January 31

This is post number 94, so I'm approaching the 100 post line. Awesome! I can't believe I've been blogging that long.

January is almost over, and I have just discovered how much I have to do this year. Not a very pleasant discovery, except for the fact that I have a whole lot of compulsory reading to do, which is very cool! I can't wait for that part, though I'm a little nervous about the rest.

My sister has a lot of Virtual Villagers walking around. Not the same ones as a few days ago, as an alarming number of them died, so we restarted with some new villagers. These ones will hopefully survive better than the last lot.

My brother is attempting a game of chess beside me, but it isn't going well. He keeps getting checkmated. My little brother is just playing outside again. He is definitely the most outdoorsy of our family. He actually really likes being outdoors, with mozzies, guinea pigs squealing, mud squelching, and itchy grass. I'm obviously not a fan. But my brother can find all these imaginary villains, as well a whole lot of men to follow him around and do follow all his orders without question.

Isn't fop such a great word? It doesn't seem like a real word, but it is, and when you say it right, it sounds fantastic! Fop, by definition, means

1

obsolete : a foolish or silly person

2

: a man who is devoted to or vain about his appearance or dress : coxcomb, dandy. 

Such a great word!

More Baby Piggies

These are our absolutely beautiful baby piggies. They're a little dirty at the moment, but are still very cute. Thunder is black, as black as a thundercloud, and Lightning is brown, with a small white patch that looked a lot more like a lightning strike when he was a newborn. Thunder is bigger then Lightning, and they are both bigger than the 4 babies that were born a few days before these two were.

January 30

Today was another of those days that seem to be shadowing me. Nothing much happened, but it was a good day. I got plenty done, but none of it was extraordinary, and often wasn't even interesting. Tomorrow our teachers come around, to get a writing piece, and talk with us. Scary! On the plus side, they're bringing more books! That's always a good thing.

My little brother, sister, mother and I read/acted some of Pride and Prejudice this afternoon. We each chose a part, and played it out. We usually had to change parts at the end of a chapter, but it was still an interesting activity. I'm the only one who has read the whole book, although my sister read some of it last year, so I was the main reader, as in, I was narrating.

My little brother is in the backyard, as it has finally stopped raining, and has even mostly been clear today. Unfortunately, that means we will probably have to change guinea pig houses this afternoon, and that's a really smelly job, especially after rain.

I actually haven't posted pictures of Thunder and Lightning, at least not that I can recall, so I'll go take some photos, and be back soon to post them.

The Kings Love (edited)

One of my followers pointed out that I had actually switched from past tense to present tense part way through the story, then switched back a bit later. So here is the edited version.

The King’s Love

 

24 January 2012

Once, there was a girl. She thought she had everything. She thought she was good. She thought her life was perfect. But it wasn’t.

As she grew older, she realized that she didn’t have everything, and life wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

She was enslaved by the ruler of her world. She wasn’t perfect, and what she thought was hers wasn’t. It was all part of one thing. She had to work hard, to get things she couldn’t use, and didn’t need, but thought she needed. She felt stressed, worthless, and hopeless. She cried out for help.

Then, one day, a King arrived. He came to her home and said “Child, I want you to be my Princess. You asked for help, and I want to give it. If you trust me, one day I will come fro you, and take you to a place far away, where you will be loved and cherished. I want you to be my Daughter, and live in my Palace. Just trust me, and all this will come to you. Will you trust me?”

The girl looked at the King, and saw a forever of happiness, and the love of a father, in his eyes. She trusted him completely.

“I may not come for a long time, but I will leave with you my Son. He loves you a lot, as much as I do, and paid the ruler of this land with blood so that he and I could come for you, and free you. He will stay with you, and be your Brother. If you trust him, and ask him for his help, he will help you, and do things you would never imagine.”

Then the King left, leaving his Son behind to watch over his new Princess.

The King’s Princess had a wonderful life, with her new Brother’s guidance. One day, the King came back for her. He lifted her into his golden carriage, and his Son got in beside her. He took his Daughter and his Son off to his magnificent palace, and even though his Daughter had never been there before, she still felt at home.

The Princess lived there forever with her Father, the King, her Brother, the King’s Son, and all the other Princes and Princesses that the King had called to him.

