Leah Clifford's Contest

So, recently Leah Clifford had a contest.  I entered when there was only forty minutes left, having found out at that time, and I shot off the first 600 or so words I wrote.  I didn't win [this person did] but I do still like the story.

Prompt: Write a short story [~1000 words] based on this:

Here's my story:

 The Artist

They still didn't know what to do about the dress.  Her sister didn't have the heart to do it, so all the blood had ended up on Callie's hands.  And, of course, the dress.  It was strangely beautiful.  The whole thing was, even the act of it.  There was this unexpected art to carving up people that she had never considered before.  The whole world turned to this wonderful muted place where only her hatchet slicing the air made any sound.

The satisfaction of her blows landing was more in the finality of it all than the actual sound, though the sight of everything was a close second.  And now she had this dress.  And she had to get rid of it.  What a waste.  Having the memory wasn’t the same as keeping a memento.  Would she ever truly remember the way her mother’s blood spattered across her chest if she got rid of the dress?  What about the way her father clawed at her skirts in a vain attempt to get her to stop -- would she forget that too if the scarlet handprint wasn’t there to remind her?

She hoped not.  They were already standing before the wood burning stove.

“Throw it in,” her sister Elizabeth said.  “No one can know.  And we have to forget.”

Yes.  Forget that she’d done what her older sister couldn’t have even though their lives depended on it.

“I suppose,” Callie said.  “That we should forget this just like we should forget how you said you’d always take care of things for us.”

“Callie.  Don’t.”

“I want to keep it,” she said.  “I know I can’t and, trust me, I won’t.  I’ll get rid of it, but I won’t ever forget.”

She burned it.  When the men came to their house, they were so appalled.  One kept screaming about all the blood and the others were shocked into either silence or sickness.  Callie feigned muteness while Elizabeth talked to the police.  She supposed that was the only good thing.  Her sister was actually broken up about it, so she didn’t have to fake the tears or the choked up way she said every other word.  The officer had to calm her down a few times to stop her from going into hysterics.

The solution of going outside -- the thought being to get as far away from the gruesome crime scene as possible -- didn’t help matters at all.  Their neighbors talked about them well before their lawn was swarmed with law enforcement.  Now they openly gawked, their formerly hushed whispers turned to unveiled exclamations.  Callie couldn’t take it.  She went back inside where she could at least find some peace.  She stayed out of the officer’s way as they set up a camera to document everything.  She stayed there until Elizabeth came back in with the police officer who was interviewing her.

“I know this is hard for you, but this is the final question I have for now,” the officer said.  “You and your sister, you came straight home and just found them like this?”

“Yes, sir, that’s correct,” Elizabeth said.  A tear rolled down her cheek.

“You both came straight home from church, you didn’t even change your clothes?”

“That’s right,” Elizabeth said.

“Not even you?”  The officer looked at Callie now.

She looked at him and quickly averted her eyes, shaking her head as she did so.  He grabbed her arm and turned it over.  A huge smear was there.  Dried blood, caking and turned a rusty brown.

“What’s this?” the officer said.

“Paint,” Callie said.  “I’m a bit of an artist.”

Valentine's Day

I've been hearing a high amount of griping these past few weeks, all of it about Valentine's Day. Most of it was from dudes on radio shows who were groaning about how they had to buy their significant others a card once a year because of some "made up" holiday.

That's laughable on two counts:

1) All holidays are essentially made up. A group of people decides that a day is important for whatever reason and then observes that day yearly in some form.

2) These guys really make the effort to buy a card?

I've always loved Valentine's. Maybe it's my innate love for decorating because, if given the time, I will deck the halls with heart shaped holly...and heart covered garland...and maybe some tinsel if any of the stores have some for cheap [February's still post-Christmas, maybe they haven't packed it all away just yet].

