The One In Which The Author Gives That Obligatory "I Haven't Posted In Awhile" Apology

Except not, because I'm not especially sorry. And I've gotten a tumblr, a link to which is in the sidebar. Just a few hours ago actually. I don't think it would be fair to say that I'll post the same things on here that I will on there since even though they're both weblogging type things, tumblr is a bit more where ever whenever sort of thing to me. Blogger, however, feels like the sort or thing that I should properly post at, like having at least half thought something out before I push the "publish post" button and actually go through and edit things [at least a little bit] before I hit said button as well.

I am, however, going to be chronicling my Wall Project over there so that's always something. Long story short, I've had one wall in my room painted a bluish grey, however it turned out to be more of a greyish blue. This distresses me greatly and I'm trying to figure out what to do [besides paint again, because the smell is horrible even with low VCOs (or whatever they're called)]. Said project involves fractals.

I don't remember if I've ever mentioned on here yet about that writing project I'm working on that involves teenager musicians, but if I have then I still haven't finished it. It's kind of hell at this point--not the story, just having to work on it.

And, just so I'll have some material to post for the future, I'll be posting about my general writing process [and possibly some insight as to why this damned story is taking me so long] some time in the future. I'll most likely take a break for Christmas and what not.

NaNoWriMo: A Visual Journey

So, I'm going to be doing this for every day of November--or, rather, until I finish the book. Probably that first one. I'll post a photograph of something that defined that particular day of NaNo for me, a one line thing of why it did, and then the word count I got for that day. Simple, no?

Side Note: This idea just popped in my head, so if I forget about it, don't be surprised.

DAY #01




The San Fransisco Giants won the World Series!

Word Count For The Day: 3034
Word Count For The Month: 3034

One Time She Punched Me In The Face

"Don't have sex because you will get pregnant. And die."

So, it's the eve of NaNoWriMo and I'm watching Mean Girls and eating kettle corn to really get into that writing mood.

Also, I am drinking orange juice.

I've got about an hour and fifteen before I can officially start writing it because of my time zone and I've got two distinct part of my book and I've got the first chapter of the second part all mapped out. Sure, I know what's going to happen in all of it, but...

Anyway, it's almost NaNoWriMo. To anyone participating: happy writing. To everyone else: hope you had a good Halloween.

Teen Witch

So, Teen Witch is a 1989 fantasy movie (according to ABC Family) that comes on ABC Family every Halloween as part of their 13 Nights Of Halloween.

Teen Witch is also pretty much the greatest movie ever. Though it came out in 1989, much like movies that came out in the super early 90s, it is quintessentially 80s. And even though my best friend insists that I am pretty much the gayest person ever for liking this movie so intensely I say, "Not true!" This movie is simply awesome.

Summary/Spoilers: There's this chick named Louise. She has a best friend named Polly. They live in a world where people believe shoulders are simply too small and must be altered with shoulder pads. It's kind of like how a lot of chicks wear padded bras when they think they're boobs should be none-surgically bigger, except the shoulder pad thing is for guys and girls. People also tease their hair in many different fashions, wear large scrunchies, and listen to music heavy with hooks and power chords.

Now, Louise and Polly, despite living in this awesome world of shoulder pads and power chords and adhering to the dress code of the times, are total losers. They are the things upon which bottomfeeders feed. However, after a night on a date with a total creep, Louise stumbles upon this psychic's shop and finds out that she's a witch--for real real. And then she's all, "Oh my god! This is *so* great!" She takes Polly to this great concert and she ends up getting this rock goddess' jean jacket and she uses said jacket in a spell to make her the most popular girl in school.

It totally works too, because the next day, when she walks outside a walk track is playing for her. A walk track, people. And then she ditches Polly, who she used to ride bikes with every day to school, and rides with these cool kids in their awesome car instead. [And then there are some interesting things involving theatre and there's this one scene where Polly raps against these three cool eighties dudes, but all that's not important part].

Louise is loving her new found popularity and everything is perfect. Then there's Brad. Just by the way she says his name you can tell she's head over heels in love with him. And he starts giving her the eye and then some Kenny G like music starts to play and she gets in his car and they go to this under construction/abandoned house and he kisses her.

