It is my pleasure to introduce… *drumroll* Andy!

My brother and my guitar are both. So. Cool. Whooohoo Andy and Mikah! I counted up all the chords I know a few weeks ago, and to my delight, I know 20-some. B-) That was more than I thought I knew, and even if it might seem sorta pathetic to guitar pros out there–don’t judge.

I have also been fascinated by C.S. Lewis. I devoured The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce, started Miracles as well as the first of his Space Trilogy, and have now slowed down. XP His books are pretty amazing, though, and even if I don’t agree with every little detail, he definitely provides food for thought!

If I can manage to remember, I’ve got several ideas for blog posts! Mostly fun things that have happened recently that just haven’t gotten blogged about. So stay tuned! ^_^

Over and out!

-Haniya

^That’s^ why.

(Just a random doodle of mine…it doesn’t really relate to this post, but oh well. )

In the time of Ezra, when the Israelites were rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylon, the enemies of the land got upset and asked the king of Persia to pass a law commanding them to stop.

The king of Persia passed a law, and the Israelites did stop, but seventeen years later God sent prophets to tell them to start building again despite the law. So again they started work, but, also again, the enemies of the land saw that they were building. And this time they were breaking the law. So the enemies went to the Israelites, asked them for the name of the person who had commanded them to rebuild the temple and the names of their leaders, so they could tell the king of Persia.

This is how the Israelites responded, to quote Ezra 5:11:

“And thus they [the Israelites] returned us an answer, saying, “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.”

I think that’s really cool. They were breaking a law in order to follow God, and when they were questioned on it, they answered confidently and with purpose: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple….”

And, just as a side note, one of the enemies who reported the Israelities’ activity to the king of Persia was named Tattenai. Maybe it’s just me, but that name sounds an awful lot like “tattler.” *cough* Just sayin’.

And sounds so pretty.

And gets BONUS POINTS for being portable (piano is not very portable. Sadly. I love piano, but it is not that).

Anyway, I am officially a guitarist as of last Wednesday, the 22nd of February, 2012. Naomi got a guitar way back in late November/early December, so I learned a few chords at her coaxing, but really, when you have a sister that adores guitar even more than you do (so far…bwahaha), you’re not going to be able to squeeze much practice into her already guitar-filled schedule. If there’s only one guitar.

So yes, I got a guitar last Wednesday.

Right now I only have pictures of Naomi playing her guitar…but I’ll try to get a few pictures of Andy (my guitar!!! I named him ) soonish.

Isn’t she gorgeous? Anyway, this was several weeks ago…back in January sometime, I think. ^_^

I know several chords very well, but I’m learning F, E (I do know it, it just takes a while to get my fingers in place ), and B minor. I need to learn C minor.

^This^ chord is G, I’m 99.9% positive. Juuuuuust to be on the safe side, in case Naomi comments and informs me that it is not G chord. (That’s your cue to comment, sister dear! )

We woke up to frost this morning. I love frost. It sparkles under the sunlight, or, if it lasts throughout the day and into the evening, under the light from the streetlamp. It makes a sort of crust over the gravel, and the mud–so it feels like I’m walking a fraction of a millimeter above the ground. And it gives a really awesome crunching noise as I walk through the pasture. ^_^ Like I said, I love frost.

And I don’t think I’ve ever written about frost in my stories…must do that soon.

NaNoWriMo is done! I reached 50,000 words on November 29th–a day early–and haven’t touched my novel since. It’s been collecting dust deep in the recesses of my documents. Mwahahaha. However, I just looked at it and unfortunately, I really really REALLY want to edit it/finish writing the showdown. >_> *sigh* Part of me (the part closest to the frantic thirty days of novel-ing) wants to leave that poor document lying there for at least another week. Especially since I have a map of Africa to finish for my World Geography in school. And if I decide to edit, that project will most likely get pushed to the side.

But then again, I do really really want to start work on it again. Dilemmas, dilemmas. ::)

Vacuuming. I vacuumed the house today, and felt like putting that in the post title for some reason. XP Vacuuming is strangely…fun, once you get started. ^_^ I like cranking up the volume on my iPod (which I will never allow myself to do normally. I don’t want to end up deaf ) and vacuuming to the rhythm of the music.

Humdeedum… Have I mentioned algebra is way too much fun? Oh, and I have a new favorite song: “Hold Me,” by Jamie Grace (featuring tobyMac). I blare it while I do my algebra. That is also way too much fun. I end up hoarse by the end of it, because it’s such a catchy song, and I can’t help but sing (yell) along while solving for ‘x.’

I’ve been getting in the mood for Christmas. B-) I’m pretty sure the fact that the radio station started playing Christmas music literally THE DAY after Thanksgiving helped, though. I love this part of the year. Winter is so much less dreary with lights on all the houses. I like the colored lights the best, but it always seems like those are the first to burn out, so we never use them…

So–happy December 6th, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week! I will–as long as I get both my novel and my map of Africa completed. Ha. ^_^

But, yes, yes, indeed, I am not only ahead, I am a whole day ahead.

I happen to be bouncing off the ceiling at this very moment, using the built-in anti-gravity boosters on the computer for the first time since they were invented five seconds ago.

