Sunday, 08 November 2009

  • Mrs. Nickel

    I went to school in a town of less than 2,000 people for seven years. Five out of those seven years were spent at the high school/middle school building, where for most of those five years I had a certain teacher named Mrs. Nickel.


    When I moved up to the middle school in sixth grade, she was the well-known teacher. She seemed kind of mean and strict. I learned quickly who she was though, and of course in a middle school of less than 100 kids, got to know her a bit. She called herself the queen, and had colorful pictures of dolphins splashed all over her classroom. She had pictures of dreamboats from the sixties and seventies and as much dolphin paraphernalia that couldn't be hung up on the wall. She had a very commanding presence and a loud unashamed laugh, with a loud sense of humor to accompany.

    At the end of my sixth grade year we were choosing our classes, and we had a choice between Mrs. Nickel or another teacher for homeroom. I chose Mrs. Nickel, despite the fact that two of my friends thought she was too mean. I knew the truth, that she wasn't mean. Later I told her that and she said that she liked to make the sixth graders afraid of her.

    I was glad that I chose her class. She taught me English, social studies (which is basically history) and a study skills class. I remember so much of her teaching: always use semicolons to make people think you're smart, read the questions in your textbook and scan the first and last line of the paragraph to make the reading go more quickly, and never forget how terrible the Holocaust was. She was also a driver's ed teacher and told me to never drive over anything in the road. I still use that piece of advice, even though she didn't teach me how to drive.

    When I entered high school, I was on the yearbook team which she led for the two years I was there. So I was always around her, always there for hugs or advice or little bits of wisdom. She was a much beloved teacher. I was shocked to learn that she passed away last Friday, of a heart attack. She had just turned 60, and still had maybe five gray hairs on her head. She was so youthful and funny.

    She used to say that her favorite bible verse was, "Man shall not live by bread alone. He must have some peanut butter to go with it." She loved peanut butter and Nutella. She used to crack funny jokes, most of them were a bit on the crude side. She's tell kids, "I'd break your butt but there's already a crack in it!" and then laugh loudly.

    I went to her memorial service yesterday, and there were about 500-700 people there, most of them former students of hers. She taught there for almost thirty years. She was also one of the two people I knew who had a teaching certificate for K-12th grade. They don't issue those anymore. I had the great honor of signing Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" for her, with former members of the ASL (American Sign Language) Club. It made me proud to go back there and see so many people she had touched and to see old friends. It made me very proud to grow up in such a place and to have a teacher like her.

    I couldn't possibly write everything I want to about her. Most of the things are just small things, small ways in which she impacted me. On the whole, she influenced me profoundly. She influenced every one of her students just as much as me, if not more. She will be very sorely missed, by me and by everyone who knew her.

Monday, 02 November 2009

  • Type Monster

    Nearing 5,000 words. I can't type any more story stuff. I'm an overachiever though, the word count goal for today was 3,334 and I'm at 4,414.

    I wanted to share with you really quickly who I have in mind while I'm writing about Prince Aidan.



    Domhnall (Donal) Gleeson, who I think spells his name with ó, but I'm not sure. Not that it makes a difference in pronunciation. He's been cast as Bill Weasley for the last two HP movies and I'm excited to see him in that, although it will be weird hearing an English accent.

    I watched this video the other day after I decided to make that character look like him and thought he made a great prince. I think he's princely-looking.

    My dry eyes are hurting now. Time for bed, oíche maith!

Sunday, 01 November 2009

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

  • NaNoWriMo

    I'm doing NaNoWriMo! And the thought scares me! But I'm excited, and my story will get done.

    Even if I don't reach 50,000 words, you'll be able to read my story sooner.

    Here is where you should go if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is:

    http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

    It will be interesting since I have school to juggle as well. The good thing is, I don't have school on Fridays, so I can write then, and I also have most of a week off for Thanksgiving.

    This will give me a head start for working on my story in December, and get my creative writing juices flowing.


    Okay, time to eat! I'm drawing up the outline this weekend. I may post it on here...

    This will be insane...

    --edit--

    I've decided to write another story, after NaNoWriMo. Since I don't have enough time or knowledge to write this story with an Irish setting, like I mentioned before, I decided to put that into another story.

    So the story I've decided to write is a Beauty and the Beast story, set in ancient or medieval Ireland. Beauty and the beast is my favorite folk tale. It'll be cool because it's a French story, so I'll make it totally different.

    Yes. Exciting.

Monday, 26 October 2009

  • ORLY?

    Before I get into the reason for the title of this post, I have to mention something. I said I wrote a story, blogged about it a long time ago, wrote it a few years ago. I said that I was going to rewrite it (I think this was a year ago). I'm still reworking the plot and characters.

    Since I decided to rewrite it, I've learned more about Ireland. Today I decided that I'm going to study some ancient and medieval Irish history and the old mythology and flavor my story with that. Most of the characters were being renamed something Irish anyway.

    I've got a couple books lined up to read during Thanksgiving and Christmas break. I have three weeks for Christmas break, so hopefully the motivation will stay with me and I can work on it then.

    Now, for the title. I've been honing my photoshop skills, making icons. They're just 100x100 pixels and really an art form on their own.

    The other day I was thinking about Orlando Bloom, and how his nickname with the fans is Orly. I'm sure you all know about "O RLY." I had to combine the two.

    He makes the funniest faces.

Thursday, 15 October 2009

  • I've Abandoned Xanga!

