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[ask-wordsmith]

New blog!

So this summer I’m officially starting my career as a full-time writer of fiction. So I began a blog, in case anyone is interested in what I may post. It’ll mostly be writing (prose, poetry, etc.), but I’ll be drawing some too --- though doubtfully much pony.

Anyway, here is is, if you wanna check it out: https://mybrothershand.tumblr.com

I’d love to actually interact with y’all (that’s why I began blogging in the first place), and now have the discipline and the schedule to do so.

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<3

Teddy and George

I’ve completely revamped some old OCs of mine from back when I was a Brony. I still liked the characters, so I wanted to reimagine them as completely original characters, rather than leaving them as MLP OCs. So here you have the bubbly, snuggly Teddy and her mute, hipster, werewolf boyfriend, George.

[ask-wordsmith]

That s one of the most brilliant explanations I’ve ever heard.

[173 questions remain][1 posts behind!][5/5 chibi]

Side effects of this include slightly higher and therefore cuter voices, and the tendancy to “float” when ranting from also being full of hot air.  The flailing generally displayed during these rants is an automated response by the chibi’s body to offgas excess helium, which may take the appearance of steam issuing from the ears.

[ask-wordsmith]

College

DOOONE!!

Last final of my last semester of my last year in college just submitted.

IT’S OVER!

I’M DONE!!

I'M FREEEEE~!!

[insert celebratory gif here]

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I want to hear His voice.

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On ... hiatus?

So many of you have probably noticed the severe decrements in the number of posts. That’s cuz I’m kind of no longer blogging. Not even on hiatus. Just ... not blogging.

What does that mean?

Well, this blog was from a time in a my life that is over. I still keep the blog. I still ... post ... kinda ... from time to time (hardly), but I don’t pay much attention to it anymore (or any of my blogs, really). There may be a time in the future where I take up blogging again. If I do, it will be a new blog, and I’ll let everyone know.

But until then, take this as a fair warning: I’m mostly absent from this blog.

Not completely absent --- feel free to ask questions and what not --- just mostly absent. Any response could take literal months to answer.

... or less than a day.

Only God knows.

Anywho, love you! God bless, Kellen

[ask-wordsmith]

Something to consider

Next Saturday I'll be 25, and I could already write a memoir.

To explain, let me give a short list of the miracles Jesus has done in my life ...

1 -- Last summer, He healed my back immediately after I prayed for Him to heal it. And by `immediately` I mean something like half a second to a second later.

2 -- I live with Bipolar Disorder, am not on medication, and am not merely functioning, but thriving.

3 -- I used to hate people. Now I actually love them: even strangers, and people who have hurt me deeply.

::: 3a -- I've sobbed in grief for people, merely because Jesus strikes me with an understanding of His love for them, and how hurt He is because of what they are doing (this includes people I have felt intense anger and hatred towards).

::: 3b -- When it's extremely difficult for me to love someone, I can ask Jesus to give me His love for them ... AND IT ACTUALLY WORKS.

::: 3c -- I can pursue people who have hurt me, forgiving them and continuing to pursue them, even though the thing I feel compelled to do is run in the opposite direction as hard as I can. Note: Sometimes this has taken months to bear any fruit. And by `sometimes` I mean `almost every time I've had to do it`.

4 -- I was addicted to pornography for 6 years, which I was unable to break from (regardless trying many times; note: I was a religious `Christian` uring this time period), which was broken overnight when I surrendered to Jesus.

5 -- I can sing/speak/perform in front of people, even a large crowd.

6 -- I could tell you about countless answered prayers.

7 -- I fit basically none of the fruits of the Spirit pre-Jesus. Now all of them describe me.

And these are only the ones I'm remembering at the moment.

Note: NONE of these are things that I've done. ALL of them have been things that Jesus has done.

I could easily elaborate on all of these --- some for multiple pages, some for half a book. The reason I know I could write a book is because that's how many pages it would take to give you an in-depth understanding (through my life experiences) about how all of these are very literal miracles.

Please also note: None of these can be explained away as me having `found religion`, because I was quite religious from age 6 to 20, and it didn't help one bit. It wasn't until I surrendered everything to Jesus that things changed --- that I changed.

Feel free to respond, if ya want.

[ask-wordsmith]

I’m still waiting for the day when a Doctor Who episode writer decides to have the Doctor get temporarily trapped in another dimension, where “Doctor Who” is a TV show.

I can just imagine him going to the conventions ...

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That lolwow moment when you realize -- after five years of being a fan! -- that the character name `Scootaloo` is a play off the word `Toodleoo`.

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Courage is the heart's victory over fear. If there is no fear, there is no courage, for what has the heart overcome? Nothing.

