18 November 2008

I am a rebel.

Today, I resolve not to feel stressed, overwhelmed, bogged down, or generally blah. I resolve to waste time as I see fit, read my book, accomplish whatever absolutely has to be done, and leave the rest, because today I am a rebel.

That felt kinda good.

(Of course, this does not apply to piano, quizzing, or English; but hey, that's the fun stuff.)

NaNoWriMo count: 29000 words. Today's goal is 30000.

To-Do List:
Read my book
Listen to my new soundtrack (the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
Read Limyaael's Fantasy Rants
Drink coffee
Write novel
Wash the dishes while singing Deck the Halls

16 November 2008

Seven Random Things

I have been tagged by Kyleian.

(As a side note, my NaNoWriMo took precedence so you likely won't be hearing much more about the convention.)

Seven Random Things About Melda
1. I am unaffected by caffeine. I like coffee and chocolate, but no matter how much I drink/eat, my level of hyperness thereafter is completely psychological. I can also be extremely hyper and not have had coffee for ages.
2. I have a slurpee in the freezer and later today I will dig it out and eat it with a spoon.
3. I really want nice boots to go with my coat, but it seems as though the perfect ones are only to be found on other people, and not in stores.
4. At home, I sleep with a squishy heart-shaped red pillow. When away, I find a pillow and sleep with it like a teddy bear, because otherwise I feel slightly bereft.
5. I am addicted to crossword puzzles.
6. I hate airport security with all my heart, and if one of those guys ever tries to search me with his metal-detector thingy, I will be seriously miffed.
7. I really appreciate it when cashiers are chatty, cheerful people. If I am ever a cashier, that is my goal.

There. Now I tag...

Joy
Robyn
Valera (now you have to post, mwaha)
Lenya
Meg
Ellie (you have issues finishing things you start. Or even perpetuating them. POST, DARN YOU)
I can't think of a seventh one but I know the Fudge Muffin periodically hangs around here, so she is now obligated to tell me seven random things about herself next time I see her on MSN. Or she could put them in a comment, I suppose. Whichever.

NaNoWriMo count: 25,500. Right on track.

13 November 2008

Conservative Convention, Day 1

I am in Winnipeg. At the Conservative Convention '08, as a Youth Delegate. My name tag says it and everything. Dad says his should say, "Old Delegate."

Day #1

4:10 am - out of bed. This is an insane hour for ANYONE to be out of bed, cheap flight or no. I had to do some considerable coaxing to make it up, and then run around crazily trying to pack all my last-minute things. I still forgot my camera charger, but hey, it's only three days.

4:30 - meet with our convention buddies, drive to the Park 'n' Ride, and get on a shuttle to the airport.

6:00 - board plane, after several failed attempts at coffee and a hasty perusal of a newspaper. Wedge self in the middle seat, contemplate the insanity of rising at 4:10 am.

6:30 - take off. I did write 1100 NaNoWriMo words at this point, which was good.

9:10 [now on Winnipeg time]- land. Take limo (!!!) to hotel/convention center - they're connected - meet Mike, and discover some of our rooms aren't ready. Therefore, congregate in the one that is.

10:10 - start discussing some of the touchier things in the constitution packet. At this point I was finding it hard to focus because all I'd eaten was a package of cookies on the plane and a Christmas orange.

11:30ish - wander down to the lobby, coincidentally happen to see the Prime Minister arrive at the hotel. That was kinda cool. Because I was dying of hunger, we went to Subway, and *gasp* someone actually knew how to use two Subway giftcards at the same time! (This is quite a problem. Nobody seems to know and it makes giftcards just slightly useless.)

12:30 - make it over to the convention center to register. Here we got our lanyards, a package with a bunch of documents and some ballots, and various other miscellany.

After 12:30 - hang around on floor 12 of the hotel, designated hang-out area with coffee of varying kinds and comfy chairs. Finish Merlin, second book of the Pendragon cycle.

2:00 - discuss more policy and constitution.

