BethJoy.com

I might be getting a Video Ipod in the near future...

And that would be fun!!! I just discovered how easy it is to put my videos into Itunes and though I don't know how it would be to put a movie from a DVD on there at least it ought to be pretty easy to put my own movies and my music on there.

I'm probably going shopping today:) And that may hinder the soonness of the purchase of the Video Ipod but it's rather fun going shopping and I need to find a birthday present for my brother John whose birthday is tomorrow. I think he's going to be twenty-three but I'm not totally sure about it. If he's not turning twenty-three he'd be turning twenty-four so Happy Birthday John.

A bit of sewing this evening I did

And here are two pictures of what I made. Tonight I made the green dress. The white dress I'd made a while ago.


The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe is coming to theaters next month. I'm rather excited about it since I may get to go see it! Oh, and in case you were wondering, the two outfits in the pictures are sort of like two outfits in the movie. I'd seen pictures of them and thus attempted to sew them.

Hisotry is done

Which is good because I've started feeling very unwell today. Must have been all those sugary deserts I didn't eat on Thanksgiving...

So now... I think I'll occupying my mind with other matters:) And did you know that there are more than 70 volcanoes in Japan?

Result of the Decision which was the Result of the Game Outcome

I have just completed Unit 9 of History. And I got an A 94% on the test first time through. And prior to deciding that I would open the box of trading cards when History was done I had only completed the first lesson of the unit. So the result of deciding to open the trading cards when history was done is that I have just spent a solid hour and a half on school work and have done five lessons, two quizzes and a test. It was a short unit but still, I got an A 94% on the test!

And now I just have Unit 10 which has eight lessons three quizzes and a test in it and I'm done with History!!! Isn't that nice? I think I'll probably be using the five dollars off an order of twenty-five dollars or more coupon I have at the trading card place to get Language done. Those units are long... Probably double or more what the history units are. And now it's really time to go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day and I have a feeling I'll be opening some trading cards then:)

Daniel beat me again tonight and I did not cry

He overwhelmed my ring bearer at site 8. And I decided something. I'm going to add a condition to opening the box of Star Wars trading cards. So now the three conditions for opening it are: 1. If I beat Daniel 2. At Christmas 3.(the new one) If I finish history. Something tells me History may be finished before the week is over. After all, it's only ten O'clock and I only have two units left and I already know something about what I'm studying. But I really ought to go to bed and get a good nights sleep so once again I have a problem to figure out... I've been making tough decisions all game and considering the fact that I lost I may not be a very good decision maker...

The Ridiculous Trading Card Game made by Elizabeth Joy Von Fange

I made a new trading card game today! I shall first show you the trading cards and then mention what the rules of the game are. If I can figure out what they are myself...

If you've played trading card games before then you probably will have no difficulty in figuring out what to do with these cards. If you haven't then you probably shouldn't have much difficulty either. However since I'm writing the rules I'll probably have some difficulty in figuring out what to do with these cards. So you can feel free to invent your own rules if you want too.

Now for the rules... As you may have noticed on the cards on the top of the card there is a name and the name at the top really doesn't have anything to do with game play. The picture doesn't either. However the A: X and D: X are very important as well as the cost of the card.

Basically the idea of the Two Player game is each player chooses ten cards(they can be any cards out of the twenty on my website and their can be as many duplicates as wanted(you will need to print them off of my website because currently that is the only way to get the cards)). These ten cards they hold in their hand so that their opponant does not see what they have. Then Turn One starts. Each player may play one card to begin with. To play the card you merely set it down face up and perform the cost on the card to activate it. So if it says "Crow like a rooster" then say "Cock a Doodle Do!" and your card is activated. Your opponant plays their card and also pays the cost, so let's pretend they are playing "Attack of the Parrots" so they would say "Polly want a Cracker" three times and then the encounter of the two cards would begin.

The Encounter. On the cards there is a large A followed by a number and a large D. Let's say your card says A: 35 D: 20 and your opponants says A: 45 and D:10. Well, your opponant would win the encounter... But why? Well, A stands for Attack and the number following it is the amount of points of attack that you have. D stands for Defense and the number following it is the amount of defense points you have. To begin with you subtract from your opponents attack points your defense points(so 45 - 20 equals 35) and then you subtract from your attack points your opponents defense points(so 35 - 10 equals 25). Then you compare the resulting numbers. So 35 left from your opponents attack compared to 25 left of your attack means your opponent wins. Wish I'd chosen for you to use a different card? Well, if you had played Something Strange That Way Goeth you would have won the skirmish and to play it you have just had to recite the alphabet backwards while looking cross eyed.

Oh, and incidentally, if you can't perform the cost of the card then your card is not activated and your opponent wins the encounter. Now what happens to the winner? Well, they take their opponents card and their own card and put them in front of them(you may want to write your name on the back of your card so that you know whose card it is.) Then Turn Two will start and you will each play another card and do another encounter. The winner of that skirmish will put both cards in front of them. The game goes on like this until each player has played all of the cards in their hands and then you see which player has the most cards in front of them and that player wins!

Now. Suppose you had a large group of players who did not know about playing this game beforehand? Well, here is a variation on the game for surprise games. You take a lot of the cards(enough for each player to have the same amount of cards(how many per person is up to you)) and then put them in a stack. Then each player takes turn drawing a card until all of the cards are drawn(if you want you can allow them to put the card under the deck and draw another if they feel sure that they don't want it). Then the game starts. Presumably one plays this at a table so somebody starts(you can chose your own method for deciding this). Then they begin an encounter with the person on their left and that goes just like in the two player game and then the person on the first players left begins an encounter with the person on their left and so all around the table until everyone has used the cards in their hands and then you see who has the most cards. In case of a tie those who are tied will merely chose three cards out of those in front of them and play one encounter using one of the three cards they choose. The winner of that encounter is the winner of the game. Hopefully the game was amusing...

So there you have it! I hope you have playing The Ridiculous Trading Card Game and I refuse to be responsible for any injuries that result in playing the game, real or imagined. I thought I'd put in small print for the fun of it:)

A picture of Thanksgiving Dinner

From right to left, me Elizabeth Von Fange, Laura Beth, Daniel Von Fange, Andrew Von Fange.

