Bethjoy.com

A rather unusual day. My eye problem is still continuing. I switched from my new glasses to my old glasses in case my eyes prefer them. There are only a few days left on the cruise and I want my eyes to cooperate for them so I’m spoiling them as much as possible.

This morning I slept in until ten, which was very nice. Lord of the Rings the Return of the King was on last night and I watched it until my eyes wouldn’t let me watch it any more. I rather enjoyed it and I am looking forward to seeing the special edition.

After breakfast minutes before the breakfast area closed I went back to my room for a while then went to the final writing class. I am really going to miss those. Any way the writing assignment was rather unusual, we were divided into teams of two and given a rock then told to write about it. I wrote about the rock and here is what I wrote.

The Rock

So my conclusion of the history of this rock is this, it was used by a look out of an ancient civilization as a telescope and as the look out was using it to polish his sword instead of looking out a dragon attacked and the look out threw the stone at the dragon who caught it in his mouth and after he chewed it he spit it out onto the beach where it remained until Ellen picked it up and brought it to class and I wrote about it.

Just so you know my teachers name is Ellen. The cruise staff were kind enough to offer prizes for attending the classes and submitting a poem for printing in a little booklet that will be a memory of the cruise. I got a rather interesting something which I wrote about like this and though it is not exactly my reaction to seeing it, it is rather close to it.

The Prize

After submitting my poem I picked up my prize. It was a large white box and slightly heavy. What could be in it I wondered? When I opened it I still wondered what it could be. It was a silver cylinder with Princess, Where I belong written on it. It had a black lid that opened on top. Inside was canned dark which escaped when I opened it. Since I had been in a writing class I thought that it must have something to do with writing. It was a little big for a pencil holder and a little small for a trash can for rejection letters but it could work for both purposes. However I realized after a while that it was just a thermos type thing for coffee or liquids. But the possibilities for it are still endless.

So that is what I wrote about my prize. When I first got the rock I wrote something else about it but I didn’t like it as much so I wrote the other one, but here is what I wrote first.

Once upon a time there was a rock. It was lying on a beach. Most people would have thought that there was nothing special about this rock, but if they did think this they would be wrong. For it was a very special rock. Many hundreds of years ago that seemingly insignificant rock had played several vital roles in history. I thad tripped Napoleon temporally causing confusion in the battle and giving the English a chance to be victorious. It had served as a door jamb and paper weight to many a Military leader and it had even been thrown through several windows during the French Revolution. Oh yes, this and many other seemingly insignificant rocks have played roles in world history, just look at Mount Rushmore!

I don’t think that that was as good as the other though it has potential. Any way here is the end of this post.

Windmills and Wooden shoes, two things that Holland is known for. I saw plenty of them. First we went on the bus to Amsterdam where we got on a boat and took a scenic tour of Amsterdam. Then it was time to go on the bus again for more touring which ended up in a Dutch restaurant where I ate Dutch food for the first time in my life. The ice cream for desert was good.

Then we went to a wooden shoe factory where there was a very nice gift shop and I got a small pair of wooden shoes, two pairs in fact, one pair a keychain and the other a magnet.

Then we came back to the boat. I was extremely tired when I came back and forgot to post and now it is very late at night and I am just writing something. I think there is something wrong with my eyes, they are killing me and watery and they hurt! I can’t really see right now so fortunately I’ll be able to check this over later.

I’ve definitely been eating way too much sugar recently, I feel very sick. Hopefully I’ll feel better in the morning.

I would like to make a feature length movie. Now as I learned in Screen play class there is a “Format” which is that there are three acts. Act one has twenty scenes. Act two has thirty scenes. Act three has twenty scenes. Which is in total, about seventy scenes.

Now my plot, though very good, does not even come close to having that many scenes or being able to fit in that format which means that I could just make a long(for me) half hour movie with the plot I have currently and skip the format or I could add something else. I think that BOTH might work. Perhaps I should shoot a regular one and then have the special edition be a full length feature film. Or perhaps I should do a television mini series and have commercials. Now that would be fun! But I think I’l save that for later.

Any way I thought up something to make the story longer. I was going to have everything take place in one night, but now I am rethinking. In the previous plot all of my stuffed animals and Eowyn come alive more or less at the same time but it might be interesting to have Eowyn come first and the others follow after during several days while there are mysterious scenes taking place in BW where plans of world domination are hinted at and the experiments are seen. But what should be happening during those several days?

Well I thought of something that might almost be. I could be making and video editing a movie during that time period! Something fairly short perhaps but the filming of it could take up most of Act one and the video editing could take up a bit of act two and maybe it could be watched at one point, maybe when it is known that there are just a few minutes before the Portal will work and the army will come poring in and all preparations possible have been made to receive them, I and my stuffed animals can sit down for maybe the last time and watch “The Banana of DOOM” Then if I want to have another cliffhanger they could attack before the movie is over and all of my stuffed animals might fight there hardest because they want to survive to see the end of the movie and whether the Banana of DOOM will be found.

I definitely am thinking up ideas tonight but it is about time to go to bed. However I think I will have “The Banana of DOOM” in there because, though it isn’t necessary I might be able to make it necessary and that would be a fun challenge to take something that seemingly immaterial and make it vitally important to the safety of our world!

Filming this movie is going to be fun. For one thing there will be a lot of special effects and for another I will be acting the role of ME and I don’t know how I would act in the situations I am creating. Probably I would not do what I’ll do in the movie(successfully save the world) but I’ll try to make it a rather funny movie and one that my family will sit through at least once.

But first I’ll have to earn a new computer for the video editing part of this, but I can get the script and the filming and everything in between done before then maybe.

