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.