I shouldn't have been up. Seriously. But thankfully, I was. At 1:32 am, Nia Vardalos (Actress, screenwriter, director, comedian extraordinaire - oh yeah, and star of the FANTASTIC My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I LOVE her.) sent out a twitter to her 33,000+ followers:
@NiaVardalos: Please send help, this man is having thoughts of suicide. JEREMY, please call 1800-SUICIDE to talk @Jeremyllynch
I thought that it might be a hoax, but twittered to @Jeremyllynch anyway. So did dozens, hundreds,( maybe thousands?) of others. At this point, I was wide awake, and worried about this complete stranger from Casselberry, Florida. So many people sent kind words of encouragement, which are heartwarming to read. He originally twittered to Demi Moore (@MrsKutcher) but I received my updates from Nia.
@ jsmisko @jeremyllynch Hope u r ok this morning. "Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes." ~ Benjamin Disraeli
@ NerdfighterAbby @jeremyllynch Hey, Jeremy. I heard about how you feeling. Hope this helps.
(She linked to this image)
Secret. 8289 by =DeviantArtSecret on deviantART
@sanginlady @jeremyllynch I am praying 4 your strength Jeremy, U can get thru this rough time, to make your life better, dont forget 2 lean on love man
@sarascaj @jeremyllynch I just wanted 2 send a ((hug)) I care.
@jrzjlo @jeremyllynch @mrskutcher I wish more people would reach out when they feel like this. It is never as dark as it seems n ppl do care! BlessU
Without internet, I was glued to my phone. Nia called the Florida police and the suicide hotline, and finally I received this update, about half an hour later:
@NiaVardalos: Just spoke to FL police again, they're with Jeremy now. He is ok, it's not a hoax. Thank u all for sending love to @jeremyllynch.
This could've very possibly been an attempt to get attention, for all we knew, Jeremy Llynch could have been telling some big joke. But he wasn't. There were complete strangers all over the world reaching out with 140 characters of compassion, which is the real power of social media. People can say that it's a waste of time, but I honestly believe that twitter saved a life, and I'm glad that I was a tiny part. :)
Friday, March 19, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A post in which I whine, ramble and get link happy.
As I'm writing this, my manuscript March has 50,663 words. This means that there is tangible proof that I HAVE worked on my novel, and I haven’t just added 652 words. I’ve actually CUT stuff, followed by some re-writing and... There’s proof. I haven’t done a whole heck of a lot, but there’s proof.
Moving forward. I am mentally exhausted. (Proof, in that I couldn’t edit the fragment and unnaturally short sentence into a longer, better phrase and avoid unnecessary punctuation.) I’ve gained a rather short attention span for anything not honestly, instantly interesting... Or anything that requires me to work. Take a jump into my brain for a moment. I look at my book shelf, and a sense of dread washes over me, because reading is scary and requires me to be intelligent, and analyze characters, and... and... Then I wind up slapping myself in the face. You know why? Because while a really fabulous book challenges it’s reader to think above and beyond what is presented at face value, a good book also guides you into the identity of your characters; it holds your hand. (Unless that book is Liar by Justine Larbalestier, but that’s just a kick butt book, and that’s the point.) You should see me watch Lost. Every single one of my comments were along the lines of, "Oh look! Ben Linus has a nosebleed. Again."
I didn’t have to have this stupid anxiety of fearing the mental challenge of reading, because while reading is often mental workout, in the world of mental fitness, I am addicted to this exercise. Upon further investigation of my brain, I realized that I wasn’t really scared/weary of reading, I was terrified of writing. I was terrified about the fact, that the fates of Jackson, Olivia, Erin, Maureen, Ellen, Theo and Justin all sit on my shoulders and hard drive, and that I can screw them up if I make one wrong move. I realized that I was mentally blocking a writers’ block, refusing to believe that the honeymoon was over and that now I have to take risks with my manuscript, in order to move forward. Now I have to do the grunt work to finish the first draft, all the while, it seems like the rest of the writers that I’m following on a regular basis all seem to have their books in and out of edits (this is everyone, but, I mean, SERIOUSLY, Hannah Moskowitz?), and their ARCs are arriving, (Sarah Rees Brennan *cough*) and they’re getting Amazon pages and covers, and ISBN numbers (Stephanie Perkins- YAYYYYYY!!!!) and here I am, with barely 50,000 words of a NaNoWriMo manuscript which holds a relatively decent plot, wondering what the heck to do now, and wishing that I could just hand my manuscript over to my clone to deal with. You know what I’m talking about, the one who would work out for me and get Algebra done, and clean my room, then merge back into my head with all the sore-muscles and math benefits added to my person, no work required. Jumping from that place to a close-to-finished manuscript seemed like it would take a literal act of God.
