VegHead in Shreveport

HAPPY WEDNESDAY! Look at me, posting on time/on the schedule again!

About 1 week and two days ago I decided to go officially and properly vegetarian. I've always known it would be better for my health and for the environment, but living with my venison loving mother has always made it a little difficult. That's not to mention that I had never done much grocery shopping for myself until Keith came to live with us. But now I've truly dedicated myself to making a tiny impact in myself and in the world with my diet. (This sudden motivation may or may not have come from Kalel Cullen's blog post, video, and suggestion of Paul McCartney's "If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls.)

Yes, that's a smoothie bowl. Yes, it was delicious. Yes it's the only picture I've taken of food for the last week. 

So far I've found the diet to be a bit difficult. There are very few places in Shreveport that I've found that have vegetarian friendly meals. I'm finding it very frustrating that everywhere I go I get french fries, mashed potatoes, fried onions, etc. I eat a lot of bean burritos and eggs (I am not vegan, vegetarian who eats only free-range eggs and is lactose intolerant). Mostly I find going out very frustrating now when I once loved it. Italian has so far been the exception as I only ever ate Alfredo before anyway. 

Aside from the frustrations of going out, I really enjoy my new "friendly" foods, as I've begun to call them, at home. I've found so many different ways to make/mix/cook the veggies I've always loved and some I'd never tried. So far, these AMAZING zucchini fries from Yummy Healthy Easy have been my favorite go to.

I haven't made the ranch dip, but with Hidden Valley they're pretty great. Last night I also made this Fruit Salsa from The Thread Affect and it was pretty good. Pasta has also become my best friend again. I can eat pasta with butter or Alfredo or marinara and be perfectly content. 

These fruit quesadillas (by A Cedar Spoon) were also a huge hit with myself and Keith, so they're definitely here to stay. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a homemade desert so much!

As I discover more delicious ideas and undoubtably learn some things about being Vegetarian in Shreveport I will let you all know!

Have you ever been/are you vegetarian? What did/do you find most challenging? If not, what is your favorite veggie?

Friday Apology

Hey guys. This week has been pretty insane, so I don't have an original post so... here's things from recently!

This video is by Emily Diana Ruth (Emilyofnewgloom) on Youtube. It was her film school thesis and it is absolutely beautiful

Guys, guys, guys. These Dark Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts are the best little office sweet treat in the world! I found them at World Market for $4. This may be my 3rd back in two weeks. SO DELICIOUS! 

Lastly, I've taken up origami, sort of. Very simply little things, but I really wanted something interesting to do with my hands when I'm out and about. So far I'm only working on Cranes and Rabbits, but I'm proud of them.

How has your week been? What are some things that you'd like to share about your week?

Bonus Friday #1

I hope your week has been well! Mine's been fairly slow work wise and fairly insane otherwise! On this lovely Friday, I'm straying away from my normal posting schedule (Mondays and Wednesdays) to share a little something extra with you.

This Month, I've decided to take on a few different tasks/challenges/activities outside of my normal. One of these is Camp NaNoWriMo! For those who don't know, way back in November 2012 I participated in the National Novel Writing Month (see my write up here). I'm still very proud to say that my first ever NaNoWriMo was a success! But that was almost two years ago now and I've not been able to pen another novel since! So, here we go with another NaNoWriMo Challenge, Camp NaNoWriMo!

Camp NaNoWriMo is quite a bit different than November's challenge. Most noticeable is the ability to set your own word-count goals! Because I managed 50,000 words in a month last time, this time I'm aiming for 52,000 words for my second novel in the series! 2,200 words down, 49,800 left to go!

Secondly, I'm participating in the first month of the NovelTea Book Club, hosted over at My Life as a Teacup. ook for the month of July is Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore. So far so good. I really am loving the facebook group where we have the discussions about the books. There are so many wonderful people participating with so many interesting ideas and things to say that I love getting on the page 100% of the time!

What big things are you wanting to accomplish this month? Are you participating in the NovelTea Book Club or Camp NaNoWriMo?

