Focus

((www.kismint.blogspot.com))

I think we learn from experience.

We learn to be positive by experiencing negativity. We learn to win by experiencing losses. We learn to intimidate by experiencing fear.

Every day we grow up a little more, and find that there is more of us to discover. I learn new things everyday. Precious things. Valuable things. Things that make me me.

I'm just a small brain with a little voice, rambling on with non obtrusive mannerisms.

When you were little you observed, and then acted. Now that you are big you act once and then act again. Only the second time you recalculate yourself based off of your previous failures associated with the first action. At least, that's what I do sometimes. I forget to observe. And that can mean all the difference.

Life lessons are fun, aren't they?

I'm also a very sarcastic sort of soul.

When I do observe, I learn more than mere actions could have taught me. When I take a breather and give myself time to think, I am refreshed. I have the notion that the world itself could be refreshed if only it took time to simply let time go by.
Yes, I understand that time has value, but I also understand that taking time off has value too.

And that is what I have learned.

Also, I am learning to focus on this:

³ His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
¹⁰ Therefore, my brothers and sisters,^[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, ¹¹ and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
  ((from 2 Peter, Chapter 1))

Silence Is An Explosion

I bought a ticket to the symphony last night
I brought my wallet with my subway pass inside
And when I went into the underground
I didn't see the strangers all around
me

I sat there thinking
About how I never take the time of day
To say hello to the strangers
Or listen to their stories

And so in the car I peered
Beneath the ground
We passed another train
Without a sound
And I watched as it caught on fire

Silence is an explosion
Silence is an implosion
of space
Silence in an explosion
Silence is an implosion
of faith

I saw her face in the window
She caught my eye
and smiled
A stranger waved
And for a while
I smiled back
Then watched her burn

I watched the world burn before my
eyes

I bought a ticket to the symphony last night
I brought my wallet with the subway pass inside

But I didn't know
I hadn't heard
I hadn't seen
A subway burn
The way it did
Yesterday night
And when it did
I burned inside.

Silence is an explosion
Silence is an implosion
of space
Silence is an explosion
Silence is an implosion
of faith

((words property of kismint plinkadink))

((photo via pinterest))

Feeling incredibly profound now.
Goodnight.

Love of mine...

         if heaven and hell decide
   that they both are satisfied
       illuminate their "no"s
          on their vacancy signs
       if there's no one besides you
  when your soul embarks
       then i'll follow you into the dark

                               i'll follow you into the dark.
                                               
                                                                    ((death cab for cutie: "i'll follow you into the dark"))

~ ~ ~ 

It rained today. The drought is over.
  ---but seriously, it hasn't rained since November.

 It's funny how things aren't very important to you until they're taken away. You'll never actually know how much someone meant to you until they leave. If it rained every day I wouldn't spend my time gushing about the water droplets lounging on my window panes. But it doesn't rain every day and when it does I feel special and think especially hard and feel especially deep.

That's all.

  Kismint

On The Inconsistencies of Postal Service

You'll be the end of me.
I'll be the end of I.
We'll be the final letters
---The last surviving kind.
Who echo bittersweet
The words of lovers
separated
By spanning of the seas.
Juliet was taken
Abducted by her pride.
To a land beyond the waves.
With tears in every tide.
And Romeo left weeping
Not bold enough was he
To sail the ship of longing
And take then to the sea.
Wherewith their pens of precious steel
Then inked upon my flesh
The "sorry for" and "soon I'll be"
Were sent to bridge the breadth.
Packaged in an envelope
Sealed with great ardour
Kissed with tender touch
Simple scratch I was no more.
For parchment is peculiar.
Plain and blank as snow.
But fell'd into the hands of scribes
A masterpiece we grow.
And so was I, sent from she
To her prince, 'cross the sea
And you was I,
I was you
The lady's reply
Making two.
Twins of scrawling lover's words
Of romance whispered,
Yet never heard.
Still, alive in ears of mankind's type
The softly language of hearts alike.
Alas for destination!
And weep now Mercury
For I did fail my mission
While yours fell incomplete.
The prince went fourth and sent you
By nature, inquiring words
And starving for her answer,
His love to madness turned.
He waited nights in anguish,
For want of a reply
To the letter he had sent her,
Now woe for him denied.
For on my way
From maiden's hands
A storm blew from the Westward lands
The cargo spilled
The crew, storm killed.
With deadly blow the ship did go.
Beneath the sun: we all have died
Beneath the stars: we lie in waves
Beneath the moon: we wave goodbye
For now we dwell in seaman's grave.

And I, the letter, am lost forever.

