Lost in Middle Earth

Lost in Middle Earth and The Writer's Tower

2009-08-11T17:10:00.003+07:00

For those of you who actually remember my sadly untended and forgotten blog, I'd like to announce that I am closing the pages of this book (the word "blog" gets tedious after a while), and starting another. So henceforth I will no longer post here. This blog was my first, and a good blog while I took the time to write on it... Hopefully my new blog will be just as good.
Without further ado, may I introduce my Writer's Tower. Feel free to bug me if I don't update regularly!
~Manwathiel

Justice

2009-03-31T20:02:00.002+07:00

For those of you who haven't read the news article I just posted--read that first (or at least skim it). This is a follow-up, so to speak.

Many Christian organizations in Cambodia and other parts of the world are fighting for justice for those who aren't being given justice. Some Christians, however, act as if it is not our duty to defend the rights of others--that we can simply live in complacency and as long as we don't actively pervert justice, we can let perverted justice go forward. I, however, strongly disagree with that viewpoint. Here's why:

Exodus 23:6 "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.”

Deuteronomy 27:19 "Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow."

Psalm 11:7 “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.”

Psalm 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”

Psalm 140:12 “I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.”

Psalm 106:3 “Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.” [italics added]

Isaiah 1:17 “learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” [italics added]

Amos 5:15 “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.” [italics added]

Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

Composition...

2009-03-31T19:58:00.003+07:00

This is a news article I wrote for my Advanced Composition class. It's a bit out of date, but still relevant. I was able to attend the court hearing, so I caught a glimpse of the proceedings....Enjoy.

Courts Declare Dey Krahorm Leaders Guilty

On February 16th, prosecutors from the company “7NG” charged three leaders of the recently evicted Dey Krahorm community with damaging 7NG property. Lawyers from 7NG never showed, but the hearing continued with a stand-in for the company. By the end of the trial, the judge declared the defendants guilty of “assault” and “destruction of property.” He gave them each a suspended jail sentence of over a year and a fine of three-hundred US dollars. Another lawsuit, this time against Vichet, another Dey Krahorm representative, began the day after these hearings ended.

“It was the best they could have hoped for, but it wasn’t justice,” said Mrs. J of a social justice organization, mirroring the thoughts and words of other justice workers.

Due to the fact many Dey Krahorm people physically resisted the January evictions by erecting barricades, holding hands, and even throwing rocks, the courts ruled the defendants guilty. Some argue that 7NG should face these charges, rather than the Dey Krahorm people who “only tried to protect their property.”

Justice workers from around the world have called the lawsuits by 7NG “intimidation.” These workers also point out these suits occurred while the Dey Krahorm people withstood company offers of “compensation,” and the accused all hold positions of leadership among the Dey Krahorm.

Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun of Cambodia declared the community members “greedy” in refusing to accept the company’s early offers of money or “apartments” for their land. After the evictions, the company cancelled the money offers and changed the criteria for getting an apartment. Analyses show the offers of money fell far below the market-rate value of the land.

Although Cambodian land laws say that a person owns land if they live on it for five or more years, a small group of representatives essentially gave away a 3.6 hectare piece of land to a company called “7NG” without consulting the hundreds of families living on the land. Despite the fact that the majority of the hundreds of families in the community had lived on the land for over five years, 7NG still claims rights to the property. Since 2005 the families have faced violence and other acts of intimidation from the company as they stood their ground. Over the years, some families merely gave in and left.

Early on January 24th police forcefully evicted the last remaining 152 families from the Dey Krahorm—“Red Soil” in English—community.

“I was inside the site by four o’clock in the morning,” said Naly Pilorge, director of the human rights organization LICADHO. She went on to tell how the police blockaded the roads in and out of the community. “About six o’clock, many police, mostly military police, moved towards Dey Krahorm”

Volunteers for social justice organizations filmed as police officers fired tear-gas, fire extinguishers, and water canons into the groups of resisting people. Bulldozers flattened houses sometimes even before the people could remove their personal belongings.

“Some people were not even able to gather clothing,” Pilorge stated.

Many Dey Krahorm people fought back, attempting to resist the forced eviction. This led to the lawsuit from 7NG, mainly accusing the community leaders of harming company property.

Since the eviction, the company has removed the families to a site outside the city. Legal analyses on the situation by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions stated, “Housing conditions at the resettlement site Damnak Tayoung are woefully inadequate including insufficient access to water and sanitation.”

Now far from their jobs and their children’s schools, the people of Dey Krahorm have accepted the company’s offer of apartments for lack of any other choice. Some had to pay three-hundred US dollars to get their “compensation.” 7NG did not offer homes to all of the families.

7NG has said that the Dey Krahorm land, property valued at over 44 million US dollars, will undergo development for the betterment of Cambodian society. Planning has begun for housing, offices, and a shopping center. Since the community qualified as a slum with most houses built out of tin, wood, and plastic tarps, many Cambodians in the government say that the Dey Krahorm presence marred the riverfront property. Representatives from 7NG remain silent with regard to the accusations leveled against the company from justice workers and even others in the Cambodian government.

Four days after the eviction, the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights came out with an official statement, calling the eviction “a setback for the rule of the law.”

Bibliography

Briefing Paper: The Eviction of Dey Krahorm." 29/01/2009

Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Legal Analysis of the Forced Eviction of Dey Krahorm Community."

Jack, Susan. Personal interview. 01/03/2009.

Pilorge, Naly. "Dey Krahorm." International Christian Assembly. World Vision Building, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 01/03/2009.

United Nations Office of the High Commisssioner, "The Eviction of Dey Krahorm Residents: A Setback for the Rule of the Law."

Shocking Neglect on My Part

2009-02-07T09:35:00.002+07:00

Yes, I'm back from Thailand, have been back for a while now. The TPS trip was...amazing. I'm going to attempt to write up *something* (or maybe just put up pictures) about it...of course, I might not. But we'll see.
Eruanna's family visited, which was also wonderful. Eruanna and I had an absolutely great time. We even painted the wall with BE verbs!
Now I'm just catching up on school, agonizing over a presentation I think I'm supposed to be giving Sunday, etc.
*leaves to do work*

In Thailand

2009-01-13T14:19:00.002+07:00

Hey all my readers, I wish I could write to you all individually but I am very busy. I'm having a lovely time in Thailand with the TPS team. Everyone on the team is wonderful, I'll be working with 4-5 year olds at the conference, and I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately. There's too much to say, so I'll have to talk with all of you later... I miss you guys!
p.s. If you are in Cambodia, PLAY WITH TOLLERS.

Sights of Christmas

2008-12-24T10:40:00.008+07:00

Spark sleeping in front of our Christmas tree
Part of the wreath I made last year

Our pretty ornaments

An oddly rotated pie that Abby-la and I made

My delicious vanilla-scented candle

Meow hugging Abby's Christmas tree. We're not sure why.

Apologies, NaNoWriMo, Carols, Thanksgiving, Elvish, and Otherwise Misscelaneous Greetings

2008-12-22T11:27:00.005+07:00

First of all, an apology. I have somewhat abandoned my blog of late and undoubtably people have ceased to check it. So sorry! Life has been hectic here in Cambodia and I've barely had time for, well, anything. But now Christmas break has come around and I have...well...not much more time, but at least some.

I'll begin at the end of November. I won NaNoWriMo. It was not easy. Not easy at all. Yet somehow I managed to struggle through and finish with 50,033 words. Last year NaNo was so easy for me, but this year I really had to push to get it done... I was very happy to have won again, though. I had a wonderful time writing with friends in various homes and cafes, and I made at least three more NaNo recruits this year! I'm very pleased with NaNo this year. Can't wait til next November....
Also, I'm thinking of launching a Cambodia NaNoWriDay. In other words, National Novel Writing Day. One Day. 50,000 words. My friends all think I've lost my mind (or at least what was left of it).

I really didn't have time to type up a Thanksgiving post, so I'll give you a bit of a recap. I had two Thanksgivings, one with my youthgroup and one at my house with 37 or so friends and family.
Youthgroup first: We crammed into Christina's little apartment, baked, baked, and baked (which included mashing about fifty potatoes with a fork), ate lots of heavenly food, and overall had a spectacular time.
My Thanksgiving: 37 people, 10 pies, 2 turkeys, need I say more? It was wonderful. I ate until I felt like I couldn't move. I read the Thanksgiving proclamation and got a bit of stage fright (I hate it when that happens), and spent the rest of day hanging out with friends and eating leftovers. It was very much a multi-national Thanksgiving. We had Americans (obviously), Kiwis, Canadians, Brits, Mexicans, and Cambodians. We might have had more nationalities, but if so, I have forgotten them.

After Thanksgiving I caved in and decorated my room for Christmas. I have bells, candles, angels, and a little mini Christmas tree that looks simply adorable next to Tollers' cage. A few days later we decorated our family tree, which is huge, beautiful, and highly erratic. By now the rest of our downstairs is decorated, complete with wreaths, tinsel, stockings, a red table cloth, candles, and other decorations. It definitely looks Christmassy. Since then we have baked hundreds of cookies. We've made sugar cookie cutouts, gingerbread men, date swirls, Russian tea cakes, molasses sugar cookies, peanut blossoms, peanut-chocolate cookies, and quite possibly something else I forgot. I'm not quite done yet.
Youthgroup had a lovely Christmas party. It was quite a small group since it was the night of the Click 5 concert (which was something between a disaster and fantastic, from what I've heard). We still had a wonderful time eating pizza, having a more or less odd gift exchange, playing games, talking, and overall just goofing off. Cross Culture had a Christmas Worship Service last Friday which was great, although we had a few problems with the powerpoint.
Tonight Cross Culture is joining with a few other people to go Christmas caroling! Abby will arrive soon to help me bake cookies for us to eat afterwards. It should be fun.

A few weeks ago we had our annual Christmas Craft Fair...It was much fun. Four hours straight of shopping.

Speaking of shopping, I finished both my shopping and wrapping yesterday. I'm ready for Christmas!

School ended Friday, but I have to work ahead on my TPS work (English and Science) so that I don't get behind while on my mission's trip to Thailand. I did some Chemistry reading today and may do some later...maybe not. I don't really mind having a bit of work over the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, Christmas involves presents and my amazing friend Meow gave me an extremely cool Klutz bracelet making kit. Naturally, I had to do something in Elvish, so I am now wearing a bracelet with the Lord's Prayer in Elvish on it. Here's the Lord's Prayer in Quenya, but I printed it out in the proper font when I actually did the bracelet.

Attolma i menelessie, nai airitainiéva esselya.
Our Father who is in heaven, be it that will be hallowed thy name.
Nai ardalya tuluva. Be it that thy kingdom will come.
Nai írelya tyarniéva mardesse ve menelesse.
Be it that thy desire will be done on earth as in heaven.
Anta men síre ilyaurea mastalma.
Give (to) us today daily our bread.
Ar avanta men raikalmar ve avantalme raikatyarolmain.
And forgive (for) us our wrongs as we forgive (for) our wrong-doers.
Ar nai útukuvalye me mailenna
And be it that thou will not lead us into overmastering desire
ná fainu me ulkallo. Amen.
but release us from evil. Amen.

Not a perfect translation, but still pretty cool, no?

I'm getting so excited--Christmas is right around the corner!

Well, I'm off to mix up some cookie dough.

Isusarad 'Elir! (Merry Christmas)

~Manwathiel

Thanksgiving Proclamation

2008-11-27T14:42:00.001+07:00

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

NaNo Is Here.

2008-11-03T17:08:00.001+07:00

What are you doing reading my blog??? Crazy person, get back to your WriMo.
What do you mean you're not doing NaNoWriMo? Get started. Now.
What? I'm *not* supposed to be spending time writing on my blog?
You know, you're right. I'm off to do some writing.

Yes, NaNoWriMo has begun. Havoc is wreaked upon the world.
12,604 words and counting.

An Update

2008-10-27T18:50:00.002+07:00

I suppose I owe you all an update before NaNo starts and havoc is wreaked upon my social life, online and offline.

Lately I've been doing loads and loads of schoolwork--I'm absolutely loving my Advanced Comp class, absolutely dying under the load of my Chemistry class work, rushing through my health class as fast as possible so I can skip it in November, enjoying History/Literature/Bible, and not enjoying Spanish. I'm about to go to Chem class right now, so I'm afraid this must be short.

I've been doing quite a bit with youthgroup of late. Since we didn't have youthgroup while Christina (our youthleader) was in the US a bunch of us went to Sovanna mall, had pizza, ice cream, and played in the arcade (well, not me, I didn't particularly feel like embarrassing myself). Twas an utter and complete blast. You can go to www.abbysroom.blogspot.com to get a more detailed account (just scroll down a bit), although I did not play games in the arcade, get left in Sovanna, or blow dry my hair, since I don't own a blowdryer.
Youthgroup wasn't spectacularly fun last week, but most of the time it is very, very fun. We've been playing capture the flag and I have discovered that American style is not much fun compared to the other version, whatever version the other one may be.
At ICF we've been playing quite a fun game, where four people pretend to be guests to a party, and one person plays the host. The four each have to act out something on a piece of paper--an adjective and a noun--and the host has to guess what they are. We had a depressed poet, a weird lobster, a sad egg, an irritated pencil, an icelandic cowboy, a bubbling chemical experiment, and a tyrannical hobbit. Guess who wrote the last one =D. Oddly enough, I got to act it too. I got to scream about The Shire, the little folk rising up against the big folk, ruling in the place of the Dark Lord, and crushing the big folk with the iron fist of the halfling. Much fun, no?
We also had a potluck at ICF, I was a bit worried about the amount of food, but there ended up being enough (although there weren't enough plates or silverware!). I took brownies, which appeared to be quite popular since none were left. A lot of my youthgroup were there, so I had fun hanging out with them.

Saturday I spent the day making sock monkeys! I named mine Monkeystein, after Frankenstein, of course. Kris, Hannah, Abby, and Sam finished their adorable monkeys too. They were referred to as disturbing at ICF, I cannot concur.

Ahh, NaNo starts in less than a week! Here is what you may expect during NaNoWriMo:
I will randomly blurt out things about my characters at very random times
I will randomly blurt out plot ideas at very random times
I will bring my notebook to all social activities and while I will attempt to refrain from writing, I might fail misterably in my resolve, hence the notebook.
My internet life will be sadly lacking, I fear.
E-mails will not be replied to unless they are very urgent or I have that strange mysterious thing called "free time."

Anyway, with that said, let us talk about the future. Do you know where you want to go to college? How are you going to pay for college? What are you going to do with your life? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? Ok, nevermind that, I'm talking about the near future. Thanksgiving and Christmas to be precise. I simply CANNOT wait. Thanksgiving will be very fun, we have lots of people coming. And Christmas is always fun, naturally. I'm excited =).
This upcoming Friday we have a costume-bowling party at Cross Culture! I'm sooo excited. I'm wearing my elf dress, naturally, but I have to figure out a way to keep it clean, keep myself off the bumper cars, and bowl with those sleeves... Hmm. Something will be figured.

Ah, class is begun, must head off!

~Manwathiel

2008-10-11T10:21:00.002+07:00

First they ignore you,

then they ridicule you,

then they fight you,

and then, you win.

-Gandhi

2008-10-03T08:00:00.001+07:00

Oh, yes yes. The madness begins in a mere month. The excitement!

So...

