Impressions We Make

By the time I’m through with writing this, most of you will probably be ready to kill me, but that’s okay. Today I’m straying from my regular types of posts and talking about modesty. Girls, this one is for you. Guys…go throw something around in the yard.

I’m not talking about modesty in the sense of “cover that up, and lengthen that out, and loosen that area- it’s too tight.” We all know that pretty well, and it’s hard to argue with the verses in the Bible that talk about this type of modesty directly.

But the type of modesty I want to talk about is more of an attitude, and an area that I have really struggled with.

Now before I go too far, let me just say that I’m not saying everyone needs to wear floor length gray dresses, with their hair down and no cosmetics or jewelry whatsoever. That’s just silly and I don’t think the Bible promotes that.

But there are some clothes-though technically modest when it comes to coverage and whatnot- that can be immodest by the attitude they portray.

Because I’m a little more of a crazy kid, I’m going to use the punk, gothic, rocker type look. I’m not sure what exactly it’s officially called, but if you type any of those words into pinterest you get pretty much the same style of clothes all three times. I like the arm warmers, and the corset style lacings on everything, and the black and bright colors, and the crazy hair and makeup. I like that stuff and always have. Which has caused problems between me and my dad because he doesn’t look at the fact that, yes, my body is covered up the way it is supposed to be. He looks at the fact that almost everyone else he sees wearing those types of clothes (singers, actors, etc.) are not living a Godly lifestyle. They are doing drugs, and drinking, and living immorally. So even though I’m covered, those types of clothes make him (and other people) think about those types of people, and it gives an immodest impression. See what I mean?

This has been a hard reality for me to swallow, but I actually do have to agree with it. Now I’m not saying that you can’t wear arm warmers, or have a lace up purse, or wear leggings. I’m not saying that. But I think if you wear all of that, plus dye your hair purple and get it chopped off in some crazy cut and wear makeup like a raccoon…yeah. That could be a problem.

        Now clothes do not make the lifestyle. Just because I wear eyeliner doesn’t make me Goth

                                                    But lifestyles do make clothes.
                                                                   Ever notice that?
Go look at your typical gangster/wangster. They all pretty much dress alike right? Baggy pants, flat brimmed hats, probably have some tattoos and piercings. Right? When we see someone in walmart dressed like that, we label them as a wangster. Do we know they are for sure? No. But do their clothes give that impression? You bet.

                                                  It’s the same way with the way we dress.

We may not be consciously asking for attention, and saying “look at me! I’m different!”. We may not be thinking, “I want to look sexy”, “I want to look cool” or anything like that. But if we wear the types of clothes that people who are trying to convey those messages wear, then we are conveying those messages.

Step over to the makeup and tattoo department with me for some examples. I love to wear makeup. It kind of drives my dad crazy because he’s more of the type to think natural is prettier. And I’ll agree to a certain extent because there are different styles of makeup. Most women you see are wearing makeup, and yes, they look nice, but that just it. They’re wearing makeup. And then there’s those women where you’re like “Holy Guacamole did I miss the Halloween party?” It draws attention. And I find that in general, the type of attention it draws isn’t the good kind of attention.

Consider the Bible verse-

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;1 Peter 3:3 KJV

He’s talking about hair, and accessories. He didn’t even mention cleavage, and skin tight pants. Those ‘little’ aspects of our wardrobe play a part. We may think we’re just wearing a different style of eye shadow, but our Christian guys at youth group might start thinking it looks smoking hot. And then the mind wanders. We do a favor to ourselves and the men around us when we promote a modest attitude.

I’ll use tattoos as another example. I know lots of people throw around the “make no mark on your body” verse and I think that’s probably a good reason to stay away from tattoo’s, but I will agree that it is talking about making marks for the dead, and a lot of people think that puts tattoos in the safe area.

