Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Rollercoaster day.

Not a bad day, not a good day--an up and down kinda day. For example:

Bad: Good news that might or might not work out, didn't work out.

Good: Other good news opened up that will work as good or better.

Bad: Caused enormous avalanche of metal pots and pans by coughing (not kidding.)

Good: Got replacement Lemon Demon t-shirt.

Bad: Was the wrong size.

Good: Got Vengeance of Dragons and Courage of Falcons today!

Bad: Late to work.

Good: Other good news that got canned has new hope!

So, like I said, it's been an up's and down's kinda day. My plotting is going okay, but not great. Mostly, I find that I can't concentrate very long on it because I'm too burned out from work. I'm trying to work on that right now. I can't wait to get started on the Secret Texts books, but first I have to finish Armageddon's Children. So that's really it for now. I'd love to go more into depth about my 2 good news items or how much or how little progress my writing is having, but I can't share the first two yet (don't want to jinx them) and writing wise...you know everything. Writing has been slow going/not at all through this week. I need to catch back up because I want to write, I just don't have the energy.

Here's to a better week.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Plodding through plotting

So far I've been plodding through trying to re-plot the novel but it's going slow. Part of it is my frustration over having to start all over again, but part of it is stress from work. I've had a really, really...(repeat reallys for about an hour)...crappy week at work. If I have to see one more burger I'm gonna lose my damn mind. But tomorrow is my day off and there might (might) be some good news in the future but I won't say anything until it pans out. The karma demons are just watching and waiting for a chance to bite me in the ass.

Anyway, just thought I'd update you all. Back to work.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Maybe I'll just become a vacuum salesman

Okay, I did a lot of thinking, a little moping, some head beating, and a lot of complaining. That's all anyone heard me talk about for the past couple days. Here's what I came up with: the worldbuilding is pretty solid, but the outline has to go. I have to completely think up a new outline because I got waaaay off track. My original goal was forgotten in my mad rush to think of something, anything, because I wanted to write. Well, it's had time enough to cool and when I actually looked at the outline with a stern eye, it sucks. Bad.

A big problem I have, though, is with some bare bones stuff. I had a number of solutions that I came up with but one of them would mean a change in the mythology, the other would mean I would have to redesign the map, and the other ... I need an ibuprofen.

At least I figured out why Ressto wasn't working. He's is a member in an active branch of the Revolutionaries trying to expose and overthrow the conspiracy. He should not be playing Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. The widespread sickness that I have for both the hero and the heroine came out of left field and has me scratching my head and thinking...well...what the hell was I thinking? Regardless of where the idea came from, it left the entire Revolutionary group standing around and whining like bunch of ninnies. Instead of hunting for medicine, he needs to be spear heading an operation to infiltrate the conspiracy and become a double agent so that he can expose them when the time is right.

Forget trying to hide the conspiracy from the reader, my damn teaser on my site says that there's a conspiracy. What I need to do now is try to figure out how to get Falovri into the loop. If she finds out she's been lied to all her life, that's going to cause some mega issues, right down to decisions involving her kids. Also, what I need to keep reminding myself is the main idea isn't to find out about the conspiracy, it's to find out about it, expose it, and overthrow it.

*sigh* I really need an ibuprofen. Anyway, back to the grindstone.

BWAHAHAHA!

Wind blew across the desert wasteland tracing patterns in the sand. Ressto drew his sword, a lone figure in the ocean of sand and sneered at the scaley monster before him. He pointed his sword threatingly at the monster.

"Give Falovri back!"

The monster chuckled in his gravely voice and lifted Falovri's unconcious body into the air.

"How about if I just snap her scrawny neck right here?"

Ressto gasped. "No! Falovri!"

He raced forward, his sword clutched in his white knuckled hands. Halfway to the beast, though, he slid to a stop, his animal skin boots leaving a smooth trail in the dust. He stuck his sword into the ground and leaned on it like a cane, smiled his crooked smile, and turned his back to the monster, who's gruesome claws still clutched Falovri.

