Laconic update

Hi.

I am home.

I am also dead tired from an insane day of traveling on Friday.

Plus a light case of the flu.

Hence the lack of posts.

But! I have been creative today and tomorrow you shall see the results. So. Stay tuned...

Rings and Engagements and Weddings, OH MY!

Remember how I mentioned earlier this week that my brother's girlfriend was one of our travel party down here on the island? Well my brother took advantage of a beautiful beach sunset on Tuesday to propose to her. And now one of my best friends from high school is going to become my sister sometime next summer.

And we've got a wedding to plan!

We girls hurried over to the library first thing yesterday morning (okay, not first thing and it wasn't morning but you get the idea) and checked out half a dozen books on weddings. Then we spent a couple hours pouring over them and the bride-to-be started a notebook full of thoughts, ideas and reminders.

I love weddings. I'm a die-hard romantic and I've organized some pretty complicated things before. However it wasn't until yesterday that I really understood how many details are involved in wedding planning! It's a big enough task that I'm actually a little bit relieved that I'm not the first bride in my generation (although I'm the oldest) and I'll be able to go through the process as a helper at least once before having to deal with being the centerpiece of the operation.

It's going to be awesome though. And a whole new kind of adventure...

Magneto is in Jane Eyre.

No, it's not a crazy mash-up. It's just that Michael Fassbender who is playing Magneto in X-Men: First Class is also starring as Mr. Rochester in the newest version of Jane Eyre. I just discovered this a few days ago and feel pretty silly for not figuring it all out earlier... I knew there was a reason I liked this guy!

Anyhow, you can read Fassbender's latest interview here, which covers both movies as well as several other interesting projects due to come out soon (including one that co-stars Viggo Mortensen and Kiera Knightley).

What else has he been in? Fans of 300 and Band of Brothers should recognize him as well. In fact, he met his X-Men co-star James McAvoy while filming Band of Brothers!

(Fassbender as Mr. Rochester)

It's the little things that count.

A vacation isn't about big fancy amazing things (that's a 'trip' or 'tour'). A vacation is about relaxing and enjoying the little things that bring joy and wonder into a day.

Last week I was walking along the beach, when suddenly a group of about ten rays came swimming by. They weren't huge -- just about 20 inches in wingspan at the most. I was amazed, as I've never seen them in the wild before. Then, as I kept walking, I realized that they weren't the only group. Hundreds of rays were swimming all along the coastline! It was amazing! When I talked to my grandpa later, he said that in the 30 years he's been coming down here he has never seen anything like this. I thought that was absolutely amazing.

My first week it was just me with my grandparents, but some extended family members had a nearby unit and I was able to spend a lot of time playing with my little cousin. We had a blast building sandcastles, drawing pictures and swimming in the pool. I feel so blessed to have been able to spend so much time with such a creative and sweet little boy!

My family and my brother's girlfriend joined us on Friday which has changed a lot of dynamics. On Saturday night all eight of us sat down to watch "The Swiss Family Robinson." It was one of our favorite live action films growing up, so it was really fun to watch all together. However it was also pretty funny to look at it through adult eyes, and notice some lines we'd never picked up on before! For instance, in the big end fight, little Francis says "Look! It's a man getting squashed!" We howled over that one.

Last year at this time I was attending a little church in the mountains of Virginia. This month I've been able to attend a little church on an island. It's been a really wonderful experience. Last night we had the founder of the International College of Prayer preach and that was fantastic. This week our sermon was on the meaning of faith and it was also very eye-opening.

Another highlight of the service was a baby dedication. Now I've been to a lot of baby dedications... but I've never seen a little guy as happy as this one was! He just wiggled his feet and smiled at the audience... so much laughter!

We also had a singer who was a very old little lady -- probably at least 80. When she came up I did a double take, wondering how she could possibly still have a decent voice at her age. Then she started singing and blew us all away with the power and sweetness of her voice! It's not unlikely that she had some history on stage or in opera, she was that good. And the most amazing thing was that not only did she sing three times for us, but she also sang for the early service as well!

