2012 and 2013

I am willing to go out on a limb and say that this has been the best year of my life so far.

So much has happened, I've grown so much, seen so much, and learned so much, its just incredible. 

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Last year on this day I was in Rome, Italy. This time around, my younger sister will be going in January!


So I started off this year in another country. My trip to Rome was the scariest, bravest, hardest, and most exciting thing I've ever done. I went because God asked me to, and I don't know exactly how it changed me, but it did. I got to see the body of St. Clare of Assisi, whom I am named after, I got to see Pope Benedict XVI from about five feet away, and I discovered the most magical substance on the face of the earth...Strawberry Gelato!

A lot of other amazing things happened this year, and terrible, hard things, too.

I moved twice in the past two years, met someone mildly famous who I admire, cut my hair too short three times in a row, went to the funeral of a wonderful friend, saw my first friend for an afternoon, spent a week with my best friend and his family, continued to work at a grocery store, applied for Catholic ministry work, procrastinated and slacked off in my studies, said goodbye to a lot of friends going to college, bought a laptop named Quincy, thought I had my wallet stolen, attended an amazing art class, made Pascal from the movie Tangled out of wire, wrote a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, went to a Britt Nicole concert, saw no movies in the theater, ate my weight in egg roles, rediscovered my favorite musical, caught up with my extended family, read a bunch of stunning books....and basically fell more in love with God.

I am looking forward to 2013. I have an interview in January with a United States based missionary organization, and if I get excepted, I'll spend nine months serving the Church by sharing my faith with young people. I will probably find a new job since mine is starting to cost me due to gas money, and I might actually get a driver's license. Maybe.
I will graduate sometime in the spring, and while I have no plans for going to college yet, I recently took my ACT and will find out my scores soon. My options are open.

I have no idea what God has in store for me, but I'm excited. He has a perfect plan, and He has never, ever let me down. I am secure in Christ, and I will continue to try and serve Him above all things, and become a saint.

As I usually do at the end of each year, I like to pick a favorite song or a song that really sums up how I feel about this year and next year. This is extremely difficult for me as I run on music and its been a whole 365 days of awesome songs. But, like I said, I went to a Britt Nicole concert this past fall, and it was really inspiring for me. Britt Nicole is an amazing young woman who has given God her all, and at her concert she said something kind of awesome. She said that no matter how big our dreams are, God's dreams for us are bigger. That is definitely true for my life; I have no idea where I'm going, I'm dreaming too small. But I will follow God wherever His dreams for me will go.

Basically, Britt Nicole is awesome, and I hope I can see her perform live again someday.

So, my song this year is from her. Enjoy, God Bless you, and Happy New Year 2013!

Emily Appreciation Post

So, the lovely Emily of findingaquietcorner.tumblr.com gave me a most wondrous Christmas present. She drew little illustrations of my NaNoWriMo book characters, and here they are!!

I can't actually express how much I love these drawings. Barbara and Padraig are absolutely perfect. This is actually one of my favorite things...when people draw my book characters? Yeah. Best thing in the world. 

So yes, Emily is awesome.

Happy Feast of St. Stephen!

O Great St. Stephen, the scriptures tell us that your face was like an angel’s as you witnessed to the truth of Christ.

Please ask the Most Holy Trinity to fill my soul and the souls of all my brothers and sisters throughout the world with a deep hunger for the truth that comes from the Heart of Jesus, and also with the loving courage to embrace and profess the truth even amid difficulties, confusion, and persecution. 

May the serenity and peace which were yours at the hour of your stoning be ours as well as we wait in hope for the coming of the Lord Jesus who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

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St. Stephen, the first martyr in witness of Jesus Christ, please strengthen us to defend the faith even in the face of persecution. Intercede for us that we may be courageous. In the Holy Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen. 

NaNoWriMo 2012: Character Reveal

First December character reveal anyone?

Introducing the closest thing to a legitimate villain in my very weird, unconventional novel...Professor David Bunk!

David was made at elouai.com

Age: 37 

(this is a rough estimate, I haven't exactly calculated how old he is)

Story Role: Mysterious Stranger/Intellectual/Antagonist      

Archetype: 10. The Sage

Motto: The truth will set you free

Core desire: to find the truth.

Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.

Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.

Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.

Weakness: can study details forever and never act.

