Husker Mudding Days

 

Hi guys!

Today I went to Husker Harvest Days. It's the world's largest farm show.

And it's about 45 minutes from my house.

There's lots of boring stuff there like combines and pivot tires, but there's also lots of food, and free stuff, like the XL Chevy t-shirt I got. I'm going to turn it into a dress I think.

 

You're probably wondering what the top picture has to do with my post today, huh? Well, it wasn't snow and blizzard, but it was mud and rain. Lots of it. The parking lot was one big soupy mess. There was no grass left anywhere and there wasn't a clean vehicle to be found for miles. That wasn't at all unusual. It rains every year during Husker Harvest Days. People come wearing irrigating boots, and the businesses give away free rain ponchos. But yesterday, they cancelled the show. It was unbelievable. Nebraska is a land of 4 wheel drive vehicles and half crazy men who think they can go through anything. You don't just cancel HHD because of some mud. That's unheard of. We heard it on TV yesterday and really had a rough time accepting the news. We had planned to go to town that day to see everything. What was our world coming to? Had overly cautious folks in two wheel drive vehicles taken over without our knowing? So today we loaded up to go see for ourselves. Dad's pickup wouldn't start, so we figured we'd take Mom's Tahoe. It has 4 wheel drive. It will be no problem.

So we thought.

 

We got there and suddenly we realized why they had cancelled the show yesterday. The cornfield/pasture parking lot had turned into a swamp. Water everywhere. 4 wheel drive Gators were having to pull people out of the mud, and smashing in bumpers all over the place. (My mom would have been terrified we even brought her vehicle into that place) But, we figured we'd be fine and found a parking spot.

 

Mostly HHD is a lot of walking, and dodging people, so I don't have any great details to tell you except to let you know the Kettle Korn is a must if you ever come. (And it's not unheard of for out of state people to come. People from out of country come every year.)

 

While cell phones and texting weren't working I did manage to run into Noah from prom...actually he ran into me. Almost literally. But anyway, I saw him there. He let us know that he would pull us out for free if we got stuck, and he would be sure not to smash my mom's bumper (because he knows she'd hunt him down if he did, and there is nothing anyone could do to stop her. She's kind of in love with that rig)

 

It rained on us all day long and, call me a wimp, I was freezing cold.

You'll have to call everyone else there wimps too though, because everyone there was dang cold, so we left a little bit earlier than usual.

 

My dad drove us out of there in what could be called a duck and dodge type fashion. If there was a gap between vehicles that had grass instead of quicksand, he shot through it. Look out pedestrians.

He calls stuff like that the Test of Manhood.

Even if you're a girl.

If you've ever watched Braveheart, you get that reference.

 

All in all it was a fun day. I'm now in dry clothes and feeling much better about the world at large, and my faith in Husker Nation's red necked driving abilities are restored.

 

 

 

 

 

Life As I Know It

I Hate USB Storage Devices

It's true. I really do hate them.

The reason why?

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I've been fighting for the last two days to get my computer to recognize that there are, in fact, files stored on the thumb drive I'm putting in it.

Important files.

School files.

That are due tomorrow morning.

The good news out of all of this? I was finally able to move those files onto a different drive and submit them. That still doesn't improve my affections toward computer hardware at the moment.

Moving on to less gruesome topics (if you would have seen the way I was clicking on the mouse buttons you would totally agree that it was gruesome), I finished typing up The Dynamic Duo. I know it was only 20 some thousand words, but it was still a little odd seeing that it only comes out to about fifty pages long. Gives me a little sinking feeling, like...How do I even begin to add more to this thing so its the size of a full length novel? I'll figure it out though. I'm glad it's at least typed up so I can start working on it. Stephanie Morrill did a post on getting organized to edit  and I will definitely be needing that.

I'm still reading away on Jill's book Storyworld First (which is available on Amazon now), and I've been using it to plot out the world for my idea currently titled RP Fantasy. It's loads of fun, and I'm thinking about using that story idea for Go Teen Writers' upcoming 100 for 100 challenge. If you don't know what that is, you can check it out here . I signed up for it this morning and I'm pretty excited. (Do not tell me that I should work on my Beauty and the Beast retelling instead, I wont listen)

Summer is winding down and this is our last week of irrigating, which is an amazing feeling. I will enjoy being able to stay in bed a little longer instead of having to get up to change water. Yesterday I was in a tractor most of the time, and got three fields of hay raked. Just in time too, because God's blessing us with a nice rainy day so far today.