2008-09-10T14:03:00.003+07:00

The two paged biography turned into a three paged biography. English class was a blast. Chemistry class not so much. Star Trek is awesome. Data is more than awesome. Tolkien wrote hysterical short stories. That periodic table doesn't want to be memorized. I have videos to watch (Chem videos), essays to write. Three pairs of earrings somehow wound up being bought by me, despite the fact that I'm supposed to be broke (stupid earring addiction). Youthgroup has been fun. Slime needs to be researched. Season Four of Atlantis is being re-watched. Season One of Next Generation is so lame it's funny (except for the occasional brilliant episode--like Datalore). Tollers has discovered that he can fit halfway out of his cage. I'm actually not worrying about Be Verbs at the moment. I have books to read, things to make, brownies to bake. It has been discovered that the Cookie Monster only eats cookies as a "sometimes snack" now (American propaganda... I grew up on the cookie-eating cookie monster and I'm fine!!!!). The US Constitution is fascinating. Alexander Hamilton is boring, as of last week. It's been raining lots. College is worrying me. God used Be Verbs. I need to get working on that essay. I also need to get off this computer. Headache, ya know.

And that, my friends, is pretty much my past week. Ooh, I'm going to go highlight the Be Verbs in this post...
Now, look at this, same post--no Be Verbs--what thinkest thou?

The two paged biography turned into a three paged biography. I had fun in English class. Chemistry class, not so much. Star Trek rocks. I can only describe Data as "more than awesome". Tolkien wrote hysterical short stories. That periodic table doesn't want to stick in my head. I have videos to watch (Chem videos), essays to write. Three pairs of earrings somehow wound up purchased by me, despite the fact that my friends describe me as "broke" (stupid earring addiction). I had lots of fun at youthgroup. Slime needs researching. Meow and I have begun re-watching Season Four of Atlantis. Our wonderfully lame Season One of Next Generation has me chuckling (mentally, of course, I'm Katherine) at it's...silliness? (except for the occasional brilliant episode--like Datalore). Tollers has discovered that he can fit halfway out of his cage. I'm actually not worrying about Be Verbs at the moment. I have books to read, things to make, brownies to bake. It has been discovered that the Cookie Monster only eats cookies as a "sometimes snack" now (American propaganda... I grew up on the cookie-eating cookie monster!). The US Constitution fascinates me. I declared Alexander Hamilton boring, as of last week. Rain pours down in beautiful torrents every day. College worries me. God used Be Verbs. I need to get working on that essay. I also need to get off this computer. Headache, ya know.

Geek-rant

2008-09-04T19:10:00.002+07:00

As I wait for my various family members to get off the ps2 and pop in a Star Trek, I decided to flesh out a few of my geeky-trekkie ideas. To be more specific: Wouldn't it be awesome if the Borg could assimilate a Q?
If the Borg could assimilate a Q, and I stress the "if", then the Borg would add the Q's abilities to their own--right? And since the Q are near-invincible, then the Borg would be near-invincible. I mean, come on, how spectacular would that be? Bad, yes, I'll admit, but spectacular as well, no? Imagine such an awesome episode... The Borg wouldn't even have to assimilate anymore! They would just go *pouf* and then perfection. Or some such thing. Of course, the rest of the Q Continuum wouldn't be too happy about that, so they'd probably wind up destroying the Borg (bout time, I'd say), which would be good and sad at the same time. It usually is the Continuum that ends up fixing problems that other Q's (usually Q) make. That would be so great, though... Q messing things up and getting assimilated, the Borg taking over everything in the blink of an eye, all hope lost... And then the other Q's would zap everything back to normal. So cool. Of course, there is the little problem that the Borg could never assimilate a Q, because the Q are, as I said, almost all-powerful. Oh well. That is a problem for another day.

For the record, I don't expect any of you to understand any of that (except my parents and Isaac, most likely, and even if you understand it you probably can't follow my train of thought). And that, my friends, is all.

Live Long and Prosper \\//

Nothing Whatsoever

2008-08-30T12:56:00.000+07:00

I decided to come on here and post a post telling you absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Yep.

So this is a nothingness post.

I will tell you, though, that I bought a plant for my room and named it Fergus. Contrary to popular belief, I do not talk to it. Well, at least not most of the time.

And that, my friends, is the end of the nothingness.

Tollers

2008-08-20T16:44:00.006+07:00

Yes yes, I am finally getting around to this Tollers post! Shall I begin at the beginning? Tis always the best place to begin, dost thou not agree?

As I was saying: Tollers. Most of you know that I have been wanting a parakeet for ages. I finally managed to get a cage and all my parakeet accessories (perches, mirror, toys, food dishes, etc) ready a few weeks ago, and began hunting for a parakeet. Living in Cambodia, this is not an easy thing. In the US if you walk into a pet store, there will be parakeets. Guaranteed. $14 parakeets. Every petstore. But in Cambodia we don't exactly have regular pet stores. With that said, I will continue from the almost beginning.

We heard from our bird-people-friends that you could find people carrying little cages of birds around on the other side of town. My dad set out on the motorcycle and drove for what seemed like ages, to the other side of town. My foot, brilliant thing that it is (or not), decided to take a nap as we drove. We reached the location and found birds, but none were parakeets and they decidedly looked like they had mites or mange in one form or another. I felt so sorry for the poor birdies, but we left without finding my parakeet. Dad and I went to the bank afterwards, where I made a fool of myself by being unable to get my stupid foot to actually work (I hate it when it falls asleep), I practically fell over and then I couldn't put my shoe back on. I limped for a few minutes, but eventually my foot started to work again, which was a relief. As afore-mentioned, we went home without a parakeet.

This was when the dreams began.

I had dream after dream about buying parakeets--and trust me, these were strange dreams. I won't relate them because you would probably never look at Tollers the same ever again and I wouldn't be surprised if you never spoke to me again, either. Let's just say that they involved glasses, pets for blind people. mutant penguins, parakeets trying to fly away, and eggs hatching into bright pink parakeets... Not your normal dreams, if you ask me.

The dreams occured for several nights, until my mom managed to take me up to Central Market to follow a parakeet lead... Well, we didn't find parakeets, which was heartbreaking, but a very nice man who sold locks told us where to find a petstore! I was ecstatic, so we quickly went to the street where the petstore was supposed to be.

As we drove down the road suddenly I spotted them--hundreds of parakeets, all jammed in one little cage. I screamed something about parakeets (what else? Did you expect me to start babbling about the hidden theology behind LoTR?), and we pulled over. I jumped out and ran over to the cage of birds.

The petshop wasn't exactly well cared for... The birds, as I said before, were in a cage far too small for the many birds, and the other pets in the store didn't look healthy. Most of the birds had feathers falling out and didn't look too good, but I managed to spot a few healthy looking ones. I watched the birds for a while, until I spotted one that looked young, healthy, and very active (he was attempting to shove another bird off of his food dish in order to get more for his greedy little self). I pointed to the one that I wanted, the store owner stuck his hand in the cage, and pandemonium broke out. The birds were going crazy, flying from one edge of the cage to another as fast as they could--it wasn't a surprise when the store owner grabbed the wrong bird. I decided to give this bird a chance, so I looked at him for a while, then discovered that he was missing a toe and did not look healthy. I told the store owner that I wanted the other one, and attempted to point out my bird amongst the masses. The next bird wasn't the one I wanted either, but finally the store owner managed to grab the bird I wanted and put it in my little travel-cage. I paid the store owner, and headed home with my own little parakeet!

Well, I can't give you the full minute by minute analysis of my bird, but he is adorable, I trimmed his wings myself (with a lot of help, admittedly), his name is Tollers, thanks to the suggestion of one of my fellow TPSers--oh yes, about the name. For a brief time I had people shocked that I had not named him something Tolkien related. Sorry to burst your bubble, my friends, it is Tolkien related, just too obscure for most of you to know of =P. Anyway, he is my dear little birdy, he likes to eat my rings, my fake vines, my hair, and my fingers. He is one of the cutest little birdies ever and I am really worried that one of my friends is going to try and steal him.

And that, my friends, is all. Oh, and here is Tollers and his favorite "snack."

A Downpour of Rain, A Reminder of Glory

2008-08-14T18:47:00.004+07:00

Tis the rainy season in beautiful Cambodia. Rain is pouring down at the moment, like it did last night at the same time, the night before, and the night before that. I love every minute of it. The trees swaying in the wind--the sound of water on tin roofs--water flooding our yard--rain blowing through my bedroom window and soaking my room--everything. I love it. I love the thunder that makes the ground shake, the lightning that makes the sky bright as day, everything. And then sometimes, if it's still light outside, you can see a rainbow--a constant reminder that God keeps his promises, something that I often forget. God made the rainbow, the rain itself, the wind, the thunder, and the lightning, and it all serves to glorify him. That's what the rain reminds me about: God's glory. I have a slightly awkward habit of breaking into worship songs at the top of my lungs when it rains. It's awkward because I frequently forget just how loud I am singing (the rain drowns out a lot of noise) and I get people staring at me funnily. But that's what the rain makes me want to do--worship God. I love the rain, singing in the rain (or rather in a nice dry room while it rains), and more specifically, worshipping God when it rains.

If there was no rainy season, life in Cambodia would be quite different. The river would never overflow, the rice-fields would never flood, and the Cambodian way of life would be drastically different. By something as simple as rain, God has enabled the Cambodian people (and probably every other people group, when you think about it) to develop the culture and way of living that they have today.

God has used something as simple as rain to show His glory in Cambodia and in the rest of the world.

Something as simple as rain.

The First Day of School (Among Other Things)

2008-08-11T15:45:00.002+07:00

School started today. Isn't that such an ominous sentence? Doesn't it immediately bring terrible thoughts of pile after pile of homework to your mind? No Abby, I'm not talking to you, we all know you love school, but not everyone does. Well, I have one thing to say to all you pessimists who can relate to the third sentence in this blog post: Stop being so pessimistic, school's not that bad.
Ok, some of you are thinking "Katherine, give me a break, you're a homeschooler. You sit on a couch watching Star Trek and eating doritos all day."
Well... I have very little to say to that except that if you think such a thing, you should really do some research. Here is what I did on my first day of school:
Health, Algebra 2 (I'll actually do Geomoetry this year, I'm just finishing up last year's work), Exploring America (which encompasses history, writing, literature, and Bible and included me beginning a two-page summary of my worldview), Spanish, read 1/3 of Peace Child, worked on memorizing the periodic table of the elements, Classical Roots, Analogies, Art, and a few other things that were undoubtably so boring that I have already forgotten them. Oh, and I haven't even started Advanced Comp or Chemistry yet. To put it simply, that's not sitting on a couch watching Janeway beat up the Borg. Not at all. I know very well that my friends who attend private (or even public) school are probably all doing something vaguely similar to what I'm doing. So hey, I'm as much an expert on the first day of school as any other Sophmore on Planet Earth. Thus I can truthfully say, from experience, that the first day of school isn't as bad as everyone seems to think it is. In fact, school in general can actually be pretty fun, and if you look at the first day for me, school probably will be pretty fun this year. Even for a homeschooler. And no, I'm not a social invert.
But anyway, getting on with what I was saying, the first day of school was actually pretty fun. Spanish was just...well... It was the first day and was pretty much just housecleaning that I fastforwarded through (BJU Press Distant Learning stuff). Art started simply enough, but I flipped through the book and saw what looked like some awesome lessons. Math is, well, math, 'nuff said. I don't like it but I don't hate it. It has always been that way it will always be that way. Classical Roots... I don't know if I've ever told anyone, but I absolutely positively love my Classical Roots book. It has all these awesome famous quotes in Latin and is filled with writing assignments that are simply a blast. I also love dissecting those words and figuring out their history. Analogies started out rather dull, but I know that it will be at least somewhat fun, eventually. My Health book is a complete crackup, it was talking about how our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple (which they are, of course, don't get me wrong here), but instead of using the word "body" it used the word "temple" pretty much constantly. I kept thinking of an area of my forehead, which wasn't exactly what the book intended. It looks like it'll be halfway decent, although it looks relatively dull. Now we get to my American History/Exploring America. This thing is AWESOME. Basically it combines History, Literature, and Faith. It has the regular history book part, but it also comes with a book of complete source documents! How awesome is that? I get to read the words of Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt without any editing or frustrating people interjecting their own summary of what so-and-so said. I love, love, love it. Of course, I am now supposed to be writing a two-page summary of my worldview which is going...well...interestingly. I'm not the kind of person who really talks about my worldview, so it is rather interesting getting it down on paper. I'm not sure how to describe half of it. But moving on, I haven't started the literature for this course yet, but I've seen the books and they're wonderful classics like Uncle Tom's Cabin and To Kill a Mockingbird. Mom also supplied a list of extra credit literature which I will, naturally, be reading as well as the required lit. I've already started with the afore-mentioned Peace Child which is, to put it gently, not for the squeamish... I absolutely can't wait to start my TPS courses. Chem sounds very fun and Advanced Comp will be good, I'm sure, except for that pesky Be Verb rule... I'm working on memorizing my elements and you'd probably be surprised how fun it is to memorize "Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorous, Sulfer..." Yeah, that's as far as I've gotten. But tis fun!
So yes, the first day of school wasn't bad at all, and I got to read with Tollers sitting on my shoulder (what do you know, he's interested in the classics as well as fantasy!).

And because I feel like it, here is a list of books that I know I will be reading this school year. First of all we have my school-required-and-extra-credit books:

Peace Child
The Scarlet Letter
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Company Aytch
Humorous Stories and Sketches
Up From Slavery
In His Steps
Mama's Bank
Christy
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Giver
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huck Finn
Portable Poe
Walden
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book
My Antonia
Grapes of Wrath

And as to my own, personal reading:

The Sword of Shannara (I should at least finish it, no?)
Pendragon
Emma
The Silmarillion
The Unfinished Tales (I need to read these two again)
The Virtual Mummy (I'm maybe halfway through)
Brush up Your Shakespeare
The Treason of Isengard
Twilight (Because Abby's making me ;) )

Naturally, more books will come along and will be read... But for now tis a good start for a list, don't you agree?

Ah, I'm boring you, so ttfn, I'm off for now... Be expecting a full-size post about Tollers to be coming along soon, I'm on the wrong comp for pictures of him right now, so you will be spared that mammoth post until at least another day.

Oh wait, I just remembered, I'm not done with this post! I did say "Among Other Things" in the title, if you will recall, so I intend to continue boring you with this post.

I wanted to talk to you all about the Taizé service at ICF... Most of you know that I haven't gone to ICF since I went that one time eight years ago, but I decided to go to the Taizé service (which is very different from the normal service and only happens every few months) with Abby. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it all turned out to be very peaceful and relaxing. I did a reading from Isaiah, which I butchered, and actually turned out to, oddly enough, be my favorite Bible passage! The service was very quiet and was composed mostly of singing with beautiful flute music, reflective pauses, Scripture readings, and prayer. Twas all very nice and worshipful. I fully intend to go next time. Of course, next time I won't sit on the floor... I think every bone in my body cracked when I stood up =D. But it was definitely worth it and was overall a very nice, calming time of worship.
Oh yes, and speaking of church services, I'm planning to go to the ICF afternoon service (as well as my usual ICA morning service) next week, because I've heard that the youthgroup at ICF is very good... Thus I might as well try it! Regular youthgroup is starting up soon and I'm very excited about that. Hopefully it'll be good this year around. The Highschool group was quite good last year. I'm going to try helping out with worship again this year... We shall see how that goes.

And that, I think, is really all. Namarie!

~Manwathiel

Parakeet Needing a Name

2008-08-06T12:45:00.002+07:00

No, I haven't got my parakeet yet (alas) but since I like my pets to have a name on day one I've decided to get a head start on names... And I need your help! Check out the poll on the right side of this post ---> and give me your opinion! If you choose "other" go ahead and comment on this post giving me your suggestion. Whatever your decision may be, feel free to give input on this post in the commenty comment section. Thanks!

