Hello, hello, and happy holidays! Can you beleive it's almost Christmas? No? Neither can I! But it's the 19th, already!

And, that means that the Two Towers came out yesterday. And I can't wait to see it! We will be going on Monday to see it with some friends, and then be having a party at our house. That should be a blast.

Yesterday a friend from Amarillo stopped by. She and her Dad were driving bak from DC. It was fun to get to see her: we hadn't seen her in five years! Her Dad sat on the couch and took a nap, while we talked for two hours. It was a blast!

BonnieJean is taking finals this week. She took two test yesterday and has two more on Saterday. She was really worried about them, but she thinks she did pretty well on the two yesterday. Y'all might want to pray for her though: she's still pretty stressed out.

Well, I've started working at a gymnastics assistant. I've done two classes so far. It's interesting: last night I helped teach floor and we did alot of back hand springs, which I didn't really know how to spot very well...so I had to learn as I went. Several of the girls found themselfs spilled on the floor as a result, but at least there wasn't any blood! The skill range in the class I'm helping with is pretty wide. So I was spotting girls who had to be told to arch their back and other girls who were doing three back handsprings in a row! It's interesting.

Oh, and I am going to dedicate this post to Melissa, who, unlike other people, did not bother me about updating! Ok, ok, you guys were right. I really should have updated a long time ago. *hangs head in shame*

Oh, oh, cool news! Really cool news! Nathan Dorrel (www.crazytieguy.com) wants me to be in his new diabolo instrutional video! Yep! He wants me to do the Joshua and Caleb routine. I'm very excited about that! And y'all might want to pray for them too: Nathan's wife miscarried two days ago. :(

Let's see....what else is going on? My left pointer finger is hurting, 'cause it got hurt two weeks ago in stunt class...I was spotting a guy and he hit my hand really hard. Ouch. Yesterday I got the most awsome run of five clubs I've ever had: it went on forever! I can't juggle rings very well because I cut my right pointer finger, doing a double spin with a hatchet. Yes, that was really stupid, but I didn't think it was sharp enough to actually cut me. And I finally got that stump out of the garden that was driving me nuts.

And now, my dear fans, I will leave you. Mourn not overmuch!

Ha! So there Rebekkah! I did update!

Today I have an appointment with my torture technician, which is good, 'cause I'm almost out of pain bands. And hopefully I can get the neon bands this time, because the clear ones are very hard to find after you put them down on the table to eat.

Found out last night that Dad is going to be gone until Thursday working somewere (not sure were) on a crain or something.

The other day I found Final Cut Pro really cheep on ebay, but it turns out to be a pirated copy. Mice!

Wow...it's been a while since I updated. Longer than I realized. I hope you will forgive me.

Well, Uncle Kent (Mom's younger brother) and his family came up for Thanksgiving, which was a total blast. I hadn't seen them in 5 years! That's way too long! Erica (Kent's oldest) is doing some work with rifles that's very interesting, and is actually alot like devil stick. I think I want to learn how to do that now. Adam learned to juggle three and flash four balls in less than an hour: that is so not fair. We played Mafia a bunch. The only time the Mafia ever won was when BonnieJeana and I were the Mafia and we both managed to live through the whole game!

I've almost got the website for www.jesusfreakministries.com finished, but I'm having some problems with FTPing to the site. I'm going to have to email tech support and see what the problem is.

CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!!!

In case you haven't heard, their expecting! Whoopee! COOL!!!!!!!!! And David Cain and his wife are expecting too! Awsome, huh?!?!

Well, my computer time is up now, but I shall try (try) to post some more tomorrow.

Go away, get out! Leave! NOW!

Alright, yes, that was a little odd. But I was trying to think of some original way to open this post and it struck me that I almost always started out with some form of "Hello!" Well..."hello" has a kinda welcoming tone to it, so I thought I'd try the opposite of that. Stop looking at me like that!

I miss the RI. I was thinking the other day. I haven't talked to Chera in several months. I haven't had a good debate since I got off. I have absolutly no idea what Mike is up to. I haven't read a funny Courtney post in forever. I don't know what deep thoughts James has been thinking lately and I haven't had a chance to enjoy Hannah's humor in way too long. On the other hand, I haven't had to deal with immature people who don't know how to use a period and who get themselfs banned, or Crimson or things like that. I'll be glad when I get back on though.

I think I shall go to evening service tonight. Dad and Anna and BonnieJean are going and I thought maybe I should, at least this once. Normally I am very opposed to evening service 'cause it totally ruins your day of rest. Between getting up early for morning service, getting home and watching little guys while the parents take a nap, getting ready to go and then coming home late, you don't get any rest at all. But I'm feeling pretty perky today and I haven't been to evening service anyway in over five years, so I guess once won't hurt me.

Josh's lawyer was on the raido the other day, talking about the case. The host was REALLY good, but his lawyer wasn't the best at describing what had happened. It is good that their finally taking this to the press, 'cause I think the response would be very favorable for them.

Yesterday I worked mostly on the new chicken coop I'm building. I've it looking pretty much like a chicken coop and actually got a whole bunch of work done. Now I just have to build the roof for it, put in the wire for the floor, build the laying boxes, the perches and the doors. And then paint it, but I might get the other kids to do that instead.

And I think I shall leave you now. Farewell! And GO AWAY!!!

Hello, hello! I have recieved two request to update, so I guess I should.

But update about what? I mean, sure, lots of stuff has been happening. I haven't updated in almost a week. So surely I have something to write, don't I? But you know what? I don't. I can't think of a thing to write. Maybe I should try anyway.

I need to write something for the CJA newsletter about my trip to David's. In fact, I really out to have it to David by the end of this week. And I'm drawing a total blank. Right now it looks kinda like this: "I went to David Cain's for a little over a week and learned a lot." Not exactly the full page that David was hoping for. I guess I should just knuckle down and do it. In fact, I should be writing it instead of this. But I'll go ahead and do this anyway.

I've started work on the Jesus Freak Ministries website. It won't be anything big, so I've got most of it done. I'll then have to do a little bit of a revamp of the CJH website and then create a website for my juggling ministry. I'm hoping to get all the stuff for my juggling ministry ready by early next year and start advertising myself so I can get the summer as booked as possible.

Gymnastics has been interesting lately. The teacher has started teaching me how to spot all the differant stuff and I even got to teach most of the trampoline lesson yesterday. She says I could very possible get a job there, which might be something I would look into seriously. I enjoy the people who work there and it would be something interesting to do.

Hmm...what else has been doing on. I've been playing alot of chess lately and seem to be getting better. Chess classes have ended, but hopefully we can join the home school chess club.

Ok, I'm out of things to write. Bye!

It has been four days since I posted. Is that good? Is that bad? Should I post more often? Should I post less often? Don't answer me, I just feel like rambling on about a question that will never, ever be answered. How often should you post on your blogger? Should you do like Abbey and post about every three months? Or like Brian, and post every three minutes? Should they be long, like James', or short, like Brian's? Ahh..the questions that will never be answered! When shall they ever stop? (Hey, there's another one!)

Ok, cool news! I invented a new juggling trick last week! I didn't even know that I was the first to do it until I told David about it. It's a force bounce variation of a four ball trick that is normally lift bounce: but it has to be kinda differant for a fource bounce. Anyway, I named it Samuel's Side Show, since it's a trick that mostly happens on the sides of the juggling pattern.

Did I tell y'all that I got a call from a guy who I met in Knoxville? We had started talking after one of my shows and exchanged phone numbers, and then promptly forgot about them. Well, he came across my number the other day and gave me a call! We had a fun time talking, and I'm planning on giving him a call back sometime soon.

Friday I have another show. It will be about 20 minutes long and will go before the lesson at our home school youth Bible study. I would tell you more about it, but we're leaving for gym now. Bye!

Good day to you, my loyal blogger readers! Anar kaluva tielyanna! (ten points to the first person who can figure that out!)

I am doing great! Except my sweater is getting kind of hot, so I will be taking it off now. Ahh! So much better!

Well, Thursday our chess teacher was talking to me and Anna, telling us he really wanted us to be in an upcoming tournament he is hosting in Dec. The problem is that I would have to join USCF ($20) and pay the entry fee ($15). But I really, really wanted to do it, so I told God that if he wanted me to do it, he'd have to arrange for me to get $35. Well, I found $5 in my drawer. Then Mom gave me $25 that she had mistakenly withdawn from my back account and then I found $3 in my drawer in change. And then Ethan gave my $2! So I get to do it! Cool, huh? So I'm pretty excited about that.

I am one week away from the half way point in my spanish studies! If I can keep up at the rate I'm going at now (and I'm pretty sure I can) I should be totally done with it sometime in mid-Jan. And hopefully I'll then be able to take the Spanish CLEP, which is worth something like 6 credits. I'm also hoping to take the biology CLEP sometime this winter. We're just a couple weeks away from finishing our text book, so I figure if I do some review and look up some stuff on the internet that wasn't covered in the book, I should be able to make a good score. If I can do both of those, I'd have 12 credits from stuff I'm doing here in high school.

Well, Dad wants me to build a new chicken coop. I'm not so hot on the idea. Techincally, I suppose I know how to do it, but I'm not at all confident I can do it. Oh well, I guess things will work out somehow!