Our church youth group went to another small in-church concert. This one was put on by Cloverton. They were really great. Not the typical rock n roll sound I usually like, but very beautiful music. And we got pictures and autographs which is always great. (They kind of looked like they would be really good with computers. Maybe I should have had them come fix my computer)

Let's see...Is there anything else I should be telling you? Maggie lost herself in a been field late the other night. It was a game of hide and seek trying to follow her barking and call her back to us. Thank God we eventually found her coming down the road as fast as her fat little self could go.

My friend Brennan came over Saturday and we went riding, which was fun cause he doesn't get to come over much. It's his birthday today, which makes me super excited, but I can't tell you why just yet, cause it's a surprise.

*looks tentative* I think life should be slowing down here soon, so I will try to do some real posts soon instead of character interviews and stuff. I love doing them, and they give me something cut and dried that I can slap together really quick and post, but I enjoy doing my own types of posts more. And I promise, they won't all be info dumps with quick little summaries of everything I've done lately like this one was.

Have a great day!

Beautiful People- Trenton

It's time for Beautiful People again and this one is absolutely awesome! Here's this months post from Further Up and Further In
Want to hear what makes this months edition so great! It's about the villains! I must admit, I had a hard time choosing a villain. Sadly, so many of mine aren't fully developed as they should be. But I did finally decide to use Trenton Reese. He's from my story Out of Darkness, which has been finished for a while, but is currently being edited, and so I like getting to visit him again to get back into the story a bit before I start doing revisions. So, without anymore meaningless yammering on my part, here are the questions and answers.

 1. What is their motive?
Trenton's motive is power. He wants to be in charge, in control. Have all the authority.

2. What do they want, and what are they prepared to do to get it?
He wants to be the top gang leader in the area, and have tons of money from drug and gun sales. He's prepared to do anything for that. Knock off friends and family- whatever he has to do to keep people out of his way while he climbs to the top.

3. How do they deal with conflict?
Violence. If he can't shoot someone he'll pound them.

4. Describe their current place of residence.
He rotates between an old abandoned house in downtown Detroit, which he shares with his little cronies, and sometimes he can be found at his parents house, which is uptown Detroit. The former house is smelly and looks like its housed its share of beer parties. You can usually find some poor miscreant passed out in it somewhere. His parents house is considerably cleaner and more homey.

5. If they were writing this story, how would it end?
0.o That's a terrifying thought. It would end with Cannon dying, his dad would conveniently take the fall too and leave all his cash to Trenton. He'd take down the Triple D's and become head dog in town. Gage and Anton would be his right hand lackies. He'd have a good lookin' girl and a six pack of beer and life would be 'great'.

6. What habits, speech patterns, etc. are unique to them?
His cruelty definitely sets him apart. He's also all business. He does everything very methodical. He talks down to people a lot. He calls Cannon "little bro" all the time, because he knows its annoying.

7. How do they show love? What do they like to do with/for people they love?
...He really doesn't. His 'love' is very selfish. I don't think he honestly loves anyone. But the people he would claim to love he'd probably show it by offering to get a drink with them, or maybe... "snuggling" if it was a girl. Stuff he can get things for himself out of.

8. Do they have any pets?
There's a dog in the house where he lives, but it's not his, and he doesn't like him.

9. Where would they go to relax/think?
He goes to the drug house for that. That's where he does all his planning for things, and where he hangs out with the other guys.

10. What is their weapon of choice? (FYI: words, eyes/looks, and fists count as weapons, too.)
Manipulation is a huge one, and intimidation. He uses that a lot when he's not in a physical encounter. If those don't work he goes to his fists. His preferred weapon is a pistol, but he'll use a knife if he's in a jam.


There you have it. My evil psycho. I hate this guy. I probably didn't do him justice in the post, but he's very evil in my head...

The Moment- CD Review

As you might have saw a few posts ago, I got the new Manafest CD The Moment for my birthday. It is hands down my favorite one from Chris so far. I like every single song on it, whereas usually I like maybe four our of 12.

Like most Manafest music, the songs are mostly rap, but he does some singing on the choruses, and there are a few songs on the CD that are mostly singing and no rap. Trevor McNevan from Thousand Foot Krutch and FM Static also joined him for a song on this album, which makes it that much better.

