Random School Day #4: eReaders

Well, I'm in school. Again. And I'm done with my work before everyone else. Again. One day, teachers won't get surprised that I actually do my work. It still bewilders me how people don't get their stuff done when they're given the time and resources to finish it in class. Whatever. That's their problem.

The thing I want to discuss today is eReaders. I understand the convenience and all of that, but I just don't understand why you'd want them for all of your books. Personally, I take pride in looking at my bookshelf and seeing it chock full of books. If I just had an eReader, I'd most likely just have a little tiny piece of flatscreen technology that took up no space and had no meaning to me.

Let me make it clear that I do want an eReader. And after looking at all the different types out there, I want a NOOKcolor. (From Barnes and Noble, of course.) There's a lot of nice features about it that I really like including the idea of going into a book store and being able to sample books and read them for up to an hour. I think that's a really good idea. As well as being able to do things like check email. Also, it allows Pandora. Which, to me, is a huge bonus because I love Pandora.

But, here are some of the things about eReaders that I would just like to say:

Maybe I'm just a sentimental fool and take my books to seriously and personally. I probably am. Some books mean a lot to me. I write in them. Which is something I can't do with an eReader. Also, the feel and smell of an eReader is no comparison to the feel and smell of a book. And it may sound stupid, but think about it for a moment.

Also, I take pride in walking around with some big book that I'm enjoying reading. People look and think, "Wow, they are such a nerd. Look at that huge book they're reading." Or they'll even ask you what book it is, and you can get someone to read a huge book. If you're reading on an eReader, people will think, "Look at that rich person reading on their technological book." Or something similar. I like being noticed as a nerd. Again, that's probably just me.

I do understand the point of having an eReader. I'm not saying their bad. I want one myself, but I don't think they'll take over printed books. I want an eReader so I can take it on vacation with me instead of taking lots of books, and for books that I kind of like, but really don't want taking up space on my bookshelf. There are books that I will probably have a copy of in print and on an eReader. And there are some books that I will just have on print because I feel like they deserve that status.

Can you imagine, in 50 years, that there will be no libraries? Only buildings that have eBooks you can borrow. You wouldn't even have to leave your house. You could just download them for a short period of time to read it and then it'll disappear off of your eReader. Library buildings won't even exist anymore.

Secretariat Movie Review

I can remember going to horse races and watching the Triple Crown races ever since I was a little kid. Hearing about all these great race horses, like Secretariat, was always just a fantasy to me. Even when Big Brown almost won the Triple Crown in 2008, winning the Triple Crown was something I could never actually see happening.

Well, Disney finally brought Secretariat to life. The biggest part that made it good was great camera angles. However, the writing and acting wasn't as great as I hoped it would be.

By some insane miracle, five different horses were found to play the horse Secretariat. Four thoroughbreds and one quarter horse. They did a great job finding beautiful horses that looked like the real Secretariat.

The movie didn't really have much of an interesting plot. The best part of the movie was watching the races. The plot and characters were not very deep or interesting. I wish the plot was more in depth and interesting.

The only two characters that really drove the movie were Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) and Eddie Sweat (Nelsan Ellis). They both were funny and serious enough to make them seem real. I reallly liked Ellis as Eddie. A particular highlight was when he ran out onto the track the morning of the Derby and shouted, "Big Red ate his breakfast this morning...!" That was a great line that I absolutely loved. Malkovich also did a great job of portraying Lucien Laurin.

The one thing that truly made the movie was the camera angles and shots used during the races. The way they portrayed the horses and the points of view they showed put a whole new direction on how I look at horse racing.

If you haven't gone to see it already, I would say wait until it comes out on video, but still watch it. It's worth seeing. Especially if you don't know the ending of the last race.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Random School Day #3/ Rant #1: Procrastination

I'm at school. Again. And I'm done with my stuff before everyone else. Again.

Well, I figured since I'm sitting here waiting for class to end because I have nothing to do because all my homework is done, I'd start a series of rants. Today's rant will be on procrastination. Because over the past years of my life, I have procrastinated, but lately I've found the benefits of not procrastinating.

I've never actually understood procrastination. Even when I procrastinated. I never understood it. Why do people procrastinate in the first place? It just all piles up and you have to do it later. Why make things harder on yourself when they're easy if you don't procrastinate?

