What I Do When I'm Supposed To Be Writing A Speech.

Pardon the disheveled sort of look. It's late at night. Aforementioned speech may or may not be posted for the public to view.

Notice.

Starting Monday, I shall begin school.

Like, actual, real life, take-your-books-in-a-backpack-school.

Like, you get homework.

And teachers.

And classrooms.

And you have to drive there.

...

Homeschooled much? =P

Anyhow, I'm super stoked, and hopefully you'll hear of my adventurings later on. But it might be awhile till I post, just...to, you know, notify you of that.

This just kinda made my day.

It's one of those days where what you really need is just a good laugh.



(thanks to Keilah for posting it on fb :)

The title is relevant to the post, I promise.

Okay, maybe not.

So, I'm sitting here, trying to think up of a witty way to start this post so that you'll read it.

Huh?

Oh come on, everyone knows that you'll only read blog posts with interesting titles and/or first 2.3 sentences.

Unless you're one of those madly devoted followers who clings to every word a person says like it was sent from heaven above.

But I don't think I have any followers like that.

(on that note, do we cling to God's words like they were sent from heaven above? cause you know, they kinda are.)

Anyhow. I've got this weird writing style stuck in my head because, guess what? I just read a blog with a similar writing style, and it got stuck in my head.

Yeah, I'm one of those people who feeds off of others creativity. Get over it, you know I have your attention now. (come on, you gotta admit it was pretty witty. I couldn't do it more than once though, darn this creativity thing.) (hence why the post is witty, and the title is dumb)

;)

But now that I've wasted a perfectly good 45 seconds of your life, I'll tell you why I'm blogging at 11pm at night.

I want to share with you Jon Acuff's blog. He's got two, actually.

I came across this post this evening, and wow...let me tell you that man can write some powerful stuff. (Go read it. Now. You can read the rest of this later. )

(aw, aren't you devoted! you're still reading!)

I've never heard of him before, aside from a hazy memory of picking up his book in the bookshop of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (wilst in Boston) and being mildly amused.

I haven't scoured his website or been a long time reader, but in only reading a few posts on his blog, it's evident that he loves the Lord.

The cool part is? He's human, just like you and me.

I feel like it's so rare to find blog authors who are bluntly honest. People put up so many masks in hopes that it will attract attention. (of course, they'd never say that, because you know...that'd be....honest.)

But lately, I just need to know that I'm not the only one. And even if he's famous, he's a sinner saved by grace...just like me.

Rest assured, this is not the last you'll hear of this blog on my blog. It's like hearing a good sermon, one that God wrote for you....so refreshing.

The thing is, I really really want you to go read his blog. No, I'm not advertising, the stuff on there is amazing.


Jesus Christ is the formula killer. He won’t behave according to our formulas. He won’t fit into our incredibly tiny expectations. He refuses to be controlled by our logic. {Jon Acuff}

Check it out, then tell me what you think.

Actually, no. If you checked out the blog, and you liked it, comment. Hopefully that won't scare you away from checking out the blog for fear of being guilted into commenting....rather it will enticingly woo you to type into the comment box....okay I'll stop now.

Ouch.

Do you ever go back and read your own blog?

It's not vain to re-post your posts is it?

Because this post - yes, in my own writing - was really convicting to me. Again.

Funny the way God decides to work...

Mission: Accomplished

LIFE GOAL GUYS:

Tie the cherry stem into a knot with my tongue.

Status: Completed.

Aren't you proud?

No?

I didn't think so. But I had to share my delight with you anyway.

purple makes the world go round.

Alright, lame pic, the bun is actually about the size of my face but as you can see I ate most of it.

MORE PURPLE FOOD! SO GOOD.

You should have seen me geeking out about this one. Definitely trumps the last purple bun I had. Man. So yummy.

Music [confession] of the Week.

Yeah. We'll put it that way.

I'm not usually one to give the pop country singer Taylor Swift a shout out (aside from this song), and I'm not really obsessed with her (nothing like Tenth Ave or Narnia or Jane Eyre or anything...::grin::) ...nor do I believe it's generally a smart idea to sing things like "all you're ever gonna be is mean" and "you're just another picture to burn" to people you fight with. Harbouring anger isn't a good thing.

I also have this like...automatic bias against celebrities that the general population is obsessed with. People put you in boxes based on who you listen to, and I generally prefer to be in the "celebrity haters" box rather than the "fangurl" box. The fan population worships the celebrities far to much. And it's pointless.

