Group presentation in nine and a half hours.  Really praying I don't freeze up (like I did in our practice run-through) or go over the time limit (which I am historically prone to do) or that our PowerPoint doesn't screw up (which also happened in our practice run-through, and has happened to me in past presentations).  Also praying my groupmates do great as well.
Because, by golly, we worked hard on this.

Prayer and practice and sleep.  —Serve me well.

I will be so relieved to have this class over with after tomorrow.

I am so blessed.

I'm not exactly sure how many readers of this blog know what's going on in my life right now.  To those who do, this might seem like a weird sentiment.  Aside form all the normal stresses of shyness and school and uncertainty and major decisions, my home life has gotten fairly screwed over in the last couple of weeks.

But I have never felt so loved in my whole life.  I mean it.

In the last week I've gotten three Facebook messages out of the blue from people whom I know don't know what's going on with me, just saying "Hey, I've been thinking about you and praying for you, and you're amazing and I love you".  And I've gotten several calls and emails—and hugs and prayers—from people who do know what's going on.  

People are taking time for me.  Even just a few minutes, but they're taking time for me.  And for once, I don't feel guilty about it.  I feel utterly awed.  God's reshaping the weird mentalities I've had about myself and my relationships with others for as long as I remember—like He promised me He would.

I am so goshdarned blessed.  God loves me so much.  It literally floored me earlier—I couldn't even stand upright, I was so amazed and humbled by all the ways He keeps finding to show me I'm loved and favored, even though a lot of things are emotionally and circumstantially really sucky right now.

So—I love you guys.  Thanks for being my friends, and sticking by me, and taking time for me.  You're awesome, and I wouldn't be here without you. 

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." – James 1:17

Psalm 136

I'm going to a wedding for two awesome church folks this evening.  It'll be pretty sweet.  I bought them a crème brûlée torch as a wedding present, about which I'm sort of excited.  How often do you have the opportunity to buy someone a crème brûlée torch?  They also had a mortar and pestle on their gift registry, but someone had already purchased that.  Rare that you get the chance to buy someone one of those, either.
I LOVE WEDDINGS.  Aaah!

This song needs to be in a movie. 

A Good Man Goes To War

Too much Doctor Who is Time Lord.
Steven Moffat is bloody crazy, and it's amazing.

Four a.m. again—oy vey.

Three nights in a row now, there is too much stuff stewing in my brain to let me sleep. All my thoughts are engaged in a redundant, unending steeplechase, and the end result is the worst insomnia I have had in ages. It is amazing how long a night can be when your mind can't wander. Give me something simple to think about, please.

Behind the trend as always…

Kiersten’s Ultimate Accomplishments of Awesome  list 2011

– updated and revised –

Bold = comments related to accomplishing, 

Italics = revisions & associated comments, 

Strikethrough = omissions.