I called and talked to JC for a good long while yesterday. That was fun. Because of our scedules, we're never online at the sametime anymore, so the only place I ever see him is on the admin board (and there's not really all that much I see of him there). School is going good for him, although he's feeling really stressed with the 19 credits he's taking this summer. We half-jokingly talked about having him get me some gigs up there so I could have all my expenses paid to fly up and see him. That would be lots of fun I'm sure, but I doubt it would actually happen. Then again, who knows? It might. Oh, btw, JC, Mom says you just need to buck up. Her brother took 18 hours a semester and held down a job. *grins* However, he brother is one of the most driven men I know of: the fact that he can do it doesn't mean that any of us can do it! :)

Well, I'm sure there's tons more I could write, but I can't think of any of it right now. Martha, I honestly, really will send you my comments on that story you sent!

Ta-ta!

Hannah! I need your help again! In fixing the problem so that I can post, it somehow got rid of the script for YACCS. And I have no idea whatsoever how I'm supposed to fix it! So if you could email me, that would be great!

Alright, I will try to give you as much of an update on my life as I can in the limited amount of time I have left on the computer today.

So, on the 14th I left the house about 4 o'clock and the plane took off at 6:45 PM. Nothing really worth talking about happened on the trip, which was good. I met David at the Indy airport and we drove the 2 hours to his house, arriving there at about 12.

Tuesday morning I met Janet (David's wife) and their six month old baby, Ethan. We went to David's church that morning, which had a really high ceiling in the lobby and juggled some. David showed me some cool numbers stuff, juggling six clubs, flashing seven sticks and attempting eight. David also pointed out that my five club pattern is not centered on my body, which was interesting. (I'm sure y'all were just dieing to learn about that, weren't you?)

I could try and give you a day by day acount of the events, but I don't guess that would be the best way. I learned a TON. David got me started on plate spinning, which is the most boring thing in the world, but most people don't know that. So you just act like it's actualy worth watching and they will! I made some real progress with ball spinning, and even nailed a few cool tricks (I spun a ball on a ball!) I tried out cigar boxes some, but didn't really spend much time on them. I worked alot on five rings and my pattern was actually looking fairly tolerable by the time I left. I went ahead and ordered some rings (yes, I actually bought rings, can you beleive it?) and I should be getting them soon. I learned a whole bunch of new ball bouncing stuff, which was really good, 'cause that's probably my weakest area.

On Saterday we went to David's parents house, where I got to meet David's twin brother, Scott. That was interesting. David and Scott do some really cool team stuff, but Scott is not actually that good of a solo juggler. We had an unoffical four ball dual between us, and Scott unoffically won, but I whipped him good with seven balls (in spite of that fact that I was using David's beanbags, which are horribly huge). I also found at that Scott doesn't like Reagan, so I threw a few things at him (yes, I honestly did. And no, I don't mean passing!)

David and I did 5 shows together. I was in about 5 of the routines in each one. We came up with a whole bunch of new material and improved alot of stuff we already had. Some of it we even performed. At one of the performances on Sunday morning there was a guy got saved! Cool, huh?

Well, I got back home on Wed. Saterday morning we left for Amarillo and just got back last night. It was a fast, but fun, trip. We got to see Ms. Johnson, our old piano teacher and had a blast with her. She played some for us, which was interesting, because in all the years I took from her, I think I'd seen her play only three times! Then we went to see Mom's friend Judy and stayed at her house until 10 or 11, having a total blast. Poor BonnieJean spent most of the time on her computer, writing some stuff that she had to have turned in by midnight! She had stayed up all night before we left trying to finish it, and hadn't been able to. Poor girl. She's managing to keep on top of it, but just barely. Hopefully she'll get a little more used to it soon, since she's only been doing it for three weeks.

Sunday morning we went to church with some good friends about an hour from Amarillo. We had a real good time visiting and left two hours late, but we got home about 11, so it wasn't too bad.

Which brings us to today. We slept in late (very late!) and then I had to go have my torture device worked on. I'm now wearing rubber bands, so I can't open my mouth all the way. Annoying. Oh well, I got neon colors, so that was cool.

And now, I think I shall close. Farewell!

This is Anna. Samuel has asked me to post to see if it will show up. Please reply us if you can see us.
Love y'all (esp. Samuel!)!

Alright, I'll try this. Who knows if it will work, but hopefully you will finally be able to see my last three posts.

[9/23/2002 11:06:47 AM | Samuel B.]
Quick question. When I look at yaccs.com and check the comments, it says nobody has made any comments on the last two posts. Is my account messed up, or have y'all just abandond me to wonder if I spelled appandond right?

Well, I bought the plane tickets for going up to David's next month. I'll be gone Oct. 14-23 and plan on having a great time. David and I are going to work on developing some routines as well as some more technical stuff (ball bounce, ball spinning, four club tricks).

Courtney and Kali got married on Saterday!!!!! I think this calls for a large, red sentance with lots of exclamations points (we haven't had one of those in a long time!)


CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!


Right now I have two AIM windows open trying to get info about the wedding. One girl (who was probably at the wedding!!) is not responding and the other wasn't there. The lack of info. is maddening. Kali's sister is only on AIM every once in a while and I'm sure Courtney will not be posting on his blogger until at least after their honeymoon.

Good heavens, Jen just told me that she was going to be at the wedding, but they wouldn't let her on the plane, because they had booked the flight under her Dad's name! So she missed it! How horrible!

I'm not making much sense, am I? Oh well, I don't care! I'm feeling very carefree today! Goodbye! *walzes off*
[edit]
[9/19/2002 10:48:34 AM | Samuel B.]
Just a quick note. David Cain called me this morning and told me that last night he became the second person in the recorded history of juggling to flash 8 club like objects in a show! CONGRATS DAVID!!!
[edit]

[9/16/2002 7:51:42 PM | Samuel B.]
Here's something interesting I wrote a week or two ago to a friend. Thought you might (or might not) enjoy it.

Alright, I don't know how long this will be, or how much sense I will make, but please bear with me. BTW, this stuff is not the result of a hastily thought up theory: I've studied Tolkien's works extensively with an eye towards this very topic. And allow me to state right up front: I have yet to find a single good guy who uses magic. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Ok, so we know that the Bible condemns witchcraft very strongly. Ex. 22:18 says "Suffer not a witch to live." And there's a lot of other verses like that, but since you've already done some study in that area I won't bother to look them up. The fact is that Bible believing Christians should not be reading and studying about magic (unless God has called them to and given them the grace to do it).
Now, from our talk about Spiderman and the role a villain should play, you know that I don't see anything wrong with having a bad "bad guy". So, how are the bad guy magicians shown in Tolkien? Here's an interesting bit taken from "The Return of the King" Book 5, chapter 10, "The Black Gate Opens".
"And thereupon the middle door of the Black Gate was thrown open with a great clang, and out of it there came an embassy from the Dark Tower.
"At it's head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dur he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: "I am the Mouth of Sauron." But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Numenoreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron's domination, and they worshipped him, being enamored of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord's favor; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron: and he was more cruel than any orc."
Not exactly a pretty picture. Being more cruel any orc is saying a lot. The Mouth of Sauron is one of the two magicians that we get to see in any detail: the other is the Witch-King. He was a great sorcerer and very powerful. He established the Witch Kingdom of Agmar and was given one of the nine rings by Sauron himself. A sample of the way he talks: "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where they flesh shall be devoured and they shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye." (Return of the King, book 5, chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields")
That is magic in Tolkien. Cruel, hard, horrible. There are no perks, nothing desirable about it. Magic is evil, pure and unaltered.
But what about the magic that the good guys use? Doesn't Gandalf use a "closing spell" on a door? Doesn't Aragorn make use of a green stone in healing the wounded in Minas Tirith? Doesn't Galadriel have a magic bowl of water? Don't the Dwarves in Dale create magic toys? And isn't Revindell protected by a magic ring worn by Elrond? How do these make sense? Certainly Gandalf, Aragorn and Galadriel are not bad guys. How then can they use magic?
The answer is extremely simple: they don't! Allow me to go through each of the mentioned bits of "magic" and explain them. Please keep in mind that these are not the only examples of "magic" in Tolkien, but I have chosen each because it represents each kind of "magic" that you will come across. Let's start with Gandalf.
Were you to travel back in time, and yet have access to all the stuff of the 21st century, you could very easily convince people you were a magician. In fact, you might have trouble convincing them that you weren't!
The case is somewhat the same with Gandalf. But he is not a human from the future. In fact, he is not even human! He is a Maiar (that's probably spelled wrong!): an angle basically. He comes from Valinor, a place were the Valor live (the Valor are NOT gods, as some people mistakenly think.) He was sent to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron, and yet not openly. He was not to make a big display of his power, but rather to encourage the people of Middle-earth in their fight against Sauron.
So if he's not a wizard, why is he called such? Well, the Lord of the Rings was written by Hobbits. This is much the same as if those people who you met while time traveling wrote about you. They would get a lot wrong, without a doubt. And if you were under orders not to tell them all about yourself, they would get even more wrong. The same thing happened in Lord of the Rings.
But Gandalf himself talks about casting "spells" and such. How do you explain this?
The language spoken in Valinor is not the same was the one spoken commonly in Middle-earth (often called the "Common Speech"). In fact, when Gandalf first got his body and came to Middle-earth he had to learn how to speak! And as he learned the languages he found that there weren't really any words to describe what he did. So he was forced to improvise. He did not cast "spells" but that was as close as he could come in the Common Speech.
Now let's talk about Elrond and Galadriel. Both of them are Elves: totally different creatures than Humans. And so they have some abilities which are super-human. The funny thing is, if Tolkien were science fiction, Elves would just be aliens with special abilities. But because it's fantasy, everyone assumes that it's magic. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the magic used by Spock in Star Trek? No. Why? Because he isn't a human! And the very same thing applies to the elves.
While we're on the subject of Galadriel, there's a very interesting quote on the subject of magic by her. Sam and Frodo are with Galadriel in Lorien. They are standing by a basin of water and Galadrial was just asking Frodo if he wanted to look into it.
"'And you?' she said, turning to Sam. 'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do knot understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel." (The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, chapter 7, "The Mirror of Galadriel")
Galadriel obviously didn't consider what she did magic, so why should we? And Galadriel certainly knew about this so called "magic"! She had studied under some of the wisest and most powerful Elves and Maiar, both in Middle-earth and Valinor. I think we can take her word for it.
The "magic" used by the dwarves has the same story. They are not at all human (their biology is such that they can't even interbreed) and their "magic" is nothing of the sort.
So, what of Aragorn and the green stone? Aragorn is certainly human, and yet he uses it. From the context of what we know about humans using magic (like the two magicians spoken of above) we know that it is certainly a bad thing.
Well, the fact is, Aragorn didn't actually use the stone. It was a gift from Galadriel and I'm not even certain he knew what it did. He was simply wearing it while doing his doctoring. And as we see when he heals Faramir, Eowyn and Merry, he doesn't mention it, touch it, look at it, or anything of the sort. It was simply the elvish power of the stone working on it's own and Aragorn had nothing to do with it.
Now, as to the nature of the Valor and God in Tolkiens world. The creation account found in the Sillmarillion cannot by any twisting of the imagination be made to sound anything like the account in the Bible. The world is ruled by the Valor (angles basically). This would seems almost like a pagan religion!
Allow me to explain Tolkien's (and mine) view on this. We, as humans, are created in the image of God. And God is a creator. And so instilled into each of us is the desire to create. Like a child wanting to act like his dad, we each want to make something. There is nothing wrong at all about this desire. It was given to us by God.
Tolkien called his world a "sub-creation". If we are created in the image of God, the creator, why is it wrong to want to imitate him and create our own worlds? This must of course be done with the realization that our would is fake: but that does not make it wrong.
Now you may have heard that Tolkien referred to the Gospel as a "myth". He did. But to have that quote outside of context is a highly deceitful thing to do. I have read the entire passage in which he called the Gospel a myth and it is one of the most beautiful statements about the wonderfulness of the Gospel that I have ever read.
You can find the quote in an essay entitled "On Fairy-Stories". In it, Tolkien discusses what he considers to be the criteria for calling a story a fairy story. At the very end, he notes that by the definition he has just laid out, the Gospel is in fact a fairy story. But, he quickly points out, the wonderful thing about it is that, as opposed to the other fairy stories, the Gospel is true! It really happened! Tolkien was not rejecting the divine authorship of the Bible: he was simply making an observation as to the classification of the Gospel story.