I'm feeling a lot better this morning

And yesterday isn't bothering me in the slightest. I'll still see if I can't get Daniel for a rematch:) I'd like to beat him and I'm pretty sure that I could. So let us see what the day shall bring forth...

I probably shouldn't be writing this post due to emotional unstableness...

Today was certainly interesting... And to be able to understand some of it you may want to know that I have Hypoglycemia. And that means that at times my entire outlook on the world can change, to some extent, at any time without much warning. This said, let us explore my memories of today...

The morning started out without me noticing much abnormal but now that I look back on it there were a few strange things. 1. i woke up without being called. 2. I did not go back to sleep. 3. I baked two pumpkin pies. 4. well, actually that's enough to begin with. Mom is teaching me to how to cook so I helped with lunch preparations and I didn't eat much breakfast which was probably the root of my problem(not eating much breakfast being the root of the problem. Learning how to cook probably didn't have anything to do with it though the vacuuming might. For some reason vacuuming with our current vacuum cleaner is stressful for me.) Eating affects how I am. If I don't eat plenty, often, and healthily then goodbye stability.

Laura Beth arrived before lunch, which she was supposed to do. We had a big thanksgiving lunch with turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and jello that Laura Beth had brought and rolls made from bread dough that I had helped make. However... I don't like turkey so I only took a small amount of it. Sweet potatoes I like so I took a large spoonful or two. The stuffing, cranberry sauce, and jello were declared by my mother to be too sugary for my consumption. And I had a roll. The rolls were the obvious beginning of my personal downfall for I said that the looked odd in a very blunt way(I was expecting a loaf of bread) and I was laughed at(though not meanly of course) and then later in the meal I said that the turkey was cold... I was promptly asked something about when I graduated from Emily Posts etiquette school. I felt further embarrassed and bothered. And throughout the rest of the day occasionally I would say something that simply wasn't the proper thing to say and though I'm glad everyone was amused by them(Daniel even thanked me for the entertainment) I was rather bothered by it all and cried and was uncomfortable and embarrassed a lot more today than I probably have been in months.

The primary reason for this was the Thanksgiving Day TCG Game between Daniel and myself. I lost. And unlike previous games I was SO CLOSE to winning! And the worst part of it was that I COULD HAVE WON if I had just kept one single little card in my hand instead of discarding it and had equipped it to my ringbearer. Instead my ringbearer was overwhelmed by exactly double his strength at site nine and if he had survived that encounter I would have won the game. I went upstairs to my room crying but I started getting upset with myself for being so upset about an inconsequential game that really doesn't matter in the long run. But really, it did matter and it does matter despite the fact that I feel really bothered about being so immature. The primary reason for me being so upset today, setting aside Hypoglycemia, was,,, Well, actually at the time of losing the game i really only thought about losing the game. It was only afterwards when I still felt like crying throughout the remainder of the day that I started telling myself that I should be upset and it doesn't matter and so forth. Though really... Oh never mind. But I tried to stop crying before I was finished and I think I should have just cried for a while, felt better, and then been able to handle the rest of the day better. I don't always make the best of decisions. Oh well.

I'll probably start crying again and get my computer wet if I dwell on this subject any longer. But still, I had spent several days in preparation for that game and I really did want to win. However next game... Well, Daniel hopefully won't be walking away a victor from that! Even if I can't squash his Ents I'm still going to try and get to site nine before he does. And when I get there I'm going to try and have a good enough fellowship to handle whatever he sends against me. And I'm going to make sure I equip the ring-bearer with everything I can get a hold of. I've already made some modifications to my deck since the game and I changed it from a sixty-six card deck down to a sixty card deck so it's tighter and their is more chance of drawing a really good card instead of just a good card and I replaced a few cards with even better cards and I took out a companion or two and instead put in Gandalf and an Ent of my own and changed my strategy ever so slightly and next game with Daniel... Well, I'll just have to wait and see and what will happen. I hope I don't have to wait too long. Maybe Daniel, after partially causing me to have such a miserable Thanksgiving, will take pity on his poor little sister and play another game with her tomorrow while her adrenaline is still flowing and hopefully while her insulin(has something to do with hypoglycemia) is not and give her a chance to beat him and open up the reward I promised myself which I'd really like to open.

Life can certainly be interesting. However usually, probably 90% of the time actually, I am happy, or at least, I am not sad or upset or bothered by anything. However it is just a bit more unpleasant to have a day when you are very unhappy happen to you when everybody else is happy and when you too should be happy. Oh well, I've pretty much stopped crying and calmed down (two teddy bears and a comforting mother really help) so I'd better not stir anything up again. But I'll probably remember this day for a while and it will probably rank with one of my birthday's when I opened a few vintage never removed from their boxes barbies thinking they were presents for me and instead my mother was going to sell them for another lady, and a certain Christmas party where their was a gift swap going on and I got to be the one who picked the present for our family and I was hoping to get to keep it and I picked a sort of Joke present that I did not like and I was in tears of agony, and the day where we went to a big theme park convention that had so much fun stuff at it but my brothers wanted to look at everything before doing anything and as I walked along aisles filled with booths of fun stuff and I saw how big the room was and so many fun things to do and I got tired of walking I started crying and talking and my mother walked me back to the car and it was the last day of that convention and I didn't get to do anything and... So much for trying not to upset myself. But some days certainly do stand out my mind as being particular awful and horrible and unpleasant. And then there are the days that really stand out in my mind as being pleasant. Like at LDI when I got all of those free beads. And the day a stage decorating company whose owners are good friends of my Dad's sent me a HUGE box of fabric. And quite a few Dollmarket trips stand out very pleasantly in my mind. And my birthday this year. And my fifteenth birthday. And part of a day on a Cruise ship when Mom finally let me leave the deck and I went down into the restaurant and ate ice cream while looking out a glacier caving through the huge window. Most cruise memories are extremely pleasant. Amongst them is when there was a writing class that I went too and everyone(I think) enjoyed what I wrote and the lady authoress who conducted the class being very encouraging about my writing. And there was the day I got my name badge at Central saying "Elizabeth Von Fange Video Production Crew". I have a lot of pleasant memories connected with running camera at central and I've gotten several compliments there. And once I directed and I did fairly well according to Bobbie Garn who is the official and very professional overseer of video operations. Both trips to visit the Massatts recently were very pleasant. And although I'm sure their have been many, many, many, many more wonderful things that have happened to me and days that were very wonderful, at the moment I can't think of any more. But of this I'm fairly sure, the day I finally beat Daniel in a fair game of Lord of the Rings Trading Cards will definitely be very high on the list of happy days. Very high indeed...

