I'm Being Trolled

On Facebook there's this thing going around with my friends, and it'll calculate your top three stalkers (I dunno if there's actually a formula, or if it picks randomly). Anyways, my friend Camille was first, my friend Matt was second, and my friend Lilly was third. Ever since then Lilly's been upping her game, trying to get number one. She's liking and commenting on old posts, and even resurfaced my favorite Facebook post of all time, when Matt "hacked" my account and posted on it. Of course he got my sisters help, so I'd like to see him actually hack my account. But it was still the best thing ever. It's probably the most interesting thing that's happened on my Facebook account. I'm a really timid social media user. I'm like, "ahhh, they don't need to hear about that." "Well, I could post this, but it's not that amazing." "Oh, they probably don't need to know that I cantered Lacey hands free for the first time. Petty stuff." So yeah. I'm still planning my revenge on Matt, so in the event he reads this (which I honestly have no idea if he's been here) I won't elaborate here and spoil the fun.

Yesterday I went to the beach with Sereina and Rose, Carry, and Ransom. We arrived earlier that our friends, so we went and sat on the boat dock. I cannot tell you how in love I am with the ocean waves. It makes me miss our cruise, and remember the boat I drove in the Tri-Cities. While sitting there, a sea lion popped up literally feet away, though I only saw him after he splashed under. I was confused at first, because it looked like a sheep. Weird I know (okay dang, now I'm thinking about a really creepy dream I had once. It was terrifying, and had to do with some of my biggest fears besides spiders). Once everyone got there, we walked down the beach for a bit. We saw sea lions out on the water, and even found a dead one with a face full of maggots. It was disgusting, yet slightly interesting. Then we ate lunch, attracted a bunch of pigeons, and hand fed them. Once they got over their initial fear, they were very friendly. I had five eat out of my hand at once, and I even held one for a second.

Now because of the pigeon thing, I seriously want a pigeon pen pal. After reading a historical fiction book, where the main character raised carrier pigeons (that happened to fly during the night as well as the day) I've been rather interested in something like that. Can you imagine writing the extremely old fashioned way? Not to mention pigeon cooing is one of the best sounds ever. I seriously someday want to have a homing pigeon pen pal. Sereina said that Evangeline would probably be the person I'd do it with, if anyone. I'd rather have to agree. Though I do know my friend Mary loves animals. I dunno how she feels about pigeons, but she seems a likely candidate as well. That would just be so cool though, wouldn't it?

About two or three nights ago I was up late, unable to sleep, and thinking about something. Something I hadn't done in a few years, and was equally excited and scarred to try. But the more I thought about it, the better an idea it seemed to be. So yesterday I went out and did this said thing. I went out, and got my hair cut! I went from having almost waist length hair (which when straightened was long enough for me to sit on just barely) to having my hair a few inches below my shoulders. Oh, and I got fabulous side bangs. I'm extremely happy with my hair cut, because the stylist helped me understand how to tame my curls, and showed my a product to use (she also mentioned that with curly hair, leave in conditioner is a must, so we bought some of that). I was kind of nervous, because I didn't want my curly hair to shrink too much, and give me a weird hairdo. Luckily that totally didn't happen, and I love my new hair. Having it shorter is amazing, and the curl in my hair gives my bangs a good look. Eventually I may try dip dying, though I'm thinking a natural color, like light brown.

On Friday we had another dance night. Unfortunately only one family was able to make it, but we danced none the less. We did the Virginia Reel, and The Last Dance, then worked on a new one. It's from The Sound of Music (one of my favs). I dunno what it's called, but it's danced by two people. At first it was hard to figure out, but once we got it, it was really fun. Mary and I danced it together as we learned, and have found we have a good rhythm together. We may even preform it at Tiana's Graduation, if we're good enough. Oh, and at the end of the evening, the mosquitoes swarmed. I've never seen them that bad. We were being attacked like crazy, and we've never had a huge mosquito problem before.

Dancing

I think I'm due for a blog post. I'm going through a phase where I forget about my blog, and weekly posts aren't as important. But worry not! I shall try and continue to write and not completely forget about it.