"You know what? I don't feel like it."

"What?" the monster and Falovri said in unison.

"I don't feel like it."

"Cut, cut, cut! What is this!"

From above them, the clouds parted and a musty green carpet rolled down, crimping as it did like it was unrolling on invisible stairs. As it unrolled, a medium height blonde man in crooked glasses and a blue checkered bath robe rushed down the stairs, taking two at a time. To add to the man's odd appearance we wore a blue sleeping cap, the kind shaped like Santa's hat, and pink bunny slippers, whose heads seemed nod in agreement with his furious shouting and swearing.

"Jason!" the monster said.

Falovri opened her eyes and looked down at the estranged man. "Jason? What are you doing here? We're trying to do a scene."

"You!" Jason said with venom in his voice. He pointed a shaking finger at Ressto and stomped up to him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What?"

"You're supposed to be saving Falovri!"

Ressto laughed and stuck his tongue out.

"I didn't feel like it."

"Didn't feel like it! Who said you had a choice? Get in there and do the damn scene!"

Ressto laughed and stuck his tongue out. "Nanny nanny, boo boo!"

Jason growled in frustration.

"Why do you always do this to me? When I started planning the novel, you didn't cooperate, when I wrote your first scene, you didn't cooperate. Why won't you cooperate? I gave you a job, didn't I? Remember? You could be selling vacuums door to door like you were."

"I had more fun selling vacuums."

"What!"

Ressto sighed and leaned against his sword. "You've stuck me in all kinds of danger. You want me to risk my neck exposing a conspiracy, help out a delinquent girl that I don't know from Adam, and fight to the death with a monster? You don't even know if I'll live!"

Jason sighed. "I told you, I have to work on that."

"What's in it for me?"

"Just do the damn scene!"

"I don't see why I should." To prove his point he flopped down on his butt in the middle of the desert.

"You're acting like a child!"

"You wrote me this way."

"I'll make you!"

Ressto let out a dry laugh and jumped to his feet. Uprooting his sword from the ground he spun it in a fancy display before crouching and motioning Jason forward.

"Bring it on."

Jason snarled and reached inside his robe. He pulled out a small black gel ink pen, pulled off the lid and rushed forward. Ressto stared for a second, stunned, but regained his composure. The two weapons met, pen and sword. Sparks flew and Ressto let out a gasp as the pen was still whole.

"Ha! The pen is mightier than the sword!"

Ressto clenched his teeth and swung again, but the pen was there to block his blow again. Jason reached inside his robe and pulled out another pen, jabbed it forward, and sent Ressto flying several feet away.

"There!" Jason said putting one of the pens back and pulling out a small writing tablet. "I tried to be nice, but you wouldn't cooperate. Try this!"

He began to write.

"What are you doing?"

Jason laughed and wrote some more. He read outloud as he wrote:

'Ressto, dressed in the finest of ladies fall fashion, stood in the desert before the monster.'

Ressto gasped as his Revolutionary uniform was transformed into a frilly pink dress.

"Stop it!"

Jason laughed and continued to read, " 'Hopping on his white mare, Petunia, Ressto rode off to model his sexy underwear and dance for his friends at the pub.' "

Ressto cried out as a white mare appeared before him and he began to walk towards it.

"Stop it! Stop it!"

"Will you do the scene?"

Ressto continued to struggle, trying, to no avail, to turn from the horse.

"Will you do the scene!?"

Reluctantly, Ressto shouted, "Yes! Yes, I'll do the scene, just don't let my friends see me in this."
Jason laughedin triumph and tore the page out of the tablet, crumpling up and stuffing it in his pocket. He nodded curtly and began to head back for the musty carpet.

"Hey, you're gonna throw that away when you get back, right? Right?"

Jason laughed as he climbed the stairs, into the clouds, rolled up the carpet, and disappeared.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

What's 586 minus 586?

