Power Down

When I was nine, I started a blog. It was my dad's idea.

I wrote about my world, my life, my dog, and my opinions. I wasn't allowed to post pictures of myself or use my real name.

I spent hours designing and redesigning my pages, reading other blogs, and editing my own posts. I blame Blogspot for educating me in elementary English. I posted embarrassing poems and awkward brain drool--none of which I'm proud of, but plenty of which I now become nostalgic over.

I guess eventually I earned a following of 20 or so people. I don't really understand why. In my experience, blogs are most interesting when the author shares his or her exciting personal experiences, interesting insights, or holds a sparkling comedic flair.

Nope, nope, and nadda.


When I was fifteen, I stopped blogging. It slowly tapered off, like a tap drying up.

Real Life took over, and I found that I couldn't blog about Real Life in a way that felt genuine or comfortable. And, okay, I'm not going to lie--Real Life is usually pretty awesome.

But I didn't want to write about it. I couldn't.

And so my blog--this blog--has descended onward to an everlasting hiatus, void of ownership and vacant of use.


Now I'm nearly seventeen, and I finally remembered my username and password and hacked my way back into this account.

Oops.


And so much has happened. And so much will continue to happen. But it won't be recorded here.

Kismint the blog is hereby retired. But maybe one day I'll start up a new web journal, and we'll have all kinds of fun digging through my cranial crevices.

Thank you friends who have read, commented, and stuck with my through my blogging adventures. You are lovely people who have encouraged me more than you know.

But don't panic! I'm not dropping off the interwebs! I'm only switching gears to a new creative field. I frequent the instagrams and the youtubes (*proudly hoists DSLR*), and would be thrilled to have you come by and say hello from time to time. :)

Also, I've updated my photography page, and while I'm not sure how long that will last, I am enjoying the new grounds of my weebly portfolio.

So this is it.
New adventures soon to come!

I lay this blog to rest.

https://www.instagram.com/figuratively.speaking 

https://www.youtube.com/kismintkate

https://www.kitchenpatrolphotography.weebly.com

with sentiment, 

God bless,

Kate

Entropy // Redd Legend Film

Pretending.

At night I used to look up at the sky. Sometimes the moon would be out, and would be so luminescent that I would wonder if God had spent all afternoon polishing it up just for me. It's pureness and whiteness made me blink and look away. It's beautiful the way a mere reflection could be so powerful. On nights when I was looking at the moon I'd sometimes imagine the sky was a big black dome of construction paper. And somehow, someone up there had made a roundish, crescent-shape hole in the paper. That was the moon. Through the hole was Heaven's white brightish glory, peeping through the sky just a little bit.

And if I pretended that, I could suddenly behold a tiny taste of something eternal.

Too pure for the world to touch.

Mild Juncture

So I've got this thing where I can't write unless I read. It's like I have to fill up my word tank so that I can then spew my own syllables for you to interpret. Unfortunately, I don't read much these days. Which is kind of a character flaw of mine, and I'm not proud of it.
That said, I am happily devouring To Kill a Mockingbird. Guys. This. Book. I know it's cheesy to gush over a renown classic as if I'm the first one in to pick it up off of the shelf and crack it open...but still, I feel the need to express my love for such a legacy in literature.
With that said, life been accompanied by my constant grumblings about the math and history I have yet to complete. I hate the way general work and responsibility saps at you until you feel too weak to do anything but lull out on the carpet alongside a pile of dirty clothes and feel sorry for yourself.

 Anyway.

Apart from the grumbling and dirty clothes, I've been having various calendar events to dance my way through, including graduations, gatherings, and pool parties. The kind that you need to remember to take your phone out of your pocket for.

Sometimes instead of recording my thoughts and peculiarities from my head onto my blog I wish that I could just hook a cable to my brain and download my memories into neat little folders that could be arranged inside of my PC. Instead I have to work up the motivations to decrypt my own thought process and word it into a legible form of storytelling.

I have California plans.
Which sounds vague and mysterious and exciting, but it really just means that I'm going to build houses for people on the west coast. Also, there is a 72% chance of a death-by-being-devoured-by-a-Kracken during my oceanic seaside surfing ventures soon to come.

