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!