Défilé de Mode

Bonjour, guess who hosted a French fashion show today?

Well, I guess it wasn't a legit fashion show; it was for class and the literal translation is a parade of fashion.

But it was in French, and I and a classmate dressed up another classmate to be our model, and we talked about the outfit she was wearing.

In French.

Well, we talked in French. I don't know if the outfit was necessarily a French style thing or not. o_O

But we did have French music in the background. The beat was nothing I'd listen to for fun, but it served its purpose for our assignment and everyone else seemed to like it. I'm just weird that way.

Nous avons parlé à un sac à main et une jupe grise et des gants violet.

Je vais parler en français jusqu'à la fin du post. J'honore mon défilé de mode aujourd'hui. Elle est une bonne chose, n'est pas?

Bon, au revior! Bonne journée et bon week-end! =D

Free Books

My Kindle currently has about 75 free books on it that I have yet to read.

Who knows when I got some of them; probably months ago. I don't know why I read some of the free books I get but then just leave the rest sitting there unread.

But yesterday, I decided that's not going to happen anymore.

I am going to read at least a few pages into each book. By the time I reach page three or four, I can usually tell if there's going to be a lot of gore and/or profanity in the rest of the book. If there is, I slap the book into my "Unfinished" collection.

If there's not, I read on and try to see if the plotline is something I'm interested in and if the author's voice is one I want to hear in my head for however many hours it'll take to read the entire book.

This generally takes me at least two, usually three, chapters into the book. If by chapter five I'm still reading, it's a pretty safe bet I'm going to follow the book through to the end.

I've read quite a few awesome books this way. One of my favorites that I can remember getting for free is "Talon's Test and the Shield of Faith." This book is the first in a trilogy, so fortunately I'll get to read more. Unfortunately, the other books have not come out yet.

I feel like I maybe mentioned "The Journey" by Laura Long in this blog before. That was another free book that was totally amazing, also the first in a trilogy. Fortunately, the other books have come out. Unfortunately, I bought and read the second book and didn't like it enough to buy the third.

Anyways. That list of several dozen unread free books on my Kindle should be dwindling eventually, unless I get more free books faster than I can read the ones I have. Wish me luck!

Higher, Higher, Lift Jesus Higher

Want to know one of my dad's favorite songs?

"Higher, Higher, Lift Jesus Higher."

I think the first time anyone in our family had heard the song was back when we lived in Iowa. A man would preach for us on Sundays because we were at the time lacking a pastor, and he had a big family. That family, I believe, introduced us to "Lift Jesus Higher."

I remember when we moved to South Carolina, we didn't really hear that song again, at least for a while. Then the Sunday school went up and sang it as a special.

I found out later that that very same morning, Daddy had been flipping through the songbook, looking for the lyrics to that song.

They're really great. Want me to link you to them? I'd show them here, but I think I'd reach my general post length before I'm done.

Besides, my professor says linking is good for advertising, somehow. Not completely sure how, but I'm going to trust her.

Have a great day, lift Jesus higher, stomp Satan lower, and cast your burdens unto Jesus! =D

Interviewing

Yesterday I interviewed people for one of my classes.

I'm not altogether sure how it went...

I mean, they clearly provided me with fresh viewpoints, mentioning some stuff I had never even thought of.

I just don't have the experience I would've liked to have had by this point to know if I collected enough information to satisfy my professor and write something of appropriate length and quality.

Well, on the upside, both interviewees said I could get back in touch with them later if I needed anything extra. I'm just a worry-wort, I suppose.

Have any of you ever interviewed people before?

It's nerve-wracking, I think. It's a little easier when you know the interviewee pretty well, but interviewing a stranger is much worse. For one thing, strangers aren't as willing to divulge as much information. Meanwhile, the one you know is perfectly content saying whatever comes to mind, trusting that you'll "fix" anything that is worded strangely.

Well, final thoughts? I don't like interviewing people. I don't like being responsible for the wording they're entrusting to me. But I must do it, because the people with college authority say I must. =/

Loving Fictional People

I really love some fictional characters.

I don't even know how it happens, because when I read a book for the first time, or even the first book or two in a series, I barely know the characters.

I mean, of course character development happens along the way so I come to know them, and of course I always root for the hero(es).