Talent: wisdom, intelligence.

The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.

Physical

Eyes: Brown    Hair:  Light brown

Height: 5”8   Build: Average

Professor David Bunk is a strange and mysterious fellow, who, for the first half of the book is believed to be a psychotic stalker who is following Padraig around Europe. As it turns out, this is pretty much true. Prof. Bunk has been trying to prove for the past 25 years that leprechauns exist, and Padraig Offaly is all the proof he needs. 

~Merry Christmas 2012~

I haven't been posting much, but I've been a little busy and a lot blessed. 

Yesterday I had to work, but I was able to go home early enough to go to Christmas Eve Mass with my family. It was so beautiful and I was so overflowing with joy. My sister told me, "You were absolutely giddy in Mass yesterday!" Father gave an awesome homily about the humility of St. Joseph. 

This morning, I was saying, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" And my little sister asked, "So, how old is Jesus now?"

I actually tried to give her an answer, being the crazy woman that I am...

"Um...let me see...roughly 2,036 years? I think?"

I don't think I'm right, I was only making a rough guesstimate of how many years it had been since God was born as a baby. No big deal.

It's been a good Christmas. I received a lot of wonderful gifts (including mini peanut butter cups!), and everyone liked their presents from me. My older sister even liked the neon pink hippo Pillow Pet I got her! Success!

Here is my favorite Christmas song of this year; Come and Worship, performed by Bebo Norman. I love this song because it captures all the power that came with God humbling Himself and becoming man. 

More than anything this Christmas, I am blown away by love. This has probably been the best year of my life. I wanted to share that with you by saying Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Please check this site out!

pubheartconn,blogspot.com

This blog is running quite a few auctions to raise money for the victims of the shooting in Connecticut this past Friday!

If you can, please consider supporting them!

NaNoWriMo 2012: The Nineteenth Chapter

This is the entire nineteenth chapter of my NaNo Novel, Leprechaun Holiday. It is one of my favorite scenes in my novel, because its a really heartfelt piece, for both me and Padraig Offaly.
At a certain point a few days before NaNoWriMo story started, I got this idea in my head called 'The Superman Complex'.
Superman has a lot of amazing powers, but whenever he uses them, he vanishes. No one ever gets to thank the hero, and they never truly understand him.
One of the biggest plot points in my novel is that my Leprechaun grants wishes, and every time he does, he runs away. He has a Superman Complex. So this is the scene that I wrote embodying that whole idea. It is set at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. It is early December.
Enjoy!

The Nineteenth Chapter

The Leprechaun and the ‘Superman Complex’

Padraig needed some fresh air. He left the apartment late during the evening, around 9:30 p.m., and walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was not something he had planned on doing, but everything had gone so completely and unexpectedly wrong, he figured it might be worth trying something completely unexpected. On his way there, he bought a tall bottle of beer.

The tower looked just like it did in all those romantic pictures of Paris at night. There was hardly a soul around for once, and Padraig went up to the left front support of the tower and sat down on the steps tiredly. A small line of people was going in at the ticket counter, but Padraig didn’t feel like going up just yet. So he just sat in the glow of the Eiffel Tower, drinking his beer, and thinking, for a long time.

He thought about what his life had been like five years ago, and before that fateful day. The day Edwin died.

As he followed his gloomy, nostalgic train of thought, for some reason he started to think about Superman.  He remembered being seven years old and thinking Superman was the greatest thing in the world. He would watch the old cartoons with his dad on Saturday mornings. But what he was really thinking about was this; I’m just like Superman. I have an incredible gift, but I’m the only one. And whenever I use it to help anyone, I have to leave. I just run away. I never let anyone thank me. I never let anyone really know me. Because I’m the only one. No one can help me. No one can show me who I am. I’m the only one with super strength and heat vision. No one will ever understand how it feels.

But every time Superman saved Lois Lane, even though he flew away and she never got to thank him, he always saw her again. Once upon a time, that had been Padraig, too. He’d grant a wish, need to run away, but he could return. All the times he’d granted Edwin one more little wish, just to help his best friend one more time. All the mornings he stuck a coin in Mrs. Walsh’s mailbox for her to find, just so she could pay the rent one more time. All the Sundays he dropped a little gold coin in the offering plate, knowing Mr. Doherty, the parish treasurer, would put it to good use.