A New Direction: Rae Goes Away

My name is Raelynn and it has been over 1 year since I've last blogged.

A YEAR! Can you believe it?! Last I was here, I was a Sophomore English major on track to study abroad in Ireland, go into the Peace Corps, and head off to grad school for Linguistics. My how a year changes things. Here are some major points:

• I'm now a Sociology Major, with a focus on Social Work and a minor in Nonprofit Administration.
• While I still hope to go abroad, I'm looking more into internships in global aid.
• Peace Corps is not out of the question, but it seems a little impractical by the time I'll finally finish my undergrad. I have 6 semesters left...
• I hope to go to Grad School for Counseling. I still love linguistics and study it independently, my heart really lies in helping others however I can. I'd love to work the "messy" cases most people don't want to know exist. I want to help the rape victims, the violence victims, those with mental illnesses, and, should I have the opportunity, genocide survivors, political refugees, and the like.
• I'm still writing. I'm beginning my second book next month and another in November. I've not yet approached any agents though, I want to flesh out the entire world to present, not just one novel.
• I have a new boyfriend. See here: Hiatus: Wii Unboxing! "(aka This is Keith)
• AND CHECK IT! NEW BLOG NAME!! LIFEDUCKS = RAE GOES AWAY! (I call that fair warning I will most likely disappear again.)

I guess those are the things that were before and now are changing, but a lot of entirely new things are happening too! Here, have another bulleted list:

• I'M MOVING OUT! As soon as Keith can find a job and we save the money we'll be getting our own place! I'm crazy excited about that, so be prepared for weird posts about moving and decor.
• I'm interning with a local nonprofit called PEP! (The Pet Education Project!).
• Keith and I are opening a nonprofit... in the future. That sounds a little weird and sketchy but it's happening and I will undoubtably say something about it eventually.

So, if you were wondering, life's good. I'm really wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging and everything I really enjoyed doing online. With school and work and interning and life it'll be hard, but I really do love it so hopefully some of you lovely readers will stick around?

That being said, since my life has changed so much my blogging will, inevitably, as well. If you didn't notice, last year, in general, my blogging was less about books I'd read and more just about books in general. I simply don't have the time to read like I used to. And what I do read I don't think anyone will be interested in. So, I think the biggest change to my blogging content will be the lessening of book talk. I still love to read and to buy books for those far off times when I will have time to read, but books take up far less of my life than they once did. Instead, I'll be posting more about my life and things I think about and do. Expect travel pieces, expect rants, expect introspection, expect DIYs and [failed] DIYs, expect recipes, expect anything. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm really going to try to dedicate myself to blogging again and that this isn't "Lifeducks" as you knew it (or didn't know it). Rae Goes Away is a just another lifestyle blog about random things in the life of a random girl somewhere in the world doing random things like someone cares. I hope you'll stick around.

Coming Home

As finals week wound down last week, I started moving my things home. I only live thirty minutes from campus, so it wasn't much of a move. Sometime before Friday (Tuesday I think, but maybe not), My mother and I discussed and I finally decided that this move home would be my last for a while. I'll be living at home with my mother and the bunnies this coming semester. I'm almost sad to leave the dorms, but I'm glad to be saving money now.

Moving home also means moving back into my old room. Thankfully, my "old" room isn't actually that old, so there's no Barney or butterflies to paint over on the walls. The big problem is that this room is much smaller than my dorm room and, obviously, a lot smaller than the two rooms I used to live in, so everything is so cluttered and I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

What, over the summer, was my desk is now cluttered with odds and ends and things I'm not really sure what yo do with. My shoes are piled, horribly, in a box. Clothes on hangers lay all over, mostly draped over boxes and such as I try to sort out what to keep and what to put in storage to donate. I'm really a clothes hoarder. I'm the worst with tee shirts. I really should make a tee shirt blanket, but I can't bear to cut the shirts anymore than I can get rid of them! Maybe I'll take a walk down memory lane and show you all some of my favorite "memory tees."

