Yeah, I needed a title. I just happened to be listening to that song. ^

Okay, so due to some prodding from certain friends (*grins at Gaby*) I have decided to keep my promise and post again. Yes, I do need prodding to post on my blog. But today I opened my inbox and I saw that I had 4 blog comments (HALLELUJAH MY BLOG HAS LIFE AGAIN) so I decided to post.

Firstly, I guess I'll have to dig out HTML from somewhere in the deepest, dustiest corners of my brain and make my own blog template. This should be... not fun. And I'm dead serious. I despise HTML with a passion (it hurts my brain) but there are some things I simply can't forget, so I'll try. I want my new template to be blue. *thinks*

Secondly, I need to update my playlist AND my novel list (this needed more prodding from Gaby.) It's the HTML that has me lazy to get off my butt and start updating. But I have loads of new songs that I want to share with you, and, well, my word counts have changed just a tad bit since the time I last updated that thing. So yeah. I will at least have the novel word count thing updated by tonight.

Thirdly... okay, logically thinking, I can't be the Empress of anything here on Earth. I'd rather be the Empress of something in my story (I'm sorry, but my story is so much more interesting, especially when here on Earth you're stuck at home because the weather is so cold that you can't go out and do any Empress-ing. Whatever that is.) Empress of Celthia? Maybe. I'll swipe that title before Maeve takes it. She'll be ticked, but do I care? Nooo... *sweats a little* O______o;

Numbah four... general blogging.

Okay. Me becoming 'apologetic.' *grins at Gaby* Our debates most definitely had something to do with it. And then there's the incident when I had read something on a Catholic Answers Forum. Someone was calling someone else an "informed Catholic." And I'm all like, "I WANT TO BE AN INFORMED CATHOLIC. *sulks because she thinks she'll never understand things such as plenary indulgences*" So after I got off the computer, I was looking for a book in my bookcase, which just happens to have two rows on each shelf (I have SO many books, many of which I don't even read.) So, with the thought still in my head that I wished I could become an informed Catholic, I pulled out a book. And right behind it was my tiny pink Precious Moments Bible that my Grandma gave me for my baptism (I was baptized recently, on 2005.) I had been looking for it months before but was sad when I couldn't find it. And then, at the most unexpected moment, it was there. Yeah, that's as if God was saying, "You want to be informed? Go for it!" So that's part of why I want to be... 'apologetic.' :D

As for those people who view Catholicism as a cult... that's a product of one of my other new pet peeves: religious ignorance. My advice for those people... stop listening to a Protestant hater and start researching yourself. If your church pastor is more focused on making Catholics look like a cult, than he is in asking us to "love our neighbors," well, that's his decision. But as for yourself, I suggest you start building your own opinion, dears. Here's a great place to start: http://forums.catholic.com/ These forums are great. There you can ask an experienced apologetic for answers to a question you have and they'll answer you. So before you read a book called Catholicism: A Cult (I have NO idea if there's a book that's really called that, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is) gather your own bits and pieces of research, before you resort to calling the church Jesus established a cult. Okay? Okay. Because in doing so, you're in a sense hurting Him, because you're hurting the church that He founded. Need proof? http://home.inreach.com/~bstanley/reply.htm False charges made against us. There are straight-out answers right there. In fact, that site is also a wonderful place to go do your research, but I think it's directed mostly to Catholic-Haters, or to Catholics who are trying to learn to defend themselves.

Done with that rant.

So I'm going to start another blog for my Catholic rants because they have the potential to get really long. The writing blog and the Catholic blog. You can ask questions on either of them, though.

I'll move on to writing now before I explode.

WRITING is going awesome. I reached 51k last night. Beth had a panic attack, so that was really hard to write. But with the help of Squid my writing buddy I survived it, and I was sweating when I finished. Ahaha. I'm so evil to my characters.

I'm about halfway through this book. It's amazing. Loads of things I'd had planned before I started writing it... well, it turns out that I won't be able to write them at all w/o turing the plot into a bunch of nonsensical mush. So I won't do that.

Something/someone (maybe God?) is telling me that when I'm done with this novel, I'll be ready to send out forms for publication. So I'm working extra hard on this. I've been looking for the path that I'm supposed to take and it looks like I found it.

And now I move on to life.

Life is VERY VERY COLD. The weather is indecisive. It can't seem to decide if it wants to be winter or spring, but it's leaning more towards winter, and that sucks really really bad. Because my hands are all frost-burned now and I keep opening the doors in the morning expecting at least cold sunlight but it's always cloudy. I hate, hate, hate.

My dad's birthday was on Valentine's Day. We made him a nice heart-shaped birthday cake. I had fun icing the cake. And then I licked the icing off of the spatula because I'm still only 15. :D Cherry chip cake is heavenly. It's already almost gone.

My dog's acting weird. She doesn't want to eat. She hasn't eaten in days. I don't know what's wrong with her, but if this keeps going, we'll have to take her to the vet this week. Please pray for her because I don't want the same thing to happen to her that happened to my bunny.

I watched the Grammies. Ahem. WHAT WERE THE JONAS BROTHERS DOING AT THE GRAMMIES. WHY WAS TAYLOR SWIFT NOT NOMINATED. HER SONG WAS ON THE TOP OF THE CHARTS FOR FLIPPING MONTHS. WHY WAS TAYLOR SINGING WITH MILEY. MILEY SOUNDS DRUNK WHEN SHE SINGS. (NO OFFENSE TO MILEY FANS.) I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CD WITH GRAMMY NOMINATIONS, BUT EVERYTHING ON THERE WAS GOOD TRASH, AND ALL OF THE GOOD SONGS, I ALREADY HAD THEM. SO THIS WAS A BIG LETDOWN. The only good thing that resulted from this Grammy was that John Mayer won a Grammy. So That's one good thing. But why did Jason Mraz get nothing?! He was nominated three flipping times. What happened to this country that it's only cruddy hip-hop and rap and annoying songs that are either those two or somewhere in between that get nominated? UGH.

If I was allowed to swear, there'd be a lot of swear words in the above rant. *blushes* I am so, so angry.

When the tickets to the Taylor Swift concert come on sale, I'll update you on whether I go or not. I already got the okay from my aunt. My mom's still thinking about it... ah well. Whatever's supposed to happen will happen.

I'm off to church now. *grin* I know that lots of people commented and are waiting for replies. I promise to reply as soon as I get back on tonight.

Love you guys!

-Mariella, Empress of Celthia.