Belle's View

This is a REALLY old blog

2008-12-21T15:08:00.003-05:00

I stopped blogging here a looooooong time ago. I now blog at I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. which I invite you to check out!

Peace,
Idzie

What's new

2007-05-15T12:32:00.000-04:00

Wow. Long time, no post. I'm in a bit of a writing mood right now, I was woken up early this morning by a phone call from the editor of a magazine that I write for. The printing of the first run had been stopped because my book reviews were not coming out properly. The solution: shorten it by a third. Yikes!! I finally re-wrote one of the reviews completely, bringing it from 300 words down to 170... Anyway, it all turned out fine, in the end. I'm kind of tired, though, from only getting 5 1/2 hours sleep last night... Anyway, moving on.

I'm reading a very interesting book right now, and it's very unusual for me since it's not a novel. Gasp! Anyway, it's called Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. It's by an investigative journalist named Jeremy Scahill, and it's absolutely fascinating. Does anyone remember the four "civilians" killed in Iraq in March 2004? The ones who were shot, their bodies burned and mutilated then hung from a bridge? Well, those were no civilians. They were highly trained fighters, but they weren't from the American military either. They were Blackwater mercenaries, hired by the US. This book tells the story of Blackwater's rise to power, it's ties to the Republican government, and the increasing privatization of the American fighting force. It's awful that the stuff in this book is fact, but fascinating to read about...

Well, I can't think of anything else to write about right now, so I'll finish with the songs I'm currently listening to.

Songs I Am Currently Listening to: U + Ur Hand by Pink
Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes
Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne
Note: In case you hadn't guessed, I've discovered my local top 40 station... :D

Quotes of the Day (in honour of this morning's adventure's in writing...): "Good writing is rewriting." Truman Capote
"The six golden rules of writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write." Ernest Gaines

The untimely death of poetry and the sheltering of teens

2007-05-04T13:31:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one to be really annoyed that schools are killing poetry? Students are made to dissect a poem, tear it in pieces and identify all the different bits. I don't think people should dissecting anything in schools, whether it be frogs in science class or poetry in English class. The thing that annoys me most, however, about the murder of poetry, is when a teacher wants to know "what the poet was thinking" when he wrote the poem. And actually expects there to be one "right" answer. How the h**l does anyone know what was going through the poets mind when he wrote the poem?! Sorry, enough on that rant. That's just been annoying me lately. I mean really, if someone tried to tell me what I was thinking when I wrote MY poems, I'd be pretty pissed...

As I'm still in a ranting frame of mind, I'll continue on with my feelings on the "sheltering" of teens. It's not so bad with kids who go to school, (although there is still the mentality of "oh no, don't teach them that, they're too young") but for homeschooled kids-my god. Never mind, that's not really fair. For many FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN homeschoolers it's like that. All books are pre-read, and are vetoed if they contain: "gratuitous sex"; too much sibling rivalry, or really, to much rivalry of any type; anything to do with the supernatural; anything even remotely to do with Wiccans or modern day witches; depending on the person, any fantasy at all; again, depending on the person, anything that talks about evolution as fact. Often these kids have limited or no access to TV (now that one probably isn't that harmful...), and whose friends are all homeschoolers with similar values. I feel bad for some kids I know because I don't know what they're going to do when they go to university or whatever, and find out that the real world is rife with gratuitous sex, drugs, alcohol and evolution. Now, please don't get the wrong idea about homeschoolers. Most of us are "normal" kids, who hang out with friends (both homeschooled and not), go to the movies ect. The only difference for most homeschoolers is that we have no homework, all of our work is done at home! I don't really mean to be mean to Christian homeschoolers, either. I guess if they choose to live ther life that way, well, it's their choice. I just read an article yesterday that was written by a Christian homeschooler, and she was saying all the books that she didn't recomend because... And it kind of annoyed me. I'm just a big advocate for free speech, whether you're 15 or 50...

Reccomended books: The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci and What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci

Variety show cooler than expected...

2007-04-29T18:47:00.000-04:00

The variety show was awesome!! A lot cooler then expected. The first act was a computer presentation. It was really funny! The second was my band, and we did better then we have in a while! There was also a modern dance, which was really well done even though someone dropped out (the guy we were looking forward to making fun of... Sigh) at the last minute. There was a different guy who thinks a lot of himself doing the dance, though, so I made fun of him instead. :D There was a magic show, that was very well done, and two different rock bands. The first band was made up of older guys, 17-19, and they did pretty good. They were, however, completely eclipsed by the closing act, a rockband called the Shackles Of Chaos, which was made up of 13 year old guys. They played Crazy Train, Thunderstruck, and Sweet Home Alabama (accompanied by a singer for SHA). They had strobe lights and smoke machines, so they looked cool, and they sounded awesome! An all around fun night.

Quote of the day: " Most people get into bands for three very simple rock and roll reasons: to get laid, to get fame, and to get rich." BOB GELDOF

Random quote heard today: "All cats are cute, exept for the ugly ones." AC

Variety show and Rock music

2007-04-27T14:46:00.000-04:00

Tonight there's a variety show that I'm going to. It will include, among other things; A rock band made up of several 13yr old guys playing Crazy Train and similar; A couple of girls doing a modern dance with this popular guy who's a real jock, so everyone's looking forward to laughing at him; The marching band I belong to playing Louie, Louie, and My Heart Will Go On. Everyone but the percussion section is playing MHWGO, because the drums have no part in that song. Really fair. A couple of people will probably do the other normal variety show stuff. Stupid comedy and bad singing. Hopefully it will be fun laughing at them!:D

Song of the day: Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani. I cannot get that stupid song out of my head!