On Monday Rochelle said I've pretty much got trotting down. She said my leg position has improved greatly, my posting is wonderful, and I'm almost always on my correct lead (which is amazing since I always forget to check). I find this very exciting, because it really makes me want to look into entering a simple Walk, Trot mini competition. Of course it probably costs to enter, and I'd need an eventing uniform (depending on how professional they are). But Rochelle supplies the expensive parts: tack and the horse, trailer/transportation, etc. I'm so excited for the day I can do my first competition. I'll probably freak out and be nervous the whole time. It'll be glorious.

For Tiana's graduation in a few weeks we've been having weekly dance nights, to practice contradancing. Since, you know, we love to dance. We just the other day learned a new dance, from the movie Emma. It's really easy and elegant, and will be really fun to do with more people. Sometime soon we want to learn the dance from the new Cinderella movie. According to a friend who reads this blog (Hi) it's pretty easy. I can't wait to start it sometime soon.

A Little Bit of Stuff

I just listened to Down Once More... / Track Down This Murderer from the 25th Anniversary of Phantom of the Opera. Yeah... bad idea...

These last three days I've actually been writing Heart of Fire. Each day I haven't written more than three hundred words, but even the smallest bit of writing helps. I'm hoping to get back up to a minimum of five hundred words a day, and go on from there. I'm kind of at a hard part in my writing. I dunno what should happen, but I'm drawing it out to see what different sub plots and ideas I can follow in the next draft. I have an... interesting... way of writing.

My latest way of prompting my brain to think about Heart of Fire, is finding many pretty pictures of Scottish landscapes to have as my background. This helps me get in the mood, and helps remind me to write sometimes too.

This Friday is so exciting! Firstly, it's a meeting to start determining our next film project. That'll be really exciting. Then at five Studio C is doing a live taping, and I'm so excited to watch. Oh yeah, something else that's totally awesome is the two Studio C shirts I wanted to buy went on sale, so I was able to get them both! Woo hoo!

Monday I did something I've never done before (yes, this concerns horses as always). I was Rochelle's wingman, and I led her around the ring a few times for her first ride of Daisy, a two year old who she's starting to train. Luckily everything was uneventful. I mean sure, I was just leading Daisy. No biggy. But Rochelle was taking her on her first fully saddled and bridled ride. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm Just Excited

I am so stoked for July! We're going to visit our aunt and uncle in Oregon for the Fourth of July. We haven't been there as a family for over a year (Sereina had to work when we went up with Historic Flight). To be honest, I'm looking forward to the long drive down. It's around eight hours or something. But it was actually while driving down their one of the last times (I forgot which time) that I got the inspiration for Heart of Fire. At the time, I only owned Brunuh Ville's album Rebirth, and while listening to the music and watching the world go by I got the idea. I'd recently read the first book in the Youngest Templar trilogy (I still haven't finished those books...) so the book is ever so slightly based upon the Crusades to the Holy Land. I'm trying to keep it as original as possible though. That why I don't like getting inspiration from specific things like that. Though it is better that it's a piece of history, and not a television show.

On my other post I mentioned Studio C, and I've got to say, it's the best thing out there. I've been watching it so much, and now I've started to memorize some of the people's names. I'd have to say out of the bunch, Mallory and Matt are my favorite. I especially love it when Matt is the little kid or Shoulder Angel. I'm still dying of laughter from when he climbed that seven foot tall basketball player... oh gosh, that was great. Though Presidential Shoulder Angel was the best shoulder angel video. I must urge you to go watch them. Now. Please. They're some of the best comedy out there. Oh, and now I'm planning on buying some Studio C shirts sometime soon. I missed out on the Scot Sterling jerseys, though there's another shirt with: #Scot Sterling: The Man, The Myth, The Legend on the front. Then there's a shirt that says Studio C on the front, and on the back it points to the right shoulder saying: shoulder angel goes here. I want that shirt so badly. Oh, and an awesome Lobster Bisque shirt. Sereina and I want to dress up as shoulder angels for Halloween now. I especially want to climb on everyone's shoulders. Haha, wouldn't that be great.

Yet another thing I'm super excited for: later today! It's actually going to be a quiet ordinary day, except I'm really hoping to do some canter work while at the stable. Ever since cantering Halli so successfully I can't stop thinking about it. So I really hope I ride Lacey, since I've heard she's got a smooth canter, and I really hope I do some canter work. I suppose I can if it isn't too busy that day. It's an early day actually, since I go in at twelve, so it seems possible. Ahhh, I can't believe this is actually happening to me. I'm so happy.