Apart from these assorted excitements, I have little else to inform you, my dear Internet void.

I sleep late, I think long, and I watch as my little piece of reality morphs and changes in the way it was always meant to.

     until another writerly kick in the pants,
         Kismint

Lead & Paper

Doodly-dooing.

If I sit in the dark long enough, will my thoughts be personified by shade and shadow? Will they crawl up the walls like manic creepy crawlies, invading my forsaken homestead and overpowering whatever sanity took place beforehand? Do my thoughts deserve a heart beat? Will they breath on their own?

 

I am a precious kind of ordinary.

Meeting Again

Summer, you've reminded me how to love.

I'm falling for the way sunlight still tickles my eyeballs at 7:00 PM. I hold an absurd affection for the hot pool deck against my worn little feet. And I'm enchanted by your budding promises of ice cream sundaes and water balloon fights.

Yes, Summer, I'm welcoming you. And I hope you're excited to see me, too. I'll bet that you have plenty of new growing experiances in store for me, and I can't help but be a little nervous about them.

And when the sun begins to set earlier, the weather begins to chill, and Starbucks returns to their season of pumpkin spice lattes, I'll look back on the memories we made together, and you'll kiss me a warm goodbye, bidding farewell until your next return.

Oh Summer, I can't wait.
We've got a lot to catch up on.

in my head

let's fall in love and eat cold pizza for breakfast every weekday of our lives.
  let's go somewhere where the grass is green, the trees are leafy, and the scent of caramel lattes tantalizes our taste buds. you can read me random pages from your favorite book and i'll teach you to memorize the eternal digits of pi. we can write songs about changing seasons and the way it feels to walk barefoot in the springtime. and i'll take pictures in my mind. and you'll take pictures with your phone. and we'll argue over how classy black and white is and whether or not indie music even belongs to a genre. you'll try to impress me with your cheesy Popsicle stick jokes, and i'll continue to groan over them until you finally give up and start trying me with riddles instead.
  and at night was can top the bridge that spans the highway, and cross our eyes to blur the traffic beneath us. every headlight will become a shooting star, whizzing down Main beneath the city sky.

it sounds like paradise.

but paradise is only fantasy.

which is why you only exist

                                    in my head.

Living in Lime

Spring means sniffing the air and feeling burning pollen being siphoned in and out your lungs. Spring means waking up that much earlier every morning because the sun decided he should be more active now that this whole daylight savings time has switched over again. Spring means shorts and tank tops and relearning what it's like to sweat all day long because you're just *that* stubborn and can't bring yourself to crank on the AC.
Spring means green pools.
Green leaves.
And yellow streets.

We're living in lime.

But what is green without yellow? And what would poor yellow do without green? They belong with each other, like peas in a pod and corn on the cob.

Springtime is when I remember what it's like to be excited for new things. There's so much newness. Some if it's mildly frightening and some of it's downright terrifying. But when I look back at all the scary new things in my life, I've started to realize that they've become normal, not-scary old things. And I'm glad for them.

What's a year without spring?
What's a life without newness?

So while you all enjoy sitting back and enjoying nice springness with your dainty little glasses of iced tea, I'll be sitting on my bedroom floor trying to accept the fact that I'm being broiled alive. And while I'm doing that, I'll be thinking really deep metaphorical things about more lifey things to blog about.

Because sometimes we all need to take a moment to be deep and metaphorical. It's good for the soul.

A Synopsis

The Winter Soldier: a synopsis by Kismint Plinkadink

Captain America is at it again in this 2 hour and 30 minute trailer for the next Marvel movie. This time, he doesn't know who he can trust. His best mate is now a brain washed ninety year old who happens to randomly be programed to murder him. On top of that, the shady, super secretive, ultra-security spy agency that builds mega weapons and hires the world's deadliest assassins to do their dirty work turns out to be *gasp* NOT ALL THAT IT SEEMS. Join the Cap as he gets things blown up, gets innocent bystanders shot, and dramatically inserts USB flashdrives and SD cards into miscellaneous computer devices.

