Pointless

But hey, if I'm not on my blog for a few days, I guess no one is.

Brady Bunch

Every face (except one) is looking in  a different direction. Like on the cover of "The Brady Bunch."

This was a time-filler doodle that Dan Swenson (always prepared with arts and crafts) gave me to do at his house after we went to his son Eric's mission Farewell.

Pretend that this was posted on Sunday... because it was supposed to be.

I didn't have the time to do anything real. So this is what you get.
I'm house-sitting at a place that has everything but the internet, so I take advantage of it when I'm home (just for a bit). SO I won't be on here again until Wednesday.... but man, will I have some stories to share!

Cartoons aren't cool.

This person doesn't mean anything to me. This person isn't even real. It's cartoon-ized. I did it during the Court of honor, and I didn't have an eraser. This was done in a purple colored pencil since that was the only color that was sharpened well enough

I guess that this one kind of counts too. Every single phone that we own is the same style, company, model, year, and color. We put a sticker on one and called it "Top Secret." But the sticker wore off. So on the historic day when I GOT A CELLPHONE...I had to come up with some way to make mine different.

So I painted it Orange. With nail polish. I had to do about 2 and a half coats, plus a clear coat... but it's staying on just fine. I'm rather proud of it. Ir might look kind-of sloppy, and maybe it's old, but it's mine and it




LOOKS like me. So I am happy.

Matches and Matrimony

When the Red Cross updated stuff, I had to take a roll-over course and get the new Lifeguarding Manuel.  My mom didn't want to pay $30 bucks for a new Manual. Instead, she bought a Kindle for $50, and downloaded it for free.
Since that original purchase, my Mom has downloaded TONS of books, including all of the works of Jane Austen. Because of her obvious interest in Jane Austen, Amazon suggested she download a practically free "Make-you-own-novel/game" called "Matches and Matrimony." So I decided to play. I chose my own name, Mildred (because it sounds weird)! The instructions informed me that there were nine possible outcomes, and several Jane Austen Men to end up with (though they don't say who). What the outcome of my story would be depended on my choices and the daily activities I chose to do.
The story went day by day. I would "plan" my activities for the weekdays (choosing to "Go for a Walk" would increase my willpower. "Visiting Neighbors" would give me big points for kindness. "Reading "would give me wit. "Studying the Arts" would increase my talent. "Resting" would give me energy.)
The weekdays would pass, and the weekends would bring a ball or special visit, or some bit of excitement.
This was where the story happened.
Entire passages of Austen conversations are inserted, with small choices in conversation on my part. At the end of the lengthy conversation, your relationship with the person you talked with would be summed up in a simple sentence, "Jane likes you more." or "Mr. Darcy likes you less."
Sometimes I fell short. My dear friend Charlotte tried to pressure me to play the pianoforte, but I didn't have enough talent to do it. I brushed it off.
If you didn't like the outcome of a decision, you could easily "turn the page" back one, and choose differently. Each week was a new chapter, and you couldn't go back after that.
It was fun.
At first.
I knew not to flirt to Mr. Bingley because I've read Pride and Prejudice and seen a ton of movie representations of it. I steered clear of "Wickaby" (a combination of Wickham  and Willoughby) when he entered the scene, but Lydianne (My sister, a combination of Lydia and Marianne ) was quite taken with him. Although I didn't know exactly which suitors were available for me to win, I mostly knew who to avoid.
The first problem real problem was when Mr. Colins proposed, the Kindle told me that I had to accept because I didn't have enough willpower to refuse him! I went back, and re-chose to "Go for a Walk" EVERY DAY to increase my Willpower. Disaster was avoided. I moved on.
I kept playing. It was tough. I knew I couldn't please everyone... but who SHOULD I make an effort to please?
The story began to morph. It started out with Pride and Prejudice, briefly touched on Sense and Sensibility, and finally settled on Persuasion. It moved fast. Suddenly I had this huge back story of how much I loved Captain Wentworth. I decided that I was going to end up with him. When the decisions came along, I tried really hard to mirror the actions of the heroine of Persuasion, which was difficult because I've only seen it once and I've never read it. But I did alright.
Then the major drama unfolded. Lydianne was jumping off of a wall and Wentworth was supposed to catch her, but didn't, and then she was in critical condition. Thankfully, I made the right choice in sending Colonel  Brandon (obviously representing someone else from the real story) to go get a doctor. It worked out, Lydianne was resting, and I thought that all was well. Then, some random  person came in and asked if I was going to go to a ball that weekend. The Kindle made me say yes!
Wentworth was shocked, and disappointed. Everything was suddenly going downhill. fast.
The Kindle gave me the stupid omniscient response that must have been programmed for my situation. "Maybe if you had more natural kindness, this situation could have ended differently."