I've been spending time with my sister and my brother's girlfriend, which has been nice. We all are pretty close and excited to hopefully be family some day. And it's nice to have other girls to go tanning with, or go out to breakfast with.

In fact, on Saturday my grandma treated all of us ladies to pedicures! It was my first time with such an experience and it was absolutely delightful! We had really nice beauticians and the ten of us chattered away like a scene from "Steel Magnolias."

I've been reading lot of Orson Scott Card down here. I absolutely love that man's writing. I finally finished all of his 'Ender' and 'Shadow' series and just love them...

I've also started a new writing project. It's been so long since I really crafted a new mythology that I've almost forgotten how much work there is to do! Especially with an ensemble cast when you have to figure out personality and backstories and physical appearance and motivations for all of them...

Do you ever feel that your writing is more about exploring your characters than about creating them? I sometimes feel that these are people that really exist, and I'm just uncovering who they really are.

The Earth is the Lord's...

The Earth is the Lord's...

There is something about being surrounded by nature that really makes me think about God. Down here I've been taking walks on the beach and I find myself contemplating the creative genius of our LORD.

Humans can be creative, but everything we do is an imitation, or inspired by something that already exists in creation. I tried to think of something that had no basis in the natural world, and I really couldn't come up with anything. Clothing, perhaps, but basic clothing is sort of a no-brainer to construct. I was making tunics out of sheets when I was five years old.

But music, paintings, computers, food... they are all expansions and variations on what already exists.

If a human existed in a black void, and had never seen earth, how would they manage to create anything? Without a basis, how could they build? I doubt we'd ever think of sand, or trees, or colors... I mean, can you invent a new color? It's something that simply cannot be done.

Art Round Up 3-4-11

I've been saving up several new drawings to share with all of you! (and they're not ALL X-men either)

First off are two sketches of Nightcrawler in motion. I have a new Marvel book on drawing, and in the section on action they have a series of Nightcrawler leaping. I'm replicating all five sketches (hopefully) to practice both action and character.

Next up is a sketch I did of a dress idea... the proportions didn't turn out quite right, but I got the idea of the dress down which was the whole point in the first place.
Next up is one I'm pretty proud of... Wolverine!
Then we have Cyclops looking very buff and awesome.
Then I did studies on the female face...
And the male face...
Here Mr. Fantastic poses for me to study male proportions.
And now a special treat... the Brier sisters! (From the SOTB film)

Marie Antoinette

I avoided this film for many years because of the content I'd heard about and the supposed historical inaccuracies. However it was at the library this week and I decided to check it out and give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised.

"Marie Antoinette" is a film that deals with the life of France's most famous queen from the day she left her home in Austria, until the morning she rode away from Versailles to her imprisonment in the Bastille.

It is not meant to be a historical epic, but rather a portrait of life in the 18th century French court. Rather than a drama that follows a tight three act plot, it acts more as a documentary, a focus that is helped by the very natural acting of the stars and the usage of the real locations at the Palace of Versailles.

As someone who has been to Versailles and the gardens there, it was astonishing to see the actual rooms used in the films. It was amazing and really added to the reality of the experience.

It's a beautiful film, filled with the beauty of the artificial (clothing, hair and food) and the natural (the gardens and scenes of Versailles). It shows the excess of Marie Antoinette and her people, but allows the viewer to make their own judgement.

The movie is rated PG-13 for a reason, but it is perfectly historically accurate. Marie Antoinette was publicly naked every day when her ladies dressed her, she and her husband did have some very public issues when it came to the consummation of their marriage, and she probably did have an affair with Count Fersen. That said, I feel all of these subjects were handled fairly appropriately and while they are not matters suitable for younger viewers, this is a movie that adults interested in history and beautiful film should be able to appreciate.