All that had stopped after Edwin died. The Superman Complex had changed dramatically. He still ran away; but these days, he never came back.

Now, his ‘super powers’ were more like his personal kryptonite than anything else.

“Superman was really lucky,” Padraig murmured softly to himself. “I think that’s the big difference between him and me,”

But, there was one thing about Superman no one could ever deny. No matter what, he did the right thing. He kept his promises, he paid for his mistakes, and he always managed to save the day.

Padraig finished his beer, and got up to throw the bottle in a waste bin. Then he went into the ticket office, and bought a ticket to the top of the tower. He took the elevator up and just stood up there for a long time, staring out at all the glittering, golden lights of Paris. If he leaned forward and held out his arms, it was like he was flying.

At 10:45, someone came up to him and explained that the tower was closing in fifteen minutes, and he needed to head down. Padraig did, and then just sat down on the steps again. He thought about everything and everyone. He thought about poor missing Deirdre. He thought about Leal and Sandrine. He thought about Stian and his amazing magical powers. He thought about his parents; his mother who understood him too well and his father who didn’t understand him at all. He thought about Barbara Peplum, especially her huge head of curly hair and the way it bounced when she moved. He thought about Edwin. My goodness, he hadn’t thought about Edwin so long and hard in many, many years.

And he thought about Superman.

By morning, Padraig had made up his mind. It was time to be Superman. It was time to do the right thing, even if it hurt, and especially because it would mean making a sacrifice. 

And just when I thought my birthday was complete...

I got roses from my best friend in the whole wide world. 

He got me roses. 

So beautiful!

18th Birthday Cake

Made by my wonderful, adorable, talented younger sister Margaret. It's a chocolate-mint cake with crushed candy canes in the filling!!

GORGEOUS!

It is Friday, December 14th, 2012

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Today I am eighteen years old! 

I opened most of my presents yesterday because my dad had to leave this morning to get my older sister from college, but that was okay because I miss my sister AND two more presents came for me in the mail today!

So far I have received  1 Moose Pillow Pet, 2 bead-sorting containers, 7 beading charms, 1 roll of drawing paper, 20 dollars to either Kmart or Sears, 20 dollars in cash, 1 Milky Way chocolate bar, 1 extremely sparkly gray scarf, 1 mind-bending puzzle which I can't even figure out what I'm supposed to DO with, 1 little bottle of Blackberry Vanilla body spray, 1 little container of Blackberry Vanilla body rub, 1 very sweet best friend saying YOU'RE SO OLD!!!, and 3 whole younger siblings taken away from the house for the entire day! 

Awesome. 

If anyone is curious if I am going to seize this opportunity to A) buy cigarettes B) buy lottery tickets or C) get a tattoo, the answer is no to all three. I don't even get to vote anytime soon. Eighteen-year-old privilege means very little to me. 

My mother is aghast, for her third child is now 18 and. I find it interesting that the oldest child being 21 and the second oldest child having started dating someone for the first time doesn't bother her at all, but I turn 18 and suddenly she's sitting in the kitchen staring off into space in amazement. 

I am very loved and very blessed, and my dear sweet wonderful friend Sophia is coming over when she gets out of school to watch Tangled with me, as everyone else is sick of it. 

The only sad thing is now I am getting sick--I have a sore throat, and all the sugary goodness is not going to make me feel any better, but I WILL EAT IT ANYWAY. 

Happy birthday to me! I will be spending this day writing, sorting beads, watching movies, eating delicious food, and talking to my best friends on the phone :)

Love and hugs,

Clare Marie

Piano Guys

A little something that I absolutely had to share with you...

This is legitimately the coolest group of musicians ever. My family just discovered them on Youtube this week. The Piano Guys take popular songs and cover them, mostly using just the cello and piano. That right there is enough to get ME excited.

This mashup of Love Story (Taylor Swift) and Viva La Vida (Coldplay) is one of my favorites...unfortunately, I can't buy it because the Piano Guys haven't gotten permission from Coldplay to sell a song with Viva la Vida in it. This is most depressing. But I can listen to it on Youtube all I want!

Its amazing how much more beautiful music becomes when you take the words out and just play it as magnificently as you possibly can. It doesn't hurt that I've been in love with the cello since I was six years old, either.

