It's been a year

On this day, February 22, of last year, I published my first blogpost. Anybody know where the time went? Because I'm pretty sure I did this yesterday. The night before, while Mom and I were driving home (I think from church), I asked her the important question: "Can I start a blog?"

She asked me why, and I gave her the reasons I had been coming up with since a few weeks before: improve my writing skills, share some of my photography, talk about life, etc.

I was all excited about trying something new. I had done my research, so to speak, and I knew what I wanted to use this blog for.

I jumped in, headfirst, and plowed through actually making the blog. I had fun trying out all the gadgets, and ended up spending several hours writing my first post. And so, The Shy Introvert.

After many, many changes, now you see the finished product; perfect for now, in my eyes, but who knows if and when I'll do a compete overhaul on the design, or if I'll do another name change.

I am proud to say that my writing has improved, though not by a whole lot, it is definitely better than it was. Because of this blog, I have seen and been encouraged to write stories. Sure, I had dabbled around with a few plots before, but I was mostly just writing school papers, and what's the fun in that? Though a good exercise in formatting, it get's boring very quickly. However, now I am writing my first real story, and have the basic ideas for two or three more.

The Exile and the Songbird
The Inventor's Daughter
The Warrior's Replacement
Millicent's backstory (for lack of a title, a description of what the story is about will have to suffice)

I haven't shared as much as my photography as I would like (mainly because it takes forever to upload them to a post. You can blame it on our wifi), but I do hope to remedy that this year.

If you take a walk through the archives, you will see that a large number of my posts have been about what happens in my life. I think I need to cut back just a wee bit though, mainly for privacy's sake, and focus more on other things (photography and writing, for instance).

While I'm thinking about it:

I got these a couple nights ago:

The sunset was gorgeous that night, and I had just finished a quick tutorial on the light settings on my camera. Excited with the new knowledge, I grabbed my camera, pointed it at the sky, snapped a shot, and looked at the screen. I was a little disappointed with the result- the colors weren't like they were in the sky- all kind of washed-out and without vibrancy. But then I fiddled around with the iso, shutter speed, and aperture levels, and hey presto! A decent-looking shot. A little more fiddling, and you see the photos above.

Here comes the symbolism part:

Our lives are very similar to the photos, and our actions are not the opposite of the camera settings. The tutorial is, of course, the Bible- our instruction book. Lastly, God is the Hand that turns the controls and decides what pictures to take.

So here's to another year! Glad to have you all along.