Tagged Again (Yay!)

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger[s] who nominated you, linking back to [their] blogs.
Evangeline tagged me; thank ya girl.

2. Put the Award logo on your blog.
Ta-da! Front and center... or, slightly to the right as it were..

3. Answer the ten questions sent to you.It shall be done!

4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
This is always, by far the hardest part of being tagged. Somehow I shall push my way through it.

5. Nominate ten blogs.
I actually don't even know ten blogs.

1. Have you ever been in a car accident?
Sorta, kinda, not really. I mean, I was in the car when Sereina had her first fender bender, which by all means was not her fault. It was the other person. But that's about as exciting as it gets, which is fine by me. Not to say I didn't witness someone getting hit by a car. That was freaky.


2. Have you ever danced in the rain?
.....I am now questioning life.... I serious cannot remember if I've done this. My gut is saying both yes and no, which is why I always lose guessing games.


3. Do you trust anyone with your life?
This is an interesting question. Like, besides my family? Because I trust them all completely. I think I'll leave this one halfway answered, cause I never really thought much about that before...


4. What is your perfect pizza?
Gluten free crust, plain and normal tomato sauce, plain and normal cheese, and plain and normal pineapple. I like 98% of my food to be insanely simple.


5. If the TARDIS landed on your front, where would you go first?
BAM 1914! Hands down, that'd be my first request. Straight to Tsarskoye Selo, Russia; the Alexander Palace. I think it'd be amazing to meet the last Tsar of Russia and his family. So yeah, that'd be my first stop of many.


6. What cheers you up when you're having a bad day?
That depends on what type of bad day I'm having. Sometimes chocolate or my favorite food will cheer me up, while other times just curling up with a book and knowing I'm not gonna get interrupted for a while will cheer me up.


7. (I know I shouldn't ask this one, but I'm evil) What is your favorite book? ;)
Yes, you are evil. How is one supposed to answer this question? It's impossible, so even though it says book and not books I'll just sorta list as many that come to mind as I can. Just know, I'm probably forgetting a lot of favorites. The Harry Potter series, Heartland series, Royal Diaries series, The Diary of Olga Romanov, Golden Sovereign, Daughter of Venice, The Green Gables Detectives, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Misadventures of Maude March and sequel, The Tintin series, American Girl History Mysteries, The Wild Mustang, The Andrea Carter series, The Saddles Stars and Stripes series, Sarah Bishop, The Westing Game, The Dragon Codices, The Shadow Horse duology, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Waggit trilogy, Darkwood, The Sign of the Beaver, and Sing down the Moon. That's all I can think of for now.


8. What is your favorite, and least favorite, word in the English language?
Favorite: Neurological - I love saying this word for some reason. It's just... fun.
Least Favorite: Choreographing - I can never say this word right. I always seem to go for an alternate form that doesn't fit with the structure of my sentence. It's maddening.


9. What is the weirdest thing about yourself?
Hmmmm, time to look through the index... *flips pages* Ah, here we go. I have double jointed shoulders and thumbs. Yeah, that's the best I can come up with.


10. If you could do anything anywhere, what would you do?
I could take this in a lot of different directions. Does this include fictional crazy stuff like riding a dragon (or Gryphon) over Paris? I would do that you know.


and a bonus question: How do you pronounce Gif?
I have looked this up on the internet and found this:

Steve Wilhite, who is accepting a lifetime achievement award at The Webby Awards, told the NY Times how annoyed he was at the debate over the pronunciation of GIF: "The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif.' -May 22, 2013

Multiple sources say this is the true way, and it's how I've always thought it should be pronounced. Now I suppose this could be false information. After all, as the wise Abraham Lincoln once said, "Never trust anything you read on the internet." Wise words, Abe...

Okay, here goes with making my own questions...

1. Marvel or DC?
2. What is your favorite kind of flower?
3. What is your favorite girl name and what is your favorite guy name?
4. If you could automatically know another language, which would it be?
5. Do you generally prefer books or television?
6. Juice, tea, or coffee?
7. What would your dream job be?
8. What is the strangest thing you own?
9. What is your favorite instrument (it doesn't matter if you have, or do, play it)?
10. Which is better, white or brown chocolate?