Rice

I was answering questions at freerice.com, when my older brother asked me how much rice fills a bowl. Because bowls come in all shapes and sizes, I can't tell that, but I did find out that there are 7,250 grains of rice in a cup. That is a lot of rice, for only a small serve. At freerice.com, they donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program for every question you answer correctly. That means you would have to answer 725 questions for one person to get one cup of rice. That's a pretty sad thought.

January 29

Virtual Villagers is a really fun game! I spent most of my afternoon watching the little people running around and working at their jobs. They aren't very clever, but they're really fun to watch.

We had a really delicious lunch today. Lasagna, then a pear crumble I cooked myself. It's the only dish I can really make. Otherwise, I can't cook anything.

Back at school tomorrow. It should be alright. School isn't so bad, and two teachers will be coming around on Tuesday to chat. That may or may not be something to look forward to, but it should be interesting!

Once again, we didn't do much today. It is a weekend, after all. That's one thing that a new school week will bring. Something to write about!

January 28

My brother is taking on a mysterious Fred on his computer. He is once again on Truthseeker, and is being attacked by plants. My little brother and my sister are playing a two player platform game. My sister is better at it.

Not much is happening now, because it's a weekend. On weekends, we don't do much. Especially when the weather is this weird. It was fine this morning, torrential 5 minutes ago, and is now drizzling. Hard to work with that kind of weather.

I don't know what else we will be doing today. Maybe a board game in the afternoon, I'll read a bit, online or off, and not much else.

My brother had to leave his game temporarily, and now his computer character is talking, asking when it will be time to save the world. It's got a bit of an attitude for a computer game. I think it's bored.

January 27

Thanks to my new follower, Lady Disdain. I now have a grand total of 5 followers! It's not much, but it's a start.

My family had an art afternoon here. My little brother was engraving, my sister was painting, and my older brother and my mother were drawing.  They did pretty well, but didn't finish. They probably will soon, maybe sometime next week.

First week back is almost over. Tomorrow is Saturday, and that means a break, and hopefully a sleep in. It also means I get to read my comic books again before they have to go back to the library. It's our policy here that no comic books are allowed to be borrowed out of holidays, unless holidays are coming up really soon, like, next week.

My sister is going to have to do keyboard soon, but for now she's just playing music on her computer. She just came up and read my post from over my shoulder, and now is talking at me about putting her in my blog. She doesn't read my blog, so she doesn't know what I blog about.

My little brother is in the backyard-turned-swamp. He likes playing out there, and even has a pair of cut down gumboots so he can be out there whenever, all weather.

Another guinea pig had babies today. They are super cute, and we called them Thunder and Lightning. Thunder is all black, Lightning is kind of really dark brown with a streak on his forehead. We called them Thunder and Lightning partly because of their colours, and partly because of the weather, which is atrocious (that is such a great word). Due to the aforementioned atrocious weather, I haven't got any photos yet.

Writing Pieces

I have written a few pieces over the last few days, and I think now is a good time to post them.

Yellow Rain

25 January 2012

One afternoon, I sat on the porch, in a swing chair, watching the rain. Rain, rain, rain. It came down hard. The skies were grey, and the sun was nowhere in sight. I put my foot on the ground to swing the seat. Swinging slowly back and forth, I started to get sleepy. My eyes were getting harder and harder to keep open. Suddenly, I noticed the rain didn’t look the same. The puddles in the gutter weren’t clear, or grey, they were a dirty yellow colour. I’d heard about acid rain, but was it really yellow? It looked more like lemonade. Now that I thought about it, the air smelt like lemonade too. Would it taste like lemonade? It still could be acid rain, and I could be burnt to a crisp. Was it worth it?

Without realizing it, I had already gotten off the swing chair, and was walking towards the yellow rain. Slowly, I poked a finger out towards the rain. A raindrop landed on my finger. At least now I knew it wasn’t acid rain. But was it lemonade? I licked the yellow raindrop off my finger. It was lemonade! I ran out into the front yard, standing there with my head tilted towards the sky, mouth wide open. I savored every drop that fell in my mouth.