    Not entirely. I'm making myself blog on here since I can't just take off.

    Most of the reason is because I joined another blog community (LiveJournal) because I found several people on there who love Swedish pop as much as I do! AND their English is perfect. It's very exciting.

    In other news... I'm applying for Northwest University now. I've got to get all my recommendations and stuff, but if I submit my stuff before November something they waive the application fee. And we can then spend $30 on something else. I'm also going to visit the campus for the first time next Friday. I'm looking forward to that.

    I'm taking logic, astronomy, piano III, and Spanish right now.

    Logic, which is an online course is good and really easy. All of the assignments for the quarter are posted online so I'm pretty far ahead. I finished this week's assignment on Sunday, and it's due today. haha

    Astronomy is great! It's a challenge but I love it. I didn't expect to like it so much. My teacher was talking a bit about physics in class, since he also teaches a physics class and it sounded interesting. I want to take geology, but physics would be a good substitute if I can't take it.

    I love piano. We're learning some new stuff, breaking away from the I IV V7 chords, hallelujah. I'm working on learning how to play diatonic chords, just up and down the scale. It sounds really cool. I also bought the songbook for Pride & Prejudice and I'm working on learning some of that music. I LOVE it, I'm really glad I bought that book. I'm going to watch that movie while I eat my lunch! :D

    Spanish is another thing... I'm so used to all of the exposure to Swedish that it's hard to switch my focus. The cognates in Spanish are from the other end of English. And the German syntax is haunting me. It's hard for me to completely grasp Spanish syntax, especially because we are learning it much differently than I learnt German.

    Numbers especially are killing me. I'm used to listening to numbers backwards in German. In German it's four-and-twenty, seven-and-eighty. But in Spanish it's eighty-and-seven, twenty-and-four. Bah. It's good though, because it's really stretching my brain. And the class is fun, we sing songs and act out stories.

    It also makes me realize that I like Irish a whole lot better. Irish syntax and grammar is so odd and can't be translated literally into English, but for some reason I like it better. Irish is like a massage for my brain. :P

    I just have to get used to Spanish and get comfortable with it. It'll happen. Maybe someday I'll like it.

    Time for me to go now, I need to eat my lunch and then I'm off to school!

    Slán/adios/hej då/bis später!

Thursday, 17 September 2009

  • Thrift Store T-Shirt Makeover

    My favorite boy band recently put out merchandise, including T-shirts. I decided to make my own, since buying my own would cost me $40ish, plus I don't even know if they could ship it to America.



    This was my last week of summer, so I began this T-shirt project on Monday, and was able to finish up by dinner.




    This is the t-shirt I started with.


    This is where the makeover began: turning it inside out! I stuck a piece of cardboard underneath to keep it flat and paintable.
     

    There were a lot of straight lines in this shirt, so I was able to just tape a stencil and paint, then rip it off. When I took the tape off I was very pleased to see how it looked.


    More straight lines...


    I thought the R was going to be the hardest, but it didn't give me too much grief and actually turned out perfect. In the middle of painting the R I went to check the mail, so it said "PUN" for a while. I thought that was punny. Aha. I mean funny.


    I didn't really measure very carefully, so I was surprised to see how perfectly everything was fitting together.
     

    Painting the M was my favorite. And it was the last letter, I couldn't wait, especially since my back hurt from standing so long.


    Ahhhhh.... Finished. I was very pleased to see how well this turned out.


    And the final product: (Guess where I took this picture. Hint: the sign behind me says "WASH YOUR HANDS!")


    I ♥ EMD!

Sunday, 13 September 2009

Wednesday, 02 September 2009

  • Green?

    We were at Wal*Mart the other day and we had all of our cloth bags there, and the cashier loaded our groceries into them. I mentioned to my mom that we should buy another one, so she grabbed one and put it on top of our grocery pile.

    The cashier scanned it and stuck it in a plastic bag, with the groceries that wouldn't fit in our cloth bags.

Tuesday, 01 September 2009

  • Storytelling With Colors

    I'm in a little group on COLOURlovers called "Lovers of Colour." The moderator just posted a challenge today and I loved the idea. She said to tell a story about something that happened to you this summer, since in September everyone has some story to tell from their summer. Here's mine:



    beach_rock

    Smooth_Warmth

    sunshine

    soothed

    Waves_of_Wind

    Tranquil_Moment

    Stay_Awhile

    I picked up a smooth rock on the beach this summer. It was perfect. It fit snug in my hand and calmed me and quieted me. It was the most relaxing moment I've experienced, with the warmth of the rock in my hand, and the warm sunshine and the sound of the waves.

droftreeology

  • Visit droftreeology's Xanga Site
    • Name: Leslie
    • Birthday: 12/28/1989
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 3/12/2005
    • True

About Me

  • I’m an eternal optimist. I appreciate the smallest things, and I see endless beauty everywhere. I see the art in everything around me. I never cease to be inspired by the people and things I see around me. My life has fullness and meaning because of Christ. I have purpose in my life and a hope for eternal life because of Christ. My goal is to show people Jesus’ love, and that He is the answer. Nothing else matters more. I’ve been called to Ireland as a missionary. The more I learn about myself and Ireland, the more I realize that God has fashioned me especially for this. If my heart is for missions in Ireland, the blood that runs through that heart is music. Music is a big part of Irish culture, and I am so comforted in knowing that God knows I need music. Music is part of who I am; it stirs the very waters of my soul.

Pulse