But last week, I was reading the third book in a series, and I realized all of a sudden "I love that character."

I'll find myself talking to the book sweetly as I'm reading. I'll moan and call the characters "darling" when they do something stupid, or are on the receiving end of a stupid/ignorant action from a loved one. I practically squealed when one character remembered a first encounter that totally wasn't romantic at the time, but becomes romantic just because of the little fact that the character remembered it.

And then I just wanted to slap one of my favorite characters when she began falling for someone totally unworthy of her, and every single other character in the entire book knows it, and she would even know it if she took half a second to really look at the guy's personality and interests, rather than just his handsome face.

Whew. Rant over. Just wanted to say, it's interesting how I can grow to love some fictional characters so much; and I didn't even realize that I was starting to love them until they were thrown into the middle of a war that brought out the worst in each of them.

Sirens Again

I'm a little worried about last night.

I have no idea what time it was; all I know was I was in bed trying to sleep.

And then. Sirens. Very loud. Unceasing.

I tossed and turned, praying for the situation and waiting for the sirens to fade.

They didn't.

Finally, I yelled "Stop it!" and covered my ears. I couldn't hear anything, and when I finally removed my hands from my ears, the sirens had gone.

Later I dreamed that the sirens were just a joke played on me by my roommates, which is even weirder because I don't have any roommates.

But now I have a problem. Was I just dreaming the sirens? I'm pretty sure they were real, though. But can I really say for sure?

Maybe later I should check the news or something. I never check the news, but maybe I should make an exception just to verify if I was woken out of a deep sleep by sirens that wouldn't stop or if I was woken out of a deep sleep by my very loud and inconsiderate dreams.

French Play

Okay. So, French play.

I was told by some email that that play would have English subtitles, and by my professor that we would just get English brochures with a summary of the plot.

My professor was right.

Well, thanks to that and actor intonation and expressions, I could keep up with the context of the play pretty well, even if I couldn't understand a lot of the words that were spoken without pause for those of us still learning. I did manage to catch some words, though.

And I caught one of the humor points, too! One guy called a lady who ended up being the other man's crazy mistress, but the first guy thought she was his sister. The lady's last name was Sasseur. That name sounds a lot like "sa soeur," which is French for "his sister." I was so happy when I realized I caught how that mistake was made. x3

One thing I wondered about, though: that same guy messed up each and every call (until that last one) he ever made, yet the man who owned the place they were at kept letting the first guy make more calls. Why was that? I guess the reason must have been something I couldn't translate?

Anyways, there's my cultural experience for the morning. Have a great day!

Whoops

Forgot to set my alarm this morning. *cringe*

Fortunately, I still managed to wake up only fifteenish minutes later.

Why?

I have no clue.

I didn't want to wake up. And yet I wanted to.

That makes no sense.

On an unrelated note, I'm going to see a French play sometime in the nearish future. I'll let you know about it when I've seen it, kay?

On a related note, I'd better get ready for my day. Sleeping in isn't good, even if it's just fifteenish minutes.

Sorry for the short, pointless post. Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow. o_x

Valentine's Day a Few Days Late

In my English class, earlier this week, my professor delivered on her promise to make us have flashbacks to elementary school.

We were told to bring a short Valentine/love poem to class so we could give a copy of it to each of our classmates. This is the poem I chose, by Grey Livingston:

Candle light, moon light, star light,
The brightest glow is from love light.

When we got to class, the professor passed around paper bags, stickers, scissors, highlighters, and colored pens. We spent maybe the first twenty minutes to half hour decorating our bags. True to her promise, I felt like I was back in elementary school.

And then! Our professor pulled out CHOCOLATE! She invited - almost ordered - us to take tons of it, because she didn't want to take any back home where it could be a temptation.

So we munched on chocolate as we passed out our Valentines to our classmates' bags and then discussed a few of them. Here's one that I liked, because of its different tone, by Zsa Zsa Gabor:

I want a man who's king and understanding.
Is that too much to ask a millionaire?

Hump Day

Happy Wednesday, everybody!

Hump day, right? Complete with a camel and everything?

Well, at least when we reach the peak, it'll be all downhill from there, right?

Or is that not a good thing? (Why am I asking so many questions?)

