Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I may not be blogging a lot but this is one of my favorite posts to do every year so here we go.

Some highlights of this year:

• Recorded song covers for Facebook
• Started a Midsomer Murders blog in April and posted every day since then
• Sang in a concert
• Worked through my store's closing
• Sewed around 15 things (5 characters, 10 from patterns)
• Visited Shena and Misty in real life (best weekend ever)
• Went on a road trip with Mom to the beach
• Was introduced to some great music and picked up the ukulele again
• Watched Inspector Lewis (and read all the fanfiction), Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders and parts of Poirot
• Had some really good times (in person and online) with friends
• Came out of this year stronger and ready for a new year

Last year's resolutions:

Get back to learning Spanish - did a bit here and there, but still a work in progress

Write (and possibly post) fanfiction - wrote some things that aren't great but nice to do for fun, and edited one that I am very close to posting online, and will hopefully in the next few days

Assess my blogs and possibly improve them - I kind of informally decided to stop Riddles in the Dark, because my writing was feeling repetitive and it was hard to come up with ideas. I still love Gollum, so if I feel re-inspiried one day I'll go back to it (I have some ideas to improve it, but need the inspiration first). For this one, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing for now, posting when I feel inspired and have time at the same time (why do those not like to happen simultaneously?).

Read more - maybe do a reading challenge - I may have kind of accepted that reading books just isn't easy for me right now, but I did read an Inspector Morse novel, part of Mansfield Park, and might have tried a couple others earlier in the year. Right now I'm reading a book about the history behind Foyle's War and it's interesting so hopefully I can finish that!

This year's resolutions:

I don't really have personal goals beyond being okay while doing things which is hard to quantify, so I'll make these more creative goals.

• Post another fanfic (in addition to the one mentioned above which will hopefully be this week)
• Do at least 3 song "collabs" (whether with another person or me recording multiple parts)
• Read two books to the end (let's set the bar low)
• Keep working on Spanish
• Learn something new or improve something I'm new to (creation-wise, like ukulele or video editing)

A few days ago, I saw a tumblr post that said "2015 was my character development year which means 2016 is strictly action and story progression and i don’t know about you but i’m excited." This feels true for me - 2015 wasn't my year. But I think that 2016 could be okay, if not really good.

And My Thoughts Fly Apart

Things on my mind lately:

So British detectives have kind of become my thing. I'm currently watching Midsomer Murders, Inspector Lewis, and I just finished series 2 of Broadchurch. I also started a tumblr just for Midsomer and it's been fun to try a blog focused on one thing and watch it grow.

The Chordettes are my favorite right now and I love how the soloist is usually the lowest voice - a nice change for me.

I can't read books and I don't know why. I'll read fanfiction, but cannot get myself to sit down with a book or finish something I started. Last time I could really was with Harry Potter. But right now I have three or four books I can try, so hopefully something will work.

I want to cosplay but it takes so much time, money, and talent I'm not sure I have. And since 90% of my favorite characters at the moment are men that wear suits all the time and don't have a lot of distinguishing (and replicable) features (see aforementioned British detectives), I'm not really sure who I'd want to do anyway. But Cabin Pressure would be pretty doable. And Donna from Doctor Who.

Sometimes I swear if strangers or acquaintances press me on what I want to do with my life, I'm going to say "I want to be the man who makes the noise of the TARDIS." Or "I might just take the crazy golf thing professional." (both quotes from John Finnemore)

Like I don't mind talking about it with friends who get it, and there are some nice people who don't press for details after I give my first answer, but when someone who doesn't know me very well tells me what I need to do, acts concerned and/or disapproving at my lack of direction, and generally doesn't get the hint that this is a personal, difficult, and really-not-as-simple-as-you-think-random-person issue (though I'm not always sure how to convey this except being vague), just no. I don't really want to hash it out over and over for someone who doesn't care enough, so I reserve the right to be facetious.

Facetious is now a word I use thanks to Sergeant Hathaway from Inspector Lewis.

which became a running joke in the rest of the episode

One thing that's annoying about the Morseverse tv shows is it's hard to say such-and-such a thing in Endeavour, in Inspector Morse, or in Inspector Lewis because it's like saying "had had" but "in in." Maybe that's why Inspector Lewis is often called just Lewis. Sooo much easier to say.

baby Morse just wants a normal name

How are you guys, and what's going on in your life right now?

A-M Again

What's on my mind, told through whatever words I can think of that start with certain letters.

A - Autumn. Something I am very much looking forward to.