I don't even know what else to say to try and convince you how incredible this music is. It just is. It's awesome.

Enjoy :)

Peppermint Winter

Just look at that! JUST LOOK AT IT!

It finally feels like the Christmas season! It finally feels like Advent, even! I don't know how the genius worked out that we celebrate the coming of Jesus at a time when the world is so magically beautiful! 

Short Story Creator

I haven't had this good of a laugh in a while. I was bored, I was online, so I googled 'story creator' seeing what would come up, and I found this site, where you enter a bunch of random things and it creates a whole story out of them. After 30 days of madcap writing, it was really very entertaining to have a ridiculous story written FOR me. It's hilarious because I had no idea what it was going to do, so I put in my friend Steve's name, and it turned him into a blue fish (who apparently has a scruff you can pick him up by)! Enjoy!

"A SHORT STORY", by Clare Bear

Once upon a time there was a young girl named Clare. Clare was 17 years old and lived in Minnie, Minnesota. While walking home from school one day, a blue fish jumped out from behind a train car and tackled Clare to the ground. But just when she was about to let out a scream for help, Clare realized that the blue fish was only licking her face, not trying to bite it off. At that moment, Clare decided to keep the blue fish as a pet. And on the way home she decided to name her pet blue fish "Steve."

When Clare and her new pet finally got home, guess who was standing on the front porch? That's right, it was Clare's mother, Julie. And boy was she surprised to see a blue fish following Clare into the yard! "What in world is that?" shouted Julie. "It's a blue fish," answered Clare. "Dah, I can see that, Clare, but what on earth is it doing here?" said Julie. "It's my new pet!" answered Clare. "Oh you think so do you?" remarked Julie. "I wouldn't get your hopes up. You know how your father hates blue fishs. But, well, I suppose you can keep him until your father comes home." And with that Clare grabbed Steve by the scruff of the neck and led her new pet into the house -- even though she knew her father was probably going to dissaprove.

Once in the house, Clare and Steve played and played, that is until Clare's favorite television show, "Doctor Who," started. At that point Clare forgot all about Steve having an unsupervised run of the house. That is until half way through "Doctor Who," when Clare was brought back to reality when she heard her father shout, "rage!! Clare! Get your rump in the basement...NOW!!" With that Clare rushed into the basement to see what all the fuss was about.

When she entered the basement, there stood her father, Mike, pointing toward the ottomon. "Will someone please explain that?" asked her father. Then, as Clare followed her father's finger to where it was pointing, she instantly knew what her father was so upset about. There, smack dab in the middle of the ottomon, was the biggest pile of fish doo-doo she had ever seen! "I don't EVEN want to know how that got there," said Mike. "But you had better get it cleaned up now! And you had better get rid of whatever it is that could have done such a thing!"

Well, knowing her father as well as she did, Clare knew there was no sense even asking her father if she could keep Steve for a pet. So without hesitation, Clare set out to find where Steve was hiding.

After a few minutes of looking, Clare discovered Steve crouched beneath the table that Clare did her writing on. "Come on, Steve, it's time to find you a new home. And hey, don't look at me that way, I'm not the one who did the dirty deed on the ottomon!" scolded Clare. "Thanks to you I'll never get to have my own pet fish!! And with that Clare led Steve out of the house and down to the local Michael's. Michael's had a pet section and Clare knew the owner would find Steve a good home. So after saying good-bye to Steve, and thanking the owner of Michael's, Clare walked backed home and attempted to dround her sorrows by slamming down a half dozen Arnold Palmers. But Clare's pitty party came to an abrupt end when her father reminded her about the mess she had neglected to clean up. And low and behold, midway through the clean-up, Clare suddenly became thankful that someone else was going to have to do it from now on.

The End.

NaNoWriMo 2012, FINAL DAY...

I have won. My word count is 50,048.

Is my novel done? No. I might end up with 100,000 words before this story is complete, but in spite of a violent attack of the flu, hosting an entire NET team over Thanksgiving, and moving to a new house with one week of notice, I have, by the grace of God, done it. 

The Leprechaun Holiday will continue until Padraig is safely back in Ireland and they all get a reasonably happy ending.

I love NaNoWriMo. 