And so the prince found no reply
To his question
Who's answer was I.

~kismint

Journaling Juices. Because it's Alliteration.

Our good friend January is heading to an end, so it's time for another lifeity life update.

Except I blog about silly, meaningless goobledee goop that goes on in my brain. So life will be addressed in a very vague and smallish sort of way.

That's right people. It's another late night post, wherein I'm sleepy but my journaling juices have their eyes wide open.

Currently...

Listening to: House of Heroes. I'm trying to get into them, but have only breached their most recent album, Cold Hard Want. Also, the usual Death Cab for Cutie, T Swift, and such madness as that.

Writing about: Carbon Dioxide! Not much creative writing has been going on lately. Just lab write ups and essays. I'm really curious to see what my teacher though of my latest in timed essay I turned in. I kinda enjoy getting a prompt and being told to wing it. The heated scribbling of the #2 pencil is somewhat invigorating to my young writerly brain.

Taking pictures of: Sunsets. My friends. Also toilet paper.

Reading: ...well, I'm supposed to be done with Mark Twain's Humorous Sketches and Stories and have started Up from Slavery (forgot author's name...sorry) for history. But not so! Alas, reading is still as slow and stuck as ever. It's not that I don't enjoy Mark Twain (or anyone's writing, for that matter)...it's just that there's more interesting things to do in the eyes of someone so easily distracted as I.

Watching: Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoons---for the billionth time again. Cartoons with great plot progression and artistry! Who can ask for more? Recently watched Captain Phillips, as it has become available via RedBox. Tom Hanks is my hero. Have you seen the movie? What did you think?? ((those filmy production people are mad geniusessss!!)) Also a lot of youtube, including Rhett and Link's Good Mythical Morning (yeah baby!) and miscellaneous music videos that make me really wish I were a part of a band.

Drawing: Nothing lately. Except I'm supposed to draw some pictures to go along with my lab report I'm handing in for tomorrow. Although I got to draw illustrations to a group presentation about Carl the Carbon Molecule. It's kind of sad when bio class becomes your only doodling interval.

Composing: Broken guitar songs! My old guitar with only three strings left has been serving me well. I finally decided on some lyrics for a few of my short and sorryish compositions. I can safely assure you that it sounds much better to me than anyone listening. ;) Also, I was listening to some chiptune genre songs yesterday and I suddenly had a peak of music mixing inspiration. Maybe I'll be revisiting my soundcloud account in the near future.

Feeling: Positive but deep. Does that make sense? I'm thinking hard and I'm thinking deep. But I'm thinking positively too. Thinking becomes feeling for me.

Wanting to: Be more productive. I keep imagining the strange fantasy that I'm wasting too much time on pinterest. What an odd idea.

Waiting for: Rain. Sounds so silly, especially to all you who are getting snowed in. But it's really dry and I'd love a day of rain. Each morning I've been looking up at our sparse cloud cover (just enough to trap in the smog) and mentally shaking my first at it. Precipitation doth inspire me so.

Enjoying: Apples and peanut butter. Sleeping in. Friends who tease me. Wifi connection. 


Cheerio dear friends,
K-Minty

Popsicles

The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event affecting parts of Canada and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains,^[5] extending as far south as Central Florida,^[6] and Northeastern Mexico
 ...
Both the Midwestern United States and most of Canada had temperatures colder than the North Pole, which had a low of −20 °F (−29 °C), and the South Pole, which had a morning low of −6 °F (−21 °C).
 ...
Heavy snowfall or rainfall occurred on the leading edge of the weather pattern, which travelled all the way from the American Plains and Canadian prairie provinces to the East Coast.  
 ...
 New Jersey had over 10 inches (250 mm) of snow, and schools and government offices closed.^[35]
 ...
The extreme cold weather grounded thousands of flights and seriously affected other forms of transport. Many power companies in the affected areas asked their customers to conserve electricity.
 ...
Several Ontario locations along Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Valley experienced cryoseisms or frost quakes.^[46]
 ...
 Three Amtrak trains were stranded overnight on January 6, approximately 80 miles (130 km) west of Chicago, near Mendota, Illinois, due to ice and snowdrifts on the tracks. The 500 passengers were loaded onto buses the next morning for the rest of the trip to Chicago.
 ^...
 Cold air rushing into the Gulf of Mexico behind the front created a Tehuano wind event, with northerly winds from the Bay of Campeche to the Gulf of Tehuantepec in Mexico reaching 41 kn (76 km/h; 47 mph).^[47] Saltillo, in the North-East of the country, registered freezing drizzle and a minimum of −6 °C (21 °F).^[48]
 ...
  During the cold wave, the strain on the power supply left 1,200 customers in Nashville without power, along with around 7,500 customers in Blount County.^[38][60] The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency declared a state of emergency.^[38]
 ...
 In Ohio, schools across the entire state were closed on January 6 and 7, including the state's largest two school districts, Columbus City Schools and Cleveland Metropolitan School District.^[74] The Ohio State University completely shut down on January 6 and 7, delaying the start of the spring semester by two days for the first closure on two consecutive days in 36 years.^[75]
 ...
In Indiana, more than fifty of the state's ninety-two counties, including virtually everywhere north of Indianapolis, closed all roads to all traffic except emergency vehicles. ^[70] 

