The greatest gift ever given...

The Holy Eucharist

That is God. Jesus Christ is there present, in his full body, blood, and soul. He is present physically, in his full humanity and divinity. Through the powers bestowed upon the priest in his Ordination, what was ordinary bread and wine at the beginning of Mass is transformed into the physical flesh and blood of Jesus during the Consecration. Though it still maintains the appearance, taste, and texture of bread and wine (the "accidents" of bread and wine, as defined by Church doctrine), it has been completely transformed into Jesus' body and blood.

I receive God every week. Every time I go to Mass. For a time, I'm a tabernacle, because until the last particle of the Host dissolves, I'm holding Jesus Christ inside me. What thing on this earth can ever be greater than that? It's... almost incomprehensible. Jesus Christ has, for mankind, taken on the appearance of bread and wine so that he can be with us in the fullest way possible. Apart from Creation, or the Redemption, this is God's greatest gift to humankind. He's given (and giving) Himself.

I asked the question a while back on a previous post: "Why am I a Catholic?". Well, even if I hadn't already reasoned that the Catholic Church is the ONE, TRUE, HOLY, and APOSTOLIC Church, that the Catholic Church has the Truth in fullness and entirety, and that the Catholic Church is the one and only Church that Jesus Christ founded - I'd be a Catholic because the Catholic Church has more than any other Church has. It has God. And I can worship Him, and touch Him, and see Him every single time I go to Mass.

That's why I'm a Catholic.

Revelation!!!

NOW I know why I have problems with my computer sometimes!

Cars and I don't get along.

-- Not if I'm in the driver's seat, anyways.

Being a student driver sucks. Seriously. All right, so I can drive on the streets, but still..... I have so much left to work on. I always - always - start cutting my turns too late. If I pay attention to one thing (say, staying the speed limit), I lose attention and let something else slip (like missing my turn?). Not to mention the fact that I'm a total moron and can't remember to take the parking brake off if I'm driving mom's car (the parking brake on that car is messed up... you can't tell when you're driving if the parking brake is on or off). And better yet, I have a driving test in 15 days. Oooooooh boy. And if I manage to fail a driving test, I'm going to practically murder myself.

--------------------------------

On the good side, though... I can drive on the freeway. It's a whole lot easier than city driving (no stop lights!! WOO!!), just because there's not as much to watch out for - you just focus on a few things and you're good. And I drove to Nebraska and back over this past weekend to pay my boyfriend a visit, so I got plenty of driving time in on the freeway between Ft Collins and York, NE. Oh, and I even got to hit over 95 mph......... yeah, I know I was speeding, but I had a good reason. Had (yes, that's "had") to pass a semi AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Not a stunt that I will ever duplicate again unless I have to, though.

Why fantasy novels rock...

... It's the CREATURES, dude!!!

Haha, yeah... In my mind, it's the creatures that really make a fun fantasy novel.

Sure, you're probably thinking... "vamps, werewolves, dragons, dryads, goblins... so how does that make or break a story?" Well, I'm not really talking about those kinds of creatures. I'm not saying that dragons or werewolves aren't awesome - quite the opposite, they're popular for a reason! But it's the unique creatures, the ones that the author has made up to fit their own little fantasy world, that make reading a fantasy novel really cool.

One of my favorite examples of this is Kate Forsyth's novel "The Witches of Eileanan". I was kind of annoyed with the main character (she was described as spunky?? Are you kidding me?!), the writing style made the story hard to follow, and the neatest character of the bunch was getting tamer, not the other way around! But I couldn't put it down because her creatures had totally captured my attention. Though they didn't play a huge role, she'd populated her world with elven cats, dragons, Mesmerds, and all sorts of other interesting animals. By far, I'd have to say the Mesmerd was my favorite... a swamp creature with big eyes, a bunch of arms, wings, marsh-grey skin, (overall, it looked like a sleek, oversized Gollum... a bit) a breath that kills, and a mission to steal young children - how could that not be riveting?

So yeah... I'll admit, some of my stories are just excuses to make up my own fantasy creatures. Preyteons, Satarri, Kine, Kridh' - ah, I have so much fun with them. And even the creatures that aren't totally my creation are fun to play with, like weredragons, wind dragons, sprites, shapechangers, Elementals, and vampires... I could go on and on, but you've probably heard enough.

