HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I haven't been on in a while, but I have been reading elsewhere. I would, though, like to say a special birthday greeting.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Valance!

You are more loved than you can ever know. many people go to the porch regularly to rest, catch up, and get away from the norms of life. For that, I thank you. You are always posting things that bring a smile to my face and lighten my day. Thanks for everything, friend!

The "Not-So-Irresistibly Sweet Blogger" lol

 Well, I would like to thank Mr. Valance so much for this apparent honor. Although some people may not think I am deserving (shutup, sis) I have hereby been awarded the:

Well, rules are rules, and nothing in life is ever totally free, right? Now, 7 things most people don't know about me:

1. I'm a pretty decent photographer, even though I don't always enjoy it. Some people have tried to take advantage of the fact that I'm always really nice when I take pictures for them, and that's not cool :(

2. Over the last summer, I donated 13 inches to Locks of Love. My hair is still fairly short, and it annoys me because I can't feel my braid on my back, and I can't see it when I throw it over my shoulder.

3. You can tell from my profile picture that I like archery, but did you know that I don't like to hunt? Yep, it's true. I'm one of the few Okies who just doesn't care for it.

4. I LOVE Country music! My FAVORITE artist is Dwight Yoakam! He's such a cutie pie :)

Once again, an older picture, but, who cares? Hee hee...

5. I am a published author (and, no, I'm not talking about this blog). I have had 3 poems and 1 essay published in National Anthologies (and that was while I was in high school!)

6. I like crafts, mostly working with leather, weaving, cross-stitch, and drawing. In high school, people LOVED the dreamcatchers and cowboy boots. I made them with people's initials, their favorite flower, sometimes even the emblem for their club! (like the one I did for 4-H)

7. I am a student of Native American Culture. I have a major in History, and my emphasis will be on Native culture. I also have a minor in Choctaw Language and Culture.

I know that there's no juicy gossip in there about me y'all can spread around and talk about, but I have always tried to delve into my studies, so this is what you get. If you want to know anything else, just ask! I'll do my best to give you a straight-forward answer that you're looking for. Until next time, have a nice day! (Oh! and, about those concert pictures, they'll be up soon enough :D Just have to finish cleaning off the home keyboard. Don't know how all that drool got on there! lol )

Life is AMAZING!!!

My BIGGEST DREAM EVER has come true! On Saturday, January 28, 2012, I get to go to Billy Bob's in Ft.Worth, TX, to see DWIGHT YOAKAM!!!!!! I am SUPER excited! Anyone who has looked at my channel on YouTube knows that I LOVE translating the sign language to his songs because of all the emotion. Well, of course there are other reasons I want to go. I mean, LOOK at him!

Ok, I cheated. That's a picture from the 80s. Here's a more recent one:

Ok, so that's more than 1, but, I can't help it! He's SO amazing! Can you believe he's 56?????? I almost can't sometimes, especially since his tour schedule is more like that of a 30-year-old! So, if there's no activity from me for a while, then you'll know that I'm recovering from the AWESOMENESS that IS Dwight Yoakam!

Imagine!

So, I was writing an essay for my Comp 2 class over Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail". The entire time I wrote it, I had the song "Imagine" stuck in my head. After I finished typing the essay, I got up and devoted about an hour to translating the song into ASL (American Sign Language), shooting the video, and then editing it. More videos should come when I find more time. Remember, no on has to do EVERYTHING, but everyone has to do SOMETHING. What's your GREEN DOT?

Imagine in ASL

I drifted!!!