I was at this point Wednesday night. Some complaining to Hannah Moskowitz helped, and Stephanie Perkins gave me the gift of this video, a 20 minute lecture by Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat, Pray, Love) about the creative process, which I highly recommend EVERYONE watching.
(You can actually download the lecture in both video and audio form, but make sure you have a good connection; the video download is about 65 MB.)
I know that all of the authors mentioned above have been in my place, and that ultimately they struggled with their writing too. But just because they can identify with my slump, doesn’t mean that the utter and complete suckage just ends. If you’ve ever been in my place, you know that when you reach this point, two options remain. The first is to give up. The second, is to keep writing. Giving up might be the option for some people, but I have poured far too much time and energy into this manuscript to stop working on it now. Thus leaves the option of pushing through the tough parts and keeping up with my writing.
Keep working.
This is the single most irritating piece of advice any writer will give you. BUT, this is the only thing that really works. Move to a different chapter. Re-work a favorite scene, ANYTHING. Just don’t stop. You know why? Because like that whole exercise analogy, once you get back into the process, slowly you dislike it less and less. Then once your writing time is over, once your workout is finished, you have that wonderful exhausted feeling, which you should dwell in for as long as possible. Your muscles are slightly sore, but your mind is at ease, and you have that glimmer of hope again. I kept writing.
I’m over my issues right now, so to anyone who needs it, whining and complaining to me about your writing WILL work. But in the midst of me helping you not be so miserable, I WILL tell you to keep writing. When the time comes, I will most definitely need you to tell ME to keep writing, probably sooner rather than later. But that’s life, right? We help each other, we bare our souls in the hopes that in those dark and gloomy moments, someone will @reply us on twitter, or email, or even just call and say, “I feel your pain, magic book dust will be sent your way, keep writing.”
Moving forward. I am mentally exhausted. (Proof, in that I couldn’t edit the fragment and unnaturally short sentence into a longer, better phrase and avoid unnecessary punctuation.) I’ve gained a rather short attention span for anything not honestly, instantly interesting... Or anything that requires me to work. Take a jump into my brain for a moment. I look at my book shelf, and a sense of dread washes over me, because reading is scary and requires me to be intelligent, and analyze characters, and... and... Then I wind up slapping myself in the face. You know why? Because while a really fabulous book challenges it’s reader to think above and beyond what is presented at face value, a good book also guides you into the identity of your characters; it holds your hand. (Unless that book is Liar by Justine Larbalestier, but that’s just a kick butt book, and that’s the point.) You should see me watch Lost. Every single one of my comments were along the lines of, "Oh look! Ben Linus has a nosebleed. Again."
I didn’t have to have this stupid anxiety of fearing the mental challenge of reading, because while reading is often mental workout, in the world of mental fitness, I am addicted to this exercise. Upon further investigation of my brain, I realized that I wasn’t really scared/weary of reading, I was terrified of writing. I was terrified about the fact, that the fates of Jackson, Olivia, Erin, Maureen, Ellen, Theo and Justin all sit on my shoulders and hard drive, and that I can screw them up if I make one wrong move. I realized that I was mentally blocking a writers’ block, refusing to believe that the honeymoon was over and that now I have to take risks with my manuscript, in order to move forward. Now I have to do the grunt work to finish the first draft, all the while, it seems like the rest of the writers that I’m following on a regular basis all seem to have their books in and out of edits (this is everyone, but, I mean, SERIOUSLY, Hannah Moskowitz?), and their ARCs are arriving, (Sarah Rees Brennan *cough*) and they’re getting Amazon pages and covers, and ISBN numbers (Stephanie Perkins- YAYYYYYY!!!!) and here I am, with barely 50,000 words of a NaNoWriMo manuscript which holds a relatively decent plot, wondering what the heck to do now, and wishing that I could just hand my manuscript over to my clone to deal with. You know what I’m talking about, the one who would work out for me and get Algebra done, and clean my room, then merge back into my head with all the sore-muscles and math benefits added to my person, no work required. Jumping from that place to a close-to-finished manuscript seemed like it would take a literal act of God.