I think, in my mind, I equate it to getting drunk to drink away problems. Ignoring your problems will never make them go away. If anything, it makes them worse. So why do that to yourself?

Honestly, procrastinating is just a short-term enjoyment that results in long-term stress. What do you do when you procrastinate? Watch TV? You could watch it later, or do math homework while you watch it. Hang out with friends? Well, they probably have homework or things to do as well. If they choose to procrastinate, that's their choice. That shouldn't influence how you do things. If they don't want you to succeed. Why are you friends with them?

Procrastination is bad. Don't do it. It's like a drug. Addictive and it will ruin your life. Get out now while you can.

Note: I'm actually posting this really late at night because class ended right before I posted it.

Until next time!

All I Need is Crafts, Food, and a Car

No, seriously. I could live like that. The title really has no relation to what I'm talking about today, but I can deal with that.

So, there's this amazing Prom scholarship from JoAnn Fabrics that I'm going to do along with a friend of mine. You make you're own dress and they give you lots of money if you win. Or get the top 10. I am so excited and I'm starting it really soon just because it's amazing. I want to make my prom dress anyways because it'll be fun. I'm also going to make my halloween costume this year I think. I bought both the patterns today.
This is the prom dress pattern I shall be making on the right:
I'm super duper excited for it. It's going to be a huge challenge but I have all the resources to learn how to make it and actually do it. So, hopefully that'll work out.
This is my halloween costume I'll be making really really fast. (Link to picture HERE, the picture won't work on the blog... It's the pink one.) Maybe. Or I'll make it next year. I don't know. Depends on the time I get to do stuff. I hope I have the chance to make it this year. I don't know though.

On another more random note:
I want a model car. To make and to build. All that stuff. I don't know why but I've wanted to since about the middle of August. I don't even know what kind of car I would make, but if anyone out there loves me, they'll come kidnap me and take me to some hobby store and buy me the stuff. (hint hint wink wink to people out there that love me ;) )

I've been super busy with school and the play and stuff. I put a link to my school's theater page on the right. Go to Sideways Stories if you want more information for dates and everything. If you want to go the days I am performing, I am in gold cast. (You would know that if you read the cast lists, but in case you're really too lazy.) Hope you all can come! And instead of buying tickets online, you should all contact me to buy tickets directly from me. That way you have an awesome ticket for a souvenir and I fulfill my requirement of tickets to sell.

That's pretty much it for now. I have homework I have to do. Like reading Ishmael and writing a 2-college-comparison-isearch-essay-rough-draft thing. Yeah. That sounds like fun. Hopefully I'll get some more scholarship stuff worked out. I want to get at least 1 scholarship done a week this year. As long as I can keep finding them.

Oh, and I had the most amazing weekend ever. Thank you, Byron. You are the most wonderful person in the world.

Geez. That was a really long post.

Until next time!

3 for 1: A Series of Random Duct Tape

So... through the past couple of days there were 2 posts that I was going to post, but I didn't have time to finish or just plain fell asleep before I posted it.

Post #1 (10.12.10): A Series of Unfortunate Events
Basically, this day completely and totally sucked because my internet was down only on my computer. And all my stuff was on my computer. I was up until about 2am because my internet wasn't back on until about 11pm.

Lots of conversations about life with Byron. Uh... yeah... that's about it for that day. There was more to post at the time, but I don't really remember it all.

Post #2 (10.13.10): Random School Day #2
Well, I've finished what I have to do in my math lab so I'm just sitting here doing nothing now.
We learned to use Maple today, which is basically a fairly-beastly-calculator-slash-document program. It's has all you really wished you could do on a calculator during Algebra and Pre-Calculus. It solves for variables for you and finds all the answers. You just have to be able to type it in right. Kind of like computer programming.

Rehearsals are going quite well for Sideways Stories. We only have a few days left. --

It was at this point the fire alarm went off and the school stood outside for about 20 minutes. Most of the students are under the belief there was actually a fire because that's an unusually long time to be outside for a fire drill. Our lunch was cut by 15 minutes. So we had a 15 minute lunch. That kind of sucked.

Post #3: Duct Tape! (Today)

I've discovered the art of duct tape crafts. If you go to my deviantArt page there is a wallet I made and an iPod case. I have also made a bag and a wallet for myself. The wallet I first made for myself has pink and black checkered flags and stripes (in honor of Byron's car). The bag worked out pretty well but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I'm unsure as to where I'll be trying it out.

