Long Time No Blog

So, it's been a long time, eh! Sorry about that, I've been very busy. Senior year is supposed to be our slacking year, but no, not me. I have to work nearly everyday, I have to study for Advanced Placement Government, and just general ickyness around the house and school.
But the money saving for my Mac is going well. I have $408, and I'm getting $25 more for taking a survey on Saturday. I've just decided to take all the money I get for graduation gifts, combine it with my Income Tax returns and go from there. I'll hopefully have enough by the time I have to go to college.
When I haven't been working and doing homework, I've been spending more time with my family because I know my time with them is getting shorter. So we've been watching movies together. So far we've seen The Prestige, Flushed Away, The Holiday, Over the Hedge, Happy Feet, Madea's Family Reunion, Casino Royale, Lucky # Slevin, The DaVinci Code, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, and The Omen. Those are all the one's I can remember right now.
And, because the school requires it, I've been reading a lot more. I like to read, but they require us to take a certain amount of tests before we graduate.
This increase in reading isn't bad, because now I'm writing more. I'm writing at school (cause it's one of the only places I can get a chance to write). Yes, I'm writing again, and it feels so good! I'm taking what's already written and planning out the whole novel from there so I don't hit a wall and get stuck. It's going smoothly, but the story as a whole feels like it's gonna be a whopper, because I've got a lot of it planned out, and the adventure that I planned my characters to go on has barely started.
Well, that's all the updates I've got so far. I'll try to post more often so you guys aren't hanging on your seat with suspense, ha ha.

Holy Freakin' Cash!

My mom has been on me about getting a laptop to take to college, because she doesn't want me to lug my whole computer up there because, 1. it's big (duh), and 2. my roommate might bring one. If I have my own personal one I can do whatever and we won't have to share/make room for two computers. Sounds good to me.
Meanwhile, I love making movies, editing pictures, making music and silly songs, writing stories, so I want a computer that can do all that very well. My first thought was, "Oh, I've heard Macs can do all that." I know they can edit software very well, the videos to Marketland and Bad Idea, two songs by my favorite group, Lemon Demon, showed me that. (BTW, Bad Idea's music video isn't as good as the animated video by TMST, found here, but it's still very good, and shows quite a bit of what a Mac can do. Oh and Marketland's video is fantastic!)
Besides those two videos, I found out that Holly Lisle, my favorite author, uses a Mac. My aunt told me she's had a Mac for 12 years and it's never crashed once. This convinced me to look into a Mac. Surely they must have laptops like PC's. They do.
I went to the Apple website and clicked on "Buy a Mac." I found the link to MacBooks ("Oh, that must be like the PC's 'notebook'.") And the starting price for MacBooks? *drumroll*
$1099
I almost passed out. So now I'm faced with the daunting task of raising $1100 before I go off to college in August. Sounds simple? It's not. I have bill to pay--teenage car insurance, car payment, house bill, water bill, gas bill, because I have to help my family with the bills since we lost our jobs a few months ago. We're lucky to have the that we have now (I use lucky sparingly, those of you who some of my previous posts know how I feel about my job). I'm hoping that my graduation announcements we just mailed out will get me enough (with the addition of my tax money) to get a MacBook that comes with everything I like and everything I need.
Fingers crossed. Here's hoping.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday! Yeah, I know, "ha ha, you're birthday is on April Fool's day. You're an April Fool's baby!" Well, I haven't been able to write that much. Friday I had to work, Saturday we had company, and Sunday we spent all day pull the carpet out of our house--it's really nasty old carpet and we're getting new, happy carpet!! Green carpet!! (the old was brown) I really hope they say they can put it in tomorrow, because I want new carpet. You really couldn't understand how bad the carpet was unless you'd seen it (and walked across it) yourself. It was 15 years old, it's not like we're grungy people, but it smelled aweful and it was sticky. It didn't used to be that bad, it was dirty, yeah, but it was okay, but something was put on it to clean it, and it wasn't removed entirely and then it dried, leaving the carpet dirty and sticky. But now it's gone!
Anyway, I know it's random, and it's not really that much news, but by golly I'm excited about it.
Oh, and I got Monty Python and the Holy Grail 3-disk special edition for my birthday. And that's awesome.