Maybe I’m dreaming, I thought, half believing that that’s all it was. Nah, couldn’t be. My dreams never taste this good! I pinched my arm to prove it to myself. I’m not dreaming, I thought confidently. Then I woke up, lying on the swing chair, where I had fallen asleep watching the rain.  

The King’s Love

24 January 2012

Once, there was a girl. She thought she had everything. She thought she was good. She thought her life was perfect. But it wasn’t.

As she grew older, she realized that she didn’t have everything, and life wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

She was enslaved by the ruler of her world. She wasn’t perfect, and what she thought was hers wasn’t. It was all part of one thing. She had to work hard, to get things she couldn’t use, and didn’t need, but thought she needed. She felt stressed, worthless, and hopeless. She cried out for help.

Then, one day, a King arrives. He comes to her home and say “Child, I want you to be my Princess. You asked for help, and I want to give it. If you trust me, one day I will come fro you, and take you to a place far away, where you will be loved and cherished. I want you to be my Daughter, and live in my Palace. Just trust me, and all this will come to you. Will you trust me?”

The girl looked at the King, and saw a forever of happiness, and the love of a father, in his eyes. She trusted him completely.

“I may not come for a long time, but I will leave with you my Son. He loves you a lot, as much as I do, and paid the ruler of this land with blood so that he and I could come for you, and free you. He will stay with you, and be your Brother. If you trust him, and ask him for his help, he will help you, and do things you would never imagine.”

Then the King left, leaving his Son behind to watch over his new Princess.

The King’s Princess had a wonderful life, with her new Brother’s guidance. One day, the King came back for her. He lifted her into his golden carriage, and his Son got in beside her. He took his Daughter and his Son off to his magnificent palace, and even though his Daughter had never been there before, she still felt at home.

The Princess lived there forever with her Father, the King, her Brother, the King’s Son, and all the other Princes and Princesses that the King had called to him.

 This last one was written today, as part of a 100 word challenge. The challenge this week is based on a picture, this one to be specific. 

The piece itself, not including the title or date, is exactly 100 words. 

 

The Burger

 

27 January 2012

I grabbed my order from the counter and walked quickly to a table. When in a hurry, like I was, move fast. I sat down at the table, took my meal out of the bag and frowned. They had forgotten my burger! “I need a burger over here!” I shouted. “Burger coming sir,” called a worker. I scowled, not seeing anyone. How could they say that a burger was coming, when it obviously wasn’t? My attention was caught by a pair of hands coming out of the wall, holding a burger. “Your burger, sir” said a voice out of nowhere. 

I would really appreciate an opinion on any or all my writing pieces, so don't hesitate to give yours. 

Australia Day

It's Australia Day. Happy Australia Day! Have a great day, doing what you love to do. For lunch, my family had lamb steaks, with green avocado and golden corn. As Aussie as we could.

Unfortunately, my little brother is incredibly bored. My older brother, mother, sister, and, obviously, myself, are on the computer, and his computer is away in his bedroom, so he wouldn't be able to chat while on the computer. Here, that's what everyone does.

My brother is playing Truth Seeker. For those who don't know it, it's a game where you try to rid the world of weeds that are taking over everything. It's pretty cool, with a lot of evil plants.

Not a lot is going on at the moment. With everyone except my brother on the computer, all is pretty quiet, excepting of course my sister listening to music through her headphones. No one can hear the songs, but we can definitely hear her.

January 25

Finally, the rain has stopped enough for me to go out and take photos of our newest baby piggies. There are four of them, and they are really cute. My favorite is Angel, who has the most beautiful and unique colours of all our guinea pigs.  From the top is Teddy (affectionately nicknamed Tiny Teddy), Cadbury,  Marble, and Angel.  The one at the very bottom is also Angel.

24 January

For the middle of summer, surely it shouldn't be this rainy? It sounds like a stampede is going on right outside the door, and I'm almost as unwilling to go out in it.That means no baby guinea pig photos yet.

For our first week back, we have to write a report on something we did this holiday. I finished mine yesterday, and my sister finished hers yesterday, but my brothers take a while. My little brother is still working on his now.

My older brother is on his laptop, working on his game developing materials. He's really excited about it, and must be doing pretty well, because he definitely sounds like he is.

I've been writing today. I wrote a few different stories, and this is one of them. It's called Hiding.

