Bake a Cake!

Hello to y'all!  It's me again with another hopefully fun story to share.

Today is my mother's birthday!  (Happy birthday mom!)  But she`s off at my little brother`s basketball game today.  Actually, she first went to a parade my older brother was in.  He does sword fighting with the SCA and thus was in the parade to show off his cool costume and sword.  He only got back an hour or two ago.  Then my mom went to Michael's basketball game. 

Just before she left, my cousin An called.  So she came over for most of the day.  We talked for half an hour, then my aunt come over to leave a present for my mom.  She asked us if we were baking mom a cake.  An and I looked at each other and said "That's a great idea!"  So we did.

Well, first we ate lunch.  (Scrambled eggs with real bacon bits, dehydrated onion and powdered garlic and cheese)  It was hard figuring what to have for lunch since An is allergic to corn.  Now before you think I'm crazy, I'm tellin' ya; corn is in EVERYTHING!  It just doesn't always go by the name 'corn'.  Glucose is a corn product, believe it or not.

After lunch An called her mom for a chocolate cake recipie that is really good.  Then we spent a lovely hour and a half mixing it up while listening to various Adventures In Odyessy episodes. (Like the one where Jack, Curt, Jimmy and Lucy are all grown up and come back for a visit and all the guys love (or at least have a crush on) Lucy.  I love it.)  Then we made hot chocolate and pudding (for layer filling) while waiting for the cake to bake and cool.  We also listened to more Odyessy.  Finally, the cakes were getting cooler, so we mixed up a chocolate glaze for it.  It was ... a little too runny and kinda poured off the cake, onto the plate and then to the counter.  We also had problems with the layers.  We had cut each of the layers in half so we had four layers.  But one layer broke due to a slightly undone center.  We got it stacked at last and then poured the afore mentioned glaze on.  When that had sort of set, we mixed up some plain vanilla frosting and began piping "Happy Birthday" onto it.  'Happy' went on fine.  Then I began writing 'Birthday', starting with the 'th' because I'd be able to center it better.  Well, when I got to the 'd', the pipe bag's seam broke and frosting blooped onto my 'd'.  After we scraped off the offending mark and repaired it with some of the leftover glaze,we transfered the icing to another bad. 

My mom has, er, had three bags.  One just broke.  Another's opening hole is too big and none of the things you put on fit properly and would just pop out if we squeezed.  The last bag was made of a type of canvas.  We used that one.  It is a HUGE bag.  It's over a foot long!  And we didn't even have a cup of icing.  But we used it.  And I finished writing Birthday and also drew a flower.  Then I removed my hand from the bag.  My had was sticky and the bag appeared wet.  Canvas is not waterproof and he moisture of icing oozes through.  Despite the stickiness, I put a ring of icing around the bottom edge to finish.  We had just enough.

Then began the grand ol' process of cleanup.  The dishes were moved to the sink and the cake set in the fridge.  The cooling racks were wiped and put away.  An washed some of the bowls and things while I wiped the counter.  Then I put some of the smaller items in the dishwasher while she finished the rest.  And we also washed things that were left in the sink from before lunch.  In the meantime our last Odyessy CD had run it's course and the stereo had begun playing the next CD.  Christmas carols!  In February!  It was fun.

After that I found a DVD she wanted to borrow and we went back to my room for a few more minutes.  We played with my block and marble set.  Yeah, we're cool like that.  I love toys of that kind that are more commonly thought of as 'little' kid toys'. 

The it was nearly 5:00 and she had to go home.  We said goodvye and I sat down to tell you about our fun advetures.  I love making cakes.

How to Create Good Characters

This is not a post about character as in a person's character. It's about charaters, as in books and movies. Keep reading if you want to find out how I create characters.

First off, create a sort of form/character sheet. I gernerally use this one.

Full name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Personality:
Crush:
GF/BF:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Talents:
Description:
Other:
History:

Now, that seems like a bunch of random things. Here's the same form, but with a breif explanation of each word.