 I  freaked out. I went back (which was a long way back)  and "went visiting" EVERY DAY. Then I sped through to see if it was fixed. I went too fast! I ended up skipping ahead to the end, without having any idea of how I got there. Here was the end of my story.


"Mildred never married, ("No!!!") but used the many experiences of her youth to write several novels, which have transcended time."
Translation: I became Jane Austen.

I was mad. All I had wanted to do was see what Jane Austen man I would end up with. I felt like I had just wasted the past 3 hours of my life. I thought it was a stupid game, a waste of time, and a joke. I thought, "Gee, I'm glad that real life is not like that..."
But honestly... it kind of is.
You choose how you spend your time, and those choices reflect the outcomes of the really important parts of your life and the interactions you have with other people. You don't know exactly who the "marriage candidates" (in the extreme sense, but just the important people) will be, but you try to please as many people as you can.
Then again, life is different. You can't go back and make different choices. You can't just "un-say" something. But you usually get more than one chance to make an impression on or start a relationship with someone.

Honestly (if this were real life) it would be really cool to "become Jane Austen," except for the part where she becomes an old maid. I think I would like to become a writer some day (could I sound a little more wishy-washy?). But that wasn't the point of this game.

So what was the point of this post?
This was just to say that I really over-think things. I shouldn't play time-consuming and frustrating games anymore. I should be careful with my real life, and not mess with virtual ones anymore.
What was the point of you reading this post?
I don't know if there really was one. Maybe it's just so that you can roll your eyes and say, "Oh, Alayna..." like all of my closest friends do.
So that's it.

Special People

So, after my self-defined "people-drawing-fail" of the past little while, I decided to work on my person-skills.
I rather think it worked.

I thought of choosing someone from a magazine. I've done that before with some degree of success. But if I am going to spend time drawing something... it want it to mean something. If I am going to spend a few hours drawing people... I'm going to choose some really special people.
So I broke out some old family photos.

This is baby Eliza and "almost-6-year-old" Aria. Aren't they cute and lovey! (that is now a word.)

And here is what I did from that photo. I worked on it an hour before church and... maybe two hours after church. I did this with a number two pencil, which inspired me... to buy a pack of art pencils

It looks better in real life. 

A slightly different angle... maybe?

Anyway. My faith in my people drawing ability is restored. And it is actually the first time* I've drawn a family member. And that's it.





* I did draw a self portrait that was pretty good.... but then I painted over it and ruined it.

Parasailing

My father is a wonderful man.
He also has a bunch of crazy ideas. Ideas that shouldn't be possible in real life.

 He once suggested that the scouts have a camp-out in the backyard by floating in the pool on air-mattresses, Parent Trap style.

We vetoed that one. But we couldn't talk him out of this one.

Dad needed to test-drive the para-sails, to make sure they flew right. He couldn't be talked out of it. 

So, as we walked out the door, we joked about stuff like "writing eulogies," and "giving speeches at funerals," but I was actually full of trepidation.  

Mom and I had very incredulous faces (as you can see) but we were the faithful family members , leading another family member into a possibly dangerous situation.

 In the end, I was only there to help mom stay awake, and take documentation. But I did pretty well at that.

Big rope, lots of help.

In the beginning. 

Testing the wind. Apparently, it is important to know which way it is going.

And... it's a wrap. Everyone survived! (Applause!)

My Dad is FULL of crazy ideas. But we can't talk him out of them because, most of the time...
they work.

Cheating.

This is cheating. 

This is the sketch of the person that was then in my painting "Gaze Upward." I jazzed it up, and I'm counting it. Maybe I'll color it and count it for next week too. Not.

I'm busy, so this is all I've got. It pales in comparison with last week... but everything would.