But what about this verse.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV

That says stay away from all appearance of evil. If we’re totally honest with ourselves, we should come to the conclusion that tattoos do have the appearance of evil. Go google tattoos if you don’t believe me. Sure, there’s some tiny little words, or a cute dolphin, but there’s also inappropriate images and words. And even if the tattoo itself isn’t evil, take a look at whose wearing it. I’ll bet you 9 out of 10 people you see there are pretty darn scary huh? Would you want to hang out with them? Be in a car with them? Meet them out on the street? I doubt it. It gives the appearance of evil. And we’re supposed to stay away from that.

As Christians, sometimes we like to say “I am a Christian, I just like to wear this, say this, be this, etc.” But the truth is, we are Christians. Little Christs. We’re not supposed to look like any of that other stuff. It’s of the world. We’re supposed to look like Christ. We’re not supposed to look like we’re Christians who wish they weren’t. Like we’re Christians who want to go to heaven but keep all the other stuff the world has to offer. When we start modeling aspects of our life, such as our wardrobe, after the world, it takes away from our testimony. For some reason people who aren’t saved sure do know a lot about the Bible. They know we’re supposed to be modest. And when they see us dressing like them, they notice. And they think our faith doesn’t matter. I know you’ve heard it thousands of times before, but what we wear really does matter, and it’s the little things that maybe matter most of all.

Crazy Kids

                                You know how little kids get in the toy isle?

 
                           That's how me and my sister get in the paper isle.

Now Minion #1 isn't a writer, but she loves to make lists, and draw, so she can appreciate a good notebook just as much as I can.
The other day we were supposed to pick out things to put in the missionary cupboard at church. So we went to the paper isle....

                                I think we got two things for the missionaries.

But I left with five tablets, two notebooks, three decks of index cards some like notepad things, and some post it notes. 

                                                         And I was giddy. 

                                           Minion #1 got a bunch of stuff too.
 

               My mom doesn't understand how we can be so happy about tablets.
                                                        But they're special!
               That means hundreds and hundreds of words I can write down!
 

                                   Me and my minion go kind of nuts in stores.
        You'd think we'd be over it at our age, but we act like total preschoolers.
                                                                 Or fan girls.
Something about stores- maybe it's cause we always see merchandise with our fandom on it- cereal boxes, tshirts, tabloids- brings out the crazy in us.

             It doesn't have to be our fandoms though. We can rant about anything.
                                         That smudge of mud on the floor.
              Oh look, a sparrow is bouncing around in the electronics department.
                                                        Ew! Justin Bieber!!

 My mom tells us we're crazy and to be quiet. I'd think she'd be used to it by now. I mean, it's been like 18 years. And she did create us after all.
                               She married our dad knowing full well that
                  crazy + crazy= a whole new level of crazy they ain't even named yet.

                            Ah well. Maybe if we keep it up she'll get used to it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Busy, Busy, Shockingly Busy.

Does no one appreciate my reference to the Veggie Tales version of the good Samaritan? No one? Okay.

I did have plans to do a full blown post today, complete with pictures and the works, but life struck and I'm having no such luck.
It's a good sort of busy mostly though. I've completed two of my college courses for the semester, so I'm feeling pretty relieved about that. Now I just have to work on the last one. The one I hate. Office Procedures and Technology -_-
Who the heck wants to answer the question "How often should you take rest breaks (at minimum) when working at a computer?"
                                                                        What??
                               I'm a fangirl/writer/blogger. I don't do 'breaks' at a computer.

It's freakishly windy today, so feeding took a little longer than usual because, well, because all the feed was blowing away to Kansas instead of into the feeders. And we had to make a cow adopt a calf, so that took some time, and all those little odds and ends that come along with living on a farm.

