News, Good and Random

French the llama, is it only 4 (almost only 3) days until Christmas!!!??!!!??!?!?!

(For an explanation about the "french the llama" thing, visit this video. It's nothing bad, I promise.)

Okay, so, some good news.

Darling Dearest is doing great. She's gained significant movement back in her left side since last I saw her. She has a slight case of "word salad", which, in case you don't know, means that sometimes she gets the words she means confused with a different word. However, it's much better than it was when she first woke up.

On the down side, she's very, very angry, but that's also understandable. She hates relying on other people, so I totally expected her to be pissed off at the nurses and such when she can't do what she wants.

They're going to start physical therapy with her soon, and she'll probably really like that. She's been trying to crawl out of the bed for a while anyway.

I'm doing good, myself. I've upgraded from crutches to a walker, and hopefully I'll be upgraded to a cane before I head back to college. It'll be hard to get to room on the second floor with a walker.

My Christmas shopping is done, I believe. I just got the last thing today. It's a great present for my mom.

Also, I've been very interested at cryptograms. They're very interesting and fun...but I'm rubbish at them. So...hopefully I'll improve. Also, I'm trying my hand at crossword puzzles. I'm rubbish at those too.

I've found myself not writing like I should be. I'll want to, I'll get on the computer...and then start surfing the net instead. I've been trying to make myself. Gotta get that discipline ready for next year.

I participated in an amazingly awesome project a few days ago. John Green, YA author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns, is also known for his video-blog project The Vlogbrothers, which he does with his environmentalist/musician brother Hank Green. They're both very funny, and both promote ideals that I hold very dear myself, including green technology, reducing your carbon footprint, and promoting to charities.

Every year the brothers Green head up a project -- which they have dubbed the Project for Awesome. It's a great project where all of their viewers (dubbed "nerdfighters") get together to take over YouTube. You make a video promoting a charity that you really like. Then everyone spams the crap out of the comment sections, rates the videos, and favorites them, so that most popular, most discussed, and most viewed pages are all Project for Awesome videos. This is meant to raise awareness about charities to the average YouTube viewer, instead of them watching videos about water-skiing squirrels.

I participated in it--a 48 hour event--and I am proud to say that not only were all but two of the videos on the most discussed page Project for Awesome videos, but on Twitter, Project for Awesome trended above everything, including the movie Avatar, which made it's debut during the project for Awesome. John Green's goal was to trump Avatar, because it cost $250,000,000 to make, and, as John said, the Project for Awesome is free.

Anyway, so that's what I did with my weekend. It was fantastic. I was very proud to do it. John also auctioned off a pair of what he called his "nerd glasses"--the proceeds went to charity. In addition he's donating $1000 to his favorite charity from the list.

On a tiny sidenote, should you want to help with a charity, but have no money to do so, go to freerice.com. There's a vocab quiz there, and for every question you get right, they donate rice to starving nations. Totally free, and totally helpful in "decreasing world-suck," as the Brothers Green put it.

Anyway, that's all I've got for right now. Tomorrow my brother will be putting up Christmas lights and our tree. I'll be there for moral support mostly. And then we're going to see Darling Dearest before coming back for Christmas Eve with mi familia. Then it's back up to the hospital the next day to spend Christmas with Darling Dearest--because we will have our first Christmas together, dammit!

I hope you and yours are having a very Merry Christmas, a very happy Hanuka, a very happy Kwanza, or whatever it is you celebrate. As long as you're a live and you've got people to celebrate with, then you've got the world.

Happy Holidays all and Best Wishes!

Happy Independence Day

Here's wishing you a happy 4th of July weekend from SoaM. I'll be heading out soon to go see one of my friends from college with my girlfriend, and I'll be out 'til Monday, so until then, take care, and don't blow off any limbs with fireworks, please. Be safe.

NanoWeen!

Happy Belated Halloween, and Happy Nano Day 1!

Happy 4th of July!

To all of you with me in the US, Happy Independence Day! My family and I are having a barbeque and I'll be using some of those awesome recipes I found from the Recipe Round-up. No matter what you're doing, though, I hope you're with people you love.

