Howdy Ya’ll!

Last week’s post wasn’t my usually “happy” kind of post, I know. My dad was deploying, and I was going through that, and lots more. I was overwhelmed with stress from school work, to get chores done around my house, and spending every second with my dad. I just wanted to thank everyone who commented on my last post, he made it there safely and he has a phone in his room, so he can always call me … even when I’m in school, and he forgets about the time change!

Today, was my first official day of community service. No, I wasn’t arrested! But to graduate from my high school, you need to do this huge project, and that includes doing 20 hours of community service. I don’t have a job, and I don’t really know what I want to do later in life, I’m only 17. But I love animals, and I love taking care of them. So I decided to do my community service at this place on a military base, called The Pet Brigade. Basically what it is, it’s almost like a hotel, for pets. Especially now with the holidays just around the corner, people want to go back home, and visit family. Usually people don’t want to bring animals, or can’t, so you can take them to The Pet Brigade, there they will be walked, let out, feed, have their own little stall, get baths, etc.

It’s a great place!

Today being my first day, I woke up around 7:30, got dressed, ate breakfast (you know, the usual morning routine), and left my house at 8:30. I was pretty excited, besides the fact that I was half asleep, but I made it there on time, and everyone was very welcoming!

My first task, which started within seconds of me stepping into the door, was go outside, and pick up poop from over 30 dogs! Gross! I know. But it wasn’t to bad, it was freezing so I couldn’t smell the poop, the dogs were outside with me, so I wasn’t too lonely, and I was done within an hour and a half. After doing that I had to clean out the cat room, help customers, put dogs inside, and back outside, and tons more!

I got home around 2:30, which is only five and a half hours later, but I’m exhausted! Writing this, and watching Pretty Little Liars on T.V. is the first time I sat down, besides my drive home from work. I think my knees are broken! I had fun playing with all the dogs, and cats, but I’m glad I only have 15 hours left!

Lisa

I guess besides my Mum’s insane love of books being modelled for me for as long as I can remember; school was really the beginning of the seed being planted for my love of books.

My earliest memories are in primary school like in grade two, my teacher, Mrs Fuller, reading us Roald Dahl’s The BFG. Then onwards to Grade 3, with Roald Dahl again and James and the Giant Peach.  In 1991 grade 4 it was Fire in the Stone by Collin Thiele, and the first book to ever give me horrific nightmares, My Hiroshima by Junko Morimoto. Then the first and only book we ever read in school that Mum said no to, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (understandable when by this stage the nightmares were so bad I was asking her for medication to help me sleep, at age 9). I still cannot stomach the thought of re-reading those two particular books.

Outside of school I was reading The Baby-Sitters Club series by Anne M Martin, and The Gymnasts series by Elizabeth Levy, and apart from my brush with the books about Hiroshima, my reading material was generally free of world shattering unpleasantness.

Things cooled off a little after that as I changed schools and every teacher having a different way of teaching, not to mention the curriculum being as it was in the 1990’s; it wasn’t until grade 8 that we did any book studies. Reading for the hell of it wasn’t really the focus anymore.

The Wave by Todd Strasser, Came Back to show you I could fly by Robin Klein and Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr were the studies we did in the first 3 years of high school.

It had been years since I had voluntarily picked up a book by the time I’d finished my junior years at high school. I think mainly because having to analyze every little speck of information, character development and plot progression made the act of reading like eating a bowl of high fiber cereal without the aid of sugar, fruit or milk to wash it down or give it flavour. Anette Kurtis Klause was the author to rekindle my passion for reading outside of school with her novel The Silver Kiss.

From then I picked up some heavy hitters like Anne Rice and in the final years of high school we were able to choose about 10 books from the approved list and break them down into basic reviews.  Of the ten only two made an impact; Jean P Sasson’s Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, and Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Now my book case is full to the point of over flowing.  Most of them carry some sort of supernatural or romantic themes. Humor is also an almost necessity, life is too serious most of the time so when I am escaping into a book, I like to be able to have a giggle.

Reviewing for Burn Bright and Marianne’s other sites is nothing at all like doing the books studies in my teen years. Books for young adults today have surpassed the calibre of those in the 1990’s by a light year or two. The variety and quality is second to none, and I look forward to reading any review books that come my way.

Handmade Candles

Aunt Betty just rolled into the driveway unannounced… ARGH!!!!! She has a box of chocolates under her arm and an ‘I got you’ smile on her face. You’re trapped and you have no gift to give her… Or do you?

If you have the time to make and store a few sets of these really simple bees wax candles, you can thwart any uninvited, gift-bearing guest.