And she's so happy and everything's great...And then she goes back to the psychic to ask if the kiss was real. But she's unhelpful at first, asking her what's the difference if he only likes her because of the spell. However, she changes her mind and tells Louise how to reverse it, just in time for the dance.

Then it's the night of the dance. Brad is there with Randa--because Louise, afraid of his love/like for her being fake, told him to go with her. She breaks the spell. They lock eyes and...he still likes her, yay!

End of Summary/Spoilers

So, yeah. It's the best.

Glee, The View, & GQ, Oh My!

Today on The View Patricia Heaton filled in for Joy. Patricia is on The Middle, which I don't watch. At one point, they were talking about the television show Glee, which I do watch. Cory Monteith [Finn], Dianna Agron [Quinn], and Lea Michele [Rachel] made the cover of November's GQ their spread in the magazine is supposedly risque.

Sherri complained about the "sexualization of young girls" and said she didn't like seeing these types of pictures. Patricia complained about how she lives in LA and billboards with girls posed in questionable positions. Barbra pointed out that these girls are only acting on the show and they're not really sixteen or what not.

Sherri also told this story about some chick who was 35, but played a 15 year old on television wasn't allowed to drink in public because the network she worked for wouldn't let her. She portrayed this situation of a tyrannical network having too much say in your life outside of work as the ideal. Putting so much emphasis on the impact of television and actors and is damaging to all involved. It makes society look to television for how to live their lives, it creates no separation between actor and role [which leads to typecasting], and creates a society of weak minded fools who cannot differentiate fictional entertainment from reality.

However, Sherri shouldn't be worried about the supposed sexualization of young girls when the young girls in question are in their mid twenties. They're women and it's their personal choice to dress or pose how they want.

She also tried to blame the magazine in an effort to make someone responsible. She made this comment about how "Playboy is in a mylar package, but GQ is out in the open!" However, this isn't true. There certainly have been issues that have been obscured by a divider because of their cover has someone naked or nearly naked on the cover. And even though Playboy is in that mylar bag, these same dividers cover issues of playboy as well.

Barbra pointed out that if anyone young is seeing these pictures it isn't going to be the first time they've seen such images. Still, Sherri and Patricia seemed worried for the children who watch Glee seeing these photos, but maybe they should be worried for the children who watch Glee because they watch Glee.

Glee is has used the words damn, hell, ass, and bitch multiple times. In season one they had episodes that involved premature ejaculation, teenage pregnancy, and being bribed for your panties. I've yet to know a child that lives in a house with cable and without a guardian. If they think they're kids are too young to watch Glee or read GQ then they shouldn't let them, but the content should still be available to the general public. By not wanting these images available in such a way, they are asking society to do their parenting for them.

In other news, Elton John and Leon Russell made a record together called The Union and it's out and I'm probably going to buy it.

The Best Book Ever

I know this is years old, but I'm posting it anyway because I have just found it. Also, I think that some people have this approach to writing. That is all. Enjoy.

Dish Network

I've never had Dish Network so I can't comment on their service, but they really annoy me. See, I don't look to ever have Dish and I'm super tired of all their stupid little commercials about how they're "so much better than any other network out there" because it's inaccurate and subjective.

The last commercial that I saw really annoys me. "Tired of paying for channels you don't use? Like children's channels but you don't have any kids? Or shopping channels and you're a guy?"

Um, excuse me? When did being a guy make it impossible for someone to shop through an 800 number put on their television? And what about being a woman made it automatic that you would want a shopping channel even if you never used it? So sexist.

It'd be a better angle if they went on that whole, "kid's channels when you don't have kids" thing and did other things. Like:

-Satellite radio channels when you hate music
-Home/Gardening Channels when you hate designing/gardening
-Fox News Channel when you're not a right wing conservative

Marketing campaigns need to go to lowest common denominator, I understand that. That's how they make their money. However, aiming for the lowest rung in such a way is still not an excuse to just state blatantly stupid and bigoted things.