I'll give you a hint, it's less than 1 more than -1. That's how many words I've written so far. I started at my usual time--roughly 9ish--and everything seemed fine. I had to write a scene with Ressto. Ressto, if you'll recall, is the leader of the Revolutionaries. Some of you might recall a previous post about Ressto. Yes, he's once again rearing his fat little head and refusing to cooperate. Every bloody scene I right him in feels flat and forced, but I don't know what to do. His half of the story feels tacked on, but without his half Falovri (the herione) feels incomplete. Here's what I thought up:

1) Smash my head until I'm unconcious, wake up with amnesia, move to France, become a famous painter and never worry about writing again.

2) Take the whole manuscript, the world building notes, and the outline, throw them in a metal trash can, dump half a bottle of lighter fluid on it, set it ablaze, dance around it naked chanting the words to "Respect."

3) Follow PBW's lead and write a blog post about it--because you don't know what to do and you're too annoyed to write.

4) Rob a local bank and go on a cross country robbing spree, terrorizing little old ladies with yapping chihuahuas, and end my escapades by driving my car, in slow-mo, off a cliff.

5) Cry about it.

6) Replace the entire manuscript with "You suck at writing."

7) Buckle down, go back to work and try to figure out what you can do to fix it.

8) Pray.

9) Swear a lot. ("This profanity profanity-ing story! Why can't I profanity-ing fix one profanity-ing thing!! ARG!")

10) ...continue to stall even though you've run out of things to say.

*sigh* Well, back to work then.

S&S vs Authors

Simon and Schuster have changed the wording of their contracts. Instead of copyrights reverting back to the author when the work goes out of print, the book's copyrights will remain in the publisher's hands for the remainder of the copyright--pretty much forever.

Lynn Viehl, aka S.L. Viehl, author of the Darkyn series and the StarDoc series, is going to receive the rights to some of her older works in the near future, and she's thought about releasing one of them as a free e-book since the book is out of print. If she worked for S&S, she couldn't do that.

What do you think? Would you sign with S&S?

Link shamelessly filched from PBW's blog.

More news from the agent's point of view at Pub Rants: Here, and here, and here.

Doesn't sound like good news does it?

Monday, May 21, 2007

Anyone in the Vegas/Salt Lake City areas need a dog?

UPDATE: Jack's found a home!!

Playing Ketchup

Well, it's been a day. It hasn't been great, but it hasn't been bad either. I got up and had my usual cup of tea for breakfast, dropped my brother off at school, came back home and wrote for two and a half hours. I got 3,054 words today. If I keep hitting my quota like this I might have to up it. It was a great feeling, the words hit the page and they just felt right. I'll have to do a post about when I write sometime...maybe tomorrow, I dunno, but I'll talk about the Zone.
After I finished writing, I was going to post a blog entry. And that was when it went to hell. Freewebs glitched...again...so I, in a fit of rage, registered for and created a Blogger blog. So, this is where all my new blog entries will be posted. The bad part about switching was the tediousness of updating all the entries. It took a while, and in the meantime I wanted to bash my head in. More maintenance will be going on as I continue to get used to Blogger--posting entries is different than posting comics--but I plan to stay here for a while.
On another down note today, I didn't get a job that I've been praying and hoping for to get me out of the one I have now, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I really wanted it, though. My mom is trying to get me to look into another job, this one will be a fulltime job, which is going to seriously cut into my writing quota, but I'll be making more than I am now, which will help with the bills, so I guess if they'll hire me I'll take it.
Interesting development, while I was writing on Jivtor today, a new character and potential plot development popped up. I've never had this happen before, so it kinda threw me for a loop. All of a sudden, this character that I didn't even plan, just a face in the crowd is starting to grow a voice and he's showing interest in Falovri. It's kinda shocking. I'll post more about that when I see where it's going.
Anyway, that's that--my first entry on my NEW blog.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Graduation: The Day After