My top favorite tracks are Criminal, Love Wide Open, Diamonds (I'm in love with this one), and Bull in a China Shop.

Check this one out. It's my all time favorite of any song he's ever sang.

Late Novel Idea

And uh, I’m late again. This is starting to be a habit isn’t it? Oh dear. Better late than never though, yes? Onward, to answer questions from Ashley at Ashley Aspires

 

I’m still neglecting my poor Iron Curse story, and I’m still typing away on The Dynamic Duo, so you’re still getting answers from Anthony and Mark. Sorry.

 

1.Does your character have any religious views? If so, what are they and why do they believe what they believe?

 

Both Mark and Anthony do have religious views. They would both call themselves Christians, although their views are probably more laid back than most. They basically believe that Jesus gets you to heaven, but not much besides that, mostly because they don’t know anything beyond that, not that they don’t accept it.

 

2. If they are religious, was it something that was taught to them when they were growing up, or something they found on their own?

 They weren’t taught anything religious growing up. They stumbled upon it later on, in their teen years when they moved out.

 

3.What are their political views, if any?

 They’re both more of the right wing sort, but Anthony is definitely the more red blooded American of the two.

 

4.Are they mostly pessimistic or optimistic?

 Mark is an optimist mostly and Anthony is a pessimist mostly.

 

5.What do they believe will make a person successful in life?

 Anthony figures it takes hard work, a little divine intervention, and a whole lot of hard work to make anything work a lick out of your life.

Mark basically agrees, but he’s not quite the workaholic that Anthony is.

 

Sunshine Award

Carly from Books and Etc.  was awesome enough to nominate me for the Sunshine Award. What you do is post five facts about you, answer five questions, nominate five people, and ask them five questions. It's an award of fives.

My five facts are...

1. Fictional and famous people excluded, I have had a grand total of 22 crushes in my life.

2. I love to draw, but I only get 1-3 good drawings done a year. The rest suck.

3. I constantly forget my passwords, so I have to change them all the time just to get in to my accounts.

4. I cannot paint my right hand fingernails to save my life.

5. My favorite tab to play on guitar is Pipeline.

 

1. What is your favorite memory from middle school?

Um…I don’t know. Probably leaving middle school and writing a parody to the song Burn the Ships. “Burn the books, I’m in 9^th grade.” And it went on to talk about burning math books, and the uselessness of algebra etc. I really don’t remember much from middle school.

 

2. If you were a book, who would you want in your story and who would write it? Plus what would the genre of your book be (personality wise)?

 

If I were a book…That’s so confuzzling. I would want my sisters in there, cause it would just be a boring book without the gang. And I’d want all my favorite characters in there. I won’t bother listing them all. Who would write it…I think I would want Christopher Paolini and Veronica Roth to co-author it. The genre…Man, I can’t even decide what my favorite genre is, how am I supposed to decide what genre I would BE?? I would be a dystopia. The perfect mix of reality and make-believe.

 

3. If you could change your name, what would you change it to and why?

 

When I was young I always said Jessica, because I had a friend named Jessica and she wore moccasins and I loved it. But then I decided I would want to be Alyx Bane. Because it sounds awesome. I really wouldn’t want to change my name though…

 

4. If you could turn back time and relive a year of your life, what year would it be and why?

….My brain….hurts. I would turn back time and relive…Uh, I don’t know. There’s a few different instances I wish I could do over again, but not exactly the entire year. I would redo the year when I was younger (10 maybe?) and get my picture taken with Travis Briscoe instead of being terrified of him.

 

5. If you were a superhero, what would be your super power and who would be your partner or partners in crime? What would you call yourselves?

 

Who says I’m not a superhero? I don’t know, I’d either want to fly, or turn invisible. My partners in crime would be Minion 1, 2, and Lana and Kayla, because they’re really the superhero experts and I only know that Thor is handsome and Stark rocks. We would call ourselves…I don’t know MRS STARKS ? We’d be The Gang.

 

Wow. Those were incredibly hard, but thanks for the nomination. It was fun.

 

Now, my five questions are….