Reality

I would by no means categorize myself as one of those reality television addicts. I really only watch the auditions for American Idol [with the notable exception of Adam Lambert's season, which I watched in it's entirety] and those marathons of America's Next Top Model, but I by no means HAVE to see a reality show.

And then of course My Life As Liz had to go and pop up on the television. I'm caught between wanting to shake my fist and say, "Damn you Liz Lee!" and having to watch it whenever it comes on. Granted, I'm pretty sure I just saw the last episode and that I am beyond late in seeing it, but still. I have never really cared this much about the life of someone else that I did not personally know that was not a fictional character.

However, I think that aside from her being absurdly cool, I really like the show because of the parallels I find between her life and mine. I'm not saying by any means that my life is as interesting as hers or even really resembles her very much, but there were enough similarities to hold my interest.

See, she's kind of a music snob and the show chronicled her senior year. She abstained from things like high school parties and other things that were and still are pretty much a no-no for a typical nonconformist or "enlightened" high schooler. But I liked how she was honest too. Like how she said it was her senior year and even though she wouldn't typically do things like parties and prom, she did want to try new things.

But mainly, aside from being a sometimes funny, nerve wracking, and always interesting look into someone else's life, Liz kind of epitomizes two things I really value--living life without regrets and going after your dreams.

But yeah. It'd be cool if they followed her to New York and things like that, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't watch. Not because I don't think she'd not be interesting, but because I'm actually trying to cut down my television consumption and because I think the main reason I watched was because she was a high school senior trying to figure out the shit in her life and I was a high school senior doing much the same.

Now she's in New York and living her life and I am still trying to get where I'm going.

Wow, that previous line sounded a little depressing. It wasn't meant to be.

Continuing About Commercials

I love the Fruit Of The Loom commercials, they're doing the whole "back to school shopping" song right. And the "Flawless" commercial is cool too.

I love those crazy fruits.

Remember that Payless Commercial?

From last post? Well, Macy's and K-mart have their own batches of kids singing songs while all decked out in their new school clothes.

And they're both terrible.

There's...

A rather crummy kids pop style cover of "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears For Fears on a Payless commercial. I have no real problems with covers and nothing wrong with kids covering songs. I do however have a problem when they're average or terrible and this one was definitely the latter, no offense to the little girl singing.

Anyway. Working on another project. One third of the way done.

Glee, The Music

Showstoppers 3 Deluxe is a soundtrack for the show Glee and it's the one that has almost all the songs that I want. See, I'm not a complete and total fanboy of Glee. I adore the show, but I much prefer the songs of the second half of the season to the first. The songs from the first half are good, but I'm not eager to listen to them outside of the context of the show.

The only songs this CD doesn't have that I want are Bohemian Rhapsody and To Sir, With Love. Those songs, like all songs from the finale, are on a special CD all by themselves and I was not about to shell out eight bucks for five or six songs. They're good and the former is one of the best Queen covers I've heard, but I can live without having them on my mp3 player.

Back to the record. Lea Michele may be talented, but I flat out don't like her voice. However, I still like the songs she's featured on. The tracks I have on heavy rotation are Hello, A House Is Not A Home, One Less Bell To Answer/A House Is Not A Home, Home, Physical, Rose's Turn, Dream On, Safety Dance, Loser, and Bad Romance. So that's ten out of the twenty tracks.

It was incredibly worth it, because now I can listen to Chris Colfer's voice on the way to school and jam to the new version of Physical. I would love to hear a remixed version of that song that made it even more danceable.

On One Less Bell To Answer, "Since he went away" is sung more effectively than in the original. Not knocking the original, because it's good, but Kristin Chenoweth's voice is stronger but not overbearing. It also marries perfectly with Matthew Morrison's vocals. She made it her own without it having that, "I can do so much better than the original," vibe that I've gotten from some covers (non-Glee covers included).

So...yeah. I know it's kind of silly to care so much about what is not only a soundtrack, but a cover album, but this one is great. I can't wait until the second half of the season is out on DVD. September 14th seems to far away.