I was at this point Wednesday night. Some complaining to Hannah Moskowitz helped, and Stephanie Perkins gave me the gift of this video, a 20 minute lecture by Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat, Pray, Love) about the creative process, which I highly recommend EVERYONE watching.
(You can actually download the lecture in both video and audio form, but make sure you have a good connection; the video download is about 65 MB.)
I know that all of the authors mentioned above have been in my place, and that ultimately they struggled with their writing too. But just because they can identify with my slump, doesn’t mean that the utter and complete suckage just ends. If you’ve ever been in my place, you know that when you reach this point, two options remain. The first is to give up. The second, is to keep writing. Giving up might be the option for some people, but I have poured far too much time and energy into this manuscript to stop working on it now. Thus leaves the option of pushing through the tough parts and keeping up with my writing.
Keep working.
This is the single most irritating piece of advice any writer will give you. BUT, this is the only thing that really works. Move to a different chapter. Re-work a favorite scene, ANYTHING. Just don’t stop. You know why? Because like that whole exercise analogy, once you get back into the process, slowly you dislike it less and less. Then once your writing time is over, once your workout is finished, you have that wonderful exhausted feeling, which you should dwell in for as long as possible. Your muscles are slightly sore, but your mind is at ease, and you have that glimmer of hope again. I kept writing.
I’m over my issues right now, so to anyone who needs it, whining and complaining to me about your writing WILL work. But in the midst of me helping you not be so miserable, I WILL tell you to keep writing. When the time comes, I will most definitely need you to tell ME to keep writing, probably sooner rather than later. But that’s life, right? We help each other, we bare our souls in the hopes that in those dark and gloomy moments, someone will @reply us on twitter, or email, or even just call and say, “I feel your pain, magic book dust will be sent your way, keep writing.”
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Pasta!
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Combine all three ingredients (really, it's easy) and form into a ball as best you can, basically, if you can squish everything into a ball that holds together, you're good. If you need to, add a few drops of water. Once everything is combined, wrap in plastic wrap, and let the dough sit for a few minutes. If you want to add herbs/spices to the pasta, add before you mix in the eggs. At this point, you will have a ball of dough. Cut in parts, and lightly knead the dough.
If your dough is sticky to the touch, add flour to the surface (Like in the picture- no, that's not dinosaur skin). This is our pasta machine- I recommend one for making pasta because you need to get the dough really thin, but you could improvise with a rolling pin.
Closeup of the pasta- this is Rosemary Basil.
Once you've rolled the dough really thin, cut it into strips (again, assisted by our pasta machine) and boil until cooked through. :)
OR
*
*
*
You can add cocoa powder to the flour (and take out the salt, replace with sugar) to create this:
To which you add whipped cream and:
and end up with:
YUM!
**********************
I am avoiding the topic of writing right now, because it hates me. But more on that little bug of a phenomenon LATER. (No, I'm not giving up, and I'm also not having writers block- I'm just having writers.. hate or something.)
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Combine all three ingredients (really, it's easy) and form into a ball as best you can, basically, if you can squish everything into a ball that holds together, you're good. If you need to, add a few drops of water. Once everything is combined, wrap in plastic wrap, and let the dough sit for a few minutes. If you want to add herbs/spices to the pasta, add before you mix in the eggs. At this point, you will have a ball of dough. Cut in parts, and lightly knead the dough.
Doughy!
If your dough is sticky to the touch, add flour to the surface (Like in the picture- no, that's not dinosaur skin). This is our pasta machine- I recommend one for making pasta because you need to get the dough really thin, but you could improvise with a rolling pin.
Closeup of the pasta- this is Rosemary Basil.
Once you've rolled the dough really thin, cut it into strips (again, assisted by our pasta machine) and boil until cooked through. :)
OR
*
*
*
You can add cocoa powder to the flour (and take out the salt, replace with sugar) to create this:
To which you add whipped cream and:
and end up with:
YUM!