Well, I've been staring at my computer screen for that last fifteen minutes, trying to come up with something to put here for you. I think getting over that hump would be a good thing.

But I also have not exactly had much homework (comparatively) these last couple of days. Going downhill from that would be a very, very bad thing indeed.

So, I guess it just depends on which hump you're tromping over.

Or maybe we should just avoid the hump altogether, go the long way around or something.

If it were a hill, I'd maybe suggest going through it. But you probably shouldn't go through a camel's hump.

Why are we even on a camel, anyways? If it takes us three or four days to climb the hump, we must be really tiny. Why not jump off the camel altogether and run between it's legs, coming out ahead of the camel?

That sounds like a plan. Wednesday, I officially dub thee, "Getting in Front of the Camel Day!"

James 4:7

Okie-doke, time for the other story I heard Sunday morning.

There's a place where Satan has had to build all kinds of hospitals and therapy buildings and whatnot, due to the number of demons that have been bested by Jesus and his followers.

One demons is wheeled into the hospital in terrible condition. He's on a life support machine, even.

The doctors want to know what happened; they're positive some great warrior of faith was the cause. They try to find out from the demon himself exactly which warrior it was. "Was it some pastor? Or a missionary, maybe? Were you thrown out like this by a prophet?"

The demon keeps shaking his head at each guess. "I wish it were one of those," he gasps. "But no. The one who did this to me was a young schoolkid, barely a teenager. She stood up for Jesus, no matter what I tried."

This is a shorter story than yesterday, but perhaps it's more powerful. We all have every ability when we take Jesus' side; Satan cannot best a single one of us.

There's a saying I'm thinking of, but I can't find the direct quote. However, I found something really close in a song: "And Satan trembles when he sees / The weakest saint upon his knees."

For the Best

Yesterday in church, I heard a couple of stories. Think maybe I should tell you one of them now and the other tomorrow? Here it is, as close as I can remember it:

There was once a king who liked to hunt and have a good time. Among his courtiers, there was one man the king counted as a friend, though this man had a habit that annoyed the king: anytime anything happened, this man would proclaim it "for the best."

A hunting dog ran off? The man said it was for the best! Maybe he sprained his ankle? It was for the best! The king accidentally blew off one of his fingers in an accident with the guns that were new to the kingdom? For the best!

It was this last thing that made the king lose his temper. "How can you say me losing my finger is for the best!? I'll teach you to say everything is for the best!" The king threw the man in prison, and eventually, the king even forgot about his friend.

One day, the king was going hunting alone. He stumbled across a group of cannibals who tied him up and promptly started a fire to boil some water. They had every intention of eating the king.

...Until they started examining him, to ensure he was fit to eat. They noticed his missing finger.

Certain he was some kind of monster that would make them all sick if they ate him, the cannibals turned the king loose.

The king, fully aware of why he was released, remembered his friend in prison. The king quickly freed the man and apologized profusely. "I should never have put you in prison! I'm so sorry!"

 "Oh, it was for the best!" the man cheerfully replied.

"How can you say that this time!?" the king snapped, upset that his friend would make light of such a terrible mistake.

"Well, just think," the man responded in all seriousness. "If you hadn't thrown me in jail, I would have gone with you on that hunting trip. Since I don't have any fingers missing, I would've been eaten for sure!"

Kind of long for a blog post, but I wanted to share that story and this next one with you. For this story, the Bible verse that prompted it was Romans 8:28.

Juliet is a gummy bear

You know, I see Shakespeare and sometimes even Poe quotes posted either on my dorm room door's whiteboard or somewhere on facebook. There was at least one time where I had to exert some serious self-control not to respond with a parody of the following line.

Where am I finding these parodies?

Well, I don't go looking for them, definitely. But Nancy Drew has some computer games that deal with Edgar Allen Poe and William Shakespeare.

Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy has Poe, although I don't remember if if had any parodies. "The Telltale Heart" kind of just makes fun of itself, in my opinion. o_O (I apologize to those of you who enjoy that type of story.) Nancy Drew: The Deadly Device had a Gummy Theater, in which one of the characters acted out short skits with gummy bears on sticks (or straws).

Honestly, at the moment, the only parody I can remember is this: "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is a gummy bear."

