Bethjoy.com

And I do mean brief for I only made a one minute film which was inspired by the fact that I just successfully sewed a VERY colonial looking outfit that fits me well and looks nice. So of course I had to do a film to document it.

Since I was mainly just showing off my outfit I didn’t bother to do any research for this movie but as I have a good memory and I’ve been to Williamsburg many times while visiting my grandmother I was able to mention several facts about colonial times which are probably accurate. So I hope you enjoy this very brief but educational look at colonial America, and don’t expect me to give any dates because about the only dates I know is that in 1492 Colombus sailed the ocean blue and that on September 26th 1988 I was born!

Watch the movie

Although it is possible that when you read this it will not be Wednesday. I actually have no clue where this post is going to go, I just know that it is about time for a post and that I should probably write one.

It is remarkable all of the forgotten things that I have found while going through the mess in my room, and elsewhere. I just found a really cute little stuffed puppy dog beany babie that I had forgotten.

As I have little else to write at the moment I shall just put this on. Tonight being Wednesday I may write a nice long post at the YMCA. Hopefully…

This evening we went out to eat and somehow the conversation got turned to money matters, and good practices of saving and not getting into debt etc… Apparently some one present had just read a book on methods of getting out of debt and saving money and budgeting etc. So I thought that maybe for the grand fun of it I would summarize a bit of what was said that evening, as well as writing down some of my own ideas. And since I am an unusual sixteen year old what follows after this paragraph may be
very interesting.

1. Spend less than you earn. This is the most important rule with the exception of the rules pertaining to loving God the best and loving your neighbor as yourself and the ten commandments.
2. Credits Cards Bad, Cash Good, Credits Cards Bad, Cash Good! (say this over and over again)
3. Saving a bit of money every month = good, especially if placed in a high interest earning thing. This is runs along the exact same principal of credit card debt because both increase every month, only in one way you get more money and the other way you don’t get any but have to pay more.
4. Wait until you have the money for it to buy something.
5. Unless you are shopping at a thrift store typically don’t buy something when you first see it. If you still want it after two or three weeks of thinking about it then you probably really want it or you even might need it.
6. Look for a less expensive way of getting a similar thing. For example if you want to watch a movie you can either pay $25.00 for the latest DVD that you might only watch once or you can go to a dollar store and by a DVD for $1.00 and then since typically $1.00 DVD’s have old movies on them and typically old movies are better than recent ones you just might enjoy the $1.00 DVD more than the $25.00 DVD.
7. Remember, you don’t have to drive a very expensive car, some less expensive cars look nice and run better and last longer and besides that, you can pay about $300.00 and get it painted in some interesting color(I plan to have my car painted pink) and then you can stand out from the crowd as you wouldn’t in one of the expensive cars that everybody else is getting in debt for.
8. Did I mention to avoid Credit Cards and Debt at all costs?
9. Try not to go shopping more than once a week and avoid Malls at all costs. There are lots of stores (Walmart(this is not a paid advertisement)) that sell same things(or similar) for less.
10. Don’t forget, money isn’t everything. You shouldn’t make it the main focus of your life. Spend time with your family, enjoy life, be a good Christian, pay your ties and your taxes and if you don’t end up a millionaire you’re probably still happier than most people who are.
11. If I ever publish a book, Buy it. Please.

Um, actually I suppose that last one doesn’t exactly belong there but… There, now you have some practical and useful advise(I hope) and I put a post on here and personally I really hope you have an opportunity of doing suggestion number 11 soon. I really, really, really want to get something published. Wouldn’t it be fun to be a published authoress before turning seventeen? That’s pretty doubtful since my birthday is on September 26th which isn’t too far away. And in a completely unrelated subject, I happen to like Walmart gift cards very much. Especially when they can be handed to cashiers who ring them up and then I don’t have to pay for what I’m buying in a manner of speaking. So this is now the end of this post. Try not to get into debt and if you are in debt try to get out of it and thank you for visiting Bethjoy.com.

And she said something like, “It was very complimentary, now you don’t have to clean your room.” I hope she wasn’t joking…

She sent me a picture of her in the wedding dress so here is my mother on her wedding day.

And then here is me quite a few years younger than I am now in the dress.

So now you know what my mother’s wedding dress looks like.

Mom was looking through a photo album and found these pictures of me. I look a bit different don’t I?