Well, it's the day after, and I'm still in one piece. My mom--of course--cried during my graduation. It was actually not as magical as I thought it would be. When I arrived, I was with my friend. We went to the changing room and changed into our robes. Actually that was a waste of space--the changing room was useless. All the robes do is go over your regular clothes, so I missed the point of the changing rooms in the first place, but whatever. It's their party, I'm just attending it.
After we changed, we stood around for half an hour asking people where we were supposed to meet for the march. Of course, no one knew. When it finally came time for us to march in, we stood around for another 20 minutes at least. The people at the front started getting really bored, so they kept trying to convince--or bully us in some people's cases--into doing the wave. By this time, I was sick of everyone there and if I NEVER saw them again it would be too soon. Call me short tempered, but when a guy threatens to karate chop you in the throat if you step on the back of his robes, you don't suddenly feel a bond of kinsmanship for him.
Our principal told us not to bring beachballs, air horns, noise makers, party poppers, or anything like that. Silly string must be saved until the END of the ceremony. You can see where this is going right? By the time we got to the G's the silly string came out. I got nailed in the eyes and up my nose with a blast from the gentleman who threatened to karate chop me. Then, I got nailedi n the back of the neck with the hillbilly from behind--and trust me, he was a hillbilly in every sense of the word.
A beachball hit me in the head, knocking my glasses and graduation cap in to the floor. I had to scramble around and find them. Then, someone got mad at me for dodging when he tried to hit SOMEONE ELSE with silly string. His comfort words were, "Trust me, if I had been aiming for you, I would have hit you." The funny thing was, when he actually did aim for me, he missed.
By the time we go to the M's, it was chaos. Silly string was everywhere, and I was covered in it.
That night, to the surprise of no one I know, I did not party. I went straight home, and straight to bed.
All in all, though, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. When I went up to graduate, I heard my uncle, me cousin, and my grandpa screaming louder than my friends. It was, in a sense, magical at that moment. When I took my diploma in my hands, I had the sense of my past and my future colliding into one brief moment that made my heart skip a beat in fear and amazement.
I'm out of high school. I'll be out forever. I'll never go back. Now is the moment of the rest of my life. True, I'll have to go to college, but that's not the same as high school. The wheels of my life, more than ever, are turning. I imagine I'll feel the same when I graduate from college, but it feels like this is one of the most defining moments of my life. Afterall, everyone goes to high school, not everyone goes to college. My mom, although she did go for a couple of years, didn't finish college. She dropped out because I was having health problems, and my did never finished high school. This is a big first, and it's terrifiying and exciting. I hope I can make my family proud.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Happy Graduation to Me

Today is the day I graduate. I should be asleep, but I'm nervous, really nervous. Today is the day I get the preverbial foot in the keister and sent out into the real world. Pretty soon I'll be moving out of my house that I've known as home since kindergarten and forced to live with some stranger in a town that I've only spent a total of 8 hours in in my whole life.
I can just imagine how the first day will be:
I try to drive up to the town, but become so sleepy in the two hour drive that I miss the one important turn and become hopelessly lost. I'll have to call my mother on my cell phone describing the flat landscape, the horrible smell of cow poop, and the cock-eyed stare of the local man who runs the "Hand-made knives" stand on the side of the road.
Once I finally make it to town, I'm late for Freshmen Orientation, and cause a big commotion arriving with no place to put my luggage as I missed my dorm assignment and am having to drag all my luggage with me on the detailed tour of the campus that I cannot miss or I will be come hopelessly lost and miss all my classes for the first week. After I finally find out where my dorm is, I have to trek across the entire campus to find it, enter the all-girls dorm by mistake, almost get kicked out for "peeping", and finally arrive at the right dorm hall and the right room.
After I open the door to my room, I see that my room mate has more piercings than the guy from Hell Raiser, has painted is half of the room solid black, and is currently giving himself a tattoo while listening to some rocker group that screeches so loudly and so incoherently they've reverted back to primal speech. He'll ask me what my name is, and about what time I think I'll be going to bed.
Then obviously, I'll learn that my problem isn't my creepy roommate--who likes to sharpen knives and laughs at all the gory parts of Saw--but the guy next door who looks like he's 35, is built like a professional wrestler and doesn't like "quiet, brainy guys." I, surprising myself, the professional wrestler in training, and every person I've ever known ever, spit out a snide comment about how I don't like steroid using, inbred, hilbillies....
when I come to...
You know what, I better stop now. I don't want to jinx myself.
Happy Graduation to me.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Goals

