12 July 2011

Clash of Kings - George.R.R.Martin

       The second book in the 'Song of Ice and Fire' series, and another really good read, not to mention another which took ages. I've deduced that these books are really good, you may have got that, and I've really enjoyed reading them, they're a lot of fun. However the problems with them are that they are just too long and try to cram way too much in.
       I love the fact that there are so many Point of View Characters, it's really good, and they're well written. You could tell which Character was which after having read a few chapters without needing to use names, because they've all developed their own distinct personalities. However it can cause problems when you reach page 75 and you still havn't returned to any characters (I don't think this is accurate, but it's a little what it felt like), especially when they're all in different places socialising with different people, simply because you struggle to remember what each Character has going on in their life when you get back to them. It's a little like trying to read 8 books at once.
    However, near the end, the last 200 pages or so there's a whole patch which is set in a really short space of time, and the author bats back and forwards between a select few characters, all in the same sort of area, but slight variances as to specifics. You really feel a sense of urgency and time flow, and you know what's happening, it's brilliant.
      The ending for a few of the Characters in this book left me feeling the varying emotions of nervous, saddened and unsure... And then while reading it I'm always struggling with a who's-the-good-guy feeling, because I get the feeling that the Starks are supposed to be the 'good-guys' however you then meet people like Tyrion and Daenerys, who seem to want to see the demise of the Stark's but you want them to triumph even though they can't all. This makes it more realistic to read, but I think it also suffers as a novel, because by making it less cut and dried, he's almost taken away a sense of satisfaction and a 'cheer-factor'. You can't cheer for your favourite and egg them on for fear of offending all your other favourites.
       I think that the author, although being ambiguous, is very talented to be able to evoke such a range of emotions for all of the different characters that are come across.
     I loved this book, as I loved the first one, and because I have so many issues with certain aspects of it I can only assume that it is because this is storytelling at it's absolute very best.

Rowen

7 July 2011

Day Thirteen - Comic

Today it's my sister's birthday, so there was no way I could do anything that wasn't birthday related for this drawing. Happy birthday Pip, excuse my awful picture.

If you're struggling to read the text it goes 'Oooh a Present' 'It's Yours' 'I love it'
The present is a box-set of 24, which my sister loves.

We look nothing like the stick figures but I can't draw cartoons so I went for something in the style of Oots :)

Rowen

Genesis 3:16

"Then God said to the woman, "I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant, and when you give birth to children, you will have great pain. You will greatly desire your husband, but he will rule over you." "

It's accurate, women do suffer during pregnancy and birth. However it is also something which a history teacher I had would call 'a convenient story created by men for men to control women.' It is a fact that much of the bible in the Old Testament was written down long after the events actually took place. There is no reason why it couldn't have been added by men as an afterthought. However we do biologically function in the way described above, so I'm not sure I'm convinced.

Rowen

6 July 2011

Day Twelve - Most recent Acheivement

I'm not sure if it's an acheivement yet, but I'm gonna go with it. I decided around christmas that I'd like to make a quilt, for when my boyfriend and I one day need one, and if we don't then I'll still have made something I can be proud of.
     It's going to be made of 214 6" squares.
     24 of these will be the stars seen in the picture, they're called friendship stars.
    23 of these will be the stars seen in the picture. They're supposed to be paper peiced, however I didn't know how to do that when I started, so I have a feeling they're going to be made in a variety of ways.
   There will be one square which is embroidered with a logo associated with a past-time me and my boyfriend share.
    There will also be 166 of the square blocks, known as square dance blocks. none of these will be the same, although some may use the same fabrics reversed.
    Once I've made all of those I then need to decide on a layout and sew them into rows. And once I've sewn the rows I need to sew the rows together.
    After that I intend to get some batting to be able to hand-quilt it and bind it, it's a project I estimate will take about two years.

Maybe I'll share some of the blocks I've already finished.

Rowen

Genesis 3:14-15

"The Lord God said to the snake, "Because you did this, a curse will be put upon you. You will be cursed as no other animal, tame or wild, will ever be. You will crawl on your stomach, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
I will make you and the woman enemies of each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendents will crush your head, and you will bite his heel."

I don't know if it's just me, but the stuff from the second verse sounds a bit like the story about Achilles heel. I may be wrong but it sounds right to me. In which case it came true and I think that as much as anything should invoke confidence in God.

The first verse is less true, because although no other animal immediately  springs to mind, you actually have slugs and snails, and eels and worms, all of whom crawl on their stomachs, albeit the eel spends most of his time in water.

Rowen

Day Eleven - A turning point in your Life



I wouldn't say that there has ever been a major turning point in my life, more that my life seems to go round in circles, so I don't know if you can tell but i've drawn a windmill.

