When was my insanity chip get installed? #HP marathon, BABYm

It snowed. Again. Because of the snow, best friend (see last post) was unable to fly to Florida, because her flight was canceled. Several re-schedules and cancellations later, she wound up on a bus headed to Charlotte, which is where she will be until 4pm this afternoon- THEN she'll fly to Miami.

That is all said, in that the weather here has drastically affected function in everyday life, and not-everyday life. I developed a cold or something over the weekend, and was stranded by the snow, with nothing interesting to do. The idea struck me at 8pm Friday: Why don't you watch all 6 Harry Potter films back to back, ALL night, and Twitter about it! The sane part of my brain was out on a date at a coffee shop with the "you need sleep" part of my brain, and so I made a nice, rash decision (as in steady, hasty- not, "apply two times per day to the affected area" rash) that I would follow through with my challenge, to be hashtagged on twitter, #HPmarathon.

A couple of people have commented something along the lines of, "GET A LIFE!" I ask, what would you have done? I'm holding off on starting another book, because Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson is coming out TOMORROW (to be shipped to my house soon) and the closest business to my house is a gas station three miles away... No one has had any better or more productive suggestions. :)

My #HPmarathon began at 11pm Friday, and finally finished up at 12am this morning. Yes, that means that it took me 25 hours to watch 15 hours of film. Where did the extra ten hours go?

Well, first off, I twittered roughly 650 times throughout all six films. That's about 107 twitters per movie, equating to about 44 twitters per hour, or a tweet for every minute and a half. THAT's a LOT of twitters! I also did a roughly 3 minute video blog after each movie, preparing for the next installment.
During that time, I only consumed 2.5 cups of coffee, (never finished to graduate to a third cup) and took a 20 minute nap, but I also ate lunch and dinner, and was forced by my mostly well-meaning mother, to hike down the mountain in the snow, which took close to two hours. WHEW! Corny as it sounds, I feel like I actually learned some things.

1. Never hesitate to thank your lucky stars that blog posts are not limited to 140 characters or less.
2. Always choose as short a hashtag as possible. #HPmarathon really could have been #HPrace, #HPdare, #HPfor24, all for less characters. (That's a lesson for next time! ;) )
3. Perseverance pays off. I slept REALLY well last night.

I've decided to expand this post- to do a review of each movie, largely based off of each movie's tweets. In the mean time, check back often and follow me on Twitter! (@theknittingnerd) Later!

She's Leaving!

Alright, we all know those fabulous stories of Hollywood nannies who are taken on vacation, and flown all over the world to watch some celebrity's kid- my best friend IS ONE OF THEM. Okay, she's not being flown to some deserted island, anddd she's only babysitting for her aunt, BUT, she IS being flown down to MIAMI just to watch her cousin. How awesome is that? She's flying just for a babysitting job. Why can't we all be that lucky?

I don't like it!

I tried. I thought, "Streamlined! Simple!" but I just don't like it. I thought that my new layout would be nice, slightly soothing (not like, *snore* soothe, but, Oh, this is cute! And not neon! soothe.) It's boring. So, I am going to change it. *Stomps foot in determination* Right now, I'm going to stick to a general (probably widely used) template, but in the future, watch out! The next will WOW, I assure you. Some things to look out for:

My favorite (FREE) programs for Mac OSX
A book review of one of my new favorite novels EVER
Update on MY novel
Annnnnnddddddddddd

More of my life in general.

:)

Miss Marple at Glamis

My English course for this year is Shakespeare. So far, we have covered Henry V, Hamlet, touched on a few sonnets, and now are working on Macbeth, a work of which I am incredibly familiar. At the end of each play, we are assigned a paper or project. One of the options that I have, is to write a fictional story involving the plot of Macbeth, and what would happen if a famous detective visited the castle in order to solve the murders of Duncan and/or Banquo. I have chosen the fabulously British Miss Marple as my detective! This is why, instead of more educational tasks, I am going to be watching Miss Marple DVD's, and reading a few of the works by the creator of Miss Marple, Agatha Christie, instead of, say doing another lesson of French. (I can order coffee, so what else is there?) Isn't the castle lovely?

Haiti Relief

Anyone with a television, internet or radio knows about the dire situation in Haiti- this is not a place for me to beg for support, I'm merely supplying a really quick and easy way to help out. If you read regularly, you'll notice the new red cross image with "HAITI" written across, located on the upper right side of the page, in place of the poll. Clicking on the cross leads directly to the Red Cross website's PayPal donation page. All you need to do is type in your donation amount and PayPal account information, and you're all set! Keep praying for this nation and her people as they work on rebuilding their lives, and finding lost loved ones.

-M

My 2009 Accomplishments

Alrighty readers and bloggers alike, finally, I’d like to talk about my accomplishments for 2009- that way I can stop this from hanging over my head, and move on to more fun things, such as my sore lack of cash, or my mind-boggling, dizzying choice of colleges, all of them swimming around my head, saying, “Pick me!” Ultimately, it will all come down to cost... I’m in a finance class for school, and while I don’t like limits, Student Loans are not going to be part of my “college experience” if I can help it. Ramen Noodles yes, high interest rate payments lasting until my 30’s or beyond, no. If I was going to medical school, law school, or maybe something in engineering, perhaps loans would be more of an option. But I’m not a science or a math person, and even though I’ve been told by many people manymany times that I should consider law, my,“But that’s not practical!” mindset would not work well in the courtroom. I want to write in some capacity, somehow, which is not a clever cover for, “I want to get rich quick!” MOOOVING on!

