Remember when I mentioned this NaNoWriMo last year ? I said "someday..." And in this fairy tale, "someday" comes true! :-) Translation: I'm actually going to attempt to write an entire 50,000-word novella during the month of November...! Crazy, aren't I? Dan reminded me of this today when I read his blog, and I suddenly decided I'd attempt it this year. Granted, I'll still keep up with schoolwork etc., but I think I'll be able to cram it into those extra hours... like this one.... :-) So starting November 1st, if I don't post for a month, this is why. Good night.

And now for your sporadic update on the life of the ReaderSis! 1. I just went on midterm break last week... it was busy, but lovely. I love visiting my family. :-) I also love playing guitar for my church, so I did that over break too. (As part of the praise team... there are very few guitar players at church that will just look at the songs on Sunday and play them with minimal practice.) Those two things are probably what I miss most about being home. 2. I also got my hair cut over midterm break! And I love it! See, my hair has some natural curl... not too much, but just enough that I can sport a layered look and it actually looks good. I've gotten several compliments on my new haircut. And I don't have to do much with my hair in the morning. 'Swonderful. 3. I'm working on a paper now, about the bailout that Congress passed three weeks ago. It's fairly interesting. And as a result of some of my research, I'm now much more aware of the state of intern

The following is a fairy tale my sister wrote (and which I think is hilarious). It's basically all the fairy tales you ever heard rolled into one. ************ Of Mice and Men Or, the Troubles of a Mouse by mafia (all rights reserved; don't steal this story!) Once upon a time, in a forest filled with trees, there resided--for the time being--a little grey mouse whose name was Patrick. Patrick was very sad and lonely, because he wasn't really supposed to be a mouse at all, but a little boy; but that was such along time ago. Unfortunately, the other forest dwellers left him all alone because they knew he was different. Today was an unusual day, for he was feeling more depressed than normal. Walking through the forest, there came an old, old man who stopped when he saw the poor little mouse sitting there. “Little friend,” he said “be not so woeful, your troubles can be overcome. Travel to the Shining City you see in the distance, I'm sure someone can help you there.”

"The Things He Carried:" an Atlantic magazine article by one Jeffrey Goldberg that details the absurd and dangerous items the author was able to sneak past TSA security checkpoints and onto commercial passenger flights.... ...because I have a fair amount of experience reporting on terrorists, and because terrorist groups produce large quantities of branded knickknacks, I’ve amassed an inspiring collection of al-Qaeda T-shirts, Islamic Jihad flags, Hezbollah videotapes, and inflatable Yasir Arafat dolls (really). All these things I’ve carried with me through airports across the country. I’ve also carried, at various times: pocketknives, matches from hotels in Beirut and Peshawar, dust masks, lengths of rope, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, eight-ounce tubes of toothpaste (in my front pocket), bottles of Fiji Water (which is foreign ), and, of course, box cutters. I was selected for secondary screening four times—out of dozens of passages through security checkpoints—during

So the chaplain this year--he's new--has been going through a sort of series on the ways Christians grow closer to God. Prayer, confession, the sacraments, reading the Bible, and so on. This week he's talking about meditation; and today, after a stripped-down version of the praise songs (i.e. just one singer/guitarist as opposed to a whole band plus several singers), he talked a bit more about meditating and letting God speak through the still whisper, then let us all either sit there and practice meditating, or leave early. (Like twenty-five minutes early.) I brought my journal and meditated some. 'Twas nice to just sit for awhile and think, you know?

Well, what did I do today but rediscover one of my favorite columnists? Focus on the Family has this website for college students-- TrueU.org --for which a certain J. Budziszewski writes. This man, who also goes by "Professor Theophilus," wrote How to Stay Christian in College a few years ago, a book which I highly recommend. (I read it just before I graduated from high school.) I used to read his columns in one of my favorite teen-magazines every chance I got; and now I can access new columns, written for semi-adults (as opposed to teens), online! Que maravilloso. (How I wish I could insert Spanish letter characters more easily than cutting-and-pasting from a Word document....)

It's a lovely concept, the weekend. No classes... just a bit of homework and some actual work hours. Last night I went to a small group event--an outing, a trip to a football game and a bonfire included. 'Twas lovely, though rather chilly. And I can't really think of much to write at the moment... life is just slipping by, quite serenely.