Starring: 

Steve Rodger's muscle shirts

Amy Pond

Mace Windu

A guy who conveniently happens to own a winged jetpack

Edward Elric

That girl from How I Met Your Mother

 and Donald Trump

 

 

I was going to write a review, but I'll leave it at this for tonight. ;)

 WARNING: by reading this you are subjecting yourself to SPOILERS. Lot of them. And very juicy ones. All concerning Marvel movies. THESE SPOILERS WILL NOT BE FOREWARNED. THEY COULD JUMP OUT AT YOU AT ANY MOMENT AND EAT OUT YOUR SOUL. Proceed with *extreme* caution.


I saw Captain America today.

This is a review. Complete with gifs. 

Is it just me, or has NO ONE in the cast of any of Marvel's movies died? Sure, there have been plENty of fake deaths, but aliens have attacked, almighty terrorists have arisen...and yet all of our beloved friends from the good ol' Marvel gang are still around to throw a few more punches (and earn the franchise a few million more dollars). Perhaps I'm missing someone. But I doubt it. This whole I-died-but-wait-it's-just-a-cover-thing has me really discouraged. And don't even get me started on Coulson.
Sure, the entire fandom is happy that ((oh surprise)) he's still alive and well (and also heading a random spinoff TV show, no less). But once is enough. Both Thor 2: The Dark World and Winter Soldier have pulled unacceptably silly amounts of Coulsons.

 

  

So that became an ongoing annoyance. 

Maybe I'm just too used to Moffat's story telling style...because seriously, I was hoping for a few traumatic deaths that would leave me heartbroken. But nope.

 When going to superhero movies, one must always prepare for excessive explosions. There were plenty of those. I only wish that there might have been a more moving impulsion of character behind said explosions. I really had a hard time caring about the characters when all they did was chase each other around while playing dodgeball with hand grenades. 

However, in all fairness, we do get to see some nice development on behalf of Black Widow/Agent Romanoff. Which was nice...but seriously, does she like, suddenly possess a magical hair straightener? When does she even have time to do her hair? Or shop for trendy, top dollar outfits to wear while saving the world with miniture tasers.

But Steve Rodgers *does* maintain his rich historical background. I especially enjoyed his moments of reflection to his life prior to being dug out of preservation. Romanoff's attempts to find him a date was a good bit of comic relief. And a favorite scene of mine was the "would you trust me to save your life the way you saved mine" part. The whole story was saturated with compromises and trust issues, and it was nice to see that Steve had allies, despite the return of Hydra.

Speaking of, the Hydra people were alright. 

Which leads us to Bucky. 

Oh Bucky. 

You could have been great. You could have been the most vibrant vilian of them all. 

BUT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD.

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, LOKI ALREADY PLAYED THAT TRICK LIKE...THREE TIMES ALREADY. 

 

Captain America is at it again, and this time, he doesn't know who he can trust. His best friend who is brain washed and ninety years old who happens to be programed to murder him. On top of that, the shady, super secretive, ultra security agency that builds mega weapons and hires the world's deadliest assassins to do their dirty work turns out to be *gasp* evil. Join the Cap as he gets things blown up, gets innocent bystanders shot, and dramatically inserts USB flashdrives and SD cards into miscellaneous computer devices.

Starring: 

Steve Rodger's muscle shirts

Amy Pond

Mace Windu

A guy who just happens to own a winged jetpack

Edward Elric

That girl from How I Met Your Mother

 and Donald Trump

 

Good:
Bucky saves the day moment.
Agent Hill
Bucky/Smeagol
Shield development
Twins
Peggy's scene
Steve/Tasha car scene
Who do you trust? (apartment and "I would now")


Bad:
Nobody dies: Fury, Rom, Steve, Bucky etc...
Steve takes out an entire aircraft singlehandedly...?
Rom's hair
Skirts
Falcon's helicopter plunge
Falcon's wings (cool, but...wha in da werld?)
Thousand foot drops
Camera actions shots

To mention:
Car chase...well done, but really now.
Crossbones
Arnim Zola
Twins/quicksilver and scarlet witch
Bucky = new cap


Alternate ending:  ...