New Design

I finally decided to try to do something with the layout. So, instead of being all white, and instead of having a mainly black and white banner (which I did have at one point), I've got this blue background for posts, that yellow image background for the page, and that blue and yellow banner which I made myself. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of proud about it.

The thing about blogger is that the whole coding isn't what I'm used to. I used to be really proficient in HTML, particularly CSS and style sheets. I haven't really done stuff like for real since I was a freshman in high school, but I saved most of the codes. And, well, that's not exactly how blogger does things, so it's was kind of a pain figuring everything out. I know it looks kind of crummy and I could've just used a template instead of doing it myself, but whatever. PRIDE, man.

Speaking of pride, Independence Day is tomorrow and seeing as it's a federal holiday, that means I won't have class on Monday. One small victory. On the news this morning they were warning about the dangers of small fireworks. They talked about three year olds getting third degree burns from sparklers and grown men getting their eyes shot out by bottle rockets.

The news didn't say much after that, on any channels. Aside from some coverage about the oil spill, it doesn't seem like very much is going on. I kind of wish that I liked sports so I could at least watch the world cup, but I actually really hate soccer. The score is always like 2-1. And currently the news is "reporting" on viral internet videos. Wow.

I hate summer. It's too hot and nothing's on but Sister, Sister reruns on the Gospel Music Channel, which means that they block out words like butt, bra, darn, dang, heck, oh my god, and the like (but they still show on captions). This turns statements like, "Get the heck out of here," sound like, "Get the --ck out of here." And I'm pretty sure that you can figure out how my brain translates that sentence.

I know that they tout themselves as a "family channel", but if Sister, Sister is so raunchy for them that they have to have frequent blank spaces, then why even show it? I mean, I can understand the darns, dangs, and hecks--even though I think that's extreme, I can get that--but butt and bra? That just seems silly since everyone has a butt (except in extreme cases) and a good portion of the adult population wears a bra.

But still, I love this show and this is the only channel that shows it. Plus, it's summer and nothing else is on. Unless I want to listen to the anchors on the news try to figure out what fractal geometry is all about.

Dates

I know I'm a little late on this, but September 14th? September 14th? I have to wait until mid September in order to get Glee: Volume 2, Road To Regionals!? It is a travesty.

The only consolation is that ABC Family is showing Boy Meets World in the morning and Fox is supposedly showing re-runs all summer. I have yet to catch one of these alleged re-runs, but that is mainly a result of my failing and poor schedules.

But, yeah. I finally decided to look it up on Amazon and I'm half tempted to pre-order it and half tempted to wait until more people pre-order it because I think that'll make the price go down.

Anyway.

Summer has officially started which means that the temperatures are rising. The heat index is just baffling. Why is the world allowed to get this hot? It's unbearable and I stay inside most of the time. So now, in addition to autumn, Glee is a reason for summer to just end right now.

Meanwhile, maybe that oil spill will be taken care of by summer's end. On the news right now they're talking about the effect this is having on the Vietnamese-American community in the gulf, which is apparently a mainly fishing/shrimping/etc employed community. Also, the ticker says that Senator Byrd died. He was ninety-two. The ticker says that the cause of death is not yet know. I say that, hello, he was ninety-two. The average US life expectancy is seventy-six.

But yeah, back to that oil spill thing.

Setting aside that it was ridiculous that it even happened, there's all these families that no longer have any work because of it. And, you know, this probably isn't helping the unemployment rate any, but it does shine some light on human nature over all.

Most everybody gets angry when things like that happen, which they rightfully should, but then the interesting thing is what they choose to do afterward. Some people get really hopeless and give up, but then other people still have a peppy, hopeful attitude in spite of it all. Such attitudes are not only inspiring, but necessary.

And they're not just necessary in particularly trying times, but at all times. The peppy part can go, but the hopeful part must stay. Because, really, if no one has any hope in anything then they aren't getting anywhere.

Anyway, that's the end of me and the sappy stuff. I've got another episode of Boy Meets World to watch ["Everybody Loves Stuart" for anyone whose interested] along with breakfast and a long day of writing ahead of me if I don't fall asleep first.

Customer Service

Yesterday I bought a CD and brought it home and didn't open it until today (there is no reason why, other than I was very sleepy).

