Ahh! I'm LATE!

To just about everything, but most importantly, in writing this post! I'll have to make it up to y'all, and, heck I dunno, draw you a picture next time.

See, time got away with me with all that's happened since last time, most of which y'all know about in terms of relatives and such. My big excuse is being over here house-sitting for the week, for a teacher that works with Mom and Dad. (Not sure why I don't say names; I guess I just figured they wouldn't want their names mentioned out of nowhere, especially in a post that says they're not home. You know, ON THE INTERNET, where nothing is safe!) :o

Anyway, it's been a good time as usual, taking care of the dogs and the cats and the chickens. It's much different this time in 'winter' though; basically everybody but Lily (the dog) is asleep by the time I get home from work since it's getting darker so much earlier. For some reason, this annual occurrence still seems to surprise me.... So, it's basically getting the laid eggs from the coop, getting everybody's food ready, playing with Lily for a while to burn all that excess energy she always seems to have (lucky dog!), and then getting to making dinner before shutting everything safe for the night. Today was my day off, so I got to spend a lot of time with the dog and whatever cats would approach me, heh.

Also, man! the chickens are so, so much friendlier this time! Before, they'd scatter at my mere presence, and getting them to all cooperate and go somewhere was...well, you remember that training scene in Rocky where he's chasing the chicken around? Well imagine that with four chickens instead, add an overexcited dog, and replace top-shape Stallone with an irritable 23 year old trying to leave for work on time. Well THIS time they're basically the coolest critters in the yard, couldn't care less whether I was there or not, and more than willing (HAPPY even) to be picked up and / or petted! Unless it's feeding time in the morning in which case, I'm not kidding, they'll give me flat tires and flap after me until I throw out their daily cracked-corn breakfast. Real friendly, they are, before work.

It's also been a nice chance to read and write a bit. Ah, an important aside on that: I realized that, as paralyzing as I find receiving criticism to be in concern to my own work, a lot of writers out there who post their work do so to RECEIVE criticism. OK, I'm kidding about just realizing it, but still, on most of the writing sites I frequent, the amount of actual criticism people receive (as opposed to just comments, or jibes from the internet bastards out there) is pretty skimpy. I've got a few pals that've been asking for it from the start, and all I've ever said was basically, "Oh boy! It's great! Look forward to the next!", or worse, not read it at all. Well, I'm decent at figuring out the good and the bad in what I read, so I've decided to really make an effort to give legitimate criticism to the people who really want it on these sites. Hopefully this'll make me more able to take criticism, as well as give me the guts to start posting and sharing more of my work. Lord help me, I've even joined a contest to write a short piece concerning a painting on one of the sites, due two weeks from now. I'm looking forward to it, and I think actually having a bit of a deadline will get the creative juices flowing. I'm not forgetting about the other story by any means, but I think I need a bit of a break from it. You know, come at it from another angle in a bit.

That's about all of the excitement for now. In the mean time, have some delicious culture, courtesy of YouTube!

First, a video of talented Mongolian throat singer, Peter Lai! (the text with the lyrics will disappear once he song starts, no worries).



And next, Kseniya Simonova, who won "Ukraine's Got Talent!" with the sand art piece shown here.



G'night y'all, and good luck! :)