Take Me

We were children.

We used to tie kite strings to our wrists and run up and down the old field at the end of the avenue, thinking that if the wind willed, we could fly. And on the still days, when the branches hung low and silent, we'd spin around in circles until the world was pulled out from beneath our feet. We'd fall to our knees, collapsing with giggles as the earth became a temporary freak of a carousel. Take me back to the grass stains. Back to when we'd spend our evenings in the dirt piles, looking for earthworms. Back to when we'd dance the jitterbug under the sprinklers in my neighbor's front lawn as the plastic flamingo watching our every twist. I want to go back to the time we built a fort with the couch cushions and spilled the paint buckets on the the front porch. I want to feel the way I did when we launched ourselves off the swings in the park with fingers laced together. We both laughed and we both screamed because the sand tore our skin when we landed.
 And we landed hard.

But if you can't take me back, take me forward.

Take me to the future, where we both grow up and pay taxes and eat ramen every night. Take me to the day when you go furniture shopping for your new apartment and you ask me to come along so that together we can jump on all the mattresses at IKEA. You'll think I'm weird for liking the fake cowhide rug and I'll be silently judging you for your obsession with the tacky purple paint color you've grown so terribly fond of. And someday I'll be working and you'll be working and we'll both take a moment to realize how sad it is that there are no longer any scabs on our elbows or scratches on our cheeks. Take me to the moment when I'm by myself in the dark, feeling overwhelmed by a world that is making me feel small. That's when I'll call you up and we'll kill a few nighttime hours talking about our stupid problems. That's when you'll tell me the old stories, the ones about us and our adventures.

The adventures of our childhood.

But please don't take me very much farther into the future. Please not too far ahead. When I'm old and I forget

 what is was

       to be young

              to dream dreams

                     to dance in the sprinklers

        and to jump off of the swings.

Please don't take me into the far future. The future where you leave and I'm left behind. Because I couldn't stand that.

And you'd hate to see me cry.

31st (HD)

The sun is warm.
The grass is cool.
Hello April.
I'm not a fool.

It's beautiful outside.
Goodbye March. We were best of friends.

((yay, it's my guitar debut!! don't mind the squeaking))

Orange

Alive and well in an orange lifeboat
The sea ahead,
to swim,
or float?
Or wonder till the sky turns grey
What might could happen, could I stay.

And in the night I think again
Should I flee and shall I swim?
Do I abandon all I have
To save myself
and those with me
A fragile life
from deadly sea.

But in the dawn
In morning's phase
The gulls observe my foolish ways
Of finding out that in my sleep
I lost myself
Within the deep.

Sleepy Frog Gloop

Whenever I blog I become extremely depressed over how redundant I am.

Today I may have earned a few strange looks from my peers as I told the story of how my friends once turned their pet fire belly frogs into puddles of gloop during our frog dissection in bio. Turns out that the Arizona sun isn't so great for the slimy amphibians. Despite the slime, I've never had a problem with frogs. Or toads. They're cute enough, I guess.

---Although, I'm more of a reptile gal myself.

For most of my short life, I've spent my time being very interested in animals. However, I've never wanted to be a veterinarian or anything smart like that. BUT, I *did* spend countless hours playing the original Zoo Tycoon PC game, and therefore learned more than the average fifth-grader's share of zoology.
...if you thinking I'm joking, I'm not.

I also spent a good handful of my days poking my toes in the dirt and sticking my nose into the secret world of outdoor life. I fed grasshoppers, built biomes for captured lizards, and resurrected honey bees.

Anyway, I like animals. They're kinda similar to people, only more personable. Unless they try to eat you. Then maybe a little less personable.

Including reindeer. 

---although I hear that they smell. 

I have since found WIFI and the lovely wonders of internetdom. Sadly, I spend less and less time digging around for backyard earthworms and more of my time educating myself in the ways of Geometry and YouTube. (both equally important, I'm sure)

Also, sleeping. 

I spend lots of time sleeping. 