I'll try and post more about what's going on in my life latter. Maybe tomorrow.

Alright, I'll try this. Who knows if it will work, but hopefully you will finally be able to see my last three posts.

Quick question. When I look at yaccs.com and check the comments, it says nobody has made any comments on the last two posts. Is my account messed up, or have y'all just abandond me to wonder if I spelled appandond right?

Well, I bought the plane tickets for going up to David's next month. I'll be gone Oct. 14-23 and plan on having a great time. David and I are going to work on developing some routines as well as some more technical stuff (ball bounce, ball spinning, four club tricks).

Courtney and Kali got married on Saterday!!!!! I think this calls for a large, red sentance with lots of exclamations points (we haven't had one of those in a long time!)

CONGRATS COURT AND KALI!!!!!!

Right now I have two AIM windows open trying to get info about the wedding. One girl (who was probably at the wedding!!) is not responding and the other wasn't there. The lack of info. is maddening. Kali's sister is only on AIM every once in a while and I'm sure Courtney will not be posting on his blogger until at least after their honeymoon.

Good heavens, Jen just told me that she was going to be at the wedding, but they wouldn't let her on the plane, because they had booked the flight under her Dad's name! So she missed it! How horrible!

I'm not making much sense, am I? Oh well, I don't care! I'm feeling very carefree today! Goodbye! *walzes off*

Just a quick note. David Cain called me this morning and told me that last night he became the second person in the recorded history of juggling to flash 8 club like objects in a show! CONGRATS DAVID!!!

Here's something interesting I wrote a week or two ago to a friend. Thought you might (or might not) enjoy it.

Alright, I don't know how long this will be, or how much sense I will make, but please bear with me. BTW, this stuff is not the result of a hastily thought up theory: I've studied Tolkien's works extensively with an eye towards this very topic. And allow me to state right up front: I have yet to find a single good guy who uses magic. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Ok, so we know that the Bible condemns witchcraft very strongly. Ex. 22:18 says "Suffer not a witch to live." And there's a lot of other verses like that, but since you've already done some study in that area I won't bother to look them up. The fact is that Bible believing Christians should not be reading and studying about magic (unless God has called them to and given them the grace to do it).
Now, from our talk about Spiderman and the role a villain should play, you know that I don't see anything wrong with having a bad "bad guy". So, how are the bad guy magicians shown in Tolkien? Here's an interesting bit taken from "The Return of the King" Book 5, chapter 10, "The Black Gate Opens".
"And thereupon the middle door of the Black Gate was thrown open with a great clang, and out of it there came an embassy from the Dark Tower.
"At it's head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dur he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: "I am the Mouth of Sauron." But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Numenoreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron's domination, and they worshipped him, being enamored of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord's favor; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron: and he was more cruel than any orc."
Not exactly a pretty picture. Being more cruel any orc is saying a lot. The Mouth of Sauron is one of the two magicians that we get to see in any detail: the other is the Witch-King. He was a great sorcerer and very powerful. He established the Witch Kingdom of Agmar and was given one of the nine rings by Sauron himself. A sample of the way he talks: "Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where they flesh shall be devoured and they shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye." (Return of the King, book 5, chapter 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields")
That is magic in Tolkien. Cruel, hard, horrible. There are no perks, nothing desirable about it. Magic is evil, pure and unaltered.
But what about the magic that the good guys use? Doesn't Gandalf use a "closing spell" on a door? Doesn't Aragorn make use of a green stone in healing the wounded in Minas Tirith? Doesn't Galadriel have a magic bowl of water? Don't the Dwarves in Dale create magic toys? And isn't Revindell protected by a magic ring worn by Elrond? How do these make sense? Certainly Gandalf, Aragorn and Galadriel are not bad guys. How then can they use magic?
The answer is extremely simple: they don't! Allow me to go through each of the mentioned bits of "magic" and explain them. Please keep in mind that these are not the only examples of "magic" in Tolkien, but I have chosen each because it represents each kind of "magic" that you will come across. Let's start with Gandalf.
Were you to travel back in time, and yet have access to all the stuff of the 21st century, you could very easily convince people you were a magician. In fact, you might have trouble convincing them that you weren't!
The case is somewhat the same with Gandalf. But he is not a human from the future. In fact, he is not even human! He is a Maiar (that's probably spelled wrong!): an angle basically. He comes from Valinor, a place were the Valor live (the Valor are NOT gods, as some people mistakenly think.) He was sent to Middle-earth to oppose Sauron, and yet not openly. He was not to make a big display of his power, but rather to encourage the people of Middle-earth in their fight against Sauron.
So if he's not a wizard, why is he called such? Well, the Lord of the Rings was written by Hobbits. This is much the same as if those people who you met while time traveling wrote about you. They would get a lot wrong, without a doubt. And if you were under orders not to tell them all about yourself, they would get even more wrong. The same thing happened in Lord of the Rings.
But Gandalf himself talks about casting "spells" and such. How do you explain this?
The language spoken in Valinor is not the same was the one spoken commonly in Middle-earth (often called the "Common Speech"). In fact, when Gandalf first got his body and came to Middle-earth he had to learn how to speak! And as he learned the languages he found that there weren't really any words to describe what he did. So he was forced to improvise. He did not cast "spells" but that was as close as he could come in the Common Speech.
Now let's talk about Elrond and Galadriel. Both of them are Elves: totally different creatures than Humans. And so they have some abilities which are super-human. The funny thing is, if Tolkien were science fiction, Elves would just be aliens with special abilities. But because it's fantasy, everyone assumes that it's magic. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the magic used by Spock in Star Trek? No. Why? Because he isn't a human! And the very same thing applies to the elves.
While we're on the subject of Galadriel, there's a very interesting quote on the subject of magic by her. Sam and Frodo are with Galadriel in Lorien. They are standing by a basin of water and Galadrial was just asking Frodo if he wanted to look into it.
"'And you?' she said, turning to Sam. 'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do knot understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel." (The Fellowship of the Ring, book 2, chapter 7, "The Mirror of Galadriel")
Galadriel obviously didn't consider what she did magic, so why should we? And Galadriel certainly knew about this so called "magic"! She had studied under some of the wisest and most powerful Elves and Maiar, both in Middle-earth and Valinor. I think we can take her word for it.
The "magic" used by the dwarves has the same story. They are not at all human (their biology is such that they can't even interbreed) and their "magic" is nothing of the sort.
So, what of Aragorn and the green stone? Aragorn is certainly human, and yet he uses it. From the context of what we know about humans using magic (like the two magicians spoken of above) we know that it is certainly a bad thing.
Well, the fact is, Aragorn didn't actually use the stone. It was a gift from Galadriel and I'm not even certain he knew what it did. He was simply wearing it while doing his doctoring. And as we see when he heals Faramir, Eowyn and Merry, he doesn't mention it, touch it, look at it, or anything of the sort. It was simply the elvish power of the stone working on it's own and Aragorn had nothing to do with it.
Now, as to the nature of the Valor and God in Tolkiens world. The creation account found in the Sillmarillion cannot by any twisting of the imagination be made to sound anything like the account in the Bible. The world is ruled by the Valor (angles basically). This would seems almost like a pagan religion!
Allow me to explain Tolkien's (and mine) view on this. We, as humans, are created in the image of God. And God is a creator. And so instilled into each of us is the desire to create. Like a child wanting to act like his dad, we each want to make something. There is nothing wrong at all about this desire. It was given to us by God.
Tolkien called his world a "sub-creation". If we are created in the image of God, the creator, why is it wrong to want to imitate him and create our own worlds? This must of course be done with the realization that our would is fake: but that does not make it wrong.
Now you may have heard that Tolkien referred to the Gospel as a "myth". He did. But to have that quote outside of context is a highly deceitful thing to do. I have read the entire passage in which he called the Gospel a myth and it is one of the most beautiful statements about the wonderfulness of the Gospel that I have ever read.
You can find the quote in an essay entitled "On Fairy-Stories". In it, Tolkien discusses what he considers to be the criteria for calling a story a fairy story. At the very end, he notes that by the definition he has just laid out, the Gospel is in fact a fairy story. But, he quickly points out, the wonderful thing about it is that, as opposed to the other fairy stories, the Gospel is true! It really happened! Tolkien was not rejecting the divine authorship of the Bible: he was simply making an observation as to the classification of the Gospel story.