My 2009 Accomplishments

1. Seattle. This was a big step for me- moving away from home for roughly four months, leaving behind my family friends, and four, two day old puppies. I was forced to make challenges, balance some form of budget, and push grocery carts in 108 degree weather. But was it worth it? Absolutely.

2. Kennedy! Kennedy, for those who may not know is my 13” White MacBook laptop. This is important largely for one reason. When I was twelve or so, I told my friend Abbey that I had three goals in life. (Hi Abbey! Was it three? I think it was three!) The first, was to go to American Girl Place- which I did in July of 200something (around 3 or 4). The second goal was to buy a laptop. I thought it was SOOO cool that there were these really tiny computers that you could CARRY WITH YOU! It took five years, but she is proudly what I type on today! Number three was to go to Hawaii, but that really isn’t something that I want anymore... Think Europe!

3. March. Until mid to late 2009, writing a novel was not something I had ever thought of doing myself. I’m a reader, always have been, always will be. Sure there were ideas in my head, but I never actually thought to myself, “Hmm! Lets write a novel today!” and actually wrote. But come September, when I accidentally stumbled upon NaNoWriMo via Facebook (yes, Facebook) I walked into November with an idea, no plot, minimal sanity, and lots and lots of coffee. 30 days later, I had a novel.

4. Macbeth! Shall I compare thee to a horror film? A Sudoku puzzle? Thou hast the capacity of a challenging terror, not a terror which cannot be overcome, but one conquered like a knightess, plunging her gleaming silver sword into the breastplate of the fire breathing and bone crushing dragon, ending the sorceress’s life and saving the kingdom. I greatly enjoyed my reign as “The Second Witch,” stumbling through Shakespeare’s complicated, albeit beautiful script, emerging whole with an excess of hairspray still stuck, streaks of fire in my tangled and sprayed mane, a cast of colorful characters I am proud to call friends, and an experience to last from here to eternity.


5. McBolinelli Sweep. This was my third campaign, and I had a blast! It was an accomplishment for me, when several staff members asked for my opinion on lit drops and the like… I also managed to start March during that period, and survive a bus breakdown in really cold weather.

6. Blood donation. If you know me, you are probably aware that I’m not a huge fan of needles. I don’t pass out at the sight them or anything, I just don’t care for long sharp pointy metal objects being injected into my arm to play a modern metal and plastic equivalent of a vampire. Nevertheless, I also know that blood donation is important, and so I walked in, and shortly after walked out, minus some blood, but without dizziness or nausea... I’ll be donating for a second time this week, in fact.

So those are my big accomplishments for the year… There are so many others, but those in particular are events that I’m really proud of. I have several posts coming up that are pre-planned, but I would love to hear what you think, what you want to know, or want to ask me! Comments absolutely make my day, but @ replying me on twitter gets my attention, and I check my formspring pretty regularly. I know you’re out there, readers!

The Novel Website!

I recently threw together a website for March, just something simple and book focused. You can find that page at http://marchthenovel.weebly.com

Go ahead! Visit!

Resolutions.

I will be quite honest and say that I don't really like resolutions. I like the thought of making choices that will affect your year, but I feel as if they are set in stone so that you are set up with almost an expectation to fail. Instead, I believe in dreams. Some of the dreams are much more attainable than others, but dreams are also (I believe) passions. I think that following a passion is always more enjoyable and easier than following something you have resolved to do. So, in no particular order, these are three of my dreams (some of them more goal-oriented than others) for the year 2010.

1. Read my Bible daily. I have found that constantly having the creator of creativity and designer of love floating in my brain, I am more capable of being a decent human being.
2. Edit my novel! If I haven't mentioned it in the past, my writing/editing schedule is as follows:

January: Write, read, edit, rinse, wash, repeat.
February: Let A and B (real people) read it as is.
March/April: Work on their thoughts/comments/suggestions. Write more, not die.
May-Mid June: More outside critique/work. Receive proof copy from CreateSpace
July: support my coffee habit
August/September: Pass proof around to friends, take criticism, work with a local writers group.
October: (This is probably my biggest dream for the entire year) Submit to an agent.

I should also mention that I am hardly expecting any of this to go according to plan. Life happens, which is largely why I believe in dreams. For all I know, my editing could take a bajillion months, and October will get here REALLY fast.

3. Turn old. I will turn 18 in 2010! This means that I can buy things off informercials, and get cigarettes, (no, I don't smoke, and I never will- I'm just saying) and I'll be LEGALLY able to get a credit card (not that I would, OR my mother would let me) and other..schnazzy things like go and... Whatever. I'll be legal. Enough. Now you may be thinking, "How would she avoid becoming "old?" That process involves staying alive through school and novel editing, a feat I hear is increasingly difficult!


Well, that's it for now! I have a list of accomplishments to post, as well as a LOAD more dreams, but most of them are silly, frivolous things like, "drink more coffee!" which will happen no matter what. Please keep reading, please comment, please reply, ask me questions on formspring, confirm in my mind that I'm not just talking to empty cyberspace.... Happy 2010!