Saturday....

Took Juliette to basketball today. She's seven years old. I forgot how many questions seven-year-olds ask: What bus are we taking home? How do we get to the bus? How long is the bus trip? What's your favorite kind of chocolate? When does the bus come? What's that? How long til we get home? Where are we now? What does that say? Did you see that? Why's that sign there? Do we get off at the next stop? What's your favorite colour? Is this our stop? Do we have to walk down that street to get home now?

And so on, and so forth... It was a long morning. But good. And I made money, so then I got to go dress shopping with one of my most favorite people in the world! =D Though I probably drove her crazy trying to find a dress for my formal. I'm terrible at clothes shopping. I don't know what I want, I just know what I don't want.... Sorry Katie! It's okay. We found a dress, finally ... its blue! I like it.

Came home through Newtown ... on Halloween. So weird! We saw a horse-drawn carriage with steampunk-style goths riding it for a funeral. Kinda cool. Also a guy dressed in ragged clothes with fake blood all over his face, staggering down the street like a zombie ... I worked out that I don't really want to be in Newtown when it gets dark. That's when the vampires come out....

Got back and played Raving Rabbids with Katherine, Jono, Dan and Justin. SO MUCH FUN!! They stayed for dinner and we got slurpies after. Now watching Terminator 2 with Katherine and Justin. I love you guys.

Oh, and NaNoWriMo starts in 2 hours!!!!!!!!! Can't wait. ^_^

The clock is ticking...

NaNoWriMo starts at midnight!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^

Tomorrow always seems better than today...

Nothing much happened today ... and yet, a lot of things did.

I completed my TAFE application, finished all my current photoshop pictures, including the biggest project of my youth group, iPod ad style, I went to the library and saw a sign that said "NO LOITERING. Library Staff and Police on patrol in this area" and had this funny image in my head of a timid librarian patrolling a dark corridor with a flashlight; I went to Officeworks and got all my pictures printed it off, saw Gaylene at Officeworks, and while waiting for my pictures to print had a texting convo with Katherine about formal dresses. And now she's taking me dress shopping on Saturday! =D So excited.

Yeah, very much looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday. The pool and Youthsurge tomorrow. Formal dress shopping and sleepover on Saturday. Huzzah!

Sorry, that was kind of a boring post. But I just felt like writing it. After I do all this fun stuff there should be more exciting posts to write.

♥ eternity makes it possible to love someone forever ♥

For the people in my life with whom I cannot wait to spend eternity, and am constantly grateful for:

"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them." - Agatha Christie

"If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I'd be picking roses for a lifetime." - Swedish Proverb

"If I never met you, I wouldn't like you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't miss you if you ever went away. But I did, I do, and I if will."

"If you have to think about whether you love someone or not then the answer is no. When you love someone you just know."

"Love is missing someone whenever you're apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you're close in heart."

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. - I Corinthians 13:4-8

"I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time." - Hobbes, from Calvin and Hobbes

I made it myself.

I just want things to go faster....

Okay, so I told you about the texts I've been getting in the morning from one of my friends ... only sometimes I miss them. Well, I thought I'd be clever and leave my phone on loud overnight in case she texted me this morning, considering that I had to get up quite early anyway to take a friend's child to basketball, so I could use her text as an alarm. Turns out this was a stupid idea, because the only text I received (at about 7am) was from the mother of the child saying that her daughter was sick and therefore my services were not required until next week. Yay.
Now that I think about it ... it's quite obvious that my friend was not going to message me this morning. It is a Saturday. We are both teenagers. We like to stay up late on Friday nights. So anyway, this post is accompanied by the title and this picture because I'm currently being very impatient. I didn't get my sleep-in which just means more hours I have to endure until 5pm Sunday, which is youth group, which I am very excited about. And above all I just wish Jesus would come back right away.

My writing space!