And I think I have a terrible memory at times. Which isn't always bad but... I suppose I probably should stop writing but it sort of makes me feel better and it's preventing me from lying in bed monologging with myself. One of the heaviest spiral downwards I go through is because of monologuing. It takes a while to really work myself up but when the storm bursts... It's time to eat:) And go quietly into my room and perhaps watch a movie. We watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the big screen right after my defeat today and watching the movie was enjoyable. Though I still felt like crying when I thought about anything but the movie. My brain wasn't very awake and alert today.

Oh, and if you've read through all of this I do congratulate you. If you are sympathetic I appreciate it and if you are laughing at me then I'm glad I don't know about it and if you are thinking that I am silly and immature it's possible that I am(I'm only seventeen you know) but I usually am somewhat mature and I'm trying to be. I'd better stop writing and go to sleep. After all, tomorrow will probably be a brighter day though I'm not sure about that and I think I'm getting too pessimistic for my own good so i need to stop writing and go to sleep and eat a BIG breakfast tomorrow so the world will seem brighter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And Merry Christand and a happy new year too. Mysteriously this morning a present for me arrived underneath the tree and it has a peculiar rattling sound to it so I'm looking forward to finding out what is in it when Christmas comes around.

I should be playing my game with Daniel soon. That could be interesting...

(Oops, i forgot to post this post yesterday)Today I cross stitched and prepared for tomorrow

Tomorrow is thanksgiving and shortly before lunch Laura Beth, who probably has attained the title of "Daniel's Girflfriend" will be arriving. Shortly after lunch (I hope) an epic game between Daniel and myself will begin. I shall be playing my newly built deck and Daniel will be playing his yet unbeatable(when he is playing it) deck. Daniel is an excellant strategist but I have been picking up some strategy of my own so it shall doubtless be a well fought game. I hope. And I hope I win! Because if I win prizes will be giving out but if I lose it will be just like any other game so prizes probably won't be given out. I hope I win because the first place prize if I win should be something very fun. I think I might want to make a certificate or something for Daniel to present him if wins again, perhaps something like "Daniel Von Fange, Beaded Gecko Indeed" or "Daniel, Number One Reason to buy more trading cards" or perhaps if he loses, "Daniel, Finally Defeated Champion"

Being that I've posted so many posts today I thought I'd post one more

I am greatly pleased! I played against Daniel's deck and I beat it!!! I'll probably play a few more games against it before playing Daniel on Thursday but so far I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I have finished building the deck and I've put the cards away

Probably after supper I'll play a game with my new deck against Daniel's deck and see how it comes out. I'm just a little too tired to do it right now. After all, I've just been organizing and going through over a thousand cards!!! I'm quite pleased with the cards I got. Since there is the randomness factor with the cards though I knew what cards I might be getting I didn't know which cards I'd actually get. I was hoping really hard for two Arwen cards and a Galadriel, and I got them!!! I was soooo pleased when those three cards turned up. I got many other cards I was glad to see and many more that are going to be useful indeed. I think I might reasonably be able to expect to beat Daniel now:) We'll see how a game against his deck without him at the other end of it goes. Though I've beaten his deck before but it's a general rule that if one can't beat the deck without the player at the other end of it then when the player is there one probably won't win then. Or something like that. It's time for a snack now. Over half of the cake I made is gone. In case you were wondering what I am planning to snack on...

THEY"RE HERE!!! UPS FINALLY CAME!!!

I haven't opened the cards yet but I opened the box they came in to make sure everything arrived, and it had. I can't wait to open the boxes!!! Or actually I am waiting because I thought it would be nice to post and say that they have arrived since the past several posts have been about waiting for this moment. Something really nice is that with my cards they sent me a "special thank you" for my first order of five dollars off my next order of $25.00 or more. Whether I use this or not time will tell...

Oh... My Grandmother said that she would be coming and reading my website and naturally, I'm quite glad to have her! However, just so she doesn't think I'm always into Trading Cards, being that it is a bit silly, I shall here mention, to preserve my image of darling granddaughter, that I've been doing a lot of cross stitching lately and designing what I've been cross stitching and I just finished knitting a pink baby blanket for my new niece and I'll probably be investing in a mutual fund very soon for my retirement. And I did get a very good deal on these trading cards. So I have been doing prudent and useful things lately, just not very many of them today...

And now to open my NEW TRADING CARDS!!! and build a deck to defeat my brother Daniel with and finally win the title of CHAMPION BROTHER BEATER, or something like that. And now... to open some packaging:)

They still haven't come yet...

I hope UPS comes soon! Oh, and incidentally, in case you were wondering about the subject or title of the previous post it was a quote from Gollum which he said when Bilbo was ready to get "Unlost" from the book of "The Hobbit".

I've said UPS a lot today... the mail has been delivered so far today and Fed-Ex has come but UPS still persists in not arriving. Hopefully the do come soon. At least while waiting for them I've thought up something important to remember when building a deck. And fortunately I didn't think of it when I was building Daniel's deck so that should give me a bit of advantage. And... I just heard a door close so I think I'll head down stairs for the umpteenth time today and see if it had anything to do with UPS comming with my trading cards.

Cross it is. Impatient. But it must wait, yes wait...

UPS hasn't come yet today. However according to the UPS website my trading cards are "Out for delivery". I'm getting rather impatient, or at least, I'm really, really, really, looking forward to their arrival. So I hope they come soon because I'm not really going to be doing anything until they do come other than waiting and organizing and reorganizing my existing cards and watching a DVD or two and walking outside every so often to see if UPS is there or about to be there.