The last picture is me wearing Mom’s wedding dress. I doubt I could fit into that dress now because Mom was very petite when she got married, and she still is much smaller than I am. I can’t truthfully say that Mom doesn’t look any different from when she got married, for one thing she stopped dyeing her hair blonde and now wears bangs instead of no bangs. But other than that she hasn’t changed much. Well, maybe I’m being just a tad bit too complementary to my mother’s appearance but she is very very nice looking even if she isn’t twenty-two anymore and she has a son who is about to get married. At least my Dad thinks so. Um, since this is a very delicate subject I think I’ll move onto another one.

As you can see from the other pictures I had two American Girl dolls, Felicity and Samantha. I still have them though they are seldom played with now. I’ve always enjoyed dressing up. Mom made the Dorothy Outfit for me and my dolls outfit too. She is MUCH better at sewing than I am.

YIPEE!!! So now that is done. So total length of the rough draft, 21 pages, 11,453 words, and Fourteen Chapters. Which means of course that I have a LOT of editing to do but I’ll wait on that until tomorrow. And it will be tomorrow in about two minutes. But I am very pleased to have the rough draft done. I hope to make the next draft at least twice as long as this is, if not more. The story can use a LOT of work and character development.

I am going to call this laptop Eowyn. I don’t think that the previous Eowyn will mind, at least, I hope not. But it just seems suitable to call my mac laptop Eowyn.

I just installed Virtual PC onto Eowyn and since my PC laptop is Arwen I think I’ll call my virtual pc Galadriel.

I have been thinking a lot about writing today. Mainly because on February 18th I started writing the rough draft of the book I’m currently working on. So I got the crazy idea that I might try to finish it today. I have chapter 13, 14, and 15 to write and the rough draft will be done. Currently chapters are averaging about a page in length and I’m just skimming over things. Here is a sample chapter, and I wrote this chapter today.

Chapter Eleven
Kingdom H was the next kingdom they were headed for. The capitol of it was located in the middle of a great forest, and only two roads led to it. Flying over the trees they could see that an army was marching towards the capitol through the woods.
King H was not pleased to hear this news, but he was glad to hear it from them before hearing it from the attackers and he quickly gave orders for the defense of his castle and kingdom.
The told him about their mission to get all of the pieces and they asked if he had a piece of the Powerful Weapon of Evil Villain Slaying. He did not, but he could tell them that in Kingdom I, which was a ways away from from the kingdom they were currently in.
So they flew of from Kingdom H and hoped that all would be well in Kingdom I. Surprisingly, it was. Kingdom I was briskly attacking another kingdom, which was the property of the Big Bad Guy Villian. King I was away supervising the battle and the regent he had left behind was very reluctant to give them the piece, or even information on the piece, until he had consulted with the king.
This problem was solved by the suggestion that a winged horse would not take long to cover the distance. So the regent was flown to the King and Prince Edmund went with him to present their case.
King I agreed to give them the piece and they flew the regent back where they were given the piece to the weapon. It fit with what they already had and the weapon finally appeared to be taking shape, though they were still uncertain what that shape was going to be.
They were not certain were to go next and where discussing it when the brilliant idea came up to visit the Wise Loremaster, who would probably know something about the weapon.
He lived in an observatory tower on the pinnacle of steep hill. It was an ideal place to live if you had winged horses, but it was not too pleasant if you had to climb down the small steep path every time you wanted to go somewhere.
The Wise Loremaster with these words welcomed them,
“What quest for knowledge brings you to my humble abode?”
“We seek information concerning the Powerful Weapon of Evil Villain Slaying.” Was the reply. Then they told about their quest. The Wise Loremaster asked to see the weapon pieces they already had and they showed them to him. He told them that Kingdom J , Kingdom K, and Kingdom L each had pieces of the weapon. He also told them that the other two pieces locations were unknown to him. One, presumably, was on the Isle of Lost Mariners and had been placed there by a big bad guy who had risen some two hundred years ago. He had been defeated by other means.
The last piece, he told them, had been in the possession of Kingdom Z, but Kingdom Z had ceased to exist some three hundred years ago and the piece had changed hands several times since then and it’s current location was not known.
The remained that evening as the guest of the Wise Loremaster and the next morning, with many words of good advice to go with them, they flew off for kingdom J.