Thank god tomorrow is Friday. I am so tired. So little sleep this week. It's killing me. Probably quite literally.

Oh, and I'm starting to look into scholarships and stuff like that for college. Yay real life!

Until I have time to post again!

A Little Bit of Everything

Well, I've really done it now. Seriously. I have become an organized person.
I just spent about half an hour cleaning my room just so I could do my homework. You ask how that makes any sense at all? Well, I couldn't concentrate on my homework because my room was messy. I am totally not joking here. I do have an awesome car collection building in one of my boxes though. It makes my room feel much more awesome.

I had an awesome weekend. Saw Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole for the second time. I suppose I should review that. I'll get to that later tonight or tomorrow. Sometime soon. I read the books as a child and they took up a large part of my childhood.

My cat ate my homework two nights ago. This has happened to me more than once now. You'd think I would learn to put my homework in my backpack after I finish it. Or kick my cats out. One of the two. Maybe one day I'll remember.

I'm still kind of down that car shows are over for the year. I seriously need some picture ops for my deviantArt account. (Link to the right) However, scarf season is back! Which is good, because I have about 20 scarves just sitting in my closet waiting to be worn.

Rehearsals for Sidways Stories from Westside School start tomorrow. And it feels so good to be getting back into my normal rehearsal schedule. We open in early November. We have 15 school days of rehearsal or something around that. It's going to be insane; but there isn't really any other way, is there? I'm really excited for my role as the voice of a pigtail. We're going to be completely dressed in black, on stage, using really long pigtails as puppets basically. It's going to be great. I am going to beast those 5 lines right out of the water.

Oh, and NaNoWriMo is a no go. I'm just too busy with everything. But I'm going to still be frequenting the forums and offering my brain as a writer's block remedy. I just can't completely stay away. This will be my first time not doing NaNo in 4 years.

Well, until next time!

Homework, Homework, Homework

So, I have this tagged with a bunch of labels because it just relates to so many topics. School, goals, and a little NaNoWriMo even. And some extra special news.

Today, homework is the bane of my existence. I have a lot of it. Why am I on here do you ask? Because I did homework from 3:30 to 6:30 and I'm finishing up a little break. Then right back to work. I have a lovely little book called Ishmael to finish up and write stuff on. Thank goodness that's not due until October 20th. But we have to have it read by tomorrow. I have about 50 pages to go. The real big one is finishing up my IB Environmental Systems and Societies lab. I already know I won't be getting that good of a grade, but because he won't accept anything late on this assignment I can't take more time to make it even better.

Also, I have the second half of a Jekyll and Hyde test tomorrow and an IB Calculus test. Can't you just feel my excitement overflowing? No? Didn't think so.

So, my goal is to get a 4.0 this year. Which, with all my IB classes, shouldn't be as hard. But if I can, I'll get straight A's, which is the equivalent of a 4.4 GPA. Which is amazing. Especially for me. So far, I'm well on my way to this.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is coming up in less than a month and the hype is starting to build online as well as offline. For those who are unsure as to what this particular event is, there is a link under writing links in the sidebar. (It should be to the right of this post and down a little.) And I'm debating whether I a) have the capability of doing this this year and b) if I should even try it. I'm still thinking through what I'm going to do. But I think I'm just going to be support and help for all those NaNo-ers out there.

And the extra special news is that we have our new exchange student! She is from Ukraine and her name is Stephania. (I know it's not spelled right, I'll be correcting myself later.) I've already accomplished learning squirrel in Russian. So that brings my squirrel language count up to 6 languages.

Anyways, back to homework. This has taken way too much of my time as is.

Until next time!

New Years Resolutions

Well, I found them. My 2010 New Years Resolutions that is. And there are 10 of them.
I have 88 days left and I have completed 7, failed 1, and I have 2 more that I could potentially finish. One is to finish The Burning Castle. The other is to regain the flexibility I once had.

I think 7 out of 10 is already not that bad. It's a passing grade in school. However, unacceptable in my mind. I can at least get an 8 out of 10 by regaining my flexibility. Completing The Burning Castle will be difficult to complete for many reasons.

For one, when I started the novel, my life was very different. I was much younger and I knew so much less. Now I feel that if I were to write a novel, I would want more substance in my novel than what it has the potential to be right now. I'm not sure if this is a goal I even want to complete anymore. Is it worth it to complete a goal you no longer want?