In other news, the cake I made last night was considered to be edible. I had some for breakfast and I put some peanut butter on top of it and tasted quite good. Since it was cake made with whole wheat and no sugar I felt that it was probably as healthy as toast with peanut butter on it and it certainly tasted better.

I got a lot of school done last week. This week I haven't done much so far but I only have two out of ten unites left of history so I'm glad that is almost done. Then I'll probably be starting on language. I still don't have all of eleventh grade done yet but I'm farther ahead in my school than I was last year about this time. Which is good I suppose. Its a rather odd feeling doing twelfth grade because it's the last year of it. And in case this post seems a slight bit different than usual I'm writing it while watching a very exciting part in a movie so it's only occasionally that I'm paying attention to what I'm writing.

Oh, I hope UPS comes soon!!!

Today I made preparations for tomorrow and I also made a cake!

And the cake tastes quite good and it wasn't burned and major mistakes were not made in it's composition primarily because my mother step by step walked me through the process. Though I got to frost it on my own. The frosting is a bit lumpy:) However it tastes good.

Tomorrow, according to the UPS tracking service on their website, my trading cards should come. I've organized and reorganized my trading cards in preparation for this grand occasion and I'm greatly looking forward to it. I have been making plans about what sort of a deck I'm going to build so as soon as I get my new cards in I ought to be able to build a pretty good deck, I hope. Also, my next game with Daniel is scheduled to take place on Thanksgiving day. So that may be interesting. Will Daniel win again as he has done often in the past? Or will I finally beat him? Find out on Thursday.

And I hope UPS comes in the morning and my trading cards arrive then. The closer I get to their arrival the more impatient and curious and exited I keep on getting and oh the suspense!!!

I'll probably go to bed a bit earlier than usual tonight because the sooner one is asleep the sooner the next day comes, to some extent.

It is time to write a post and it's rather interesting how one goes through mood swings when it comes to writing

I'm looking forward to Tuesday. Presumably on that day UPS is supposed to deliver a box contain my new trading cards. I'm glad it's only about two more days until Tuesday and that time is drawing closer by the second.

To get back to the main subject, apparently I've had my calculations wrong but I might still be more closer to right than I thought. I've often thought about "Royalties" ever since I really thought I might possibly get something published one day. I've usually thought that maybe one would get royalties of a dollar a book and then if five thousand people bought the book that would be five thousand dollars for me! Though it would be more like four thousand by the time tithes and taxes were deducted providing the taxes were the same as the tithes. And that amount would be nice with the hopes of more eventually. But... today Daniel said that royalties from books were FIVE CENTS!!! That is only TWO HUNDRED AND FIFITY dollars for five thousand readers. And I haven't even deducted tithes and taxes which makes it two hundred dollars and taxes might just be more than ten percent. Considering the speed I write at and that it would probably take me at least two months to write a book that's long enough and the chances of it being published it would be months and perhaps years before I could buy a Video Ipod... Oh, incidentally I saw one today and the little thing was soooo cute. I'd love to be able to play videos on a handheld device that's very, very small.

But to return to the subject of writing... I'm now in a "depressed" state of mind concerning writing and publishing. I still want to see something of mine published and be able to walk into a store and see it there but I wish... Well, I suppose I could continue hoping that I'll get more royalties than Daniel thinks I will. I can pretty stubborn at times, if stubborn is the word for it. I think "Pig Headed" or "Intentionally Stupid" might be closer to the mark. Occasionally, despite a great deal of evidence on the contrary, I will still go on foolishly believing something. For instance despite my Mother's and my Hair Beautician's united opinion that my hair is not going to grow any longer I still cling to the hope that it will get longer. And despite a lot of circumstances I still hope to get a book published and earn enough money from my writing to build a castle and make a movie which I hope will be a hit and will allow me to make even more movies and the movie studio of Elizabeth Unlimited will be established. Though really, I usually only dream about Elizabeth Unlimited when i've been watching too many behind the scenes on movies and then I start pretending interviews in which I'm talking about movies that haven't even been thought of yet.

However I kind of don't really think Elizabeth Unlimited will show up. A successful writing career for me is a lot more likely and me living in a castle is a lot more likely than either of the previous statements though it's not that likely. However as the saying is, "Every man's home is his castle" therefore I'm sort of living in a castle now because my Dad lives here and it's his home therefore it ought to be his castle and I never thought of that before but it's really a nice idea and I've been living in the castle I was born in for over seventeen years now and didn't know it!

However I've already designed the general concept for the house I'd like to live in when I have a house of more or less my own. And it's definitely a castle. It's square(though it could be rectangular) and at the four corners there will be towers rising and though, for reasons of economy, it probably won't have a moat I'll probably still try to have a reusable portcullis over the entrance to the main courtyard.

You know, I think I dream rather big... And just about all of the plans and hopes I've mentioned in this post are rather softened and toned down versions of what sometimes I think... Except that my hair going down to my waist is about all I ever ask for but when it comes to Elizabeth Unlimited I've dreamed up oscars and awards and millions in profits and me as the star, director, script writer, and so forth(usually at the same time) and I would like to write something that would go into the class of Tolkien, C.S.Lewis and Jane Austin and yet would have a special spot unto itself. Um, I suppose I'd better stop writing now. Though I think I'll add this. If my hair never gets any longer it will be alright, I won't be seriously unhappy. If I never make a movie that is shown in movie theaters or on television, that also will be alright, it would be nice if it happened but there would be a lot of bother with making a movie and I don't mind not having it. If I never get anything published... Well, I still hope I do but I've got a lot of readers on this website and lots of people enjoy reading my writing so I'll still have a few fans and I can earn money in other ways that royalties. However, if my new trading cards don't come on Tuesday... Well, maybe there might not be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth but something just a few notches beneath it might happen...

