Corner View~Rain

 I didn't take these. I'm not that good of a photographer! (But hey, let me off the hook, I don't have my own camera!) When I get my own camera, I hope I can take great pictures too!

 

Taekwondo Update

One of the first posts I ever wrote was about Taekwondo. It's been about a year and a half since we started doing it. (Although we travel in the summer every year so I guess you could say we've been doing it for a year.) What is Taekwondo, you ask? It's the perfect sport that exercises the body and the mind. Or for you simpler folk, it's a martial art. Me, my 14 year old sister, Skylar, and my 7 year old brother, Shawn, all do hour and a half classes twice a week. My sister and I have been high blue belts for a while. We're getting ready to test for red belt in a couple weeks. My little brother just tested for his low blue belt. Although I didn't get to watch because I was on a trip with mom. :( [Although :) for the trip with mom.]
I was just practicing this morning. There are techniques and forms and Korean language. And the necessary knowledge keeps expanding for every belt. The belt order goes like this: White, yellow, orange, purple, green, blue, red, brown, candidate, black. Then there's black with up to nine stripes. And there are so much requirements for each stripe, that it counts as it's own belt. My main instructor/master, a black belt with six stripes, and her husband (yeah, that's right! She's a girl! girls rule!) run the dojang (translation: training hall). They're strict enough but hardly strict at all, compared to a lot of martial art teachers. In fact, they're super nice and not strict compared to anybody. With them in my life, I'm sure to achieve my black belt.

Corner View~Anything Goes

This is a great day to do anything goes because I just did a play tonight (definitely something worth writing about). It was called "Ernie's Incredible Illucinations" by Alan Ayckbourn.  It is a story about a boy who imagines things and they come true.  He goes with his parents to the doctor to get a diagnosis and tells him some very weird examples, which we had to act out.  Finally, to prove to the doctor that this is real, Ernie makes the doctor get caught in an illucination himself. 

I wasn't a main character but I did have one major monologue. Here it is (and this is without looking at my script just to show I know it). (I'm playing a barker at a fair.)

"Just about to start ladies and gentlemen! A heavy-weight boxing bout, featuring the one and only unofficial challenger for the heavy-weight championship of the world, kid Saracen. The kid will be fighting this afternoon for the very first time. A demonstration contest against the new sensation from Seattle, Eddie, 'Grinder' Edwards. In addition ladies and gentlemen, the kid is offering a hundred dollars - yes - a hundred dollars to any challeger who manages to last three three-minute rounds."

I had some other parts too, though. I had a great time, and almost the whole cast went and got ice cream, afterward. I made some new friends, within the cast. It was really fun, and I hope I get to do another play soon.

I honestly don't really like fall very much. First of all where we live the leaves don't even fall so we don't get to jump in leaves or anything. Second of all, fall is when I go back to school. Not that I don't like learning or the school year, but it's hard to go from fun summer days to extreme homework issues. I mean I barely had time to write the corner view today 'cause I had to finish up a report. (So that's why I'm doing this late. It ain't my fault, I didn't ask for extreme homework!) But I guess in some places the fall is pretty. Here it's a little cooler in the morning and we get more clouds, but that's all.

Corner View~Famous

This summer we went to LA. We went to the walk of fame on Hollywood Blvd. I was really excited because I was going to see Michael Jackson's star and Julie Andrews' star. Julie Andrews is one of my favorite actresses. She has inspired me. Here is a picture of me next to her star. I hope I get to be an actress someday and have my own star!

Corner View~Pondering

I like to think. A lot. I'm a big thinker so this is a good topic for me. I think about bad stuff. Everyone does. It's human nature. But I also think about good stuff.

Honestly, what's on my mind half the time is fun stuff like Pokemon and video games, because I'm a kid.

Kids should be kids. And most kids' lives are all about fun.

 But sometimes I go into creative spurts, and get new ideas for a new book. Or just for the book I'm writing. I think about my acting career, and where my life is taking me. I think about the people suffering in India and Africa, and all the cruelty in the world and it makes me sad. I think about all of the universe's mysteries and what is the meaning of life. Are we all just an illusion? God's dream? If so, do any of our desires even matter? I think in bed a lot. I'm not a person who falls asleep quickly.
Thinking is a beautiful thing. You can imagine anything you want. Anything in the world. There's no law against it. You are free, in your mind. That is, if you know how to control it. My dad tells me that your mind can be your friend or your enemy. Your servant, or your boss. Your mind can drive you crazy, or it can turn you into a spiritual master. My mind is not very controlled yet. I have a weird fear, and sometimes, when I start to think, Oh, this fear is about to come true, my mind makes me more and more worried, until I start to believe it. But then, if I get distracted, I start to feel fine, and I realize it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I hope your mind is your servant.

Corner View~Holiday Part 3

Here's part 1, and 2 for those of you who have not read them.
We also went to Future World, which is like the Disney Land of France, but for my last entry of this corner view, I'm going to focus on Venice.
When we arrived, I was in shock. It was so beautiful. So un-polluted. There were no cars. Not one. There were plenty of boats, and we took a taxi boat to our hotel. We settled in. The next few days were a blur. I remember walking everywhere. Going to little far away towns to buy little home made glass knickknacks for a high, tourist rip-off price. (But hey, we were tourist's!) Half the time, we spent eating, or-at least, I wish we had! We would go to a restaurant every night. There was the best spaghetti I ever tasted. There was lasagna, with hardly any marinara sauce, so it was like cheesy pasta. There was buttered spinach and
raw salmon (which my dad said was great, but I did not try. I could keep on going, but I might flood your house by making your mouth water so much.
So bye, bye until tomorrow when there's corner view again!