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.

Here's to '08!

The room was alive with bright decorations. Confetti flew from different poppers, buzzers buzzed and janglers jangled. The party was kicking off to a good start.

"Here's to another good year, tubby," Easter said to Santa. Santa laughed and socked him playfully on the arm.

"Gonna give up on the eggs and bring the kids something they want this year?"

Easter laughed and wiggled his long ears. He took a drink from his wine glass of carrot juice and clicked at Santa.

"Come on, let's not start this again," Groundhog said from behind them.

Santa smirked at him and flicked some sparkling dust at him. Suddenly, Groundhog's shadow swelled up twice the size it was and snarled at Groundhog. He let out a squeek and hid underneath the refreshments table.

Santa and Easter roared with laughter. "Looks like more winter," Easter laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. V-very funny, guys," they heard Groundhog squeek from under the table.

"Ladies and gentleman, holidays government and religious, please, put your hands together for the man of the hour. It's 2007!!!"

Santa and Easter turned to the big double doors and a skinny old man with a long white beard hobbled into the room. He was ancient and gnarled, and he helped himself along with a knotty old sticking, using it as a cane. Around his neck, a gold chaine with a little medallion that said "07."

Easter and Santa went forward and helped the old man down the stairs. He hadn't been around as long as them, but Years always retired early. It was just the way things were.

"How you doin', ol' timer?" Easter asked.

07 patted the rabbit's paw and smiled. "Doin' good. How're you, long ears?"

Easter chuckled.

They all winced from a whistling that dug into their skulls and nested there. Easter started waggling his ears, trying to get it out. Then, smoke started to swirl around and encircle the three. Lightning flashed and Easter and Santa felt 07 begin to tremble. Wind began to blow like a hurricane, and they felt like they were standing in a tornado.

Suddenly, a loud voice bellowed a sinister laugh from nowhere and everywhere at once."Mwahahahahahaha!"

Horrible, clawed, drooling beasts, beasts that oozed and cracked, began to pop out of the smoke, screaming and licking them, gnashing their teeth and drooling, rolling their eyes wildly at them and staring at them hungrily.

"What's going on?" 07 exlcaimed.

Suddenly, they felt the wind cut off, like someone had instantly built a wall in its path. They heard the sounds of struggle and a cry of pain in the smoke. When it cleared, they saw a mountain of a man that reminded Santa of the humans' stories of Paul Bunyun. He was wearing an expensive looking tuxedo, and fierce black shades hid his eyes. He stared at the man in his arms--it looked like someone dressed up as Dracula.

"Halloween, you know the rules. No using your powers on someone else's holiday."

"Aaah, Santa did."

Easter raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see anything."

The man in the suit nodded and walked off, carrying a wimpering Halloween by his shirt collar as he left.

"Who was that," 07 asked.

Santa laughed, "You haven't met him yet, have you?"

07 shook his head.

"That's the new year, 2008," Santa said as he patted the old man's arm.

The old man laughed and shook his head as they lead him off.

"It's going to be a big year," he said.

New Years Resolutions

The new year is around the corner, and I've heard lots of people talking about their New Year's Resolutions. I usually avoid making resolutions. I dislike being told that I'm not good enough to enter the new year, that my ticket will be voided and I'll have to get off at December 31st and wait until the next train, or pay the fee to be let on through. First of all, that's awful. What would that do to me? Would I just disappear and then reappear in 2009, or would I be a year behind everyone and have to live December 31st for a year?

But, since I don't make the rules, I guess I'll make up some resolutions. How about:

1. I resolve not to lose my patience with my college career and go nuts and go on a city wide rampage, spray painting naughty symbols on old lady's bottoms while wearing a fake moustache.
2. I resolve not to shave the neighbors cat and tape it to my face and pretend to be Santa Claus (it was itchy, and I'm allergic to cats, so it made my face break out and look like I had a strawberry for a head).
3. I resolve not to wear a skin tight leotard and a pair of olympic swimmer's goggle and race through the Walmart parking lot in one of their shopping carts.