Well, for now, I'll go for an 8 out of 10. Maybe I can waive that one goal, because I don't feel like that goal is something I want to complete anymore. So 8 out of 9. That's pretty good right? Not as good as I could have done, but I can't change the past. So, I'll just learn from my mistakes and do better next time I guess.

On another random note, there's only 88 days left in the year! I feel like it was only a couple months ago that I sat down and wrote these goals.

Well, enough of that. I'm going to bed now.

Random School Day #1

Yup. I'm bored. In a computer lab. At school.
No, I'm not goofing off and procrastinating. Believe it or not, I'm already done with my classwork and now I'm just bored, looking for places I can be online without getting in trouble. This is, surprisingly, one of them.

Random Fact of the Day: "I want lobster with butter." in Spanish is "Yo quiero langosta con mantequilla." In case you ever go to Spain and want lobster with butter.

The topic of the day: Atlas Shrugged

I'm still reading it. After about... 3 months or so, I almost know who John Galt is. Do you? Well, I think you should. Don't tell me if you do. I'll come back and tell you about it.
Let me say, Atlas Shrugged is rightfully placed as the second most influential book in the world. It has so many good thoughts and quotes and stuff.

And let me make one thing clear, just in case some of you people do read this. I don't agree with every single point in this book. And I doubt anyone will except for Ayn Rand herself. Atlas Shrugged is a very black and white book, but it's that way for a reason. If she wrote this book with grays and shadows that were unclear, this book wouldn't have done anything for the world.

I'll come back and write a lot about it later, when I finish it. (350 pages to go!) For now, I'll just suggest that everyone else read it. And update the quote page with a bunch of Atlas Shrugged quotes.

Well, 'till next time!

The Red Pyramid

I finally got it finished and wrote the review! I’ll do a little review at the start without spoilers, but it’s a great book and I want to do a more in depth review, which will no doubt have spoilers in every other sentence.

Rick Riordan has written another brilliant beginning to what I hope is another great series. He, once again, has his mythology down to a tee and makes it interesting. Even for the people who aren’t mythology nerds. Which is a huge attraction of his books. The whole book keeps you on the edge of your seat, with various twists and turns. I found the book a little predictable, but the very ending I did not see coming at all.
When I started reading this book, I was skeptical if Riordan could pull off another modern mythology series. However, he pulled off another great feat. After conquering Greek mythology, Riordan moved straight to Egyptian mythology and pulled it off just as easily. I recommend the book if you enjoyed Percy Jackson, because the writing style is the same and just as entertaining. I give it a solid four out of five stars.

Since you might not read on in avoidance of spoilers, I'll put my little announcement here. The next book I hope to review is Artemis Fowl and the Atlantic Complex by Eoin Colfer. Which will be up in a week or so.

Now, we move into the spoiler part of the review. If you haven’t read the book yet, I don’t suggest moving on, unless you aren’t even planning on reading the book anyways.





THERE ARE LOTS OF SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(in case you don't know, I hate spoilers, so I feel obligated to warn you so a horrid fate does not fall upon you)





Parts I absolutely loved (pros):
Wonderful, engaging characters. In particular, I especially liked Bast and Anubis. (I’m a girl, whaddya expect?)
The “godling” concept and how the second consciousness in Sadie’s and Carter’s head was presented. It was told in a very simple way and not overused. I loved it.
Learning about things with the characters. The magic, the hieroglyphics, what happened with their mom.
I don’t know if I’m crazy, or this was in every copy of the book, but the random hieroglyphics in the book. I want to figure out what they mean at some point, I have all of them post-it noted.
The little plot twist with Amos and Desjardins (sp? I don’t have the book with me) and who was supposedly hosting Set.
The whole Zia isn’t really Zia.

Stuff I wasn’t too crazy about (cons):
There didn’t really seem to be a difference between Sadie and Carter’s voices in the writing – which proved itself a little confusing. After a while, I got used to looking at the name at the start of the chapter or looking at the top of the page, where it conveniently tells you which character’s point of view you’re in.
The only other thing I really didn’t like is how it was presented as a transcription of an “audio recording” and randomly there would be in brackets of them conversing with each other in the present.
I wish they went more in depth into the bloodline thing. The Kane family is mentioned a lot, but they didn’t say much about the mom’s bloodline. Or even her last name if I remember correctly.
Other than that I really loved the book.