Well, that's all I could think of. Honestly, other people are always so creative and I can never think of any cool questions.

Now I'm going to tag:

Morgan
Lauryn
Tiana
Sereina

That's basically every blogger I know, except Evangeline, who tagged me. Not ten, but hey, to reach that many I'd have to start tagging random people. That would get awkward.

I Love Cantering

The coolest thing happened yesterday, and I'm still so happy that I can't stop smiling because of it. So this may not sound that amazing, but to me it is. I rode Hali for the first time, and Veronica taught my lesson (Rochelle is out of town for a few days). I got to do some canter work, and by the end I was able to ride hands free! Gah, it was so amazing! Though I do have to admit, Hali is stronger than a lot of the horses, so her canter is quite a bit more smooth. But I'm just so happy, cause it was amazing cantering like that. To make progress so quickly is amazing. It's hard to believe I only started riding again two and a half months ago. Before that, at my old lessons, I'd never trotted off the lunge line and was only just getting the hang of not holding on while trotting either. Now I'm cantering. Ahhh, life is so amazing!

My blog is really weird, and sometimes the correct font doesn't load. That's a little annoying, but whatever.

I have become completely obsessed with Studio C. Some friends have been telling us about them for a while, but it just left my brain in .5 seconds for some reason. Then I heard strange noises upstairs, and it turns out Sereina had started watching Studio C. From the first few, I was completely hooked. One of my latest favorites is Elevator Fail, and Shoulder Angel. But they're all amazing!

Sometimes I Love Nice Weather

You know what the best part about having access to the back deck only two feet from my bed is? Waking up, pulling a comfy chair outside, and reading. I've been taking advantage of the nice weather and now it's consumed me. The weather has been so calming lately, and personally it's perfect in the shade. That is why I'm sitting in my awesome, bright orange round chair on the back deck writing this blogpost.

Yesterday, due to my instructors car having broken down, I only stayed at the stable from two thirty to five. Thank goodness too, because it got insanely hot. I don't know the actual temperature it got to, but it was calling for over eighty degrees. Even if it didn't get that hot, I was still dying wearing pants, boots, and socks. But it's so worth it once you're in the saddle. I rode Lacey, and it took a few strides to readjust to her trotting after riding Zoe so much. Also, I never thought I'd see the day that Lacey would be lazy, but even whacking her shoulder repeatedly with the crop didn't urge her into trotting very well. It may have been because of the heat, but we were in a shaded area so it wasn't that bad. Rochelle had me try a new saddle, which was too wide for Lacey. That's saying something. Oh, and while riding my stirrup fell off. Haha, that's a first.

I've been lazy and haven't finished the second chicken run. They have one, very large one, so it's not a huge problem right now. I'll just have to find the time when the sun isn't burning down the village. Actually, speaking of the chicken run, it's covered in watermelon rines. We've been getting watermelon a whole lot now that it's cheaper, and the chickens always get the rines. They pick it down fast, and they love it. Except when we throw it and accidentally hit them. Now when we throw food they run for cover, even if it lands nowhere near them.

So now that 841 Films has completed Double-Crossed, we'll be moving on to planning our next film. Hopefully we'll be able to get it finished in a more timely manner. Our first film was bound to take a bit longer, what with it being a group of people who'd never done a serious film before. I'm excited to move forward. I hope we do more fight scenes in the future, because choreographing that fight was fun and I'd like to get better at it. There were a few area's that could have used some help, after seeing them on the big screen. But overall I feel it was a pretty good start.

For 841 Films I'm actually a scriptwriter too, though it's very, very obvious I've got a lot to learn. My first script was... eh, terrible. So now I've decided to read through the Star Wars Episode III script to learn about script writing. It's my favorite of the prequels, and frankly I've seen Four, Five, and Six so many times reading through the script would be almost boring (I have basically all three movies memorized). Oh wait... haha, nevermind. I'm reading The Prisoner of Azkaban script instead. My, how fast I can change my mind.

I may just be starting to get over my fear of spiders a little bit. Since they're all over the barn, I've started to get used to removing their vast webs, which are everywhere. But don't mistake this as being over my fear. They are still little devil creatures whom I wish to have no dealings with.