She does, however, write very well....very extremely well. She's kinda especially good at writing love songs.

::ahem::

ANYway, you know. They're...love songs. The music videos are amazing, but they all basically say the same thing. Nice, but mushy. Kinda frivolous and shallow sometimes. "Baby just say yes" gets a little old.

But for some reason this one is just AMAZING. I love it. I don't generally say so much about her music videos, but I love this one. And because of it I've been listening to her music all week. Maybe it's because it's set in a library with a lot of old books, maybe it's because her outfit is awesome, maybe it's because I feel like I can identify with it, maybe it's the...oh, it doesn't go into words. That feeling of frustration, of not being able to do anything. The song just says it.

"I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how...I've never heard silence quite this loud."

Tell me what you think, if you dare to hit the play button.



ps - today I'm graduating. Mmhm.

My little brother is cuter than yours.

During Bible reading this morning...

Mom: If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
John-Luke: What happens if you run out of clothes?

Mom: whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
John-Luke: Does that mean when you punch someone, you should always punch them twice?

Jedithz don't lithsp.

Today is May 4th!

Which is supposedly Star Wars Day.

"May the 4th be with you."

Ahahahahahaha I'm so funny.

Actually, whoever thought of that was pretty genius, if I do say so myself.

Happy Star Wars Day. If I was obsessed I'd geek out with a nice long post, but I'm not. (I can see you rejoicing about that one.) But I thought you might be as amused as I was. They need to have a Narnia Day.

Alright, let's recap this whole life thing.

So.

::squint::

I believe there are still a few blog readers out there?

::squint::

Maybe just a couple. I've been rather negligent, haven't I?

(is that the right word? It sounds right, anyway.)

(just kidding, I looked it up on google, so it is the right word.)

I'm boring you, aren't I? Well buckle up, because I'm going to like post about all the tournaments, in like, one post. Are you ready? (that was too many likes in one sentence...)

The tournament season started out fast and furious this year with the Id-a-HO! tourney! In which Bec placed FIRST with her AWESOME humorous, she and her brother placed FIRST in duo, my dramatic placed 6th, and RAYMOND PLACED 2ND IN HIS ORIGINAL SPEECH! I also managed to BREAK IN IMPROMPTU, which was kind of amazing/shocking/amazing/shocking.


Despite all awesomeness of the tourney, I came home and promptly got a 101 F fever which refused to go away all week, despite the amount of work I had to do.

Barely following the week I was sick - was the Puget Sound tournament!! By far one of the most enjoyable, relaxing, and fun. I don't remember what my speeches got, except that I broke to FINALS in impromptu, and placed 5th. Yeah. Kind of mind blowing. My God is really awesome.

(this is DI....semis, I think? yeah, semis.)

My brother and his duo partner (who have like the most awesome duo ever) made finals for their duo. That was pretty epic.

Next I had a lovely 3-week break (in which I did NOT get sick!) until the NEXT tourney, which was at Seattle Pacific University.

This tournament was probably the worst tournament all year. Sort of an emotional roller coaster and I didn't break with any of my speeches. It was, however, the biggest qualifier in the nation, and Raymond placed very well in all 3 of his speeches. But God did some pretty amazing things at that tournament too - like teaching me that I'm not doing any of this in my own strength.


They gave us foot-long sub sandwiches (and nothing else) everysingleday for lunch. Yeah. I have a love/hate relationship with subway now, thanks to that.

After this qualifier, there was somewhat of a break, I believe, before the STOA tournament. This tournament was pretty laid back (could be because I didn't debate :P ) but I ended up breaking in ALL 4 of my events (crazy compared to last time) and...it was just really cool how when I wasn't in it to win, and was in it just for the fun of it and the message I had to share, that God was able to bring me farther with it.

This is our amazingly epic club sign. It used to be really dull, so we took it down and re-designed it on the back: starting a trend and thus influencing about 4 other clubs to do the same. None of them was as awesome as ours though. :)


This picture has a rather interesting story to it. From Left to Right is Paul, Micaela, Conor, and me. Paul and I were duo impromptu partners, and Michaela and Conor were partners as well. We were all wearing red, but the funny bit was that Paul's red matched Michaela's, and my red matched Conor's. Paul and Michaela were also both wearing grey, and Conor and I were in all black. Hehehe.
Duo impromptu is WAY TOO MUCH FUN. You go in, draw three places, three conflicts, and three sets of 2 characters, and combine them to make a really whacky story. It's great fun. :)

16th place for duo impromptu was NOT expected, and was ridiculously fun. This is the president of STOA, Mr. York.

