time to tell about the archery. I'll get on to that later...Yes, I know that this throws the whole point of this post off point. I'm sure you can tolerate my incessant ramblings and off-topicness. Thank you, and goodnight.

Ha!

Ha! I remembered what it was I was going to say at the bottom of my last post.

I realized that I think weird. I don't normally talk weird, for the most part, but I think weird. For example... I saw a really awesome statue of a viking-like-person at Disney yesterday (the pic is in the below post). Now, most 15 year old girls would think something along the lines of "That's cool," or "that's awesome," if they thought the statue was cool or awesome... Well, I thought it was cool and awesome, but I didn't think the phrase "that's cool" or "that's awesome." To be precise, the first thing that popped into my head was "That's so Volksung." Most 15 year olds don't know what the Volksung saga is. And most wouldn't think "That's so Volksung." Anyway... Once again, that made no sense.

Farewell.

Tales of a Wanderer in a Strange Land... Also known as "A Tourist's Tale"

So, I've been doing the tourist thing in lovely Florida with my wonderful grandparents. Yesterday we went out and fed buffalo! As you will notice to the right --> I found the sign posted on the fence rather amusing. We fed the buffalo (I love those things) carrots and sweet potatoes. They liked 'em =). One of the buffalo kept trying to get more, twas quite funny.

And then today we went to Disney World! We went to Epcot, which is the educational part of Disney World. While "educational" might sound dry and boring, I assure you, it was anything but. The first thing we did was go on a boat ride through various ecosystems and then through a greenhouse-type thing. Before the ride started we stood in a line with a wall covered in mother earth propaganda. Made me laugh. Second, we went on the AWESOMEST ride ever. Basically we were astronaut trainees (you can see where this is going) and we were going on a training mission to Mars... There were two different versions of the ride, Green and Red. Green was supposed to be easier, without the spinning and g-force. GG and Pop-o wanted to take Green, so we went on that first. We got tickets and went to stand in line... The line was awesome. On one side of the line there was this big spinning thing--it was in a circle shape (and really big) and had rooms all around the edges. The floors of the rooms were all on the middle, so when the circle spun the rooms whirled around upside down! There were chairs, tables, dishes, treadmills, and equipment stuck to the floors! It was really cool seeing them spin around upside down. And there was a real Apollo-model moon-buggy-thing! It was cool. And considering that the line was long, it was good that it was cool. After we got through the line we were ushered into a waiting room by people in space-like uniforms... Kind of tacky, but very fun. We were put into teams of four, my team obviously consisted of myself, Pop-O, GG, and Kristine. As we waited we watched a video from the guy at the "command center" and the "lieutenant" who told us what we would have to do... Then a guy came in (in one of those uniforms too) and took us in, team by team, inside a room, where we watched another video, and then went inside again.... This time, we got into our little capsules. They were long-ish, about four seats wide, but once you were in your seat you had something right in your face... Anyway, I don't need to describe it all to you...But oh, I want to. Anyway, we got to push buttons, zoom around the moon, and eventually we crash landed on Mars!!! It was so awesome that Kristine and I decided to go back and do orange....Well, we might have gotten more than we bargained for... At first, everything was the same, we got in our capsules, put our personal belongins into a box-thingy in front of us, pulled down our restraints, watched the doors close, watched our control panels pull forward in front of us, and then I noticed something different--this time, the ride was equipped with throw-up bags. I tried to put that out of my mind and concentrated on the viewscreen in front of me as it flickered and I got a perfect view of the blue, cloud-filled sky in front of us, including the long ramp that would give us a perfect lift-off into deep space. Then, I felt the *real* difference. The whole thing started to shake. You would not believe how real it felt! Then suddenly we were blasting forward. It shook, and suddenly I felt an incredible force pushing down on my chest, neck, and head. I could barely breathe because of it! Then I heard our orders being given-- "Pilot..." it was for me--I had to push my button and release the lower part of the shuttle--I reached forward, trying to push the button. I couldn't move my hand forward because of the force pushing back on it! At last, I barely manged to push the button, then we were out in space, and all I saw on my viewscreen was stars. But not for long. Soon we were zooming by a satellite, almost hitting it, and then we saw the moon coming up in front of us. We jerked forward, the whole thing spinning around (I felt nauseous) until we were shooting around the very edge of the moon. We circled it, and then, on our viewscreens, we could see Earth again. Then the orders were given to activate chronic sleep. The engineer pushed a button, everything felt cold, and then everything went black.