What you’ll need

~A few sheets of bees wax foundation (They come in all sorts of colours and sizes. You can cut them down to suit your needs)

~A few meters of candle wick

~A few lengths of ribbon

~A cutting board

~A ruler

~A sharp knife

~A pair of scissors

Method

1.      Cut the foundation sheet to the desired size

2.      Place the wick along the length of one side pressing it into the foundation gently

3.      Tightly roll the foundation over the wick at least 3 times

4.      Roll the foundation the rest of the way making sure you keep even pressure and the end that will become the bottom is quite straight

5.      Roll the candle over and over a few times to ensure it’s not going to unroll on you

6.      Trim the wick to about 3cm from the top of the candle

7.      Tie the candles firmly in lots of two or three with the ribbon, tying with a nice bow.

Take that Aunt Betty!

~The usual candle safety tips apply~

Hellloo? Is anyone still out there? I know I haven’t posted a Life with Lisa in a while, but someone has to be here!?

So things at home have been hard, the last two weeks or so. I haven’t even had time to study or do homework, I’ve been unbelievable busy!

I’ve never really talked about myself in this blogging world, until I started writing for Burn Bright and have “Life with Lisa”, where I can talk about whatever I want. Before this, my focus was books, and book reviews. That was the goal, I never considered talking about myself, I just never thought someone would want to read about a 17 year old girl’s life?

So not many people know I’m a military brat. My dad’s in the army, and has been even before I was born.

When we’re younger, your dad is your hero, he is always the one you look up to and look for, for protection. Watching movies, you’d think that not too many teenagers have good relationships with their parents, but my dad’s my best friend, I spend all day with him. I tell him anything and everything, he’s the one I come to when I have problems, need someone to talk to, and even when I’m just bored and want to hangout.

I love my mom, but I’ve never been as close to my mom as I have with my dad. That’s why, when he deployed (last Sunday) it was really hard on me. Not only did my dad leave, but also my best friend and my hero.

Since my brother is across the state, going to college, and my dad is deployed, the house is pretty quiet. The house feels empty.

But it was his choice to join the army, it was his choice to serve his country. And my family and I stand by him, no matter what he decides/chooses to do, simply because that’s what family does.

He’ll be back next November, and I’ll be praying for him every night until than.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, and my posts will be on time from now on.

Lisa

Hello there everyone! Phil’s back from the dead after mountains of work. I haven’t gone outside for so long I’m amazed the sun’s still there!

But enough of my senseless yapping, let’s get down to the juicy bits. I want to talk to you for a second about something that’s changed the way we do things in the 21st century. That’s right, our favorite little gizmo: The mp3 player.

This little guy’s been with us for around a decade now, and from the looks of it it’ll be around for another one. For those of you old enough to remember (keep the old man jokes to yourself :P) we used to carry Sony Walkmans and the eventual Discmans around whenever we wanted to listen to music. Heck, we had to get creative with the 8 track tapes to make a mix with our fav songs! Thank goodness that went by quickly. When the CD took over from the audio tape, mixing & matching your favourite playlist was a lot easier thanks to the CD burner. But with mp3 players around, you can put together a playlist in a few seconds without really that much effort. Be grateful you didn’t have to go through analog!

Now, mp3 players have been around long before the first iPod came out. Plenty of brands were available, but they lacked the sophistication & organization that Apple provided when that little white metal box came out back in 2001. With the first iPod you got iTunes, the biggest digital audio distribution service in the world, 5 gigs of space(back then that was huge) AND awesome sound quality to boot!

As I’ve said before, your choices are not limited. You never are with tech. So now I’m going to mention a few other choices:

Zune – This little guy was the brainchild of Microsoft. They wanted to come up with something that could compete with Apple, and to be perfectly honest, it had a fighting chance. I still have one of the original ones, and although bulky and not very good battery wise, the Zune music service & amazing sound quality make up for its shortcomings. What I liked the most out of the music service was that instead of paying per song like you did on iTunes, you paid a monthly subscription and you could download whatever songs you wanted at no extra cost!

Unfortunately, despite being very good quality devices, the Zune never sold well. As a consequence Microsoft has discontinued production of all the Zune models.

Sansa – This is the model from SanDisk. This company is well known in the memory chip/flash drive market. It’s a basic, low priced music player with decent sound quality. Good value if you’re on a tight budget.

iRiver – Although not related to Apple, this one’s been on the market for as long as the iPod’s been around. Be sure to check these out if you’re player shopping.

Archos – These guys are now in the tablet business, but you can still pick up a very good mp3/mp4 player that also supports HD. Again, good value for your money.

So what do you think about these guys? They do much more than just play music, they’ve become powerful little pocket computers. I never leave home without mine, and feel as if I were naked if I did!

Please leave your comments below and don ‘t forget to follow me on Twitter and check out my personal blog! Ta ta for now!

Phil