My New Baby

It's a CAMERA!

Ain't it purty? (This is, of course, taken with my old camera) 

It's a Canon Rebel T2i, and my first real DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera. I've got a little macro lens on the way, and am considering looking into a telephoto lens because the kit lens has very little zoom on it.

It took me a while to get the hang of the manual lens and the new arrangement of functions--it didn't come with a book, but I know enough that I've been able to adjust the exposure and f-stop and ISO. (Just don't ask me what those things stand for. XD)

Most of what follows is random pictures of random things around the house. I am loving the focus and the depth this thing has--there is an instant difference between it and the old camera.

Javert was not a willing participant. He won't look at the camera at all, and this was the first time I got him looking in its general direction. Mom had popcorn to distract him.

Mein brochter. I want to get the manual focus down, so some of these aren't as sharp as I'd like, but oh well.

Mein brochter took this one, actually.

Yee. I'm so freakin excited about this camera--you have no idea. :3 I'mma be a picture-taking fool!

Les Miserables: A Review

Finally, FINALLY got to see this. It was so amazing and incredible and tear-jerking and *splodes*

But before I continue, a disclaimer: what follows is my own personal opinion drawn from one viewing of this particular version and countless viewings/readings/listenings of other movies, the Brick, and cast recordings. I don't claim to be an expert critic, nor should this be taken as an expert's view. Thank you, and more after the break.

Murr' Chrusmurs!

(or, Merry Christmas!)

Christmas at my house is...how shall I say it...very relaxed. We go over to Grammie's in the late afternoon, but for the majority of the day we laze around. We didn't even get up until 8:30 this morning (I didn't, at least...), opened presents, ate a late breakfast at 10:00, and now it's time for naps and a day full of NOTHING. *turns on Josh Groban's Christmas album*

I love it. :3

(I know a family here in town that's expecting 65 family members today and has to feed all of them. I don't know about ya'll, but that sounds stressful and terrifying. O.o)

But on to Christmas stuff! I was more excited about Mom and Dad's gift and the dog's present than I was about mine...is that weird?

We gave Mom and Dad a coffee-maker because the pot on the other one is broken. This is one of those snazzy ones that has a button to fill one cup at a time, instead of funneling it into a pot and having it sit all day. It's a purty cool coffee-maker.

Oh! Javert's present! I'm ridiculously excited about this, actually.

It's a spiky collar! :3 Now he can be a big bad dog and protect us more effectively....unless it's from the resident wild cat, in which case he whines and cries because he's afraid of the cat but doesn't want it on our property either. -.-

I think it looks rather snazzy. When I showed it to him it was like he knew it was his, because he perked his ears up and got all excited. XD

I got tea and a traveler's press! Observe:

I love tea, but I have so much now that I probably won't need any for a couple of years. At least. O.o

On a side note: the ginger mint tea is POTENT. I popped the lid off to sniff it and got a snoot full of ginger dust. I couldn't smell anything other than ginger for the better part of 20 minutes.

I love Republic of Tea. (Even though they're probably Communists or something with their 'citizen this' and 'citizen that' and 'minister of such-and-such'. XD)

By the by, we DO have a white Christmas thanks to the snow storm that moved through last week:

It looked like this (and worse) all day last Thursday. (Or was it Friday?) There wasn't much snow, but it had rained before the temperature dropped, and with the wind and ice people were going off the roads like crazy. The main highway was closed until the wind stopped because it was deemed too dangerous to drive. O.o

Kitty prints...

Javert liked it too.

And with that, Merry Christmas!

Snow

This morning it was rainy and around 40 degrees...now, there's a howling blizzard and we're expecting a low of 17 F tonight. *shivers* Observe:

The snow doesn't look deep, but only because the howling wind flings it away and into drifts. Living on the Midwestern plains has its benefits, but zero protection from the wind is not one of them. I was called in early to work today and stayed late so that the people who lived out of town could get home--the roads were horrible due to the ice and wind. So many people have gone off the road today, it isn't even funny. And my feet are little blocks of ice as well.

I leave you with that frigid image, and a punny thought:

Bilbo awoke to 'Don't Stop Believing'...it was an unexpected Journey.

*slaps knee*

Ahhh...that was awful. I'll go to bed now. You're welcome.

The Hobbit: A Review

GUYS. HAY U GAIZ.

I finally got to see The Hobbit tonight! I'm now sleep-deprived and exhausted but I HAVE to write something of a review because, well, that's what I do. However, being the sensitive person that I am I'll save the review for after the break, and if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be disappointed in any way by 'spoilers' then don't read any further. Please and thank you.

Now, on to the review!

A Punch in the Gut

Something of a serious post this time, folks, so bear with me.

Tonight I was poking around on the No Greater Joy website for their book Preparing to be a Help Meet (long story short I'm doing a study on the book starting next month and have been looking for inspiration etc). In the process I came across a blog run by a young man named Josh Eddy.

I was reading through some of the posts, thinking to myself 'wow, it's such a breath of fresh air to come across the thoughts of someone who is so sold out on Jesus and living for Him'. It's just not that common to find anymore.

The most recent post was put up on May 12th, 2012, and as I was reading I came across the bit that explained that the one posting it was Josh's captain during basic training, because Josh died on May 5th. The post was one he had been working on before he died.

I guess...to say I was shocked is to put it mildly. I don't even know this guy aside from a few minutes of reading his blog, but I had to cry a bit because it was so unexpected to read. He was only 19 years old.