**********************
I am avoiding the topic of writing right now, because it hates me. But more on that little bug of a phenomenon LATER. (No, I'm not giving up, and I'm also not having writers block- I'm just having writers.. hate or something.)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Aftershock
Death is more than the ending of a life, it's the complete standstill of other lives that are all connected. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in the past while; my great Aunt died, and so I've been kinda under the weather. I'm fine, she really was tired, and she isn't in pain any more (years and years of cancer will do that to you) but it still makes things difficult, and yeah my life sortof kind of sucks at the moment. But I'm staying busy, and I'll get better soon. Or at least I'll hide it better.
Friday, February 19, 2010
How to Write. (Part 2 of 2)
The Practice (the easy part)
Writing is easy. All you have to do is sit at a typewriter and open a vein.- Walter Wellesley Red Smith
Writing is easy. All you have to do is sit at a typewriter and open a vein.- Walter Wellesley Red Smith
How to Write. (Part 1 of 2)
The Theory
There are a few basic requirements to actually "write." This is the hard part. To write, you will need 2 very basic things:
1. Set of hands. These are necessary to hold pens, drink coffee or type away at a computer.
2. Pen. Writing that is not in some form readable by other people is called thinking.
OPTIONAL
Paper- Paper is readily encouraged, but with a pen and hands, you can write WITH something,(hands and pen) USING something, (pen) ON something (hand). Simple logic, really. Paper helps greatly when you run out of skin.
Computer. This handy-dandy device, (best in laptop form, truthfully) helps to save trees when you run out of skin and therefore paper. Also nice in that you have a delete button as well as an 'undo' option.
On Writing, by Stephen King. This helps. (Also, THIS book is helpful as well)
A Brain- Many writers find this a commodity, I like to use mine as much as possible, but then there are those who believe in success without brain power. Most of those people are unpublished, but I know of a few who tend to succeed despite the odds.
There are a few basic requirements to actually "write." This is the hard part. To write, you will need 2 very basic things:
1. Set of hands. These are necessary to hold pens, drink coffee or type away at a computer.
2. Pen. Writing that is not in some form readable by other people is called thinking.
OPTIONAL
Paper- Paper is readily encouraged, but with a pen and hands, you can write WITH something,(hands and pen) USING something, (pen) ON something (hand). Simple logic, really. Paper helps greatly when you run out of skin.
Computer. This handy-dandy device, (best in laptop form, truthfully) helps to save trees when you run out of skin and therefore paper. Also nice in that you have a delete button as well as an 'undo' option.
On Writing, by Stephen King. This helps. (Also, THIS book is helpful as well)
A Brain- Many writers find this a commodity, I like to use mine as much as possible, but then there are those who believe in success without brain power. Most of those people are unpublished, but I know of a few who tend to succeed despite the odds.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Seven FREE (and quite useful!) applications for Mac OSX
You will rarely find me turning down something free. But even more than a love of free things, I love free things that are USEFUL. I’ve compiled this list from other lists, videos and blog posts that I have found online. I have not been paid to use any of these programs, I haven’t contacted any of the developers, they haven’t contacted me. All of these opinions are solely my own, and I actively use ALL of these programs- and find them useful. That being said, here is a list of my favorite seven free (and I’m talking COMPLETELY free- no trials or hacks) programs for Mac OSX in alphabetical order!
1. Audacity is a program compatible with both Macs and PCs, which provides a very basic audio recording experience. It is not basic in a bad way, it is simply to straight forward and easy to navigate. All that you have to do, is open the application and press the big red button to record. There is a nice list of effects that can be added to your audio recording, such as echo, pitch and speed change, as well as fade in and fade out functions. I have used Audacity to work on speeches, voice notes, and it is especially helpful when creating custom ringtones. My only issue with the application is that it doesn’t have mp3 encoding built in, but that problem is easily remedied with a download of the necessary file from their code library- and Audacity even provides you with a link to the download page!
http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net/
2. Bean is a fully operating word processor for Mac, and a what I consider to be a FABULOUS substitute for Apple’s TextEdit, a program I never warmed up to. One of my favorite features is the full screen function, which is similar to Write Room, allowing you to customize alternate screen colors, and fill up the entire screen with your text, removing any excess distractions, which is very useful for someone like... me! Bean allows you to save your document with over 9 different extensions, so you never have to worry about your formatting translating from, say a Mac to a PC. Bean is a solid program which is flexible and great for everyday use. Oh, and did I mention that it’s coffee themed? HUGE plus!