 {{from Wikipedia's 2014 North American Cold Wave page}}

 ^{...Gosh guys, it's so freezing cold here that I have to put my sweater on my head so that my face doesn't get sunburned. Brrrr, the horror.} 

^{Not wanting to complain, but I'm feeling a little left out.}

Experiments in Color

Whenever I feel like doodling, I typically pick up a piece of scrap paper and a mechanical pencil. Black and white suits me just fine, and I've found that sometimes color can end up taking away from the finish product instead of adding to it. These examples are my exceptions. 

Left: A watercolor/sharpie doodle that I was working on back in August. All of the pictures in this post were taken this evening with my little Fujifilm camera, not scanned in. Because of this, the white balance is *gasp* terrible, therefore, 99% of what appears to be an off-white yellow in actually just plain old white. That said, I think this particular picture looks better on screen then in real life. I just used one of those cheapy snap-open kindergarten watercolor sets that Crayola sells for 99 cents. With that in mind (and with the help of my handy dandy sharpie shading pen), it's really not a  bad little freehand job. 

I was only just realizing how suspiciously similar this drawing/painting is to the other butterflies-emerging-from-jar sketch that I completed (and is currently hosted on my sidebar --->>). 

Center: 

This is an why I sometimes avoid using much color. -_-

I drew this out two nights ago referencing a picture I had found on pinterest. It was a quick, just for fun piece---the kind I like to do before going to bed or when I have some extra time to chill. The weird (and rather repulsive) orange and green and pink that I chose to use could probably be justified when I tell you that all I had to work with was a handful of randomly selected colored pencils. I'm not a big fan or colored pencils. Mechanical pencils? ---yes. Colored pencils...not entirely so. Probably has to do with the fact that you can't erase properly with them. If that's the case, I'd rather use crayolas or sharpie pens. 

Nevertheless, I figured it was worth posting, even if only as a less-then-proud-of example.

 Right: 

Ooh, I'm rather proud of this one. 

It started out as a dingy freehand sketch of a butterfly with a green gel pen, and then morphed into a pen/watercolor/sharpie word art graphic. This was when I discovered that you can use water to blend really soppy gel pen ink. And that was exciting. Also worked a little more on the spatter and splash effect obtainable with watercolors (again, this was with one of those little fake, eight-color sets).

The words are, of course, borrowed from the Gungor song, Beautiful Things. 

I have a lot to learn when it comes to word art, hand lettering, and typography. I think it would be really cool to get better at that stuff...but it requires so much plotting out before putting pen to page. *cue wail of impatience*

 So waddya think?

But wait---I have one more. This one is a little different. 

Yes indeed, I was crazy enough to draw this particular masterpiece on what was once a roll of packing paper. Like the kind you might wrap up a package for the mail. Or, in my case, the kind this random thrift shop wrapped my new shirt in before bagging it. 

For most people, the crinkles might be a turn off.

And after attempting this, I totally understand that now. 

Nevertheless, I completed my crayola/sharpie masterpiece, and I suppose I can take pride in it's unique texture.

It was all freehand, and I had no references...or ideas about what I wanted the finished result to look like. I just started drawing flowers with a pink crayon, and then...*POOF* ---a fairy hiding from a fingerless gloved hand was born! 

Again, I'm usually squeamish about using so much color (especially such pastel pinks, purples, teals, and greens), but I shrugged down my hesitation and tried to slap as much on as I could stand. And I like it. Each mistake I made merely encouraged me to layer more and more color on it to cover it up. 

Unfortunately, the fairy dewd suffered especially hard in the layering of color phase. :/

---But it's alright, he made it. And with the help of my sharpie pen (again) the whole picture was brought into clearer definition. :)

 

 (Someday maybe I'll get my scanner to bend to my wishes so that I can have high-quality images of my work instead of silly looking photosnaps.)

 The end. 

Cheerio, 

K-Minty