But you know what's taken my full attention today? Two words:

                                                                     Writing Contest

It's an awesome one going on over at GoTeenWriters.
http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/2014/03/go-teen-writers-1000-word-writing.html

Jill and Stephanie are being awesome enough to be first round judges, and then they got some really cool authors and -get this- a LITERARY AGENT to do the second and final rounds. Only two hundred entries are allowed this time, and so I'm working hard to get mine ready for Thursday when it opens up. The catch? The contest is for the first 1000 words of your story. You know why that's making me freaky busy? Go take a look at the My Stories page.
                                     I HAVE LOTS OF STORIES TO CHOOSE FROM.
                                                                  8 to be exact.
                                                 I've managed to narrow it down to 7.
                                                                       *yay*

                                                              The choices are:
                                                                      Blaze
                                                                    Purpose
                                                               Raising Rebels
                                                             Beautiful Things
                                                               The Dystopia
                                                                 Jake's Story
                                                              Out of Darkness.

Writing beginnings aren't exactly my strong point, so it's taking quite a bit of editing to get them looking decent. I'm still not totally decided on which one I'm going to use, but I've enlisted my mom and Minion 1 to help me choose. As soon as I get them printed out nicely they will read them.
                                                                     *scary*
Minion 1 is a great beta reader, but mom doesn't usually read much of my stuff, so her reactions are still nerve wracking for me.

Aside from all that crazy stuff, I'm running on weird hours of sleep. Who the heck said Benjamin Franklin was smart for inventing daylight savings time??
                                                                   NOT ME!
                                                   I never said any such nonsense.
I hate daylight savings time. Especially this business about springing forward, and all that gibberish.
It does no good. There's still the same amount of hours in the day. Sure, people with their big city jobs probably like getting home with an 'extra' hour of daylight, but for little ol' me out here in the sticks- It does nothing. Nothing but robs me of sleep and throws off my internal clock and gets me in fights with my mom about whether or not anything has actually changed in the whole scheme of life                                                (because it hasn't people. It hasn't).

So, I'm off and away to keep working on my document of story beginnings, and tell myself that it's 12:46. Not 1:46.

Warning: Sarcasm

Since it's been coming up lately, I'm going to talk about humor. Cause that's one thing of mine that I know bleeds through into my stories. I try not to let too much other stuff through. I mean sure, my Christian beliefs do, but I try not to harp on denominations and things like that. Or, I had to learn that all my characters couldn't be blond haired, blue eyed and be my age. *sigh* 

But my sense of humor comes through. Sorry. I can't write giddy, giggly, people. If a character is funny, they're going to have a dry, sarcastic, 'borderline' morbid sense of humor. 

I'm a pretty funny person... I guess. I'm one of those people who says something in all honesty and people laugh. It's pretty annoying. 

For instance, I was at a church potluck a couple weeks ago. I had a brownie and life was great. I'd left the kids table and was moving over to where my mom and some other women were sitting when mom asked for a glass of water (Cause that's what moms do). So I set my brownie down and went and got the water and when I came back, my brownie was gone. And I said:

                                   "Someone at this table is going to die."

And the whole table started laughing. Why?? That's not funny at all. I wanted my brownie!

Or when certain people are like "Hey! My bestie forever and ever Maddie!"
And I'm like "Reluctant acquaintance" and they laugh. Why?

My mom says I'm rude, but that doesn't make much sense to me. They laugh. How can it be rude if they don't even know I'm rude??

I find when I'm actually trying to be funny, people just look at me. It's when I'm being dead serious that people start laughing.
I'm notorious for comebacks too.

GUY: "Hey, how did you get off the farm?"
ME: "How did you get out of Juvie?"

 

I kind of live a balancing act sort of life. Half of my family and friends speak my language and we can sit and talk this demented kind of humor for years on end. And then there's the other half...I have to pretend to be boring with them.

They take me way too literally. WAY too literally. Like, do they seriously think I'm going to take the time to vandalize a slumber party using ketchup and mustard?? No way man. I need my sleep.

So when I'm writing and my characters say something like-

Cannon flinched and backed away. Apparently, Tommy couldn't afford a room or a bath. "That's great." He choked. Fumbling in his pocket, he handed him a stick of gum.
Tommy frowned. "What’s that for?"
"The good of mankind." Cannon said dryly.
Tommy glared and swore at him. Cannon shrugged and put the gum away. Gage and Tommy stalked off to the living room.
"You shouldn't have done that." Sophie said quietly.
"Mom, he's an environmental hazard."