Full name: The full name of your character. Such as Lucy Rae McFly
Nickname: Any nicknames your character might have. Include deragatory/harmful nicknames.
Gender: This is pretty obvious, right?
Age: Pretty obvious?
Personality: Use a series of words to describe your character. Such as 'helpful, mistrusting, angrey, loving, silly, bubbly, fun, annoying' and any other adjectives you might come up with.
Crush: Who your character has a crush on.
GF/BF: Your character's boyfriend or girlfriend, if they have one.
Likes: A list of likes. Could be anything from apples to swimming to hand grenades. Both things your character likes to do, eat, see, and what types of people they like.
Dislikes: The opposite of above.
Strengths: This is different from likes. While your character may like some things, they may not be good at them, or the thing may not be able to be a strength. (like apples... how could that be a strength??)
Weaknesses: Opposite of above. Also things your characer doesn't like doing (such as telling lies)
Talents: Choose a few strengths (or even weaknesses, since telling convincing lies is a talent, albeit one we don't really want) and list them here. This is what your character is really good at.
Description: Describe how your character looks. Don't just find a picture and say 'that's it', take time to describe how your character looks. Let's face it, this is great practice for describing things when you're writing as well.
Other: Anything else not covered by the other topics you wnat to include.
History: This is where you write a bit about your character's past. Try to have a decent sized paragraph on this. You don't have to go in depth, just try to have their life outlined in simple sentances.

Now I shall show you a character I've created with this form. In the story this character is in, he is stranded on an island with the rest of his school class.

Full name: Markus James McKethe
Nickname: Mark
Gender: M
Age: 18
Personality: Kind, honest, loyal, stubbon, a little loud, funny, has ocasional bouts of moodiness, can be serious when needed to be.
Crush: It will most likely end up Rebecca
GF/BF: None
Likes: Jokes, honey, coffee, climbing, soccer and football, frisbees.
Dislikes: Losing, not having coffee, people who can't take a joke.
Strengths: Climbing, finding honey and coffee plants, identifying plants, general althleticism, endurance.
Weaknesses: Sprinting for much more than 25-ish yards, making things that stand up to a stiff breeze, math, art of any kind (he's horrible at it).
Talents: Finding and identifying plants, finding honey, climbing, endurance.
Description: Markus is slightly above average height, at 6 feet tall. He is pretty muscular since he has been working out for four years. He has reddish brown hair and green eyes. He has huge feet that he constantly trips over.
Other: He is very clumsy, klutzy would be a beter discription.
History: Markus was born to a 17 year-old girl who made a huge mistake. She knew she wasn't ready for taking care of an infant, so she put him up for adoption. Almost right away he was adopted. Markus grew up in a loving family. He has seven siblings, two sisters who were born naturaly to his parents after they adopted him, one brother who was also 'natural' child, an adopted brother/sister set of twins, and two more adopted brothers, both older than him. He learned how to make himself heard by having that lot for a family. His older brothers are both married. The oldest has two kids already and the younger of them has one child. Markus had a best friend named Rob when he was 13. One day Rob dissapeared and was never found. Markus has always felt guilty about that. He feels as if he could have stopped it.

And there you have it! That is my way of creating a character. Of course, any character that's created has a great chance of growing into something you weren't planning one, so don't worry if that happens and ride the tides of your imagination!

ba-dee ba-dee ba-dee, That's all folks!

Tears and Fears and Maybe Something Else

It's amazing how quickly the things I cried over changed.  Late at night, instead of crying about being the outsider, the girl no one really pays attention too,  I've been crying for other reasons.  I sometimes don't even know WHY I'm crying.  I just cry.  It's been really hard these last two months.  Really hard.  I hide my pain and only really cry at night, when no one will see me.  But my hurt, my pain, it's all there.  I feel it nearly every moment of the day.  God has been there for me.  He has helped me this far, and He will help me the rest of the way. 

My fears have changed too.  I no longer am as terrified of people as I was this time last year.  I'm in my mid teens, and last year I was afraid to even buy things at a store without someone I know there.  I hated being so scared.  I wasn't really scared of someone hurting me, just afraid of people in general.  They make me nervous.  So nervous I can barely squeak out 'Hi' in reponse to them.  That fear has increased in insane amounts.  God has helped me so much with that.  My drama group helped me come out of my shell as well.  I don't know why I wasn;t scared stiff on the stage, but I wasn't.  Not completly, anyway.

My fear of people has been around since I was really little.  I nearly refused my first ride on a horse because I was scared of my cousins (They had the horses).  But I did that and really liked it.  But I still struggle with fear.  It helps to remember that God did not make us to be creatures of fear, but He made us to be strong in Him.

Strong in God.  Sounds perfect to me.  I know I cannot carry on on my own.  I need His help.  I need Him.  He is my Light, my Strength, my Life.  One of my favorite verses is in Philipians.  "I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me."  Amazing.  I can do anything!  Because God gives me strength! 

One time I was house and cat sitting for my neighbours while they were away for a while.  They have a picture thing on the wall.  It has a Bible verse on it from one of the 'H' books in the Old Testemant.  I don't remember the exact words, but it said that God sings for us.  God, our mighty Creator, singing, for US!  It blew me away.  I walked home in a daze because it was so overwelming.  It was a 'wow' moment.  I'm still awaed by the fact that my Creator sings for His lowley creation.