There you have it, my list of resolutions. There is one more resolution, however. I do want to write more. I have absolutetly failed at that this year, and I want to do better. So here I go again, saything that I will. Hopefully I'll stay to it this time.

How about you guys? Got any New Years Resolutions you want to share?

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas

Strange Dreams and a Merry Christmas Wish

Here's something weird. I hardly ever dream, but I've been having some weird ones over the past couple of weeks. One from the other night had me punch the wall in my sleep. This one was the one I had the night before last:

The village was in an uproar. Mothers grabbed their children and turned them away, others weeped uncontrollably. Men stood still and hard, keeping a brave front for their families, but their fears shone in their eyes like tiny suns. Some began to panic, they were unsure of what this could mean. What would cause someone to do this? It was begging to be punished by the gods.
Attanak thundered into the area on his mare, it's beautiful black mane blowing in the breeze, looking both fierce and lovely. The horse seemed to have been made from the black clouds that had been covering the village for the past few hours. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, and both accented the horror of the day.

Attanak was immediately put off by the crowd. Something felt wrong; he could feel it in the marrow of his bones. He dismounted and noticed a stray peddler walking with his hat in his hands, wringing it absentmindedly and muttering to himself as he walked. He looked half mad, but Attanak needed answers.

“You there,” he said, trying to keep his voice casual and curious. He thought he did pretty well, he thought he hid the terror that was gripping his balls pretty well. “What's happened?”

The man was very short, and his large ears pointed sideways from his head almost like tiny wings. The rain that soaked his hair poured down his head and splashed behind his ears, making it look like two tiny waterfalls were on the sides of his head. His eyes were wide with horror, so wide that his red veins were easily viewable. He bit at his lower lip while scanning with his eyes, as if searching for an answer.

“I never seen nothing like it, and I thinks I never wills again. Things is gonna start happening, guardsman. Bad things, and I isn't gonna be one to stick around for them to happen to, no sir. No sir, I isn't.” With that, he wandered off, repeating that same thing over and over again, while continuing to shake his head and wring his hat in his hands.

Attanak walk forward, terrified to see what could scare the villagers so. He heard women, housewives, whispering to each other, gossiping already, but few were doing that. Most were being held by their husbands, or they were holding their own children and consoling them.
“What could make them do such a thing?” Attanak heard on lady say. Another to his left said, “What would make them choose eternal damnation. The gods have surely forsaken them now.”
Attanak paused, his eyes closed as he took deep breaths to calm himself and hopefully loosen the vice-like grip that his fear had on his stomach.

The town looked drenched and dreadful already, and seemed to have thrown off the happy, healthy look that had been there only yesterday, on the last day of the Celebration of Waning Nights. The whole week people had been eating and drinking and playing music and dancing. Now the village had taken on a cold and deadly feel, as if whatever had happened had frightened not just the villagers, but the very trees themselves seemed to be drooped with fear. Lighting crashed again, and in the distance, a wild cat's woman-like scream sent chills through Attanak's spine.

Turn around. Just turn around, pack your things, rent the soonest ship you can, and move to an island where to the south where you can escape all this. Duty, responsibility, danger, you don't need any of those things in your life, he thought to himself, but as he thought it, he knew he was lying to himself. He parted the people before him sternly, swallowing the lump in his throat and looked.

“No...” and that's all he could say.

Attanak stared up the tall tower, the Holy Tower of Western Light, that marked where the sun set and the god of Light conceded his power to the god of Darkness. In the night's darkness and the ferocity of the storm, the turrets looked twisted and perverted, a horrid black hand clawing for the sky, like a corpse crawling its way from its grave. Attanak's heart stopped, and he felt nausea and horror course through ever vessel of his body. His legs gave way and he vomited until he was empty and continued to retch. People tried to help him, but he threw them off. They didn't understand. No one could understand what this meant, the ignorant fools. No one, save for him. He had to get the warning out. He had to spread the word.

He climbed to his feet, falling several times before enough strength returned for the task. He rushed to his horse, clambered into the saddle, and reached in his saddle bag for his wine skin. He took a deep, long draft from it before replacing it.