Today, I opened it. It had a lyric sheet, but it was otherwise empty.

The CD was not in there. I was kind of shocked/angered. I have never bought an album before and the disk just not be there.

Luckily, customer service exist. I thought there might be some sort of problem with exchanging it, because, you know, it simply wasn't there, but it was surprisingly easy.

Now, sleep is calling...even though it's only a quarter past five.

Pre-Ordering

So, I pre-ordered this one album [which is out in stores today] and it should get here in the next three to four days. Well, at least according to the e-mail I got. Initially, I was told it would get here in mid June.

Every time I pre-order something, it gets here after I could have already bought it in a physical store. Every time I wonder if it's worth it. Yet, every time I find myself doing it again. I used to tell myself I could stop anytime I wanted, but I'm starting to wonder if that's entirely true.

Also, found some old records in the garage. I knew that some were still there, but I knew most of them got thrown out when I moved. The bad news is that the soundtrack to Oklahoma! was broken in one place. Other casualties include "Green Eyes" by Jimmy Dorsey and "Garibaldi's Hymn" by Enrico Caruso.

The survivors include American Summer by The Beach Boys (which is also in packaging wrap), an album called Sisyphus by a band called Cold Blood, the soundtrack to Godspell, and the soundtrack to Hair.

I haven't gone through them all and still lack a record player, but I am hoping to soon rectify both of those problems.

Because, really, what good is summer without any music?

Also, unrelated [well, kind of]: Glee is having their finale tonight. I am both excited and sullen. At first I was all, "YAY! It's the finale!" then I was like, "Aw, that means it's over for the season. Boo!" But, it will be back, so there is hope.

Yesterday & Today

Yesterday I was going to write, but I spent all day reading things on the internet, like random facts and such. Also, I perused random tumblrs and spent a good amount of time listening to music.

I also voted.

And it rained today. It was hot and the air was thick and my back hurts more than it has in a while.

But at the same time, I'm really happy. Even though I have some serious cleaning to do, even though I have some serious organizing to do, even though I have school tomorrow, and many more even thoughs.

My nails are clean and I'm freezing cold. It's always like this at night. It's time for me to go to bed, but it seems the closer it gets to sleep that more awake I become and my head just buzzes with ideas. Thank you music, no sarcasm there, I promise. Tomorrow [read: later today] should be promising.

I've got brand new yellow towels and an excuse to get a new bath rug. Hello Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

Death

Gary Coleman died yesterday and he was forty-two. I think it was a brain hemorrhage or something, but don't quote me on that [this is me being too lazy to use Google]. Then today Dennis Hopper died and he was seventy-four and it was because of cancer. If it's true or not, it seems like there have been a lot of people I know of dying this year, and last year now that I think of it.

Oh, I finished editing that rewrite I did, and that was pretty cool. I was super happy about it, but now the original high has worn off and I'm onto trying to work out something else, as far as plot and setting are concerned.

Also, I'm kind of getting into summer mode. Mainly, all that means is lounging around because it's too hot to do anything else. Ah, summer. The heat, the humidity, the long break from school--oh wait, scratch that last one. I'm going to school year round now. I did get my schedule for next quarter though, and I've class only two days a week, so that's kind of a win in my opinion.

Back to...well, not work, but something like it.

It's Alive!

I spent pretty much the whole day shopping and riding in the car. The first part of the day I was listening to like a podcast that was two and half hours long and then I went out. I bought a really cool outfit, light yellow and stormy sky blue is the color scheme. I really like it, because since they're on opposites of the color wheel they complement each other.

I bought "Glee: The Power Of Madonna" by the Glee cast and "What Is Love?" by Never Shout Never. Love them both. I was going to buy "Congratulations" by MGMT, but that'll have to wait for another day. Still, I can't get "Flash Delirium" out of my head.

Time to attempt some sleep. I've got class in a few hours. And a test I think. I really need to get on that and stop being blindsided by music and television and writing. And reading. I've been doing loads of that lately too.

Ill

I have been so sick lately that it's ridiculous.

