Wednesday, October 9, 2013

High School

Oh my gosh I love high school! it is SO FUN! This is my Freshman year and I thought I wouldn't be able to go to the high school but I can and I am so happy! I have a lot of friends and everybody's really nice to me!
Just had to share.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Verbal catch-up

So. Let's see. I need to catch people up on my life. I'll start in March, I guess. I went to Local Presentation Day with our 4-H group and then proceeded to Regionals and on the twenty-fifth of May I'll be going out to Davis for state. I am doing an interpretive reading from Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats (The poems behind the musical Cats), So I am very happy about that.
         I am now Secretary for our 4-H club which is a mixed bag... mostly a blessing. Also I joined my 4-H Relay For Life team (if you should happen to want to support me with a donation you can google Mariposa Relay For Life.... I'm not sure where to go from there. :) ) Relay is from the 18-19 of May and I am working really hard on some crafts for that which I will be selling there... things like totebags and water-bottle holders and purses and stuff.
         I have read lots of books since my last update (some are re-reads....) like Dear Julia (Book review on that later) Zia, Connie Carl At Rainbow Ranch (A better book than it sounds like) and some others. I FOUND MY CAMERA. And I am just so happy. I also found my knife that I got on Christmas and lost THE DAY AFTER. I went to an MCHS concert with JUST MY COUSIN (which was kind of nerve racking at first but turned out just fine) I am reallly into cooking (not, like, french-chef into it but like I will cook [especially bake] whenever I can and I love it,)  I have MORE COOKBOOKS THAN MY MOM (And since I am 13 and she is 38 I am very excited about that),
    We have ducklings (photos oncoming; there are also some on my facebook)  and they are SO CUTE.
 I really like writing short stories (if I come up with some that are good enough I will maaybe post them on my blog -- maybe I'll even start a new blog just for my stories.)
  I recently went on a really incredible trip to the MVTF (Military VBehicle Technology Foundation) armored vehicle museum in Palo Alto. It was great fun. Photos in my photograph catch-up.

    I discovered my new favorite music videos of all time..... Mean by Taylor Swift and Clown Shark by Rhett and Link (my AMAZING favorite internetainment people). Here they are....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBALsWwxPf0 (This one is mostly funny+a little terrifying)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE (And this one is just plain touching)


 Thanks for reading!!!!

Martha K.
  


The storm

for the past three hours or so it has been non-stop thundering (sometimes like a semi-truck fell on the roof) and lightning-ing and windy and for the past hour or so it has been raining, Here are some pics... Now it's dumping buckets outside.... we really really needed this rain. Praise the Lord!!!

Lightning and our Flag Pole

Please forgive the towel on the fence... this is SERIOUSLY the lightning lighting this up. The sky was just as dark as tin the rest of the pictures.


  
Aaand my personal favorite.... this is in the same flash as the oen above that illuminated the entire sky.   

Sunday, May 5, 2013

pictures

I FOUND MY CAMERA MY CAMERA MY CAMERA!!!  Oh I found my Camera and I am now so happy! And so are you, right? right? because now you get more photos!!!! :) :) :)

also we just got some ducklings so there will be photos of those....

but later. ALL LATER. When I have time to upload sixteen photos. :)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Ah, the sadness.

My dearest public,

I am very disappointed in myself for alas, I have LOST MY CAMERA. So no photos for you!
And I am also very disappointed in my lack of LHOP reviews.

Sorry,
Martha K.

Jane Eyre, starring Toby Stevens Ruth Wilson

This. Was. The. Best. Jane. Eyre. Movie. Adaptation. EVER.

It was almost perfect. They nailed Jane's plainness, however, as always, Mr.Rochester was far too dreamy and handsome. (They're both supposed to be plain). I loved their minor additions to the storyline. It was an extremely crying and laughing movie. It even made my MOTHER (who is a Jane Eyre FANATIC) wonder what was going to happen and be all emotional when they finally found each other again. I loved loved loved this movie and it certainly was the best adaptation I have ever seen. I would recommend this movie for ages 12+.