JAR: The Comic Strip with no Purpose

Hey everyone, I just wanted to tell you about my comic strip that I've started posting. It's not really that great, but it's an old strip that I started a few months back. Finding EGS re-inspired me, so I've been working on improving and coloring the comics on my down time between writing and working (bleh, another blog entry for another day). Anyway, I've been very pleased with the result. The site can be found here:
http://jarcom.blogspot.com/
I'll post the link to the first entry here and I hope that you'll all read and enjoy it enough to go to the main site for more.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjl9Yy4YtRvrJwOUfjK_8oGW6OzlmYIKyh5ukQnrhCcbDt3k_-tit7lUltKGvH6AZMYvnOH3HfQFyZiZOSKJGDC9zCQZuTzN-N37nv-xkkWLLHRk00TATzwqKThkj9e1E_NYm8WViuHm8m/s1600-h/Comic+1.jpg
Later!

Updates

Everyone, I've had the chance to write a little. It felt good to finally be able to sit down and write again. Today is the first day of spring break, but sadly, I have to work through it. I have to close today, I only work 'til 7 tomorrow (yay!), but then I have to close three days in a row ( :( ) Anyway, I hope that things work out wher eI can write more often, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Still Drudging through School

Sadly, I haven't done any writing in a while. I'm only popping in to let everyone know that I haven't abandoned this site, I'm just drowning in school work. I haven't had time to do anything but go to school, go to work, do chores, sleep, repeat until the mind numbing monotiny makes one bash one's skull against a wall. I'm about to have to go to work again too. Luckily, it's spring break at last--I'll be able to relax, and write.
Okay, before I go, I just want to mention El Goonish Shive again. If you're a fan of the comics in the paper/a fan of anime, you'll absolutely love EGS. It is a very interesting, and very well done, blend of the Sunday morning paper comics humor, and the storyline and action of an anime series. You totally need to check it out. www.egscomics.com
Anyway, I gotta go, hopefully my workload will lighten some.
Later.

Oh boy.

School has quickly caught up with me and I'm swamped with work. I'll try to post here as often as I can, but the tidal wave rush that is graduation is coming soon and I don't know how often that will be.
On a randomly unrelated note, everyone should check out the webcomic El Goonish Shive. It is a very interesting comic about 8 teenagers and the strange (often magical) things that happen to them in their daily lives.
link: http://www.egscomics.com/
To make up for my lack of being here for a while, a hilarious picture:

A Meme...Oh Mama

I had a bad day at work--I'm tired of working, and not getting paid. I get kicked off the clock no matter how fast I work, and I'm getting enough of it. So, to distract myself from the aggrivation of work, I'm doing a meme that I got from Jean's blog. It'll get my mind off of the day, hopefully.
Oh, before I do that, I wrote today, no much, but some, and I really like OpenOffice's word processing program, Writer. It's just like Microsoft Word, and it's a huge improvement over what I was using--Microsoft Works Word Processor. Not only is the layout simple--I had some training with Microsoft Word at school--but it saves files that have the same amount of stuff in a smaller size.
Writing wise, my story is doing good. Falovri has discovered an underground cavern that should lead to some answers...but more questions that anything else. I'd write more now, but I'm too mad to concentrate on the story.
1. What is your occupation? Member of Star Command--Too Infinity, and Beyond!
2. What color are your socks right now? Socks? I don't wear socks. I feel that they only take up more room in my shoes.
3. What are you listening to right now? Let me see...a car chase, a baby crying...the neighbors are being abducted by aliens again...same ole, same ole.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A cow. See, I swallowed the cow to catch the dog, but I swallowed the dog to catch the cat, but I swallowed the cat to catch the bird, but I swallowed the bird to catch the spider, but I swallowed the spider to catch Wilbur the pig...huh, I wonder how he got in there.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Can I drive one? Can I drive one?! What's a stick shift?
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Pink.
7. The last person you spoke to on the phone? The last person I spoke to was my other personality Reginald, but I didn't talk to him on the phone...
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I did not get this sent to me. I volunteered. See, I'm with the government, and we're trying to see if what's really leading to the melting of the polar ice caps isn't Global Warming, but blog meme's. Sssh!
9. What is your favorite drink? Koolaid. But ever since I drank him, he hasn't been very talkative.
10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Sub-planetarian Psychic Blatherball. What? Haven't you heard of it?
11. Ever dyed hair? No, my hair is still alive. We had a close call once around a campfire, but that was ages ago.
12. Pets? A rabid weasel. Little booger bites, though.
13. What was the last movie you watched? Aladdin
14. What do you do to vent anger? Plot against the government, vanquish evil, magical overlords, conquer space aliens in another galaxy, help avenge the ghosts of the past...whatever I feel like doing that day.
15. Favorite toy as a child? My one-armed Captain America action figure.
16. What is your favorite season? The season of love.
17. Hugs or kisses? Neither, I'm not much for chocolate.
18. Cherries or blueberries? So called "experts" would tell you that they're different, but from independent research done from my basement with a science lab I got in a Happy Meal I can tell you with full confidence that all fruit is actually made of cheese--like the moon, the Hamburgler's tie, and my left shoe.
19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? No! I hate those jerks.
20. What is your favorite tv show? The same as Dean Koontz--Dancing with Zombies.
21. If you were to go overseas for a vacation where do you want to go? Planet Glapplesnarb of the Ressecto Quadrant...but that may be considered above seas.
22. Where do you live? In the present...unless I'm time traveling.
23. When was the last time you cried? An hour ago, when I found my pet roley poley dead. Hey! Thanks for reminding me! *sob!*
24. What is on the floor of your closet? 2000 years of forgotten relics, what's on yours?
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I thought about sending my blogs out to people, but I couldn't get it to come out of the computer, so I had to mail the whole computer, then I had to buy a new computer everytime I mailed my blog out, and the postage started eating me alive.
26. What did you do last night? The ransom note I'm leaving your folks.
27. Favorite smells? Everybody knows the best part of waking up is Uncle Terry's feet stuck in your face.
28. What inspires you? Inspiration of the inspiring kind.
29. What are you afraid of? Our one true enemy--bears. (I'm with you, Stephen Colbert!)
30. Favorite dog breed? Chihuahua, the closest thing you can get to a rat on acid without going to prison for possetion of an illegal drug.
31. Number of keys on your key ring? 7500...but I also stole these from a janitor.
32. Favorite day of the week? The one that doesn't end in Y.
33. How many states/provinces have you lived in? I once lived in four states at once, but that was when I cracked Einstein's Theory of Reletivity.
34. Favorite holiday? The paid ones.
35. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? I don't drive, I can fly.
36. Ever left the country? Besides my holiday in 12th century Europe, no.
37. Favorite kind of music? The musical kind.