This was either impromptu, dramatic, or original oratory, but I don't remember which. :P

This is the flier for the DO HARD THINGS conference in July. You should all come, because it's going to be AMAZING. And as you might be able to tell, I was just a little bit excited. :)


Okay, so maybe I'm *slightly* easily amused....

Lots of stories and pictures from regionals coming soon.... :)

Impatience.

INSTALLING SPRING...IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST!

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44% DONE.

Install delayed....please wait.

Installation failed. Please try again.

404 error: Season not found.

Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try again.

Guess what today is?

April 8th!!! haha, bet you never would have figured that out by looking at the calendar or anything.

Actually, nowadays they look at cell phones and ipads. Huh.

Anyways. Today is April 8th. Well, actually, today is March 30th, but blogger has this spiffy and grand thing called "scheduled posts" and this is now set not to publish until April 8th. So in reality it really is April 8th.

This is weird. It's like I'm predicting the future or something.

Anyhow. Two very special things are happening today, and I shall award you brownie points if you can tell me the first one. The second one is not your duty to know, but you should know it anyway. (that was a contradiction, I think. oops. )

First off: DAWN TREADER COMES OUT ON DVD TODAY!!!

Oy, ain't it purty? I can't wait to get one. ;sladksdagh;adsf It's going to be so much fun and now we can have NARNIA MARATHONS. Anyone want to have one with me? I've always wanted to do that.

So, you should all go out to the shops and purchase your VERY OWN copy of this amazing movie. How cool is that? You can now legally own the movie in your home and watch it as many times as you please without having to trek down to the theatre multiple times. (not like any of you besides me would do that) (but you should still go buy it.)


Alright, next, a Very Awesome Movie is coming out today: Soul Surfer.

To say the least, I was rather ecstatic when I heard they were making this into a movie. It's about the life of Bethany Hamilton, who got her arm bit off by a shark while surfing, and today she's like a world-known surfer. I was hesitant about it at first, but as more clips have come out, it looks like they're sticking to Christian values and actually sharing Christian themes prominently in the movie. AFFIRMfilms is also in the production - they worked on Facing the Giants, Fireproof, The Grace Card, etc. All those awesome Christian films.

I'm excited about this film for a number of reasons:
1) AnnaSophia Robb is in it. I like her. :P
2) It's based off a true story
3) They promote Christian values
4) It's another good movie out there

Alright, so perhaps I'm being a little redundant. However, (for any of you who care to know) Carrie Underwood, who did the end credits song for Dawn Treader ("There's a Place for Us") stars in this movie as well. So you see Narnia really is connected to this in a roundabout sort of way. (I actually heard about this movie because Carrie Underwood appeared in our Narnia news feed during VDT's theatrical run. True Story.)

Trailer:



There's another movie coming out April 8th called "Hanna", which caught my attention for obvious reasons. It stars Saoirse Ronan, whom I'm a fan of only because she was in "The City of Ember." However, it...uh, looks really weird, and I'm not terribly sure about the values/themes presented, and it looks kind of dark. So, if any of you happen to see it, tell me what you think of it. You can't ever tell much from the trailers.

EDIT: so upon further investigation of the trailers and websites, it's apparently about a 16-year-old girl who is trained as an assassin all her life by her father, and then sent out into the world with one mission. (probably to assassinate someone.) It's apparently how she discovers that there's more to life than what she's been brought up to know, but that's sort of ambiguous. (it could be redeeming, making it a decent movie, but I doubt it.) Given what I know about it now, I doubt it's a very good movie.

Alright, that's all.

Oh! In case you were wondering, this post is scheduled because - guess what? I'm at a speech tournament. (no. way. I'm never at speech tournaments.)

Love, Hannah

Because I'm just weird like that.

This morning is definitely on my list of weirdest mornings. Or maybe just most abnormal.

I got up at 5:30 this morning (::gasp::) and cleaned my room in the dark. That’s right, the dark. Because I didn’t want my bedroom light to wake anyone up. I’m a ninja like that.

Then I took like a superfast shower, and by then it was late enough to turn my lights on. I then proceeded to do geometry in under 45 minutes. (Like I said, I’m a ninja.) Then I read like 3 chapters of my literature book (The Red Badge of Courage…it’s…an interesting book. I sort of like it…kinda.)