"Warning! Warning! Danger!" a red light flashed overhead, instantly giving me a headache. In front of us was a whole field of asteroids! I grabbed my manual control stick and started navigating around the asteroids as the g-force pressed down on me and the shuttle shook from side to side--then we were out of the asteroid field with Mars directly below. We engaged rockets for the landing and started to head down. Then we started to crash! We all navigated towards the field we were to land on, overshot the field, and landed on the very edge of the canyon. Then it was over. We had completed our mission.

Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be very real for a real astronaut, and yes, some of it was very tacky, but it was soooooo fun and for a moment I completely lost myself and was actually out in space on a three-month mission to Mars... Oh, it was awesome. But it was over, so we moved on.

In Epcot, they have different sections for different countries. Each country has lots of shops...heh... We started with Mexico, where we went on a boatride, complete with annoying singing donald ducks. We visited a few of the shops there, and Pop-O and GG bought me a beautiful silver bracelet (Kris got one too, but a different design). We also went to Italy, where I saw the most gorgeous masks; England, where I saw lots of soccer (or should I say, football) stuff; Canada, where we watched a movie; Germany, where I saw the cutest little village (everything was reeeaalllyyy tiny); China, where I bought a gorgeous pair of earrings; Japan, where I saw people making candy-art like they used to have in Cambodia; old America, where we visited the Liberty Inn, where all the staff wore old costumes, and we ate hamburgers for lunch; last of all, we visited my favorite place there...Morocco. One of the shops had all sorts of awesome Egyptian stuff, models of Tut, Neferti, Bast, etc. It was really awesome. GG and I walked into another stop where I instantly saw a little sign saying "Have your name written on a pendant in Arabic." I happen to really like Arabic... So I walked over and felt the little pendant, looking for a price tag. It was $12 for a little pendant with your name written on it... Obviously, I couldn't get one. I sighed and started to walk on when a girl wearing traditional Moroccan clothes walked up to me (she obviously worked there). "Would you like to get your name written on a pendant?" she asked. I really wished that I could say yes. I told her no, I couldn't get one, but it would be awesome... She smiled and asked me what my name was. I told her my name, but that I couldn't get a pendant today. She said something about writing my name on paper. I instantly assumed that she wanted me to write my name on a piece of paper so she could translate it and write it on a pendant like I've done before when getting my name on something. I said something stupid along the lines of "Oh, but I can't get a pendant today." (again, stupid me). She said something along the lines of "No, on paper," walked behind the desk, grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote really quickly in Arabic on it. Then I realized what she was doing. She was writing my name on a piece of paper for me because I couldn't get a pendant! You would not believe how happy I was--I really love Arabic writing. She handed me the piece of paper, I was so surprised! I smiled and said thank you (probably several times--like I said, I was surprised). I was staring at my new treasure when a man walked up (also wearing Moroccan clothes--so he definiely worked there). Seeing me staring at a piece of paper with a big lopsided grin on my face, he naturally asked me what it was. I grinned widely (well, I think I did, I was kind of dazzled by my piece of paper. A very special piece of paper. With my name on it) and told him that it was my name in Arabic. I showed him the piece of paper and he looked at it. "Hmm..." he said, "Jimmie." I grinned, raised my eyebrows and looked at the girl who had written it, "Jimmie?" I asked. Then I couldn't help but laugh, I knew she had written it right. Who mistakes Katherine for Jimmie??? "No," I said laughing, "Katherine!" he laughed too and nodded, "It says Katherine," he said. I smiled, thanked them both, and left the store, clutching my piece of paper with my name on it. Call me slightly obsessive, but I think I worried about losing that piece of paper for the rest of the time there. I think I'm going to have it framed. Anyway... We did several other things at Epcot, but eventually we were ready to leave.

I had soo much fun! And now I'm leaving you all this massive blogpost to read...

Oh yes. Note to self and anyone who cares: Never listen to a really good cd (like Comatose) while reading a really good book (especially ones by Stephen Lawhead). Especially don't listen to the same cd every time you read the book from beginning to end. Every time you listen to the cd it will remind you of the book. If, of course, both the cd and book are good and somewhat seem to go together, this isn't such a bad thing, but then, it can be.