~Manwathiel

*edit*
Too late, the parakeet has been named! Tollers be his name, thanks to a wonderful member of Isaiah. I'll undoubtably make a whole post on the subject of Tollers later, but for now he's being shy and hiding in his cage, but I'm sure that he'll do something of interest soon!

Songs...

2008-08-05T18:10:00.002+07:00

I have decided that two songs can pretty much sum up what I want my life to be about. Yep, two songs. Here they be:

To the Ends of the Earth
Hillsong United

Love unfailing
Overtaking my heart
You take me in
Finding peace again
Fear is lost
In all you are

And I would give the world to tell Your story
Cause I know that You've called me
I know that You've called me
I've lost myself for good within Your promise
I won't hide it
I won't hide it

Jesus, I believe in You
And I would go to the ends of the earth
To the ends of the earth
For You alone are the Son of God
And all the world will see
That You are God
You are God

Mission's Flame
Matt Redman

Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out

Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognise Your fame
'Til every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out

You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your kingdom comes
Until that final revelation dawns
Send us out

Every tribe, every tongue
Every creature in the heavens and the earth
Every heart, every soul
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise
Every note, every strain
Every melody will be for You alone
Every harmony that flows from every tongue
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise

2008-08-02T09:40:00.001+07:00

A poem loosely based on Tolkien's Elves and their love of the sea:

The Voice of the Sea

As I walk under trees of green,
I realize what my fate is to be.
No longer will I hear the trees sing,
For I am to fall for the love of the sea.

The voice of the sea is calling me;
Calling me to lands unknown,
Calling me to shores that are free,
Calling me to lands renown.

Lands that are free from hurt and pain,
Lands that nothing will ever maim,
Lands past the sea that is my bane.

The cries of the gulls along the shore—
The voice of the sea is calling me.
The whistling foam that all adore—
I am called by the voice of the sea.

The voice of the sea is calling me,
Out to the wilds of the deep.
In little time I shall see
Where storms arise and strange things sleep.

Never again shall I love the trees.
Love how softly they sway in the breeze—
For I am called for the love of the seas.

Someday across the sea I will flee,
And there I will find that I am free.
For the voice of the sea calls to me.

Books Missing...

2008-07-29T13:12:00.003+07:00

Hey everyone, a bit of bad news from me. Yesterday I found out that about half of my book collection was stolen while I was in the US. You all know me and should know that my books are my most prized possessions, and now everything except my Tolkien books (which is about half of my book collection) and the few books that I had with me in the States are missing. This includes my Artemis Fowls, my Lawheads, my Redwalls, the Dragons in our Midst series, a couple books by Anne McCaffrey, The Case for Christianity, a collection of Sherlock Holmes, The Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn Duology, and several other series. I feel kind of like I would love to do something nasty to the thief (please pray that I stop feeling like this). There is a possibility that we can get the books back, since there is only one place to unload English books in Cambodia, but we're not sure yet if we'll be able to. My only consolation is that maybe the thief will pick up The Case for Christianity or one of my devotionals and that God would work on his heart. Maybe this could end up working for the better, although I confess that I most definitely am not feeling optomistic about this...
Anyway, if you guys would pray that I handle this well--and that, if it is God's will, we could get the books back--I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!

Home...

2008-07-26T13:01:00.003+07:00

Well, after a wonderful two weeks in CA, I am back in Cambodia watching Stargate and wondering just *how* to unpack all those boxes... My room is a mess, I'm exhausted, and I am also very excited to be back. And I'm afraid that I have no other update to make...

~Katherine

<-- La Jolla Cove in California

A Tribute to My First Camera

2008-07-14T04:35:00.012+07:00

So as some of you know, and some of you do not, my first camera that I recieved most unexpectedly for my 14th birthday broke a week ago. I was heartbroken. My first camera! I have recently gotten a new one (and thus gotten into quite a bit of debt) but I will never forget my first camera. This post is a tribute to my camera. Here are several pictures that I took with my first camera. All pictures are copyright to me, Manwathiel, please do not save them, copy them, reproduce them, or any such thing.

With all that said... I give you a tribute to my first camera:

California, Here I Come

2008-07-04T09:13:00.002+07:00

I'm on my way to beautiful San Diego tomorrow! I really can't wait--especially since I'll be meeting up with four of my awesome TPS friends (yay!) as well as seeing quite a few friends who live in SD who I haven't seen in....well...two years, I guess.

So to my fellow MEA-ers--I can't wait to meet you all!!!! I'm getting so excited =D.

To my friends who I haven't seen in two years--I'm looking forward to seeing you all and seeing what's changed in your lives since I saw you last!

Sorry for the short post and the lack of regular posts... I'll try to get up a more detailed (I can hear your moans) post about D.C. later...

TTFN!

~Manwathiel

An Update!

2008-06-24T03:59:00.004+07:00

So after a very long time with not enough internet time to give an update, I am updating.

I am going to try to cram this down into a little itty bitty update, so here you are:

So about a month ago we toured Washington DC. We almost met Duncan Hunter, toured the Capitol Building, visited all the monuments, and had a complete blast. Twas very awesome.

After DC, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Illinois. I'm afraid to say that I spent most of the time reading... But that's not exactly shocking if you know me. I had a very fun time in Illinois, we visited Amish country, went to a museum and saw a mummy, and went to my cousin's soccer game.

After Illinois we wound our way through the Ozark Mountains, eventually stopping at a nice little campground where we stayed in a cabin, ate hotdogs, swum in the beautiful river, and made s'mores (yum....). Our second day there, we went out on a two hour canoe trip, which was very fun. Of course, the canoe did tip over, which wasn't so fun, but it was all part of the experience, right?

Now that I've come to this part I want to make a little point here... Two points actually. One: God always answers prayers, although not always in the way that you think he will. Two: God is a God of humor.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with a canoe trip, but here you go...

When the canoe tipped over, I lost my $152 perscription sunglasses. Yes, I do hate those sunglasses, but I kind of needed them. So I started to pray that I would find my sunglasses. While dad was emptying the canoe of water, I walked up and down the riverbed looking for my sunglasses, praying that I would find them. After a few minutes of looking I spotted something shaped roughly like a pair of sunglasses. I ducked down in the water and picked them up. Well, I had prayed that I would find sunglasses, and God said yes and sent me sunglasses. But you know what is hilarious? They weren't my sunglasses! It was very, very funny. But hey, my prayer was answered!

And now we are back in Arkansas, safe and sound... And that is my update. Wow. I didn't give you a minute by minute analysis of our trip... Amazing.

2008-05-28T07:01:00.002+07:00

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

2008-05-26T21:51:00.007+07:00

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

2008-05-22T06:44:00.002+07:00

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)

2008-05-17T03:25:00.005+07:00

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)

2008-05-17T02:27:00.003+07:00

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!!

2008-05-16T06:01:00.002+07:00

*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!

2008-05-13T07:18:00.002+07:00

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"

2008-05-12T05:57:00.014+07:00

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

2008-05-10T05:13:00.003+07:00

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!

2008-05-09T09:08:00.008+07:00

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 re ally 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!

World of Coke

2008-04-28T06:54:00.009+07:00

You didn't know that Coke had their own planet, did you? Well, they do.
Ok, so not really.

But they do have their own city!
Or rather, their own building.
Which isn't really a "World."

But we'll let them get away with calling it one, agreed?

Well, my friend, my cousins, aunt and uncle, and other family members and I went to the World of Coke last week. We watched a 3-d movie that involved being splashed with water (real water), knocked out of your moving chairs, and getting jabbed in the back by an *extremely* painful stick-thing. It was awesome.

Oh yes, we also got to look at tons of Coke memorabilia (I know, I know, I spelled that wrong, give me a break), which was fun, and we got to...best of all...drink as much as we wanted of pretty much every beverage that Coke owns! Included among these was various juices, iced tea, root beer, fanta, sprite, coke, cherry coke, vanilla coke, coke zero, diet coke, diet cherry coke, diet vanilla coke, diet vanilla cherry coke, beverly, fruit-fanta, and too many other beverages to list.

I drank waayyyy too much. But it was awesome. I do believe that Brad, Kristine, and me drank almost every drink in the place--and that's a lot. Just trust me on this one, however, NEVER try the Beverly. Never. Never never never. If you value your life you will believe me.

Never.

Piccys for all!

Oh yes, and at the end...I got a free coke! =)

Aaaah

2008-04-28T02:48:00.002+07:00

Well, everyone, I am terribly sorry for not posting/e-mailing/anythinging for such a long time...My comp crashed and we lost lots of stuff. For those of you who have e-mailed me and have not gotten a reply, could you please resend? Thanks!

Well...I'm at my grandparents now, having lots of fun. While at my cousins we visited the World of Coke, which was a blast...I'll post about that later with lots of pics. For now, though, I just wanted to say that I'm fine and I miss you all! Sorry there's been so few updates...the computer is frustrating...right now I'm on my grandparents comp. Well, I have to go!

~Manwathiel

The US of A

2008-04-19T08:25:00.002+07:00

Well, life in the US has been interesting.

For one thing, I tried a chicken-fried steak and some ochre the other day. Two Texan dishes. The chicken-fried steak wasn’t bad, and the ochre was pretty much tasteless. Not too bad…

Oh, and did I mention that it hailed? Well, there was a storm, and apparently there was hail the size of golf balls falling in some parts of Texas, but where we were the hail was smaller… About half an inch. Caleb ate it. Here’s a pic -->

Well, its still freezing, we’ve been eating good, and we’ve done some shopping. I got some lovely body butter that smells like kiwis (no, not you, Abby, not the bird either, the fruit.), and also got a new awesome Skillet cd, two books—“Tolkien’s Ring,” fully illustrated by Alan LeeJ and “Grail” by Stephen Lawhead—and a t-shirt that says “On the 6th day God created Dinosaurs!” and has a big T-rex on it. So me.

We’ve also been eating lots of luvverly food… strawberries, grapefruit, whoppers, cheerios, etc. Yum yum.

Well, we’re in Arkansas now. It’s gorgeous here, was gorgeous in Texas too. I miss you all back in Cambodia, and I can’t wait to see those of you who I’ll be seeing while we’re in the US!

~Manwathiel

Through the Stargate

2008-04-15T07:09:00.002+07:00

And back into the USA. You know, LAX even *looks* like Cheyanne Mountain Complex. *stops rambling* Ok, so Caleb and I played the stargate game while traveling... Traveling...for 27 hours! Ack, it was horrible. But I survived. And watched I Am Legend and Unimatrix Zero. Which were both totally awesome. And survived.
And now I am freezing. So all you need to know is that we are alive, we have reached Dallas, and we are eating strawberries. Whoohoo! Lets hope I survive tomorrow when jetlag *really* hits me.
Well... goodbye.
!me!

2008-04-12T18:05:00.003+07:00

Sickness, disease,

Sadness, disaster.

Life moves on.

Nothing can break me down

When I'm being held up

By One so strong.

Heartbreak, sorrow,

Heartache, sin.

I'm breaking apart,

Fallin' to pieces,

Bending, breaking.

Being glued together again.

Life moves on.

Farewell

2008-04-07T08:34:00.002+07:00

So I've been saying goodbye... Goodbye to people, goodbye to places, goodbye to life as I know it. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to cry. Actually, more than sometimes. I can barely imagine living in the United States... leaving my friends here in Cambodia... Leaving everything I'm used to... It'd be horrible, at the very least. But just in case that happens, I've been saying goodbye.
We already had two goodbye parties and I said goodbye to many, many people in church on Sunday. I started to cry at Le Duo. This is highly unusual for me to actually *cry*. I went and hid in the bathroom. Depressing. Well... I might be leaving Cambodia forever... alas.

Goodbye.

Earrings

2008-04-07T08:24:00.003+07:00

So I've been wanting to get a second piercing on one of my ears for quite a while... And I finally got parental permission. But being me, I'm too cheap to pay to have it done, or to pay for new earrings. Several of my friends recently got their ears done at Toul Tom Poung, where someone just took the earring and popped it in, no machine or anything. I considered doing that, but I'd still have to buy a new earring. So I came up with a simple solution: Have Dad pierce it! Dad said ok, but later changed his mind... So I decided to pierce it myself. I cleaned off an old earring with rubbing alcohol, fiddled around with making different dots on my ear, finally found a good place to pierce my ear, and started to stick the earring in. Well, long story short, it went through, and I now have joined the ranks of those-who-have-pierced-their-own-ear. I was going to do the other ear too, but after doing one I kind of wimped out. So now I have two holes in my right ear and one in my left. Yup yup. I'm probably going to regret it later... But for now I am very happy and very proud of myself =).

For the Federation!

2008-04-03T18:18:00.002+07:00

So some of you may know, and some of you may not know, that a forum I'm on played a wonderful April Fools trick (definitely the best April Fools trick I've ever seen), in which the Trekkies took over, confined all of the Gaters and their sympathizers to the Brig, changed everything to everything Star Trekkie, and overall were as geeky as possible. I, being a Trekkie, had an utter and complete blast. I think everyone did. Of course, the Gaters did break out eventually and us Trekkies were defeated... But then it was revealed that it was all an April Fools joke (I knew ahead of time). But goodness, it was fun.

With that brief history, allow me to say that I am having trouble getting out of my Star Trek-mood. I've been walking around all day thinking up wonderful Spock-like phrases, saying "Live Long and Prosper" to several people, and seriously considering painting a bunch of Borg cubes and spheres on my door. But I figured that since we'll be leaving soon I'd better not, I don't think the house sitters would appreciate it. Right now I'm wishing that I had been able to watch a Star Trek before American Idol started... Sadly it is now too late. Oh well. I love Star Trek. Definitely the greatest science fiction ever. I'm also wondering what would happen if the Trekkies staged another takeover... Probably banning for all, so no need to worry--my Vulcan logic forbids me to do anything of the sort. Highly illogical. The chances of actually getting away with it are extremely low (0.005%, according to Lieutenant-Commander Data). And of course, there is the little fact that I *like* other science fictions (including Stargate!) and the people who run the forum are too awesome to really overthrow... So instead of taking over the forum, I've considered taking over youthgroup. What do you think would happen if I walked in tomorrow wearing a Bajoran earring, dressed in full Starfleet uniform, and muttering into a combadge? It might be worth a try... I really need to get myself those things, though. Or maybe I should just force my family into having a Voyager marathon! That would be fun. Plus we finally have season 2 (which I haven't seen all of yet)

Ooh, Dad is back from a chip run. Maybe he has some Klingon Bloodworms... Nevermind, I'm not that weird. But for now...

Live long and prosper! \\//

Lieutenant Katherine of the Federation Starship Voyager

Questions

2008-03-30T08:48:00.002+07:00

Why am I who I am? How is it possible that out of the billions of people on Earth I am Katherine? How is it that I, out of so many people, have ended up in Cambodia? Why was I chosen to come here? How can the universe be infinite? How can any thing be infinite? How is it that God didn't have a beginning and won't have an end? How can I live forever? How can anyone live forever? Why is there no up and down in space and yet in pictures there always is an up and down? What if the whole earth is actually upside down and Australia is at the top? Why does it matter? Is heaven almost like another dimension? How can there be more colors in heaven than we already have? Why is the world like it is? Will humans ever go out of our solar system? Will Jesus return before then? Will my mind pop if I think too hard?

Whenever I think these questions I feel like my mind is expanding to its full mental capacity and is about to explode...

Wimp

2008-03-27T13:33:00.002+07:00

So now my new horseback riding teacher thinks that I'm a wimp.
Oh yes, and now my whole riding class thinks I'm a wimp too.
And dare I mention, the gallop fivers all think I'm a wimp too.
And you know what's worst of all? I too think I'm a wimp.