Martha K.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

The last 2 days of photo-taking.

OK, so I am brewing an LHOP post (thinking maybe only those on week days...) and right now I am going to do today's and yesterday's photos.

Yesterday's pic. This is one of my mom's tricks, and I really like it.
Up a tree

I was kind of hard up for a picture today, so I took  a b&w photo of  some mushrooms she was putting into dinner. YUM.
Black and white mushrooms.


Friday, January 4, 2013

Project 364 - off to a late start

I have  wanted to do what my mom does, which is take a photo every day for a year, but I forgot to take a photo on New Year's, and then yesterday I forgot to post one, so here are the first 2 photos of my Project 364.

This is yesterday's picture, it's a fence on our neighbor's property. I like the lines and repetition in this photograph.




This is the sunset at my house through some trees. I really like the colors in this one.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Season 3 episode 8 "The Bully Boys"

Day 8

This is the episode where the 3 Gallander brothers come to town and get run out on a rail. But minus the rail.

The episode begins at the new Gallander homestead, with the brothers getting ready for a day in town. After a short period of conversation, they all leave. Bubba goes to school where he abruptly gets off to a bad start by pushing Willie off the seat for making fun of his name. Later that day, he hits Mary and shoves Laura. His older brothers, John and George, go to the Olsen mercantile where they purchase $15 worth of goods, which they charge, but promise to pay back with a bank draft on Friday. Then they go to the lumbermill, where they order a wagonload of wood, with the same promise of payment as they used at the Olen's. Because they want to build right away, they are given a wagonload that was originally intended for a man who doesn't need to build for two weeks. However, they promptly sell it to that same man for $3 less. Later, on Friday, their paycheck hasn't come in yet, and their excuse is because of the rain. When they aren't in Church on Sunday, Reverend Alden pays them a visit, and they feed him a load o' lies saying that their ma is sick, and that was why they had to sell the lumber. The next day, Caroline is walking to town with eggs when she is grabbed and manhandled by  the two oldest brothers. This makes Pa mad, of course, and he goes and beats up the two brothers, except that they beat him up badly. He busts 3 ribs. The reverend does not approve at ALL of that.Only when he finds out that HE has been wronged by the Gallanders does he actually get physical with them, and they didn't offend him NEARLY as much as they offended Charles. In the end, the all the schoolgirls (and Willie) except for Nellie (who is sweet on Bubba) beat up Bubba, and he and his brothers all three get run out of town on Sunday.



Doc Baker looks grim:YES
Pa broke a bone: YES (ribs, even! I wonder if Pa has any ribs that haven't been broken?)
Somebody cries: YES ( Laura, Caroline)
Pa cries: YES
Runaway Wagon: YES (with an unconscious Pa in it!)
"Oh, Pa!": YES (Are you alright?)
Pa punches someone; someone punches Pa: YES YES YES YES!!!!
Reality Check: A big boy like Bubba would never get away with physically and intentionally hurting litteler girls like he did.
Crackpot theology: YES (Rev. Alden justifies the Gallender's behavior by saying: When faced with violence, they reacted with violence! Because he says that them manhandling his wife was just not enough motivation for Pa to go and beat up the Gallanders. But them lying to him [the Rev.] was enough motivation for HIM to get physical.)

Quote of the episode:
"I'll take a plow handle and when I get through, those boys will be too sore to wear their hats." ~Mr. Edwards, offering to deal with the boys after Pa is beat up. His offer is rudely rejected.

My Personal Feelings:
This is a very very special episode. ALL THE TROPES HAPPENED!!!!! Oh my gosh I can't believe it!!!! YAY!!!! Finally. We had one where NONE happened and now we have one where ALL happened. I am ecstatic!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Season 3 - episode 7

HAPPY (late) NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

day 7
This is the episode where Laura adopts a troublesome goat and he keeps being very troublesome to all of the townspeople.