So, I was watching Bonanza a lot for a while, because they had been playing mainly episodes that I had not seen yet. That got shot all to pieces when I was searching on netflix, and saw that they had Quantum Leap available to watch on the "instant queue". My mother introduced me to this show when I was about 15. The last season aired when I was almost a year old, so I am having to watch it in reruns, which is ok, because it's a great show (like Bonanza). For anyone who may not know, This show follws Dr. Sam Beckett (played by Scott Bakula), a quantum physicist, who has developed a project called Quantum Leap. The government forced him to prove that it worked, so he stepped into the accelerator. It allowed him to leap back in time within his lifetime. He leaps into other people's lives, takes their place, and make right whatever has gone wrong. He stepped in before the project was complete, so his friends in the future weren't able to retrieve him from the past. His first leap gave him what they refer to as a "swiss-cheesed brain" (amnesia), but contact with his own time was maintained with Admiral Albert (Al) Calavicci (played by Dean Stockwell), the project observer, who appears as a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. Throughout the series' 5 season run, Sam kept leaping around in time, trying to find a way to get home. He leaped into Elvis, Marylin Monroe's bodyguard, 9 women, a chimp, and many other people. He helped Stephen King get the idea for his first novel, helped Buddy Holly write the lyrics to "Peggy Sue", and even taught a young Michael Jackson how to dance!

This is a very good show. It teaches many lessons, and has a lot of laughs (most of which come from Al). One of the best things is probably that Sam leaps into a lot of situations that are hard to handle, since he was a child prodigy who finished 4 years of school at MIT in only 2 years, and graduated at 16. There are a lot of things that he had never done or experienced, so that's where Al, Veitnam veteran with a leacherous mind, comes in. If you've never seen this show, it is worth watching.

On a different note, today was my birthday! Yay, born on the same day as Brittany Spears (WHATEVER!!!). Sometimes I wish I was born on Oct. 23 (Dwight Yoakam's b-day), Dec. 12 (Frank Sinatra's b-day), May 18 (Pernell Robert's b-day), or even Mar. 5 (Dean Stockwell's b-day).  Oh, well, now I'm just waiting to go home so I can have some good cake made by my mom! Merry Christmas everyone, just in case I don't get to get online for a while.

Quick Little Poem

I have had 3 poems published so far, and here is the latest. Tell me what you think about it.

Dancing with the Ancestors

As I lay sleeping one spring night,
I start to have dreams of ghosts and sprites.
They all appear to me as dancers and singers
And they are sending messages that are real hum-dingers.
One is wearing an Apache Ghan mask, while another’s in Cherokee attire,
And they speak in strange tongues, making me feel like the “fifth tire”.
I don’t understand their babbling that continues to go on,
When, suddenly, they stop, like they have forgotten their song.
I ask, “What is wrong? Why have you stopped?”
They start to fade, but one steps forward and says in English that’s chopped,
“We are the messengers of the Great Spirit, and we have something for you.”
He continues to go on as I’m wondering what I could do.
“The People are evil, and do only wrong, but we think that you can assist.”
I ask what I could do, and He says, “Just listen to the Mist.
We shall give you the words to set the People free from sin,
But you must be strong and never give in.”
As I’m standing there, with questions running through my mind,
They all fade out, and the scene begins to unwind.
I look all around me, and see just one rod,
And later I realize that the spirits gave it to me to prove that I talked to God.

Howdy!

Well, this is my first official post here. They'll get better as I go, but, for right now, I'm learning how it all works. I may post some opinion based things now and again, but know that I mean no disrespect or offense toward ANYONE. I will respect everyone who views this blog, and I would like for them to, in turn, respect others on here as well. I heard a Native American story once (sorry I can't remember what tribe it's from now), and it went something like this:

Once, the wife of a brave warrior was out picking berries with her children. While out in the woods, one of the children stumbled upon a snake. The mother was so scared for her child's life, that she killed the snake. When her husband came home, she told him what she had done. He was very upset because, by killing a member of the Rattlesnake Clan, she had upset the balance in nature, and he knew they would seek revenge. And they did. In the middle of the night, several people from the Rattlesnake Clan came to the warrior's lodge, and made a deal with him. They would bear no ill will toward him or his children, so long as he allowed them to kill the warrior's wife for her actions.

Well, one things leads to another, and, in the end, the snakes do kill the woman to make the balance equal again. It won't be THAT violent here, but remember, "If you can't play nice here, go somewhere else!"

Have fun, and let me know if you want to know my opinion about something.