Quick Check In

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that I'm alive. I've been swamped with end of the year essays, projects, and finals are coming up. Thank you all very much for your suggestions, you helped me a lot. I definitely have a good idea. Gotta go, I'm still very busy.

Lesson To Learn

In my teaching class, have to come up with a 20 minute lesson to teach on. For the life of me, I can't think of anything to come up with.

The first lesson I had to do was a 7 minute lecture. I chose "How to Write a Novel," and I covered the basics of brainstorming, outlining, and revising. Writing is my love, so I'd love to do another lecture on that, but I don't know what to do it on. If you guys have the team, please leave me some ideas in the comments. I'd really appreciate it. My lecture is on the 28th.

Thanks for any help you guys have.

Best. Birthday. Present. EVER.

We got in the mail today. Best birthday present ever.

(P.S. Updated profile and pic.)

The Bates Motel

Gather round ye lads and lasses and I'll spin you a tale of misery and woe. For on this trip that was such a dreary occasion, the Rayburn family was expecting to have some fun. Unfortuantely, it was not in the cards. The family set out, soon to find that the tv that was expected to work in the van, did not. The movies brought along were useless, as were the video games, and time began to slow. Music can only occupy for so long, and with only one device to listen on, the children were soon sqwabbling over who would get it next, and for how long. Ye it was a long drive, and one taken with few bathroom breaks, as the highway department had apparently been studying our heroes trip, and new to remove all bathrooms, or directions to them.

After much whining and biting of heads, our troop did stop at a quant little inn. Ignoring the ominous skulls and spears and vultures skulking about the premises they went ahead and booked rooms for the whole week. Oh woe, for little they could guess the terror that awaited them. The young manager introduced himself as Norman, a kindly young man, if a bit on the odd side. It seemed odd that he sold weaponry as well as cars and rooms to stay in -- almost as if he were providing one with all they would need for a dastardly night on the town.

Once in the room, the fabulous family was greeted with a shocking sight, one that left them depressed and downtrodden. The walls were dirty, the lights were non-working or dim, the room did swelter, the bathroom was effing freezing, but bearing a forced grin the fam did drop bags and prepare for nighttime. The oldest boy Rayburn, Jason his name was, did learn another horrible truth. Apparently, back problems are a favorite for the fates to play games with, and Jason learned that his back would sing a glorious ode to pain, as the mattresses were built like square bowls, everything sloping toward the middle.

Ye while the beds were unfortunate enough for our heroes, the fates had more in store. For what did Jason find when he rose in the night for a Tums, why bugs invading the room. Much worse than the run-of-the-mill-bug, these bugs were decended from the Huns. They raced in carrying spears and daggers, swords flashing and knashing their teeth. Many a one had a moustache that reached to the floor, which they enjoyed to twirl while they sneered at our tasty looking family of the world. Having slept almost none and already awake, Jason's mother rose to help him find the antacid since he didn't pack the medicine and had no flipping clue where anything that he needed was, but ye, she was ready for the surprise onslaught. Armed with a can of bugspray and a swatter of flies, she beat the demons back to their hole, where they would tend their wounds and plot revenge.

Once Jason had returned to his bed, he learned sleep would dance out of his grasp for the remainder of the night, for lo, did the bathroom grumble and hiss. It seemed the toilet never stopped flowing, and the mystery hidden in the walls threw a festival next to his ear. But surely, if that was enough, more still came to plague him. For while he tried to block out the noises of the room, he heard worse noises still. People in the next room did socialize, with their video boxes blaring loud and true, defiant of what decent people have dubbed "quiet time." What's more, they had kids, who delighted in stomping and screaming and yelling. When the neighbors weren't creating it, the traffic outside would unload noise at the most inopportune times. A fleet of diesels and an armada of motorcycles traveled the road that night, and Jason was awake to count every one.

By dawn the next morn, our heroes were ready to flee from the Bates Motel. They rallied each other from their uncomfortable sleep, and packing their bags in a manic frenzy, canceled the rest of the stay and ran for the hills, to a shining home-away-from-home on a hill, a blessed promise land known as Helluvalotbetter, where they would reside for the remainder of the trip.

Next time, lads and lasses, I shall spin ye more webs of the Rayburn woes, including the Tale of the Stingy Shed Ogre, and the Incredible Shifting Town of Nowhere.

Happy Birthday Me!

Back

I'll post a real post soon, I just wanted to let you know that I'm back, and kinda strung out. I'm going to take the day to relax and rest, because tomorrow it's back to school!!! (*barf*) and I've got to be ready for that. I'm worried about my tests, it stormed all night, so I couldn't sleep . . . *sigh*. Mantra to repeat: Reeelaaaax.