Try it sometime... just pull out a piece of paper and start sketching, or watch a movie and let your imagination run wild, and see what sort of crazy creature you can come up with!

The SAT is OVER!

WHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! *combined shriek of joy and sigh of relief* Man, I'm so glad it's over with... actually, I kinda didn't take it seriously enough. And it didn't help that I had two power bars right beforehand... I was fidgeting whenever I wasn't totally focused on whatever test section I happened to be on.

Anywho... as far as I how I did, I'm not very happy. I guess it went all right... I had no problem with the verbal/writing/reading sections, but math.... I think I blew it. I don't think I'll score well. I had one section where my brain just totally froze for two whole minutes. I get my scores back on the 29th of March, I think, so we'll see just how bad I did... I sincerely hope I didn't do as bad as I think I did. As far as the essay, well - we'll just say, it could've been better. I finished it on time, but had absolutely no time to proof what I wrote; I put my pencil down after the last sentance just as the time was up. I don't even remember what I wrote, the time went by so fast.

So yeah.... I really, really, REALLY hope I did well... if I didn't, that means a retake, because I NEED a good score - something I know I can get, but just... eh... I don't know. I still can't believe that my brain froze during a math section, and I'm worried about the essay... aaaaah... I need to stop thinking about it. I'll find out my score soon enough.

This is tragic.

4 days.

It's half a week until the SAT. Crazy thing is, I'm not nervous yet... maybe a little, regarding the essay, but overall, I'm feeling fine with the whole thing. I wish it wasn't at 7:30 in the morning, though - but hey, at least that means that I'll be getting it over with, first thing.

Practice done to date: 10 lessons of algebra II, 2 practice essays written, and 2 novels read. My astronomy homework has been taking a big bite of out of the time I can spend practicing for the SAT, darn it.

6 days and counting...

I have less than a week until the SAT. I'm not nervous about it - I know that if God wants me to do well on it, I will, and if he doesn't... then I won't. But I'm still studying like crazy for it.

Practice that I've done to date: 8 lessons of math (including some trig), 2 practice essays, and one novel read (that's my way of studying for the verbal sections - reading, reading, and more reading).

Keep me in your prayers, please!

You know you're in 2007 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

And now you're laughing at yourself.


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I know, I post way too much stuff like this, but... hey, I got such a kick out of it that I couldn't resist, haha!

Why do I write?

A few days ago, Kloude posted about how she first started writing, when, and why, and asked others to respond. So...
I started writing for a few reasons... I think I was 10 or 11 at the time. Probably the main reason that I started writing was because I hated the ending to Lord of the Rings - crazy, but true (hey, I still don't like how sad it is). After I finished reading Lord of the Rings, I decided that I was going to write a sequel purely for my own enjoyment, just so the ending didn't bug me. Obviously, that project got ditched pretty quickly, but that was the big thing that got me started writing.
The second reason why I started writing - it drives me CRAZY when my favorite characters die. And it happens in almost every single book I read! It's safe to say that I'll usually be sobbing at some point in a story when my favorite character dies some heroic death. That is soooooo depressing. So a big reason I write is so that I can have awesome characters that don't die at the end of the book. There's usually a death or two in each of my stories, but it's rarely a character that I absolutely adore (I think I've killed off a favorite character... once. And then I missed her so much that I brought her back. I'm terrible, aren't I?).
What else... apart from those two main reasons, I also started writing simply because I wanted something fun to read. I needed a few characters who weren't all wishy-washy and docile, a villain that it was a pleasure to hate, a liberal sprinkling of magical creatures, crazy escapades, zippy comebacks, and just some all around fun.

Writing is awesome.

25 Ways to annoy your parents

Not quite as good as 27 things to do in an elevator, but there are a few laughable ones. Forwarded by my sister.