I did want to show this though. No, not my mismatched bedding, though the actual sheets are too cute and I'm really happy with them. Even the random comforter I found isn't as bad. My dorm bedding matched the purple pillow there. It looked horrible with my princess-style day bed and pretty pink everything else. Anyway, I'm currently reading Mockingjay and I'm so happy to be home for this part, specifically. Anytime I'm home, I seem to find or make time to read a lot more than I do in Arkansas with family/friends or at the dorms. I'm much less prone to lay, well, prone (ah good old Rifle Team terms leaking into my life again). I don't spend as much time laying around dreading doing anything. Instead I find I read a lot more, write a lot more, and blog a lot more.

I think this move will be good for my grades and mental health. It also puts me spending more time with my mom, which i a big deal to me if I'm hoping to study abroad soon. ;)

How did your finals go? Any big changes set for your December? What are you reading?

A Little Life Planning

At the end of last week, I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and glance through my archives here at Life Ducks. What I found was a lost of book reviews and one little post called The Question. Way back before the name Life Ducks had found me, particularly in May of 2011, I was nervous and excited to graduate high school. When I wrote this post I had just finished watching Eat. Pray. Love., a lovely movie (one of my favorites) about a woman who explores the world for a year. In the terror and confusion that was leaving the only world I'd ever known, pre-college school days, I started to think about what I wanted from life versus what I was actually working to achieve. Surprise, surprise, they didn't match up! I tell you all this as a way of explaining this post. Today I thought I'd share a little with you all about what I want and plan to do with my life, in a much less poetic way than the original post.

photocredit/photocredit
I still think this photo sums up my life dreams.

So what do I want to do? I'm currently in an undergraduate program working towards my English major with a focus on Creative Writing. What does that have to do with anything? Well, as you know I'm working on a novel at this very moment. Yes, I hope to be an accomplished author, but there's so much more to it than that.

Another thing I want for my life is to travel, a lot. That began with my first major trip the summer of 2010 when I went to Europe for the first time. This is going to continue with a study abroad program. I'm so excited that I can't even handle it. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, but I will be studying abroad. My first choice is Ireland, my second is Hong Kong. The program with which I'd go to Ireland is very prestigious  so, while I think I'll be accepted, I really need my back up plan. Either place I go, I hope to study culture and languages (especially Irish Gaelic).

After my undergraduate degree is earned, I plan to enlist in the Peace Corps. With the Peace Corps I will get formal training in a language and placed somewhere that I can truly help and make a difference in peoples' lives. My dream would be to be placed somewhere in the south Pacific or near the Indian Subcontinent. The languages there fascinate me and I hope to spend my life there.

But what can I do in the south pacific? Well, after my 27 month in the Peace Corps, I plan to attend graduate school in either London or Hawai'i. Hawai'i is actually my first choice. There I hope to study Linguistics, focusing specifically on documentation and conservation of endangered languages. And that's what I want to do as my career, study, document, and conserve endangered and dying languages around the globe, specifically in the South Pacific. 

To sum it up, my life plan is as follows:

1. Study abroad
2. Publish a novel
3. Finish my BA in English
4. Peace Corps
5. Graduate School
6. Research and conserve languages for the rest of ever.

Do you know what you want to do with your life? What are your wildest dreams?

Letters and Solitude

I do now, and always have, adored written communication. In school we wrote notes and now notes have turned to letters. Sadly, my old penpals and I have lost touch, so I look for new penpals! That's what I've been doing recently, searching and messaging new potential penpals! I am so excited to get back into letter writing with lovely people from around the globe!
I've always thought there was something wonderful about handwritten letters. I love knowing that someone spent the time and energy to find a pen and paper, sit down, and write out their thoughts specifically to send to me, and that I've done the same in return.
I really hope I find some amazing penpals again and that we can keep in touch for several years to come!

Interested in writing me? email me at lifeducks (at) gmail (dot) com and maybe we can work out something out!