I'm probably not the most reverent person when it comes to this type of stuff. Maybe my problem is I haven't read any of their works that are actually good. I've been told Shakespeare has comedies, so they end with a happily ever after; but for some reason all the high schools feel like his tragedies with everyone dying and no one being happy are the best of the best. The same person who told me about Shakespeare's comedies is also in love with Poe's works.

Should I trust her? Should I go out in search of Shakespeare comedies and something a little more sane from Poe? Or should I just stick with my contemporary fairytale retellings and authors I know deliver the happy endings each time?

Golden City Repeats, Or Lack Thereof

I'm sitting here listening to my mom play her music in the background, and it's playing my high school math teacher's favorite song: "Golden City."

One year, he promised no homework for one class period to the class that brought him that song on CD. One of my classmates took him up on that, and my teacher spent the entire class period playing that song on repeat.

By the end of class, we could all sing along.

The rest of that year, he'd play that song often throughout his classes. We all got used to it, and some probably got a little sick of it.

Me, I just kind of went along with it. I liked the tune and what I could hear of the lyrics. It probably wouldn't have made my list of favorite songs, but I had no complaints to my teacher playing it so often.

Then the next year, and the next. I don't think I ever heard him play that song even a dozens times in all, especially my senior year. What happened?

I have no clue. He claimed that he still played it often, but those times just happened to be in other classes.

Hmmm... I should ask my brother, who still has that teacher for math, if that teacher ever plays that song in his class...

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

Virtual chocolate for all my darling readers! *tosses it all around*

For my English class, I've had to look up several different love poems that I can put on Valentines of my classmates; my professor says we're going to feel like we're back in elementary school with the whole exchange thing. Not sure yet if chocolate is going to be involved, or if it'll just be poems, but would you like to hear the poem I found?

Candle light, moon light, star light,
The brightest glow is love light.
~Grey Livingston

If any of you are wondering, no, I don't have a boyfriend. But unlike some fictional characters who may or may not reflect real people, I don't despise this holiday. xD

My dad once told me that he drove through a blizzard to surprise and propose to my mom on Valentine's Day. Awwww~! (...Now watch my memory be wrong, and this'll get fact-checked by one of my parents, and I'll have to change it... =.=)

Anyways, whether you're celebrating alone, with family, with friends, or with that special someone, have a great Valentine's Day! n_n

Dust in Keyboard

It's so annoying when dust falls on the spots of your keyboard between keys.

I mean, it's seriously hard to reach to get rid of the dust, especially when you're trying not to actually press any of the keys.

What? Why don't I wait until my laptop is turned off so I can press keys all I like to get the dust?

Oh, don't be silly, dear reader. I have short-term memory loss, clearly. That, or I have no common sense.

Either way, that means I never do anything with my computer once it's been shut down.

But maybe, just maybe, I could remember tonight? Hmmm, posting problems and solutions here for the world to potentially read often has a way of getting me to do those solutions later...

We'll see if your magic still works on me once my computer is off. Hopefully it will.

Mwahahaha, dust between keys in my keyboard, your days - or hours - are numbered! *evil witchy cackle*

...Ahem. Anyways, whatever happens or doesn't happen, I'll see you tomorrow, readers~! n_n

My New Blog for School

Okay, here I go, shamelessly turning to advertisement. This is the link to my new blog for school. I really need to change that picture up at the top to something more topic-appropriate, but my first post and my "About" page are both up already.

Do I sound like the same person in that blog and this?

This blog is totally laid-back. While I try to keep an eye on grammar and stuff, my overall tone is just isn't an attempt to be professional.

The blog for class, however, is more like I'm taking a reporter's stance. It's my job to convey the facts of my topic. However, since it's a blog and not a newspaper, I'm allowed to have an opinion, as long as it's an "informed opinion."

I'm expected to meet a certain number of views by the end of the semester; that's why I'm sharing the link like this.

Should I just trust in my blog to attract viewers on its own?

Maybe. But I really don't want to find out what will happen if I don't meet the minimum view requirement at the end, even though that's something I don't think we're being graded on.

I'm treading very lightly here, making every attempt to make a good grade. This is college. No longer high school. If I want good grades, I have to pull out every (honorable) hat trick I've got. You understand, yes?

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat

"Everybody wants to be a cat."

Hmmm, I love Disney, but I don't know about that line from "Aristocats."