Or-
"Jake you cant just sit and brood all the time. You need to get it out or you’ll explode.”
He smiled, completely ignoring the seriousness of the situation. “I’ve always thought explosions were pretty cool.”

Or even-
“Now when the fire ignites,” Darren explained. “Gwen is going to use magic to lift you above it.” He cast Gwen a look and she nodded in agreement. “And you are going to pretend to be the dead soldier’s ghost, and your going to be angry.” 
Seth snorted. “How do you propose to keep me from getting roasted?”
Darren looked at Gwen.
“I can cast a spell to protect you from the heat.” She offered.
Seth nodded reluctantly. “Fine.”
In no time at all the soldiers came into view and the flames sprang up.
Seth turned to Gwen. “If you drop me I’ll…”
“You’ll be dead.”
                                  That's me bleeding through onto the paper.

                                              If I was in those situations,
(had no family to keep me in line, nothing left to lose, magic powers, and was a guy)
                                             those are the things I would say.
I don't have to work hard to make my characters funny. Their sense of humor comes naturally. Sometimes too naturally. I don't know how many times the original character profile says "calm, serious, quiet" and the end result is something like "quiet, sarcastic, thinks the whole world is stupid and not worth his time".
Maybe that's something I need to work on. I'm not sure. People seem to like them, and I do try to mix it up a bit so not all my characters have the same levels of sarcasm and dry humor (there are different levels you know).

 But really, what fun is a world where the only humor comes from knock knock jokes?
    (the answer is no fun. No fun at all. Knock knock jokes suck moose juice) 

 

 

                                                   (I sent this to a guy once)
                                                          (DON'T LAUGH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've Been Robbed!

                                           You know what's frustrating?
                                                           Celebrities.
                                                         I mean honestly.
Everyone loves them for the funny things they say, or do. Or even book characters written by author celebrities. We love how they think and feel. And they make millions cause of it. And you know where they get those thoughts, words, and things from?

                                                                     ME.
 

 

                                                                    Yeah.
I'm serious, I'm 99% sure that Suzanne Collins stalked my brain somehow and put it into a book character named Katniss Everdeen.

Picture me, reading this Hunger Games book everyone's been reading about and that parents are paranoid about, and along comes the scene where Katniss describes her feelings for the world at large, and how she thinks about her sister and mom.
                                 And I nearly fell over. 

                She just described my whole state of mind.
 

    But when I'm moody and aloof no one thinks I'm an    awesome strong female lead. I'm just a grouch.
 

Or take duck dynasty. Aside from Jack and Happy happy happy, those people speak my language. There's sayings on that show that I thought were born in my family. 

And it's on tv! Making money!!

 

Or how's about when I was 8 and decided I needed to make a device that set an alarm off on your remote control when you lost it? 

Guess what showed up in stores a year later?
 

Or take people like Glenn Beck. That guy gets a four hour radio program that's mostly him laughing hysterically. I can be sarcastic and derogatory too! I can laugh about it for days!
 

Or Garrett Hedlund. I love him. But the guy is just slightly higher than insane.
                                       But YouTube is full of interviews for him.
                                  The guys never been in a huge movie in his life.
                                                     He dies in half of his roles.
                                                          But people like him.
I can be just as crazy as that! I can talk with my hands, and a freakishly low voice, and pause too much between my words just like he does. But no one tracks me down to a tiny little house full of dogs to ask me about a controversial statement on giraffes.
                                              (They did for garrett. No joke)
                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQRlCgeba38
 

I've been through my whole house and can't find any hidden cameras or microphones. I know there's no chips in me recording my thoughts. But somehow, they're doing it. Somehow they know. And they're using it. But I will not rest! I will not stop until I've stopped their personality stealing ways and become famous on my own insanity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Teachers and Desperation For a Topic

Hi guys!