Thanksgiving 2012

I am thankful for:

·         My Catholic faith

·         God’s unfailing love

·         My big family

·         My wonderful, loving friends

·         Our big old maroon 12-passenger Ford van

·         Our parish priest

·         Going to Italy this past January

·         Seeing  my best friend for a few hours at a mall

·         Spending three days with my other best friend’s family

·         NaNoWriMo, even though I’m behind

·         My youth group

·         The new friends I’ve made this year

·         The old friends who have kept in touch with me

·         This house and the new house we’ll be moving to soon

·         Hope

·         All my very nice clothes, especially the ones I’ve had for over two years that still fit me and are so cozy and comfy, even if they’re losing their shape

·         Second chances

·         Clean rooms

·         Messy rooms

·         Rooms

·         Good music and movies that make you feel like you’ve become better inside just by being exposed to them

·         Musicals and all things drama/theater

·         My life

·         Love 

NaNoWriMo Day 16: BOOK TRAILER

Well, instead of actually writing, which is what I should have been doing, I made my NaNo Novel a trailer. 

It was a lot of fun, so I figure it was worth getting a little behind on my word count to finish up. Unfortunately, I have no way of posting it to this blog, but I was able to post it to my tumblr, and here is a link for it! Feel free to watch it and tell me what you think! 

My family loves it, and my mom is pestering me to let her read the book as soon as December 1st gets here. I have agreed to this only because I need someone to edit it for me. 

My current word count is 24,329, and it should be at least 26,672, but I have a quiet house today, so I'll be working ahead, hopefully enough that I won't have to write so much during the Thanksgiving holiday, as we're having a lot of company over!

Would anyone care for an excerpt to go with their trailer? Note that 'eejit' is the Irish pronunciation of 'idiot'. Enjoy!

Finally, it was time for Padraig to be on his way. He hung the pink/red plaid duffel over his right shoulder and held his suitcase in his left hand. That was all he had, and, hopefully, all he’d need. The suitcase was heavy. His back pocket seemed even heavier, holding that bleedin’ Visa card with who-knew-how-much money just waiting for him to spend all over Europe.

Gosh, his back hurt.

He stood in front of his family’s tiny white cottage with its gray roof, surrounded by meadows where the ship grazed. He just stood there, waiting to start off down the road.

He looked at his family, who were eagerly taking pictures of him and giving last-minute advice. Ruari finally remembered to say, “Get me something everywhere you go! It doesn’t matter what, just get me something, as long as its not really made in China! Promise me!”

Padraig sighed. “I promise Ruari.” He set his duffel and suitcase down, and opened his arms up. “Come here,”

Ruari took and running start and tackled him, which was surprisingly painful considering she only weighed about thirty-six kilograms. He held his baby sister tight, his heart pounding painfully inside his chest. He was going to miss the little devil so much. She talked his ear off and made him promise all sorts of ridiculous things, but he didn’t mind. He even forgave her for sitting on him at 7:30 in the morning.

Next he hugged his dad one more time, though they said nothing to each other.

Then he hugged his mother tight, nodded at everything she said, and assured her he’d be better when he got home. Better. Maybe that was a promise he could actually keep.

Finally, he opened his arms up and smiled at Deirdre, but she just looked at him, her eyes filled with anger and worry. “Bye, Porry,” she said.

“Didi,” he said. “Don’t I get a hug?”

Reluctantly, she went to him and wrapped her arms around him. “Eejit baby brother. You better be happy when you come home. I miss the happy Porry,”
“I’ll try,” he said. She tried to pull away, and he hugged her tighter. “Deirdre,” he whispered. “Are you really okay?”

Deirdre shook her head. “No. But you’re leaving. It’s not your problem, Padraig. Go and get better. Go.”

She pushed him gently but firmly away and walked back into the house.

Padraig watched her go, than saluted weakly to his parents and Ruari. Then he picked up his bags and turned his back on Slieve Bloom. He walked quickly, listening to Aoifa call out after him and Ruari singing him The Parting Glass, but he didn’t look back once. He didn’t look back, because he knew if he did, he would start crying and he might never stop. He hadn’t cried in five years and he didn’t want to ever do it again.

He had a three day walk ahead of him and a tight schedule, and his back was killing him. 

NaNoWriMo 2012, Day 15--HALFWAY THERE!

Seriously the best thing about NaNoWriMo?

My parents are my biggest fans.