And that, my friends, is all. Oooh, did I mention-- No, you don't want me rambling for another hour. I bid you adieu!

Oh! And I totally forgot to tell you... Oh bother. I forgot what it was...hmm... You guys are probably relieved.

Greetings, Earthling

Well, today I went to a Habitat for Humanity house dedication. It was really awesome--a woman got the keys to her new house, and we dedicated the house to God. It was really a wonderful thing, I'm very glad that I got to see it.

No other big news today, except that I blew a whole bunch of money on iTunes downloads... All American Idol performances, of course. Funny enough, one of my favorite new downloads is Kristy Lee Cook's version of "God Bless the USA." It's a beautiful song. I really am rather patriotic, although it's not a side of me that you see often. And I'm much more likely to be seen singing "I'm Proud to be a Terran" than "I'm Proud to be an American." *cough*

Anyway...that's all for now, folks!

Ducks, Gators, Politics, and Calico Capers--it's Florida!

So I am in Florida with my grandparents! I am having a complete blast.
First of all, there's my grandparent's house...They have a birdfeeder outside. With birds (duh moment there). There are reeeaaalllyyy big cranes with really big beaks! And there are ducks. Lots of ducks. With bright orange beaks =). I love those ducks. Then, of course, there's the politics side of my grandparents... The whole house is like plastered in politics. There's a big sign on their outdoor fridge that says "STOP Senator Hillary Clinton!" which I love, and Dad's been walking around wearing a "McCain '08" pin. I love it!
Second, there's the shopping... So far, in my trip to the US, I have gotten body butter, Skillet: Comatose, three pairs of earrings, an awesome pair of shoes, an extremely comfortable pair of blue jeans, a skirt and shirt to wear to the wedding, and a book, Survivor's Quest, by Timothy Zahn. I is happy.
We've also been doing all sorts of awesome things (other than shopping). Yesterday we went to Homosassa Springs, which is a wildlife park. We took a little boat ride, and then walked around the park. Twas fun! We saw humongous alligators, a hippo, lots of beautiful birds, wildcats, manatees (Barbara Manatee!), and much more. It really was amazing. I got loads of great pics.
We've also just been hanging around the house a lot, taking walks, I've been driving the golf cart a bit (you can legally drive a golf cart when you're 14), etc.
Note to self: NEVER walk one mile on asphalt barefoot. Never. Never again. You will wind up with a giant over-one-inch-long blister on your foot and will have to hobble around on your tip-toes for the rest of the week. Never do it.
Oh yes, then, last night, Kristine, GG, and I went to a little show called Calico Capers. It was kind of a...erm... *thinks of how to describe* Small-town country folk-type-thing. (Abby, I can imagine the accent, and in this case...you might be right). It was quite fun, lots of dancing and singing, there was an amazing violinist with a purple violin, and there were two guys who must have been professional singers at one point in their life, they were *so* good. It was a little odd, in places, because every single actor/dancer was a senior citizen.... But a lot of them were obviously retired professionals, and were quite good. There were four amazing ballet dancers, too. At the end we all stood up and sang "God Bless the USA" a song that I really do love... And goodness knows, the US needs all the blessing it can get.
At the end of the show some guy looked at Kristine and I and said, "Aren't you two a little young to be senior citizens?"
Considering that we were the only people in the room that were not senior citizens, I instantly came back with a wonderful comeback: "Why thank you! We've aged quite nicely, haven't we?"
Ok, so I didn't come up with that comeback until later last night...Ok, so I didn't come up with it at all, mom did. But oh well. I ended up pointing to GG and saying something about visiting. Rather sad.
Anyway, I have had a great few weeks here in Florida... tis fun! But I'm kind of...feeling odd... Dad got offered a job position, but he hasn't taken it yet. I know I should be hoping that he takes it, but... I don't feel anything. I miss Cambodia, yes, but I don't feel like if we stay in the US I will *feel* anything. I just don't. Sometimes I really do think that I must be part Vulcan... But I don't want to be. Ah well...
Anyway, that's all for now! Meow, no more impersonating ;), other peoples, Meow included, posty commentys! I miss you all!