So in conclusion... I'm Seventeen years old and I think I may need to adjust my priorities at some point in the near future. THE END(And I wrote THE END more to say to myself STOP TYPING NOW than for any other reason. Apparently it didn't work because I'm still typing. However I am now going to STOP)

In my schoolwork I'm currently studying the Stock Market

And so far I'm doing fairly well at it. The concept of buying and selling stock makes perfect sense to me, you buy when it is cheap and sell it when it is high and make a profit. Or in more technical terms, buy when it "dips" and sell when it "rises" and hit a home run.

My primary source of information on the Stock Market comes from Neopets.com. They have a stock market there and I buy and sell there daily. I've made considerable neopoints there and it's rather a pity it's not real money... Oh well. It's interesting learning about the American Stock Market. However stock isn't the only thing one can buy and sell at a profit, oh no precious, there are lots of other things for the enterprising to make a profit on. However, perhaps the lower risk way of doing it, is merely to work steadily at a job and earn a paycheck. And remember, money should never control you, you should control it. And though there is a saying that money can't buy happiness... Well, I sure enjoy spending it and buying fun things that greatly increase my happiness level. But I don't think I'm controlled by it. Though I will admit that I usually perk up a bit when I hear my relatives crinkling bills or clanking loose change and look at them like a dog would look at someone eating a steak who might possibly deign to bestow some of their extra to one who would greatly appreciate it. Some times it works...

I've actually done a lot of school today. And I got an A 97% on the test I took today!!! But don't ask me what it was about... my memory is already failing me. Though wait, it was something about bankruptcy and liquidation and Caveat Emptor and monopolies and if it isn't a gift horse look it in the mouth and warranties and lot of other things. I got an A 97% on the quiz I just did a few minutes ago too. So apparently I must understand what I'm doing because usually I get between the D and C range with some F's and an occasional B. An "A" is a very pleasing accomplishment for me. And I am learning some things, I think, from my school. I just don't spend long studying since I usually do a days worth of school in an hour or less. I've spent over two hours on school today and that is very unusual for me. Also today I wrapped my first Christmas Present for this year and it wasn't addressed to me. It's fun wrapping presents. Probably I'll wrap up some of the new trading cards and put them under the tree with tags like "For Elizabeth From Aragorn" for the Lord of the Rings Trading Cards or "To Elizabeth From Obi-Wan Kenobi" on a few of the Star Wars trading cards I ordered. Yes, I did order more than just Lord of the Rings trading cards... Although I am aware that I probably don't need to start playing another game when I can't even beat my brother at the current game I'm playing and I have a very full room. But the cards were really cheap, $6.00 for a booster pack box of 30 packs with 11 cards each so that is 330 cards for under two cents a card each, and the games are supposed to last less than a half an hour which is nice since a game of Lord of the Rings TCG seldom lasts for less than an hour and Daniel usually doesn't have that much time and I might possibly be able to convince Andrew to play a game with the Star Wars cards and besides that, the cards look somewhat nicer than the Lord of the Rings, in other words, the villians aren't as ugly, and their are more female cards like Padme and her handmaidens and even some miscellaneous senators and one can defeat battle droids and capture planets and what does all of this have to do with the Stock Market? Um... Well, I'm a consumer!

I think I'd better end this post now. It would be nice If I'd write for a while on a story but I don't think I'll do that now. I might just go back to doing my school work and get some more done. It would be nice to finish this unit. In fact, it would be nice to finish the whole subject but I probably won't be doing that this evening though I am over halfway on the subject. Their are ten units in a subject in case you want to know. I think after nearly a week of being half asleep my brain just woke up. And as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, I think I'd better end this post now...

Although I took almost no pictures during the trip my mother took several(dramatic pause) hundred(though I'm not sure about that but she usually does take lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures)

And she very nicely emailed me a picture of myself to put up on my website. You are seeing me after the third trip to the booth that was giving out the strings of beads. In the background you can see one of the sides of our booth. The Light Source booth is a really neat one designed and primarily built by my Dad.

Oh, and incidentally, I ordered some more trading cards today. I'm really looking forward to their arrival.

I didn't write a single post during the trip, mostly because I was too tired

And now I've been back for a day or two and I really haven't had a good excuse for not posting other than the fact that I am still tired. So... What did I do on the trip to Florida? To begin with we started at the bright and early hour of 8:30 P.M... After driving all night with Dad driving and me making sure he was awake through most of it while we listened to the delightful story of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin we arrived at the Embassy Suites we were staying at in Florida some time before six in the morning. We promtly checked in and went to bed.

Later that morning we had a delicious breakfast and my memory refuses to allow me to clearly remember that day but we went to the convention center and Dad checked in and we got our badges and we started setting up the booth soon after. My badge had my name, Elizabeth Von Fange, on it and the company I worked for, The Light Source, as well and my Dad had said that my company title was "Princess". I liked that and enjoyed wearing my badge. Towards afternoon after much setting up had been done Mom and I went to Walmart to purchase several things for the booth. They had an amazing dollar a yard section but a fit of frugalness hit me so I only bought about six dollars worth of fabric. Also on that trip Mom and I saw cupcake dolls!!! Many happy hours of my childhood were spent playing with cupcake dolls so naturally when we saw them rereleased we just had to get one. So we did:)

Then we went back to the convention center where we had left the boys hard at work and soon the booth was "finished" and we could go back to the hotel. The plan for that evening was to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but due to extreme tiredness I was about the only one who watched the whole thing. Mom dozed of(she was really tired) and Daniel and Andrew left early to go to their hotel room and sleep. I'm not sure about Dad. Charlie and the Chocolate factory is a very funny movie and we'll probably watch it again when everybody isn't exhausted.

The next morning we were supposed to be at the convention center before the convention started at 10:00 so we came about 8:45 in order to do final preparations which were done about the time the convention opened. My job while the convention was going on was to scan persons badges so that we could add them to our mailing list, pass out the "swag"(notebooks very The Light Source themed) and smile. For the three days of the convention I attempted to do my best at that and I scanned over seven hundred badges I think my Dad said it was, which was more than usual. I handed out a lot of notebooks too. Due to the fact that the convention lasted eight hours for the first two days and six hours on the last I would get pretty tired by the end of the day. I'm not used to working that long.