4:00 - spend a long time looking for the Radisson Hotel to attend a Cabinet Minister's presentation on multiculturalism. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't had to try so hard to stay awake. Dad and I left during the comments portion of the presentation, because the comments were desperately long and boring. People do not know how to be concise.

5:20 - find another Subway, try to use giftcards and fail, unhappy Dad and I. Get sandwich anyway.

5:30 - wolf sandwich down in hotel room.

6:10 - head down to get seats for the Prime Minister's keynote address. Or in my case, a very random seat after being accosted by a volunteer going, "Oh we need youth delegates to come sit over here so it looks like there are young people!" Cue me in between a guy who refused to give me the aisle seat like the volunteer wanted me to have, and a lady who was busy talking to someone else. I twiddled my thumbs until shortly after 7.

Shortly after 7 - an amazing routine by a couple of gymnasts, the Underground Circus, involving two ropes of colored cloth hanging from the ceiling and some absolutely amazing acrobatics. Then some singing by a girls' group, including the national anthem. Some people whose names I don't really recall spoke, and then Laureen Harper (that was kinda cute. I like her.) and then FINALLY the Prime Minister. He mentioned Mike's campaign manager in his speech! And how she made pies to raise money to send us to convention! Or *cough* how she's planning to. Anyway, it was really an excellent speech. I kept hoping he was going to exit via the bleachers, where I was, but he didn't, which begs the question - why the heck was I even there?

Shortly after 8 - hunt up Dad, hang around a bit getting progressively more tired and not liking the loud music and the bright lights. Finally decided to come back to the hotel room.

9:58 [now] - by myself, on my laptop, much happier.

High point of day 1: getting to read Merlin for the first uninterrupted stretch of time in a while. Also, of course, the Prime Minister's speech.

Low point: being hungry and tired.

So far, not gonna lie, it's not the most riveting thing in the world. But hey! That's why I have a book and my laptop.

12 November 2008

I need to stop reading letters to the editor.

Lately, they only serve to make me mad and fuel my blog rants.

Like today, for instance.

Tell me how this is somehow offensive and unsupportable: that soldiers, all of whom VOLUNTEERED, have fought in all the wars of this century to preserve the freedom and prosperity of their homeland. Tell me how it is bad, for one flipping day of the entire year, to remember the people who died so YOU have a home and a family and a free country. You'd think this would be impossible to refute, wouldn't you?

But still there are people who sit at home in their warm houses and whine about how we shouldn't be 'glorifying the acts of war'. Okay, I know war isn't fun, I know it's deadly, I would be horrified should there be, say, a WW3, but the important part is that people, when the time came, did it anyway! And they did it not because they found shooting fellow humans fun, they did it because it was the RIGHT THING TO DO! And because they did, we have what we do and we enjoy the privileges we do!

Next time a threat comes around, you people who write these idiotic letters, you can just lie down like a doormat and let the invading forces walk all over you. Tell me how that goes. Maybe you'll be slightly more supportive of war afterwards.

Rant over. Please be advised that I oppose pacifism with every bone in my body.

10 November 2008

Lest we forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae


Tomorrow, Remembrance Day, we honor all the Canadian soldiers who have ever died to preserve our freedom, our prosperity, and our lives.

War is not ideal. Peace, on the other hand, is. Sometimes, you need to fight a war to gain peace. And that's why I am not a pacifist. War is tragic and devastating - but sometimes war is necessary. For freedom, prosperity, and life. To want peace is not to lie down and let the world trample on you, because that way you're avoiding conflict. To want peace is to be willing to fight for it, because there are people who want to take it away.

Tomorrow, say a prayer of thanks for the men and women who died to make our country what it is today - free - and for the men and women who are even now fighting to give that same freedom to others.

I will be.

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06 November 2008

On a blogging spiel - and a song!