25 ways to annoy your parents:

1. Follow them around the house everywhere.
2. Moo everytime they say your name.
3. Pretend to have anmesia.
4. Say everything backwards.
5. Run into walls.
6. Say that wearing clothes is against your religion.
7. Go to their room at 4 in the morning and say,"goodmorning sunshine"!!!!!
8. Snort loudly when you laugh then laugh harder.
9. Say all of the words in a movie.
10. Pluck someones hair out and yell,"DNA!"
11. Wear a sticker that says,"I'm a retard."
12. Talk to a pen.
13. Have 20 imaginary friends that you talk to ALL the time.
14. Try and climb the wall.
15. In public yell,"No, mom, I will not make out with you!"
16. Put pegs on your nose and eyes.
17. Switch the light button on and off for awhile... and then say: "Oh... now I get it!"
18. Eat your hair.
19. Hold their hand and whisper to them,"I see dead people!"
20. When you shower or bathe yell,"I'm drowning!"
21. At everything they say yell,"LIAR!"
22. Pretend to be a phone.
23. Try to swim on the floor.
24. Tap on their door all night.
25. When they say a word from a song you know...burst out laughing if you know it!!!!

Staring into space...

... all done with that, for now at least! Just got back from doing my astronomy lab at the local observatory - I can now say that I can identify and point out in the sky the eight brightest winter constellations and ten brightest stars. The only downside of going out tonight was that it was absolutely FREEZING outside (AND WINDY!!!), so I was standing outside and literally shaking because it was so cold. But my homework is done with (for now), so I'm happy.

Now I get to look forward to the organ recital tomorrow night... *gulp*

I hereby declare war on... on second thought, never mind!

*mischievous grin* I've decided to surrender to the homework!! --- okay, not. But my mindset has shifted dramatically in the past few hours... essentially: hey, it's just homework, it's not gonna kill me! Besides, I can so totally whip any homework that my classes send my way - and it's just goin' in one ear and gonna be out the other, come end of this semester! So why should I give a care? :D

*completes solar elevation angle projects with a grin* I love my fizziness!

I hereby declare war against...

.... MY HOMEWORK!!!!!!! The soul-sucking, brain-washing, idiotically complicated homework is driving me sane. So what if I'm only taking two college classes this semester? It's disgusting to think that my life "depends" on me getting into a good college, getting into a good college depends upon my grades, and my grades depend on knowing such pointless trivia as the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. I'm sick of having to know infinitely tiny details about stuff I don't even care about - or want to know. Why must I waste my time on stuff like that? I'M A GOING TO BE A MUSIC MAJOR, NOT A FREAKIN' SCIENTIST!!!!!!
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I need a vacation.............. but it's only the third week of the semester.

*dies*

The Prayer Every Student Should Know

*grin* Taken from my astronomy teacher's webpage... no idea who wrote it.

Test Prayer

Now I lay me down to study,
I pray the Lord I won't go nutty.
If I should fail to learn this junk,
I pray the Lord I will not flunk.
But if I do, don't pity me at all,
Just lay my bones in the study hall.
Tell my teacher I did my best,
Then pile my books upon my chest.
Now I lay me down to rest,
And pray I'll pass tommorrow's test.
If I should die before I wake,
That's one less test I'll have to take...

Let it snow?

Whoever wrote that carol must have lived in the Sahara Desert.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..." very aptly describes our weather. It's windy. It's -11 degrees outside, windchill not included. There's roughly two and a half feet of snow on the ground, accumulated from four or five snowfalls, and it has partially melted and refroze several times, which means it's also icy. And guess what? It's snowing outside - MORE! I need to commandeer my sister's camera so I can take a few pics of the vast whiteness outside. It's awful to go out in, and it's even cold in the house... but oh well! I like snow. I kinda like the cold weather (even though this is pushing it), because it gives me an excuse to stay inside and read a good book.

So - let it snow!

A well-deserved thank you...

... to Kyla, for drawing my character "Rain". She did this a few months ago (something like that?), and I loved how it turned out so much that I wanted to post it on my blog. I love how the expression turned out... Kyla captured Rain almost perfectly! The posture, the expression, it's almost exactly how I'd imagined Rain in the beginning of my story. I am thrilled with it - I'm an absolutely awful artist, and no one else has ever volunteered to draw my characters, so I've never actually had a character from my story drawn out before. Thank you, Kyla!!!

Why am I a Catholic?