I promised myself I would ACTUALLY USE my writing space during the month of November for NaNo. It's really is a cool writing space ... I'm just too lazy and like to lay on the couch instead....
So, to make myself more eager to use this coolio space, I'm putting some pictures up. Here you go:

Now, I'm hoping you can see the numbers in the picture that I have added for your convenience. Only problem is, if you can't see them then they're obviously not convenient. Hmm. Well, I'm gonna go along like you can see them, sooo.....

1. Is the stack of manila folders I keep in a folder-holder (hehe). Handy for dividing all my printed-off material into organized piles.

2. Is the chair that I do not like. Probably part of the reason I don't like to use this space very much. When I am a rich and famous author (unlikely, but hey) I'm going to by a wonderful leather chair on wheels that's so comfy I'll want to eat dinner up in my study, which my husband will not like (yes in my fantasy of being a rich and famous author I am also married - and I would like to think at least that part is likely).

3. Is my little notebook laptop. His name is Trent. He's a bit small and a bit slow but don't pick on him ... he's not a Mac but he tries his best! Go Trent.

4. Is quite obviously, a Ghostbusters poster. I acquired it from an Empire magazine. Thank you Kristen, for introducing me to Empire.

5. Is the bulletin board. Pics of all my incredibly awesome friends. Take special note of the Scott Pilgrim drawing and the green badge next to the US dollar bill. It says "Vote for Katherine".

6. Is the white-board. Currently (meaning, in the photo) it says "PRACTICE LINES!!" "NaNoWriMo Prep" and "Costume Design" which I have done.

7. Is a pile of uni work crammed into a holder so it looks neat. trust me it is not. I can't find anything.

8. Is the stack of pencil cases and notebooks. Writing notebooks, drawing books, and my NIDA folder.


So yeah, that's my writing space. Next to it, is this shelf:

Which contains all my writing books an a few of my favorite books and plays. Though unfortunately,  I was an idiot and did not make sure that the shelf held all its contents before taking the picture. So missing from the photo are my beloved book "45 Master Characters" and a dictionary of idioms given to me by my parents. :)

So yeah. Cool.

A pig with whiskers.

Hi again. This is my cat. His name is Hektor.
But my brother secretly thinks he is a pig with whiskers.
He is incredibly fat and no one knows how that happened....

Here is his gorgeously handsome face that you cannot help but love...... 

And here is his not-so-gorgeous face....

Yes, he may be fat ... but that just means there's more of him to love ^_^

STAND!

Oh, stand! (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

Oh, stand up (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

He'll stand with you, oh yeah.

 

So true. Gotta Love Veggie-Tales!

more of buscar....

Well, apparently my little "buscar" box really thinks he is a bus-car, or something, because he has decided to move himself below the actual search box. I don't know if you can see his new position on your computer, but I can ... and it's a little annoying. Stay where you are!!

I've been getting 'good morning' texts from a friend of mine for the past week now - she's so wonderful. It's lovely to find a little message on my phone wishing me a good day when I wake up every morning! Only this morning I wasn't awake to hear my phone beep. Sorry...

I wish you knew....

"We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

- 1 John 4:19-21

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." - Matthew 5:44

Steampunk! For the Sims 3....

So, the Sims 3 got steampunk. And I HAD to get some stuff for my sims. I made a sim of my main character, Christian Rheese, for my up-and-coming-in-November steampunk/dark fantasy detective novel.

I'm kind of torn between thinking that this is WICKED-AWESOME and thinking that this kind of sucks. Here I was for a little while, thinking I was ahead of the market, going to write a steampunk novel that was really cool and actually have a chance of getting published. Turns out on NaNo there are A LOT of people writing steampunk.

Oh well. I'm writing it anyway, of course. Nothing will stop me! Guess it's just a bonus that I can make a sim of Christian now. ^_^

When stuff gets destroyed it hurts.

Like, a lot.

So this is my friend Jay and his coolio guitar. Which got destroyed on Wednesday because someone quite obviously stepped on it or smashed it without his knowledge and did not tell him. The head of the guitar is snapped off.