Last night, I got fed up with how I've been going about things. I've been waking up early to take my brother to school, crashing back into my bed and sleeping until noon, waking up and taking a shower, searching the blogs I read, surfing the net for a while, watching some TV, wasting the day doing basically nothing, going to get my brother in the afternoon, coming back home to waste more time, going to work in the evenings, coming home and staying up until 2 in the morning doing basically nothing but surfing the 'net and watching TV. It's been making me more exhausted than I can stand, so last night I made up my mind. Instead of complaining that I don't have very good self-discipline, I'm going to do something about it.
Last night, after I got home from work, I took a shower and went straight to bed...well as straight to bed as I could get. My brother was using my computer for a school project so I had to wait on him. I wound up in bed at 11, an hour later than I wanted to be, but that couldn't be helped. Then I woke up at 7:00, about 30 minutes late, but better than I have been, and taking my brother to school. I then came home, checked the news to see what's happened locally and to the country as of late, checked on the blogs I like to read, and then I wrote from 9:30 until 12:10. I got 2,222 words. I would have gotten more, but I had three people call me in the middle of my writing, I had to take some clothes out of the washer and put them into the dryer, and feed the dogs.
All in all, I think my goals have been met pretty well. I can't help the distractions, much as they annoyed me, but I can get over the distractions and try my best to reach my goal.
That's the thing. In life and in our writing, we need goals so that we can continually improve ourselves. My goal for writing for the day was 2000 words. I met that goal. My goal for my schedule is to be in bed by 10:00 on the nights I can help it, and be up at 6:30 every morning. My goal for the year is to finish this novel before I go to college. Will I make it? I don't know. I don't have to worry, though, because goals are not set in stone. Goals are not contracts that you are bound to and if you break them they repossess your poodle, your toothbrush and your favorite pair of purple socks. Goals are to drive you, make you work for something harder, to improve yourself, but they're not binding. They can be changed and shaped as you go along.
Remember in your writing to set big goals, because those are what you dream for--those are the top of the ladder, but remember to also set small goals, because those are steps that will help you get there. And remember to always have faith.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

If I were a book, apparently I'd be...




You're Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

by Mark Twain

With an affinity for floating down the river, you see things in black
and white. The world is strange and new to you and the more you learn about it, the less
it makes sense. You probably speak with an accent and others have a hard time
understanding you and an even harder time taking you seriously. Nevertheless, your
adventurous spirit is admirable. You really like straw hats.



Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Summer Movie Fun

For lack of anything better to talk about right now, let's talk about summer. Summer always means a few things to me:
1) Hot, muggy summers
2) Crabby angry people (usually due to the hot muggy summers)
3) Burns (from me hopping into the car without thinking about the 100 °F weather and scorching myself on the steering wheel)
4) Really great movies.
I might blog about the hot muggy summers, the crabby angry people, or my stupidity some other time, but it's the movies I wanna focus on right now. Summer always means I sit and drool over the trailers for the new movies coming out that I can't afford to see, and this summer looks like it's gonna be another great one.
First off, we have Shrek the Third. Shrek was a phenomenon from the moment the first one hit theaters. It was so refreshing to take a new look at the old fairy tales we've grown up with and put a new spin on them. Top that off with them seeming to get better all the time (with the addition of Puss in Boots) and the third one is sure to be just as good or better than the first two. Mike Myers--the voice of Shrek--has even said that the only thing that ever makes him drop his own projects is to work on another Shrek movie, and he'll have the chance to, since there's already another one being planned.
Next, we have Spiderman 3. I love Spiderman. When I was little, I grew up watching the TV show, and when the movies came out, I was ready to pop from excitement. The third one has a lot on its side to me: really great actors, continuing the Goblin storyline and the addition of one of my favorite villains ever: Venom. One thing that worries me about the Spiderman franchise is that Toby Maguire--the actor who plays Spiderman--is leaving, and yet, the studios are still talking about making more Spiderman movies. As a matter of fact, three more. Carnage--a villain similar to, but not the same as Venom--is said to be in one of the upcoming movies, and I love Carnage, but...no Toby? I hate when movies change cast members in the middle of a series so my hopes are not high for the next few, but at the least, the third one seems to be a good last hurrah no matter what happens after. It's been getting mixed reviews from the critics, but they also gave Pirates 2 mixed reviews and I loved it.
Speaking of Pirates, what's that on the horizon? Oh, it's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I'm about to wet myself over this one. Johnny Depp is brilliant as the flawed protagonist Jack Sparrow. He always delivers an amazing, hilarious performance. I'm always game for another Pirates movie, and considering how the last one left off, I'm even more excited than ever. Oh, and there are talks, just talks but still, of more Pirates movies after this one. Johnny Depp said that he's willing to play in them, he loves doing the character.
And the cream of the crop, to me, this summer seems to be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter books, and the movies have been good. Some have been better than others, but for the most part they've all been excellent. The fourth being my favorite, I'm really looking forward to Order of the Phoenix because I love the actor that plays Voldermort. It's rumored to be the scariest Harry Potter yet, and I say good! The stories are getting darker and scarier and the movies should follow that trend. After all, the plot is about a boy trying to over come a man responsible for killing people, lots of people, over the course of several years. It's not going to be bunnies and kittens (except Mrs. Norris).
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my look forward into the movies coming this summer. I really didn't have much else to talk about yet, it's been pretty slow and a little boring. Well, TTFN, ta ta for now.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Friday Snippet: Let's give this thingy a try.

I dunno if I'll be able to do this all the time, or anything, but Holly started a "snippit" group and I wanted to give it a try if I can figure out how. My snippit is from the Medium story that I was working on a few months back. I'm still going to work on it, but I need to finish my other two novels first.


___________


Hey, you! This material is copyrighted. It's the first draft, so it's probably littered with grammer mistakes, continuity errors, and other funny or annoying problems. Regardless, do not quote this material or repost it anywhere in any form, or in any other plane of existence, okay? Thanks!



Chapter One
One Wednesday morning, at 6:30 AM, I rolled over to turn off my alarm and saw the naked man. By naked, I mean just that--naked from head to toe, devoid of any clothes, wearing God’s natural spandex. His sweaty black hair was matted to his head in several places and he looked tired and out of breath.
This naked man was in no way attractive, and he seemed to be as painfully aware of this as I was. He stood with is hands clamped around his front like he was afraid it would jump off and run away, and his face was a brilliant shade of red, especially around the tips of his ears.
I responded the way any man would to finding another person of his own gender in his room--naked--I sprang from my bed and began frantically searching for something, a bat, a lamp, or--even better--a bazooka, to use to defend myself against this nude assailant. I eventually settled for my wife’s ceramic monkey she kept on a our night stand. It was hideous and I had begged her not to buy it. It was $50, and wouldn’t fit anywhere in the house. Besides, it was heavy and would scratch whatever we set it on. Now I was glad she bought it.
After a moment, realization dawned on me as I squared off against this fishy-pale, pudgy man. The man grew increasingly uncomfortable under my stare and turned his back to me, giving me full view of his nude buttocks. He noticed this after a moment and, with his back still turned, put his hands over his exposed derrière.
Moments after he’d done this, the door to our room burst open, and in came my wife with an armful of grocery bags.
Our exposed visitor greeted this new development with horror and dove under our bed with speed belying his plump stature, crying out in shock.
My wife followed my eyes as I watched this, and glanced at me quizzically.
“Honey, what is it?”
I looked up in surprise.
“Nothing, dear, just watching the dust bunnies and thinking about all the paperwork I’ll have today.”
She smiled at me, her radiant beauty filling me with a warmth only a few lucky men know.
“You always seem to carry your work home with you.”
She’s right, I do.
Once my wife had left the room, I helped my nude companion out from under my bed and helped him through the house. He refused to go first, insisting to stay right behind me. When my wife called my name, his eyes widened in horror at the thought of further embarrassment.
“Yes, dear?”
“Where are you going? You haven’t eaten breakfast yet!”
“I’ll grab something from McDonalds on the way to the office.”
I could practically hear my wife’s eyes roll from the kitchen. She detests fast food, and insists on serving only organic food at home.
“Some day, when you’ve croaked from too many French fries, they’ll find enough grease in your arteries during the autopsy to grease a 747,” she says to me regularly.
To stave off a lecture so early in the morning, I called, “I’ll order a salad!”
I hurriedly said goodbye after that and rushed out the door.
My bare friend insisted on having the car door opened to him. He sat down haughtily, as if trying to retain some dignity.
I tried my best not to smile, but it’s hard to look noble and respectable when your sitting in a tiny silver Volkswagon with no clothes on, and your face is the color of a boiled lobster. He must have realized this fact too, for he refused to meet my eyes all the way to the office.
I did not stop for breakfast of any kind.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Seniors Last Day and a Meme

