I've been dreadfully un-blogger-y this month, with my last *real* post being on August 7th! It doesn't feel so long ago. But I suppose that's what happens when the pages of your life start turning faster.
The week of the 14th involved not one, but two summery picnics. And the weather here was sunny for both. The church picnic was lovely as always, and our family picnic was fun. We visited with relatives we hadn't seen in months, and I met relatives I didn't know I had. :) And of course, there was KFC and the most fantabulous salads & deserts.
Then the next week, we went on a driving trip to the Canadian Rockies, and just got home yesterday. It was a great vacation, with dry, sunny weather all week long! I'll be blogging about it soon, so stay tuned for more pics...
In other news, we are getting four new chickens from my aunt--we're actually going over to pick them up today. I'm not really an animal person, but it is exciting. :) We have three hens already, but they're six years old and approaching retirement. I just hope the hens aren't mean to the newbies...they're going to be separate at first, but eventually they'll have to learn to get along in the same living space. Two of the hens are pretty mild-mannered; but the third one has no manners whatever. In fact, I'm a bit scared of her. :P
Her name happens to be 'Daisy'. Ironic, I say.
School starts about three weeks from now. I always study like crazy; but this year, I'm also quite resolved on Order and Method [to quote a certain detective]. Neatness, methodical study, and more confidence. And, in order to further this goal, I have a list of things to-do in the meantime:
- Clean my desk. Once I do that, I'll actually have space in my room for writing; and I mean to work on my stories every day, if time permits.
- Clean out & organise my files and folders, on my laptop.
- Sort through my shoes, and hem coat sleeves. I love having a variety of jackets (more than shoes or tops), and my mom found several amazing ones for me this summer! Two of them do need a little hemming, but it's no big deal.
- Lastly, do some pencil sketches, while I still have free time...
Oh, another thing I did was solve a math puzzle correctly! The puzzle is called "Petty Cash", and it's from a book of such puzzles called A Tangled Tale, by Lewis Carroll. You can read "Petty Cash" here. I have a whole new respect for Carroll. The book is much more about logic than math--the math, in fact, is the easy part. The logic is incredibly complex. "Petty Cash" is, to me, the easiest of them all, since it involves minimal use of logic. Altogether, the fact that I figured it out is more due to my reviewing Algebra rules/techniques, than any real talent of my own. :P Additionally (no pun intended), I found the answer a bit differently than Carroll, but I think the procedure is similar and equally valid. If more convoluted...
I love the ending quote:
“You can do Arithmetic, I trust?” her aunt said, a little anxiously, as Clara turned from one tablet to another, vainly trying to collect her thoughts. Her mind was a blank, and all human expression was rapidly fading out of her face.I can relate.
A gloomy silence ensued.
Speaking of Carroll, I'm reading Sylvie and Bruno. It's part fairytale, part nonsense-fantasy, and part romance. I really like it so far. It gives you a better perspective of the author than the Alice books do. I think that, rather than writing pure nonsense, Carroll simply used nonsense and fantasy as another way to illustrate [or study] logic and the real world. I do think artists with highly analytical minds will often bury their ideas behind fantasy or vague prose, because,
- Fantasy is an effective, flexible outlet for expressing complex ideas; and
- Analytical people themselves are so used to "hunting for hidden truths", that it seems natural to them to write enigmatically.