If it weren’t for the fact that I am doggedly determined to write this book I would probably not write it as I do not like the plot. I have a huge war going on with underlying network of spies and the Big Bad Guy Villain is actually going to succeed in taking over most the world before his utter defeat at the hands of the heroes of the tale, who ride on great white winged horses. As you can see from the kingdom names I am not bothering to name them right now. This book is going to need a LOT of work done on it in the next draft. However currently I’m just trying to finish the rough draft. Then hopefully by the time I’m done with this book it will be at least seventy-five pages long, moderately interesting, and mildly funny. Of course I would prefer it to be a very good book instead of a mediocre one but currently I’m just working on working on a book and finishing it. Quality will come with the next book, hopefully. At least, I’ll probably have a better plot for it.

And I do apologize about the lack of amusing short stories on here. My writing time has been taken up with the rough draft. Hopefully soon I’ll write a good short fairy tale and put it on here.

In other news I was doing some online research about books and noticed that $5,000 is what most advances are on first time author’s books. If that last sentence makes any sense to you then congratulations. Personally I would be very happy to receive $5,000.00 for a book, and then more royalty checks later on:) The $5,000 would probably be very nice to start my long term savings account, buy a new video camera so I have two, get a few “Inspirational” toys, cd’s and dvd’s to “help” or “inspire” me write, and probably it would cover a few other miscellaneous articles like a new tiara etc. However first I need to write a book that is good enough to be published… And something tells me that I probably won’t be a published authoress before I’m seventeen. However I suppose that is alright. It is on my list of goals to get something published somewhere other than Bethjoy.com but it doesn’t have to happen soon. Though it sure would be nice!

So now I suppose I ought to stop writing on here and move on to tackling Chapter THIRTEEN of the rough draft. I’ve already written a few paragraphs in which something unlucky happens.

However that night, before they reached the coast, they would have been surprised unexpectedly and captured if Uno had not been faithfully on the watch instead of fast asleep.

And since I watched the incredibles and the behind the scenes on the incredibles and since it was rather late at night when I suddenly got the urge to do my own super hero movie I would like to now present “The Low Budget Super Hero Movie of DOOM!!!”. Note, I did this in a about a half hour so I did not take time to perfect it or make it the best it could be. I just thought I would do something that had something like Mr. Skiperdoo in it and I was looking at a stuffed duck when I thought that and… You’ll just have to watch the result.

Watch “The Low Budget Super Hero Movie of DOOM”

And I have just written these words in the rough draft,

When they arrived they found on Queen B to represent the royalty. She was a newlywed and apparently had flunked ancient history when she attended the school for proper princesses for she had never heard of the Powerful Weapon of Evil Villain Slaying.

In case you do not know I am trying to complete a book. I am not trying for high quality I’m just trying for length and a moderately interesting story. Currently I’m writing the rough draft and in case you can’t tell by the name “Queen B” and “The Poweful Weapon of Evil Villain Slaying” I am not taking very time naming things. Which is currently intentional. When I go back and edit and add things and hopefully change a LOT of things I will probably rename most of the characters, and places, and items. Although I don’t know, The Powerful Weapon of Evil Villain Slaying does has a certain ring to it and I might just keep it perhaps. I’ll have to see. Currently I am on Page fourteen of the rough draft, word 7,249, and Chapter Eight of the story. In case it is not extremely obvious the chapters are rather short. Some do not exceed one single page of text.

In other news last Wednesday I did not go to the YMCA. We had the great fortune to pass by Target and decide to stop there. Mom was surprised that I had not mentioned it in a post. I do so now. I did not buy anything but Dad and Andrew got ice cream. And Mom bought, at my suggestion, “Bringing Up Baby” which recently came out on DVD. It is listed in the top one hundred funniest movies and it really deserves to be there.

Still on the subject of funny movies The Incredibles came out on DVD yesterday. Mom and Dad got it after leaving the YMCA and somewhat unexpectedly, when they got home around ten thirty we started watching it and did not stop until we had finished the movie. It was most interesting, exciting, and humorous. I believe that we shall be watching it again.

So now I think that I will return to the Rough Draft of DOOM, or actually the folder name is called, “Fantasy Book to WRITE!!!” I do not expect much of this story but I’m going to write it anyway so that I will have the practice writing and also I wish to prove to my self that I CAN write a book, even if a mediocre one. However I don’t think it will worse than a great deal of what is written by sixteen-year-olds. So now, this post is over.