I was really hungry after all that (this ninja thing isn’t easy, you know) so I went into the kitchen, put like an extremely large pile of dishes away, (really quietly, like a ninja, you know.) and tried to find something to eat….with no avail. And there was like, less than ½ a cup of milk left. So I warmed it up, and had about ½ a cup of hot chocolate, mixed with a little rice milk. It tasted funny.

I also discovered that we had chocolate covered ginger cubes, which is probably totally whacko to some of you, but proved to be an immense source of happiness for me….

Then I went back and did physics for an hour, and almost completely finished this week’s homework. I also spent a great deal of this time reading all the problems aloud to myself in a cross between a Russian and Malaysian accent.

Then I did my economics homework.

Then I was informed that we had waffles. (I had apparently neglected to check the freezer in my previous quest for edible goods) So, (being like really hungry at this point) I had two of those, but I’m not a huge fan of them, especially wheat bran waffles. So I made myself two eggs. And since I was still hungry, I ate this gigantic banana. Like, the size of my head. And being still hungry, I ate potato chips. And since I was still hungry, I ate ice cream. Nom.

Mmhm. I think I have a life record here. I’ve never had ice cream for breakfast.

And now it’s 10:40, I have half my schoolwork done, and I’m still like, really, really hungry.

I suppose I’d better get back on that economics homework. Hopefully you found this post a mild source of amusement, because it’s not often that I take the time to detail to the public view the in-depth events of my life. More evidence of the abnormality of this morning, I suppose. 8)

Nerd Power.

Happy Pi Day!! That's right, today's date is March 14th, otherwise known as 3.14

Mmhm.

(photo courtesy of google images)

(photo courtesy of my awesome webcam :P )

Guess what else? Blogger has this nifty feature that let's you change the post time. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't do this, but it *has* to be posted at 3:14.

And because I hate making more than one post in a day, go read the one below, because it's really cute. :P

How do eskimos do their hair?

>is arranging hair in emo fashion<
Me: Mom, does this look emo?
Mom: It looks...um... (*no comment*)
Me: >laughs and goes back to mirror<
John-Luke: >following behind< What's emo?
Me: Uh...it's like a style, sort of.
John-Luke: I thought those were the guys who were like fluff around their hoods with sunglasses and live in the snow.
Me: What? OH! No, that's an eskimo.

I'm like....so completely in love with my little baby brother..... (:

PS - I am also not emo in any way shape or form. I just recently discovered that by pushing all my bangs to the opposite side, I achieve an emo-like hairstyle, which greatly amused me.

Okay, so maybe not *that* quiet yet.

Well, it's sort of connected to Idaho, so...

I met Leowren last year at the Idaho tourney, and I *just* discovered her blog today...I love discovering that awesome people have blogs. :) Her blog, Eat...Sleep...Write, is also uh-mahzing.

Aaannnddd, she's having a giveaway in celebration of the new year, which is this *adorable* hat:

So you can hop over to her blog to enter it right HERE!

Alright, that's all for now.

Oh, Oh, Oh! [again]

Remember this post?

Didn't think so. That's why I posted it again for you. :-)

Anyhoo. We're going to I-da-ho! For a speech and debate tournament!

*freaks out* I am SO not ready.

Prayers would be appreciated.

Ze blog will likely be a bit quieter for the next few weeks... ttfn!

[no title]

This is a [slightly] random post because 1) I feel like posting, 2) I feel like posting, and 3)...yeah. never mind.

My mind is, for once, refusing to cooperate into logical organization and putting things into lists, boxes, and nice little orderly thoughts.

Not like this is a strange occurrence, but I suppose it would be one of the first where I dare to make blog posts while in such a condition.

Normally I don't even touch blogger.

I'm not even sure why I'm posting.

Because I feel like it. And I'm feeling so spontaneous because......

hm. Not sure. Anyway. I could use prayer, because there are a lot of decisions I have to make and things I have to get done and to throw everything off there's something elllllse that just doesn't make life easy. You know? Those types of things. And a lot of other random things that are the kind of thing that you can't be indifferent about. Or middle ground about. Or two sided about. Where you have to pick a side. And I don't know which side to pick. Which is frustrating.

ALSO! You should see Dawn Treader.

AND.....don't see any other movies in theatres, because they're not worth it. No, really, I have looked at the current playing movies. They're all kind of trashy. At least compared to VDT. :)

I'd better hit publish before I say too much more that's overly strange. =P