B - Blogging. I've written stuff but never edited it and thus haven't posted in too long. But I will post this post!

C - Choir. We've been doing some cool new songs lately including Lollipop by The Chordettes. It's really fun to do with my friends and it sounds good too.

D - Doctor Who: Deep Breath. I've only seen the first episode of season 8 but it was pretty good - it seems like Twelve and Clara will have a good season. Strax was definitely the highlight for me.

E - Endeavour. A British detective drama set in 1960s Oxford and my newest obsession. What I love most about this show are the characters and their relationships, especially between the main character, DC Morse, and his mentor DI Fred Thursday (played by Roger Allam, who I followed here from Cabin Pressure). If you like Sherlock, I highly recommend this.

F - Felt. I've been enjoying making plushies a lot lately, and just finished a cardinal using this pattern.

G - Gollum. He and I have both been tagged and these posts are coming! Sorry for the lateness.

H - Hogwarts. If you like over analyzing fiction as much as I do, you may enjoy An Endangered Species - Exploring the Wizarding World, a series of essays about the world of Harry Potter. There are also many Sherlock essays on the same blog, and they're all really interesting.

I - Ipswich. After listening to series 3 and 4 of Cabin Pressure last spring, my brother and I finally got series 1 and are now working on series 2. Our next episode is Ipswich which has this wonderful scene.

J - Job. I'm taking a year off from college and just got a job at a bookstore, so that's exciting.

K - Knightly. I really liked Alex Knightly (and Emma and Harriet!) in Pemberly Digital's Emma Approved which recently finished, sadly. If you're a fan, vote for them for a Streamys Audience Choice Award!

L - Les Miserables. The aforementioned Roger Allam got me into Les Mis again from listening to the original London cast recording with him as Javert. Love his version of Stars. And every other song he's in.

M - Maya Fey. So there's a game that's a crossover between Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and it was finally released in North America and it is totally awesome. Maya, one of my favorite characters, is back after not being in the last few AA games and it takes place between my two favorite PL games so I'm really happy.

What's new with you all?

N-Z Randomness

Continuing my post from before, here are more bits for each letter. A bit Doctor Who heavy, sorry about that. Whoops here come all the hard letters...

N. Nice hobbit - Gollum's blog, Riddles in the Dark is still going strong, though I may have to change the posting schedule soon. Thank you to those who followed and commented, and if you haven't please take a look!

O. Oldish music - I got the Kit Kittredge movie soundtrack from the library the other day and that style of music just makes me so happy. Same with The Music Man - I'll listen to Lida Rose or Sincere and be filled with feelings of I-can't-that-harmonizing-is-just-beautiful. Some really sweet love songs too.

P. Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is going to be brought to North America and Europe and I am super psyched! I expected it to come but we waited a looong time for an announcement, so that was a really exciting surprise and it's nice to know for sure now. They had a cool presentation for it too and it's just all around exciting.

Oh and also, Pizza.

I'm sorry. But not sorry enough to not post it.

Q. Queen Victoria - I've enjoyed rewatching part of Doctor Who season 2 (including Tooth and Claw with Queen Victoria and School Reunion, which is one of my new favorites) with my brother and a couple friends, who were all seeing these episodes for the first time.

R. Radagast - my brother will tell you, whenever we play the Lord of the Rings alphabet game, I will use Radagast for R. Just one of those things I'm stuck on. But on the subject of rewatching things, we watched The Hobbit the other day, which was a lot of fun. Radagast is awesome, and it's cool to know he's the seventh Doctor. And my appreciation for Martin Freeman's acting keeps growing.

S. School - is starting very soon. Got my textbooks recently and trying to get a few more fun things done before it starts. Hopefully it won't completely take over my life this semester, but we'll see. I'm doing liberal arts math, world religion, music theory, and child development - should be fairly interesting!

T. Trip - a couple weeks ago we went to visit family and had a nice trip. On the plane trip home the clouds were really cool and I got a little obsessive with picture taking.

Wish you could walk on something like this.

 
U. Umbrella - I continually amused by Mycroft Holmes' umbrella from BBC Sherlock. Sounds like the same prop might have been used in Doctor Who too.

 V. Violet - is a pretty color and name. Oh yes, she was in the Boxcar Children. Did anyone else read those books? I loved them when I was younger.

W. We Go Together - there are two songs a Much Ado About Nothing soundtrack that David Tennant and Catherine Tate did (We Go Together and Sigh No More) and they're a couple of my favorite songs right now. Those two are fantastic together.