The first two days were rather similar. We got up in the morning, ate breakfast, drove to the convention center and enjoyed the sunshine, were ate the convention center all day, drove to somewhere to eat afterwards when the sun was down, then went to the hotel and went to bed. Though I usually stayed up and watched a DVD before going to bed.

The last day of the convention arrived. After the convention was over at four we did a bit of take down and then we went to dinner with two business friends of my Dad and then we came back to the booth and initiated take down procedures. Our crate to put the booth in hadn't arrived and I was hoping that it wouldn't for a little while because I wanted to play Daniel in a game of Lord of the Rings trading cards and I wanted to beat him with the new deck I'd just built. Daniel usually was too busy to play me but if their was a delay in the take down their might be time for a game.

We did about everything that we could do in taking down the booth before the crate came and finally there was an opportunity to play Daniel. I felt relatively certain of success but the first turn of the game dashed my spirits a bit for Daniel killed all of my starting fellowship except the ring bearer and then the game got worse from there. I almost got him at one point though, but I didn't and he got me instead the next turn at site five on the adventure path of nine sites. I was not very pleased and inwardly decided to get some more trading cards.

Eventualy the crate showed up and the booth was stowed and we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, got in the car and drove off, stopped for over an hour at the Ferrari dealership where they had a really cute Enzo on sale for $600.00 but the maximum driver weight was 65 pounds which I weigh more than, and continued to drive back to our home in South Carolina whilest and at the same time listening to "The Hobbit" unabridged. it got us home but not before we stopped at a Walmart:) I enjoy going to Walmarts.

There, that is approximately what we did on the trip. I haven't however mentioned a lot about the trip because I'm tired. You see I was really busy during the trip and I got a lot done so I decided that when I got home I'd try to be a bit busier. So yesterday I sewed a dress(and actually pre-washed the fabric!), did some school, and a lot of research on just which set of Lord of the Rings Trading Cards I was going to buy in order to be able to build a deck that would beat Daniel's and I did a lot of other things too but writing a post wasn't among them. Today I swept leaves on the driveway and spent over two hours putting inserts into The Light Source catalogues and earning some money to spend on the trading cards I'm planning on ordering this evening and I also did some more school and some cross stitching and some other things and now I'm writing a post and my arms are tired. Putting inserts into two large boxes of catalogues is very tiring.

There was a really nice event that happened on the last day of the convention that made me very happy and I'll mention it here since I haven't already. One of the booths a little way down (And I forget their name) was giving away strings of beads or "costume jewelry" as I suppose it might be called. I had gotten a free necklace of beads for the first time on the last day of the convention since I hadn't noticed them before being usually very intent on where I was going when I passed that particular booth because it was in the path from our booth to the ladies room which was usually the only reason I went that way. However once having discovered free beads I made a point to pass by again and then I got two free things of beads!!! I was very pleased but the thought "More Free Beads!" continued to circulate in my head. Aided by the thought that probably whoever had that booth probably wouldn't want to be bothered by carting remaining beads out of the convention center I went to the booth again armed with one of The Light Source Notebooks I'd been handing out and said, "I don't want to be greedy... but I love your beads!" That got me a sizable handful of the necklaces and I smiled very sweetly and handed the lady who was giving them out the notebook I'd brought over and then went back to the booth with the beads in my purse. I have a large purse. However that wasn't the end of my trips to that booth, oh no precious... When the convention was over I went back and very happily for me the booth persons had just put out two cardboards boxes of the beads and were encouraging passing persons to take them. Since they said they were just going to get rid of them if any were left I immediately dug into the two cardboard boxes and picked out whatever I liked. My purse did not have room for what I brought back to the booth but fortunately Mom found me an empty Walmart bag in which I stuck my treasure. A little later I went back to see if anything was left and since their was I took a few more beads and put them with the others and then ceased my visits to that delightful place. And what am I going to do with my plunder? Well, it will be great for a dragon hoard if I want one in a movie and I can use the beads as trim and use them as necklaces (their actual purpose I think) and for lots of other things. After all, if it's free I can probably find a use for it. However considering the clutter in my room and how deep things are piled on my room I probably should refrain from getting too many more things until what I have is organized. However, despite that, I'll probably be ordering some more trading cards this evening:) After all, I got paid for putting all of those inserts into the catalogues and I don't think they would have been completed so quickly if it hadn't been for the fact that as I worked on the catalogues I thought about how I was going to spend it and the fun and delight of the new trading cards I'd been researching. So now I think I've written enough of a post.

It appears as though we will be leaving tomorrow

Today my brother John was given a DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by his wife, Erin. As he was given this present in my presence it was not long before it was being played. I'd been planning on obtaining that DVD today and since I hadn't I was quite pleased to still get to watch it. Tomorrow I hope to have a copy for me, and in windscreen since John's copy is in full screen. I very much enjoyed watching it and I'll probably be watching it again. And again.

Tomorrow I probably will arrive in Florida

Probably tomorrow afternoon we will be leaving to drive down to Florida. I'm bringing plenty of DVD's to watch on the way. Today I'm supposed to be packing. I've done some but there is still much yet to be done.

Three Shopping Marathons this week

So far this week I think Mom and I have gone out shopping twice. The first two occasions I think we were gone a little over four hours each shopping trip. Today we went shopping and were gone almost six hours! I had a fun time though my feet still hurt. They're not quite used to having me be on them for that lat.

I got two new pairs of shoes today. They're quite pretty. One pair is very "classic" and black and shiny and quite "designer" in my opinion. I also got some new clothes. I got a very frilly pink blouse that is quite dressy. I got two very "professional" looking pant suits. Both have black pants and one has a dark gold and black short sleeved jacket while the other has a dark red and black long sleeved jacket. And I finally got a broom-skirt!!! I've been unsuccessfully seeking one of those that I liked, fitted, and Mom approved of for months. It's a dark gold/brown colored skirt and has a really pretty belt to go with it. No all I need is a blouse that will match it... I got several nice things today.