I've heard this question, and others that are very similar, more times than I can count. From door-to-door missionaries, from roadside "preachers" telling me to convert to their own "true" religion, to people who are just genuinely curious - my statement that I am a Catholic and am not going to budge doesn't make sense. Even more frequently, I hear people say (and not unkindly), "Oh, you're Catholic... I'll bet that you can't wait to get out of the house so your parents aren't making you go to Church any more."

It's saddening that when I say I'm Catholic, people automatically assume that I'm going to quit my faith as soon as I possibly can. Truth be told, it's the exact opposite.

Most people look at the vast realm of religion and their initial thoughts are either "These people are all insane." or "Every single one of them thinks that THEIR religion is right, and maybe one of them is - but how can I know which one?!"
For me, there are two main reasons why I think my belief Catholic faith is justified.

1) There is more evidence to back the Catholic Church than any other religious denomination that I've yet encountered. (to those reading this who aren't Catholic - please correct me if I'm wrong!)

2) Everything in the Church is logical.

Expanding upon the first reason: the Bible is widely recognized by scientists and historians to be historically accurate. There are a few incidences of questionable nature (such as that the world was created in six days), but the New Testament (the Gospels) is known to be valid. In the New Testment, Jesus states explicitly that he is God, and came to earth to redeem mankind. This is supported by the miracles he performed (facts which, to my knowledge, were not questioned or refuted by people at the time).
Secondly, throughout the ages there have been amazing miracles attributed to Catholic saints. The history books tend to leave these out; but there are multitudes of these miracles, which have been verified by medical professionals (yes, there are still miracles today, verified by our "cutting edge" doctors) to be beyond the realm of human intervention.

Expanding upon the second reason: "faith" and "reason" are in no way separate. There are many religions I consider to be illogical, either in their foundations or teachings. To give an example, I have come across people who say "it doesn't matter what you believe, just so long as you're a good person." That may be - but shouldn't we strive for truth? Take the Muslim and Catholic religions; one says that Jesus is God, the other that he is not. They can't both be right. Does this mean that we shouldn't investigate further or make a decision for ourselves which we think is correct?
That said, I believe in the Catholic Church because its evolution as a religion follows a series of logical steps. The Jews (I won't go into why they're credible, it'd take too long for me to explain every little thing) believed that a Savior - the Messiah, the true King - would come to save them, liberate them, and reopen the gates of heaven for them. Jesus not only fulfilled all of the prophecies, but also said that he was the Messiah - however, the Jews had been expecting a more physical King, one who would also save them from the Romans, not a carpenter's son. The religion that resulted was the original Christianity, Catholicism.

And why I believe that Catholicism is the correct version of Christianity... that requires a separate post.

Back!

Wooo... I loved my break! I had so much more free time - I didn't realize how much time I spent just hanging around on the computer until I cut it out completely. Quite a bit of my "vacation" was spent shoveling snow, though, because the blizzard started early Wednesday morning and we got about 2 1/2 feet of snow (now that deserves its own separate post - pics included). I also got to go see Eragon, make my own Christmas stocking, read a few books, and just hang around with the family a lot. Not a super eventful vacation, but it was what I needed. I feel recharged again!

With that said... it's nice being back online again. Hoorah for the internet!

End of the semester... now it's time for a break.

I hate the computer.

Truth be told, I'd much rather be hiking, or biking, or reading - or even just laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling! I hate living my life bound to a machine, staring endlessly into an animated screen. I do like being able to keep in touch with friends via email or IM, but right now, I'm just sick of the computer in general. Or not even the computer itself; I hate the feeling of having to always be "connected", knowing what's happening and keeping up with everything. Over the semester, that was all I did - sometimes I spent as much as 12+ hours a day on the computer. I can't deal with that. I feel like, if I have to stare at a computer screen any longer, I'm going to go absolutely sane.

So, starting at midnight tonight, I'm unplugging. Over the next week, I'm going to turn my internet off, not going to check my e-mail, not going to IM, not going to watch stuff on youtube or look things up on Google. I may use my computer to write, for a few hours a day - but apart from that, I'm getting off.

Talk to you all in a week!

Meet Francis, Jedi in training.