 

1. You are offered a knife or a microphone. Which do you take?

2. Would you rather be seven foot tall or five foot tall?

3. Jean or leather jacket?

4. Do you prefer listening to guy or girl singers?

5. Do you like soft or firm pillows?

 

And I’m nominating

Brooke from http://teenwordsofsteel.blogspot.com/
Christine Smith from http://musingsofanelf.blogspot.com/
Nathaniel Westmoure from Revelations (I think he's taking a break from blogging, but if he wants to do it when he gets back, he can)
Victoria Grace Howell from http://storitorigrace.blogspot.com/
and Sarah from http://foreverchanged13.blogspot.com/

A Post of Pictures

Hi guys! Sorry for my absence. I was doing lots of stuff. And taking lots of pictures. Going to concerts, the state fair, and taking a vacation to Wyoming over my birthday weekend. So for today's post, I'm going to show you some of the shots I took along the way :)

I'll start with a few from the concert. It was kind of weird, cause almost all of the band members looked like celebrities. The drummer, John Wooten, looks like Robert Downey Junior. The guitarist for Sheridan, Seth Bashford, looked like Ashton Kutcher. One of the dudes from VOTA (I'm sorry, I forgot his name) looked like Edward from Twilight (I'm sorry for this also). The lead singer for VOTA, Bryan, looked like someone, I just can't decide who.

                                                    This ^ is the lead singer for Sheridan.
                                              
           ^Lead singer for VOTA. He literally stole my spot and sat on my friends lap. He's awesome.

I've decided that only old dudes can dance like this and pull it off.

 

Robert Downey- I mean John Wooten.

All the guys together.

 

Moving on to the state fair....

We watched some Cowboy Mounted Shooting that was awesome.

 

 

And then there were these guys (and one girl) in penguin suits (awkward- especially when wet) who did this diving show. All awkwardness aside, it was absolutely amazing. The highest dive they made was from eighty feet in the air. Into an 11 foot deep pool. Insane.

 

Labor Day weekend and my birthday, we suddenly decided to take off for vacation in Wyoming. It took forever to get there, but it was amazing. Totally an awesome way to spend my birthday. The only thing I didn't like was that they gave me my presents in the car, and one of them turned out to be the Divergent movie, and I didn't have access to a DVD player for the next three days (The Next Three Days is a great movie, just so you know). It was torture.

 

 We went to Register Cliffs. It was so cool. A little discouraging because so many people had defaced it and carved their own names into it, but it was still amazing to see the names and dates the pioneers on the Oregon Trail had carved into the face of the mountain. If you look at the top picture you'll see that the name is in cursive...I can't write that pretty with a pen on paper. How the heck did they carve that into rock??
                  

This is one of the original buildings in Fort Laramie... And this is an old bridge. Only wide enough for one car.

There were three types of mountains we saw. These were kind of the foothills. Basically all rock, and very steep. Next to nothing on them. NO IDEA how the poor ranchers managed to pound that fence line into the rock.

This is the Wyoming State Penitentiary. The building looked like a church with bars on the window, and the wall looked like it came from a medieval kingdom. It was awesome.

There were three stories of cells.

These are the edge of the Rocky Mountains (we were about 5 miles from Colorado at one point)

They had more trees on them than the others did.

And these are my favorite mountains. These are the Laramie Mountains along Vedawoo road (I think I spelled that right). It looked like some giant kid just stacked up blocks. They were setting crooked and slanted and turned on point, and balancing in the freakiest ways. I think that probably happened after the flood, when all the earthquakes and crazy stuff was going on when "The fountains of the deep" burst open, because they were just sticking up out of the ground in the middle of nowhere.

Then there's this weird thing called the Ames Monument just out in the middle of some pasture. It's for some guys who built the railroad. The bricks in it are taller than my dad. They're huge.

 

We stopped at Cabela's on the way home. I've never been to this one before. The taxidermy was cool.

 

It rained a lot while we were there (odd for Wyoming)

 

My family is awesome. Minion 1 got me Divergent. Minion 2 always gives me gag gifts, so she copies my autographed VOTA poster and did a "Hey Girl" and drew facial and chest hair all over them. She also got me that hat, which I love.

Mom and Dad (they really should have nicknames too...) got me the new Manafest CD, and a bag full of guitar picks, which is great, because mine are disappearing rapidly every time my guitar students come over. They always get snapped in half somehow.

 

All this to say, I had a great few weeks leading up to my 19th birthday, and I will start blogging a little more regular now that I'm back in my own house. (It was so great to not share a bed with the minions, and to be able to wear my cowboy boots and see Maggie when we got home)

Ta Ta For Now!