Beat

Oh, I'm so exhausted. I haven't had a very good nights sleep all week, I've had heartburn every night, or felt like I've had to throw up, I had to be in court yesterday, and today I have all kinds of stuff to take care of. Wish me luck.

Happy Belated Easter

Hey guys, happy belated Easter. I'm on the road, out of state, on spring break, and trying to take care of somethings on the legal end of my dad's estate. I didn't think I'd be able to post, and I'll explain more later, but after the nightmare that was yesterday/this morning*, things seem to be working out for the better, at least for now.

*Trust me, it's a doozie of a story.

Twisted Tales

This is a post I had planned a while back. I found it saved as a draft and thought I'd post it for you guys.

A while back I mentioned that I found an interesting book. It was called The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. It's the "true" story of Alice of Wonderland. In it, Princess Alyss Heart is from an alternate dimension called Wonderland, and she's next in line for the throne when her crazy aunt Redd kills her mother and takes the throne for herself. Then, Alyss and the kingdom's best mercenary, Hatter Maddigan, flee and accidentally wind up in our world. Recently I've noticed more and more books and exposing the “truth” behind many of the myths and stories we've come to know an love. The King Arthur movie, that Santa's Slay movie with Bill Goldberg, The Looking Glass Wars, all the way to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, we love hearing a new twist on the old classics. I can't help but wonder what other stories will be re-examined, and who wind up writing them?

• The story of a man who almost ruined everything. Rumors have spread that some scientists in England discovered a way to travel through time. The discovery was accidental, but shows to actually have many practical applications for the field of ancient history. Everything begins to fall apart, though, when one of the top minds who helped develop the time travel device goes missing – along with the device! Now it's a race against time – and through it – to discover where the missing man went, and get the device back. This summer's action packed read! It made number 3 on the New York Time's bestseller list, James Patterson's next thrilling novel, Where's Waldo?

• Hansel and Gretel came to America expecting to make it big. Unfortunately, the biggest thing the 400 pound twins found were the costumes they have to wear everyday at The Gingerbread Mansion, a small, rundown local amusement park. They feel unfulfilled and homesick, but things look like they're turning around when they save a pro-wrestling agent from a mugger while he's on vacation. They're soon on the high rise to fame, but things take a turn for the worst when they get an invitation to go on a guided hike through the Colorodo Rocky Mountains. It seems a jealous and bitter amusement park manager is determined to get her best employees back . . . or else. “Cannibals, candy, and an astounding trapeze act, this book is fun for the whole family.” -- Charlie Chuckles, Radical Reads Magazine. “Judy Blume does it again . . . Hansel and Gretel: The Tales of Two Tubby Twins is a fantastic read for all ages.” -- New York Times
  

Last one, I swear, but these are so much fun to write.

• Georgia Rogers just wanted to have a good baking party. It was December, and the semi-finals for the Sweetsville Cooking Contest were just around the corner. She really wanted to blow the judges away with a holiday treat. When she goes to the library to do some research on some of the more obscure holiday treats, she stumbled across an ancient and tattered cookbook. Intrigued, she took it home. She was unaware of the terror held between the pages of that decrepit, leatherbound book, for when she decides on a recipe to try, she unleashes the bloodiest, most horrifying thing the world has ever seen. “King reigns supreme!” -- Michael Mitchellson, Maniacal Mystery Magazine. “Stephen King's The Gingerbread Man gave me chills. I'll never look at my favorite holiday treat the same way again.” -- Martha Stewart.

What are some old stories that you want to see rewritten? Or what better yet, what would be your take on some of those old stories? Let us all know in the comments.

Update

I've tried writing this post several times. Every now and then I'd get the urge to post something on the blog, a little update, but halfway through, I'd give up and just close it out. I just didn't feel like posting. But I like the blog, it's my only journal and diary and I post things here to vent when I can't vent in real life. And all of you who read my ramblings and are, by some miracle, interested in what I have to say, grace me with comments and insights that I don't often see on my own. This place is my escape, and it's times like this when I need to get away from it all, the one place where I can be myself, through and through.

My dad's family is not making it easy on my family, but we're making due. I had hope that they might have changed, or at least put aside harsh feelings during this period, but they haven't. I should have expected it, it just wouldn't be them if they did. Towards the end of March we have to go to his hometown in another state and go to court so that all this stuff can be settled. This is probably going to be one of the last updates about my dad. I may update while I'm on the trip, I may not. My grandparents want me to look at it like a vacation, and maybe it should be. It'll give us some time away from it all to relax.

Anyway, I'm going to start writing again and posting, a couple of things I've really missed doing in all this, but not anymore about this. I hope you'll all be happy to see me back, and I can't wait to catch up on what's been going on while I was gone.