I hope it clears up before summer, because at the rate it's going it isn't looking like it.

Originality

Things like this annoy me. They annoy me for a few reasons, all very simple:

1. These jokes are old
2. These jokes are too often told
3. Yeah, Owl City sounds like the Postal Service, but
4. The Postal Service ripped off Depeche Mode as far as sound goes and
5. A guy from 3Oh!3 should be the last one on this earth to harp about originality. Pul-leaze.

There's nothing new under the sun. People need to get over that and shut up, unless they can come up with something totally original, which--aside from being impossible--wouldn't come from either of the guys from 3Oh!3.

The Clock

Groundhog's Day was wonderful, even if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we're due for six more weeks of winter. There's always a bright side, which in this case being that there's only six more weeks and not seven or nine or something (because seven and nine are sequential numbers).

So, this is another one of those just before I've got to leave for class posts.

I still have yet to continue writing a thing for the rewrite. That will change today; I'm on a schedule. I'm going to write like nobody's biz. I'm going to go to class, take notes, and write when the teachers lose my interest. I'm going to try to find any unforeseen holes in my plot.

Speaking of plot, I've come realized that there's really only one element that I seriously pay attention to. Sure, I make sure that it has conflict, and sure I make sure that it's sound, but I really pay some major attention to The Clock.

I remember when I went to the young writer's conference last year and there was this guy who talked about how he helped write films and teleplays and he talked about all the elements of plot, in particular the clock though he did talk at length about the other elements and the plot arc and such.

Now, the reason I pay so much attention to it is because it's the only thing that really makes anything else matter. I'm not spouting off advice here (because I'm kinda under-qualified), but rather rambling to myself in a rather public manner that isn't the supermarket.

You have the goal, you have the obstacles. The obstacles make the goal matter by making it hard to achieve. A time limit makes something matter more because if goal x isn't met by time y then it ceases to matter all together. The only thing I could think of that didn't have a time limit actually does.

The only thing I could think of was The Odyssey. Odysseus wants to get home to his family and is tossed and turned by all these events and he takes forever to get home. However, that has the time constraint element, because if he took too long he'd be too old, his wife would be remarried, or the family or him would die before they could be reunited.

So I've really been focusing on the clock lately and not just in this novel but in short stories. I think maybe one of the things I need to work on is other ways to implement time constraints.

Also, happy Black History Month. Now, I've got to eat, make tea, and leave. Did I have homework? I don't think I did it. Gee...

Grammys Baby!

The only parts I've watched have been the very beginning with Lady Gaga and Elton John and then the performance of "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum. Had the first thing not been happening I would not have watched at all. As a general rule I don't watch award shows. I'm actually pretty ignorant of them. I didn't even know the AMAs existed until Adam Lambert brought them to my attention.

But enough about that.

The rewrite is...I suppose I could say that it is going mediocre, but only because of the past few days. I haven't written a thing. Mainly because, typically speaking, no one write very well when they're dead asleep, which is what I've been for the better part of the last seventy-two hours.

I haven't any idea why I decided to turn into sleeping beauty, but I did. I feel kind of sick. And I'm still very tired. Then there's school tomorrow and I have a group project that I have to work on. Group work is the very bane of my existence, not to sound dramatic or anything. Mainly because there's collaboration and then there's research.

I'm supposed to research 1/3 of the paper and write 1/3 of it as well. I'm trying hard not to sound like a diva and say, "I don't co-write" but regardless of what I say there will still be undertones of that. I've co-written before, but not only was that fiction it was with someone whose writing no only complemented mine but blended well. Plus, I knew them.

But I'm going to do some research before I fall asleep again and I'll probably be up and writing again by Tuesday at the very latest. I've gotten to that weird point of rewriting where you know everything that's supposed to happen, but you want to make it happen in a different way so half the time I'm mumbling to myself about technical things like weather patterns and dates. It makes me look super sane. Seriously, I appear to be the perfect picture of mental health.

Pretty soon I'm going to need to find some betas though. I should probably start looking...