X. X-TER-MIN-ATE!

Y. Ya'll - have to stop posting so I can catch up! Kidding of course, but it would help. ;) I've been trying to catch up on a bunch of blogs but if I've missed your blog as while going through them, if you've been posting a lot and I haven't commented in forever, let me know or something, because some blogs don't show up on my dashboard.

Z. "Ze awesome powers of this wall we've clearly demonstrated, ah! But out here in the hot hot sun, perhaps you're dehydrated?"

Happy New Year!

Stephen Hayford

2012 is over already? A while ago when anticipating the release of The Hobbit the year seemed so far away and now it's done and we're all still alive - no apocalypse yet!

I'm going to mirror my post from last year and go through a few good things from this year...

Early in the year I went on a young women's retreat - it was silent (we didn't talk much but listened a lot) which was awesome because it was a lot easier to focus on talking to Jesus, and also great because I didn't have to awkwardly try to socialize! Ok, mostly the first reason, but it was the best retreat I've been on and I'm so thankful for it.

I did another musical this spring/summer and it was, well, pretty much the best show I've done too. Since it was my fourth show with this group I felt more comfortable than I had before and that was so nice. And the musical itself was a ton of fun too. Though I still had some challenges in it, I totally loved it.

Got my learner's permit in May and drove as much as I could to get my license in August! Thank you Mom and Dad for helping me!

Star Wars Celebration VI, which I already talked about in another post so I won't go on and on about how great the experience was again.

This fall I started college! And so far I've survived!

What really helped me survive was joining a small church choir that I absolutely love! We have a really nice group and the music is really enjoyable.

And as I mentioned at the beginning, we finally got to see The Hobbit! I would say it's pretty worth the wait.

Oh, other fandomy things - I finished all the Ace Attorney games (and sealed my obsession with the series), got through all of Once Upon a Time and Fruits Basket (loved both) and started Doctor Who (I currently have one episode left of season 1).

I said this last year, but connecting with friends and family meant a lot to me this year - meeting new friends and strengthening old friendships. I love you guys (that includes you, followers)!


I had two lists last year, things I planned (did them all) and some things I was hoping to do. Let's see how I did on the second list...

Make a fanfiction.net account and write more. (Technically it's not midnight yet so I could make an account real quick but that sounds like cheating. So no, I didn't do that, and didn't write too much either - writing seemed particularly difficult this year, though I do have some blog posts I'm proud of.)

Do Script Frenzy in April. (Yep! Did an Ace Attorney fanfiction script which I think was pretty bad, but it was still fun and I got to the 100 pages. Unfortunately, the program ended this year so if I do it again it will be unofficial.)

Get better at music, writing, and my recent interest of drawing. (Definitely better at music, a little change at writing maybe, and drawing...I'm not really sure because I'll get lucky and draw something good once in a while, but then aren't so good the rest of the time so it's hard to tell)

Make a Jedi costume for Celebration VI. (Yes! Mostly...I still don't have a belt or boots and I recently discovered my tunic has a hole in it after washing it, so it needs work all around.)

Read more...and not just fanfiction. (I'm afraid I didn't read much of anything this year. There was the Fruits Basket manga and a few other things scattered through the year.)


Don't have many plans for next year besides school, so skipping that and on to things I hope to do this year and resolution type things:

Watch The Avengers (maybe even tomorrow), Doctor Who, Sherlock, more Once Upon a Time, Star Wars 3D movies, and The Hobbit part 2!

Costuming - fixing my Jedi costume, and I'd love to do an Ace Attorney cosplay (specifically Maya Fey who I think wouldn't be too hard), and maybe LotR-ish cloaks.

Write - blog posts, stories/fan fics, and lyrics (I have several big projects involving lyrics-writing I really want to work on).

Better manage computer time - drag myself off Tumblr more in favor of sites where I talk to friends and/or have way to improve myself (through writing and some reading).

Try to exercise once in a while (which would be more than I do now), eat a bit more healthily, and get to a place where I'm healthy and feel good about my body (also known as wanting to try and lose some weight without worrying my parents).

Work on my spiritual life. Way.

...This list looks a lot harder than last year's. Wish me luck!


Guess that's all for now! I'll just be here listening to people bomb us--I mean shoot off fireworks. Hope 2012 was a good year for you all, and hope 2013 is even better! (and that it doesn't take you too long to remember to write the correct date!) May the Lord be with you!

Piñatas, Puzzles, and Princesses

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been meaning to post and worked on a couple, but, and sorry I keep saying this, I'm busy and "one thing drives out another," but here's a quick one about what's been up with me.