I will be very, very busy when I return home.

Contrary to my expectations I had a grand time in Paris. We got on the bus for a three hour nap to Paris and when there we say Paris the best way possible, from the inside of a vehicle not driven by ourselves with a knowledgeable person to tell us what we were seeing.

Our first stop was the Eiffel tower where we took some pictures and then stopped by the street venders nearby and bought a souvenir or two. I got a really pretty miniature Eiffel Tower keychain and Mom got more than I did.

Then it was a pleasant bus trip to the restaraunt where we had a French Bread:), salad, chicken:(, and desert . Desert was a piece of blueberry pie and despite the disapproving frowns of Mom I ate all of it.

Then we went to Notre Dame were we briefly saw the sights of the cathedral and then liesurly saw the sights of the shops where I spent quite a few Euros and bought a small dagger that says Paris on it. After all I have read of Paris it was a very appropriate souvenir.

Then it was time for the bus ride back and I played four monopoly games on my cell phone during that time. I lost the first game but won the rest and since I have to go get ready for dinner I’ll write more later perhaps.

I have just finished eating super. Tomorrow is a ten hour shore excursion to Paris and I just had ice cream today(sugar kind) so I may not be in the best of moods for Paris tomorrow. I certianly wasn’t in Spain. However I am bringing a bit more stuff with me so if I keep entertained I may not feel like crying as much. Currently I am charging Daniel’s Ipod.

During diner I thought of an Idea for something funny. Have a bunch of book titles strung together with a few other words thrown in to make an interesting message. “Emma”, have been “Kidnapped” “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. Send help. “Dr. Jekal and Mr. Hyde”

At the moment I think I’ll work a bit on my movie before going to bed. Hopefully Ideas shall pour forth. I have a very good plot, a lot of back ground information and now I need some characters as none of the attacking force’s leaders have names left, but I think it should take me too long to name them and figure out who and what they will be.

Today I went to another writing class and it was primarily about art. She handed out some pictures of paintings and had us write about our impressions of them. I was writing about a strange looking modern art piece that was black patterns over a grayish white pattern and had other bits of color. Here is what I wrote.

I think that it looks very much like a veiw through trees with a mountain range and a city in the background. The trees are rather unusually shaped, but in a fantasy land it is entirely plausible.

From different angles the painting looks different and evokes different feelings. My first impression was that it reminded me of a forest, but my fellow writers feelings were vastly different. Pictures of faces kept appearing to them that I didn’t see. But I think that is something about great art, everyone sees something different.

Not very good but oh well. While I was there I thought of an idea, maybe put a picture of painting on my website and write a story about it. Some could make very interesting stories…

Any way, it is time for a nap right now.

SPECIAL NOTE: I am trying to post these in the order they were written but I am not doing a very good job. This post happened several days before the others.

Formal Night! I dressed up in my beautiful blue gown that I like very well. It is very fun to wear since the skirt is very full and looks lovely while twirling. It’s current ten right now, though my computer says nine since I haven’t changed its time and don’t intend to. We dined at the Michalangelo restaurant and I had two desserts. Then we went to see a comedy magician and was very funny and talented. His slight of hand really seemed like magic… Any way I am very tired so I’m planning on taking a short nap right now… Maybe until tomorrow but I doubt it, as soon as I undress and get into bed I’ll probably wake up a bit.

Oh, did I mention the fact that I was wearing my tiara? I’m looking forward to next formal night…

I am now in a much better mood than I was when I last posted. I have rested and I just went with my parents to see a movie called “Cheaper by the Dozen”. I read the book and the movie is nothing like the book but it was still very interesting. The day after tomorrow is Paris, and it is a ten hour shore excursion That is a very long time to be away from the cruise shiop and though I have wanted to go to Paris, I am not really looking forward to the length of the shore excursion.

The cruise has just flown by, I wish it hadn’t. Oh well, I have a lot of memories and I did some writing and I now know the screen play format and I’ve gotten two good plots done, one for a movie and one for a story, and I also have a few souvenirs of the trip.

So now to end this post.

Of all the countries I have visited Spain seems to be the one where unpleasant things happen. Last time I was in Spain we had lunch there, and my food was looking at me! This time there was a lot of walking and we were on our own so we walked up many side streets trying to go around the cathedral and just when I saw the main road that would have led us back to the bus, Mom decided to turn around.

I didn’t have a very fun time in Spain. Especially shopping wise. There were a lot of shops, but everything I liked was way too expensive and many things I didn’t like were in abundance. I almost cried and was rather upset during the tour. I’m glad to be back on the cruise ship though now I have to get again because Mom is hungry and I am not:(

Today we were in Lisbon and we took a shore excursion to two places, one of which I don’t know how to spell or pronounce and the other was a most delightful place named Sintra. In the first place we went to we walked a little ways until we found two nice gift shops and I bought myself a little tiny blue owl and a fan. Then we boarded the bus and went to Sintra.

Sintra was beautiful. It was up on a mountain and there was a castle up on top of the mountain. But more importantly every where you looked were small, delightful shops. Shops, Shops, Shops! I had a great deal of fun there. I bought two fans and a lovely shawl with a fringe. So I had fun.

In the bus I discovered something. A tiny little sony camera! The person who had it said that they only cost about $200.00 Expensive yet more affordable and so cute and tiny! It is smaller than my cell phone! I think it would be very fun to have pictures on here because I can’t describe a place very vividly. Or maybe it is just because I never bother to take the time to do it.

Any way it is time for food for I am very hungry and tired from the shore excursion. I had a fun time today.