I'll try and post more about what's going on in my life latter. Maybe tomorrow.

Wow, these past two days have been something else. It's been a really faith building time and a very tough time. It all started a long time ago (like last year I think) when a fellow who works on computers at the local college was fired for putting "God bless" at the end of an email (his name is Mat). Then, about a month ago, he and his friend Josh (who goes to church with us) were taken out of class under armed guard, questioned and expelled. They were not allowed to call their parents, a lawyer or even go to the bathroom. Josh's sister Michaela was also taken out of class and not allowed to call her parents. She has since been up on probation for a year: nobody has been able to really figure out why. Something was said about her biligerant attitude. If you knew Michaela you would realize what a dumb charge that is. She is probably the most quite, soft spoken person I know! So, after much problems and riggermarro, they finally sceduled hearings for Josh and Mat on the 11th. Josh went in at 1:30. BonnieJean and I showed up about one to take part in the prayer vigil that they had going. We had a chance to talk to Josh some and then he went in. We stayed for a couple hours, walking around the building, reading our Bibles and praying in a group. Finally at about four we went on home, but a pretty good group stayed until Josh came out at 6:15. Mat was supposed to have had his hearing at 2:30, so they resceduled his for Thursday (the 12th). It turns out that they prayer group had really unnerved them during Josh's hearing, so they told Mat to come at 9, then called him at 10:30 that night and said to come at 8, hoping that they would be done before we got there. Enter Sam, a dear lady from church and Josh's aunt. She called us at 7:30 and by 8:10 we were up there in a big circle praying. We spent all day up there, except for about an hour and a half that Mom had us come home. Finally, at about 6:00 they finished the hearing and let Mat out. He had some really good news for us: he had not been given a gag order and Josh's gag order had been removed! So we all headed off campus and head "debriefing" with Mat and Josh for about an hour and a half.

Some really cool things had happened. One had been that over the two days, everyone had been praying for "conffusion in the camp of the enemy". I heard those exact words at least three million times. Then, when Josh and Mat started telling us about what happened, it was amazing to hear how God had worked! The main wittness for the oposition had hardly been able to answer a single question and the chairman of the hearing had been very good.

So, the people who judge the hearing have 15 days to make their decision, which will then be passed to the president of the college as a recomendation. It's far from over and we're still doing alot of praying, but it's really been a great experiance.

One neat thing was that I got to get to know Josh and his family better. Our families have always been on pretty friendly terms, but I've wanted to get to know them better. I also found out that I actually knew Mat! I hadn't realized that it was a Mat I had met at several church funtions.

So, please keep Josh, Mat and Michaela and their families in prayer.

find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com

I'm an apple pie. How interesting.

So, how are you doing today? Fine I hope. I had an interesting idea sparked by Hannah. Person 1 says to Person 2 "Hey, look on the bright side!" Person 2 replies "No, then it's even more depressing when it turns dark!"

Yes, I'm nuts.

Hey, did I tell y'all that it looks like we've set some pretty solid dates for going up to David's? Hmmm...have I even told y'all I'm going to David's? Maybe not...if you've heard this already, stop me. David is a professional Christian juggler who I have become pretty good friends with over the past two and a half years. And this coming Oct. I'm going to be spending a week at his house working on juggling and Christian routines and just visiting. I'm REALLY excited about it! If you'd like to, you can visit David's sight: christianjuggler.com

Let's see...what else. I did my drawing lesson today. It went pretty well (I got an A!), but I still didn't like what I'd drawn all that much. Still, it could have been alot worse. This afternoon I've got to go over the first 20 verses of Mat. 5, 'cause I have to say them to Mom tomorrow. I had up to verse 34 once, but I've kinda forgotten some. Still, it shouldn't be very hard. Spanish is shaping up to be taking a pretty big hunk of time, but Mom gave me an hour and a half for it, so I think I should do fine.

I got a very nice email from JC the other day, which I need to reply to (I'm going to try to do that tomorrow JC). It seems I need to write somebody else but I can't remember who! Hey, if you need me to write you, let me know! :)

Why is it that whenever you are posting on your blogger you can't think of anything to write, but once you get off you think of a million things to write?

And with that question I shall leave you. Farewell!

'ello, ello, ello! How are you doing today? I can ask that question because, thanks to a remark by OFG, I can now view the replies. Yup, I just log into my YACCS acount and there they are! I still can't view my blogger though, but I can look at it in the control center here...so altogether, things could be worse. Then again, they could be alot better.

But in spite of that, I'm feeling pretty good right now. We started school yesterday. I like my scedule, except that I have to get up at 5:30. Not my first choice, but I'll live. I start school at 7:00 (biology) and finish at 3:30 (mimorization). In between is Math, Spanish, Gov., Wisdom Booklet and Faith Journal. I'm also having to fit art in there whenever I can. It's working pretty well.

Last night we had hamburgers for supper! Yum! They were VERY good.

Today was our first day of gymnastics (how do you spell that?). There's nine people in our class, mostly younger than ten, although there are a couple girls who are older than that. Ethan was trying to go wild the whole time. I think if we let him, he would try everything until he broke his neck! Joshua seems to have a little trouble, but I think he'll be ok.

And now I shall get off. I meant to post more, but I don't have enough time. Maybe tomorrow.

I am very annoyed. My blogger has be blocked by our server because of "full nudity, sexual acts/text". So I can't view my blogger. I emailed them and have yet to get a reply. Is that annoying or what? In fact, I can't visit any bloggers on the blogspot.com server. Not Mike's, not Anna's, not JC's....it's driving me nuts!

In other news, our trip was a blast. Friday we drove up and it was a really long drive...we got there about midnight! Then Saterday we went to Aunt Trish's and had a cookout, which was very fun. Got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in awhile and got to meet my cousin Cathy's new husband Andrew, who was a total blast. He looked amazing like Jason Garfield as well, and learned to juggling in about ten minutes....interesting. He told me he could live with the great juggler part, but he would just skip the total jerk part.

Then Sunday we went to church. It was a really nice church with some great music and neet people. Then the party was at 2:00 and went to 4:00. I didn't actually get to talk to Grandma Loria, but she seemed in good health, although she was worn to a frazzle by the end of the day.

And I'm getting off now. I know I should write more, but I don't feel like it. Farewell!

I am alive! Honestly, yes, I really am! ....Man, I haven't updated in a long time...actually, I have an excuse this time. JC was over! And I meant to update yesterday, but...well...I forgot. *sheepish grin*

Anyway, let me tell you about JC being here. We had a BLAST!!!!! We went bowling, to the mall (not that I like the mall that much, but we went to get ice cream, which I like very much) went to see a movie (K-19, it was pretty good) and just generally had a great time. JC and I stayed up several nights after we were supposed to be asleep and had some really good talks. I hadn't had a nice long talk like that with JC in forever...phone calls are good, but their are nowhere near as good as talking face to face. Last Sunday when we went to sunday school, our teacher wasn't there for some reason, nor was the rest of our class! I have no idea what happened to either, but JC and I went ahead and had our own Bible study anyway! :)

Mom has got our school year planned out now and it looks like it's going to be a very busy one for me. So much so that I've decided that I'm going to be taking a break from the RI at least until I graduate. I've actually been backing off some in the last few months anyway...it's really a totally differant RI than the one that I first came to. Not that the old one didn't have it's problems, but I kinda like it better back then. There's just so many people now it's hard to really get to know them all. Oh well. I figure I'll be coming back after I graduate...addictions tend to be like that! :)

Tomorrow morning we're heading off to Chicago for my great grandma's 105th birthday party, which should be fun. We're all packing right now (ok, so I'm not packing right now, but I will be soon!) and getting ready for the trip. If y'all could pray that the van holds up it would be great.

I am a rock....I'm just sitting here...calm...peaceful...tranquil. What? What's this? It's movement...vibrations! Stop the vibrations! They cut through me, like a knife!