One of the villagers approached him, a portly man wearing a white apron. He was the butcher, Lesmiof. A once, fierce looking man, he looked like a small petrified child behind his big, bushy mustache, and rolls of fat.

“Hey, what do we do?” he called to Attanak.

Attanak turned and raised an eyebrow grimly. “What?”

“You're supposed to protect us and give us advice. What does this mean? What do we do?”
Attanak laughed coldly and the smile that he bore reminded the villagers of the grins skeletons wore. He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, there was no light, no humor, no fear, nothing. Only emptiness.

“Pray,” he said, and kicked the horse into an instant gallop. It gave a startled yelp and began charging through the town as fast as Attanak could force it to go. At the edge of the town, Attanak couldn't help but look back at the horrible sight. The wind whipped and blew the bodies of the five priests who used to reside in the tower as they hung from crude, self-made nooses. Attanak wiped his rain soaked hair from his eyes, and rode off with the Tarranian Bells' Death Tolls following him out of town.

Thunder exploded again, and all knew that doom was approaching.


Pretty weird, eh?

That might be all for me for a while. I might be back on once more before Christmas, but if not, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a absolutely great New Year.

When You Don't Know What You're Doing...

I've been trying my hand at writing a bit over the past couple of days. Not much, but a little. It feels good to get back into writing again, although it feels strange. I make a lot more typing errors than I used to for some reason, and it takes me a little bit to get started. Today, however, I wrote a scene I'm very happy with, based on a dream I had last night. I rarely ever have dreams so when I do, it's usually pretty vivid. The last time I had a very vivid dream was when I worked at Sonic and I dreamed that tiny demonic clowns and zombies were attacking me.

These scenes have mostly just been practice so that I can eventually write something. I may or may not decide to post these little snippit scenes on here. I'm still thinking about it, and I'm not sure anyone would be interested in my random little scribblings as I try to get back into the swing of writing. Anyway, it's something I'll think on over the next couple of days.

Christmas time is in full swing here at the house. We got the tree up, the lights up, and all the presents wrapped and put under the tree. Now I'm just counting the days, the agonizing...waiting...until...the best...day...ever...the clock...ticking...IT'S MOCKING ME!! ...sorry... Anyway, we've been making cookies and drinking cocoa and listening to my new Christmas cd I bought, "Let It Snow, Baby, Let It Reindeer" by Relient K. Good stuff, and one of the only Christmas cd's I can find in the Alternative Rock genre.

Also, I've been reading a lot. I finished Holly Lisle's Secret Text trilogy (two words: Freakin' Awesome!) and now I'm reading Sherman Oak and the Magic Potato by S. William Shaw and The Husband by Dean Koontz. Once I'm done with those two I'll start on Vincalic the Agitator by Holly Lisle, cause the world of Matrin is just awesome, and it will keep me occupied until Hawkspar comes out.

And, because I haven't scared you guys with enough odd ramblings yet, I've been watching an anime called Death Note. It's absolutely fantastic. It's about a boy who finds a Death Note, which is what Shinigami (japanese "death gods") use to kill humans. Because he found it, it now belongs to him, but he also gets to basically keep the Shinigami who originally owned it, as a pet...sorta. Anyway, the boy, Light, decides to kill all the evil people of the world and create a perfect world where he will rule as a god, while evading a detective aliased L who is just as smart and freaky as Light. It's a very exciting and intriguing series, and it makes you ask yourself, if you had the ability to kill anyone you wanted just by writing it down in a book would you? If you did, who would you kill and why? Very dark, but very interesting.

Going Ho, Ho, HOME!!!

Well...not today, but tomorrow, as soon as I can. I have one final left, and that's tomorrow and then I'll be leaving. I'm prepacking and getting stuff in the car so all I have to do is get in and leave, no hassles.