Er, sorry. (I think the sci-fi aspect of the story I’m writing is taking over my brain. Eeeee. Help.)

So, anyway, my superbly awesome NaNoWriMo word count/graph/thingy:

*continues bouncing off the ceiling*

And, because I’m so happy, I just can’t resist giving you this series of adorable pictures, featuring my siblings as they were five years ago (ish).

Aren’t they adorable? XDXD <3 <3

Christmas is just around the corner (and Thanksgiving), NaNoWriMo is over halfway done, my novel passed my other stories in length, and I’m getting used to the idea of staying inside more than normal because of inclement weather.

And the couch by the fire makes a very good place to write. Lots of inspiration. ^_^

NaNoWriMo word count: 28,338 words.
Days left in November: 12.
Words left to write: 21,662 words.

*squee* It will be AWESOME to have another story done. ^_^ I never think this except when I’m in the middle of a project, but writing is hard.

I feel like I’m on a roller-coaster, ’cause I’m either really super excited about my writing, or very depressed about it.

But, seriously, this is one of those better days. Let’s celebrate! *throws confetti*

Unfortunately I only write a mass (well, for me) amount of words when I need to catch up. So I’ve never gotten ahead by any significant amount. I mean, take a look at the number of words I’ve written each day since last Saturday:

Saturday: 224 or thereabouts
Sunday: 2500 (to catch up XP)
Monday: 2000 (okay, so I did get ahead that day. Only a little teensy-weensy bit, though, so it doesn’t count)
Tuesday: 0
Wednesday: 3014 (again, to catch up *bops self*)
Thursday (today): 1510-ish

And my grand total of all ten days of NaNoWriMo is (drumroll pleeeeeease!!): 16,671 words. YAAAAAY!

(Just so you know, I am a mere five words above where I absolutely need to be. Lovely. XP)

But I’m much more optimistic about my story than yesterday. I reread my post and thought it rather melancholic. I’m up to 7,002 words, and making progress! Yay! And, I wrote a scene I really like this morning:

I plugged it in again and dialed voicemail.
“Please enter your password,” crackled from the phone.
Uh….
I pressed a couple numbers and waited.
“You have one unheard message. One unheard message, sent July 15th, 10:09 AM.”
I grinned, plunking down on the couch.
“Hey, Chloe, this is Mum–”
I froze, staring at the phone like it was a bomb, ticking down to my demise. Wait, July 15th?
“–sorry about that. I’m gonna need you to call them for me, all right? Oops, I’m gonna have to go…almost ran into the guy in front of me….” She chuckled.
“Anyway, I’ll be back in time for dinner, ‘kay? Talk to you later. Love–” Screams from the recording. Mum gasped and started shouting my name. The roar of something, growing louder and louder….
Her voice–how did I turn it off–I didn’t want to hear her! I pressed a button.
The default female voice came back on. “Message repeated.”
Mum’s voice again. “Hey, Chloe, this is Mum, and I’m at the store, but I forgot–”
No!
I pressed another button with a “beep” from the phone.
“Message saved. Continue to archives?”
I jammed the end call button down before it could take me to the archives and play it all over again.
My heart hammered. The phone slipped from my fingers and thumped on the floor.

For anyone wondering, July 15th is a month and a half before the story starts, the day the heroine’s mother dies.

It, of course, needs some serious help (what rough draft doesn’t? ), and I’ll probably hate it tomorrow and bop myself over the head for posting it on my blog, but yeah. The joys of NaNoWriMo-ing.

Hey! I have succeeded in convincing myself I’m doing the right thing. Yaaaaaay.

So this is the third day of NaNoWriMo, and I have written 4,144 words. ^_^ That’s pretty good–just around average, I guess. I haven’t reached my word goal for today yet (which is why writing this post is procrastination) but hopefully will soon.

NaNoWriMo is hard. XD Harder than I expected. Or, harder than my excitement allowed me to expect. But, seriously! I have got to get in shape! Cranking out 1,667 words a day isn’t that hard!

I am still not finished with chapter one (the equivalent of day one, since each chapter equals a day) which is rather alarming. It’s stretching on quite a ways. It’ll get a lot shorter when I edit, but for now, I feel like I’m crawling along at a snail’s pace.

I’m also not sure if I’m satisfied with the quality of my writing. Some bits (especially the bits I wrote yesterday) are fine for now, but the majority of what I wrote on November 1st I think I’ll scrap in December. At the moment it’s relatively safe ’cause it’s adding to my word count.

Another thing bugging me is I feel repetitive. Or at the risk of being repetitive. Several things in this story are similar to things in Wanted. A lot of it is drastically different, but I’m still so connected mentally and emotionally to Wanted, I feel like I’m using phrases and concepts I’ve used before. Stealing them, I guess, from something I’ve already written. Bleh.

So there you have it, my ramblings on NaNoWriMo. I’m definitely still pressing on–this story has to get out onto the paper (computer screen) somehow. The end result might be rather messy, but at least it should be edit-able! Something beautiful will come out of this in the end, I hope.

And now–back to my word document! Aaah!