Inception

I am fully aware that this movie has been out for a long time, but I still feel the need to review it. I believe I’ve put together a completely spoiler free review, so no worries to those who haven’t seen it yet.

Inception is another great movie from Christopher Nolan (who also directed The Dark Knight among other movies) Another amazing, mind-blowing movie. I went into the theater expecting a great movie, just because of all the hype I’d heard from friends. I came out of the theater unable to think. It was quite literally “mind-blowing”. It makes you think about so many levels of reality and so many aspects of the inner workings of the mind. I congratulate everyone who worked on this movie for not going insane.

Now, going into the theater, I actually didn’t know that much about the movie. I was aware that the movie was about dreams and creating them. Other than that, I knew that it starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, two very popular, talented actors. Besides them, this movie was full of familiar faces: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I recognized from G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra as well as a number of other movies, and Ken Watanabe, who many will recognize from The Last Samurai.

As well as a star cast, this movie had great writing and dialogue, which, nowadays, is a rare thing. I was surprised at the lack of romance in this movie, but not disappointed. It would have taken away from the plot itself.

The plotline in this movie is very complicated, and I don’t suggest it to someone who just wants to casually watch a movie. It makes you think the whole time, and if you left to go to the bathroom, you’d come back more confused than when you left. As well as thinking the whole duration of the movie, you’ll be thinking about the movie the rest of the day and well into the night.

The special effects in this movie were great and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Not that they were anything special in and of themselves. However, the way they are used within the movie and plot is great. I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t made in 3D, but with the intenseness of the movie, it might have been a little too much and a little too overwhelming.

I did see the movie in IMAX, which, in the case of this movie, is exactly the same as regular showing, except on a much larger screen with better sound quality. Would I recommend seeing it in IMAX? If you have money to spare, it will add to the experience, but you won’t lose anything if you just see it in a regular showing.

All together, I give this movie 5 well-earned stars. A great movie I highly recommend seeing to anyone who’s looking for a new, interesting movie. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

New Writing Excerpt Up!

Well, as you can tell from the title of this post, I put a new writing excerpt up. However, I use the word "new" loosely. It was written during JulNoWriMo last year, but it was really edited and polished from the original version. Including a POV swap. Which was interesting.
I'm still working on this story and trying to get as much edited as I can before Writers Conference, which starts in like 13 hours. I should probably finish packing and stuff, but this, I have decided is an essential part of getting prepared for writers conference. Especially the new excerpt.

And I know I said my next post would be a review of The Red Pyramid. I lied. I'm sorry. I'll finish it as soon as I can. I was a bit busy today. I promise I'll get it up as soon as I finish the book though! Which should be in the next couple days.

Oh, and a review of Inception, which is a mind blowing movie of epic proportions. That should be up soon too.

The Ending of a Journey

I am officially finished with JulNoWriMo. I am completely aware that there is, in fact, one more day left in July. However, I am busy for the majority of that day. (Thank you, Byron.) So, I figured, why not finish early? So I did.
Writers' Conference starts on Monday, and I am not going to be using either story that I wrote during July. Crazy, right? Well, as I wrote these two stories, I found that I much rather enjoyed my novel, currently titled The Burning Castle, but is subject to change.
So, starting tomorrow, I will be editing that novel in preparation for Writers' Conference. Which, by the way, from what I have read, is really bad. Considering most of it was written between the hours of 6pm and 10am.
So, JulNo has ended.
Hopefully, I'll actually keep up with this blog. And I really think I will, because I am quite enjoying this blogging thing.
Next post will be The Red Pyramid review. For sure. Because I'm only about 100 pages from finishing, if that.
So, until then!

Drag Racing

Well I fail at life. I completely forgot to talk about drag racing on Friday. (the 23rd, I believe) Byron drag raced his car for the first time. (For those who don't know, but still care, it's a 2008 Ford Mustang GT - Grabber Orange with some striping, other than that it's stock. Oh, and mufflers) I hope I got that all right... :/
He only ran 8 times. However, he got up to 97.25 mph at the 1/4 mile mark a couple times. I don't think he ever got worse than 93 or 94mph.
There's not much else to tell. It was pretty intense. There was a BelAir that was totally beast. It got to 118mph. Which, for a BelAir, is amazing. It was a 57, I believe, but possibly a 56.
Yeah, I'm still reading The Red Pyramid, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'll have a good review up within the next couple of days.