Hiding

24 January 2012

She crouched under the bush, hardly daring to breathe. Were they after her yet? How close where they? She knew they were coming. They hadn’t seen her leave, but they’d figure out where she went. The only question was, how long would it take?

She shifted position. The thorns were scratching her arms, drawing blood. Surely nobody would look for her in the middle of a thorn bush. Who would hide there? She would. She couldn’t be found, not now.

She heard footsteps and stiffened. Don’t look here, she whispered in her head. Don’t look here. They came closer, moving slowly, taking care to search thoroughly. She heard breathing right next to the bush, and glimpsed a hand through the bush. She held her breath. After all her effort, surely she couldn’t be found now? As if answering her silent plea, a shout of pain rang out. Her searcher had caught his hand on a cluster of thorns, and withdrew. She smiled. She was safe, for now. Her smile quickly disappeared, as she remembered that though they’d moved on for now, they’d be back...and soon.

She heard some shouts in the distance. Had they caught someone else? At least it wasn’t her. She was still safe. Wait… they were coming back. Footsteps slowly moving toward her… making their way through the thorn bushes… closer…closer…and…”I found you!” her three year old brother shouted. Hide and seek was over.

 

Were you surprised? I had fun writing that piece. It's not long enough to submit as a report, but I'm not very good at writing long stories. I prefer short simple ones. Long ones need a plot.

My mother is listening to Third Day. They are her favorite band, and she loved their music. I think they're pretty good, but I have different tastes. They still make the list.

Snack time! Anyone who's reading this, now is the perfect time to get a snack. My mother is getting some nuts for us to nibble nicely, not Nobby's nuts, but still nibbly nuts. END OF ALLITERATION.

That's All, Folks!

January 23

For our first day back at school, did it have to be so rainy?! It's been steadily raining since mid-morning, and I'm tired of it. One of our guinea pigs had babies today, and I haven't been able to take photos, or even see them again because of all this rain.

My little brother is practising his harmonica. He got a new one for Christmas, to replace his old broken one, and I think he's enjoying it. My sister is on the keyboard at the same time, and they don't harmonize at all. They don't clash too badly, but they certainly don't harmonize! Now he's right behind me, staring at the rain while playing his harmonica. Maybe it inspires him. He can't actually play a song on it, but he makes up interesting melodies, that I kind of like.

The summer holidays are over, and so is the Summer Reading Competition at our library. I can't wait for them to announce a winner, but so far they haven't. I'm probably too impatient, but there isn't a specified date I can wait for, so impatience is inevitable.

My older brother has disappeared again. I'd like to know what he actually does in his room for hours on end, but I know what he doesn't do. His computer is sitting here beside me, so he's not on that, though I suspect he might be before long. I think maybe he's tidying the room he shares with my little brother. My little brother is a very adept hoarder, and keeps things that you wouldn't believe.

I'll try to get some baby piggy photos on my blog soon, maybe even later today. The rain is starting to slow, so it might not be long.

January 22

 I'm in a bad mood, so I won't write much, for fear of being overly pessimistic.

I saw 2 movies this weekend. Yesterday was Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, and this morning, I saw Tintin. Of the two, I preferred Tintin, though it isn't at all like the comic it was named after. It's a mixture of 3 different Tintin comics, with some bits that were entirely unfamiliar. It was still good, thrilling, adventurous and funny. I'm a little disappointed that they left out Professor Calculus though.

Other stuff? My sister has done her keyboard practice, and is now listening to music. My older brother has disappeared into his room as usual, and my younger brother is wandering around the house being bored.

The library summer reading competition finishes today, and tomorrow we go back to school. I don't really want to. I want to read more comic books, and get ready for school. Oh well. I'll live through it, and get used to being back soon.

I have the misfortune of being in Grade 11 this year, and I have to think about what I want to do after school. I don't want to think about it. If it has to happen, it has to happen, but do I really have to think about it? I don't want anything to change.

Another Update

Yesterday, my brother went to a Orienteering event at the South Bank Institute of TAFE. He wants to be a game designer. It was a bit strange not having him there as we wandered around the city, but I think he'll enjoy going there. He found out that some of his friends are going there too.