*sigh* Isn't life lovely?

A smart rider doesn't do stupid things... I have to keep reminding myself that...

Friday

2008-03-22T10:03:00.007+07:00

2,000-something years ago

Friday

Unknown time:

Jesus flogged, handed over to the Jews to be crucified. The mock him, beat him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they say. Then they lead him away to crucify him.

Golgotha, The Place of the Skull

Unknown time:

Jesus is crucified on the cross.

Noon (the sixth hour):

Darkness comes over all the land.

Three o'clock (the ninth hour):

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus cries out again in a loud voice and gives up his spirit.

The curtain of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shakes and the rocks split. The tombs break open and the bodies of many holy people who had died are raised to life.

"Surely he was the Son of God!"

It is finished.

2008-03-12T15:53:00.004+07:00

City on the Moon

There is a city on the moon,
A city of silver and gold.
The city that glimmers in the night,
Through the ne’er ending gloom.

The city is thousands years old,
More old than lives of men.

E’er since the garden’s fall,
The city stands in the biting cold

In the darkness and in the light,
The luminous city still is there,
Shining with crystal and opal and pearl,
On moon, or earth, all that is bright.

But only one mortal has seen this city fair,
And ne'er shall eyes see it again.
Lost to the world of Elves and Men,
Gone is the Moon-city, for evermore.

Life is a Curious Thing...

2008-03-11T14:16:00.004+07:00

It goes up and down and all around and twirls around and crashes on the ground and then jumps up high and touches the sky and then goes low and....uh... *stares at last sentence* That was weird.

Nevermind that, let me just get on to the point of this post. Which is what, exactly? Well, nothing and everything at all.

Just a few updates in the life of Manwathiel:

Abby is not going to eat me, I got a new silver ring (it is shaped like a vine and looks Elvish, of course), I am preparing to go to the US and worrying about the whole thing (too much worrying, if you ask me), I have been doing lots of shopping... *deep breath* I just decided that sentence was getting too long. Well, anyway, I started horseback riding again last week, which ended up in me going from insanely happy to one of the worst moods I've been in for a long time--Meow thinks I'm bipolar. Whatever, Meow. But yeah, it wasn't nice... Aside from that unfortunate thing, my week has been going pretty well. I've decided that I'm going to try to buy an ipod before going back to the US, which will probably never happen (the ipod, not going back), and... Well, I was going to say something but I forgot it.

Ah yes, little American Idol update: I have decided that my favorite contestant is David Cook. He's awesome, has a great voice, sings my style of music, and, of course, he's a word nerd. Hooray for nerds! Oh yes, and did I mention that when he smiles it looks like something from Wallace and Gromit? *cough*

*yawn* Oh yeah, and I really need to start a petetion to ban Daylight Savings Time... Anyone want to sign? I hate Daylight Savings...Evil...Evil... Anything that makes me have to get up an hour earlier for class is evil. Pure evil. Ah well, I think I'm going back to bed.

Et tu, Brutus?

Nevermind.

Ancalagon, Facebook, American Idol...

2008-03-02T14:58:00.002+07:00

Hello my friends, life has been busy, no time to blog... But anyway, I have three little announcements to make. One, Ancalagon, my fishy, died... He jumped out of his fish tank and I found him halfway across my room. I actually managed to get him back into his tank before he was dead, but he must have been pretty beat up because he died a few hours later. I am very sad. Yes, I get attached to my fish... *sigh*
Second, I FINALLY HAVE FACEBOOK!!! I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to give my full name on this blog, but if you're reading this you should know my first and last names already... So take my first name, then a Sue, and then my last name... _____ Sue _____ Yep yep. That probably made no sense. Anyway, if I know you in person or know you through TPS then please add me! If I don't know you in person or through TPS I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to add you as my friend, sorry! Parents rules and whatnot. But yes, if you want to add me and meet above specifications, then please do! If you don't want to add me then...dont.
Ah yes, and the third little announcement... Once again I am being addicted to American Idol. Yep. David Cook is the only person who has remained my constant favorite throughout the show, I rather like Michael Johns as well, and for the girls I keep going back and forth between Carly and Brooke.... Yep yep. American Idol.

~Manwathiel

En Uphen

2008-02-21T13:29:00.003+07:00

*glances back at previous essay-sized post* *shakes head slowly*

Rir! Qha phen? Renan eph tar. Tar qha?

You might need a translation. Unless, of course, you have a built in universal translater, which you don't.

An exact translation would be: Hello! You speak? Manwathiel I called. Call you?

Of course, if you don't speak the language you might need to have the exact meaning of the translation told to you...Here tis: Hello! Do you speak the language? My name is Manwathiel. What is your name?

Ok, by now you're probably wondering what on planet Earth (if indeed, I am on planet Earth) I'm talking about... Well, I'm talking about conlangs! Conlang is short for constructed language, which is a language that was constructed. Elvish is a conlang, as is Klingon, and many other languages. Actually, there are many conlangs, quite a few of which are spoken by many people.

So by now you've probably figured out that the words in this post that don't seem to be real words at all are a conlang. Well, yes, they are. More than that, they're my conlang! I love my conlang. This particular language, constructed by me, is called "En Uphen" which, roughly translated, means "The Language". Nice and simple. It's a very simple language. I actually started working on it last summer, but then I stopped for a while. But I started flipping through my notebooks yesterday and I stumbled upon it. So yesterday I moved it all over to a new notebook, fixed up a bit of the little details, and now I'm working on expanding the vocabulary of this language. So far En Uphen only consists of about twenty-four words, but I'm rapidly coming up with more. The alphabet is composed of twenty-five letters, although I haven't actually come up with the real alphabet yet, just its English counterpart.

Well, to sum up the point of this post, if indeed there is a point, conlangs are very fun to make, and I am having a whole lot of fun, even if I'm not a language person. With that said...

Narir, elana-n!
~Renan

"Do Wraith Have Names?" And Other Nonsensical Scribblings of a Wraith-crazy Science-fiction Fan

2008-02-20T17:07:00.009+07:00

I am by now utterly convinced that no one reads my blog except my parents. With that in mind, allow me to continue my ramblings and scribblings as if no one reads my blog at all. Today, the discussion will be Wraith, among other things. No, not that kind of Wraith, this kind of Wraith. Stargate Atlantis Wraith, to be precise...

Of course, some of you (if indeed, anyone is reading this blog), probably don't know what a Wraith is. I recommend Wikipedia.

Now, having said that, allow me to continue...

Wraith.

I am a science-fiction fan, as you all should know (if you don't, you know it now.) and recently I have been watching Stargate Atlantis. But I told you that already. Well, it has come to mind that I really do like the Wraith (the baddies of the Pegasus Galaxy). In fact, I rank them up there with the Borg. Ok, so not quite with the Borg. The Borg get their own category. But the Wraith are high up there. Very high up there. Anyway, back to the Wraith. I have been thinking. I like them quite a bit, but not only because I occasionally really like bad guys, but because I have been wondering. Are the Wraith really that bad?

Well, let's look at the core idea of the Wraith. Wraith are life-sucking aliens that need to feed off of humans to survive. They defeated the Ancients, and are treating the Humans like a herd of animals... Well... that's bad. No doubt about it. But is it the Wraiths fault?

Well, is it? Can the Wraith help being who they are? It is this question that makes the Wraith interesting to me. What makes them unique. Can they help what they are? They need to feed off of humans to survive--if they don't, they die an agonizingly painful death. That's bad. Very bad.

Of course, the Wraith have been going about the wrong way of being Wraith. They hold the humans in disdain, feed off of humans with no remorse (we think?), and are, obviously, a bunch of bad critters. But what else could they do? It is my personal opinion that the Wraith should try to come up with something to make it possible for them to eat normal food. After all, as children they eat normal food, and they only start to feed on humans when they reach their teenage years. To quote John Sheppard, "So it's a teenage thing? Pimples, rebellion, life-sucking?"

Well, why not come up with something that makes the whole Wraith-feeding thing just not...happen? Would it be that difficult? But from what we've heard, the Wraith haven't bothered with that at all. Nor have the humans.

Instead, the humans on Atlantis, namely Dr. Beckett, decided to come up with a serum that would take all of the Wraith DNA out of a Wraith, leaving, instead of a Wraith, a human. Well, with several failures, Beckett perfected the serum and tried it out. Great episode. But was what the Atlantis expedetion was doing right? They took a Wraith, and without his permission took from him the very essence of his being. Oh, and did I mention that they not only turned a Wraith into a Human, they also wiped his memory. To quote a certain Wraith (who I will not name at the risk of spoiling things for people), "What I am is not a disease you can cure. And if I remember nothing of what or who I am -- if this consciousness is erased -- what is the difference between that and death?"

He has a point.

So are the good guys really good? And are the bad guys really bad? The lines aren't so clear. Of course, many of the members of the Atlantis expedetion later realized that what they did to the above Wraith was bad--and they paid the price. But that wasn't even the first time they used a Wraith prisoner to experiment on.

The first was Steve.

We must never forget Steve.

Of course, many members of the team, especially Dr. Weir, were not going to allow Steve to be used in an experiment. Sheppard summed up his feelings by saying, "No offence, Doc, but had the Wraith attended the Geneva Convention, they would have tried to feed on everyone there."

He too, has a point.

The Wraith seem to have no morals. But because the enemy has no morals, is it right for us to drop ours?

I think not.

So going back to the Wraith... Are they bad? Well, yes. But no. But yes.

They, as a species, are pretty bad. I mean, look at the millions of people they've killed. But they really had no choice. Or did they? Or did they not? It's all very confusing. Which is really what I like about it. Oh yes, and of course, the Wraith did attack the Ancients when the Ancients were proposing an alliance...Bad.

Well, back to the Wraith... They might be bad, and then again, they might not be bad. You know, people are always saying that Wraith are spooky and creepy and scary and all that stuff. Are they? Well yes. But no. I am saying that a lot, aren't I? As an excuse for the picture of a certain Wraith that I'll probably be putting in this post, allow me to say that I do not find the Wraith to be scary. Creepy, yes. But what's wrong with creepy?

Oh, going back to the Are-Wraith-Bad discussion. Remember Todd! Ok, we have met a good Wraith. Everything said Wraith said would be a very interesting addition to our little monologue here. Allow me to quote Todd, "For Wraith, hunger burns like a fire.Tell me, Sheppard, if you found yourself burning alive, would you settle for just one drop of water ...or would you take more?"

These Wraith do have a point, don't they?

So, good or bad?

Or both?

Maybe both.

Hmm... Wraith are a very interesting species, you know. I've been wondering. Do they have names? Of course, we've had many Wraith that have been given names. First there was Steve, then Bob, then-- *stops talking* I can't spoil it for you, can I? Who knows, you might watch it someday... Well, anyway, Beckett--or Rodney, I fail to remember--once asked a Wraith scientist what his name was. I would quote the Wraith except that the quote would look curiously blank.

He didn't say anything.

There is so much that we don't know about the Wraith... As it is, I simply cannot wait to get season four of Atlantis. I think I might go crazy if I don't get it soon. Ah well, I'll have to settle for re-watching season three and rambling on my never-read blog about the Wraith. Such is the way of life. Maybe I'll write an essay.

So, back to my question, are Wraith really bad? Well, I can't figure it out, so I'll just leave it up to you...

Farewell, my friends, and remember Steve!

Colorful! Colorful! Colorful! This is so not me...

2008-02-16T11:25:00.002+07:00

So, I was told recently that I needed to make the BORING text on my blog more COLORFUL and BOUNCY and all that rot. Well, here is my take on that.... COLORFULNESS is WONDERFULNESS when used correctly and used by COLORFUL people. But I'm not that kind of person. I'm not BOUNCY and BUBBLY and BOINGY and COLORFUL. I'm the kind of person who sits in corners reading a UNCOLORFUL book about the DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND or watching tv shows about the HISTORY OF COLOR. So tell me, am I COLORFUL? Am I the kind of person who uses COLORFUL FONT and bright COLORS on my blog posts? You might say that I AM a COLORFUL person. But not that kind of person. Am I? So tell me, is this COLORFUL post COLORFUL enough for YOU? And more importantly, is this post at all like ME?

Boing boing boing--oops, there goes my arm and my dignity

2008-02-12T14:23:00.000+07:00

Yep yep. This is the long awaited (or not) post regarding the jumping competetions that took place on Saturday and Sunday. Well...I guess I'll start at the beginning. I was on Gabelou and was third from the first rider. Lots of hecticness (I hereby declare that a word) took place, I didn't have a helmet, I needed a helmet, the course was complicated, yadayadayada. Anyway, Caroline was wonderful and let me use her helmet, I figured out the course, and I started warming up on Gabelou. As I warmed up I realized that something was different about his gait. Miss Soraya came over later and told me that Gabelou would be riding without shoes for...well...the first time in a long time. How comforting. Then Miss Soraya reminded me that Gabelou's canter is terrible... Well... Yeah. So I attempted a few practice jumps, which he cantered through leaving me very uncomfortable, then the competetion started.

The first one up was Rebecca, riding Achador. Achador threw her, but she got back on and finished the course. The second rider was Kristine, she did very well. Then it was my turn. I trotted out to the judges, saluted, said everything I was supposed to say, and started the course. Well...it was a disaster. I went over the first jump at a trot, but Gabelou started to canter. My reins were too loose and I couldn't stop him from cantering over the second jump. Well...Gabelou, jumping, cantering...no. So, to sum it up, it went boing boing boing and then I was sliding off his neck. My first thougt was "Oh great, falling off in a show" then I was on the ground. I jumped up immediately. To have stayed on the ground was too humiliating. I instantly felt that my arm was sprained, but I would be able to ride with it. I got Gabelou, listened to Miss Soraya tell me that it was ok if I didn't complete the course--it was over for the day--and got back on. Miss Soraya told me to trot around the arena once before going over the next jump. I did, then I jumped, he cantered, I tried to bring him to a trot, went over the next two jumps at a canter, and then promptly almost-fell-off. Just lovely. Well...Miss Soraya told me again that I didn't need to finish the course, but I remained my stubborn self and said I was going to finish. I walked around the course once, trying to get my breath back. The head judge asked the audience to give me some encouragement, I could vaguely hear some clapping, and then I trotted around, then went over the next jump. He cantered. I remained in the saddle. I brought him back to a trot and was told by Miss Soraya to trot him around once again before going over the last jump--I was annoyed. I had fallen off in front of who-knows-how-many people and wanted, more than anything else, to get off and cry. But I was going to finish the course. Finally, Miss Soraya let me go over the last jump, the crowd cheered, and I rode back into the training arena. Once out of the view of the others, I started to cry. I hate it when I cry. I don't cry a lot, but when I do I can't stop. Embarrassing. Humiliating. Gah. Well, I got off, gave the reins to Caroline (who I vaguely remember was being very nice and comforting), gave Caroline her helmet, humiliated myself more by crying in front of the very sweet Caroline, and walked off to the edge of the arena where I sat down and cried some more. Rebecca and Emma came over to me and asked if I was ok. I was like...umm...no? But they were sweet. And my arm killed. Oh well... All the other riders came over and asked if I was ok, then mom came over and brought me water. I complained about my sprained arm, tried to stop crying, and eventually wandered over to watch the other riders. My wrist started to hurt even more. Anyway... the rest of the day went by well, Maddie was first (yay!), Emma was second (yay!), and Kristine was third (yay!). My arm still hurt. And I was embarassed. I had fallen off in front of soooo many people.... Oh well. Later that night my arm started to stiffen up and hurt even more until finally we went to get an x-ray. Now, let us take a little break from the story and examine all the x-rays I have ever had in my entire life. What did they tell us?

