Vevystefana's Xanga

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:26:30 GMT

Hmm...I don't know why but I feel like posting about books. :)

I was doing quick rate on my flixter application on Facebook, and one of the movies that came up was the Secret Garden. I was amazed, I haven't thought of that book in years. As I thoght about it I remembered the plot and hat I used to quite love the story. :) When I was young I would lie in bed reading until late late late....like 10:00!!! The flights of fancy my imagination would take were magnificent. The secret garden was one of my favorites, a young girl (like myself) is brought from her home to a place utterly foreign to her. (That it was an english manor made it all the more appealing and probably foreign to me) An austere uncle and strange housekeeper make her plight magnificently dreadful, and drew my empathy. The poor thing must live there coping with with the oddness. That she is not perfect caused me to like her more. Then I loved the maid who became her friend, the maid who was an older daughter of a large family, with an adorable brother, Colin, who is a friend of wild things. Add to all these wonderful elements a mysterious moaning in the night and an invalid cousin, and the story's magnificence grows. As we get to know the cousin, we hate him and love him in turn. And then, the Secret Garden itself is discovered. What more magical mysterious place can there be than a highly walled garden to which no one holds the key, and everyone has forgotten the door. Inside there must be beautiful exotic plants, and perhaps a fairy land. When Mary finally enters the garden it is not like we thought, but through love and care and hard work, it blossoms. And in the end, the invalid cousin walks, the austere uncle becomes happy, and we are happy, because the friends we have made in the book are happy.

I love my books. and happy memories.

Late night waxings

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:43:59 GMT

I'm at home for a few days, and in sitting up late with my parents around our table, the subject of Phrenology came up. If you don't know what that is, it's a rather interesting thing to study up on. It's based in Eugenics, and if you've taken Foundations of Science, you'll know what that is. :D

Anyway...I was explaining Phrenology to my mom, and I pulled out this old book we own in order to illustrate my point. The book is called Hill's Album of Biography and Art. Copyright 1881 at the earliest and the latest printing at the time 1888. Within we've discovered a newspaper clipping bearing the story of "Jack" Cooke, the Famous boy preacher. I looked him up tonight and the very few things I could find were NY Times articles mentioning him as being 15 in 1901, the clipping I have says he's 13, thus, I have in my possession a piece of newspaper from 1899. That makes me feel rather special. The book's title page reads thus,

"Hill's Album of Biography and Art: containing Portraits and Pen-Sketches of Many Persons who have been and are prominent ad Religionists, Military Heroes, Inventors, Financiers, Scientists, Explorers, Writers, Physicians, Actors, Lawyers, Musicians, Artists, Poets, Sovereigns, Humorists, Orators, and Statesmen: Together with chapters relating to History, Science, and Important Work in which prominent people have been engaged at various periods of time."

In the book I have found many fascinating things in addition to the above, there are also descriptions of many various domestic creatures, such as pigeons, chickens, and rabbits.

This book for me is a link to some many people in History, my predecessors, and when I open it and begin to read I am transported to far gone days of an excitement at new discoveries, I feel like Vesper Holly coming upon an ancient Aztec Treasure, or a miner, as Eureka I shout on turning a page and discovering a new variety of pigeon.

I love old books and remember with fond memories my large collection of Henty books from when I was young, many of which were first edition printings inscribed with declarations of ownership such as this "Steal not this book for fear of strife, the owner carries a big jack-knife." That one always makes me laugh, I believe it was a gift to a Jack in the early 1990's. I wonder who he was, I'm sure he was an interesting boy, to be reading Henty and carrying a Jack-knife. I wonder if he was a typical Henty boy, running off to the Pampas or the battlefields in India for do or die adventures, in which he rescued the captain's daughter, fell in love, found Christ, inherited a fortune, and was married on the last page of the book, before living happily ever after. Perchance he backpacked around "the continent" on a grand tour after leaving University and starting a career. Perchance he had a beautiful young sweetheart who waited for him, but in her innocence and saintliness died of consumption or brain fever. He kept a lock of her hair close to his heart, never to let it part from him. And he planted red roses on her grave and they climbed a trellis he mounted there. And her headstone bore a line from a Byron poem, "a mind at peace with all below, a heart whose love was innocent." I'd like to find her grave someday.

I was reading Dickinson today and found that she wrote a poem that sums up much of what I feel on the topic...