: )

NaNoWriMo Day 12: Character Reveal!

Introducing our Leading Lady, the main Female Character who is quite frankly more fabulous than I will EVER be...Barbara Peplum!

Barbara was made at http://elouai.com/

Age: 22 DOB: 2-7-1990


Story Role: Female Protagonist    

Archetype: 5. The Explorer
Motto: Don’t fence me in
Core desire: the freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world
Goal: to experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life
Biggest fear: getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness
Strategy: journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom
Weakness: aimless wandering, becoming a misfit
Talent: autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s soul
The explorer is also known as: The seeker, iconoclast, wanderer, individualist, pilgrim.


Physical
Eyes: Brown    Hair:  Curly, curly, CURLY ash brown
Height: 5”5   Build: Curvy


A little bit about Barbara: Barbara is a very talented singer and actress from the Twin Cities in Minnesota. When Padraig runs into her in London, she is going throughout Europe singing to raise money for a school for disabled children back in her hometown. She is due for a surgery on her throat when she gets home, as her voice has been overused. Barbara is an independent, confident young woman, but she is troubled by how fortunate she is when the rest of her friends and family have suffered so much.

Word Count: Currently 19,301. Padraig and Stian are about to go a little crazy in the English countryside, and there will be Deep Personal Sharing, which is like my favorite thing ever.

In other news, I just packed a whole box filled with clothes in preparation for moving out sometime in the near future (nothing definite, but its amazing how much room I have now that most of my clothes are packed away). I miss my best friend (I love you!). I read 100 pages, wrote two papers, and recited a poem today. And I just ripped seven CD's to my laptop. All while writing a 50,000 word novel.

Amen.

My favorite word

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NaNoWriMo 2012 Day Eleven: Character Reveal!

Our next character reveal just so happens to be my favorite character of NaNoWriMo 2012....STIAN AABERG!

Stian was made at http://elouai.com/

Story Role: Best friend

Age: 19   DOB: 9-9-1993

Archetype: 11. The Magician

Motto: I make things happen.

Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe

Goal: to make dreams come true

Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences

Strategy: develop a vision and live by it

Weakness: becoming manipulative

Talent: finding win-win solutions

The Magician is also known as: The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man.

Physical

Eyes: Blue    Hair:  Blonde

Height: 5"11"   Build: Tall

A little bit about Stian: Stian Aaberg is an elf from Honningsvåg, Norway. When he finds Padraig Offaly in London, Stian has been away from home for about six months. He ran away from his family because of a strange magical power that he has very little control over, which he believes could pose a threat to the safety of those he loves. He is a cheerful, optimistic person and is the first to befriend the holidaying leprechaun. His scarf was a gift from his grandmother and he always wears it. Padraig enjoys dragging Stian around by his scarf, especially when Stian starts to flirt with girls. 

Current word count: I got two days behind Friday and Saturday, but I am now completely caught up and my word count is 18,377!

Also, today is my younger sister Meg's birthday!

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3 NaNo's in a row, Meg. I love you so much! Happy Sweet Sixteen!!!

Jaberwocky

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This week, I have to memorize Lewis Carroll's Jaberwocky. 

This poem is awesome, but I do NOT want to have to memorize/recite it. It's essentially nonsense. 90% of the words are made up. I really enjoy reading it aloud with a lot of passion when I'm by myself in my room, but that's very different from standing in front of my eager family and reciting it. From memory. 

So, that's what I'm up to in the realm of schoolwork. I have another poem to recite that I ignored last week, and I haven't memorized that one, either. 

Procrastination will be my undoing. 

Oh...please remember to keep tomorrow's election in your prayers!  

NaNoWriMo 2012: Day 4! And Election Day!!

I would like to say that in light of the coming presidential election, this seems kind of trivial. I am praying for our nation, that the will of God will be accomplished. My dad recommends that we pray and fast as we are able, and I will definitely be doing what I can!
Keep both presidential candidates in your prayers, too...they're running all over the nation in some last-minute campaigning. 
It kind of stings that I'm too young to vote by only about 5 weeks, but I am praying that the candidate who will best carry out God's will for our nation will be elected. 
As small as my little speed-written novel is in comparison with the fate the United States, I can't deny I am enjoying myself and trying to give glory to God in what I write. So I thought I would give a status report on my NaNo Novel!