Well, today was the last day for the Seniors. It was quite a day. I took my Mom's digital camera to school and got lots of pictures of all my friends. It really hit me about 4th hour that this is the last time I may see some of them ever. I'm used to seeing the same people day in and day out for the past 13 years, and all of a sudden they won't be there anymore. On the plus side, I think it finally hit my closer friends, too, because they suddenly began freely giving away contact info that I've been trying to get all year.
It's a scary thought going off to college. I'll be leaving everything that I hold dear, everything that I find comfortable. Oh well, enough sentimental junk, time for a meme. I got tagged by PBW so here r tha rulez:
Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
1) I love to make short films. Part of the whole reason that I wanted a Mac laptop was because of the film editing software on it. iLife may not be the best, but it is an exceptionally good software, and it would do what I wanted. I love making music videos, especially for the group Lemon Demon, but if I ever get a video camera I want to turn some of my short stories into short films.
2) I have a habit of watching a movie or listening to songs and memorizing lines and then throwing them into everyday conversations. Most of my conversations consist of:
Someone else: "We had to shoot it, but what can you do?"
Me (singing a line from "This Hyper World" by Lemon Demon): "What can you do? What can you do? What can you do about it?"
3) Up until four years ago, I thought fantasy was for losers, and I avoided it like the plague. I had always seen it on TV, portrayed by the geeky kid in the thick, black framed glasses and the pocket protector, and I wanted to avoid it. What actually got me interested in fantasy? Magic: The Gathering cards. The game was alright, but it was the pictures that really got me interested. So I read The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and I've been hooked ever since.
4) Some of my favorite comedians of all time aren't from this time. I love the oldies shows like "The Red Skelton Show" and the old Groucho Marx movies. Those guys were the greatest, and I have yet to find anybody who actually matches their degree, at least, in my humble opinion.
5) Like PBW, I often go on walks in the woods and pick up rocks and pebbles that I think look neat, but then forget about them and don't find them again until after the laundry has been done.
6) I don't use chatspeak--u, r, h8, l8r, idk, bff, etc. I refuse to use it. I believe that if I have something to say, it's usually important enough that I write it out. I also believe that the English language is an art. We have so many ways to say something, to not use it is to ignore a great gift.
6 a) I do use the occational "lol", but that's as far as it goes.
7) I love to watch horror movies. I love 'em. And while I like horror movies that mess with your mind better than the gory ones, I like the gory ones too. I can watch people on TV get mauled in all kinds of indescribable ways, but if anyone comes near them with a needle, I will cringe and might run out of the room screaming, because I'm so terrified of needles my mother has to come with me to get me to take a flu shot.
(Spiders will do this, too.)
8) I talk with my hands alot. When I'm actually in a conversation, for some strange reason I feel to the need to demonstrate every person's actions and show every tiny movement. I've hit quite a few people by accident doing this, too.
Okay, that's it. But, I'm breaking the rules like Jean and PBW did. If you want to do this meme, post the rules and the 8 things on your blog if you want to, but don't forget to link it in the comments so we can go check it out.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Prom Night (reprise)