A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:00:40 GMT

Hmmm ok...8 random things about me. Shouldn't be too hard...I'm a rather random one...

1. I love Fire escapes

2. I've never been on a fire escape

3. I love eating corn bread in a glass of milk

4. I have sprained the arch of my foot

5. I often break the flow of a conversation with a random fact that I've just observed

6. I like to sleep with my face cold but the rest of me warm and cozy.

7. Things that I see often end up becoming murder mystery plots in my head.

8. People think I'm shy, but I'm so not.

The rules
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they are tagged, and to read your blog.

I tag: Sarah, Steven and Val.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:57:18 GMT

So, today I followed a photomanipulation tutorial for making people look kinad like Anime Characters...:D
Here's my results:

From This:

To This:

Kinda interesting anyway. :D and it was fun to do. ;d

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:28:03 GMT

Gasp, yes, she had to update. ;D

College is amazing, but crazy crazy crazy. :D

Right now I feel rather inundated with Descarte and Galileo and Kepler and Brahe...studying for Foundations of Science and Philosophy class will do that for you. I have a long road to walk before sleep can come tonight. Late night choir practice, math homework, and Boyd's OT class figure in there somewhere along with finishing Leviticus. :D

Sometimes I find myself wishing that the church would have declared all the above people heretics and done away with them BEFORE they had the chance to think up things and preserve them for posterity.

Oy...I'm sleepy sleepy sleepy. :D
But I love all of you and I love the world and I love God and elf puppies.
Farewell for now...
Oh, and pray for me pleases. :D Pretty Pleases.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:45:09 GMT

Hey guys!

I've been asked for an update, and now this is it. :D

Well, I got a new laptop, it's a lovely HP Pavilion Entertainment PC. :D I am enjoying it a lot. :D

My volleyball team won one last Friday, and we were really happy about that! Tomorrow is our big tournament day, starting at 8 in the morning. :D

I had a great time at my church youth summer camp!

This was my last year and my favorite of the 4 of these camps that I attended.
I had some great opportunities to serve and stuff during camp. My friends Raphy, Niki, Dan, and I got to do special music, and that was awesome! We even recruited a bass player from another church. :D We played Draw Me Close To You.

Later on in the week I was able to share my testimony. I was really really nervous going in about doing it. I got up there and God helped me get through it. Afterwards, a staff family came up to me with their six year old son and shared with me that he (Hayden, the son) got saved after hearing my testimony! That really encouraged me! I started crying, because I was so overwhelmed that God used my testimony in his life to convict him! :D

I had a great time with the team competitions, the games were awesome this year! And my team was really fun. The guys on my team were very co-operative and kept us laughing all week. :D And then we won at the end. :D

Another thing that was great was having my family there with my dad as the speaker. :D

I've been GIMPing like crazy! I love GIMP soooooooooooooooo much!!!

Bye!!!

Monday, July 09, 2007

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:17:08 GMT

*peeks head in from around the corner*

Wow, Yes...it's an update!!! :D

I'm sorry everyone, but it's been amazing the things that have kept me from posting here!

I won't bore you with them however. :D

Volleyball has been going pretty good, we haven't won very many games, but I know God is teaching us through our losses, and as the whole thing is purposed to reach out to unbelievers and give us opportunities for witnessing, it's a huge sucess. I witnessed to a girl name Heather the other day, and she seemed somewhat interested. She's on my team, and I'd appreciate it if you would pray for her salvation!

I'm at my auntie's house in Rachel and Charis' town. :D It's nice here, and I'm pretty much here for 2 weeks, except for going back home for volleyball.

I'm going to be arriving at college on the 18 of August. I'm soooooooooooooo excited!! I'll be majoring in Electonic Media, and minoring in Music. It's going to be soooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!

Oh, and I passed my AP English Language and Composition Test!! :D Got a 3, I would have liked a higher score, but this finalizes the 18 credits that I have from AP tests!!! YAY!

Oh, and last but definitely not least, SUMMER CAMP is coming up in 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My dad's the speaker and so our whole family is going!!! Awesomeness!!!!

And I got a new camera with some of my graduation money!! It's a gray Kodak V1003. It's lovely. :D

Well, I love you guys!

Buh-bye!!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tue, 29 May 2007 20:36:17 GMT

Hello people! :)

~~I'm going to tell everyone a story~~

I changed my mind.