X-ray #1: I am missing two adult teeth

X-ray #2: I do, indeed, have a brain

X-ray #3: When you stick your hand in a ceiling fan, it doesn't break

X-ray #4: I am missing two adult teeth. But we knew that already

X-ray #5: I have never yet broken a bone

And those are all the x-rays I have ever had. Yayness. But anyway, my arm wasn't broken, that was good. Well...the next day, Sunday, I finally accepted the fact that I couldn't ride with my arm all stiff (I couldn't bend it at the elbow) and it hurting, so I went and cheered on my friends. I would have been riding Radical, but oh well... Everyone did wonderfully. Hannah won, Maddie was second, and Kristine was third. For the overall championship, Hannah came first, Maddie was second, and Emma third. Yay for everyone!! Except me. Oh well, so I wallowed in a pool of self-pity, took pictures, and was greatly comforted by my wonderful teacher, Miss Soraya, giving me a bag of French mints. Yep, that was Sunday.

So thus ends what could be my last jumping competetion in Cambodia. What did I win? Nothing. What did I lose? My arm (which still won't move) and my dignity. Alas. Well, enough of the self pity-ness. I got some *great* pics!!!

Ok, ttfn, I must be going... Let's hope that my arm actually moves by tomorrow (ok, so it'll move more than it did).... So... yeah. Wow, that was a very...um...whiney[?] post... Ah well, I need to sniffle to somebody, even if it is my never-read blog.

Oh oh oh!! Did I mention that Dad got me falling off on film? Mwahahahaha!! Er, yeah... Oh, and guess what is very good? Even if my arm won't move, my fingers will, so my life is saved. I can type!!!

At Long Last!!

2008-02-07T12:05:00.000+07:00

Yes, my friends, I finally jumped on Gabelou without anything dire and disastrous happening!!! Whoohoo!! Of course, I couldn't keep him in a trot and I ended up making the largest circle in the history of circles instead of a medium sized one like I was supposed to... But.... It went well =). The lesson was good, 'cept Hannah fell off... But all in all, a good lesson. Except that Achador decided to completely soak me when I was giving him a shower (Rebecca had to leave early), so I ended up covered in water and with green gunk all over my jodhpurs. Oh joy.

Ok, just a short little update to tell you all that I'm still here and that I finally jumped on Gabelou... Oh yes, jumping competetion this Sat and Sun... Keep an eye out for updates!

Guillermo Del Toro?????

2008-02-02T15:29:00.000+07:00

Ok. So it's official. Or something like that (it might just be some rumor that I'm taking way too seriously). Guillermo Del Toro is directing The Hobbit and its sequel. Hm. Panic can now break out. Why should panic break out? Because I know NOTHING about Del Toro!!!!! Eep... People say he's great. But how would I know? *deep breath* Ok...he should be good. Oh no. It's going to be awful.

Alright, look at it this way, no matter how good Del Toro is, I will be unhappy. Why? Because I love The Hobbit. When LoTR came out I was in the middle of reading the books. As I read the books I saw pictures of the characters in the movies (although I didn't see the movies themselves until much later), so I kind of took it for granted that they looked that way. But I have read The Hobbit many times and have very opinionated ideas of what the characters and locations are supposed to look like... And what the plot should be like. If they alter even a single piece of plot sequence I'll--I'll--umm....something. Something drastic. Like. Like...umm...dunno. I'll figure that out later. But as I was saying, if they mess up the plot in order to make it "better" (like they did with LoTR) I'll get mad. Most fans will.

And then we have the casting...Ian Holm must play Bilbo. Ian McKellen must play Gandalf. Orlando Bloom must show up *somewhere* in Mirkwood as Legolas. After all, he is the prince. He doesn't need a huge part (small would be better *cough*), but he needs to be there. John Rhys-Davies would make a wonderful Gloin...but somehow I don't think that actor wants to return. As for Thranduil. They have to get him right. If they don't... *decides to leave threats unspoken* As for the many other characters, they must get them right. The goblins must look like the goblins in LoTR, Andy Serkis has to return for Gollum (pretty please!!!), and the Dwarves must look like Dwarves. Hugo Weaving must play Elrond, the Elves of Mirkwood must be like Elves of Mirkwood--they're Wood-elves, not High-elves! They must be fun, cheerful, they have to sing and laugh and be graceful... But if they end up all solemn... *shiver* As a rule, the Elves of Mirkwood should have dark hair with only a few Elves (such as Thranduil and Legolas) with light hair. Mirkwood must be dark and scary, worse than Fangorn if possible. Beorn must be tall, broad, and bearlike. The ponies must look like ponies. The Shire must look like the Shire. Rivendell must look like Rivendell. The Hall of the Elvenking must be a beautiful twisting and winding cavern--but brightly lit up and decorated with silver, gold, gems, and candle-light, but still with a certain roughness to it. Oh yes, and the Wood-elves must wear headdresses of leaves (both real and cast in silver). Oh yes, we come to a very important character: Smaug. Smaug must be perfect. Of course, the special effects will be good, there's no doubt about that, but whoever does his voice must do it well. It needs to be deep and gravelly, but smooth enough to sound somewhat...snakelike. And Smaug needs to be big. Really big.

Yep, places and people must be done correctly. *sigh* Maybe I should send New Line another letter.... Heh. Like that would help.

Oh well, I'm off. And yes, I know, I didn't talk about the sequel. I'll rant about that later. I wonder when they're going to start casting The Hobbit...hmm... *wanders off mumbling about Smaug*

Comments

2008-02-02T15:26:00.000+07:00

Ok people, I love comments. Please feel free to comment on my posts. I'd like to mention that I changed the comment-system-thingy so you can now comment on my posts regardless of whether or not you have a blogger account....

Of course, keep the comments polite and all that. Usual comment rules apply--but if you're reading my blog in the first place you can probably be trusted to keep the comments nice =P. I trust ya. (besides, I can edit things out!)

~Manwathiel

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Books, Competetions, Elf-dress, and the Snake

2008-02-01T14:37:00.000+07:00

Hello my dearest readers, I've been away for a while... Busy busy busy and all that--they tell me it's called highschool. Well, you need a re-cap of my life of late, so...let's begin with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Most of you know that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a book in the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, well, Logos International School put on a play of it, and I went. I was very surprised with how well done it was. Those of you who have read the book already know that it involves a ship, dragons, people getting sucked into a painting, and Aslan, the lion. How on earth did a school's drama club put on such a production? Well, it was extremely creative. For the painting they used shadow puppets! It was really great and looked really good. The ship had all sorts of cool stage equipment, the costumes were amazing, the dragon looked great (it was partially made out of cardboard with a person inside), and Aslan was mostly done by a shadow puppet and partially done by a guy in a costume. The Aslan mask was awesome. I don't have time to tell you everything I would like to...but the play was great, the acting was great, Bethany, a friend of mine, played Caspian, and I really enjoyed it. Here are a few pics, although they're kind of hard to see since I couldn't use the flash on my camera. In summary: the play was great!

Onto the books, for school we were reading Betsy and the Emperor a historical fiction novel based on Betsy Balcombe (a real person) and Napoleon Bonaparte. It was really good. So good, in fact, that I read it all in one day. It was supposed to take me a week. Heh... And I won't tell you that it was short either, cause it wasn't. Then I went book-shopping with Mom and ended up with four wonderful books to read. I got Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey, the third book in a series I'd started (I have the first two), In the Hall of the Dragonking by Stephen R. Lawhead--new series, yay! And I also got Tolkien: A Biography by Something Something...er, White? Well, I can't remember, but I read it already and it was very good. Then, last but not least, my mom surprised me by buying Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Kristine rather comadeered the book, so I'll read it after her. If she ever finishes it.

Ok, competetions....Horseback jumping competetions, of course. We had the first competetion in a series of three. When I got there I was shocked to learn that I was riding Unique. Hm. Well, this might not sound terrible, except for the fact that Unique is a pony and I no longer ride ponies. He is waayyy too small for me... Oh yes, and should I mention that I hadn't ridden Unique in an entire year?? Well. I was mad. I later found out that Miss Soraya had good reasons for putting me on him, but it still wasn't exactly motivating. Everything went pretty well, I was shocked when the announcer actually pronounced my last name right (this must be a first!) and I ended up with fifth place. Out of seven. Blah. Fifth isn't exactly my idea of doing well, but considering that I had barely jumped since last February and that I was riding a pony that I hadn't ridden in a year.... Well, I guess I did ok. I can beat everyone else next week. Hehe... Oh yes, Hannah, my wonderful friend, got first! I was very happy for her. Emma got second and Caroline got third. Well, I wasn't happy for myself, but hooray for Hannah!

Ok, onto the Elf-dress. I finally have pictures!!! Here they are, I'm afraid that I couldn't put up pics of me in the dress because of ye olde rule about putting pics of self on ye internet. Anyway.... Here they are! There are closeups of the sleeves... I love the sleeves =).

Ok, now onto the snake. Yes, the snake. Well....it was a dark and stormy night--er, alright, so it was a little before lunch time, the sun was shining brightly, and Snowy, my rabbit, was playing outside in the yard. Just as I was about to figure out just why that particular math problem with those particular imaginary numbers was causing me so much trouble, Kristine came upstairs and screamed in my ear, "There's a stink in Snowy's cage!!!" I stared at her, thinking how dare she say my rabbit's cage smells bad? when I realized that she wasn't saying stink she was saying snake. My eyes widened and I screamed, "A snake???" I jumped up, math problems forgotten, and ran downstairs and outside. Sopi, our helper, was standing at the door staring at Snowy's cage. The door was wide open and in the cage was a snake. Not a little snake. A big snake. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was over a meter long. Caleb ran up and closed the door of the cage, trapping the snake inside. It curled up and raised it's head up, hissing angrily at us. Then it started to try to get out of the cage, it could stick it's head out of the cage for up to about five inches before it got stuck and had to go back in. It was disgusting and scary. So I did the most logical thing and called Dad (did I mention that it was just us kids and Sopi at home?), well, dad was in a meeting and his phone was off, so I called Mom who was on the other side of town at Lucky Supermarket. Both of my parents hate snakes, by the way, I think I might have inherited that dislike of snakes. Well, I hate snakes when I don't know anything about them. Was this snake poisonous? Could it hurt the rabbits? Would it hurt us? I didn't know. Well, mom called our neighbors who live behind us and Mark came over to look at the snake.... He didn't know what it was and our internet search proved fruitless. Whem mom got home (she really hated that snake), Mark decided that he had to get it out of the rabbit cage and into a basket-box-type thing. He used the end of a hangar and grabbed the snake, pulling it out of the cage and into the basket-thing. Needless to say, it took a few tries. Well, we weren't sure what to do with the snake, so Mark took it home on the back of his motorcycle. Heh. An interesting Cambodian experience, eh? I must confess that I am rather afraid that there might be others in our backyard... But anyway, that is the tale of the snake. I have a pic too, but it's not that great....But hey, it's a pic.

And that, my friends, is the tale of the past week. Oh, did I mention the mounds of schoolwork? Oh yes, and for my Eng class I have a publishing project. It made me laugh. I like to publish stuff, in fact, I do it every month. Heh... Ok, I'm going now.

Aren't I just so kind to my characters?

2008-01-25T16:53:00.001+07:00

Aren't I just so kind to my characters? At the moment almost all of the characters in my biggest story are about to die (their ship is bout to burst into a bunch of splinters). And what do I do? I decide to take a break from writing that story and post on my blog instead, leaving my poor characters in bodily peril for who knows how long. Of course, I know that they will survive, but they don't know that. All they know is that I've left decide to take breaks from my stories at the most tense parts. Take Tara, for example, she was about to go on a mission she couldn't possibly complete and what do I do? I take a break. And I'm afraid that this break has lasted for several months. Poor Tara. Then we have my main story--the one that's currently left hanging--I have left it so many times just when everyone (or someone) is about to die, is going through emotional trauma, or is about to find out some deep dark secret about someone else. And I leave them. Just like that. Of course, I go back to the story eventually and get them out of whatever mess I left them in. What would they do without me? But still, my poor characters get left at the most awkward moments. My poor prophets in He Who Cometh Forth have been left in absolute chaos for several months, at least. I really should go and get them out of that chaos, but I've been working on other stories. Silvanen and A New Earth were left in such a mess that I'm honestly not sure how to get those poor planets out of it.
But back to my main story that I just left. Why do I always do this? I rarely stop when everything is happy (which it is quite often, surprisingly). Instead I choose to leave when so and so is threatening to throw someone else overboard. Or when everyone is about to drown. Or when they are surrounded by giant snakes. No, I don't leave when they are spending a happy month in the Myst, I leave when they are all in jail. Just imagine if you were left for days, weeks, or even months with your ship about to sink. I don't think you would appreciate it. I wouldn't. My characters don't.
I can just envision my characters suddenly hopping out of the pages of their story. What horrible things would they do to me?
"You left me hanging for three days not knowing whether or not they would grant my wish!" Alvina would declare.
"So you are the one who threw Amaryllis into chaos and left it like that for years!" Kazan would tell me.
"I am finally about to have my dream come true and you decide that before that happens you have to leave me about to die!"
"You brought these strangers into my land, how dare you!"
"You would not allow me to complete my tale--what gives you the right to do this??"
Yes, this is what only some of my characters would say...
I don't even want to think about how angry Ariadnë would get.
So yes, I leave my poor, pitiful characters in terrible situations for days on end. My poor characters...

Frustrated

2008-01-24T14:12:00.000+07:00

I am frustrated. You don't want the details. I don't feel like giving you the details. I'll probably come back and give you a three-page rant about all the little minute details later. But not now. Now I only have a few minor things to say: One, I am frustrated. Two, I'm starting to wonder if I should even do this jumping competetion at all. Three, I am really starting to wonder if I should drop out of this competition. Four, I'm just not ready for the whole thing...no one is. Five, I am very, very frustrated.

Oh yes, and I finished my English mid-terms . Whoohoo. That was a very unenthusiastic whoohoo. But I really am happy to have finished them. Hmm...um...well...

*wanders off singing a song called Frustrated (or was it Complicated?)*

Birthday!! Birthday!! Birthday!!! Yes, I am hyper. I'm also 15. 15. I'm getting old....OLD!!!

2008-01-21T17:13:00.000+07:00

Sorry about that title, but I'm in an odd mood--oh wait, I'm always in an odd mood. But yes, my friends, I have now had a full day of being fifteen. So I suppose you want to know about my birthday party....

But before I tell you about that, let me tell you that on Friday we had Sarah's birthday party! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!! We went to youthgroup where Mr Davies spoke (his story is so amazing and inspiring), and where we played some games that can only be described as "interesting". Of course, we did other stuff at youthgroup too, but those were the most memorable things. After youthgroup we went to Sarah's house where we discovered that Amazing Grace did not work, watched Ella Enchanted, ate loads of yummy food, and had fun fun fun. Yep, that was Friday.

Now, on to Saturday... I took a nap before the guests arrived. But when the guests did arrive--oh, I suppose you want to know who the guests were. Well, let me think, Kristine came, Sarah came, Meow came, Hannah came, Abby came, and Christi came. And yes, I jammed 7 people into my little room. Talk about sardines....

Well anyway, when the guests came we all talked in really loud voices and scared my fish half to death, then we headed to Parkway for...bumper cars!!!!! I love those bumper cars. Now, let me describe them to you, these bumper cars aren't anything like those bumper cars in the US. These bumper cars are so much better. And unsafer. No, that's not a word. But wait!! I just decided that it is. Unsafer is now a word. Sorry, back to bumper cars... Alright, these cars are small, my knee is exactly level with the steering wheel, the room is dark, you can barely see, loud music blasts from loudspeakers, and the cars go waayyy faster than cars in the US. My dad described them as "dangerously faster". We crashed and banged into eachother until our ears were ringing and our knees were bashed into jelly. I was almost limping as I got out of my car, but oh, it was so completely worth it.