The beginning of this episode is a billy goat in a field chewing hay. You then see the goat's owner, a man named Luke, feeding a horse in his barn. Shortly he bends over and the goat charges him and puts him through the wall of the barn. Laura has been working for this man's wife since Monday, and a slightly confused Luke is about to pay her (While his wife fetches his rifle to shoot the goat), but he finds that he only has one cent less than what he owes her. Laura proposes that she take the troublesome goat instead, since he is going to be killed, and he doesn't seem too mean to her. Suddenly, Luke changes his tune, and starts singing (not literally) the goat's praises, saying that he's not so mean, and he's really taken to Laura ("like a hornworm to a tomato, and that's a lot of tooken!" as he puts it), and he's the last of his kind, and would she really save him from death like that? Laura takes him home, naming him Fred, and her family is not too thrilled. Charles, who has spent all day harvesting rushes to sell to a man named Jenks, makes the awful mistake of bending down in front of Fred, and, just as Ma was about to tell him about Fred, he came flying out of the barn, butted by Fred. That night he tells Laura that Fred has to go because of the extensive damage that he had done to the barn, unless she can think of a reason to keep him. The next morning Fred has eaten lots of the rushes that Pa worked so hard to harvest. While Laura, Mary, and Fred set off to town, Pa sets off to gather more rushes. Before school, Laura convinces Willie Olsen of how wonderful goats are, including the delicious cheese that they make, and Willie buys Fred on the spot. Fred, who is tied to a post in the Olsen yard, eats the wash AND butts Mrs. Olsen who falls in the mud (YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY HA HA HA). After nobody will take Fred including Mr. Edwards, who gets butted, Carl  and Laura put him in Mr. Edwards' secret thinking spot (it's a still), where he promptly gets drunk. They take him to the doctor, who gets butted, then to Reverend Alden, who gets.... guess what... butted! Then they decide they have to let him go. He runs off and gets in the wagon of the cheater Jenks, and eats all the rushes, so Jenks comes to Pa and pays him $12 to harvest more rushes. Ma, Mary, and Laura all agree that that is a good reason to keep Fred, so Laura goes out to find him. After five minutes of searching, she gives up in hopeless defeat, until she hears the bleat of a goat. She chases down Fred and tries to take him home, but is surprised when he runs away. Then (to slow jazz stripper music) she discovers that he has a whole herd of Nanny goats now. She leaves him to that and goes on with life.


Doc Baker looks grim:YES
Pa broke a bone: NO
Somebody cries: YES ( Laura)
Pa cries: NO
Crop failure: NO
Runaway Wagon: NO
"Oh, Pa!": YES (Fred didn't mean to!)
Pa punches someone; someone punches Pa: NO (but he did do smiley sarcasm to a big fat jerk, so that's close enough)
Reality Check: All those people getting butted by a goat with enough force to go through a wall would be a lot more sore than they were portrayed to be. Also, Nanny goats + Billy goats does not equal women + men, so the stripper music when Fred is with the nannies is a bit.... strange.
Mr. Olsen bullies Mrs. Olsen into behaving like a human being: NO (The goat does bully her, just not into acting like a human being)
Carrie can't act: YES (sorry, Lidnsay Sidney Greenbush, but saying 'I.... LIKE.... Fred...' when you are supposed to be talking normally is just plain not-acting.)-:. )

All the people who got butted:
Luke
Pa
Mrs. Olsen (HA HA HA)
Mr. Edwards
Doc Baker
Rev. Alden
Jenks (tackled)

Quote of the Episode:
"That was quite a fiery sermon the reverend gave. I thought he was going to preach on 'love all creatures, great and small'" ~Ma.

My personal feelings about this episode:
One of the. Funniest. Episodes. Ever. I seriously love this one. I am only dissapointed that the goat didn't trample Mrs. Olsen after butting her. That would have made this my favorite episode by far.