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Here am I, my El Shaddai! Hear my cry, oh God most High ...

Make use of me as you please, That I would bring you glory and praise to the end of my days, Walking upright in all of your ways.

Father, please, listen to my call! Daddy, please, don't let me fall!

Don't let me fall ...

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Like a beast in my bones, Clawing to get free, So my loneliness and longing Screams silently for you

For only you can satisfy Yes only you can satisfy Only you can satisfy All of me

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You’ll get more out of this if you listen to it twice in a row.

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He’s not like us.

He can’t fail you.

He can’t break your heart.

His love never ends and it heals, restoring the bones, lifting the heart on the wings of the morning, making it sing as though it’s never know love before!

His love is a wide-open door!

Let Him in, let Him in~

Give Him your whole heart.

Experience love like you’ve never before, resting in the arms of the Lord. Don’t settle for love like a polite, passing nod. Fling yourself in his arms, in his arms!

... and you’ll learn to love Jesus as God.

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Never judge a man till you've walked a mile in their shoes.-famous quote. This is a good way to get a foot fungus-not so famous quote. What does philosophy say about snapshot judgments based on initial visual impressions?

Depends: Is this before or after photoshop? :P

In all seriousness, though, “photoshop” brings forward a significant point: Our brains are natural photoshop machines.

Psychologists have observed (and confirmed this observation through repeated experimentation) that the core motivations of humanity are two-fold:

1) To be liked.2) To be right.

Well, “no duh”, right? It’s a simple concept, but it’s more profound than one might think at first glance. You see, reality takes a back seat to these two core motivations. I mean, the desire to be liked is the reason peer pressure works.

For example, there is an experiment where a group of people look at a set of lines. For sake of simplicity, we’ll label the lines A and B. Line A is clearly longer than B; there is no illusion or trickery. When people are asked which is the longest line, they answer easily, “It’s A.”

In this study, there are two groups. We’ll call them group X and Y.

A note about the groups: In both groups (~5 people), only one member is the participant. The rest of the people are called `confederates`: trained actors, which the participant thinks are other participants like them.

Each member of each group is asked this question, “Which line is longest?” However, they deliberately ask all the confederates the question before asking the participant.

Now, in group X, all the confederates answer correctly, “Line A”. In these groups, there is a 100% accuracy rate for the participant to answer correctly.

However, in group Y, all the confederates answer incorrectly. What was found is that, overwhelmingly, the participant answers incorrectly as well.

Note: These sessions were video-taped, and watching the participant’s reaction to the other people answering is often hilarious. They clearly know that everyone else is answering wrongly. Also, please note that sometimes the participant still answered correctly.

This study has been done many times and in many different ways, and there are many other studies getting at the same (or similar) idea (e.g. Milgram’s Obedience Study). What this reveals is that we are more likely to discard what we know to be the truth, in order to `fit in` and be liked by everybody else. We could go far, far deeper into that statement, as it is even more convoluted (and facilitated), but now is not the time for that.

The point of all this is to reveal that, even if our snapshot judgements were accurate the first time we make them (which they usually aren’t), we won’t necessarily act accordingly.

Worse yet, if we do lie, we are motivated to believe our own lie, because we want “to be right”. To admit that we lied (even to ourselves) would be to admit to being wrong -- and we don’t want to be wrong. We are more likely to change what we believe, or twist words and definitions and ideas around, in order to feel right about our own actions -- and this often ends up convoluting what we believe.

And even worse? We do this almost exclusively automatically, often subconsciously.

There is great power in words. Say something enough times, and we will begin to believe it, even if it began as an obvious lie.

I hope this gets at what you were asking, or at least was intriguing to read. I mean, I want you to like me. :] And on that note, I beg your apologies, for taking so many months -cringe- to answer this.

---Sources:- my studies in psychology at Miami University;- my observations and personal experiences concerning myself and other humans;- my studies concerning what Jesus had to say about humanity (which have been, and continue to be, confirmed by psychology; in fact, most of what I’ve learned in social psychology has been a deeper understanding of what I already knew by reading God’s word).

[ask-wordsmith]

I love it when I have the house to myself, and no one can hear me singing.

[ask-wordsmith]

Fun Fact #847

`Visions` may be able to be explained as `hallucinations`, but that doesn’t actually discount the veracity of the proclaimed vision. So we know how visions work. How does that change anything?

Science tells us how things work, not why they work that way in the first place, or why they have the result that they do.

And when many Muslims who converted to Christianity -- which would threaten their very lives -- give their testimonies, which includes how they had dreams which led them to Jesus, it kind of doesn’t matter how dreams work ...

... cuz their dreams still led them to Jesus.

And that’s something worth thinking about.