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On an entirely separate note, I'm moving into my own room! Yes, I'm still living in the dorms, but soon I'll be moving into a single room, meaning I will have two beds and so much more room! I'm extremely excited! I think having a room to myself and more room to spread out will help me study and do better in my classes. 

Above is the outside of the beautiful dormitory in which I live. The rooms in this dorm are huge for dorm rooms! I certainly hope everything will be better when I don't have a roommate. Not that I don't love my roommate, I just can't handle the stress of my heavier course schedule and sharing space anymore. I still love my roommate, she's one of my good friends and one of my sorority sisters, but I need my own space. 

You all should certainly be looking forward to a tour of my room when I get settled in!

Have you ever lived in a dorm? Did you like it? What are some of your best study tips for hard course work? 

My Newest Obsession: Instagram

I finally got an Instagram, and I'm officially obsessed. I used to use Dailybooth, but I stopped that when I realized it's apparently frowned upon to post anything that isn't your face or a body part. I like that Instagram is easy to use, has filters, and I can post pictures of me, my computer, my coffee, or anything! I also really like the sharing features so I can post on my Tumblr or Twitter from my Instagram!
If you want to check out all of my photos (not all will be pictured below) my name is, of course, Lifeducks.
Do you have an Instagram? Do you love it?

A Catch-Up Post

Goodness it's been so long! School started and everything went crazy! I haven't been here in weeks and I haven't been on Twitter for about as long! It's crazy! Here on campus I don't have a computer in my room and I certainly don't have a private computer, so it makes anything I can't do from my phone rather difficult. Here we go now, I'm going to try to catch y'all up on this thing that is my life.

1. Classes are.... classes. There is a lot of reading in my classes this year. We just finished one novel in my English class, The American by Henry James, and we've started another, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I probably won't review the first, I was unimpressed. I adore Henry James and I felt that novel was such a let down from the short stories I love.
   My french class is insanely difficult. We have a student who is fluent and from Togo, a French speaking country, and he gets as many things wrong as the American students do!
   History is not what I hoped it would be. I really need to read the course descriptions better! I hoped to study the great Kings and Queens of England (ie. Henry VIII, Elizabeth, William & Mary, etc.), but instead we're studying more about the uniting of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Empire! Such a let down!
   Script writing is amazing! It's a seminar style and I really love that. Each week about 4 people have 4-5 pages of a script they wrote read. Mine is being read today! I'm so excited! I've also got almost 20 pages of my script written. Perhaps I'll turn it into a short-ish film some day!
2. Joined the fencing team. This is actually a really new thing. I joined last Tuesday and had private training that day, then went to bouts on Thursday, and have private training again tomorrow! I really love fencing so I'm excite to learn more and compete for the first time in December!
3. Roommate is awesome! She's one of my sorority sisters and our room is amazing! We took away the whole dividing-the-room-between-rommies thing and made it one big room of sharedness. It's also covered in my photography and her art!
4. My sorority is great! We just got a new pledge class of really lovely, awesome girls! I'm extremely happy to see my sisterhood grow and I can't wait to get to know my new sisters more!
5. Grad school is in the works. I've picked out my top two Grad Schools (SOAS, University of London, or University of Hawaii, Manoa).
6. Doctor Who is.... GAH! I adore this show so much! I'm currently on the two part special that is the last with the Tenth Doctor and it's so sad! I don't want to see Ten go, but I'm interested to meet this Amy Pond that everyone is obsesed with!

I think that about sums up my life since we last spoke: Dorm, Class, Sorority, Fencing, Doctor Who. Yep, that's my life. I hope to be able to get back to posting regularly, but please excuse any college kid slacking I do.

How have you all been?

July in Review

I think it was a great first month of the new, revived blog! I managed to post 14 posts last month! I'm very proud of my new project and the optimistic direction it is heading. I'm grateful each and every person who has come to read my life, which is mostly filled of books and sorority life. Thank you so much and I'm looking forward to an awesome second month as well!

