I'm Alive!

Yes, believe it or not, I am alive!

Didja miss me? And I'm pretty sure that 'didjya isn't even a word. XD Oh, well. The joys of being a... a... well, something. *frowns

Anyways, much oceanic things! We've gone swimming three times--a few days after we arrived, and then the waves were really high and it wasn't that much fun... the second time we only got to for an hour, and was better. Then, we went to Silver Beach (today, but by the time I post this it might be yesterday) for a graduation party for the guesthouse owners' daughter. I drew her a picture of Crush, their mixed breed dog, who stands a bit above my knee and has tulip ears and big brown eyes as well as short, brown fur and a white chest, stripe, and muzzle. :) Very cute.

Silver Beach was AMAZING. They had a lagoon that was maybe knee-deep or a little more, and the littler kids used that. You had to cross that to get to the ocean. Also, the ocean there was beautiful--as far as the eye can see across, and to either side. BEAUTIFUL, not to mention the waves were huge and yet the sea was smoother there. XD It didn't jostle you about so much that you never could rest. It had maybe eight-foot tall waves where we were, about waist-deep. I dove under a wave just before it crashed, and I got a free back rub over my whole body. It was fun.

The ocean pulls you down the beach because of the way the current goes around the coast. The bad thing was that at one point, there was a big hole where neither me nor my dad could touch the bottom even though people right across from us were only waist deep. You had to let it sweep you a little bit further where its gets shallower again.

Riding the waves was fun, too. Jared (the guest house owners' son), his cousin, and Jake tried to play ninja in the water. They failed utterly. Then, they tried to see who could stay standing through the waves the longest. XD One huge one knocked them all down. Jared's cousin lay on the beach where the waves could wash over him, and plugged his nose. A strong wave took him down the beach--and another washed him back up. It was funny to watch.

Today (and yes, my other note that said my other 'today' could be yesterday was correct), I helped out at the library sorting that Jake and Alex have been helping with, and it was a lot of fun. Pretty much, I got to sit on the floor and divide devotional magazines and the like while everyone else went through hymnals. XD The thing was, I was supposed to find all of the Daily Breads in that mess (a huge pile they had just been tossing stuff like that into) and pack them into a box. Guess what? By the end of the day, I filled five full boxes of Daily Bread devotionals alone, and two boxes of other things.

Jared, apparently, thought it was a lot of fun to, when  he found Daily Breads and stuff like that, toss them on my head. That got everybody ELSE started on tossing them on my head, and soon I was surrounded by Daily Breads to sort through... XD It didn't hurt, but even Jake thought it was funny... is there something wrong with them? ;)

At break time we each drank a pop (or two, in Jared's case) or a bag of water. And then... we played ninja. usually it ends up to be Jake and Jared facing each other by the end. Jared is now a black belt in karate, so he's really good, but Jake's pretty good at that sort of thing too. They go on for like three minutes, going so fast that it looks like its been coordinated or something. XD They had to take a break TWICE in one of the rounds, and nobody ever won it because we just started over. I got second once or twice. It was easier, since we played the version where you hit one hand--that person's out.

Jared's cousin (he has two--this one being the younger one), Levi, decided that you're supposed to be an animal and make the sounds as you strike. Jared was a snake, Jared's older cousin was an elephant, I was... well, I THINK I was a bear, though I wish I'd done a cat, I can't remember what Jake was, and Levi... Levi was a cow. XD Then he did it where you had to say something in a different language. Levi said his name in some other language, Jared said 'shield' in the Ancient Language from The Inheritance Cycle, (I can't remember what anyone else said), and I said, of course... ALLONS-Y!!

At one point during the day, Jared disappeared, and his older cousin said, "Where's Jared?" A few minutes later, Jake felt a hand on his head... Apparently, Jared was in the attic, hanging his head through the hole in the ceiling. Nobody noticed him! Jake walked right under him. They figured out it was Jared because Jared had disappeared, and Jake went to go get him, but Jared came downstairs fast through the other way and Jake went up searching for him and calling his name. Jared sits down.

Jake: "Where are you?"

Jared: "Oh, you'll never find me!"

Jake: "Oh, yes I will!"

Me: "Jake, he's down here!"

So funny.

Awesome day. Some of the boys 'sang' Christmas songs or just random songs, Jake started to sing the first four lines of his famous poem, "It Flow'st Upon A Midnight" put to the music of 'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.' He found out awhile ago that it fits perfectly...

Levi took a hymnal and opened to a random page and made up a tune for whatever he read... I must say, it didn't really work... XD

Hopefully, I'll be going back tomorrow...

Drawings! So far, I've finished the drawing of Crush, started one of Rubee, a picture graciously provided by Leauphaun, and another off of the internet--a big draft horse with black and white patches, and long feathers on his hooves. I found a whole lot of this same horse, and he's really beautiful. Drawing him is going to be fun. I started one of him. :)

I read the Errant King. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It didn't quite live up to Sword in the Stars. Lochlan was good, as was Maren and Telwyn and all the rest. But unfortunately, I didn't feel that Ariana's character was developed enough near the end--her story started out good, but falling in love in less than a week? You've got to be kidding me.

I found myself in the Prologue. ^_^ Jaavere, my friend, instead of being a quote at the beginning of a chapter from the Canticles and named Jaavere Amberstill, she was put in as a guard that Lochlan spoke to briefly.

However, I did not find anyone else's names other than Millard's (Millard Key), and hopefully they will be put in the next book...?

I also read The Annotated Firebird, a book made up of three books--Firebird, Fusion Fire, and Crown of Fire. All very good! I found myself liking the books very much. Very, very much! Kathy Tyres did well when she wrote them, and now I want to go find that sequel book that Jake saw on Kindle... and read it. I think its about Kiel and Kinnor... >_> The only problem I had was, that, throughout the book, the author had put notes on things, thus interrupting the story flow at parts, but the notes explaining a few things were interesting, and who am I to complain? Jake got it for like four bucks, and its over a thousand pages!

I re-read Starlighter for the sake of going through the series before reading Diviner, and now I'm in the middle of Warrior. I think Starlighter is definitely not Bryan Davis's best work, but Warrior wasn't TOO bad, and I'm hoping Diviner will be good. :)

I read Inheritance, and found it good--but not amazing. The ending, even though a lot of people didn't like it, was a pretty good ending. I mean, it fulfilled a few things said in the other books, and it was the only logical choice--though I do wish they'd put more meaning into the ending, amazing last words or something.

Also, Eragon was all hardened and everything by the end--I wish he had a bit more courage and sacrifice in there. And when Nasuada took the throne--she just said, "I'll take it." And she pushed for it. That seemed very uncharacteristic for her. Nasuada wouldn't argue for something like that. And she acted a bit rude about it, too. She refused to renounce her claim, and while I'd rather have her as queen than King Orrin as king, I didn't like how she handled it all.

So, all in all, my days have been busy. Over two weeks in Africa already!

Farewell, my Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Dragons, Spriggans, Werecats and the like--

--Vrenith Sylversmith