Red and Green Compasses

At China Town a while ago, I found two glass diamonds, just like the compasses from Katani's story. Without the needle in the center, or the marks around the top.
So I dressed up in my Katani outfit for a photo shoot. ^-^

Music Rush

I wasn't able to take band last semester. I didn't want to abandon practice altogether during those months, but sure enough I only pulled my flute out a couple times.
I'll have to get back in shape before the next semester starts.

But I did play some tonight.
And it was kind of amazing. Playing music again got me all energized. The rest of the night I just wanted to dance around~ No one to dance with though. Leaf won't dance with me.
So I listened to Riverdance, and the duet song from the new How to Train your Dragon. Good dancing music, that.

Practice more. O__O
Do it.

Pavani and Arthem

Finished drawing Pavani and Arthem~
It's more dynamic than any of the other Retriever pictures, I guess because I had an idea for it before I was ready to draw. And for once I drew a background. It's supposed to be raining, with ripples in the puddles. I was trying to have the ripples reflect the other colors in the image.




I'm almost done with the Green Team! Only Rishi and Menth left. I'll probably do a couple of the teachers too, like Noni and Bade.

A strange Human Phenomenon

Humans really don't make any sense sometimes.

For example, strawberries.

This is obviously an extreme example (actually I could have made it even more extreme), but here you see a typical monster strawberry you get from a typical grocery store. And next to it are some of the little strawberries that grow in my front yard.
The big ones may be fancy to look at, but they really don't have any flavor, if you stop to think about it. But people eat them anyway and say that they're tasty, because they're big and pretty.
As opposed to my tiny little things. Each on those teeny little berries has more flavor than those monstrous big things. Though admittedly, the smaller strawberries you can get at farmer's markets have a nicer flavor most of the time.

Originally I was just going to write a post about this strange thing that humans like to do.
But then in a book I was reading a few weeks ago, there were a couple pages about basically the same topic which was written in a very powerful way.
I'll sum it up.
Since the beginning of agriculture, humans used natural ways of replenishing the soil. Then during the agricultural revolution, chemicals were found to dramatically increase the effectiveness of dirt for growing food. Suddenly, most people forgot that nothing can last forever, and that as much as you can force something to produce better, eventually it will give out.
We twist and shape the very genes of plants, making them behave in very unnatural ways just for convenience, or because it's "cool." Because of this, crops are completely useless without a host of chemicals and poisons to protect them from their surroundings.
Food is made in factories, and no one knows it because they never see where their food comes from. They just go to the grocery store and pick it up, pre-packaged.
Tomatoes no longer taste like tomatoes, or grow like tomatoes. This is probably why I can't stand eating tomatoes unless I pick them myself. And I have always been like that. Maybe it was subconscious understanding that tomatoes from the store just weren't as good as real tomatoes.
We want to simplify the workings of the world so we can control it.
Well, here's the news. You can't. life isn't that simple. And no matter how much we want to force the planet to do what we want, it won't work. We just break things. Something may have the right arrangement of elements, but does that really mean that it's good? Life goes so far beyond that.
The common method of growing food destroys the very spirit in food. And maybe that's why the 3-year-old strawberry plants growing in a dry section of our front yard have so much more flavor. They are not broken, and they are cared for.

Landmarks

Got back from our train trip to Reno today. I may write a blog post about the dessert. I'll see. but we did see some wild horses~

We were on the train all day, so we didn't do much for 4th of July, except climb on the roof to look for fireworks. The trees blocked anything close enough to appreciate though.

We did get to see a parade from the train though. And watched some stuff on TV as I cut out fabric pieces for a new project.
And I got a lot of writing done on the train~ I think I have officially finished the first part of the book (it sucks, but it's a first draft so it's supposed to suck). Now I need to skip six years, so I must reset my mind. And Ashlyn's mind too. Now I also need to get into the minds of the two other main characters.

When we got home from the train, I wanted to move around some. I biked down the hill and made it to the bottom, just a block away from the library. Now I know I can bike downtown any time I want! Whoo!
Now I'll have to test it out for real.
Now I'm half tempted to tackle tome of the hills behind my house. Those are all pretty steep though. Most of them will be as tough as my hill. I should probably wait a while. Though it might be interesting to bike to band or my creative writing class (probably illogical though, since they're night classes).

Give a little smile~

I said I'd stop, but I couldn't resist.
This makes me want to make about a million of these.
My little hearts actually do help make people's days better.
TT^TT

Wheeling

I finally got my bike fixed up a while ago. I think it was supposed to be part of my birthday present.
I started riding it a couple months ago. Not much, but some.
Then my friends conspired to get me to watch the anime Yowamushi Pedal(I like the quiet guy and his friend. They're psychic. ^-^ ).
It was awesome timing, because it made me really excited about biking.
I'd been wanting to try my bike out for the longest time, so I can bike downtown instead of having to drive.
The problem: my house is in the hills. It's a awful place to practice biking. For two minutes, you strain up steep hills. Then for ten minutes you speed downhill. And then for five minutes at the end, is the hill I live on. Anyone who's been to my house knows that my hill is no joke. Especially with a bike.
So there's no middle ground. It's all or nothing. I could take my bike elsewhere, but then I'd need to use Dad's truck to carry it. I don't know how to drive the truck. We have an old bike rack, but I don't know if it fits on any of our cars anymore.
So the first four-ish times I rode the hills, I had to weave back and forth up my street until I arrived at my house, legs made of jello.
Then one day when I was half way up the hill, I decided to try to keep going. And I managed to bike straight up to my house!
Because of the anime, I was so pleased with myself. Heh.
And I've managed to bike straight up my hill each time since then (I even tried singing once. It was a very breathless song, but it was at least a song. I should learn the "Hime" song, huh?).

I've been going a little closer to my library every day I practice. It's way downhill too, so it's very easy to get to. Not as easy to come back. At least those hills aren't as steep as my hill.
I should hold some sort of celebration when I bike to the library for the first time. Actually, I did do it a few times when I was little. But I had to weave all the way back home. So this time I want to build up my strength so I can charge straight up. Well, not charge. I have to take it easy so I can still make it up my hill.