Since I'm having a lack of creativity here, I'm posting about school. Necessary or no, it's very nasty stuff. A complete dream killer. You don't know frustration until you're stuck doing algebra problems and a story idea comes to you that you just can't wait to write down. And then your mom walks in the room. 

Yeah. I'm homeschooled. 

Which means I can go super fast and be writing away most of the day while the rest of the world is still in class. It's awesome. 

And for those of you wondering- no, I don't get extra homework. It's all homework. 

(And I don't leave my bedroom in pajamas let alone do school in them) 

But anyway, homeschooling was great. My teacher was a little grouchy, but I can't complain too much right? She makes good suppers. 

Now I'm in college and things aren't much different. I'm messing around at a community college until I figure out what I want to do, and the classes are all online, so life's sweet. 

Now THOSE teachers...wow. It's interesting working with them. I went a whole semester emailing my teacher like "hey jan" before I remembered "I think it's supposed to be mrs. Something or other".....

Hey jan. 

then there's the teachers who are all strict about "get this thing due on time or you will burn." And I'm like "hey great. I like to know what's next on my list." But please. For the love of all sanity, GRADE MY PAPERS ON TIME.  It makes my life so much easier thanks. 

Of all my classes, I only really like two. And that's only on certain days.english composition was great. My teacher liked me (I'm totally reading in between the lines here... But who wouldn't like me?) and I got good grades. And as much as I hate doing research papers, it was fun to write. 

Business math. Eh. I did good at it. I've always been lamentably good at math. It stinks, cause then math is always the obvious choice for a class to take, and I hate it. With a bloody passion. I have to listen to Skillet while I do it just to remain calm. 

I'm also doing proofreading and editing, which I like but am not as good at. Helps my writing though. 

As for pc basics and office management. Please. Kill me. I can't stand them. I think I know how to turn on my computer and smile at a customer. 

But it'll come in handy someday right? Right?? 

The Wonderful World of My Life is Trying To Kill Me

It is, honest. But not the blog version. The real thing. 

The last week has been sub zero temperatures. Last night was -9, and a high of 2 degrees during the day- and that's not even taking into consideration the windchill. 

We're now right smack in the middle of calving season so that means dad is staying up most of the night checking calves every two hours. During the day me and my sisters help and check them every hour. 

The tractors have to be plugged in for hours to get them warm enough to start so we can feed cows. In three different places. One of them twice a day. We keep putting in fuel conditioners to keep them from freezing up on the road on our way there.

 I just came inside from wrestling brittle hoses around trying to get them stretched out to fill the horse tank. The connection is leaking and it's just one giant ice pile right next to the hydrant. 

Calves are being born and we have to hurry to get them in the barn before they freeze they're feet and ears off- or even to death. With the process of getting them in and warm, comes the trouble of having to get their mothers in the barn (which means we have to try and start the four wheeler) and hope they remember each other. If they don't we have to teach the baby how to nurse, so he gets his first milk. Otherwise he'll die. 

My bottle calves are all gone now. We had to adopt them out to cows whose baby's had died. We've had to doctor several calves for having scours (think the flu).  Don't forget to chop the dog and chicken water, haul wood up to the house and fill the cow tank several times a day. 

Aside from the battle against the elements, I'm also coming down with a nasty cough and cold, and I'm dog tired...speaking of dog, my dog has fallen in love with a cat and totally forgot we exist. I'm not sure if this means he really needs a girlfriend or if we need to make sure he never gets one. Because he literally pays us no attention. It's so much more than puppy love. 

But you know what's even crazier than everything I just said?? 

IM NOT COMPLAINING. 

Sure when I'm outside I'm sure I can't go on, and it's too much and I just want to go back to bed- but I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I love it. It's awesome. When I go outside and see that cow with her baby, a happy family, and see how the little calves snuggle up in the hay, and suddenly remember I have a dog when he jumps in the front seat with me- its good. It really is the WONDERFUL world of my life.