WORD COUNT: 6,700

STORY FEELINGS: GOOD!

A FUNNY LINE TO SHARE: "An hour later, Ruari had punched Padraig in the nose, and he was curled up on a ball on the floor, attempting to get his nose to stop bleeding."

I love NaNoWriMo so much. My mom actually tells me to 'go write', which gives me the most amazing sensation of creative POWER. I've been staying up late, but I've been following my story outline like a Bible. 

How is it going so far?

Well, I think it's going well. I have, as I said, six thousand and seven hundred words. BOOM. I love writing this story; naturally, my main character has been a whiney brat all 6,700 words, but he'll improve. This is all part of the plot. Trust me. 

I would like to thank Google Earth, from the bottom of my heart, for letting me take a virtual stroll along R440 in County Offaly, Ireland. The accuracy of my book deeply appreciates it. 

I will have another character reveal soon...maybe even a novel excerpt! God bless you all! 

Well, this is accurate:

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NaNoWriMo 2012 Day 1: MAIN CHARACTER REVEAL...

Introducing: Your main character and lovable leprechaun, PADRAIG OFFALY!

(made at http://elouai.com/)

(Recall that Padraig is a fun Gaelic name pronounced Porrick)

Story Role: Protagonist 

Age: 23  DOB: 2-7-1989

Eyes: Blue    Hair:  Black

Height: 5”   Build: Small

Archetype:  4. The Caregiver

Motto: Love your neighbour as yourself

Core desire: to protect and care for others

Goal: to help others

Greatest fear: selfishness and ingratitude

Strategy: doing things for others

Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited

Talent: compassion, generosity

The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, supporter.

A little bit about Padraig: Padraig Offaly is a modern-day leprechaun who was born and raised in the Slieve Bloom Mountains of County Offaly, Ireland. He is the second of three children. His sisters are Deirdre (Deer-dra), 25, and Ruari (Rory), 17. His parents are Aengus (Angus) Offaly and Aoifa (Ee-fa) Offaly. He is the first leprechaun to ever become genuinely depressed, so his desperate family forcibly sends him off on 'holiday' for a year to help him recover. 

I am absolutely delighted to start writing his story...I promise its going to be a fantastic one!

Two Meanings of "Love"

source

NaNoWriMo: Another Character Reveal?

Introducing our next minor character...Deirdre Offaly!

Deirdre was created using http://elouai.com/

Age: 25 DOB: 1987

Story Role: Sister

Archetype: 6. The Outlaw
Motto: Rules are made to be broken
Core desire: revenge or revolution
Goal: to overturn what isn’t working
Greatest fear: to be powerless or ineffectual
Strategy: disrupt, destroy, or shock
Weakness: crossing over to the dark side, crime
Talent: outrageousness, radical freedom
The Outlaw is also known as: The rebel, revolutionary, wild man, the misfit, or iconoclast.


Physical
Eyes: Green    Hair:  Auburn
Height: 4”7   Build: Petite

A Little Bit About Deirdre: Deirdre Offaly is the eldest Offaly child. She attends Tullamore College in County Offaly where she is studying viciously to become a math teacher. She is a highly successful, dominant, and opinionated young woman who has been proposed to no less than six times. Her role in the story is complex, as she is a not entirely nice older sister to her siblings Padraig and Ruari, but has good intentions no one could imagine. 

Happy weekend, everyone! FIVE DAYS TO GO!!

Feminine Genius

Stand up for your liberty, girls, because people are putting words in our mouths and using us as an excuse to make things against our religion MANDATORY. Don’t you ever believe that when a law is passed, everything is over. If we speak out, they will have no choice but to listen. 

When Can I See You Again?

As a girl with very few, very wonderful friends who all live way too far away...

When can I see you again?

(I love being able to schedule posts...I'm lining them up for the WHOLE weekend :D)

Being Catholic is so cool.

I'm staying at a Super 8 with my dad, and, just like he always does, my dad went around with his trusty little bottle of Holy Water and blessed our hotel room. All four corners, all four walls, windows and doors.

Who needs ADT when you've got Sacred H2O?

Isn't that wonderful?

Not only does my dad love me enough to bless our hotel room to keep us safe, but he is actually LIVING his faith. He is making his life a prayer. Sometimes I get really frustrated and angry with my dad, but I love how seriously he takes his faith. And its MY faith, too.