I must destroy the thing that is causing the vibrations!!

Alright, sorry, sorry. Can you tell I've been watching some of the deleted scenes from Galaxy Quest? I found that whole thing to be very funny. If you don't know what I'm talking about, get the Galaxy Quest DVD and watch it: it's blast.

Anyway, I'm sitting here in front of the computer desk, and I'm not actually that upset by vibrations. Mom, Dad and BonnieJean are at a party some friends from church are holding and I've just finished getting the little guys to bed and am waiting for them to return home.

Not much all that interesting happened today, so I will tell you about yesterday instead. At about four o'clock BonnieJean and I left the house to run errand and go pick up Dad at the airport. His flight didn't actually arrive until 8:15, but we had to stop by the magic store that booked that show I was telling y'all about a few weeks ago and pick up my money (fun fun!) and they closed at six. And we had to stop by the library and didn't know what time they closed, so we just gave ourselves plenty of time to spare! Anyway, everything went fine until we decided to stop somewhere and get some fries and pop. So we head out in the general direction off the airport, planning on finding a Burger King or some such thing and stopping there. Well, in talking we ended up missing the signs for the airport and found ourselves in another town! So we stopped and ate there and then headed back toward Tulsa. Or thought we did. I swear, it looked like an entrance ramp! Only it lead to a dead end. And by now it's like 8:05. So we have to turn around and get on the highway the correct way this time and finally reach the airport (only five minutes late!). Anyway, Dad was there and everything turned out fine.

Man, that story sounds so much better when I tell it out loud than when I have to write it out. Oh well. Speaking of writing, I haven't been doing much of that lately, even though I need to. But I have worked some on the Timothian language, which has been fun. My only problem is the whatever you call them at the beginning and ends of words. So gaz is build. What about building? Built? Builder? I need to come up with some rules for those sorts of things. I guess I'll have to talk to Mom about it: I'm sure she would have an idea of what to do.

JC IS COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!

We watched a movie called "The Sting" this morning. Mom thought it was great, but I find it horribly boring and annoying. It was a character story: the only problem was, I hated all the characters! I couldn't care less which jerk won out in the end. Mom said she liked the mystery aspect of it, but the problem was that it was put together in such a way that you couldn't tell if it was a mystery or simply a poorly written and edited film.

I'm not sure if I've been in a bad mood all day or if everybody else has, but I've had real trouble getting along with people today. I even got really annoyed with BonnieJean, who is the person that annoys me the least. Guess it's probably me.

Why is it that you write "me" with a small m, but I with a capital?

And with that tough question I shall leave you.

Hello, hello, hello! Things are pretty nuts right now. Isaac is screaming his head off and everybody else is getting ready to go swimming.

Today has been somewhat interesting. I slept really late this morning because we stayed up way to late watching the movie Rocky....dumb movie. The first hour was highly boring and I hated all the characters (yes, all of them). Then at about 1 o'clock everybody except Mom left the house, 'cause she had some stuff with filing she needed to do and didn't want to be interupted. So we had lunch out and ran some errand and came home and now the other kids are swimming.

Let's see...I've been looking into some various film schools. The New York Film Acadamy and the LA Film School both sound good.

I don't know how long this blog will be: I don't have much time. Actually, I started to update several days again, and had written a good deal of stuff, but then David sent me a link on AIM and I clicked on it, thinking it would open in a new window. It didn't. So I lost all that. Man, that was really annoying! Oh well, you probably wouldn't have wanted to read it anyway: it was a big long depressing whine session.

I've been feeling kinda depressed lately. Several reason, which I will not go into now. I'm feeling good for once and don't want to start feeling ick again! The one thing I will tell you is that a couple of my teeth have been hurting me almost non-stop, which is not the best thing for your general mood.

Dad is in Denver right now doing training for his job. He'll be back next thursday...I think.

We watched Raiders of the Lost Ark a few days ago. Dumb, gross movie.

Goodness, it's been a whole week since I've updated! I ought to be ashamed of myself! But of course I'm not....

Well, the show on Thursday went very well. I got a call the day before telling me that they wanted me to wear a jesters hat. I did NOT want to wear one, so they said maybe I could just wear it for the first few minutes. When I got there I talked to the hostses though and she said I could just forget it. Thank God! I also bought some new balls just before the show: their very bright colors and have a good bounce, so I'm pretty happy with them.

Anyway, so we got to the hotel and met up with the guy who was going to be doing magic. His name was Jeff and he was pretty nice, although sometimes his conversation was pretty confusing. I then found the hostses and talked to her, found an empty corner and warmed up. I had just started working on doing a head roll with the knife earlier that day, and so worked on that some, and dropped almost every single time! Funny thing was that I never dropped while doing it in front of people.

So at 5:45 I started working the crouds. There's not really that much to tell about it: I used a new routine with three balls to get people attention. The idea was that one of my balls was misbehaving and I had to try and do the show anyway. It was pretty funny and went over well. After an hour I closed up and Dad and I drove home.

In other news, I've been looking into stuff for college. There's a couple of film schools in CA that I've been looking at and actually right now I'm looking at some other stuff. I know what your thinking. CA? What? I know. I don't want to go there either, but I might have to. Oh well.

I'll try to update more latter. I can't think of anything to write.

Afternoon folks! How are you today?

Why on earth am I asking you that? This is MY blogger! If I wanted to know about you, I'd go to your blogger! So don't you dare answer that question! Just kidding (not really).

Today has been a pretty good day. Dad and I got a stump out of the ground this morning and then I did a little painting on the chicken coop and we (Dad and I) talked some about how we're going to be putting the clothes line in. Then I came in and started reading a book I got at the library yesterday and was finally so bored with it that I just put it down and got out another book.

We're listening to the soundtrack from Fellowship of the Ring right now...Nazgul music. Man, that music is so cool!

I've been working on a new diabolo trick. It's kinda something I can already do. The basic idea is to do a double around the world suicide on the right side, but to have somebody from the croud holding the left handstick. If you didn't understand that, don't worry. I'm trying to make myself sound superior by not making sense. Just kidding (kinda!). But it actually will be a cool trick once I get it finished.

Man, I just realized I haven't told y'all about the juggling job I've got for next week! It's a co. banquet and I'm giong to be doing strolling for an hour. And I'm getting $150 for it! That's something like $2.50 a minute! Pretty cool, huh? I'm really looking forward to it!

And now about the street juggling we did. (from my board): On the fourth of July my Dad, brother and I headed over to Tulsa to do some street evangelism! It was a blast! We did about four shows, and then stopped, 'cause I had left my water bottle in the car and was getting horse (spelled wrong, I know.) The first show I started into the message right away, but on the other ones I juggled first, got people to watch and then did the message. It seemed to work alot better. I really enjoyed myself and can't wait to do it again!

Like I said, it was a blast. And I think I shall leave you with that! God bless!

Man, I haven't posted in way to long. I really should know better....I mean, I hate it when other people don't update their blogs...oh well. I'm updating now anyway!

I think Ezboard has put all their non-pay users on a really lousy host. It's taken me 16 minute to read three post! Really annoys me, but since I'm not paying, I can't really complain.

We watches a Sherlock Homles movie yesterday, The Speckled Band. Could have been done better, but it wasn't that bad either. Has anybody ever read The Valley of Fear? Man, that book is SO cool! Everybody raves about the Hound of the Basckivilles, and sure, it was a good book, but there's just no way it's going to beat The Valley of Fear!

Monday I woke up to find that one of my brackets had fallen off of my tooth! We went in on two days later and got it back on, but the Dr. said it might come off 'cause whenever I bight down get's hit. Well, sure enough it did, just yesterday, less than a full day after I got it fixed. Right now I'm enjoying rolling it around on the wire with my tounge! *g*

I think I shall close for now. I'll try and post about how the street juggling went next time. God bless!

Wow...I don't really know what to say here. Somebody on the RI has died. I didn't really know him very well...he actually didn't a whole lot, but his sister posted fairly often, and I even talked to him on AIM every once in a while. And now he's gone. Really hard to beleive.

I shall be off the computer for about a week or so, so I will be seeing y'all soon! In the meantime, I'd like to do a test. If you are reading this, please reply. All you have to say is "I read it". Just reply once. I'd like to know who all comes here. Thanks! See y'all later!

I'm writing this on Tuesday night, although I don't think I'll be able to post it until tomorrow morning, at least. Mom and BonnieJean have gone to the store and when the get back (hopefully soon!) they will have some chewy candy for me! YEA!!! I'm getting my braces on tomorrow morning, so I figured it wouldn't matter too much if I lost a spacer or two and that this was probably my last chance for the next two years to really chew on something! :) The dr. probably won't approve, but who cares!

Dad has been working on making a chicken coop (for the chickens, but you probably guessed that already). He's actually getting it up pretty fast. This morning Anna, Ethan and I put the first coat of primer on it and Naomi and Ethan put the second coat on this afternoon. Hopefully we'll have it ready by the end of the week.

Speaking of the chickens, the chicks are growing so fast it's hard to believe! They've gotten so they can fly out of the little box we've been keeping them in, so today we enclosed some of the chicken yard and put them in there. They seem pretty happy with it.

Friday we're going to be "bombing" our house. *g* That means we'll be putting off some bug bombs and leaving the house for a few hours. The fun that about that is that we get to spend some time at the library and then we'll all go see Ep. 2 again! Yea!