One of my fish died yesterday. Just to mention that.

JulNoWriMo update: Haven't written much today, hopefully I'll get up to 60k or 61k today.

Until I remember something else!

Living Life to the Max

Wow, I've been gone for a while... Geez... Sorry, I didn't realize time was passing by so fast.
I have been having a blast though, doing a little of this and a little of that. I'll just go through some of the important things. Warning, this could be a particularly long post.
Friday: Well, it took me forever to get to sleep the night before, so I did this whole trip on about four hours of sleep. Just keep that in mind.
I woke up around 3:30AM and Byron, his cousin, and his dad picked me up around 4:15AM so we could get to the Pony Trails, about 4 hours away, on time. It was a little weird getting hungry for what I would consider lunch, as it was my second meal of the day, around 8 or 9AM instead of about 2PM or later.
This event proved itself worthy of the four hour drive within seconds, however. There were about 400 Mustangs in total. Some really nice old ones as well as some brand spankin' new ones. Byron's car didn't stand out very much in this crowd. Which is saying something.
We drove another 2 1/2 hours North on the Pony Trails which made our journey home about 6 1/2 hours. Plus the hour or two we got stuck in traffic. Which brings our total hours in the car on Friday to about 14 or 15 hours.
Saturday: Well, nothing really huge happened on Saturday. It was Katie's last day here, so Byron spent his time with her, while I enjoyed my time alone in the house. I mostly just played piano and sang as loud as I could the whole time. We washed Byron's car and detailed it a little to get ready for the show the next day.
Sunday: Well, this time I got to sleep by 10 or 11 the night before, so I had an extra hour or two of sleep compared to Friday. We left at about 4:30AM this time. However I woke up at about 3AM and couldn't get back to sleep. So... yeah. This show was possibly the most amazing moment of my life. There were about 1000 Mustangs at this thing all told.
Best part? Steve Saleen was there. THE Steve Saleen. I met him. He signed my jacket that I bought while I was there. I hardly let it out of my sight anymore.

The next few days were a bit blah. To be honest, I don't really remember what went on. We washed Byron's car at one point. Totally detailed it and everything. Watched some movies. Went to PSI. Don't really remember anything too specific actually. I feel like a bit of a bum because of it.

As far as JulNoWriMo, I am at about 59k. Everything's doing pretty good.

I should post my first book review soon. Most likely it will either be on Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan or The Red Pyramid, which is Rick Riordan's newest book. I'm also reading a couple other books. So it's just a race to see which book is the most entertaining and attention grabbing.

Until next time!

Bye for Now!

Well, the weekend starts tomorrow (sort of, because it's Friday... my weekend does anyways) and I am leaving at 4:15 AM because I am insane and love cars just that freakin' much! I am like busy, wall to wall, jam packed, planned out to the hour, for the next few days. Until the end of Sunday. And I will be traveling to Washington, Southern Oregon, and back to Washington on these days. Why? I'm not exactly sure. (Yes, I am. I just don't feel like talking about it too much.)

The Washington thing I'll tell you about though, because it is so amazing! It's the MCA Grand National. If you don't know what that is, you obviously aren't a car freak, but that's okay, not too many people are. Well, go Google it, and you'll realize that it's pretty amazing! And also a 4 hour car ride, excluding traffic. So I'm going to bed REALLY early. Like, I wanted to be in bed and asleep an hour ago. So I'm going now.

And Saturday is Da Vinci Days in Corvallis. Which is like a giant nerd fest. Google that if you wish too.

I'll hopefully post on Saturday night maybe, but until then!

Night! (??? I've never said that before, it's kind of weird...)

Goodbye to Writing?

Ha! Right... as if I would do such a thing. However, my writing for JulNoWriMo is about to get a whole lot tougher. A very important person to me just got back from his two week vacation. I spent a while with him and stuff, however, the next few days are going to be torture for my writing. I'm pretty much spending the whole day with him every day. And it's definitely worth it, though. I'm going to be working extra hard to get to that 75k. Said very special friend (*cough* boyfriend for those who hadn't picked up on that yet *cough*) is going to hold it over me for ages if I don't get to 75k.

The fish are doing great. They're really fun to watch and I can't believe I'm going to have to leave them after knowing them for such a short time! It's okay, I'll be coming back.