It may sound like a cliche, but we don't know how long we have to live. It could be a day, a year, 50 years...who knows? The time ultimately doesn't matter; it's what one does with that time. Are you spending the time you do have on the things that matter? I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to this--there's a lot of wasted time in my log. There's a lot of things that I 'ought' to do but don't for a variety of reasons (most of which are silly and selfish in retrospect).

I don't mean to get all existential and freaked out. But it does give a person something to think about...

New Bed

AND a new mattress! Check it out:

The frame is a walnut 3/4-size bed (or, more accurately, 'antique' sized). Apparently back in ye olde days they didn't pay much attention to making beds a certain size and it was hit or miss as far as that goes. We got the frame from some people that we clean for, and the mattress was custom-made by some company in Texas. They did a really nice job--it'll take a little getting used to, because it's a lot firmer than my last bed, but it's very comfortable. 

There's a little nook type thing in the opposite corner of my room now that has my two bookshelves, and I'm hoping to consolidate those shelves into one big bookshelf and get a comfy reading chair. But that's not of a pressing need, so it can just wait until I get some money.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In other news we've been making dog food over the past week. I got the crazy idea not too long ago, so we cooked up the heart and liver and organ meat from our beef, chopped it up in the food processor, mixed it with rice, broth, cooked veggies, hard-boiled eggs, garlic, and Braggs aminos, and canned it in quarts. The stuff is crazy rich--the dog is only supposed to eat two cups of it a day, and we mix it with his dry food so that it can go even farther. (He's taken to licking it off the dry and going back to finish the dry stuff when he realizes we won't give him any more. XD)

I must say that Mom has been more on top of it than me. I leave for work and when I get home she's already got it mixed up and in the canner. ^^; But hopefully this will cut down on the dog food bill a bit, or at least stretch it out. Plus we feel more thrifty and less wasteful when we find a way to use the disgusting organ meat. :P

Job Applications

I don't know why they terrify me so much. Maybe I just don't like the thought of being rejected...from henceforth I'm going to make a conscious effort to go through with them even if I think I have no chance of getting the position. Which is most of the time...but I digress.

Tonight, on a whim, I filled out an application for a company that specializes in transcribing sermons. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, especially since I need practice while I'm doing the medical thing (and working at DQ isn't the greatest place to get typing practice, in case ya'll didn't know). And if I DO get considered or--wonder of wonders--HIRED, I can quit DQ and concentrate on gaining experience and finishing school. That needs to take precedence these days, and the longer I work at DQ the more I realize how much of a distraction it is from being focused.

It really isn't that bad--the worst part is how my schedule is so broken up that I have a hard time focusing when I'm home because I'm either thinking 'time to get ready for work' or 'I'm so tired from working all day'. It's a vicious cycle. But here's to maybe getting a different job! *crosses fingers*

I've also toyed with the idea of applying for a summer job next year, like at a kid's camp or on a dude ranch or something like that. I tried to get a job out West on a dude ranch when I was 18 and didn't get it, but maybe being 21 makes a person sound a little more competent. I think it'd be pretty cool to do something like that, anyway.

And ride across the country on horseback, and become a heavy weight lifter, and act in The Hobbit, and move to New Zealand (or Ireland or Wales or England or pastoral France)...I've got a lot of really big wishes and dreams, peeps. I just don't have the money or the strength to do all of them. XD

Oh! Oh! Speaking of The Hobbit, it comes out in 6 DAYS! 

*screams*

I am so freaking excited. You have NO idea. I even made a dwarf beard to wear to the movie! See?

I know my face is kinda derpy here. BUT BEARD.

I also found that it bears a slight, passing resemblance to Bifur. Observe:

Note that I said 'slight'. No hatchet in the forehead, for starters.... :p

Gah. So. Stinking. Excited.

A Medical Find

A medical book find, that is.

But first, the latest owl image!

Good thing I have a really nice lens, because this was at least a few hundred feet away and the moment I took two steps in his direction he took off again. Sigh. 

He was fluffing himself right there -- owls are so adorable. (As long as you don't look at their fearsome talons.)

But on to the book! 

Today Mom and I were setting up Grammie's Christmas tree, and after it was all decorated and pretty-looking I started digging at a stack of old books on the heater next to the wall. One was filled with home kits and stuff from the early 1900s (that was cool in itself), and the other was this massive tome called 'Medicology'.

It's 10 books in one, and freakishly huge -- I'd hazard a guess at the thickness being at LEAST 6 inches. And it's filled with quaint words and phrasings, medical terminologies, house building (!), sanitation, herbal/natural remedies (which include belladonna, hemlock, and nightshade in small doses so take it with a grain of salt--not literally, of course), marriage guidelines, exercise, EVERYTHING. It's weirdly thorough, and used to belong to my great-grandma (my grandpa's mom, I think). Apparently she relied on it all the time for the kid's ailments and such.

I love old books like these. They're so serious and quaint and fantastic.

Oh! Storytime! I was innocently flipping through and came across a series of plates with bodybuilders! Totally not what I was expecting. All I gotta say is that the guys back then took their exercise quite seriously. Man.

Lovely illustrations of arteries and muscles and veins and nerves...I'd rather read this book than my modern medical dictionary. That thing has pictures of freaky afflictions on every other page. I can't read it without bracing a little beforehand.

Oh! Before I continue: the next bit is the very first page I flipped to when I picked the book up for the first time. It cracked me up.

I mean--this--where do I even begin?? And then it goes off on a tangent about the terrible state of privies and 'closets' and the reason women are constipated is because of the deplorable state of said privies.

Maybe I just have a weird sense of humor...but I find this freaking hilarious. It kinda set the pace for the rest of the book for me.

I'm going to enjoy reading the rest of this book, that's all there is to it.