06 Monday Jun 2016
Tags
author, bride, dinosaur, entertainment, force choke, fun, funny, groom, humor, life, lol, married, marry, photo, Stephanie Beavers, wedding, wedding party, writer
No, not for my wedding. Not yet. Not quite. But don’t expect a blog from me next week, as I will be on my honeymoon!
In the meantime, enjoy this crazy wedding pictures:
23 Monday May 2016
Tags
author, cavalry, event, fun, horse, horseback, horsemanship, horses, joust, jousting, knight, knights, lance, life, medieval, reenactment, STALC, Stephanie Beavers, tilt, tilting, writer
So my fiance and I got to go see something pretty cool yesterday. Down in Osoyoos, the Society of Tilt and Lance Cavalry (STALC) put on some live jousting. (Btw, I totally love their slogan: “Joust do it.”)
For those of you who might not know what jousting is, it’s when two people on horseback, in full armor, charge straight at each other and try to hit each other with long pointy sticks.
Like this:
But seriously, it’s pretty cool. Jousting was originally used as a way for knights to gain prestige, wealth, and status. Like any sport, there are rules and points and whatnot. You get so many points for hitting the shield, shattering your lance, or unhorsing your opponent (unfortunately, we didn’t get to see anyone get launched out of his or her saddle).
The folks at STALC said a set of armor costs upwards of $6000. …Shiny…
We were assigned a knight to cheer for based on our section in the stands. This was our knight:
I am a lousy fan because I don’t remember his name. But he was still awesome.
There were a few other folks dressed up too, and most of them were involved with STALC:
But all in all it was a pretty small event. Still, I plan to go again next year!
16 Monday May 2016
Posted in Life
Hi readers,
So I found a really sweet article and video at (you guess it) IFLS.
Y’know, just in case you were curious what it looks like inside your mouth/throat when you sing.
For those of you who’ve never taken singing lessons, a good teacher will typically give you an idea of what’s going on internally so that you know what to (try to) do to improve your vocal performance. Even so, there’s a difference between knowing in theory and seeing it. So thank you, scientists at Freiburg Institute for Musician’s Medicine, for this one.
On a related note, last weekend, I got to go see a performance by the choir I used to be a member of, the Spectrum Singers. They’re pretty frickin’ fantastic. If you’re in Kelowna, definitely try to catch their performances: usually at St. Michael’s in December and May. The videos aren’t up on YouTube yet, but they usually do upload them after a bit (here’s to hoping!) But if you want a taste now, check out the video below from back when I sang with them.
Flowers O’ The Forest (that’s me!)
09 Monday May 2016
Posted in Life
Tags
adorable, animal, animals, author, babies, baby animals, bird, birds, duck, duckling, ducklings, ducks, fun, life, pond, Stephanie Beavers, wildlife, writer
I am thrilled to announce that the ducklings are back, and as adorable as ever. There were, in fact, two separate groups. I shall call them the Itsy Bitsy Group and the Fluffily Adorable Group. Both groups were down in the pond and the creek that run near my house. Having seen these precious little babies last year, my fiance and I have been going on walks solely to see them again this year.
We saw the Itsy Bitsy Group first:
They were definitely the younger group, so tiny and squee! But they were a little shy, so this is as close as we could get:
There’s no feeding the ducks in this area, which I do understand, even if I would love to lure them closer.
On our way back, the trail runs alongside the creek, and we got up-close and personal with some more ducklings! These were far less shy, although they kept a weather eye on us.
So cute!
Now we’re just waiting for the quail to hatch their ridiculously tiny offspring. Nothing like some darting, fluffy pinballs to make your day!
So, dear readers, which baby animals do you like to go out and *squee* at?
02 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in Life
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year. This is probably unwise, given what a crazy month this November is shaping up to be, but here goes nothing. In all honestly, I’m not really expecting to hit 50,000 words (due to aforementioned craziness), but I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like lately, and this should be good motivation.
For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The objective is to write 50,000 words over the course of the month. That’s approximately 1,667 words per day. That’s many more words than most people will write if they don’t love writing. Writing that many words every day for 30 days… Well, you get the idea. If you want to take a go at writing a novel, I highly recommend NaNoWriMo. It’s great fun to have the support of so many people attempting the same thing at the same time.
My NaNoWriMo novel is a WIP: the working title (and maybe final title, I haven’t decided yet) is Claws of the Curse, and this is the first novel I’ve ever written where I’ve actually started with something of an outline. So we’ll see how it goes. Will it be better or worse? It remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s another medieval fantasy novel that I intend to have lots of fun with. :)
So is anyone else out there participating? What’s your project like?
12 Monday Oct 2015
Posted in Life
Tags
author, cat, cats, gratitude, life, serenity, Stephanie Beavers, thankful, Thanksgiving, writer
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Especially my fellow Canadians, since it’s actually Thanksgiving for us, but the well-wish stands for everyone else too!)