After that we all squeezed back in the car and headed home where we watched the cartoon Robin Hood (or parts of it, anyway), busted my internet by watching trailers and listening to music from The Lord of the Rings On Stage--which I absolutely must see--and then we ate dinner. Mom made us an absolutely delicious barbeque chicken and scalloped potatoes...yum yum. After dinner we finished up looking at the LoTR On Stage website and then...opened presents! I got lots of lovely stuff...here's a list:

A bar of chocolate, a box of fruit-rollups, and a set of beautiful earrings and a necklace (thank you Kristine!)
A stunning personalized notebook/diary, all green and gold and positively Elvish (thank you Abby!)
A box of yummy yummy chocolate from Chocolate By The Shop (Thank you Hannah!)
A bag of chips, a bar of chocolate, and apple-flavored chapstick (thank you Sarah!)
Two pairs of gorgeous earrings (thank you Kati!)
My stunning Elf-gown--pictures will be posted later (Thank you soooo much Mom and Dad!)
A new memory card for my camera (thank you Mom and Dad!)

Oh, and you know what? That's not quite it...Meow actually gave me my present at Christmastime (thank you Meow), and Christi has told me that my present is on the way (thank you in advance Christi!), I also have heard a rumor from my wonderful G.G. and Pop-O that they are sending a package (thank you in advance!!). So my birthday isn't quite over yet, is it?

Well, after opening the last present, my wonderful Elf-gown, my wonderful friends wanted to see me wearing my wonderful Elf-dress. I wore the beautiful dress (it really makes me feel like an Elf) as we sung Happy Birthday and then as I blew out the candles in the cheesecake.... mmm... So then we ate cheesecake and ice cream. Mom said that the cheesecake was one of the worst she's ever made. I think it was the best she's ever made. It was delicious. Yummm.... We ate and ate until finally we were full. And oh, it was good.

So...we headed upstairs to my room to find that my dad had lugged the tv and the dvd player all the way upstairs (thank you!). So...we watched One Night With the King! Yes, you already got my opinion of the movie on that rambly post a couple posts back, and it hasn't changed. After watching One Night With the King, eating way too many cheetos and pretzels, and talking way too much about who-knows-what, we argued for a bit about what to do next. And finally it was decided, we were going to watch Pride and Prejudice. Now, it may shock most of you to learn that I had never seen Pride and Prejudice. It sure shocked Abby. So we popped it in, popped some pop-tarts in the toaster oven, and started to watch. I love that movie. Love love love. It was a great movie! I cannot believe that I have never seen it before. So now I'm trying to get hold of the old one as well as the book. Heh, good movie.... Go watch it.

Considering that Hannah fell asleep halfway through the movie, we decided that afterwards it would probably be a good thing to get some sleep, considering that it was about 1:30. So we turned off the lights and proceeded to talk and talk and talk and talk until our mouths fell off. And the next morning we awoke to....DONUTS! USA donuts, to be precise. Those things are wonderful...

So we ate donuts and then went to church where the party dispersed into thousands of little pieces--er, nevermind the pieces thing. All in all it was a wonderful party. But wait! There's more. Sunday, being my actual birthday, was also wonderful. Everyone kept saying "Happy Birthday!" to me, which made me feel all nice and bubbly inside. We went out to Fresco where my family had some terrible sandwiches and I had a wonderful sandwich, and then we went home where Kristine and I watched Finding Neverland. Another great movie that I had never seen. And that concludes my birthday. And now I am 15. Old old old. Heh. And guess what mom said? I'm going to start driving soon!!! *dances around happily* Yep, old. Yay for being old. 15, old, that is.

Oh yes, pictures of the Elf dress and other things coming soon.

I have always loved to trot...

2008-01-17T15:18:00.000+07:00

I have always loved to trot. Horseback riding is always amazing, whether walking, trotting, or cantering, but out of all three I love to trot the most. The graceful rising and falling, rising and falling, you can leave the entire world behind you in that peaceful rising and falling. The beat is so perfect. And the wind blows on your face--not the cutting, whip-like wind of a canter, nor the erratic wind of the trot. It is steady, beautiful wind. And then there is the rhythm. So pure, so perfect. You can use that rhythm to write the perfect iambic poetry that one never remembers afterwards except that it was perfect. That rising and falling, steady, beautiful, elegant. Not slow and loping, nor fast and unpredictable. It is perfect. Rising and falling, rising and falling... Out of all the things that you can do while horseback riding I think that I love to trot the most.

I think Alvina wrote that. Then again, it might have been Ariadnë might have wrote it--although she wouldn't have told anyone if she did. But you know, whoever wrote it, I agree with them.

I like to ramble. Have you noticed?

2008-01-14T13:43:00.000+07:00

*deep breath*

Be prepared to read the never-ending-rambling-writing of a rambler.

Well, hello my friends. I ramble. Have you noticed? I love love love to ramble. And the best thing about rambling is that you just go on and on and on and on and never ever ever end. Rambling is the best. Ramble ramble ramble. Yay for rambling and yay for ramblers.

Well, I suppose you're all wondering what the point to this is. There is no point really. So let me get to the point...

What is the point again? Oh well, I forgot. Please allow me to continue rambling.

Well, I had a sleepover with Meow last Friday. Youthgroup and then a sleepover. We were up really late (Sarah and Kristine too), watching Stargate Atlantis. Great tv show, that. Meow and Sarah are almost done with season 2, so they need to catch up to Kris, Han, and me--we're all in season 3 already. Anyway, we watched my favorite episode ever, Critical Mass. There are two episodes (Sateda and Common Ground) that are close behind it, but Critical Mass remains my favorite. When Rachel Luttrell (who plays Teyla) sings it's just sooo gorgeous. Plus her dress is beautiful. It has awesome sleeves. Oh yes, and I'm fascinated by the Goa'uld. I really really need to get Stargate SG-1...lots of Goa'uld. And I really want to catch up to the rest of the world with Atlantis (they're in season 4 already), but alas, I will have to wait...Oh yes, half of you are probably wondering just what this tv show that has captured Manwathiel's imagination is. Well... I would simply tell you to go research it, but I'll be nice instead. It's a science-fiction (of course, what else do I watch when it comes to tv shows?), and it is kind of based on the original tv series, Stargate SG-1, which was based on the movie "Stargate". Basically...oh, too much to tell you all, but it's awesome. Uh, I guess I'll have to be mean and tell you to just go research it. Sorry =(. *looks at picture* Why does my favorite character have to be stuck all the way in the back?

Now, back to rambling. Ramble ramble--ok, I'll try to be sensible...

Um...One Night With The King!! Has anyone seen this movie? Well, I watched it yesterday with Kristine and Han. It is a relatively new movie, and it's the story of Esther. It was really good. I was worried that it would be rather tacky, but it was actually a wonderful movie. It really told the story of Esther well, the costumes were great, the acting was great (ok, some was rather pathetic, but most of it was good. And yes, the accents were all over the place, but oh well), and...well, yeah, it was really good. There were some rather awkward moments...but I guess they were historically correct...and the mute button is there for a reason, right? I really liked it. Of course, a lot of it was just Hollywood rather than it all being Biblical--I reread the story of Esther last night and yes, a lot of it was Hollywood in the movie. Oh well, it was still good and I think it captured the most important parts of the story of Esther. And it had John Rhys-Davies and John Noble in it. Hehe. LoTR actors... Yes I am a geek. And proud of it. One Night With The King is currently the top of the list for my birthday party...Abby, what say you?

*rambles on and on*

Oh yes, I decided on cheesecake. Very sorry Abby...but you can have extra ice cream, k? =)

Er, yeah. Have I ever mentioned how frustrating planning a birthday party can be? Well now I have.

Hmm...well...I can't wait for The Hobbit to come out. And I have to wait til 2010. Too long to wait!!! Oooh, you know...I decided who should play Thranduil!!! I have been thinking this over for ages, and I think I decided. Who did I decide on? Well, I'm not *quite* positive if he's right for the part, so...I'm not going to tell you =).

Um...am I rambling again? Well, I probably am...

Ah well, my wrists are starting to hurt. Farewell, my friends. I probably started this post with something very important to tell you all and now have forgotten it. Ah well, that's the way that things happen when you ramble.

Politics...Fish...Writing...Life.

2008-01-10T14:10:00.000+07:00

Alright people, let's begin at the beginning. In other words, politics. Take a look at this link:
http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html
Rather interesting, eh? More interesting are the results that I got... Duncan Hunter was my first result. My first thought was "who?", my second thought was "oh, that guy", and my third thought was "oh no, I finally find someone who I might agree with and he's pretty much unelectable". So I started reading his stance on various issues and I found that yes, I do agree with him quite a bit. So now I'm reading his biography and digging up a list of his voting record on various economic issues... My second result was Huckabee. Odd. I disagree with him on a whole lot of issues....and I had decided that I most definitely did not like him. Hmm... Obviously the calculator doesn't get everything just right, but nonetheless, I'm a little surprised. Romney came up third, I was also a bit surprised at how the others lined up too. Clinton before Obama?? Hm. Enough politics for today I think.... Oh wait! Let's visit Huckabee's website. Gah, this is what happens when I start clicking links involving politics. I'll be on the computer searching various candidates websites for the next few hours....

*starts looking at Huckabee's website*

Oh wait, before I spend the next few hours on various sites...Fish. Well, as you all know, my dear little Smaug died several days ago. So today I got another fighting fish. His body is black and it gradually changes color until it is dark blue, and then a beautiful slate gray. He also has a bit of red on him. His tail is all long and flowy and he is absolutely gorgeous. And did I mention that he eats a lot? Well, he does. And he swallows the fishfood whole. That cannot be healthy. But anyway, what did I name him? Ancalagon! Where did I get that name? If you don't know, which you probably don't, then I suggest reading The Silmarillion (great, great, amazing book. And anyway, Ancalagon is in it!). Anyway, my new little fishy is wonderful and I love him. Here's a very-blurry-terrible pic.

Heh, I love the pictures on Huckabee's site.... Oh wait, you don't want me to go back to that, do you?

Ah yes, onto writing. Mind if I rant a bit? Well, even if you don't mind, I'm going to rant anyway :D. Have you ever been writing a story and you decided that you had too many characters? Well, that happened to me, so I took the logical route and got rid of a character. And then what happened? Out of nowhere another character pops in! So not only am I back where I started, but I have an entirely new character to develope. Alas for me. And I don't recommend bringing in new characters just where you least need them. It's not a good idea.
Ah yes, and I started another story ("another???" you're probably all thinking). This story is a science-fiction. I haven't the slightest clue what's happening or where it's going. But anyway, I think Earth was destroyed. Now I just have to figure out how and why and how to get everyone back again....

Hey! Look at this-- *shuts up* No more politics, my apologies.

Well anyway...life. I missed horseback riding and now am wondering just *how* I'm going to do the jumping competetion with only two weeks of practice. This cannot be a good thing. Oh yes, and I'm also...what am I also doing? Life is boring, what more can I say? Oh! I remember! My birthday is coming up! Now...cheesecake or pumpkin pie?? I'm leaning towards cheesecake....

Alright, I *need* to read this thing on Huckabee's site, and afterwards I want to go se Ron Paul's site, so...well, you don't want to see me ranting about politics for the next few hours, so farewell!

~Manwathiel

p.s. You know, I really could like Ron Paul..

When Science and Art Meet--and also When they Collide

2008-01-09T14:50:00.001+07:00

Science. Art. Those two words used to seldom go together. However, in recent years the words "science" and "art" are becoming more and more frequently blended. Take a look at science fiction. What is that? It is an art--writing, cinematography, etc--filled with science! And an amazing one at that. Just look at how all the little scientific details make science fiction what it is--"science" fiction. Without the science and the art we have no science fiction. This is an example of when art and science blend to make an amazing piece of work.
Then we have modern art. Many forms of modern day artwork, indeed, even some artwork dating far back into our past, uses science in it's creation. Perfectly symmetrical drawings, buildings crafted to look like octagons and hectagons, a face made entirely out of triangles--science and art put together to make something both fascinating and beautiful.
Only two small examples of science and art blended beautifully together, but there are many more. But then we come to when science and art collide.

When do science and art collide? When people attempt to make a science out of art.

Diagramming, grammar, be verbs, all these things fill the average English class... Punctuation. Capitalization. Sentence fragments (which I am purposefully using). These things are necessary to know in order to be a good writer. But are they occasionally taken too far?
Diagramming--learning how to dissect a sentence. I have never understood the reason that we diagram. Will it help us to become better writers? I have yet to find someone who can answer that question--and I have asked it numerous times. I do not believe that diagramming helps us become better writers. On the contrary, I believe that diagramming is a method of shredding apart a sentence in order to "study" the way in which it was constructed. But this actually ruins the sentence. Let me show you a little example. Take this sentence "The day dawned with a clear blue sky." Look at that sentence. There is beauty in that sentence. But then let us diagram it, stick each labeled word on little squiggling lines. Then what do you see when you look at that sentence? Do you see a bright sun, a clear blue sky, a fresh morning? Or do you see words, parts of speech, something that was constructed? How is this a good thing? Diagramming, to my knowledge, does not help a writer become a better one in any way. It only takes words and sentences--once soft and malleable in a writer's fingertips--and turns them into a thing that can be constructed. Words no longer flow. They are built. And I ask you again, how is this a good thing?
Of course a writer needs to know the fundamentals of grammar, punctuation, capitalization, all those things. But is it necessary to learn how to destroy every single "be verb" in an essay? Is passive voice really that bad? It used to not be bad. In fact, it was perfectly acceptable to use be verbs in writing. And the strangest thing? It was not boring. Not one bit. And yet now, today, people--in an attempt to make a science out of the art of writing--say that be verbs make writing "boring", they "slow it down", and "bog it up". This used to not be true. And yet it has become true. Why? Perhaps it is because, in an attempt to give writing a science of itss own, someone, somewhere, and sometime, decided that passive voice was bad. I have yet to figure out why. So what happened then? Words such as "been" and "were" and "was", which were (ha! note the be verb?) once perfectly acceptable, have been banned from many communities. And not only that. Students who have it drilled into them that "be verbs are bad" start picking them out in writing. A sentence, once beautiful, becomes filled with obtrusive words that never would have been noticed had a teacher not pointed them out as bad. Take this sentence: "Over the past few days my life has been filled with pain and sorrow". At one time in my life I would have read the sentence and realized that the writer had felt pain and sorrow--now I realize, instead, that the writer used a be verb. How is this a good thing?

Yes, my friends, in an attempt to make a science out of art, art is being ruined. Alas, that I should live to see such times...

~Manwathiel

p.s. Yes, I have been studying be verbs and diagramming in English. Yes, I needed to rant. Thank you for listening. If you happen to just *love* diagramming then...well, we're all entitled to our own opinions. And what did the first bit about science and art have to do with anything? I'm not sure....

Politics and More Fish

2008-01-08T10:39:00.000+07:00

Hello, why are you reading my blog? Is it because I have anything to say at all? Is it because I am interesting? Is it because I am related to you? I wonder...