I started out the month on the 6th with my introductory post: A Girl








Then followed that Saturday with a weekend write up: An Adventure in Baking

The next week was a crazy awesome week with a post every day, and my trip to Colorado!
That week we has a Book Review on Monday: The Princess Diaries: A Book Review

Another weekend write up on Tuesday: Of Sisters, Food, & Explosives
Wednesday had a very serious post explaining my school decisions: A Change of Pace
Thursday was a photo loaded post: The Great iPhone Clean Out
That Friday was the first (and so far only) Finishing Friday.
Finally on Saturday I showed some of my newest YouTube Subscriptions: New Subs!


The next week things calmed down a bit with only two posts:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Book Review
Pinning Sweetly #1

Next we had a good week with two book reviews and a haul
The Esspressologist: A Book Review
A Haul of Sorts - in which my darling Nook was introduced and given a new handmade cover!
Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft: A Book Review

Finally the last post of the month was another book review Monday in which I reviewed Choker by Elizabeth Woods.

I hope you all enjoyed last month's posts as much as I did!















How was your July?

Life? When did that happen?

When I concluded people, my friends and sister, may actually want to be around me! It's been really great recently! I've spent a lot of time with friends/sister. I've never been more thankful for my sisters and my sorority than I am right now, but I'll get back to that in a bit.

The other night I went to hang out with my grandbig for one of the first few times. It was so great to see her and just to chat about stuff. We also watched the above movie, Sydney White, which I may review sometime soon.

Then last night, I house sat for my grandmother and invited one of my high school friends over. We hadn't spoken since Freshman year, so about 4 years apart, but she is transferring into my current university, so we got reconnected. Here's the awesome part, though: At her old university, she joined a sorority, my sorority. Now that she's transferring she's meeting the sisters here and I'm so grateful! We may have never been reconnected if it weren't for our sorority. I'm so so grateful. We were good friends in high school, and having spent over 24 hours together, nothing has changed. We're still awesome friends and I love this girl so much!

How has the start of your weekend been?

A Haul Of Sorts

Friday of last week I went into town. But that's for later. First, I want to show you guys something I made that I think is pretty killer.

The above is a photo of this case I made for a Nook Color. I really like the colours grey and pink together. The front has an iPhone holder as well, and the bow is a nice touch.... But wait. Why would I, the girl who obsessively reads print books and does not own an e-reader, make a Nook Color cover?

Yes. I got a Nook.

And I love it! It's so fantastic and convenient. I still love my print books as well, but I love the notes and highlight feature of my new Nook. On a similar note, I was contact for a review and was given the e-book copy. Having the Nook makes it so much easier for me to read and make notes and highlight quotes. No more shall I forget a major or minor flaw, nor shall I ever forget to mention the best parts ever again! Nook, I love you. Books, I still love you too.

Now that book I mentioned before, the above is the cover. It's called Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft by Jody Gehrman. I am currently 5 chapters in, should be about 23 or so Chapters in, and I'm actually quite liking it. There are a few stylistic things I have problems with, but they are very minor and after the first couple of chapters I stopped focusing on the and began focusing on the story instead. As it stands as I am on Chapter 5, I'm liking two of the major characters... but not so much the main character. She just isn't a kind of person I would like to hang with, but I have no real complaints with her. I hope to have the review up by Friday. Breaking the Monday Book Review Streak? Yes. But as I was approached for this one, I want the quickest turn around possible. So be looking forward to the book review and a special surprise along with it!

Now, let's try this again.  Friday of last week I went into town to buy a Nook. I came home with two things I just love and hold very precious. The first, of course, being my Nook. The second is much much more something I'd die without (figuratively). This is Audrey: A Life in Pictures, an amazing picto-biography of the actresses's life.

For any of you who know me well, you know Audrey is my absolute idol. (And for those who don't check out my inspiration post about Audrey).She is everything I hope to be. She was beautiful, successful, elegant, humble, and a humanitarian. She embodies class and elegance while she practiced a life long service to the world. I adore her and this book means the world to me! Plus, it was on sell for $7!

And that's all I have for you guys today. I hope you enjoyed this post!