The biggest bummer so far has been that I didn't get to leave today, when all my friends did. I'm the only one left, stuck in my dorm all by myself with nothing to do. I already have most everything unhooked--except the Internet, let's not get stupid--so there's not much to do. It's actually really interesting being alone. I learned that when I'm not being distracted by hussle and bussle, I will do almost anything to avoid being bored.

The really cool thing is, when I'm alone, I start going over character ideas, story ideas, and other stuff like that. I think tonight, for the first time in a long time, I'm gonna sit down and plan out a short story. Nothing long, something I know that I can finish, but something that will get me writing again. It feels great. Just considering writing again makes my heart feel all fluttery and excited; it's like when you're hungry, but you don't know it until you take a bite of something good. You're instantly ravenous. Well, just the prospect of playing with a few short story ideas that I haven't thought about or started yet because I was working on this or that is making my muse's mouth water, and I like it. She's ready to talk, and I'm ready to listen.

I think one of my problems has been that I've been so concerned with doing things in one way or another, so careful to watch out for mistakes that beginners make and stuff, and approaching writing so business like and organized that my muse was instantly turned off. She's been rejecting me like a bad date who keeps calling and talking about "the connection that the two of us share." I took all the fun out of writing, and I didn't realize it until just now.

Well, that's really all. The next time you hear from me, I'll be home for the holidays. Happy Holidays to you all.

Happy Birthday America!

Happy July the 4th! Happy Independence Day!

Happy Father's Day!

To those of you who are lucky enough to be father's, I wish you a:

A Story About Teachers

Well, I've completed another day of school. Barf. But it's almost over. As a friend of mine said:
"Soon we will be thrown out into the harsh cold world!!! A world where we have to fend for ourselves. Where we make car payments, electric bills, house payments, food payments, full-time job, college, homework, horrible bosses who scream at you when you drop a packet of ketchup. Won't that be awesome?!!! Wait...never mind! MOMMY!!!!! DON'T LEAVE ME!!!!"
I know how she feels.
On the much brighter front, I've written close to five pages on Clairvoyant today. I don't know what that translates into wordwise, but I'll get it typed and find out soon. Right now, I'm trying to let my mind recover. I've had to close twice in a row, and I'm still really tired. On the plus side, we passed the audit, so I won't lose my job. That's a good thing...I think, ha ha.
And now, something that came to my mind while I was in the Art room yesterday:
With a quirky smile she swaggered into the high school classroom. The room was noisy and a few crumpled balls of paper narrowly missed her head. Her smile faultered momentarily before she sat at her desk.
"Alright, shut up! That was the bell," she said, "let's get our books out and read."
Obediantly, the students stopped talking and pulled out books and began reading.
A girl with straight black hair and a Hello Kitty shirt raised her hand.
"May I go get a book, I left my book at home today."
"That's it! Detention!" the teacher shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
"What? How am I supposed to read if I don't have anything?" the girl cried in outrage.
"I don't care! Get out of my classroom!"
The girl bitterly grabbed her purse and stormed out.
Several minutes passed before another sound was made. One guy in the back of the room, Kevin, who had been sick for a week, sneezed. He had a terribly stuffy nose, and the sneeze broke whatever barrier had been keeping it in. As his nose began to drip like a faucet, he held his hands cupped in front of his face, his eyes wide in horror. He leaned over to his friend.
"Suzie, help. Do you have a Kleenex?"
Suzie chuckled silently and started to reach for her bag and her small package of Kleenex, but her hand never made it. From across the room, all the students heard the teacher rise to her feet. Legs pumping, she flew across the room and tackled Suzie. Suzie went down in a crumple, crying out in shock. Then the teacher went after Kevin.
Kevin let out a cry of shock and scrambled to get out of his desk, but the teacher was too fast. She grabbed him by the neck and hurled him across the room, letting out an animal-like growl. A group of girls screamed and scattered as Kevin crashed through the table.
"Now class," the teacher said coldly, "I said READ!!" Her eyes rolled wildly in her head and she snarled at every guy and girl darkly. All of the students trembled in terror.

The Teacher From Hell

Rated C: Common everywhere

Coming soon to a classroom near you.

Has anyone else ever had a teacher that infuriates you to no end?