Speaking of which, I never posted my thoughts about it on here, did I? Maybe I did. But who cares. I feel like writing. *ahem*

While not nearly as good as Ep. 1, this movie was really good. The effects were amazing, the characters believable and the general story idea very good. What bothered me were the parts that didn't make any sense. How did Anakin get his arm out of that machine? How did he keep from loosing his arm in the process? Why is he able to start tearing the plant apart with a lightsaber and it keeps on working? Why is there no one to oversee things at the plant? Why did R2 knock 3PO off that drop off? Why did Padme wear that extravagant costume while pretending to be a refugee? How on earth does the way 3PO acts when he loses his head in this movie work with when he loses his head in Ep. 5? What happened to Obi-Wan that made him so totally unable to do anything, when all he had was two cuts on his leg? Then once the tense part of the scene was over, both he and Anakin just stand up and are fine! And I simply refuse to believe that they would have let those little kids have actual light sabers.

Some of the good points, however, are the fact that Anakin and Padme actually marry instead of sleeping together, Obi-wan was just generally great and it was very interesting to see the young Boba Fett. I really loved the scene in the dinner with the four armed guy. The battles were great. Yoda's fighting was very interesting. I also liked seeing the Jedi use the Force for the more ordinary jobs of life. I've always thought it didn't make sense that they didn't do that in the other movies. Anyway, I would recommend that you see it, esp. on the big screen. Just don't expect too much.

Poor Mom is getting sick I think. She was pretty much worthless today, and to top it off she got to hot. In case y'all don't know, Mom is VERY sensitive to the heat, ever since she had a heat stroke many years ago. Naomi came down sick Sunday and had to stay home from Church. I'm still feeling very drained: I'm going to be fasting tomorrow (figured I probably wouldn't want to eat anyway, with the braces just on) and if I'm not feeling better after that I'll have to go to the Dr.

Goodness...it's 10:40 and Mom still isn't home yet. Maybe I'll start my fast after breakfast tomorrow and eat my chewy stuff then. I really do need to get to bed. Guess I'll post this and then do just that. So good night and farewell!

Well, I don't have that much to say, but I thought it was about time that I posted something new here, huh?

Life continues at it's break neck pace and yet I feel as though there is nothing to write about. Isn't that strange? I can do stuff all day and hardly have a spare minute and yet when I write about it, it comes out all in one sentence. "I did school work and chores today."

Ok, so I've got a little bit to write about. One thing is that we saw the movie "you've got mail". It was...ok. The basic story idea was pretty good, but I didn't like most of the characters. But after seeing this movie I can see why people like Tom Hanks. In the all the other movies I've seen him in (Apollo 13 and Saving private Ryan) he always looks like he's about to cry, no matter what the situation. I loved the scene were he is trying to come up with an excuse for not showing up and keeps looking at his dog, trying to find inspiration. VERY funny. But otherwise it wasn't all that great.

The other kids went swimming today but I stayed home to do biology. We have an experiment we're doing tomorrow and I had to catch up on the reading. I've been trying to study for a biology test that I should have taken before Knoxville, but was too sick to do. I still haven't taken it, but I'm hoping to tomorrow.

Also saw ET. I'd seen it a long time ago when I was a kid (was?) and didn't like it much then. I still don't like it much. ET is the dumbest looking thing you could have possibly come up with and all the human characters are a bunch of jerks. That and I don't like the whole dark-with-lights-messing-up-the-shot style the movie is done in.

Oh, and I would like to say

HELLO GRANDMA!

*grins* Hey, like I said earlier, I think everybody out to have the chance to see their name written in huge letters on some bodies blogger.

In other news, I am tired. No, not as in tired right now (even though I am tired right now). I have been tired since we got back from Knoxville. I can't seem to get any energy. Mom was telling Dad just the other day, "It used to be, when you had to find Samuel, he was juggling, or fencing, or reading or something. Now, he's in his bed, asleep." It's true. I find myself just laying in bed, not even reading, just laying there. I can hardly get up in the morning. If I'm still like this by next week I plan on asking Mom if I can go to the Dr. Anyway, please pray for me.

I've been wondering lately about something said in The Hobbit. When Thorin and Co. and Gandalf are stuck in the trees about to be burned to death, it says that Gandalf was about to throw himself down at the goblins and take as many of them with him as he could. But I find it somewhat hard to believe that Gandalf the Gray could have been killed by a mere handful of goblins and wargs. Of course, we don't ever really see Gandalf the Gray fight, it's only when he is the White that he fights when we can see him. But still, I wonder, was Gandalf really about to die, or was that just what Bilbo thought? What do you think?

BTW, yes, Melissa, I know my spelling leaves something to be desired. But I'm working on it!

Good morning people!

Did I ever tell y'all about Trevor? He's Ethan's Sunday School teachers kid and he has gotten into juggling lately. He's actually progressing really fast. He's been working on body throws and has behind the back and under the leg under petty good control. I lent him some juggling clubs and a movie with some really good juggling stuff on it, so I'm excited to see where he goes with it.

I got to talk to JC yesterday! Ok, so maybe that's not THAT big of a deal, but I haven't talked to him forever! He's doing fine it would seem, but the REALLY big news is HE'S COMING TO OUR HOUSE IN AUG.!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I entered the poam below and one of my short stories (The Son of God, if you know which one that is) and an essay on why I don't date in the library writing contest. I had been trying to write a short play as well, but it stunck to high heaven when I finished it, so I didn't enter that.

And now I'm going to get off. Farewell!

Here's something interesting I wrote. What do you think?


Of Baranck and His Fall Before the Gates of Nangarath

Twas wintertime in Baladsdare; the lake was frozen hard,
And in the town of Nangarath the gates were heavily barred.
The siege had stood for three long years and many a battle was fought
Yet still those gates stood tall and strong, though oft their fall was sought.
Beyond those gates there was a field, once fair as you could ask
But now was horrible to behold, since the enemy had set about his task.
For there they left their dead to lay, and in time they did rot,
And to a grave, with song or prayer, none were ever brought.
No badge or banner did they have, nor battle cry to shout.
None was needed to tell those who looked, what land they had been about.
With hollow eyes and faces dull and no cry when they felt pain
From a place of death did they come, the land of Brilliance was its name.
Twas on a fateful afternoon that Razdor did arrive.
A foul creature of the dead lands, just hatched from his hive.
Clad in mail from horn to hoof and wielding a great mace
He bellowed and charged the gates as though running a great race.
Yet a gleam of hope there is, as a warrior steps outside the gates
The monster looks at him in surprise and slightly checks his pace.
King Baranck it is, the last king of the Second Realm
Quick as a dear, cunning as a snake and with the strength of an elm.
He lifts his sword and gives a cry, and laughs at the mighty beast
Saying he had best return, or be made into a feast.
Slowly then, Razdor approaches, his mace held in the air
And brings the mace down at the man, hoping his bones to lay bare.
Yet the warrior is quick, and jumps to the side
With a swing of his sword, the wrist of the monster finds a blade inside.
Yet the hope was cheated, and the triumphant cry snatched away
For with a mighty kick the Kings back was broke, or so the stories say.
So the gates of Nangarath did fall and the Second Kingdom failed
Yet some escaped and left that place, those who freedom still hailed.
And one has said, though he is now dead
That from the South a hope shall come and no longer must people know dread.

Ouch.

I got spacers in yesterday in preperation for the braces I'm getting in two weeks and they hurt. I couldn't even eat a peanut butter and jelly (not grape jelly!) sandwhich for lunch! So I'm not feeling all that good....

In other news, I finished that play I've been working on. I don't like it all that much, but since the deadline is tomorrow, I guess I'll enter it anyway. I'm also going to be entering "The son of God" story I wrote two years ago and I started work on a poem I just might finish and enter. *shrugs* who knows. Or maybe I'll work on a short essey and enter that.

I can't think of anything else to write. I've written too much today.

Wow.

That's probably the best way to describe Knoxville. All the people, all the info., all the speakers, all the insights into Scripture...it just defies description. But I'll try.

Monday morning we got up at 4:30 and Ethan and I made breakfast for everyone (egg and toast sandwhichs...yum!!). We hugged Mom and Naomi goodbye (they were the only two up) and headed out at 5:30. We had planned on leaving at 5:00, but I was supprised we got away before 6:00 or 6:30, knowing how Dad is about leaving. There's not all that much to tell about the trip: we drove, and drove, and drove and finally got to Nashville sometime around 6:00 or so. We had supper, showerd, called Mom and went to bed. Next morning we got up at around 5:30 (or something like that) and packed, ate breakfast and left again. It was a short drive to Knoxville (two or three hours) and we got there sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.

Ok, it's probably time for a new paragraph. Once we got to the dorm, we checked in and brought our stuff up to the rooms. We had two rooms with a bathroom connecting them. Each room had two beds, and we had a roll-away for Ethan. The rooms were pretty small, but we spent such a small amount of time there it didn't really bother us. We called Brian's cell phone and found out that he was wondering Knoxville, lost. We had arranged to meet at a park near our dorm, but he couldn't find it. So Dad managed to direct him to us and Anna, Ethan and I went down to meet him. Ethan and I did some juggling, figuring that it would make us more visible. It was also a good chance to show off! :) So Brian pulls up in his Firebird, blaring heavy metal music, smoking something that gave off green and yellow smoke and sporting a skull and cross bones tatto on his bare chest.

Ok, so I made that last part up.