So, I'm going to write a whole bunch now. Because I want to get at least 40k before I sleep. (Ha! That's a good one!) However, I do want to regain my place in the top 40. I've been a bit busy doing other things. Such as getting fish, and watching old Disney movies, and other things like that.

All right, time to go write.

Word Count, Books, and Fishies

So, I got fish today. I'll hopefully get a picture of them up soon. They are Tequila Sunrise Guppies for those who would like to know, and there are four of them. Their names are Don, Joe, Tim, and Glenn. And if any of you understand why, you will be considered forever amazing in my book.

So, my word count is kind of epically failing. So I'm working on Not Guilty right now because it was recently demanded by a new reader. So, I'm going to try and finish chapter three by the time I go to sleep tonight.

Another awesome nerd thing I found out about today, at like one in the morning, is a reading competition thing at the library. And if you read and review books, there are prize drawings and other awesome things. Like gift cards to amazing places, except for the Coldstone Creamery. I'll give that to someone if I get that. As a present or something, I suppose. And I'll write big, long, awesome reviews so I can count those towards my word count. Because it's allowed apparently. And I'll be sure to post them up here. The competition goes through August 15th, I think. So I'll have some other time to do that.

Right now, I'm reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson. And it's really good. Unique, but so far it is good. That'll be the first review I post ever on here! Yay!

And the whole TV in my room thing is very awesome, I must say. I love watching old movies.

Reading Disney's Lord of the Fish

Well, I think the title just sums up my day.
With the huge motivation streak I had yesterday, I successfully cleaned my room. A lot. My closet is completely clean, and I managed to get the corner of doom clean. (If you've been in my room you might understand.)

So I now have a TV player and a VCR in my room. So I've been watching old VHS tapes. These mostly being old Disney tapes: Tarzan, Hercules, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. I am currently watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, for the first time, commercial free, in a very long time. Because we only own it on VHS. I think I am going to go garage sale-ing (is that a word?) and find Mulan and The Beauty and the Beast and other old awesome movies I don't own. And maybe a few replacements for the worn out ones.

The fish thing is another reward for cleaning my room. Because my closet is unimaginably clean now. I am going to get a betta fish later today (hopefully) or tomorrow at some point. I am so excited. I've missed having fish since I had to get rid of the last ones. I think it would be a really cool thing to have. Like a huge tank with lots of awesome fish. But I'm going to settle for a Betta fish right now. Male of course. They're really pretty and bright.

I've also had the huge urge to read a lot right now, and I think I'm going to actually start a reading list, because it's just getting so long. I don't know how much more I can keep in my head.

All right, back to Lord of the Rings and writing.

Oh, and a JulNoWriMo update:
I'm almost at 36k. I lowered my goal to 75k (I don't remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but whatever) instead of 100k because I'm just too busy. I'm ahead for a few days, but I would like to have 50k by the time Byron gets back on the 14th (in 2 1/2 days!) so I should probably start writing a little more than I am at the moment.

Okay, now back to LotR and writing.

The Beginning of a New Journey

Well, it's started. A huge step in my life. A huge journey.
I've begun the hunt.
For a job.

Call me crazy, but I think I can get a job. Even with such high application rates and everything, I really hope I can get a job. Really, really badly. Because my life kind of needs it. I need to be able to support myself and having a job is kind of central to that.

Hopefully, it won't get in the way too much of theater. I really hope it doesn't, because I think I would enjoy having a job. It would be good for me. I could get a car and pay for gas and - well, that would be about it, but I really hope I can get a job. Somewhere.

If you're a company, and want to hire me, that'd be great if you could let me know!

Self Discovery

There are a lot of things you find out about yourself when you get your driver's license. For instance: I talk to myself a lot, when given the chance. And take part in singing many Disney songs when on my own in a car.
Today I took my first real trip by myself in my car. It was only like 30 minutes each way, which isn't too long, but long enough to go through some self discovery.

Well, in case you haven't noticed yet, I really don't have that much to talk about.

Oh, I started Novel Swapping today and sent my first 3 chapters to someone who requested it. And I officially love them, because they gave me a glowing review. I sort of think they're insane, because it hasn't been edited or anything. However, I love them anyways.

JulNoWriMo update:
I got to 32k just before midnight (which was only about 20 minutes ago) and I'm hoping for 1 or 2k more before I go to sleep tonight, because I am surprisingly not tired whatsoever.