This weekend, to finish off a crazy week, we will be at our dad's place. So I can't update on Saturday. I hope we get back on Sunday in time for me to put in a few more hours in my reading record before the reading competition closes.


My little brother is acting a fair bit loopy. It's not even 9, and he's already battling villains in the backyard, with appropriate sounds, and songs.

Holiday Update

I have a lot to write, not a lot of time to write it in, and I'm not sure where to start. I think I'll start with our holiday, and put today's news in my next post. 

On Sunday, we arrived at our grandpa's place, where we stayed. The next day, we left for our old town, on the Sunshine Coast. We grew up there, and my sister and little brother were born there. It had changed a lot since we had last been there, about 5 years before. We walked all around town, and caught up with my godmother. We also saw a whole lot of people that I didn't or barely remembered. In the afternoon, we visited a Christian bookstore in the area.

Tuesday, we went to another town. We never lived there, but visited it often, and knew it as well, as our home town. It was miserable weather for walking around, even worse than the day before, so we mostly stayed at indoor places. We had lunch with my little brother's godmother, and then went to Sunshine Plaza, the closest big shopping centre with our grandpa.

The next day, we met up with another godmother, this time my sister's. We also visited an old friend, who were kids the last time we knew them but are now older. I almost forgot, but there is a fantastic playground near the local Plaza. Last time we were there, it was fantastic, and it still is. It's huge!

Everything and everyone seemed to be smaller than I remembered, as I suppose comes with being far taller than I was when we left. It's amazing the difference 5 years can make.

January 15

We go in about an hour,and won't be back until Wednesday,  and I don't know what books to bring? I read a lot, and we will have to get there, and back, and all the driving we'll do when we get there, so I need a lot of books. Should I bring some comics? My Jane Austen collection? Some Clive Cussler books? I can't decide, but I have to within the hour! What will I do?

January 14

We go off on holidays again tomorrow. We left all out guinea pigs with friends, including our 3 new babies (!), and 2 pregnant girls.

From being so hot earlier this week, now it's kind of cold. It's only 4:58, and it's already cool outside.

My sister and I found a new game online. Secret Builders. It's really fun. We spent hours on there, changing avatars and chatting. It was interesting.

Baby Guinea Pigs!!

 

Of our 10 guinea pigs, 2 are my special responsibility, Fudge and Noble. Today, Fudgie had 3 babies!!! The top one is going to be called Truth, for his belt (of truth). The middle one is going to be called Gideon, for the horn on his head. The one on the bottom will be Salvation, because he has no hair at the very top of his head, so it's like he's wearing a helmet (of salvation).They are so gorgeous!! We won't know whether they are boys or girls until they are about 3 weeks old. They'll probably be sold at 6 weeks. But until then, we have 3 cute and cuddly babies!

January 13

Do you believe that everyone should have speech? My mother has been telling about a famous person who plays tennis, who has been rejected by Tennis Australia because she shared her views about something, and those views were contrary to popular opinion. I believe that some things shouldn't be said, because it's rude, but if you want to voice your opinion, you should be allowed, without getting sued, or publicly humiliated over it! Different people have different opinions. Why should some of those opinions be not allowed?

That's probably enough questions for one post, but I do think that freedom of speech is important. My dad likes to talk about how because some people do silly things, everyone is penalised. Like, I think it's ridiculous that a teacher isn't allowed to give a crying child a hug. Things like that.

My little brother is setting up a board game next to me. He's not going to play it, he just wants to move all the little characters around the board. Anyone who's played Break The Safe might understand how fun it is to move the little figures around the secret-lair themed board.

My sister is on another computer, putting a book review into the moreton library website. Once she's finished it, she'll have 14 tokens. I've got 31 tokens. Our older brother has 5 tokens. That makes 50 tokens all up, and hopefully that's enough to win us the iPad. The other two are probably thinking the same thing, but I think I should be the one to get the iPad. After all, I am the one who contributed the most tokens. More than half. More than 3/5 even.

Next week, we head up the Coast, to where we used to live. It should be fun, visiting all our old hangouts. I'm hoping we'll meet some old friends, but so far, none of them have contacted us, and a fair few have moved. I'd really like to see them though. Most of them, I haven't seen for 5 or 6 years. Some of them are probably all grown up now.