So Brian pulls up and we try to find him a parking place. HA! Those of you who have been to the ATI conferance probably understand how hard that was. Finally we had him park in a "staff only" parking place and hoped he didn't get shot. We went up to the dorms and found out that we had missed BonnieJean while going up on the elevators! So we introcuded Brian to Dad, who didn't seemed too shocked by the look of our crazy internet friend. After BonnieJean came back, we went down stairs, parked Brian's car in a legal parking place and went off to get registered for the conferance.

That was pretty funny. Brian had never even heard about ATI until a few weeks ago, when some people on the RI started talking about it. And when he first came out to meet us he was thinking it was going to be something like a couple hundered people there. So seeing all those people in navy and white and then being told that there were going to be several thousand there really supprised him. We could barely manage to talk to him, he was so busy staring at all the people!

After that, we decided to find a place to eat.

HA! Yea right. It sounds so simple in type. Just go find a place to eat. Well, let me tell you, Knoxville was built to keep people from eating. As we drove around, hungry people begged us to stop and give them food. I even saw the bodies of ATI'ers who had died of starvation during previous conferances. We drove around for half an hour (I'm not making that part up!) before findally finding a Burger King. YES! I was pretty happy about that, because that's what I had wanted all along, while Ethan kept up a constance "Taco Bell, Taco Bell, Taco Bell!" chant in an attempt to affect Dad's choice. So we go into the Burger King and ordered our food. And I'll be you can't guess who was there in the Burger King.

It was the Tall, Broad Shouldered Girl. Maybe you don't know who she is. Well, to tell you the truth, neither do I! I don't even have any idea what her name is, but I swear she has been following me ever since I was in Flint. Honestly, she has been at EVERY SINGLE ATI funtion I've been at since Life Focus. No, I am not making that up. She has been at every one! BonnieJean worked with her while in OKC, and said she was nice, but I just wonder if she has some sort of sinister motive. Why? Because it makes a much better story if she does.

Anyway, where was I, and how did I get here from there? Ah, yes, Burger King. We ordered our food (I got a chicken sandwhich...man, those things are soooo good!) and sat down and talked. Mostly about Tolkien stuff at first. I found out that Brian really likes the story of Turin. Anna just about died when she heard that, because she HATES!!!!! the story of Turin. Personally, I hate Turin, but the story is somewhat interesting. I really like the part at the end where Turin kills himself. Yea, I know that sounds horrible, but Turin deserved it times ten.

So, we talked about horrible things like that and ate our food. Then we took pictures. (see below) Then we took Anna to her first session. The conferance hadn't really started yet, but since Anna was going to be helping with COMMIT she had to go to a kinda "this is what we'll be doing, and this is what you should do" type session. Meanwhile, we dropped Brian off at his car, said goodbye and parted ways.

Hereist we have Brian and Anna and myself.

This is Anna and Brian.

Samuel and Brian.

And all of us, minus Dad, who was taking the picture.

We then sat around in our dorm room and picked our noses and wondered what we should do until it was time to go pick up Anna. I think something interesting happened then, but I can't remember what, so I'll just skip ahead to the first session.

I got to see Kalen! Yes! That was really fun, because I hadn't seen him since Focus, and since he got back from Focus phase 2 (which I didn't go to) I hadn't had much of a chance to talk to him. I actually didn't really get to talk to him much until the next day, but it was fun seeing him anyway.

The next day we all had breakfast and then Dad and Ethan headed off while BonnieJean and I drove Anna to COMMIT. We then went back to the dorms and did various things because our sessions didn't start until 9:00. BonnieJean did the Christ Centered Business track and I was in the Law and Gov. Policy track. I LOVED the Law and Gov. track! I wish I had time to write about all the stuff we did and the speakers we had, but I can't. I got to sit with Kalen most of the time, which was an added plus.

Then, that night, after all the sessions, I went outside and started juggling. A couple guys asked if I could show them some stuff, so I did a Christian routine. They liked it, so I did another. I ended up doing about a twenty minute show and had at least 50 people by the time I was done. After I finished, a little kid came up to me and asked me if I could do some more for him, since he had missed most of the show. I told him I had to get to bed (it was 9:00) but that I would do a show the next time. So I did. Anna counted and I had at least 70 people this time! I did it again on Friday night and had even more people! I'm not sure how many, but it was alot. That was really fun!

Maybe I'll be able to post more about the sessions and such latter. I need to get off now. God bless and bye!

I'm just posting to say hi and we made it back safe and bye!

'ello, 'ello, 'ello! This blog will probably be pretty short: I'm just posting to say that we'll be heading out for Knoxville early tomorrow morning. I'm very excited! Oh, and Dad finally decided to rent a mini-van for the trip. He got to working on the car on Saturday and just decided that there was too much to be done in too little time. For one thing the AC doesn't work, and that really could have been horrible in the heat. And we're going to have a ton more room, which will making packing much easier. And so we can pack clothes for each day and won't have to do laundery! Man...I really need to learn to spell...

Not much else to say for now. I'm really looking forward to going. And meeting up with Brian. So I guess I'll close this blog and see you sometime next week!

I am tired. Very tired. I think I'm fighting getting sick too. Last night I stayed up until 12:30 working on the van, which wasn't fun, but

WE GOT THE VAN FIXED!!!

Yes, yes, yes! Dad drove it to work today,and as far as I know it hasn't caused any problems yet. So Mom will have a car when we go to Knoxville (we're leaving Monday! Ahh,so soon!).

Our library is having a writing contest and I'm trying to write a play to enter. It's interesting. It's a comedy about a couple actors and a playwrite. One is very high strung (like my brother Isaac), the other, dude, he's like...you know...dude. And the playwrite is an emotionall unstable "artsty" person. Maybe I'll post it when I'm done.

Math is driving me nuts. Two days ago I tried doing and simply couldn't do it. My brain just wouldn't work. Then yesterday I got 3/4 of the problems wrong. I think I'm going to die. And I've got to get off too, so good bye! God bless!

Good afternoon...if it is a good afternoon. I'm feeling sick. I got almost no school done. I have to do my biology test on Friday and I can't even think enough to study for it. I'm amazed I can think enough to stare at the computer screen.

But, in spite of all that, I had a BLAST at my party yesterday. Tim and Amy and Amy's mom came at about 11:30 and didn't leave until 6:30! We juggled, and talked and ate (and ate and ate...) and even put on a little juggling show. It was the first time I'd seen any of their show, so I really enjoyed it. The best part was when Tim juggled Caleb (three years old). He had two balls in one hand and Caleb in the other. He almost started and then decided he should practice yet, so he got out a baby doll and juggled it, finishing with throwing the doll high, spinning around and not catching it. He then kicks the doll out of the way and declares he is ready for Caleb. Mom was freaking out. He threw the two balls up, switched Caleb from one arm to the other, caught the balls, flashed them again, switched....etc. It was really good and Caleb loved it. They also passed six clubs with Dad in the middle, which was very funny...for us anyway! I don't know if Dad liked it that much.

Then I did several of my Christian routines and probably had one of my best performances ever. I got almost every trick on the first try. I even did one routine were I was supposed to drop on the first try and ended up catching it! :)

It looks like we're not going to get to see Ep.2 until after Knoxville...that was a real bummer. But I guess we'll live. Dad actually said that once we got the van fixed that Mom could take ALL of us kids (even Caleb!) to see it! That should be a blast: I think Caleb will probably be going nuts, yelling things like "BEN JEDI!! BEN JEDI!!!!" and such.

I got my cavities filled this morning. It was actually pretty quick, I just didn't like having my mouth be totally dead for several hours afterwards. It's fine now though, so I guess I'll live. I hope I'll live...

Hello, hello! I know, I haven't blogged in awhile. But it's not my fault this time! Don't look at me like that, honest, it's not! Caleb spilled some coke on the keyboard and killed it, so we have been without a keyboard. But this new one has got all sorts of hotkeys and such on it, so I don't mind too much. It actually came with a CD that we had to install to run it! That was nice though because we got Windows Media Player with it. Friday night we had a fun time playing the LOTR soundtrack and looking at the different visualizations they had!

The van is not working right now. As it has been for the past week almost! Dad is having a horrible time getting the fuel pump to work. I spent most of Friday (Dad has every other Friday off) working with him on it. It was miserable. I soaked my pants with gas twice, and got an awful headache. Half the time was spent under the van laying on the pavement! And to top it off, I couldn't really complain, because Dad was going through the same thing. And it had to be done, so I couldn't really ask to be let free! I managed to survive it (barely!) though.

Oh, which reminds me of what I did on Thursday night. We were trying to get a siphon to the fuel pump with a little pump that Dad had gotten at Wall-Mart. We were both under the van, Dad was pumping and I was holding the hose into the big pickle jar we were using to catch the gas in (don't worry, it didn't have any pickles in it!). Well, I got to looking at something else and didn't notice that I had ended up pointing the hose right at Dad! He gave a mighty pump and got it full in the face! He had his glasses on,and wasn't breathing in at the moment, so it wasn't too bad, but I sure felt awful about it! He took it well though and things went fine. I just hope he doesn't decide to get even one of these days and spray me! :)

BonnieJean has been working on her application for the Paralegal program alot lately. She's done 6 of the 8 essay questions. She says their pretty good question, although I think a couple are kinda dumb. "Describe how your beliefs are consistent with the statement of faith." Describe? It either is or isn't! ;) She will be taking the English CLEP in the next week or so, which she needs to have for the program (she needs a score of 55 or higher). Next week she has to write an essay for the application as well.