Alright, asides from that question, let's talk politics. Why talk politics? Because I have discovered that I really don't like politics and yet am strangely addicted to it. Not a good combination. But at any rate, who can avoid thinking about politics with the upcoming presidential elections? I believe that I have come to a conclusion about the candidates: There is something big wrong with all of them. *sigh* Anyway, I am now supposed to be doing an American Government thingy. It looks rather fun, but I decided to come on here and rant before actualy starting. So yes, my friends, the main point of this post is that I don't like politics, I don't like anyone who is running for president, and I find the whole process fascinating. Well...farewell, my friends. And I know that wasn't really talking politics, but then, I haven't fully formed an opinion about the whole thing yet, so I can't really talk politics...yet.

Oh yes...I suppose you want to know about the fish... Smaug, my dear little fishy, died this morning. I am really sad... *sigh*

~Manwathiel

A Single Voice

2008-01-06T19:02:00.000+07:00

A Single Voice
By Manwathiel

How powerful is a word,
That it may sway the thousands.
How powerful is one voice,
When sent out across the earth.

How powerful is a thought,
When spoken to the world.
How powerful is one man,
That he may change the course of time.

Cosmetics and Fish

2008-01-05T17:01:00.000+07:00

Hello one and all, what is my tale (or tales) that I have to tell you today? Well, I have two stories for you. One is about cosmetics and one is about fish. Let us begin at the beginning, shall we?

I take you back, my dear reader, to yesterday afternoon. It was a dark and stormy afternoon and--ok, so it was neither dark, nor stormy, but as I was saying... It was a day like no other when three friends made a discovery that would change the world--alright, maybe I have to admit that this discovery probably won't change the world, but it was interesting nonetheless. Now, where was I? Ah yes, the discovery. Or shall I say discoveries? Katherine (aka, me), Kristine, and Hannah were in the kitchen experimenting with the world of cosmetics. We began with perfume. Who knew that vodka was an essential ingredient in homemade perfume? Well, it is. We learned that several days ago while researching homemade perfume. Well, as we were making perfume we also discovered that ground up mint makes a nice addition to perfume, and that I am allergic to essential oils. Alas, I learned that the hard way. I looked like I had a nice sunburn for the rest of the day. We also created a new type of lipgloss. Interesting enough, the lipgloss leaves the outside of your lip purple, and the inside bright pink. Hmm... You don't even want to know what we put into it. We also discovered that oatmeal, liquid-bath, and brown sugar makes a lovely--if disgusting-looking--body scrub. Another interesting experiment was the designer lipgloss... Each of us made our own personalized lipgloss. Mine was chocolate-flavored and colored--and I discovered that it can also be used for eyeshadow. Hannah's took a few tries, but ended up a beautiful pinky-red lipgloss. Kristine's, however, was the most interesting. It started out green. Yes, green. A pale pea-green. And it smelled bad. Very bad. We found a very adequate description of it--but I don't think you would want to know about it. So after laughing hysterically for about half an hour she threw it away and started over. This lipgloss ended up a nice pale pink and smelled a whole lot better. After the lipglosses we attempted to make eyeshadow (that was interesting) and then we made bodyscrubs out of oatmeal, brown sugar, and liquid-bath. The bodyscrubs were wonderful, although they looked a little strange. Alright, they looked very strange. But they were still nice.

At any rate, making our own cosmetics was an interesting experience--not to mention humorous. And we ended up with some nice perfume (although I'm afraid that I can't wear it without getting a rash), rather strange lipgloss, really nice lipgloss, some interesting eyeshadow, and some nice bodyscrub. And now I know how to make my own cosmetics.

Now, onto the fish. We got thirteen new members of the family today. Dad got 10 guppy-like fish, Kristine got a--well, I'm not sure what it is, but it's a fish. And Caleb and I each got fighting fish. Dad stuck his tiny, multi-colored fish out in the big fishbowl, alongside his other guppies and goldfish. He decided to name then Bukma-moi, Bukma-bi, Bukma-bie, Bukma-bien--and so on. A translation would be: Friend-one, Friend-two, Friend-three, Friend-four--I'm sure you get the point. Kristine's fish is black with silvery spots. She named it Metallica and has it in a little fish bowl that she plans to put in her room. Caleb's fighting fish is blue, red, green, and purple. It has a long flowy tail. Caleb decided to name his fish Frederick. Why Frederick? After Frederick the Great! Proof that Caleb was paying attention to my history readers. My fighting fish is a beautiful red color and has a really long stringy tail. His scales have a slight green tint in places, as well. What did I name my fish? Smaug! You should know where I got that from... And if you don't...please, please, read The Hobbit and find out.

Well, we all love our beautiful new fish. I've stuck some pics in this post, but I'm afraid that you can't really see the fish--I didn't want to use the flash and they kept moving.

Lost in Angkorian Times

2007-12-31T11:29:00.000+07:00

Hello my friends, out there in the world of Blogdom. I have been gone a while. Why have I been gone? I’ve been lost in the Angkorian period!

About four days ago I went with my family and a friend's family on a trip up to Siem Reap. We took a lovely air-conditioned bus (complete with its own built in bathroom). I spent the bus-trip taking pictures out the window, listening to music, and day dreaming. The total bus trip took six hours.
Once we reached Siem Reap we went to our hotel. There I was delighted to find that my room (which I shared with Kristine and Hannah) was all in threes. There were three beds, three towels, three soaps, and it was great. Sadly, we did not get three TVs, or three fridges, but we made do. The first day we didn’t do much. We went swimming (yes, I was convinced to get into that nasty ice-cold pool. Yuck.), had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and had ice cream at the Blue Pumpkin. The next day we were going to visit the temples.

The next morning we woke up bright and early, ate breakfast, grabbed our cameras, and headed for Angkor Wat. In the morning we planned to visit Angkor Thom, inside of which we intended to visit Bayon, The Terrace of the Elephants, and Ta Prohm. As we drove inside of Angkor we caught our first glimpse of the moat surrounding Angkor Wat. It was humongous! The moat was as big as a lake—much larger than your average moat. We drove by it and managed to see the gates of Angkor Wat on the other side of the moat. It was ten times larger than I had been expecting. I had heard that it was large, of course, but I had not expected this! We drove on until we were in front of Bayon. We did not go into Bayon immediately, but instead walked on the other side of the moat that surrounded it and went to look at some small temple-outposts. One of them was incredibly large for a “small” temple. There was a steep staircase going up the side of the temple… Let me describe it for you:

Imagine a step about the width of your foot (width, not length), add on a few more inches and you have the first step. Now imagine the next step a bit over a foot (not your foot, the measurement) above the previous one. Now you have the steps on the staircase. Now imagine this staircase not sloping forward like most staircases, but going almost straight up. And there you are. Angkorian staircases.And I climbed it. Yes, I did. I felt like Gollum creeping up the side of a cliff. It was amazing. Not to mention scary. Oh, and did I mention that the rock the staircases were made out of had partially crumbled away? It really was amazing.

At the top of the temple there was a small room. We walked around to the side where we found an open door. Inside was a Buddha statue, lying on its side. There was writing carved into the walls. We looked around a bit before beginning to make our descent down the staircase.

We then headed into Bayon Temple. As we crossed the bridge I looked at the stone statues that lined the bridge leading into Bayon. The gods and the demons, carved in stone, battling over the Näga snake. On our left were the gods. Most of them were in pretty good condition. They each clutched the Näga, you could see their hands and their feet. They had serene smiles carved into their faces. On the right were the demons—also clutching the Näga. They did not smile, however, but frowned. It was amazing, and it also really got me thinking.

After the bridge, we went inside Bayon. The faces on the towers were incredibly detailed. The way that they seemed to gaze down on the people below was unnerving. How could anyone in the twelfth and thirteenth century build such a thing?

We explored the temple for a bit, looking at the bas-reliefs (which were, also, incredibly detailed), examining the faces, and climbing up nice normal stairs (ok, so normal doesn’t quite describe them. But more normal than the others—they had been recently added to the temple). Kris, Han, and I eventually got separated from the adults. Good for us, bad for them. We explored on our own for a bit and eventually found a gorgeous, empty, chamber. There were no tourists. You can imagine how shocked we were. We sat there for a while, talking and taking pictures. Then, finally, Dad came and found us. We left Bayon and headed on to the Terrace of the Elephants.

The Terrace was beautiful, long and thin and one of the walls was, of course, covered in bas-reliefs of…elephants! We spent a bit of time there, taking pictures, and I succeeded in breaking the sole off my shoe. Thankfully, there was a shop nearby selling souvenirs and they just happened to have superglue. I was very happy. We then headed on to Ta Prohm.

The first thing I noticed about Ta Prohm was that it was not nearly as well-kept as Bayon. The temple was completely fallen into disrepair, and trees grew all over the walls and inside the buildings. It was also much smaller than Bayon. The trees were absolutely beautiful, and I have made the astounding discovery that they are, indeed, the descendants of the Mallorn of Lorien (ha!). Kris, Han, and I succeeded in getting lost there too, so Dad ended up calling us and telling us to come back (L). We took a few family photos in front of a tree that was completely growing over the wall, and then we left Angkor for lunch.

After lunch, a swim (yes! I went swimming, what is happening to me?), and a nap, we headed back to Angkor. This time we were going to Angkor Wat itself.

There is a good reason that Angkor Wat is called the city-temple. It is huge. Definitely large enough for a city. We crossed the moat and then walked down a long, stone, pathway. We passed two stone libraries—bringing to mind the fact that the people in the Angkorian period were quite advanced. Inside the temple we did a bit of exploring. We got to see the bas-relief the “Churning of the Sea of Milk” which was amazing. We also went and tried to climb up to the very tip of Angkor, but sadly it was closed off for renovation. We still climbed around quite a bit and I have a sneaky suspicion that Trevor (Hannah’s Dad), actually did climb up to the top. We watched the sunset from one of the towers in the side of Angkor, and then headed back out of the temple. I have never seen such an amazing piece of architecture. And it was built in the twelfth and thirteenth century. Amazing.

The day afterwards, us girls—Mom, Helen, Hannah, Kristine, and me—went to the Angkor National Museum. The museum was relatively new, and certainly could use some work, but we saw some amazing artifacts as well. The most amazing thing was that the Khmers knew about seven of our planets! There was a statue with representations of each of those planets, as well as the sun and the moon. We also learned quite a bit about just how much Hindu and Buddhist culture and religion blended during the Angkorian period. It really was all jumbled up. The room of 1,000 Buddhas was also quite interesting.

That night our parents told us that they had a “surprise” for us. We were all quite excited and we had no clue what this surprise was going to be. But then, when we were getting tuk-tuks to take us to this “surprise”, Helen told a tuk-tuk driver to take us “To the balloon”. So much for a surprise! But even if it wasn’t a surprise, we were very, very, excited. We were going to go up in a hot air balloon to see Angkor Wat at sunset!! We had a tuk-tuk race to get there. When we finally got up into that air-balloon I was amazed. It was huge, and we could see the sunset, the surrounding landscape, and Angkor Wat, all incredibly tiny. They didn’t actually let the balloon off of a big wire thing that it was tied to, but it still was great.

We didn’t do much the other days—just watched Star Trek with Hannah (I will make a trekkie of you yet!!). But I will never forget my experience at Angkor.

The bus trip home, however, was a little different than our bus trip there. We had gotten another bus in the hopes that it would be even nicer than the first. How could we have been so wrong? It was horrible. The place smelled bad. If it was air-conditioned than the word “air-condition” has completely lost its meaning, there was no good food, the seats were cramped, my legs were jammed into the chair in front of me, and the colors clashed. Oh, and did I mention that they were blaring music and playing stupid Chinese sit-coms? I have yet to figure out how I survived. But at any rate, it should make an interesting addition to my autobiography.

The whole trip was simply amazing and I will never forget it. Hopefully it won’t be my last trip to Angkor—actually, I’m sure that it won’t be my last.

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-26T10:53:00.000+07:00

Hello my dear readers, tis the day after Christmas in the land of Far Far Away (aka Cambodia). Presents have been unwrapped, cookies have been devoured, movies have been watched.... And now it is Boxing Day. But you want to hear about Christmas, don't you? Well...

On Christmas Eve, Kristine, Abby, and I made lots and lots of gingerbread cookies. We had a wonderful time. Later that night Tim and Tiffany came over. We had an amazing Christmas dinner--lasagna, salad, and garlic bread--and then we watched The Nativity Story and ate cookies. Lots of cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. We had gingerbread cookies, russian teacakes, molasses sugar cookies, peanut-blossoms, lemon-bars, and these little chocolate cookie things that I fail to remember what they were called. The Nativity Story was a great choice to watch on Christmas Eve. It really brought to live Jesus' birth, and also what it must have meant to Mary and Joseph... They threw away so much, everything they had spent their entire lives working for, when they said "yes" to God. People don't really think about what they faced. I also enjoyed how the movie portrayed the three Wise Men. Of course, Caleb started calling them the "Three Tourists", which was rather humorous. The Nativity Story was a very good movie, and a very good way to remember what Christmas is all about. Just as the movie finished the doorbell rang and we heard the sounds of voices singing Christmas carols! They sang several songs to us, and then gave us minced pies, mints, and toffees. The full moon was out and Mars, just as promised, was shining brightly. I suddenly felt very Christmassy. We went back inside and talked--as well as eating more cookies. Yes, more cookies. After Tim and Tiffany left, us kids stuck our presents for the family under the tree, and headed upstairs.

It was almost entirely dark. A small stream of light shone through the window. I woke up, feeling excited. Suddenly I started shaking all over. Was it Christmas morning? I jumped up, out of my bed, and turned to look at my phone. Was it morning? 1:00 am. I sighed and went back to bed. Not morning yet...

Finally I woke up and it was morning. Christmas morning. I got out of bed, brushed my teeth, and then Kristine came into my room. We snuck downstairs, our eyes grew wide as we saw the many presents under the tree. We each found our stockings--stuffed to the brim. Then we saw a light in the living room. Mom was awake! This is highly unusual. Normally Kristine and I are the first people up on Christmas morning. In the end, Kristine and I went in the living room (instead of our bedrooms), and opened our stockings there. There were lots of things in my stocking, but here are some of the highlights:

Little "dinosaur eggs" that "hatch" when put under water for several days
Lots of soap and facewash (all scented)
Enough candy to last me until next Christmas
Mini-origami paper to make cranes and stars
Little cats that you can keep rings on their tails

There was other stuff as well, but those were some of the stocking highlights. After waiting for about half an hour, Mom went and woke up Caleb. He stumbled out of bed, his hair a complete mess, exclaimed "It's Christmas!" and headed for his stocking. After a few minutes Dad came out, and soon we were ready to open our presents. We took turns, like we usually do--although this time it was a bit more orderly than normal. Caleb's gifts consisted of mostly bionicles, model cars, and other building things. Kristine got quite a bit of jewelry, some horsey stuff, and a new purse and wallet. Mom got some jewelry, a table-runner, and a few other little things. And Dad got chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Oh! And he also got an i-pod nano. I got quite a few presents as well, and since I like making little bullet-points of all the presents I got, here are some of the highlights:

A green and black dragon beanie-baby-type-thing
A ring and pendant with garnets in them
Little earrings shaped like reindeer (Thank you Pop-O and G.G.!)
A silk black and silver purse
A dark blue wallet made out of a fishbag
A beautiful set of Prismacolor colored pencils
A plastic triceratops
A gorgeous clay box with a butterfly on the top (Thank you Hannah!!)
A Sculpey-making book (thank you Abby!!)
A sudoko game
A 1 gb memory stick (Yayayayay!!)
There was other stuff, too, but those were the highlights. Oh, I also got an early present from Meow, two books, one was How to Write Science-Fiction (it had Darth Vader on the cover and Spock on the back!!!), and the other was How to Write Fantasy (Gandalf was on the cover!!!). Lots of lovely presents...