I mean, cats are pretty awesome, sure. But I would maybe rather be something else - just don't ask me what. ^^'

Maybe part of my problem is I've never had a cat. As a little kid, I remember being in the same room as my grandparents' cat was way too close for comfort. However, my fear of them did kind of vanish.

I'm not sure how that happened really; I just remember that my neighbors had a shed that housed about four or five cats, and I followed my neighbor in and our of that shed without hesitation.

Anyways, my conquered fear aside, what animal might I want to be? A dog, maybe? I really do envy my own dog's lazy schedule. The worst he has to worry about is "Will I get my walk tonight?" and "Will Daddy be angry if I wake him up for the fifth time tonight because I want to drink my water outside even though I have water inside?"

Hmmm, or maybe I'd rather be a creature with wings. How awesome would that be, flying everywhere? Sadly, a pet bird would probably have clipped wings, and I don't know if I'd feel safe as a wild bird. Butterflies are gorgeous creatures, but I wonder if the chrysalis state would hurt...? Plus kids love catching them. Hmmm. =/

Anyways, I don't know what animal I would want to be. I just think that maybe the being a cat thing wouldn't necessarily be for me. Sorry, Mr. O'Malley Cat.

Drama in Writing/Role Playing

I like writing fanfiction, though in college I haven't had much time for it.

I'm what some might call a mean/cruel author. I enjoy torturing my characters, making everything that can possibly go wrong, go wrong. But of course I always give them their happy ending in the final part.

One difference between stories and role plays is that I don't always have time to make everything go wrong in stories.

In stories, I feel like there's a deliberate end I'm working towards, and only certain things can fit into the plot to make it to that end. Sadly, it tends to leave out a lot of drama. I have to add some humor to the story too; it's no fun to read even for me if it's just major blow after major blow.

But in role plays, although it does kind of depend on who I'm role playing with, I feel more free to let each torture fly. The other role player and I are just acting in the moment, waiting to see where the role play itself takes us. If we accidentally create more drama than really works, we often come to a mutual agreement to back up and start over from a certain point.

Don't get me wrong, I love both writing and role playing. Role plays often don't necessarily have that sense of extreme satisfaction when they come to an end, like what you tend to get when finishing a story. They kind of balance out, I guess.

Anyways, I suppose that's all for today. See you tomorrow!

3D Puzzles

I have a 3D puzzle my family and I put together a few years ago.

It was really tough, too, because all of the pieces' images changed when you moved them. It was hard getting just the right angle to know if they matched up or not.

To make things slightly more difficult (but not as difficult as the 3D fish puzzle my brother had), the puzzle is of hot air balloons against a green/blue backdrop. Some of the hot air balloons had similar-looking pieces.

But anyways, we completed it a while back, and then we got it framed. Yay! ♥

Now it hangs in my room for a lifetime of optical enjoyment. xD

Going back to my brother's 3D fish puzzle, we got that one mostly put together too. But then there was a piece missing at the end. Boo!

So we called the puzzle place that made it and got a brand-new package of the same puzzle, hopefully with no pieces missing. Unfortunately, we can't tell, because we never got around to really opening that one and either looking for the missing piece to the other one (needle in a haystack) or putting that one together as well.

Sigh, poor 3D puzzles. Doomed to either success that lasts forever, or failure that gets it put back on the shelf forever... =P

Free Kindle Books

You know, as the owner of a Kindle, I'm offered free books almost constantly.

Well, my mom is, anyways, since both our Kindles are under her name. But whenever she sees a fantasy book or maybe some other kind of book she thinks I might like, she sends me a link to see if I want that free book.

Some of those books are really great. Talon's Test and the Shield of Faith, by Nicholas Downing? Practically perfection, and I got it for free. The downside being it's the first book in a trilogy which has yet to release the other two books. The Journey, by Laura Lond? Also sheer perfection, although I wasn't quite as crazy about the rest of the series.

But some of those books aren't really anything so good. I turn down some free book offers because the description doesn't look interesting, or the reviews made me wary of it. And some of the books I do get, I'm glad they were free because they were nothing I'd ever want to actually put out money for.