Have you gotten anything interesting recently? Do you have an e-reader? What do you think of it?

The Great Iphone Clean Out

Before I left for Colorado, I wanted to clean out a lot of the pictures on my phone in order to have room for all new pictures and videos. But what to do with the pictures I didn't want to lose? So I thought, where can I put pictures where they will never go away? The Internet, of course! Once You put something online, you can't take it back no matter how hard you try! That sounded perfect to me for my beloved photos. And where better online than on my beloved, lovely blog? So without editing, here are a couple of photos from my phone, and the rest will be after the page cut. Please enjoy a peek into what I use my camera for!

What do you do with the photos you take on your phone/smartphone/iPod/etc. that you don't want to lose?

Of Sisters, Food, and Explosives

As promised Sunday, this is the continuation of the saga of my weekend. I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow and cannot wait to see everyone and the fantastic state!

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After finishing all the baking I mentioned in An Adventure in Baking, I went to bed. The next morning, Saturday, I got up at 7:30am and began getting ready for the day. The morning was to be full of house and yard work, so I didn't snap a picture of my boring yard clothes. At 9:15 I left for the morning and hit the interstate towards the Sorority house. I got there and hung out with a few of my sisters until everyone else showed up and tasks were distributed. I actually enjoy cleaning the Sorority house, maybe it's the fact that everytime I'm there I'm surrounded by girls I love. After all our tasks, which ranged from stripping wallpaper to painting letters to dusting to weeding, we all took a break and headed out for an awesome lunch and some more bonding. 

After lunch, we all found our way back to the house and went over some awesome stuff for fall rush/recruitment, did a bit more cleaning, then broke for the afternoon.

Sorry for the horrible quality, I was in such a hurry, I had 15 minutes to shower, dress, and take this photo.

At 6pm, the real party started. It was so much fun being there with all the girls that I forgot to take pictures until things started exploding (more on that in a moment). It was a potluck, so there was plenty of wonderful food. While we ate, and after, we all sat around our main room and caught up on all the happenings of life. One thing that is never missing in our house is laughter, man did we laugh. A little later, we pulled out the board games, divided into teams, and played a rather competitive and hilarious game of Cranium. I loved seeing all my sisters' talents on display.

Finally, the sun started to set and we started lighting things on fire, or at least a couple of the girls did. Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds. On of my sister's parents own a fireworks stand and she brought a wide array of flamables left over form the 4th of July! Okay, it was a little scary to think of these girls with explosives, but all turned out well. We watched sparkly lights, didn't get arrested, and got some amazing pictures.

I was so happy to see all the girls, especially my grand-big! This is her after catching a "parachute" from one of the fireworks.

It was such a wonderful night and day with my sisters. It makes me hate consindering tranferring to another school, and another chapter, but they've been supportive of my dreams and I feel confident I've got friends for a lifetime!

Vlog: She Lives! An Update

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YouTube: I adore it.

Yes.

My name is Raelynn and I am a YouTube addict.
There I said it. I waste my life making videos, editing videos, and uploading videos.

My life: Majors/Books/Sorority/Social Media

As I'm sur you all know by now, I love books. And reading, and writing, and literature in general. Well, today it became official. I am no longer a French Major, but instead a French/English Double Major!! I'm so excited and happy! They also will have a path open for me to focus or specialize in creative writing! I'm so very very happy.

On that same subject, I finished The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. The written review is on my book blog Irrational Reader and my video review is on a new collab channel at BookishBelles. It was really good. <3

I'm also now in a sorority! I'm a Chi Omega, and I love it! I just met my big sister last week and spent a bunch of time with my pledge class over the weekend. I really think sororities are amazing things, especially mine!

I've also created a master list of my social media sites, so that'll linked in the navigation. You should totally get me out elsewhere!

I suppose that's all I got for you tonight. I hope all is well with you.

Do you do book blogging? vlogging? What are you studying? What do you think of the whole greek system on university campuses? Do you like cross over followers from various social networking sites?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the topics!