Let's see, my walk with God has been interesting lately. Much as I hate to admit it, I am not the most regular with my Bible reading. But in the past several weeks I've been making sure to read at least 5 chapters everyday. I'm trying to read through the Bible. It's been kinda a test of if I am willing to work on my relationship with God. Will I read my five chapters today? I would rather do my history and I've REALLY got to make sure to do my biology...but will I read it anyway? And the next day? And the next? Through Leviticus? Numbers? I've only missed one day so far though, so things are really going good. I was reading in Ex. not long ago, and something really stood out to me. After they left Egypt and went into the wilderness, the people got thirsty. So the complained, and then Mosses asked God what to do and he gave then water. And the same story with food. And later, with water. And again later. And again. And again. Several times Moses tries to make them see that they should be going to God when they have needs, yet they never do. I wonder what God would have done if they had turned to him instead of murmuring against Moses. Oh, that reminds me of something. Remember when Lot was leaving his home and the angles told him to fly to the mountains? He didn't want to, so he asked them if he could go to a small town near by. They said he could and so he did. You know what the name of that city meant? Leanness. It's interesting that God will often give us what we want when we insist on it, yet it's never as good. And guess were Lot ended up before long. The mountains. Lot makes an really interesting study. He was what we would call a carnal Christian. You can see through his life how he always ended up in trouble somehow. He was saved, sure, but he didn't let God be the Lord of his life and he paid the price for it his whole life. \

I'm really cramming so I can graduate next May. I've fallen kinda far behind and am paying for it now. I'm pretty certain I can have it all done in time though. The only thing that really worries me is math. I'm going on at a pretty good pace right now, but I don't know if I'm going to have to slow down. I hope to get two more math books done this year. I figure I should be able to get one book done in 4 months. I've got about twenty school days per month, and with two lessons a day (which I can manage without much trouble) I should get 40 lessons done a month. With about 140 lessons in a book, that should take me three and a half months. So if I make sure I get it done every day I can do it.

Don't you hate that when your writing someone and you know you've just got a million things to tell them, and not a single one of them will come out of the dark deep caverns of your mind? Their hiding back in there somewhere, but you don't dare actually go in there and look for them because there's this huge beast called Confusion and Disorder in there and it just might eat you! So you have to sit outside the cavern and wait for a thought to peek it's head out of the door and you try to grab it, and sometimes it even bites your hand. And then the sun goes down and you get tired and go to sleep and all those thoughts come and dance around you, and if you wake up you're too sleepy to grab them, and they sing songs about how stupid you are. I just hate that.

Saturday morning we got some chickens! Some friends of ours were getting rid of some of theirs, so we took them. We have 13: a roster and 12 hens. We're hoping that the foxes don't get them: there are alot around here. We will be getting the chicken coop as soon as we can get the van working, so we can get it out of the driveway into the back yard!

Church was pretty good today. I'm not going to the College and Career Sunday school class anymore. They didn't want anybody who hadn't graduated in the class, so I went to the adult class for awhile, but their teacher is REALLY boring. He always talks about the same thing. So now I'm going to the high school boys class. I hadn't been able to get to know anybody in the adult class (it was weird, even people who would normally talk to me acted like I didn't exist while in that class), I figured I'd rather have a good teacher and no fellowship than a boring teacher and no fellowship. I'm really starting to wonder if this church is really were God wants us. I know I wouldn't mind if we left it. There's only one other guy in my class who seems even remotely interested in Spiritual things. It really is annoying. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to servive...and if I don't, oh well. Such is life (dieing? Life? But if you're dead, then your not alive...but dieing is a part of life...now I'm really confused!)

Ok, here's an interesting question. Look at the last sentance above. It's all one sentance, but there are three inside the (). So, do I put a period after the ), or do I not because I've got that ! in there?

Christina, go ahead and post! We won't eat you....right away.

Oh, btw, let's all keep Mike in our prayers, he's heading off to WA DC today.

I am feeling great! Why am I feeling great? I don't really know. That's actually a question that David just asked me over AIM and I still haven't figured it out. But who cares why I'm happy? I am! And that's great! :)

I'm really getting excited about Knoxville. We will be meeting up with Brian on the 4th (YES!!) and spending some of the afternoon with him. That should be real fun.

I am having an interesting talk with somebody on AIM. They m'd me and asked what I thought of Abe Lincoln and so I told him/her I didn't like him. And now he/she thinks I hate all northerners. Strange.

MIKE, WE LOVE YOU!

What was that? I just thought Mike needed that. And it is kinda fun to look at a blog one day and see your name written in big blue letters, don't you think?

And now I shall leave you. That's right, it's yet another empty post. I'm doing lots of this lately. Ok, next time I get on, I promise I'll have something to say!

Hello, long time no blog!

I have gotten next to nothing done today. And yet, strangly, I'm not feeling as down as I normally do. I did a lesson on the Industrial Revolution this morning, which was fun. Naomi and Mom kept on interupting me, but other than that it went ok. I got my biology done and my math and Spanish, and that's about it! I still have to do some of the work sheets for wisdom booklet, but that doesn't bother me too much, 'cause I can probably do those next Sunday. Actually, I was going to do them yesterday, but I took a nap instead!

Dad is working on the car still. He's trying to get the fuel injection system working and it's really driving him nuts. We were trying to prime the fuel pump (or something like that!) yesterday evening and our pump thingy didn't work. So right now we are without the van and Dad has the car with him (he seemed to think he needed to go to work today). I hope he gets it fixed pretty soon, 'cause we would REALLY like to go see Ep. 2, but without a car we can't, and I very seriously doubt that Dad would let us go in the evening after he's home from work.

Dude, I'm going to be 17 on Thursday. Can you beleive that? I can't. Wow, 17? As in one ten and seven ones? That's not right...that means it's only one year 'til I'm 18 (one ten and 8 ones)! That just can't be!

I haven't blogged in four days. I honestly ought to have something to say here. I should be bubbling over with things to tell you. But I'm not. I'm tired I guess. I slept awful last night, maybe that's why.

God bless!

Hello, hello, my dear fans! Today is a very imporant day in the life of all Samuel-fans. Why? Because, once again, I have lowered myself to your level and am posting a blog for you to study. Use this gift well! Study it! Learn it! Think about it! Talk about it! It is not every day that mere mortals get something like this. It's a little bit more like every two or three days.

Today has seemed in one sense very long and in another very short. I don't feel like I got enough school work done. I still have to do some history review, study more for the my biology test tomorrow, work on memorizing the presidents, the capitals of the states, Matt. 5, read some in the book Mom wants me to read and lots of other stuff that I can't remember right now and it's already 5:18! I'm going to die! Oh well, I guess I should have realised that a long time ago. *note: in case you haven't learned this yet, you will die one of these days, unless Christ returns. That's why I called you a "mortal" above. Why am I putting this note in here? It's just distracting you from the main topic of this paragraph!* On the brighter side, I got my history done and my math (all correct!) and some of my biology and some of my Spanish and finished my wisdom booklet and got my Bible reading done. I also got to read some of the Two Towers this morning, which was lots of fun, because it's been lost for a long time. Still is actually, Mom had to buy a new copy yesterday.

As I was reading, I got to wondering about why Gimli tired before the other two did. As Aragorn said, Saruaman was putting out a spell to slow them down. But Dwarves were made with this very type of thing in mind. Even the dwarf rings didn't bring them under the will of Sauron. So why did it effect Gimli the most? Or did it? Was he simply the lest hardy of the three? But I find that somewhat hard to beleive. Legolas, yea, I think he was probably hardier, but Aragorn? It's possible, but I still think that a dwarf in his prime like Gimli would give a man, even a Ranger a good run for his money.

Well, I have to get off now. God bless y'all!

I haven't posted here in *checks* 4 days! Wow, that's way too long! Actually, I tried to post yesterday, but it wouldn't let me. I loaded it, and then it had an error. So I tried refresh, and it had an error. Then I tried blogger.com and it loaded after a long wait. Then I tried signing in and it had an error. So I tried again and it had an error.

Caleb just did something that should be done in the restroom in a room that is not the restroom, so I had to clean him up. Ick. He is laying on his bed now, because he knew what he was doing was wrong too.

I've figured out what it is that Brian does on his blogger to make it look like he's actually posting alot. Most of us have bloggers that take up most of the page. Like mine has that little table on the right *points to the right* and the rest is blog. Well, Brian has got only about one third (if that) of the page as blog. The rest is blank space. He's CHEATING!!!! Yes, that is right, and we thought he was just such a nice guy. *shakes head* Hey, speaking of Brian, WE WILL PROBABLY GET TO MEET HIM NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's right, we're going to Knoxville! Dad finally decided on Sunday. It will be Dad, BonnieJean, Anna, Ethan and myself. I am SOO excited! I've never had the chance to go, and have always wanted to.

Let's see...what else. Oh, we might be going to New Mexico to do a VBS for some friends and their church over there. That would be really fun. We might come up with our own stuff for it, or maybe use some CI stuff. Personally, I'd like to make our own. I thought it might cool to do the spiritual armour or the fruits of the spirit or maybe the creation week.

BonnieJean was reading to Joshua today and I was listening some. One thing that stood out was the comment about the Old Forest attacting the hedge near Buckland. And I got to wondering: did Old Man Willow have the other trees under a spell, like he used on the hobbits? Or were they all bad? And if so, what happened to the good ones? Remember, Fangorn used to be part of the same forest and it still has some good trees. Could the bad trees have actually killed the good ones?

And on that happy note I will leave you.