Today I'm listening to my Great Old Rock playlist, which can be found at the bottom of this page.

Random Quote of the day: "You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long" Boris Yeltsin

Currently reading/listening to...

2007-04-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted so I figured I should... First off I have to tell you that the reson it has been so long since I posted is that the weather has been absolutely beautiful! Everyone has been outside this past weekend dressed in tank tops and shorts, picnicing and swinging. It was awesome! But then it started to rain again. So anyway, since it is gray today I will tell you about the books that I am currently reading (yes there are several!) they are: Victoria and the Rogue, which is a garbagy historical teen romance that I will probably not finish; While I Live, the 8th book in a series by John Marsdon (am I spelling that right?), in which Australia is invaded by an unknown enemy. The series centers around Ellie and several of her friends, who turn into guerilla fighters after the invasion. I enjoyed them, but I would not reccomend reading them in a row, because after a whoile they do get tiresome...; I'm also reading a book called The Droughtlander's, by Carrie Mac, an extremely depressing futuristic novel, in which a small portion of the Earth's population decided that the Earth was overcrowded and that they were superior, so they killed off 92 percent of Earth's population. They then built themselves walled cities were they lived in luxery, and named themselves Keylanders. The remaining population, the Droughtlanders was left outside of the walls, barely surviving and rife with dozens of diseases. Light reading, eh? Anyway, now you understand why I started reading Victoria and the Rogue...

The music I am currently listening to is me and my sister's Perfect Party Playlist, which can be found on the sidebar of this page.

2007-04-17T14:19:00.000-04:00

Amazingly, the flash of insperation did hit me for that lesson plan, and my class went really well! I was surprised to find that it was actually FUN teaching. Next year I get to teach a whole class of level 1 or 2's for a full half hour, so I'll see if it's still fun then! I also managed to miss getting inspected (yes!!!) and I got yet more advice on my boots that refuse to get shiny. To be honest, I'd rather throw them out the window than try to polish them yet again, but since the advice came from a Warrant Officer (very high rank) it's probably a good idea to follow it...

In other news, the weather is depressing were I live. It is cold, and gray, and earlier in the week it snowed! In APRIL! Some non Canadian citizens may think that we are the great white north, but snow in April is NOT normal. I want to wear tank tops and shorts, and laze around listening to Bryan Adams on the front steps... I want to go to the cottage and swim in the lake... I want to get a tan and eat barbecued food... AND IT'S SNOWING!!! Sigh.

Well, I should probably go study for my driving learners permit, but I'd much rather start a new novel. I want escape from snow, to just curl up in a chair and read about summer heat... Aww well, I can study some other time.

My song of the day: Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams

Lesson plan blues...

2007-04-14T16:27:00.000-04:00

In Air Cadets, we learn many things. Some things that are completely useless, and some things that really are great life skills. One of the useful skills, in my view, is teaching. Useful, but not necessaraly enjoyable. In my level we have to prepare a 15 minute lesson and teach it to the rest of my class. The subject I am teaching (not by choice) is Observing All Rules And Procedures For Adressing An Officer And An NCO. Fun. In layman's terms that means when to salute (or not salute), who to call sir or ma'am, ect. And I'm supposed to come up with something vaugely interesting that takes up 15 minute! I've hardly worked on it and it's due in a few days, so I'd better get cracking soon... For now I'm going to go get a snack and hope a flash of insperation hits me... :D

Faeries

2007-04-12T12:44:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge fan of anything and everything to do with the world of Faerie. I'm planning on visiting Ireland someday, seeing all the old celtic ruins, the old cities and castles... Ireland and faeries are so entwined in folklore that I find it hard to think of one without the other, thus my interest in visiting Ireland. :D Here are a few books, and poems, that might be of interest to fellow faerie, fairy or faery fans...

Books:
Tithe by Holly Black (look out for the sequel coming out the end of April!)
Blue Girl by Charles De Lint
Finder by Emma Bull (as well as other books/short stories set in the "borderlands" note: the Borderlands stories are written by numerous authors, not just Emma Bull)

Based on the Ballad of Tam Lin (which is Scotish, I'm afraid):
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

Poems:
The Stolen Child by W. B. Yeats (one of my all time favorite poems! "Come away O human child, to the woods and waters wild...")
The Fairies by William Allingham

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Also of interest is the music of Loreena McKennit. She has a beautiful, haunting voice, and has actually put one or two poems about faerie to music (eg. The Stolen Child). My favorite songs by her are All Souls Night and The Mummer's Dance.

A short Introduction

2007-04-11T19:04:00.000-04:00

So... Where to start? I decided I would like to have my own blog simply because sometimes I just want to write. About anything and everything. Current events, favorite music both new and old, favorite books... Besides, I think I might want to be a published author someday, and all of my favorite authors say you should write every single day. Now, I'm not planning on posting every day or anything, but now I should at least be writing more frequently... :D I guess I should give a brief intro, so here goes.

I live in Canada (I'm a canuck through and through!)
I'm Homeschooled
I love reading novels (some of my favorite authors include Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones to name just a couple...)
I love photography, both looking at other people's photo's and taking my own
My favorite genre of music is classic rock, although lately I have actually listened to a few hip-hop songs, by choice!
I like to keep track of current events, even if the first place I go to when I get the newspaper is the comics... :D

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll manage to get some more posts out soon...