I dream a lot of things. It's kind of a hobby of mine. Not exactly lucid dreaming, because lucid dreaming is when you're aware that you're in dream state. Instead, it's more like my brain gives me a plot and I simply get swept along in it. Whenever I wake I can recall the details, but slowly throughout the morning, bits and pieces of my midnight adventures slip away from my memory like little slivers of soap. By the time I go to bed again, I'm left with only a vague emotion or mental picture to cling to the feeling of the previous night's dream. And then it repeats. 

I guess just plain old sleeping without the memory of dreams is too mainstream for my hipster self. 

So I am trying not to be redundant. 

But so far I've told you about bugs and sleep.

And bugs and sleep seem like pretty redundant topics to me. 

I give up.

Just me.

Spring break is over now.

Whee. Every ticking second brings me closer to the day when I grow up and find out that real life doesn't give me a week to enjoy the changing of seasons. Not that there are actually season changes to celebrate. This city is kinda flukey like that.

Sometimes I look at my blog and it makes me want to slap myself. However, I somehow manage to restrain myself from completely obliterating my archives. Part of me is embarrassed by my past self, part of me knows my present self will eventually embarrass my future self, and another part of me just doesn't care enough.

I can't tell you how many times I've thought: when I get really good at blogging and become some sort of mature writerly person---THAT'S when I'll make a serious site and become blogger extraordinaire. The irony is that when you write your work can *always* stand improvement. I'll never be the best I can possibly get to be. Instead I'll forever be learning how to be better. And that peeves me.

Oiy with my internal monologue.

Have you noticed how serious and lifey my recent posts have been? I guess I don't have much to share with you besides random midnight thoughts.

Like me anyway.

I was chillin' with some sprightly young youth today (babysitting, I guess is what it's called), and one of them told me all about her future plans. My head began to swam when I realized that this fifth grader possessed perfectly forethought as to what she might do when she grows up. Sure, her ideas will change and reality might throw her a few curve balls...but still, it made me feel especially (1) old, and (2) indecisive.

That's nice.

But it's all good. Sometimes I'm pretty dang skilled at pretending to know what I'm doing when I seriously have no idea what's going on. I spend about 87% of my life pretending that.
It's weird because I'm one of those people who settles into routine. Once you tell me to switch stuff up, I suddenly turn into a dysfunction writhing muddle of imbecileness until I acquire enough time to catch a new groove. This probably sounds funny to you because I just wrote about learning how change is good for us.

 

 Yay. I've become a walking contradiction.








And now I'm a sleepy walking contradiction.
Goodnight. 

Cappuuccino

Today I played painter and rolled around in dust bunnies and slathered cappuccino on kitchen walls.

I'm not usually very fond of change. Change typically means discomfort. Instinctively, I avoid discomfort. But sometimes change brings about beautiful (and necessary) life advancements.
I'm a thoughtful person, and as I painted today I was thinking about change. I thought of the previous coat of paint that I was covering. I thought about the next coat of paint to come. What color will those walls be in ten years? Or maybe those walls won't even be there.

So many things could change.

   ...but that's the point, isn't it? Without change we'd be boring people living in boring land. And living a boring life is not an aspiration of mine.

So be vibrant. Be you. Don't be intimidated by change. Be bold.
Life is too short to be dull. Life is to temporary to be anyone but who God designed you to be. The gift of life was not intended to be lived with fear; you were called to stand courageous.

And wear funny hats. Because life is also too short to not wear funny hats.

Goodnight all.

March(ing)

Today was a neat day.
{{I've fallen in love with the month of March.}}

I woke early in the morning, and sleepily eyed the sunrays peeking through my window blinds. Encouraged by the welcome morning atmosphere, I snuggled further into my blankets and hit my internal snooze.

That was the beginning, and other things followed.

I
wore a fedora
read scripture
cultivated friendships
laughed & loved
recognized blessings
ate pasteries
jammed out
pondered in the sunshine
opened the window
vacuumed
played soccer football
wrote emails
talked to texas
devoured pizza
folded clothes
packed for an adventure
and then blogged about it.

Today was a neat day. 
Tomorrow will be another.

Come with me?

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.