Also, The Wizard of Oz recently came to DVD and Mom bought it today and I've been briskly watching the behind the scenes and I watched part of the movie. Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain.

Since I'm leaving on Tuesday for the LDI convention in Florida that my Dad is going to(and I'll probably be there too) I thought I might do a little packing tonight. No, not clothes packing. Instead I was packing other very important things, my Lord of the Rings Trading Card Decks(I hope to play Daniel and beat him) and I packed some cross stitch supplies and a few miscellaneous toys. Since my purse with my Bible, cell phone, and camera is already packed I didn't have to bother with those three very important items. I may need to rearrange my purse a bit though and make sure all of the loose change is out of it.

Mom had bought me a new computer case several days ago as an early Christmas present. It's quite nice and it has wheels and a handle. It also has pockets and compartments EVERYWHERE and it's sooooooo nice. Especially the little zippered pouches that velcro to the inside of the case. You can take them out, stuff them, and then put them back in and then when you want to do anything with what's inside you simply take it out again and use it! Quite nice. I hope there will be room for all my cables inside. And I can't forget my DVD case either.

Tuesday is rapidly approaching... And in case I didn't mention it, that's when I'm leaving, Lord willing.

The Fifth Episode of "A Story that Might be Interesting"

Princess Gwendolyn and Mildred looked around them. Though they had had an excellent ariel view of their surroundings they had not paid attention to that particular part of the castle onto which they had been dropped. The turret was round and encircled a tower which stuck up for two stories higher than the level on which the turret they stood was on. After walking all of the way around it they saw that there was only one door that led into the tower and as Mildred pointed out, that was probably the only safe way off the turret as the height they were off the ground below made jumping perilous.

They tried to open the door, pulling as hard they could on the door knob, but it simply wouldn't open. Finally Princess Gwendolyn, who was tired by the exertion leaned against the door which immediately opened so rapidly that Mildred, whose hand was still on the door knob trying to open it, also fell inwards.

As the two stood up Mildred began blaming herself for not noticing that they couldn't see any hinges on that side of the door which meant that the hinges must be on the other side since doors always(or at least they should) open inwards into the side that has the hinges on it. Princess Gwendolyn assumed that this must be another of the half forgotten theories mentioned by the scientists at the court of Mildred's father that Mildred had heard at some point or other but usually didn't pay attention to unless she needed to.

They were now faced with a staircase and Princess Gwendolyn was very glad it was not a ferocious bulldog. For one thing it is very difficult to climb a ferocious bull dog and for another thing a ferocious bulldog has a higher chance of biting you than a staircase has.

"Shall we go up or down?" Mildred said as it was plain that one could not go far if one tired going forwards or sideways.

"Down." Princess Gwendolyn said after giving the matter careful consideration. As her decision implied, she wanted to get back home as soon as possible and assumed that the sooner they went down the closer they would be to the beach and the sea and possibly any boats that were nearby.

But it was a poor choice for they had not been climbing the stairs down for more than two hours without seeing a door or passage when they encountered a fence across the way and on the other side of it were eighteen sleeping bulldogs who looked as though when they were not sleeping bulldogs they were ferocious growling bulldogs who wanted to be eating bulldogs and since Mildred gave a shriek of surprise and horror when she saw them all eighteen of the sleeping bulldogs woke up simultaneously and became eighteen growling, howling, and barking bulldogs.

Princess Gwendolyn and Mildred were so frightened that they ran straight back up the stairs and an hour and a half later they reached where the parapet they had been standing on was quite out of breath and very flustered and both sat down on the stairs near the open door and attempted to catch their breath.

Due to the distance they had traversed this was no easy matter and it was more of a case of their breath catching them up as their catching it for they both felt as though they had left behind on the stairs quite some distance back.

After sitting for a while Mildred was able to do some contemplating and at last arrived at a conclusion which she mentioned to her cousin by saying "I suppose we should go up the stairs."

"Yes, We probably should." Princess Gwendolyn said rather calmly and a minute later the two got to their feet and began climbing the stairs.

They had not been walking up long when the arrived at a landing that had a door on the other end of it. The approached and Princess Gwendolyn asked Mildred, "Which side of the door do you think the hinges are on?" for once she learned something Princess Gwendolyn usually applied it when needed.

"They're on our side." Mildred said after carefully examining the door.

"Then we should pull and not push." Princess Gwendolyn said and prepared to do so.

"I just remembered!" Mildred said, sounding extremely excited as she spoke.

"Remembered what?" Princess Gwendolyn replied wondering what it could be.

"Water doesn't like to be compressed!" Mildred said in the same excited tones while Princess Gwendolyn stared at her in amazement. "That's why falling on from a great height could kill you." Mildred continued and then she beamed with delight and having remembered this.

Princess Gwendolyn didn't say anything. She opened the door instead and once they did so they knew that they were not in Kansas, though indeed, they had never been to Kansas and I don't know where Kansas came from though actually I do, sort of. Or at least I know that Kansas is a state in the midwest of the United States and it isn't the most exciting place in the world except maybe when cyclones come around.

Inside the room that they know saw were three persons. The first and foremost of them was what both Mildred and Princess Gwendolyn thought that a fairy godmother should look like and the other two persons, well we shan't get to them quite yet but they were what Princess Gwendolyn and Mildred respectively thought of when they thought of two words that went together well. One word stars with P and the other starts with H if you would like a hint.

"Welcome! I'm gad you've got here at last." The fairy godmother looking woman said, pleasantly "I was expecting you four hours ago!"

"I am sorry to have kept you waiting.' Princess Gwendolyn said in her softest, most charming princess like tones that she could manage and though she spoke the fairy godmother looking sort of person she looked ever so slightly at the person who stood on the woman's right.

"Me too." Mildred attempted to say gracefully and she smiled at the person who stood on the fairy godmother looking woman's left, though she also had a smile for that lady as well.

"Well, you are here now." the fairy godmother looking woman said, and nobody debated with her on the subject, "And now I'm here to tell you that I am your fairy godmother!"

"Which one of us?" Mildred said, for she expected Princess Gwendolyn to have a fairy godmother but she did not expect to have one herself.