I was lucky enough to spend last night with my family and an abundance of delicious food. I ate SO much turkey.
I regret nothing.
Thanksgiving is a time to remember all we’re thankful for. In reality, we should be remembering those things every day. I am healthy, I am loved, and I have enough of everything to live comfortably. I may stress about money or future plans, because I’m human and I forget that serenity is found in being thankful for what I have.
How about you, readers? Any thoughts? Of that feels too serious for you right now, we can always go down to a simpler question: turkey or ham? Pick a side! (Turkey for me.)
15 Monday Jun 2015
Posted in Life
Tags
art, author, comics, Grrl Power, libraries, media, novels, Phoenix Requiem, Questionable Content, school, Slightly Damned, Stephanie Beavers, stories, webcomics, writer
At first, I only read words-on-physical-pages books. And I devoured them. From my discovery of them in elementary school until I graduated high school, I would read whole shelves of books without few breaks. I would continuously request books at my school libraries (it’s thanks to me that CNB Middle School has all the Valdemar books).
In university, my reading dropped off drastically under my heavy course load, but I discovered a new form of story-absorption: webcomics. From Grrl Power to Slightly Damned to The Phoenix Requiem to Questionable Content, I devoured them just as I had novels (and that is only a very small sampling. I still read a ridiculous number of webcomics, and I read less than I used to).
Grrl Power
From webcomics, I moved to manga. Full Metal Alchemist and Psyren rocked my world. I read even more manga, later. And, as is natural, manga led to anime. Around the same time, owning my own computer (and not just sharing my parents’, like in highschool), allowed me to delve into the world of TV shows. We didn’t have TV as I was growing up. My parents thought it was largely a waste of time (and I largely agree), but there was and are some incredible shows out there. Criminal Minds drew me in and held me.
Psyren
In short, the medium mattered less than the stories themselves. Each medium allows for different expressions. Manga tell a story very differently than webcomics, as novels tell very different kinds of stories than TV shows. Just look at book-to-movie or manga-to-anime translations. But a good story, and good stories, are good no matter than media.
Of course, we’ll always have favorites: for me, nothing can compare to a good book. But diversity is important too. Each medium is a perspective. We can only benefit from seeing the world through more perspectives.
11 Monday May 2015
Tags
animals, author, cats, cats and dogs, dog, dogs, entertainment, fun, humor, men and women, nature, pet, pets, Stephanie Beavers
Sometimes I wonder if the relationships between cats and dogs is somewhat analogous to the relationships between men and women. Granted, virtually all men and women have to coexist on a daily basis, so I imagine we (kind of) cooperate more, but at the same time…might there be some truth in that? It’s an amusing thought.
I always imagine men as dogs and women as cats. But how do you see it? Or do you think I’m crazy?
19 Thursday Mar 2015
Posted in Life
Tags
Okay, I really want to know: how did THIS come about?
The other thing I want to know is, how would you spell that?
16 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Life
Tags
author, breakfast, crusade, DeDutch, food, hashbrowns, menu change, potato chunks, Stephanie Beavers, writer
Breakfast is serious business. Just ask my boyfriend.
Every Sunday I get dragged out of bed (too early, in my opinion), to go eat breakfast at DeDutch. My boyfriend will literally bounce on the bed to get me up. (For the record, I love going to breakfast, just not that early.)
DeDutch serves many wonderful foods. I LOVE their tosties. They’re like grilled cheese sandwiches except full of awesome instead of just cheddar cheese. I like the spinach and feta with caramelized mushrooms and aoli sauce (I may be getting the name of the sauce wrong, but it’s super tasty). There’s also blueberry, brie and red onion (a bizarre but wonderful combination) and my other standby, the ham, edam, and pineapple tostie. They also have regular breakfast platters and something called a hashboat – hashbrowns mixed with cheese, hollandaise, mushrooms, and onions. Oh, and they all come with a little fruit bowl on the side. Mmmm…
Now while I mix things up, my boyfriend always gets the same thing: Canuck toast. More traditionally known as French toast, with bacon, eggs, and a side of hashbrowns.
Last Sunday, they changed the hashbrowns. I haven’t stopped hearing about it since.
The old hashrbowns were tiny little cubes. The new ones are large chunks of potato. My boyfriend has taken affront to this change.
Strongly-worded letters have been sent to the DeDutch head office since we learned that this abominable change was instigated on their order, not on the local level.
So please, show your support and also send letters to dedutch@dedutch.com, protesting the change from hashbrowns to potato chunks. Do it for me, and for all women who have to listen to their men when there’s a menu change on their favorite food.
Save the hashbrowns.
#SaveTheHashbrowns
Stephanie Beavers 