1. Finish (writing) at least one novel.  Working on it as always, not as diligently as I would like.  (Also: see item 77.)
2. Witness to somebody.
3. Come up with a system to start memorizing Bible verses.
4. Read the Bible regularly.  Partially done!  At least…I’ve been doing it fairly consistently for the last two weeks or so.
5. Befriend S______ more successfully than I did in 2010.
6. Put music to some of my poetry.  Partially done.  Possibly accomplished, period.
7. Actually give birthday gifts to non-family people.
8. Finish learning the basics of playing guitar.
9. Read three more of C.S. lewis’ books.  Partially done—I read The Abolition of Man on May 11th, and just checked out The Dark Tower & Other Stories from the library.
10. Learn to practice good time management (Omission: “at least 70% of the time”.  No good way to quantify this.)
11. Grow my hair back (out).  More or less done:  I grew back all the short bits I hid under hats, then cut the rest of it.  But I am pretty content with where it’s at right now and where it will be going at its current rate.
12. Exercise regularly. I need accountability, or a good system.  This is far too vague.
13. Finish Anna Karenina.  Partially done.  Leo Tolstoy, though, requires a lot more diligence than I have to spare at present.
14. Acquire a sonic screwdriver.
15. Acquire a Hadhafang replica, if I can find one at a reasonable price.
16. Start being consistent about intercessory prayer.
17. Grow closer to my family.  I feel like I am definitely making progress here.
18. [Possibly] investigate learning to play the violin.   I definitely want to make this happen someday, but I don’t think I could handle it right now.
19. Memorize my phone number.  Accomplished!  Sometime in February.
20. Start overcoming my phone fears.   
21. Figure out where I stand on dating, for me personally, at this point in my life.  Is this even a possibility?  I am open to this not happening like I was expecting it to possibly happen.  You would think being asked out would have fixed this, but no.  Though considering my most recent post…oi.
22. Learn how to ride a bike.
23. Acquire a bamboo plant.  Accomplished!  Christmas Day, 2010.
24. Come up with meaningful things to blog about.  Sort of Accomplished—Done, but the actual bloggage of most of those things has not happened.
25. Sleep.  Accomplished!  I can’t believe I’m actually getting more sleep, on the whole, as a college student than I did as a high school student.
26. Reread The Lord of the Rings in a month or less.
27. Reread The Silmarillion.
28. Have consistent pen pals (e.g., be consistent about writing letters back to anyone who writes letters to me.  and vice versa).
29. Draw (not just doodle) more than once a month. This may undergo revisions at a later date.
30.   Manage to read something (unabridged) by Charles Dickens.  Partially done:  I am on my way through Bleak House.
31. Finish Romeo and Juliet.  I am okay with this not happening.  I might do it, but I already know the story and I don’t really like it, so why bother?
32. Read Hamlet and Macbeth.  (Revision: “either/or”.  Likely won’t be both.)  Though I am taking a class on Shakespeare in the fall.  We’ll see how this fares against that.
33. Watch Disney’s Snow White.  Accomplished!  I don’t remember the precise date, but I wrote a Facebook status about it.  I think it was in March.
34. Get to know some of the people at C & C [Dwell].  Partially done!
35. Get in the habit of tithing (at least, once I have any income).  
36. Read The Phantom Tollbooth.
37. Do something genuinely crazy (but not utterly pointless, life-threatening, or illegal).  This may also undergo revision or omission at a later date, as it is rather vague.
38. Take my driver’s test, pass it, and get my license.
39. Buy shoes that fit.
40. Be bold.  Partially done.
41. Buy new flavors of tea.  Accomplished!  Blueberry (yum), wild cherry (horrendous), mint verbena (haven’t tried it yet).
42. Name my laptop.  Accomplished!  My MacBook is now Asfaloth, and my hard drive is Glorfindel.  (Bonus awesome points to you if you get that without Googling.)
43. Name the dancing monkey on my laptop.
44. Name my teapot.  Accomplished!  Well, my sister named it for me:  Clive Staples.  
45. Acquire some pragmatism to balance out my excessive idealism.  Far too vague.  Also, I am second-guessing whether I really want to do this, and whether I can without becoming outright cynical.
46. Practice writing concisely so I can do so when necessary.  Accomplished!  (But not “done”.)  
47. Overcome my fear of overhead showers.  Who cares?  It occurs to me now that I was okay when I had to use one in El Salvador for two weeks.
48. Get my Technician and Demolitionist awards on Star Wars Battlefront II.  Accomplished!  In mid-January and early March, respectively.  Yay nerdiness!
49. Write out a thorough and/intelligent explanation of why I dislike Twilight.  This is a dead horse; I’ll stop beating it.
50. Consider what I might do after graduating KVCC.  Accomplished!  But not done.  There will be much more consideration and prayer on this topic over the next year and a half!
51. Fast something (besides books and food) for a month.
52. See Glowfriends in concert, if possible.  Accomplished!  May 26th, with Hannah, and it was fantastic.
53. Attend at least one epically awesome rock concert with friends.
54. Get drunk in the Holy Spirit more than once.  Accomplished!  But also not done.  :)
55. Learn six new long words and use them in everyday conversation.  Partially done!
56. Brush up on my French.  This may be accomplished or deleted in the very near future, depending on whether I try to test out of it so I can take more math courses…ugh.  
57. Develop an appreciation for a genre of music I currently dislike.  Partially done.
58. Organize my room and keep it at least relatively clean.
59. Write about the random stuff I research on a whim.  Partially done—handy topics for school projects, these turn out to be.
60. Read The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.  Accomplished!  Not the whole book, but I’ve browsed it quite a bit and might buy a copy.
61. Develop an appreciation for more spicy food.  Partially done.  Banana peppers, mmm.  Also, Asian pork with bamboo.
62. Do laundry more regularly.  (Revision:  this means I need less clothing.)
63. Finish reading A Room With a View.  Accomplished! Some Sunday in late March.
64. Spread the word “über” beyond my church family.
65. Acquire at least three more awesome hats.  Accomplished!  Christmas Day 2010, March 8^th/May 27^th 2011.  I have a shocking nine more hats in my retinue.
66. Write letters to at least eight people telling them what I appreciate about them.  (Revision:  five people.)
67. Refine my Jamaican accent.  Accomplished!  I don’t know if it actually is, but this is fairly difficult to qualify.  Nobody tells me it sounds Italian anymore, at least.
68. Speak in a foreign accent for one full day every month.  (Revision:  I didn’t do it for the first five months, so I’ve technically failed.  I would still like to do it at least once.)
69. Help spread accomplishment in the important life skill of giving Good Hugs.  Most people seem to be fine with hugs as are.  I suppose this one was a bit presumptuous.
70. Find someone with whom to have deep and pointless theoretical conversations.
71. Acquire at least two sundresses.  Partially done—I purchased one at Goodwill a couple of weeks hence.
72. Create and DM (run) one Dungeons & Dragons campaign. (Revision:  “campaign or adventure”.)
73. Learn to juggle.

Additions as of January 1st:

       74   a.  Get down to business to defeat the Huns.

               b.  Possibly with a wonderfully choreographed musical number.

     I have no idea how to go about doing this, but it sounds like an awful lot of fun.

New addition[s]:

       75.  Acquire a legal source of income.  (To random readers who don’t know me—this would be a change from no source of income at all, not a change from a illegal source of income, ha.)

       76. Take the initiative to stay in touch with/do fun stuff with awesome people over the summer and beyond.  

       77. Complete NaNoWriMo. 

       78. Do a smashing job as Mr. Keller’s ENG 110 TA in the fall.