"Why both of you of course!" their fairy godmother said, "And I have been specially sent here for a very important reason which perhaps I should mention. You see, several days ago Elizabeth Joy Von Fange started writing a story and she decided, at her brother's advice, to post it up on the website in serial form as she wrote it. However due to doing many other things there came a time when there had not been another installment written for two days or more and she did not wish and desire to further write on the story and yet she did not want it to never have a conclusion so she ultimately decided to send for me."

Princess Gwendolyn and Mildred had been paying strict attention while the fairy godmother spoke but Mildred couldn't help interrupting here, "But what has this to do with us?"

"Well," their fairy godmother continued, "You two happen to be the heroines of the story Elizabeth Joy Von Fange was writing and she has decided to finish your story in this installment of it."

Mildred was surprised but Princess Gwendolyn looked pleased. From what she had heard of Elizabeth Joy Von Fange she was not the sort of person to have a story end unhappily and was one to have it end happily ever after and the prospect of not having to find her own way out of the castle and off the island and not have to go on any bothersome adventures seemed very pleasant.

"So, she told me to make sure that the two of you lived happily ever after. And now I would like to introduce you too..." And here she promptly introduced Princess Gwendolyn to the very Handsome Prince(I hope I fooled you back there with saying the the words started with P and H:)) who stood on her right and as these two smiled at each other and felt quite sure that the would live happily ever after the fairy godmother introduced Mildred to the handsome princess who stood on her left.

Mildred smiled sweetly and said, "Do you like tournaments?"

"Oh yes," he replied, "I enjoy competing in them."

"I enjoy watching them." Mildred said, and she smiled and he smiled and then he kissed her and then she smiled some more and then since I'm not sure this story should get any more romantic than that the fairy godmother promptly said,

"Now just tap the heels of your ruby slippers together three times while saying "There's no place like home" and you will be taken back to your home."

Mildred quickly stuck her foot out from underneath her dress to see if, in addition to a handsome prince she had gotten a pair of ruby slippers as well but apparently she hadn't for her slippers, though quite pretty, were definitely not made of ruby. Mildred sighed and Princess Gwendolyn, who had far less hurriedly and much less obviously had checked and found that she was the one wearing the ruby slippers promptly and gracefully clicked the heels together three times while saying demurely, "There's no place like home."

In an instant the four of them, not the fairy godmother, were back in Princess Gwendolyn's father's castle and everyone was very glad to see them and on Princess Gwendolyn's birthday their was a double wedding where two noble ladies of the court got married since Princess Gwendolyn was so happy with her own marriage, which had taken place within an hour of her arrival home, that the idea of getting married was quite contagious and the amount of weddings doubled in the next week to what the number had been the previous week. Mildred of course also got married to her handsome prince and they, like everybody else in the story, lived happily ever after. Even the eighteen bulldogs lived happily ever after for they were frequently fed and frequently payed attention too and one of the scientist at Mildred's fathers court invented a device called a laser which created a red dot which could be placed almost anywhere and which dogs and especially cats, loved to chase around and this was used, at a safe distance of course, to give the eighteen bulldogs something to chase around while not endangering the life or limbs of anyone who wished to play with them.

So I think I'll end this story now. Thanks for reading it and I hope you enjoy it. I may post another serial on here at some point but I probably won't do it again unless I have the whole story already written out. It's just a little too stressful for me to do a serial where I have to write the serial part I'm posting everyday and I suppose since I've said this is the end of the story I'd better end the story now. THE END

(oh, and if you want to go back and read the other installments here they are)
Episodes One and Two
Episode Three
Episode Four
And this is Episode Five and I'm not going to put a link to it since you are already here.

Henty books can be very exciting and interesting

I just finished read "At Agincourt" and it being rather late now I shall probably refrain from writing anymore tonight. On Tuesday I will be leaving and going to Florida for a week or less or possibly more. I don't know whether or not the hotel will have internet, or more to the point, internet for which there is no additional charge for. If I do have internet I will post, if I don't I probably won't. However I will try to get a lot of writing down and write posts to be posted later. And I'm not leaving for another five days or so. Today I pretty much just read and rode my bicycle and was lazy. Tomorrow I hope to spend more profitably however since I did read almost all of the historical parts of the Henty books I read today I sort of had a profitable day. But I doubt I'd get a very high grade on a test of the events of the books I just read unless they were about the charming young ladies who eventually married the Henty characters. For instant in "A March on London" it's Agnes who is the younger sister of the Henty characters best friend and brother at arms and the daughter of a knight of not very great standing and he saves her life once and the Henty character marries Agnes after being knighted and given a splendid estate and in "At Agincourt" her name is Katarina and she is the daughter of an exiled Italian count and he saves her life(a common thing that Henty heroes do for their heroines, or at least it happens in a lot of the books) and she comes with a very rich dowry and lots of jewels and is considered to be very beautiful by the king of England who tells the Henty character that his taste is as good as skill in combat though not exactly in the words I mentioned.

So I had a fun day and hopefully soon I'll find out what will happen to Princess Gwendolyn and her Cousin Mildred.

I forgot to write a post yesterday due to reading an exciting book

Plus I went shopping yesterday. And I'd gone shopping the day before that. Both shopping excursions lasting for greater than four hours. Yesterday was fun to go shopping on because it was the first of november and many things were on sale. I got a black haired wig and a voice changer device which is quite fun to play with, and at a different store I got a sword and a tiara, and at another store I bought a small pumpkin for $0.25 which I'll probably use in a movie and some beads. I didn't buy anything that was less than fifty percent off.

I didn't do any story writing yesterday. However to make up for it I'll try to put a little longer episode of "A Story That Might Be Interesting" on here. Reading "A March on London" which I'm currently doing is probably going to give me some adventurous story ideas.

So, back to the Henty book I'm reading! I've read it before and I remember that is a proposal in it when the handsome hero asks the beautiful sister of his best friend to marry him after he saved her life several chapters ago and since he's just been given a grand estate by a wealthy merchant whose life and family the hero had saved, she says yes. And really, I don't think she could have done any better.