I think we Catholics ignore our awesome resources way too often; Holy Water is a powerful sacramental that can expel demons, and we can get as much as we want from our local Baptismal Fount.

I love being Catholic.

God bless you all :)

9 Days till NaNoWriMo: First character reveal!

Lady's first! The first female character to appear in the story will be...RUARI OFFALY!

Ruari was made at http://elouai.com/

First of all, you might not be certain how one says Ruari's name, but this one isn't hard...in English, it would be spelled Rory, but it is pronounced the same. Her name comes from the Irish 'rua' which means 'red-headed king'. source

Story Role: Comedy relief/Sister

Age: 17 DOB: 3-4-1995

Archetype: 9. The Jester
Motto: You only live once
Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world
Greatest fear: being bored or boring others
Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny
Weakness: frivolity, wasting time
Talent: joy
The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian.

Physical
Eyes: Green    Hair:  Red
Height: 4”8   Build: Petite

A little bit about Ruari: Ruari is the youngest member of the Offaly leprechaun family. She has two older siblings, Deirdre and Padraig. Her parents are Aengus and Aoifa Offaly. She is a minor character, but she will be very present in the story because she writes to her older brother frequently while he is on holiday. All leprechauns naturally love mischief, but she is a troublemaker.

I know some people are going to be curious as to whether or not Ruari is going to be an Irish leprechaun version of me, and the answer is: I sure hope not. It might happen naturally since we're both redheads and almost the same age. But no, I am nothing like the Ruari in my mind is; Ruari is not entirely considerate of other people, and she is far more amusing than I am.

Nine days to go, and I am bursting with excitement! I'll get another character reveal going as soon as I can, but right now I'm just trying to get the WHOLE story plotted out so all 30 days of NaNo-ing will basically be expanding one plot point at a time until we have a novel!

NaNoWriMo: 13 days to go!

I'm getting really excited! I have started creating book characters on http://elouai.com/, which is always fun. I will do some character reveals once we get closer, and I actually start writing.

One thing I'm happy to announce is I actually have a name for my main character! It comes from a minor character in a  BBC show called Ballykissangel my mother really liked for a while . It is spelled Padraig, but it is pronounced 'POOR-RICK'. I did not make this name up, just FYI. The name means 'patrician' or 'noble', which I thought was fitting for a Leprechaun.

My mom is ridiculously excited to read it when I'm done, so I'm going to strive to actually successfully write it from start to finish, which I didn't do my first two years. That was mainly because I failed to pace myself, so I'm going to write up a better story line this year, for sure.

I also have plans to sneak people I know into the book, not even as minor characters, but just as random strangers. It's going to be way too much fun.

I'm leaving for the weekend and won't have a lot of internet access, but I'm starting to do some legitimate research on Ireland so I don't look like a complete simpleton. I am Irish on both my mom and my dad's side, so I think I am up to the task!

This is going to be the best NaNoWriMo EVER.

source

ACT prep

I finally got logged in to start practicing for the ACT online, and the first thing I looked at was the basic overview of what the MATH portion of the ACT looks like.

Unfortunately, all it made me do was cry.

I am horrible at algebra, because I can never remember what the first step to solving a problem is, and I can never correctly rewrite a problem. I didn't get it the three years I took it in high school, and if anything, its gotten worse now. I just have no clue.

I never took geometry, trigonometry  or even advanced algebra. I did intermediate algebra for two years, and I still didn't get all the way through the book.

So, I'm kind of depressed, not because I was planning on becoming a Biologist and all my hopes and dreams have been crushed or anything. No. It's because I want to do my best, but I feel like even my best will result in a total mathematical flop.

That's just kind of hard, you know? I didn't try hard enough when I had to do algebra, I barely met the requirements to graduate, and now it's going to bite me in the butt when I'm actually confronted by algebra in real life. I have never even fully memorized the multiplication tables. I didn't care, so I didn't try.

I know what I'll have to do; make my best guess on all the problems. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a few of them right. That might be good enough, but I hate being mediocre. I wanted to do better than good enough...I want to be able to sit down and understand how to do an algebra problem from start to finish, and I can't.

I'm just really angry with myself, because I could have done so much better, and I didn't.