Note to self: Clean room

My Poor Laptop

She's getting old. And I say she purposely, her name is Penelope.
I've had her for three years, and it's been three wonderful, great years. And I never want to replace her. However, her disc (disk? Is there a correct way to spell this?) drive is breaking down. It takes three or four times at least for a cd to stay in the drive and then a couple more times to read it.
I feel for her, and I understand she's getting old. But is it too much to ask to read the CDs I'm trying to upload? I hope not.
GET BETTER PENELOPE!

JulNoWriMo Update:
It's 8 days into JulNo and I'm pretty much right where I should be. This is a bad thing. Because I am really busy the second half of July and will need as much written as possible before the 14th or 15th. I got the 25k last night, and I'm going for 30k tonight. I am well on track for this too. I feel like a beastly writer of beastliness today. :)

Earthquake Hits SoCal!

It was a 5.9, for those who don't know.

I actually heard about it as it was happening. I got a text from someone as I was reading about it happening on Twitter and then I read it on the JulNoWriMo forums as well.
There hasn't been any damage reported as of yet, but I thought I'd let you know.

I don't know about you, but I find it interesting that as soon as something happens, it's on Twitter. I heard it from Larry King himself.

JulNoWriMo update:

Almost at 23k. I have the extreme urge to clean my room, and it's very strange. So I am going to do that after I get to 25k.

Writer's Block

Writing Vocabulary of the Day: Writer's Block (n.)
def. Hell.

I have the worst writer's block as of this moment. I don't even know what to post on this blog.

I was asked this question today: Why are you writing 100,000 words for JulNoWriMo? Why are you even doing JulNoWriMo?
My answer: I really don't know. It's like asking me why do I breathe. It's just something I do.

In other news, a JulNo update:
I reached 21k by the end of yesterday (and yesterday ended as of 50 minutes ago) and I am hoping for 25k today as well. I hope I actually get this goal today. It's only 4k, and I have a leftover Carls Jr. burger that I would like to eat when I finish.

DMV Clichés

Today, I passed another test into adulthood. I survived the DMV.
Yes, I also got my drivers license, which I am ecstatic about, but I find the fact that I survived the DMV with a smile on my face the whole time much more amazing.

All in all, it actually wasn't too bad. The written test was very easy and simple. Mostly just logic, and some was knowing what the DMV wanted you to say. The driving test was even easier, because I live in the city (suburbs to you HUGE city people) and I'm used to driving on freeways and high traffic areas, but I took it at a DMV that is not even near a freeway. So that was simple, though apparently I speed up too much when changing lanes... That's what I was taught in driver's ed. though, which is run by the state... Government, can't live with it, can't live without it.

So, the DMV cliché of the people being grumpy and unhelpful I think comes from the people who either A) Go late in the day, when all the people have been working all day or B) Are grumpy and unhelpful themselves. I went at 8:00 AM which is only 30 minutes after the DMV opens, and everyone was rather cheery. So, that's not my problem until I have to renew my license.

And a JulNoWriMo update:

I did not reach 20k yesterday, I didn't even reach 18k. My brain shut down on me, so that didn't work out to well. I just took a break from writing, and hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things and be a total beast at writing today. I would like to get 23k minimum, and hopefully 25k, which is a total of 7k for me today. Wish me luck!

JulNoWriMo '10

I figured I'd kick off a blog today, because I'm busy procrastinating from writing. Even though my new world is extremely intriguing. And PlotZilla is taking over my mind. Don't know what JulNoWriMo is? Don't know what PlotZilla is?

Well, here's some vocabulary you're going to need to know:

JulNoWriMo: stands for July Novel Writing Month. It's where a whole bunch of crazy writers all get together and everyone tries to write 50,000 words in a month. Some go for a higher goal, like me, I'm going for 100k. Some people I know are even crazier and are going for 200k+

Plot Bunny: I constantly have people ask me what this is. It's a little story idea that you have. I don't know why it's called a plot bunny but I assume it has something to do with the rate they produce other little plot bunnies.

PlotZilla: Short for Plot Godzilla, the name I have given the idea that I got a couple days ago. He's sent from heaven to make my JulNo '10 a whole lot easier to write.

So, a lot of us procrastinate by writing somewhere else. Like I am right now. I'm currently at around 16.5k and am hoping to get around 20k by the end of the day, which is in 5 hours. So I am going to stop procrastinating now, and go build a world.