This Is Going To Be

Short, and very much so. I have to leave in less than ten minutes for that dread creature known only as Class. Class and I have been in a battle as of late, with my trying to vanquish it and it still appearing every week without fail. I mean, sometimes it doesn't show up after we've fought for maybe two months straight, but it's back after a few weeks of recuperation.

Anyway. It it the very early morning hours for me. I did not sleep last night. I have a test today and am eating my cereal as I type. I know that the moment I get home I won't feel like writing this and/or I'll be passed out asleep.

Speaking of sleep, I've only got seven or so minutes and I need to make tea. I have to have caffeine. That stuff can steep in the car, right?

Not the point.

Bottom line: The rewrite is going well. I cranked out over 3k today so far. I'd say it's maybe one third done.

Rewrite

Rewrite

I'm doing a major rewrite. The funny thing that I find is that now, when I have way more time on my hands, I've been writing less. It's kind of terrible. Back when I was fourteen, I wrote a book that was 133k words long. It was pretty decent, but the point is that I wrote a lot.

I remember writing eleven pages a day and regardless of word count that's huge compared to what I'm doing these days. I have all the time in the world for writing, but I use it on other things, like movies, practicing, video games, and making references/movie quotes of Tim Burton movies on twitter. Damn those Final Fantasy games, damn them straight to hell.

-Ahem- Back to the point. I need to get back into the swing of things. It's been so long since I've written anything substantial. That's what I'm going to do, not in February, not in March, but when I wake up and am not threatening to fall asleep at the screen.

So, it's time for a rewrite, and rather than doing it the old way where I'd just go through and edit, I'm scrapping the whole story and starting with a blank page. It'll be...fun.

Week In Review

Week In Review

Right now I'm getting over a sort of sickness. I'll just leave it at that it kind of sucks to be hungry when all you can handle is ginger ale. It sucks really bad.

Anyway, I'm going to recount the high and low points of the last week and half. That does make the title of this post a little misleading, but in my concept of time, it's been a week, so bear with me.

[Side note: basically none of this has to do with writing.]

So, in pluses and minuses, I shall recount the previous week or so:

+Books-A-Million was having a pretty awesome sale, and it was literally one dollar for three whole book carts, a lot of which were hardcover. I was so unbelievably happy that it bordered on ridiculous. I only went there for a magazine and came back with a miniature library.

-Stevie left the 5AGs, which I kind of saw coming, but still didn't want to happen.

+American Idol is back! Bad singers and all.

+Books-A-Million was also having a DVD sale.

+I got new video games, including one I lost in the move for GameBoy SP.

+I got a calendar for 2010.

+I got a case.

+Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are getting hitched!

-I'm sick.

On the up and up, because that last minus is really kind of bumming me out at the moment, I don't have class tomorrow. So this week or so was a good week. Oh, and I totally forgot that Taboo has a season premiere, so that's definitely another plus. I'm going to go get some more ginger ale.

The Quest

The Quest

So, it's Tuesday and in a few hours it'll be Wednesday. The holidays are officially over, school has started again, and the premiere of American Idol was tonight.

As of late I've developed the unfortunate habit of slacking off, mainly by watching Cartoon Network and playing all the "new" video games I've bought recently ["new" because they're used and were first released in the early 2000s]. So, I say, no more!

So I started this thing last year where I'm going to write a certain amount of fiction [or memoir, you know, whatevs] by the end of the year. In other words, a writer's New Year's resolution. Now, I'm not going to put that number here to save myself the humiliation should I fail miserably, but it will prove to be challenging.

I haven't exactly been meeting my daily goals, but whatever, you know. I'm sure I'll catch up when I have a boring weekend and haven't the urge to fritter away time on things such as video games. Or at least I hope so.

Anyway, about the title. Yeah, I was watching Teen Titans and that was the title of the episode. It's the one where Robin goes in search of the "true master" for some extensive martial arts training. He has to climb this huge mountain in order for him to be taught so he ends up asking if there is an easier way up. So, the master ends up saying, "There is an easy way and a right way."

You can draw the parallels between that situation and novel writing if you want, but I won't [at least not here]. Mainly because the cheese factor of this post has already climbed uncomfortably high. So, I'll end it here.