Rowen

Genesis 3:8-13

"Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden during the cool part of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said, "Where are you?"
The man answered, "I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."
God asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"
The man said, "You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."
Then the Lord God said to the woman, "How could you have done such a thing?"
She answered, "The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit." "

Once again her actions, and his, are typically human. They did not want to take the blame so they blamed another. While it was true that the fruit was provided by those mentioned, each of them is at fault for eating from the tree when they were told not to as they each actively made the decision to eat the fruit themselves. I think part of the issue is not so much that they ate the fruit, but that they are unwilling to face up to their actions.

We all sin, but God is willing to forgive us so long as we admit we sinned, say sorry and ask for forgiveness.

Rowen

Day Ten - Favourite Candy



I love Cadbury's Dairy Milk bar, although this isn't the design I'd instantly recognise it's the one I had to hand as it's more recent, being redesigned for the fairtrade logo. To be honest this was a struggle as I'm a true female and love anything that's chocolate.

Rowen

Genesis 3:6-7

"The woman saw that the tree was beautiful, that its fruit was good to eat, and that it would make her wise. So she took some of it's fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband, and he ate it.
Then, it was as if their eyes were opened. They realised they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves."

I think this demonstrates pretty typical human behaviour. We are never content with what we have, we always want more. I suppose I'm a pretty good example of this, I have lots of books, but if I go into a bookshop I can't help but want to buy more of them, despite the fact I have a good couple hundred books I havn't read.

The point is though, she wanted something she didn't have. She took it. And in the process she lost a gift she had which was precious. Her innocence.

Rowen

3 July 2011

Genesis 3:1-5

"Now the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the Lord God made. One day the snake said to the woman,"Did God really say you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"
The woman answered the snake, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God told us, 'you nust not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.'"
But the snake said to the woman, "You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil and you will be like God!" "

The woman, at this stage is doing as she should, listening to God, and not eating from the tree. She has even gone so far as to tell the snake what she has been told. The passage shows the snake to be deceitful, I think it is this description of the snake which promoted a lot of it's common 'characteristics' which are used throughout folklore and fiction. A more recent example being where J.K.Rowling used the snake as the emblem for the house of Slytherine who're supposed to be cunning and wily people.

Rowen

Day Nine - Favourite Tv Show


I'm not sure if it's my favourite Tv Show but it's certainly the one I watch most frequently.
It didn't turn out too bad, because the design was simple, however I did get a little bored colouring in the black background... hence it's mostly grey.

Rowen

2 July 2011

Day Eight - Favourite Animated Character

 Every girl wants to be Cinderella for a day, but we all want to be Belle for life. At least those of us who've seen the Disney Princess films.

Belle has substance, she's not insipid.
Belle is pretty.
Belle gets the most beautiful of the dresses.

And my favourite of all... Belle LOVES to read. She makes reading cool. She has the library which I see in my head whenever I think about the library I'd one day like to create :)

Apart from the scowl and a couple of scaling issues I think this drawing turned out well.
You Can tell the dress is the Belle dress.
The hair is the right shape and even size, when you're only looking at the head.
I even managed to shade it fairly well using only one yellow pencil and varying pressure.

Overall I have to say I'm more pleased with how this has turned out than any to date... but it's certainly not perfect. The original came from my calender, I may be an adult but I object to adult calenders... they're just so boring.

Rowen

Genesis 2:25

"The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed."

The way they are at this point in time is because they are still innocent. Neither of them has eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they are wholly alive and able to accept and enjoy every one of life's pleasures.

It is also because they are one whole, and it is just them, so they are fully comfortable and they don't Have anything to be afraid of.

Rowen

1 July 2011

Day Seven - Favourite Movie

 

















I love this film. It all began when I was probably too young to legally watch it, my Nan bought the video to give to her cousin with the Video player she'd got her for her birthday, she asked me to watch it to make sure it worked. I loved it. I raved about it... My Nan bought me the DVD for Christmas :P

That holidays I think I watched this film 15 times... in the space of about a week, some days I'd watch it and then immediately again once it'd ended. This is a common occurance for my sister who's a film lover, but less so for me. It tends to be months after I first watch something before I watch it again.

I've seen this film so often I could probably recite it. I know the bits I love and the bits which make me cringe. If any song which is in it starts playing I stop, My ears prick up and I go 'that's Dirty Dancing music' with a huge grin on my face.

I digress, I'm not over-impressed with my drawing, but it's not awful either.

Rowen

Genesis 2:21-24

"So the Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply, and while he was asleep, God removed one of the man's ribs. Then God closed up the man's skin at the place where he took the rib. The Lord God used the rib from the man to make a woman, and then he brought the woman to the man.
And the man said,
"Now, this is someone whose bones come from my bones, whose body came from my body.
I will call her 'woman', because she was taken out of man."
So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body."

This is the first verse, possibly the only verse, which explains why marriage is holy. It is holy because it is two separate people who stem from one place, committing themselves to becoming one whole. A whole which will stand the test of time and not fragment.

Rowen