OpenOffice and other news.

I had a pretty good weekend. I got to hang out around the house, enjoy my family's company, and I didn't have to worry about school. But I didn't get any writing done--I either had to fill out the ACT registration forms, or I was having fun with my family, or I was working. No matter, because I'm gonna fix that. I wrote a very tiny bit today, but nothing that would register.
On another note, I'm reading a lot. I'm a good chunk of the way through To Light a Candle: Book Two of the Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. It's way better than the first one, and I'm finding it hard to put down when I'm just trying to read to pass the time.
More news: I got paid today!
Even more news...that's not really new news...and still hasn't happened: I plan on getting the other two books in Holly Lisle's Secret Text trilogy as soon I as I can get my tax money check cashed. Speaking of Holly Lisle, she's having a sale on her clinic books on her site for the rest of the week. I recommend them--Holly could write a book about watching grass grow and make it interesting. And if that doesn't tantalize you enough, she also has Hunting the Corrigan's Blood, one of her sci-fi novels on sale for only $3.00. If that's not a good deal, I don't know what is...but then again, I once traded all my Michael Jordan basketball cards because this kid told me that the colorful, shiney cards were worth more. I had to get my mom to undo the trade, ha ha.
And more on the tax money front: I got a new radio and new speakers for my car, which means much better sound, and I can play cd's in it now!
And apparently, Freewebs is gonna take a dump for the day, so I'll hurry up and finish:
My final piece of news is that I downloaded OpenOffice, which is supposed to be pretty much the same thing as Microsoft Office, but free. So far, it is pretty much the same thing, whistles, bells, and all. And it has a free .PDF exporter, which means I can put stories on here, one in particular, so people can read them and such. That'll be fun. Anyway, I haven't really used it a lot, so I'll be posting some updates on that as I find its flaws and its good, but so far I like it better than what I was using.

Story Frustrations

It's sad to say, but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Jivtor. On the one hand, I got a little over 1500 words today. But on the other hand, I'm in a bind with one of the main characters. Ressto seemed like a cool character when I came up with him--a member of the Revolutionaires, one of the key figures in exposing the conspiracy that's controlling Jivtor's government--but everytime I write a scene with him in it...the scene feels wrong somehow. I can't explain it, but the scene just doesn't seem to be coming out right. Even with a good plot twist--they discovered that someone in their own troop is poisoning everyone--I can't seem to get his part to feel right. I don't know what to do.
On the bright side, the heroine--Falovri--is coming along great. Her scenes are working. They have a nice flow, and they just seem to work. Even the villain has good scenes. But Ressto doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I need to figure it out.