And this is a picture of a broken guitar that I got off his blog, which you can check out here. It's not ACTUALLY his ... at least, I don't think so. But either way that's just devestating to look at, if you're a guitar player like me or Jay. It hurts to think about it.

But yeah stuff getting destroyed just sucks. And it doesn't just have to be an object, like a guitar. If it gets destroyed, it sucks. And it hurts. Big time. But as Christians we forgive those who cause destruction. So everything's gonna be okay.

Luke 15:7

Do you know ... right now, the heavens are rejoicing because less than a second ago someone, somewhere, just became a christian. The angels are partying. Isn't that like the coolest thing ever?

So you, reading this ... I don't know who you are. Maybe I actually DO know you in real life. But whether or not I do, I hope we meet in heaven. Because that would be awesome.

Buscar?

I have a phone! And I've made literally 100 texts in the last four days or so. I love my friends.

Okay anyway, so I just changed my blog template, right? I love this new one. Only thing is, it was originally in Spanish, so I changed everything back to English so I could, you know ... read it. Problem is I have no control, apparently, over changing the search-box in the top right corner. So it says, "buscar". I googled that. For the exact meaning. It means, literally, in Spanish, "to seek". Which makes sense. But it does look a bit weird. So I'm just letting you know that I do not speak Spanish, maybe you do, I don't know, but either way that box is going to stay the way it is unless I discover a way to make it say "search", or possibly something cooler. So yeah that's all about that box.

Anyway.
This is, officially, the 7th post of October. Making October the month in which I have had the most posts. Yay! How exciting. I do have so much to say, and there is so much more I would like to say, but a lot of things people would like to say shouldn't go on the internet. For that I will stay partially silent. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of what is posted on my blog. You might not understand it all. I don't think I understand all of what I write.

A list of things to tell you, concerning television shows and books:

1. Firefly is cool even though it was cancelled. Watch it anyway.

2. Is a plug for the book "Every Young Woman's Battle". If you a a girl between the ages of 13 and 22 or so, or you are a mother of a daughter of that age, I recommend reading it. It actually changed my life.

3. I am reading a book called "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. A friend reccommended it to me. I have only read about the first ten pages or so but I like it so much that I changed my blog title in honor of the 9-year-old protagonist, Oskar. So thanks, Oskar.

4. The bible is the best book in the world. And I'm not just plugging it because I"m a Christian. It is, seriously, a good book.

5. Ever watched Wipeout? In need of a laugh? Quick. Youtube it. Or something. It's on Go! at about 7 pm on Sundays or something, I think. Google that too. My information may be inaccurate.

6. I have to go now and do uni work. I have to read "Film Art: An Introduction" which is far more than an introduction, let me tell you.

7 - which I just thought I'd cram in as I was leaving - Go read Scott Pilgrim!

10 days and I'll be writing!

NaNoWriMo begins at midnight, November 1st. There's still time to sign up! Do it. There's a link for their page if you scroll down a bit and look to the left where it says "wicked-awesome links" or something like that.

My plot is all mapped out. I have all the characters. The setting. The mystery. I have a narrator now, too. Double points for me. ^_^

I nearly signed this post as "see you in November" in hopes that you would sign up for NaNoWriMo, but since I will be writing all-November-long, I probably won't see you.

♥

I hate to see them do you wrong
When you love the way you do

God I ♥ you.

Rejoice!

We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:3-5

No one can knock you down when you stand with Christ.

Psalm 15

A psalm of David.

¹ LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

² He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

³ and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,

⁴ who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,

⁵ who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.

A thirst for satisfaction.

It's a Friday evening. Your friend has just invited you to this really cool party that EVERYONE is going to tonight and it's been 3 years since you didn't go out on a Friday night because staying home is just waste of the start of your weekend. The weekend is what life is all about. Screw work and school and whatever, you wanna party!
So this party ... it's awesome. Or maybe it's not that great. But whatever, you're there to have fun so you drink yourself silly and dance the night away with a group of your friends ... you meant to be home at 2 but I guess those hours just slipped away....
At 7 in the morning maybe you made it home and are now lying on top your bed with half the clothes you wore to the party still on. You're good and tired and that hangover is really starting to get to you now so you try to sleep it off.
Awake again at 11:00, you kinda wasted what could've been a great morning shopping or seeing a movie or something, and that hangover is still clinging on....
You get a text from your friend saying there's an awesome party on in the city tonight and you totally have to be there. It's going to be sweet as.