It astounds me how there was this vast gender divide among the paired off late 20s and up crowd that was giving input for these radio shows. Almost all the men said they were sick of having to do something for their lady just because of a holiday. Almost all the women said that if their man didn't think that doing something for Valentine's Day was important -- no matter how small the deed -- then it was time to get a new man.

It had me in stitches, the complaints that is. All these dudes complaining about being "forced" to be romantic on a certain day, never mind that it would probably make their significant other happy. This holiday is just something a lot of couples in our society observe. If they didn't like that, why did they get into a relationship? Or why didn't they sort this out before now instead of begrudgingly going to the convenience store last minute for someone they supposedly care about? This is the equivalent of complaining about Christmas shopping even though you've always celebrated Christmas, except it also makes the complainer seem like a total jerk.

Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe it should be a big deal to be forced to do something small like buying flowers or a card because of social expectations. But, at the same time, even if there if I can't help but think of the many ways in which their misdirected anger could actually become productive. But I love giving Valentines. People always seem really happy to get them, so shouldn't that be enough?

At least the people with whom I come into contact aren't downers like those talk radio dudes. I spent the better part of yesterday selling Valentine's Day cards as part of this fundraiser and almost everyone who came by was delighted. The only naysayers? One guy who suggested we start a matchmaking service for those without a valentine and one young woman who generally did not like cards.

Happy Valentine's Day!

School & Stuff

I've got a very short break in classes and since it's so hot outside I'll probably be riding around on my bike or something. I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person that actually likes school to the point of being bummed out when there are breaks. I only had one class that I didn't like this quarter and that was mainly because I get bored if I already know everything.

Yeah, that makes me sound like a self absorbed overconfident type of person, but it's true.

Basically, what I'm saying is, is that I've got about twelve days of nothing coming up. I would say I'd spent it doing Script Frenzy or writing another book, but, eh. I did write about five songs for this musical thing I'm working on, and that was just during my classes today.

I think I need an office though, because I only ever work if I have a formal space for working with no other options to do something that I might view as more exciting. At school you're not supposed to have electronics and whatnot so I only play games and listen to music on the breaks, but when I'm done my work for a class? That's when all my actual writing gets done.

Vices & Virtues

Panic! At The Disco's new album came out today, the title being Vices & Virtues. It's AMAZING. Like, I can't say what I like about it so much because I'm still just in awe and just like...gosh. I am in love with this music.

Vernal Equinox

It's only been a few days into spring and it already feels like summer here. I went outside yesterday and after about ten minutes I was sweating so profusely that I had to come inside, shower, and change. The bright side of all this is that, hey, it's not so cold anymore that I feel my limbs and extremities are about to fall off.

The thing that I don't really like about hot weather is that I like to wear jeans and slacks all year around, despite my owning about five pairs of short [two of which are shamefully short and do not get worn in public]. I like wearing flip flops year round, so footwear isn't a problem for me in the warmer months. But pants? In spring? When it's currently 70 degrees and the sun hasn't even risen yet? Pants are a problem.

Denim that feels threadbare and breezy in the dead of winter suddenly becomes as heavy as a bolt of cloth and twice as hot as a kiln in the not-so-dry heat. Shirts, too, are a bit problematic as it seems that I cannot find that magical fabric that is light enough to not induce sweat when out in the heat, but not see through or ugly. Such is life.

Before I go, WRITING UPDATE: I mentioned a couple posts ago about this story I'm working. That story has since been finished. Or, rather, that version. It had and still has alternating points of view and while I'm not one of this people who "hears" my characters' voices or dreams about them, having to keep them all straight was a pain, so I'm doing a rewrite.

I know that the previous statement makes it appear as though doing a rewrite is some sort of pleasure comparatively speaking, but it will give me a chance to re-experience the story in a different and hopefully correct manner. And, maybe, I will finish it before I get too sick of it.

So This Is The New Year

...and I bought a new hat. It's a mustard color. And I've also many so called resolutions, which I must begin to implement tomorrow, seeing as it's the first full week of the year.

We'll see how it goes.

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.