School is good overall, though I've felt behind the last couple weeks. I like all my professors and enjoy homework...occasionally. No it's ok, just takes a lot of time. This week to celebrate the upcoming Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), we had a piñata in Spanish class (that teacher is pretty great). We did it under an outside balcony and a few random passerby's were smiling and one guy was saying "is this real?" and taking pictures. There was candy inside the piñata and when we went back to the classroom we had an opportunity for extra credit points. Whichever candy we had the most of corresponded to a certain question, like name five of the "evil ten" irregular infinitives in the future tense (it was open book too so super easy). So that day was fun. I also like my computer class a lot - my teacher is really nice and the classes are fairly relaxing. Math was ok until I took a polynomial to the knee, and English is ok but finding the meaning of stories and poems can be hard. So there's my quick school update!

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (for 3DS) came out on Sunday! My brother came to my school with me on Monday so we could get it afterward. So far it's fun - the story and characters are good as always, puzzles good, but the new features and look it has because of the series' transition from the Nintendo DS is difficult to get used to. It's fun to be playing a new one though!

I didn't do much for Halloween but my brother and I made a couple simple costumes from stuff around the house and played around a little bit. We did Phoenix Wright and female!Klavier Gavin from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. For my brother's costume we made the hat that Phoenix wears in that game and it turned out really cool!

Other things...I joined a choir at church and really like it - a couple good friends are in it and I'm getting to know the others, and I'm singing alto which is fun (I'm kind of a second soprano so I end up in whatever part needs people...).

Haven't been doing a lot of reading, but really enjoying the Fruits Basket manga when I can get it from the library - I think I'm past the parts covered in the anime, so it's all new stories to me now and still awesome!

Oh yeah, apparently there was some big news about Star Wars the other day. Yep, Disney bought Lucasfilm which was surprising, but they've had close ties for a while so at the same time it's not too surprising. The announcement of three new movies, though, I still can't believe that! Trying to stay positive about that right now. The thing is, I know what it's like to love the SW movies that everyone (exaggerating) hates, so I don't want to be one of the haters for the new generation of fans. If all else fails, maybe they'll be fine movies but not in my idea of how the Galaxy Far Far Away goes. But a lot of good could come from this change too - it'll be interesting to see what the next few years are like for Star Wars. The worst part is that the news broke on Facebook when I was trying to do homework. Who cares about how mind mapping works for math when you realize Leia is a Disney princess! Haha, I don't think she'll be included but it's still cool.

Thank you to those who tagged me in the 11 tag - I wrote up most of a post about that but need to shorten it - I'll get to it eventually...hopefully.

Oh, and I'm sorry I haven't been commenting much on other blogs. One day there were a bunch of posts to read that I didn't have time for, so I got behind for a while - just now trying to say something on occasion.

Well my brother just finished playing Layton so I'm going to play for a bit before dragging myself to bed. Thanks for reading, hope I can post more soon. May the Lord be with you all!

Getting Ready

Thanks for all the votes on my poll! Your answers are really helpful, and I'm flattered that so many choose "updates on me" for a post topic, so that's what this is about! Though I hope I'm not too boring for you all...

Lately I've been getting ready for school and Star Wars Celebration VI, both of which are coming up soon!

This semester, I'm taking Intermediate Algebra, Composition II (focusing on literature I think), Spanish II, and a computer course (covering Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc). I think Comp might be kind of cool, because although it will probably have a lot of reading, some of the stories might be cool. The syllabus mentioned "The Gift of the Magi," a short story I read for high school lit a year or two ago and enjoyed, so I'll have that to look forward to. Hopefully math won't be too hard (my brother said intermediate algebra is easy), and I'm not sure what the others will be like.

As a (now former) homschooler, it will be my first time being in a classroom part of the time, which I am both nervous and excited about. As long as I can get used to the new environment I think this semester will go well. Let's hope!

One thing I did in order to prepare for school is get my driver's license! It's really weird to think I can just randomly drive myself somewhere now. I got it on Wednesday and haven't been driving alone yet, but I may go out briefly tomorrow morning. Somewhere I can get to easily. Not ready for any big unfamiliar roads...

For Celebration VI, I've been working on a new Jedi costume. Two years ago for CV, I pieced (literally pieced) a costume together from leftover fabric and by guessing without a pattern. It was fun to wear, but had a lot of room for improvement. For this one I got adequate fabric and a real pattern and so far it's looking great! I have a small list of things left to do on it, mostly adding velcro and hemming (and hawing), and I'm pretty excited about it!