Prom was a blast. First we had to go to the park for pictures, which was a nightmare waiting to happen. My friends told me to meet them at the old cabin that we have located in the center of the park at 3:30. I was the only one to show up at the cabin. I waited for half an hour and finally started searching through the crowd down by the lake in the park, looking for someone, anyone, that I might know. My mom showed up so I went back up to the park to get pictures with her.
After another half hour, one of my friends showed up. I got pictures with her, and then we went to find more of the others. We found a few, but one of them hadn't shown yet, and I was supposed to give him a ride. We had dinner reservations at 5, so we were getting pressed for time. Finally, at 5, my friend I was supposed to give a ride to showed up. We got all our friends together and went to dinner.
Thankfully, they held the reservation.
Finally, we went to the Prom. We had a blast. We danced and danced and danced until my legs were so sore I could hardly move. We all had a really good time. One of my friends started getting sick during Prom, he has Acid Reflux and eating battered jalepeno strips and then dancing and shaking wasn't good for his stomach, but he started feeling better.
Then we went to after-Prom which was okay. They had a mechanical bull, a giant wall of velcro that you could hop onto, a giant game of twister, and some strange mini-golf game where you had to wear glasses that distorted your vision to play, but that was all. It was like being at a fair with only a few rides. I couldn't do the mechanical bull--my legs were still sore from dancing. So we decided to leave. I did, however, win $12 before I left, which was a happy surprise.
Then we went to one of my friends house and watched movies with her and several other friends all night long. We had a lot of fun, and we didn't drink, proving (although I never doubted) that you can have fun without getting drunk.
It was an awesome night, a great send off to my Senior year.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Prom Night

Today is the day of prom. Do you know what that means? That tonight is prom night. I have mixed feelings about prom. Last year I had a lot of fun. My friends and I hung out all night, and then I went to one of their houses and played poker until very late (or very early if you want to count it that way). But the reason I was hanging out with my friends--and the reason I went to their house later--was that I got ditched by my prom date. This year, I have no date, so their's no chance of getting ditched, but I'm not sure how this night's gonna go. We're not gonna drink, all we're doing after prom is watching some movies.
I dunno, I guess I'm just wondering whether I'll have fun or not. It's a bit too late now, ha ha, I already spent $80 on a tux.
Well, I guess you can tell I won't be getting any writing done today. Wish me luck.
Oh, one more thing, if anybody from my school is reading this:
Please don't drink and drive!!!
You don't want your fun to be at the cost of the life of your date, or your friends' dates. Please, just don't drink, but if you're gonna drink, at least get a designated driver.
Alright, that's all for now!

Laptop Update

Hey everyone!
So I got a new laptop...I'm actually on it right now. Did I get enough for a Mac, no. But, as my mom pointed out, I didn't really stand much of a chance of that anyway. I was lucky that I got half as much as I did, and I'm very pleased with this new laptop. It's 4x as fast as the computer in my room, it comes with upgrades to all the new gizmos that I like, and I can always buy and add programs to my computer that are similar to the ones on a Mac. So, for now at least, I'm sticking with my PC. It's an Acer. I've never heard of it, but it runs like a dream. We just got through watching a DVD on it. It has WiFi, and techno-geekiness stuff that I don't even begin to understand.
Writer updates...I've added nothing. I've been studying for AP Goverment. Our AP test is Monday (gasp!) and Friday night (tomorrow night) is Prom Night, and the only night I've had off all week. I'm really tired, so I'm about to go to bed and sleeeeeep, because I won't sleep at all on Friday night. We plan to watch movies and stuff until our eyes won't stay open (after some of the "after-prom activities" that our school does).
So anyway, I thought I'd pop in and let everyone know how my laptop quest finished up. It's not a Mac, but I'm proud of it.
And with that, I'm going to be.
Hasta!