After we opened the presents we watched a few movies (those soppy Christmas movies that have to do with dogs and mean adults that I really don't care for), so I went on the computer (on Christmas, yes, I was on the computer--mostly messing with my memory stick as well as chatting with a few people). We ate tuna sandwiches and cookies (yes, more cookies!!) for lunch, and then for dinner we had chicken and scalloped potatoes. Yum yum.

Overall it was a lovely Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Wielder of the Ring of Adamant

2007-12-21T14:31:00.000+07:00

I am making this post for the sole purpose of announcing to the world that I, Manwathiel, am now the wielder of the Elven ring, Nenya. I finally was able to pick it up from the silver shop, so here it is!
I'm afraid that I wasn't able to get a very good pic...the lighting was awful. But anyway, my Nenya is based on the Nenya from the movies, although it has some subtle differences. I had it made out of solid silver and it is absolutely beautiful. I am very happy to finally have it... I could have probably made it a size smaller, but ah well, if my finger gets any fatter at least I'll still be able to wear it.

So I now wield an Elven Ring of Power. Fear me.
*dances away happily*

Oh! And you know the best thing? It only cost me $15.

In a Writing Mood...

2007-12-14T11:09:00.000+07:00

I tried to edit part one of my fantasy. It does not want to be edited. Ah well, I am not in an editing mood today, I am in a writing mood...

Ah, well do I remember that journey... Sea, all around us! Sky above. Nothing more to be seen around us for as far as the eye could see... I remember now how beautiful I had thought it was, how serene, how quiet. Beauty, I had called it. Beauty and peace. Now I laugh to hear such words. Yes, it was beautiful, yes; peace filled our first days at sea. Beauty and peace… More like to war and destruction they were! The beauty and peace were the forerunners of such hardship that I cringe when I look back on it. I look back on it now and I think and I wonder. What was in my mind when I went on that accursed journey? What made me leave? Was it Jason? Or was it myself? I did not know. I still am unsure. But I went on that journey, and it is useless to try to change the past unless you are Fay, and Fay I am not. But would I change the past, had I the chance? Much good came of much hardship… But the tale goes on, it always will.

Yes, that is the prologue for part three of my fantasy... What was the journey? I am still learning that. What was the hardship? I have yet to find out. I have many questions about my own writing... There was a war? What destruction? I do not know. But the tale goes on...

Which Character?

2007-12-07T13:37:00.000+07:00

Well, my old poll has come and gone. I was surprised at the results, there actually are people out there who wouldn't spontaneously combust if I forced them to watch Star Trek!!! So I'll leave that poll up there for a bit for people to see...but on to the new poll.

Many of you know that I'm currently going through a Arthurian Legends craze. Thus the new poll is about the major characters from various Arthurian Legends! Note: I am only doing good characters. Vote for your favorite at the poll on the right! Bios and pictures of each character below:

Merlin--also known as Myrddin, The Emrys, and Merlinus, Merlin was the great Bard of Britain, also called the Soul of Britain. He existed before Arthur ever came to be a character of story. Merlin is responsible for many of the stories of King Arthur, including the story of how Arthur became king. Merlin is a mysterious character with many different views about his birth, life, character, and demise.

Arthur--High King of Britain, Arthur's story is usually roughly the same from version to version. There are, however, conflicting views about his birth and his death. The most common story about his birth is that he was the child of Uther Pendragon and was taken away by Merlin at his birth. Arthur is regarded as being the greatest King that Britain ever had. The legends say that he will return one day when Britain is at it's greatest need.

Guinevere--Arthur's queen, it is debatable as to whether she should even be considered a good character, but she was good in the beginning. Guinevere was said to be the most beautiful woman in all of Britain. She was also regarded as having a sharp wit and being clever and wise.

Sir Galahad--The holy knight who at last discovered the Grail, Sir Galahad is one of the most important characters in all of the Arthurian Legends. He was the greatest knight of the Round Table.

Nymue, Lady of the Lake--There are many ladies of the lake in various Arthurian legends, but Nymue is the chief among them all. She is sometimes, surprisingly, said to be bad, but in most legends she is good. She pops up in the oddest places and is almost as meddlesome as Merlin when it comes to the stories of the Round Table. In some version she dies, killed by a knight, in others she lives on.

And that is all! I could have put more characters, but I settled on these. Vote for your favorite on the poll on the side.

In The Olden Days...

2007-12-04T14:10:00.000+07:00

I recently have taken up the hobby of writing with a quill pen and ink. It is an interesting hobby and I enjoy it quite a bit. I write in my leather-bound book (the book in the picture) which has nice brown paper inside and a very rough binding, and I use a quill pen that I made out of an eagle feather. For ink, I have a little pot of ink left over from a calligraphy set that I bought several years ago. When I run out of that I believe that I'll have to start making my own ink! I've begun doing a little research into that...just so I'm ready.
Needless to say, my handwriting is hideous even when writing with a pencil or a normal pen. Thus, I think I'll keep my quill-pen writing to myself. But even if I'm not about to show it to anyone, it's still fun. It really gets me into the feeling of being somewhere in the past where they only had quill pens. And I like it better than writing with a normal pen.
At any rate, hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this hobby! It certainly is fun.

It's the Craziest Time of the Year

2007-12-02T17:32:00.000+07:00

Well...it is! Just in this past weekend I have gone to the ISPP International Day, Advent Day #1 at Church, and the Christmas Fair. So perhaps I should start at the beginning...

International Day:
The day started out with my family rushing to ISPP where we found Abby dressed up in full Maori garb. Ok, not really full Maori garb, but she had a tattoo-like thing on her chin, feathers in her hair, and a shirt that said "Kiwis in Cambodia". The day went by with me eating way too much food, standing in way too many lines, and having a complete blast. Abby attempted to teach Kristine, Lisa, and me how to use the poise (I think I spelled that right), long string-type things with pom-pom-like things on the end. They're pretty hard. The highlight of the day was when the New Zealanders came on stage... First they sang a couple of Kiwi-songs, and then the girls did the poise. It was great. Abby was especially great. All those flying pom-poms looked amazing. Fleur, Abby's mom, did the poise too. After that all the guys came out and did the haka (I know I spelled that wrong). That was also great. Not to mention hilarious! Todd, Abby's dad, was really into it...and oh it was fun to watch. There were three little boys in the front who really did not know what they were doing. They were adorable. After the Kiwis went off stage we ran around doing all sorts of things...wandering around, pooling our money to get Hannah some lunch, eating ice cream (Ok, so I ate ice cream), and so on. We also went through the strenuous (not) process of finding New Zealand on a globe. Oh, how difficult.

Christmas Decorating:
After getting back from International Day we hung out with Hannah for a bit. But after she left we broke out the Christmas decorations! We fluffed the tree (a difficult task), figured out which lights worked and which ones didn't, strung lights around the tree, strung tinsel around the tree, and decorated the tree! It was very fun, we had Christmas music playing and it was, as I said before, fun and Christmassy. The tree looks great and we have lights, tinsel, and wreaths scattered all around the house.

Advent Day #1 at Church:
At church, since this is the first day of advent, we had the first verse of the candle dance, which was lovely, the kid's choir, three soloists (Jeanette, Greta, and Abby), and a puppet show (starring....Kristine!!). Jeanette, Greta, and Abby sounded absolutely beautiful and the kids were adorable. Everything went reasonably well, although the sound system was, as usual, way off. My dad led the service, and everything was great. The sermon, also, was very good.

Christmas Fair:
After church we rushed out to the annual Christmas Fair! All of my good friends were there, so we hung out and did what girls do best (or at least what people seem to think that we do best)...shop. I spent way too much money, but oh well, that's what happens to me every year at the Christmas Fair. I got some great Christmas presents for people, as well as some nice candles and a leather book for me. I think that the most interesting part of the day was definitely when I dragged Hannah (literally dragged) across the room to the lady dressed up like a reindeer in an attempt to get us some candy canes. The lady gave us a huge handful. Hannah forgave me for dragging her. Anyway, the day was great and very fun.

Yes, I have been busy lately. Too busy to update my blog much.... I'll try to do better. Merry Early Christmas, everyone!!

A Day In the Life of an Author

2007-12-01T09:20:00.000+07:00

Yes, most of you already know that I, Manwathiel, am writing a novel. Well, I'm actually writing several, but then, there are the novels, and there is The Novel. Now, The Novel, is a fantasy that I have been working on for a little over a year. I was writing part two for NaNoWriMo and I believe that I finished that part last night. Over the course of writing parts one and two of this story I have come to a shocking realization: I have little or no control over my character's lives.
Yes, it's true. My characters are constantly doing things that I do NOT want them to do. Take Kazan, for instance. (Yes, I know that most of you don't even know who Kazan is, but bear with me) Kazan was never supposed to exist. He started out as simply an old man who was getting in Ariadnë's way. He was meant to have maybe one sentence in the whole story. But then what happens? *poof* I have a shape-shifter on my hands! I never wanted a shape-shifter in my story, he was just suddenly there. So what did I do? I tried to get rid of him, send him back to the palace where he wouldn't trouble my story any further. But then what does that annoying Kazan do? He starts popping up right and left, just where I least expect him! I no longer know whether to trust characters of my own creation. Is Liros really Liros? Or is he Kazan disguised as Liros? Is that big white owl really just a big white owl? Or is it Kazan? I no longer know. I have no control of whether or not Kazan pops up, or what he does when he pops up.
Then there is Melana, yet another character who is not supposed to exist. She started out as a Lady of the Lake-type person (probably as the result of me re-reading King Arthur). But then what do I find out? She can read people's minds! I did not know that. I did not want her to read people's minds, but read them she does. Melana's character goes on to reveal that she is a Fay (or a Fairy), and that she was abandoned by her people. Now I am left with figuring out why she was abandoned, and what she was doing at The Myst in the first place! I did not want her to be abandoned. She just was.
And then there was the mute woman. She started out as some random kid's mom. Then I found out that she was mute. I had no idea why she was mute. But she was mute. And then, horror of all horrors, she started talking! And now I am left with figuring out why she was pretending to be mute, who she is, and why she started talking! She, also, is not supposed to exist.
Just when I think that I am almost finished with my story, characters start heading in the opposite direction, Kaisan starts quoting poetry, and Ariadnë starts ranting. I did not intend for those characters to do what they do, but they did. I find that I cannot stop them either. Am I really the all-powerful author? Do I really have control over my character's lives? Or am I merely telling the tale the way they want it to be told?

Winner!!!

2007-11-26T15:10:00.001+07:00

I suppose that most of you know what this little icon on the side of this text means... For those of you who don't know, I just completed my 50,000 word novel that I wrote for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I haven't actually completed the novel, but I have completed the word count. I am very happy to be done, but even more happy to have done it. Maybe I'll try again (unofficially) to write 50,000 words in December... Who knows?
But more importantly than me winning, I know that there are those of you out there who are still pounding away at your novel. I would never have done it without you. And hey, I bet you guys will be done soon.... Keep it up! You now know that it really *is* possible to complete a 50,000 word novel in a month. Don't stop writing!

~Manwathiel

Are you a Voyager?

2007-11-24T17:49:00.000+07:00

Have I ever told you just how much I like Star Trek? I've almost definitely told you that I like it. I may have even told you that I consider myself a Trekkie (or at least a Trekkie in the making). But I doubt that I have really told you just how much I love Star Trek.

Today we just finished the finale of Star Trek Voyager. For a while, if asked what Star Trek was my favorite, I would have answered "Next Generation". Now, without a doubt, I would have to say that Voyager is my favorite, with Next Gen as a close second. The characters are amazing, unique, and personable. The plotlines are great. Time warps and Borg cubes pop up all the time, and you never quite know what will happen next. The finale, which we just watched, a two-parter called "Endgame" was simply fantastic. It had me on the edge of my chair the whole way through. It had Borg, time-travel, and all sorts of things all wrapped up in one. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Well... I won't tell you what happened. But I have one thing to say to you: Go watch Voyager. Don't judge Star Trek just because you might have seen one episode of the originals. Dig up a Voyager, season 4-7 episode (preferably with Borg in it) and sit down and watch. I can give you an assurance that you will love it--unless you come across a lesser episode, which I doubt will happen.

Well, at any rate, I love Star Trek Voyager. And now that I've finished it, what am I going to watch now? Well...I'll have to figure that out.

Live long and prosper,

Manwathiel

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2007-11-23T17:09:00.000+07:00

Due to Friday being a holiday in Cambodia, Thanksgiving, for us, was celebrated a day late. Despite that fact, today (our Thanksgiving) has been absolutely amazing. I spent the morning helping Mom bake food, clean the house, set places, and so on and so forth... At about 12:30 people began to arrive. Our little house was absolutely full with 26 people crammed inside. It was an awesomely international gathering. No one seems to care that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. We had Brits, Mexicans, a Columbian, and in past years we've had Australians and others as well. Several of my good friends came over and we had an absolute blast. The food was amazing, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, pickles, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, chicken, waldorf salad, other kinds of salads, layered jello, and tons of other great food. And then there was the pie. Oh, I love pie. Have I ever mentioned just how much I love pie? Well we had eight pies. Yes, eight pies. Three apple pies, three pumpkin pies, a chocolate pie, and a pecan pie. And oh, they were good. I love pumpkin pie, and I confess, I ate a lot of it. The apple pie was probably the best apple pie my mother has ever made, and the chocolate and pecan pies were amazing. I love pie.

Overall, today was a great day. Full of family, friends, fellowship, and giving thanks to God. I wish that Thanksgiving came more than once a year. Well, the day's not over yet. Several people left already, but others are still here waiting for....dinner!!! I, however stuffed I may be, am looking forward to turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, and leftover pie for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving--Giving Thanks.

2007-11-22T12:18:00.000+07:00

Thanksgiving. A time of rejoicing, family gatherings, turkeys, stuffing, pumpkin and pecan pies, mashed potatoes, bloated stomachs, and lopsided smiles. Thanksgiving is not only an American tradition, but is celebrated all around the world, albeit at different times. The Canadians have their Thanksgiving, it was the English who started the American tradition, people in Cambodia and countries all over the world all have a day--whether called Thanksgiving or called something different--when they celebrate their thankfulness. But so much of Thanksgiving has been lost over the years since the pilgrims gave thanks to the Native Americans for the aid they had given them and, more importantly, gave thanks to God for the blessings that he had bestowed upon them. That Thanksgiving was all about giving Thanks to God. Hence the name, Thanksgiving. But now, is Thanksgiving so much about Giving Thanks as it is about eating good food until you are bloated? If anything we have even more reason to give Thanks to God on Thanksgiving than before. How many people in the world can afford to eat as much as we Westerners often do on days like Thanksgiving? Not many. It saddens me to see how much we indulge ourselves when millions of people around the world are starving. But it is not eating loads of food that saddens me--God did bless us with the food to make the feast--but the fact that many people eat without giving thanks to God. We would never have the bounty that we do if it were not for Him. I am blessed by God to have a family that loves and gives thanks to Him, but many people do not have such a blessing. Yes, having a huge feast on Thanksgiving is a wonderful thing, but it is pointless if we do not continue to do what Thanksgiving is all about: Give Thanks to God.

Yet Another Blog in the Life of an Elf

2007-11-22T11:47:00.001+07:00

Yes, I have done it again. Another day, another blog. I promise, however, to keep up with this one. I'll post and post lots and lots. Happy now?

If you're reading this blog, I assume that I know you. But just in case I don't, my name is Manwathiel, I am from Mirkwood, although you may know me by other names and from other places. I am homeschooled, as are most Elves, and I--unlike most elves--spend a lot of time on the internet. At any rate, this is my blog. Expect me to post on it regularly. If I don't then you can send me spammy e-mails telling me to. Happy?

~Manwathiel