Today I finished watching Fruits Basket, an anime about a young girl who is taken in by a cursed family - whenever they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender, they turn into an animal of the zodiac. Some online friends liked it a lot which is how I knew about it. It was really fun but had deeper themes as well. Now I must get the manga from the library!

Yep, so life is kind of moving forward right now. I'll try to check back in a couple weeks from now once Celebration and the beginning of school are behind me - if school doesn't eat me first! Hope you all have an awesome weekend and may the Lord be with you!

Update on me

Stealing idea from Nessima and others!


Books I've Been Reading:
- Dear America: With the Might of Angels
- Meet Cécile (American Girl)
- Ace Attorney manga (The Miles Edgeworth Files)

Music I've Been Listening To:
- Adrisaurus
- Video game related music, as usual

Videos I've been watching:
- Blimey Cow
- This Time Productions

Things I love and/or can't wait for:
- Musicals (I'm in one and this is our final weekend of shows!)
- Ace Attorney (finished the third game yesterday - the last case was awesome, as always)
- Friends
- Upcoming church events

Other thoughts:
- I was finally able to request a transcript so I can transfer my credits from dual-enrolling to the college I'll be going to this fall! That was tricky to get.
- Three more days of putting on a ton of makeup for stage, then back to looking normal, thankfully. Maybe I'll start wearing a bit on a regular basis, but chances are my laziness will win out and I won't.
- I haven't written a song parody in a while.
- I haven't written anything in a while.
- You're awesome for reading this.

And because some were adding pictures...

Off to practice some music and later put on makeup for the millionth time! Hope this post wasn't too lame - I have one possible post idea for the future, but probably won't have time to write for the next few days. Have a great weekend everyone, and may the Lord be with you!

Happy New Year!

2011 is officially over and a new year has begun!  It's been a pretty good year - several times of stress, but changes for the better and many joys that were made sweeter coming after difficult times.

This year I...

Joined The Lakehouse forum - Definitely a highlight of this year.  It's been wonderful to meet so many awesome girls and talk, get support, and have fun with them.

Got into Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright - I've enjoyed these so much.  My brother likes them as well and we've had a lot of fun with them together, including dressing up as Professor Layton characters for Halloween and listening to the Phoenix Wright musical songs together.  PL also got me into fanfiction.

Confirmation - I was confirmed in the Catholic Church this year!  When we're confirmed we take a saint's name (they would be like a guide or role model); mine is Therese, after St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  She has always been an inspiration to me.

Script Frenzy - I wrote a 100 page script in April!

Musical - This spring I was in a musical.  It was a really good experience; I learned a lot, improved myself, and made some new friends.  And it was a ton of fun!

Starting this blog - It's been a lot of fun to write, and it's been great to get to know friends better and meet some awesome people!

Spanish - This fall I took an online course through a community college, and got credit for high school and college.  This was really hard but a great accomplishment.

Christmas Concert - I was in a big Christmas Concert this fall!  It was very cool.

And all the times I spent with family and friends, whether in person or over email, chats, etc.  Those were the best times.


This year, 2012, I plan on...

Seeing The Phantom Menace in 3D - This will be the first Star Wars movie (besides The Clone Wars) that I've seen in a theater!  Should be fun.

Getting a drivers license.

Participating in another musical.

Graduating from high school.

Attending Celebration VI and meeting a bunch of Lakehouse girls!

Starting college - gulp.

Seeing The Hobbit! (it's actually coming out!).


Some other things I hope to do are...

Make a fanfiction.net account and write more.

Do Script Frenzy in April.

Get better at music, writing, and my recent interest of drawing.

Make a Jedi costume for Celebration VI.

Read more...and not just fanfiction.


It seems like this is going to be a big, life-changing year.  Learning to drive may be boring and difficult, starting college will be scary, but I'm excited as well.  And there are a lot of good things to look forward to as well.  Thank you all for being a part of my life this year, and I wish you all the best for the next!  May the Lord be with you!

Give Thanks

It seems that everyone is doing a post like this today!

I'm thankful for...

My family

My friends (offline and on, especially those who are reading this :))

Health for myself and family

Star Wars

Lord of the Rings

Professor Layton

Phoenix Wright and Turnabout Musical

Fangirling

The Lakehouse

Blogger

Sticky notes

Music

My faith and all it brings me

Facebook

Fanfiction

Pencils

Musicals

My theater group

Religion class

My followers and commenters

You, who are taking the time to read my blog. :)

thanksgivingwallpapers.blogspot.com

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!