About a month ago I got the opportunity to choose a lamp from Brightech for review, and I picked the Lightview 2 in 1. It’s a lamp and it also has a magnifier, and it can be used as a floor lamp or as a desk lamp. I purposely did not ask my husband for help to set the lamp up, because I wanted to see how easy it was to set up by myself, and I did it all within fifteen or twenty minutes. The only thing was that the base of the lamp is extremely heavy so I had to be careful when picking it up. But the heavy base also makes the lamp extremely stable, even on the carpet of my office. My previous (cheapo) floor lamp had a light base and was rather unsteady on the carpet. The lamp is a bit large for the top of my coffee table, as you can see, so I ended up putting it on the floor next to me. The lamp has an option to add an extender so that you could use this with a table and the magnifier would be right at a usable height. However, when I work, I switch between a standing desk and sitt...

Gion District at night from r/japanpics This photo is photoshopped, but it’s so beautiful and inspired this short story. The Pixie Dust Sky Java’s grandmother always told her that pixies were allergic to iron, and when they sneezed, they released pixie dust into the air. When there was enough pixie dust, it made the sky appear closer, which was probably why the sky was always full of stars here in the blacksmith’s quarter of Flammelia. Java had finished her last order and had put the carefully dried and crushed herbs away on the shelves when the clock was striking midnight. She didn’t like working so late at the pharmacy, but lots of orders meant money for food and eventually the home she hoped to buy once she had saved enough. She locked the heavy wooden door to the shop, tugging a few times to make sure it was solid and strong. Rarely did anyone bother to try to rob her, since lack of medicines could affect everyone, including thieves, but once in a while, some teens would...

This fantasy romance short story was inspired by this photo prompt: Shizuoka Sengen Shrine (3428x2301)[OC] from r/japanpics The Assassin’s Homecoming The assassin had not been back to his hometown in many years, and everything seemed both strange and familiar to him. The leaves were bright green with the warmer weather, which was in contrast to the cold fortress he had left in the north. Here, life was vibrant and everything was shouting, "I am awake!" Even the practical vegetable gardens of the villagers were steeped in cheerful color. It was still daytime, but he made his way to the manor house, disguised as a traveling merchant. He would scout out the house and plan his assassination, which he would execute tonight. The manor house was on an extensive tract of land, so he had to enter the estate from the woods at the backside so as not to be seen. Security patrols were sparse, almost nonexistent here—if it had been the secret base and training facility where he...

Here’s another short story inspired by a picture writing prompt: I’m not sure why, but I’m coming up with a lot of paranormal stuff from these writing prompts. It’s fun because it’s so different from what I’ve been writing for the past few years. The King’s Daughter The trees in the King's garden were full of colored pixie lights. The king had hired a charmer to fill the trees with pixies of different species, and so they flitted in the branches, streaks of various colors like iridescent starlight. The water garden looked even more enchanting than it normally did, but it was mostly empty at this time of night, because most of the guest were at the Pavilion for the speeches for the king's birthday. One figure skimmed the edge of the glass lake, skirting the low round bushes, until she reached the jagged line of half sunken boulders that led to the small man-made island in the middle of the lake. There were pixies swirling in the trees on this island also, but they flew...

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com How can I pray for you? I will try to remember to post this at least once a month so I can pray for you. Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer request in the past. I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Loading...

I suffered a pretty severe writer’s block for the past several months (I think I’m still a bit blocked), and one suggestion was to write short fiction, which I hadn’t done in a long time. Someone on the r/writing subreddit mentioned that if you write a short story a week, it’s impossible to write 52 stories that are ALL bad, at least some of them will be decent. So I decided to give it a shot. I might post some mediocre stories, but hopefully this will help get my creativity juices flowing. My favorite writing prompts are pictures, so I went onto Reddit and found some really great ones on the r/learnjapanese subreddit. This one picture spoke to me: Sogenchi Garden, Tenryu-ji Temple, Arashiyama, Kyoto - October 2017 [OC] Sogenchi Garden, Tenryu-ji Temple, Arashiyama, Kyoto - October 2017 [1265x949] As soon as I saw this photo, I immediately had the idea to write this short fluffy piece. Feel inspired? Write something yourself and post a link in the comments! Pixies in a Garde...

おはようございます！ I’ve been offline lately because I’ve been: A) working on my book B) being stuck on my book C) praying a lot about my book D) switching to a new book to write to try to jumpstart my creativity again E) (re)learning Japanese in my spare time The Japanese part has been inconsistent because, well, it can be boring. But I found a way to make it more fun! My listening comprehension for my Japanese is not very good, so I watched Japanese anime with English subtitles. Crunchyroll has a ton you can watch with only their free membership. Lately, to take my listening practice to the next level, I started helping out with a coffee hour gathering put on by the Japanese language congregation at my church once a month. Okay, so Japanese ladies from Japan speak REALLY REALLY FAST! But it’s good practice to learn the actual speed people talk. I don’t understand most of what they say yet … Also, my vocabulary isn’t very large so many times I won’t understand because I don’t know ...