I hope you guys all know that you are my favorite people in the world, and when I die, you can have my xanga, and my GIMP. My best friend gets my baby brother, but my mom will probably contest my will on that point. I haven't decided who exactly is my best friend, more on that never. :D

I feeling very random today, because today is a very good and happy day. I'm going to see Rachie on Friday, although she doesn't know that yet, then I'm going to probably see her on Saturday and Sunday too. :D But she doesn't know that either.

I saw Pirates 3. :D It was pretty good. I really liked it. There were many funny parts. :D I liked the one Pirate Lord who looked like...arabian or something (maybe he sails the desert like Jack tries to do) because he talks funny. I also liked the part, "Mr. Gibbs, you may throw my hat if you like." "Thank you!" "Now go and get it." It was velly velly funny. ;D

Volleyball starts soon!!!! I'm so excited about all the witnessing opportunities and stuff!!!!

Well, I love you guys, but I love you more when you give me comments, so COMMENT!!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Wed, 23 May 2007 17:48:07 GMT

Well, sorry for being gone for a while on here guys! I've been sort of sick and quite busy. ;D

For starters, I babysat that family's kids all day Thursday and Monday, then Saturday night I babysat for someone else, then Tuesday morning I was in the nursery for Titus Twos-day, and now I finally have a free day. :D I'm babysitting again tomorrow morning and Friday Morning. :D People keep telling me that I must be destined to have a lot of kids. :D

Last Sunday afternoon I got to go to the Amusement park with my friends, and that was fun. The lines for the rides were really good then, except for when we tried to ride the Bumper cars, because they kept getting stuck and breaking down, and we had to wait so long for them to work. :P

As a Jane Austen fan I was quite thrilled when I heard that ITV ( a British TV channel) made a new Mansfield Park movie. I've heard that the other two versions are not very good, but I wanted to try this one, because Mansfield Park is my favorite Austen book. I was thrilled when I found that the movie in it's entirety, well except for about 2 minutes, can be watched on Youtube. So I watched it, and apart from being rather short (90 minutes) and thus not having the full character developement of the book, I thought it was a very good adaptation. I need to read Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. :D

I get to see Rachie-el H. in a few weeks. But she won't know that unless she reads my xanga. :D

And that last song on AI last night was so not fair to Blake. :( It was a perfect song for Jordan, but not god for Blake really. He sounded great on the first part of it, but he lost it in the middle a bit. :D

And the 24 season finale was interesting, I can't see Chloe as a Mom, but that will be a good plot point for the next season or the movie. :D Yes, they're making a 24 movie. :D One thing that was different about this season's end was that they didn't really set up for the next one too much, like, this could have been the end. The last three seasons have ended in a way that was really like continuing a story, but that storyline is kind of resolved now.

On Friday night I'm probably going to go see Pirates!!! YAYA!!! :D "Four of you have tried to kill me in the last few weeks. One of you succeeded." :D

Oh, and here is a movie that I filmed and edited for my brother. :D

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wed, 16 May 2007 22:08:56 GMT

Today is a momentous day.

I took the AP english Language and Composition examination this morning, and it felt as if I did well. The reason this day is so momentous, is that the end of the test, as I walked out of the room and called my mother to come and pick me up, marked the end of High School for me. Yes, today was the last day of High School that I shall ever have to do (until I am homeschooling my own children). I started this school year with Chemistry which I soon switched out for Physics. I also had Calculus, which I ended up understanding to some extent. :D I adored physics to the point of finishing it in half time because it was so fun. :D (Yes, I know I'm weird) I had economics which I completed mostly and then my dad let me stop so that I could focus on my other subjects. :D (B-O-R-I-N-G) I'll take it again in College. :D But anyway, I finished up most stuff by early march, and then I was able to focus on English and Scholarships. :D But now it's over, and I'm done. :D Next up is an amazing summer and Master's College in the Fall!!

There's a family in our church with three little kids, and their mom is pregnant with the fourth, it's supposed to be a little boy named Mikhail. The thing is, she has Crohn's Disease, so her pregnancies are really hard and she's been in the hospital for about a month and a half, I think she was going to be induced this week. I've been going over there on Thursdays to keep the three kids so that the dad (Yuri) can go to work. They have the kids taken care of on other days, but I'm going to be watching them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's fun being kind of a mom from 8-4. :D Please pray that the mom Kristi is able to recover quickly from having the baby and be able to come home and be with her babies.

And sorry, but here's another Blake Video. :D