Look! Feet of Shadows has a song:

Shadowfeet by Brooke Fraser

Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Toward home, a land that I've never seen
I am changing
Less and less asleep
Made of different stuff than when I began
And I have sensed it all along
Fast approaching is the day

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

There's distraction buzzing in my head
Saying in the shadows it's easier to stay
But I've heard rumours of true reality
Whispers of a well-lit way

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

You make all things new

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you

When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you
When time and space are through
I'll be found in you.


The same artist also has a song called C.S. Lewis Song and from the tidbit I can hear on iTunes, she uses this quote: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." I've always really liked that one. Actually, C.S. Lewis in general is a veritable bottomless pit of amazing quotes. There's a really good list here.

And now I depart to make good on my assertion that Thursday is my most productive day of the week.

NaNoWriMo count: 8334 words

05 November 2008

The US Presidential Election

I'm not American. I won't pretend that I know everything about American politics, or that I know enough to have made an informed voting decision.

But I have to say, after reading the paper today, I am so, so sick of newspaper articles prating on about the 'stain of racism' being erased from America's track record. So what is the logic behind that? America enslaved African-Americans, and now the only way it can successfully apologize is to elect a black president? What a glowing endorsement for Obama - here, America feels guilty. Lead our country, and by default most of the free world, and we'll all support you because it's racist not to.

Actually, it's racist both to support Obama because he's black or condemn him because he's black. His race should have absolutely no swaying power. However, you don't see the white people out waving signs, do you now? Somehow, it's okay to have black pride or Native pride or Asian pride or what have you, but the moment I am proud to be white, our left-wing, 'tolerant', walk-on-eggshells world cries "Racist!"

That is the extent of my rant for today.

Thoughts about this election in a nutshell: He's got the single hardest job there is. I didn't support him, but I wish him well.


"Josh Stauffer is wondering why everyone thinks either the world is ending or it's saved. He's just a president. My grandma's seen 14 of them."

02 November 2008

The Latest News

Brought to you by Melda being too distracted to come up with something thoughtful and philosophical, and therefore deciding that it is time for an update on Real Life.

Recent Events:

#1: My first party planning attempt. Last Sunday, November 24th, I was very devious and cunning and hosted a surprise party for one of my friends. It involved a clandestine phone call to her mother, employment of my fantastic acting skills, several days of waiting, some streamers and balloons, and finally an army of youth girls hiding in my family room and an obscene amount of food including birthday cake. We had a fire, too. In the fireplace.
The lovely birthday girl.


#2: The most awesome youth event in the history of youth events, AKA Return to Dark Hold Keep. This, if nothing else, is evidence that I pretty much have the greatest youth pastor in the entire flippin' universe. We spent two and a half hours decoding runes, finding mini treasure chests, speaking in 'yarr' and 'ahoy', strutting around like Jack Sparrow himself, and (in my case) captaining the winning team of the entire event and coming home with Jack Rackham's rum bottle and a paper bag full of candy. We also saw The Biggest Cannon In Alberta, a whopping six inches long, and had a hole burnt in the back of one of our clues. It was supposed to be a code written in lemon juice.
We are pirates.


#3: NaNoWriMo. [National Novel Writing Month] I've never done this before but I decided it was time to jump in - I'm writing a novel in 30 days. 50000 words, to be more precise. It works out to a minimum of 1667 words per day. My novel is coming along steadily, albeit that I am very aware of the rampant way I have quantity over quality. Perhaps, in Editing Month (aka December) I'll see fit to post an excerpt or two.

#4: Halloween! In our household we had a random pirate with a red plush hat (yours truly), a random girl dressed in random sparkly stuff, Link, and his counterpart Zelda. There is now an obscene amount of candy floating around.

Upcoming events include: November 13-15, the Conservative Convention in Winnipeg. I am going as a Youth Delegate for the riding of Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont. Also, the first district quiz meet, November 21-22. Both will come, I am sure, with pictures, and quite possibly blog posts as well. If I have nothing profound to post before then, look for reports.

By popular demand (sort of) I now depart to pay a cookie I owe, write a post in Phantom Grey, and add 2500 words to my novel count of 3250.