The Big Reveal

Okay guys, I can finally reveal the super secret project I've been going on about for months. Without further adieu, I give you Double-Crossed!

Us and a few other families came together many months ago with the intent to make a film. Our original idea was a much larger film, and the longer we planned the more screen time we needed to fully tell the story. So we downsized to a much smaller film, and this is what happened!

This was my first time working on a larger, more serious film. Sure, I've done short films in the past, but those didn't have nearly as much planning. It was a lot of fun.

I was the fight choreographer, though I couldn't have done it without the help of Elie and Evangeline. At the beginning I knew very little of any actual fighting, but I wanted to choreograph the fight scene. So they taught me what they knew, and what you see in the film is the result.

It was an amazingly fun project, and I learned so much, and I think it turned out great! Discussions for our next film have already started, and we hope to finish this next one faster than our first. Given that we now have more experience in filmmaking, I think it will go smoother. We'll only get better.

So leave a comment and tell me what you thought of the film! Feedback is always greatly appreciated!

Imagine Dragons

I cannot believe the year is half over already. How did this happen? Time goes by so fast sometimes.

In about an hour I leave for the stable. I'm hoping today's lesson will be like Monday. There was a little confusion with the horses, so instead of riding Lacey I rode Zoe. She's done a lot of Western riding, so getting her to really trot usually requires a crop, and even then her trot is hardly bouncy. I was really excited when Rochelle got a semi martingale, cause Zoe loves to throw her head around while cantering. So yeah, I got to do some canter work. This time Rochelle had me hold the front and back of the saddle, and work on keeping in contact with the seat of the saddle. Near the end I was really starting to get into a groove, though it'll be a while before I'm cantering hands free. It's just really exciting making progress though.

For a really long time now we've wanted to rearrange our chicken run. Currently we have a coop that we built, with a small nesting box and a little run. But with four large chickens the space seemed a little... small. Our solution was to get some poles and chicken wire, and we made a little rectangular run. It worked for a while, until the chickens started jumping all over the coop and flying out, then digging out, and digging out some more. Only recently did we finally get them all to stay in there. But yesterday I was feeling restless. It was a casual day, and my body was aching from sitting too much. So I went out and dismantled the extra run, moved the chicken coop (which has never been done by one person before), and then started construction on two larger runs. My plan is to swap the hens between the two runs each week or two so I can let stuff grow in one for them to eat. At one point we were getting this grain that would sprout and grow a few inches in about a week. It was crazy. I'm hoping to get more of that to grow this grain grass in the locked off run.

This Saturday some people we know through Historic Flight are having a party. I forget the exact reason, but hey, a party is a party. The best part is this Saturday it's going to get extremely hot, and it's a pool party. My motto is, if there's a pool then I'm in. I seriously love swimming.

So I've been listening to more music by Imagine Dragons. They have an interesting style, and while some of their songs are a little... weird, there are a few that are really good. The ones I've heard aren't the typical break up songs, and quite a few have fueled inspiration for some stories. Like the song Warriors (which I'm now in love with) has fueled inspiration for another point of view for Rocha Island. So far it's looking like I need to work three totally different and seemingly unrelated point of views in the story. The way it's planning out it more like a large piece of history than a book, which is... interesting.

Now I need to get ready to leave for the stable. ASAP.

Well, I'm back from the stable. While there I, with some help from Anna and Mary at times, cleaned out Zoe and Portia's stalls, clipped Gigi and Bella, rode Zoe, and then dumped hay. It doesn't sound like much, but times goes by pretty fast when you're working. My ride today was okay, but near the end of my ride Zoe started throwing her head around. Even slapping her with the crop almost constantly didn't make her stop. Oh, and Gigi dumped her rider. I didn't see it happen, but Sabrina (who must be around nine, I'm terrible at guessing though) was cantering her and from what I heard she broke into a gallop or something drastic. Luckily Sabrina wasn't hurt other than maybe a bruise or two. Mostly she was shaken up, which is completely understandable. I've never fallen off a horse, so I have no idea what it's like.

I'm listening to Warrior's now. Okay, that's it. There are a few characters in Rocha Island that I need to scrap, and a few that need to be created. This story is getting more complicated by the minute. Gosh, writing is fun.