Arcadia's Gift, by Jesi Lea Ryan? I guess the plotline kind of kept me hooked, but only because of the severe amount of torture/drama it contained. I didn't really like the characters, even the main character, or the way the book played out closer to the end. I really disliked some of the author's word choices, and I really hated the ending itself. And this isn't the only book that I've felt a waste of my time but thankfully free so not a waste of any money.

Anyways, I don't really know what my point is here. Maybe I'm just reflecting on my free books experiences. They really can go either way, or even somewhere in between. I've also read books that the first book was okay, but I wasn't really interested in buying the rest of the series, although no examples come immediately to mind. Your thoughts?

Underestimation Based on Gender

You know, going to an all-women's college has kind of ensured that I hear a lot of talk about how we're just as great as men, we can do great stuff too, and we're learning to do it in an environment where men can't judge us. Especially yesterday, I've heard some talk about how men are underestimating women solely based on gender, even if the men are trying to be helpful. It's offensive to my classmates.

And then there's me.

Most of the people in my life have had basically nothing but confidence in me as far as I can do whatever I set my mind to, but even I have had the occasional uderestimation.

And it doesn't bother me.

In P.E. class in elementary school, we were testing upper-body strength by seeing how long we could hold out with... Uhm, I think it's called a chin-up? Not the kind where you constantly rise and lower, but you just stay up for as long as possible. One guy commented that I was stronger than he ever gave me credit for.

Did it make me feel good? Maybe a little. Was I trying to prove his former assumption wrong? No, I was just trying to do my best.

And then one time, I was serving as a sort of waitress for a friend's wedding reception, and the person in charge asked to make sure I wasn't overwhelmed. I wasn't, but I knew full well that it was only by the grace of God that I had not spilled anything or gone crazy from people calling my name from every direction.

So, yeah, it's kind of weird listening to all these girls who seem to feel they have something to prove. I don't really think they do. I mean, I'm perfectly happy doing what God wants me to do, regardless of others' opinions and estimations.

Poke!

Poke.

Poke, poke, poke!

Heehee, I like poking. Don't ask why, because I don't know. It started before I ever had a facebook account and found out you can virtually poke people there. I poke in real life, and I poke virtually even on sites that don't have specific buttons for poking.

Poke! n_n

Yes, I'm weird. Thank you for noticing.

My mom finds my poking extremely annoying, but my friends tend to poke me back or even poke me first. =P

One time, one of my friends was going around tickling everyone. When she finally took a break and just sat beside me, I reached out to poke her.

She jumped so badly, I knew she must be ticklish too. Mwahahaha, poking has revenge side benefits! xD

Well. I guess I'll finish up my poking post now with one last poke. Or maybe two. Poke, poke! ^_^

I write blogs like a pro

Who would have thought that writing for print and digital media would be so much different than writing for English essays?

There are sooo many changes I have to keep track of, such as shorter paragraphs, writing out only numbers one through nine but using digits for 10 and up, and writing mainly for interest-grabbing rather than structure flow (though that's important still too).

I'm not complaining. I'll get it down eventually. It'll just take time.

We're also using headline instead of straight-up titles. I didn't know there was a difference before, but apparently headlines are complete, concise sentences that can't be a play on words or anything.

Think I should start using headlines for this blog? It may be good practice, but then again it may take longer to think up a good one. For some reason, my mornings are getting shorter on time as it is, not sure why.

Anyways, I have a nice big ole thick book telling me how to write the way my professor wants me to, and I have a free tutoring service that I plan on taking extreme advantage of. I also have my professor's email, which I have already used probably too much for her liking.

So, let's get to it, chop chop! Mwahahaha, I'll be great at this by the end of the semester, and this blog won't even know what hit it!

Slavery from Different Perspectives

There are so many books out there about slavery in the United States, most of them taking a completely yet subtly different view of it.

A Picture of Freedom is a book formatted like a diary written by a slave girl named Clottee. So far, it's the only book I've read that has been from the perspective of a slave. The book has spelling and grammar errors that one might expect from a slave girl who is in the process of secretly learning how to read and write. She forms no overt attachments with any white people, but she does secretly befriend a couple of them.