Is this you? Maybe you know someone who does this. Lives for the weekend. Parties all night. But is it worth it? Was that party as great as it could have been? Are you going to parties and entertaining yourself with other high-adrenalined activities in an attempt to quench the overwhelming thirst to be satisfied with life?

Perhaps you're looking in the wrong place. Have you ever wondered why you can't seem to find simplistic happiness anymore? That ipod you just got - there's a newer version now and it holds 20 gigs more than the one you have and you've already run out of room. Your best friend just bought a car that runs faster than yours. The shoes you bought last month are already out of fashion.

The world seeks adrenaline and excitement. These days, it's hard to find things that make you really happy. Nothing lasts. Your sensations have been heightened by the pleasure you seek and numb you to the things you could find true satisfaction in.

All pleasure must be bought at a price. For true pleasure the price is paid before it is enjoyed. For false pleasure the price is paid after it is enjoyed. Remember that party you went to? It was great fun at the time, but now you've got a hangover.... Is this really true pleasure? Is what you experience at the party really worth hanging on to? You're seeking happiness in a place that will bring only fleeting pleasure - the few hours at the party. The couple of days that make up your weekend.

So, if you're read this, maybe now you're wondering where you can find true pleasure. This answer is simple - nothing in this world can bring you pleasure.

But hear this - Jesus CAN bring you eternal pleasure! He will quench your thirst for satisfaction.

Wait, wait - you're thinking. Jesus? But Christianity is restricting - I can't do the things I want to do! Christianity is like a straitjacket. I can't live a full life under Jesus.

But you can! John 10:10 says: "I have come so that they may have LIFE and have it to the FULL." Jesus is here so that you can live your life to its fullest.

God is not against pleasure. When He created the world, He made it to be pleasing to us. Read Genesis 2:9: "And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food."

See that? God made fruit to please us! And that's just one thing of many that He created for our pleasure.

We gain purpose in a relationship with Jesus. John 10: 1-21 says that Jesus is like a shepherd, and we are his sheep. He knows his sheep well and they know him by his voice. The shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep because he cares so deeply for them. The sheep know his voice and will listen to it, but will scatter when they are called by a stranger.

This is how we are like in the world. Jesus is there for us to guide us and give us a full life, safe with him and satisfied to the full. He laid down His life for us on the cross so that we might be saved. When the devil calls us to seek pleasure and satisfaction in other places, we scatter and are lost from Jesus.

But as his sheep we know His voice when he calls us back. Listen for Him. He is waiting for you. He is here so that we may live life to the full.

Think about the ways in which you seek pleasure. Do they bring you eternal satisfaction? No. Nothing on this earth can. And when we continue to seek for pleasure on this earth, our sensations are heightened so that it becomes harder and harder to find things here that please us. But Jesus can and will bring you satisfaction if you look to Him. He offers us more than this world ever can - eternal life and satisfaction. There is only one way to eternal satisfaction, and that is through Jesus, and if we find satisfaction in Jesus, we will also find satisfaction and simplistic happiness on this earth, knowing that one day He will return to bring us the gift of eternal life as he has promised. But the only way to receive the gift is to listen and believe this good news. Find Jesus, find satisfaction!

The blog to start blogging again

Hello! I haven't been here for a while. But that's ok, because I'm going to start blogging again now! I need a topic of interest to start upon ... oh! NaNoWriMo! National Novel Writing Month! Look it up. If you are a writer, or want to be a writer (like me) then NaNoWriMo just might be for you. My novel planning is pretty much complete and I'm waiting anxiously for November to come. November is THE MONTH for NaNo. So look it up while you still have time! Here's a picture for you to get you even more interested....