Candle in the Darkness is a book by Lynn Austin, one of three companion books and so far the only one I've read. The main character is a girl (later woman) named Caroline Fletcher, daughter of a slave owner. However, this girl's real family is comprised of the slaves her father keeps. She loves them all, and they (with the exception of one, who can never forget that she is his mistress) treat her like their own daughter. The other white people in the story are portrayed as incapable of seeing slaves as actual people, with wants and fears and the ability to grow tired after fanning someone nonstop for hours.

The Elsie Dinsmore series that I've mentioned before portrays all of the characters as obviously human and equal. Of course, there is still the whole "I'm your master and you'd better obey me" thing going on, but every character is aware that the differences between black people and white people are purely social. This book emphasizes the differences between Christians, atheists, and make-believers, but the members of all three categories see the slaves as people that can be made to work rather than simply tools.

Those are all the books I can remember reading that take place around that time period. But do you notice the differences? I wonder which way was the "norm."

Arglefumph and My New Blog

Oooo, I have an awesome update about another blog!

Remember Arglefumph, the guy who does Nancy Drew walkthroughs and blind playthroughs and all kinds of other stuff? He's started a Nancy Drew marathon, and he's planning on playing all of the current twenty-nine Nancy Drew computer games in preparation for the thirtieth game!

While I'm not entirely sure where he's finding the time for this, I am super excited and plan on watching him do each one. I may not be able to make his live streamings, but he posts videos of each playing afterwards for those who can't make it to the live stuff.

I hope you check this out; it's amazing!

On another note, my class is finally making headway with out blogs and its posts. I have a draft of my first post all typed up and everything, yay!

If I do end up putting a link in this blog to my blog for class, I should probably warn you of something ahead of time. In this blog, while I try to keep away from typos and grammar mistakes and stuff, it's still just me doing something for fun. In the blog for class, it's going to have more of a professional tone, and I'll probably have at least one source that I reference each post or something...

Anyways, just brace yourself that it might seem a little different. =) Love you, my readers, and I'll see you again tomorrow!

Fake Princess

Good afternoon, friends! Here is today's post, a bit late, but still counts, right?

This post is late because I spent the night with my pastor's family, and they don't have Internet connection or even cell phone connection. Not to mention it would have been a bit rude to ignore them even long enough to type up a post for you today.

But now I'm back, and I have got to tell you: last night, I slept the best I have in weeks!

You know the story of the princess and the pea? How a bed is made up all nice and soft so that it would grant anyone a terrific night's sleep, but with one imperfection: a pea is placed at the very bottom of the stack of mattresses, to distinguish the real princesses from the posers.

Well, I slept like a fake princess last night. The bed was sooooo comfy, and I was all nice and warm and not even my feet felt cold most of the night. And then when I woke up, I was ready to start the day! I didn't even get upset at the sun for waking me up before it was necessary to start getting ready for church, that's how great a night I had.

Do you think it's kind of weird? Until this morning, I completely agreed with the generality that you sleep better in your own bed.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact I was sleeping on two mattresses rather than just one. Maybe I should take the mattress that would be my roommate's if I had a roommate, and add that mattress underneath my own. Maybe...

Mwahaha, a fine idea! You've done it again, dear readers! What is it about you that helps me so much in so many ways? I don't understand it, but I do love it!

Gallagher Girls

Exciting news, guess what! The semester has definitely gotten under way, but I've managed to find the time to read three books! Granted, the time for two of them was during the time school was canceled due to "winter weather," but I still got to read them! Yay for one of my New Year resolutions, right?
The two books that I read over snow time off were spy books. The main character goes to a school for that trains female spies. The first book is her trying to grasp for a normal life with a boy she has a crush on, but as the series goes on, the plot quickly becomes much, much thicker.

The author's name is Ally Carter, and the series is titled Gallagher Girls. I recommend you go find a copy to read yourself; it's highly exciting, extremely dangerous, yet has an undertone of humor to it. Well, except for maybe the fifth book in the series, which is as far as I've gotten in the series. The fifth book has a much darker tone throughout, as the main character has gone through so much over the summer break and...

Hmm, I really don't want to spoil anything. With these books, even the smallest details can be incredibly important, as proven in this fifth book looking back at the first book.

Anyways, I'd better get going. Even though the cafeteria won't open for breakfast for another hour, I should probably do some other stuff. Bye~!

PS- Tomorrow's post very likely won't be in the morning, but it will come in the afternoon; I promise. =)