http://www.bean-osx.com
3. ByteController is like a three year old, (stick with me here) meaning that it is tiny, but powerful! Byte Controller places a small, three button icon in your menu bar which plays, pauses, fast forward and rewinds songs in iTunes. Some people use the mini player from iTunes, but this is smaller, more inconspicuous (obviously) and the buttons are fully customizable! I like the fact that you don’t have to open the iTunes window every time you don’t like a song, or need to pause. There is honestly no downside to this app!
http://www.bytetastic.com/
4. Caffeine I really love Caffeine, both the drinkable kind, and this application! Caffeine, like ByteController and the next application, Perian is small, but useful. Caffeine’s use is simple; it keeps your screen lit up to full brightness, while you’re doing something like watching a YouTube video, or reading a document, and not constantly touching a key or the mouse. It comes in the form of a small coffee cup sitting in your menu bar, and can be turned on for anytime from five minutes to five hours, and indefinitely. Again, like with ByteController, I have nothing negative to say!
http://www.lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
5. Perian is the only program that I have listed here, which runs fully in the background. Perian is a group of “plug in” type codes for Quicktime, allowing you to view nearly any file type without downloading extra players. Perian has saved me money and time that I would have spent buying other players, or converting files. A must have!
http://perian.org/
6. Quinn Do NOT download Quinn if you like games, especially Tetris... and have a tendency to become distracted. Quinn is Tetris. For free. With full customizations. (Can you tell I really like personalization?) Yeah, it’a addictive, and you can basically make it as pretty as you want. Downside? Three hours later, you wonder what on earth happened to your afternoon!
http://www.simonhaertel.de/
7. SketchUp can be downloaded from Google, and us available for use on both Macs and PCs. SketchUp is a full-scale digital 3D modeling software. It lets you design the exterior of houses and buildings, down to tiny things like pens and books, and furniture. It takes awhile to really get the hang of the program interface, but once you’re familiar with how things are laid out, you can create neighborhoods and cities... Whee!
http://sketchup.google.com/
So that’s it! Those are my seven “staple” programs. There are a few others that I like as well, but this “Super Seven” will get any Mac user (new or old) on the way to creating and listening to music, creating and editing documents, designing 3D models, playing games, and watching videos, with both obscure file extensions and for long periods of time without the screen dimming. If you know of any other freeware programs, post them in the comments, or let me know via Twitter, at ‘theknittingnerd’. :)
1. Audacity is a program compatible with both Macs and PCs, which provides a very basic audio recording experience. It is not basic in a bad way, it is simply to straight forward and easy to navigate. All that you have to do, is open the application and press the big red button to record. There is a nice list of effects that can be added to your audio recording, such as echo, pitch and speed change, as well as fade in and fade out functions. I have used Audacity to work on speeches, voice notes, and it is especially helpful when creating custom ringtones. My only issue with the application is that it doesn’t have mp3 encoding built in, but that problem is easily remedied with a download of the necessary file from their code library- and Audacity even provides you with a link to the download page!
http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net/
2. Bean is a fully operating word processor for Mac, and a what I consider to be a FABULOUS substitute for Apple’s TextEdit, a program I never warmed up to. One of my favorite features is the full screen function, which is similar to Write Room, allowing you to customize alternate screen colors, and fill up the entire screen with your text, removing any excess distractions, which is very useful for someone like... me! Bean allows you to save your document with over 9 different extensions, so you never have to worry about your formatting translating from, say a Mac to a PC. Bean is a solid program which is flexible and great for everyday use. Oh, and did I mention that it’s coffee themed? HUGE plus!
http://www.bean-osx.com
3. ByteController is like a three year old, (stick with me here) meaning that it is tiny, but powerful! Byte Controller places a small, three button icon in your menu bar which plays, pauses, fast forward and rewinds songs in iTunes. Some people use the mini player from iTunes, but this is smaller, more inconspicuous (obviously) and the buttons are fully customizable! I like the fact that you don’t have to open the iTunes window every time you don’t like a song, or need to pause. There is honestly no downside to this app!
http://www.bytetastic.com/
4. Caffeine I really love Caffeine, both the drinkable kind, and this application! Caffeine, like ByteController and the next application, Perian is small, but useful. Caffeine’s use is simple; it keeps your screen lit up to full brightness, while you’re doing something like watching a YouTube video, or reading a document, and not constantly touching a key or the mouse. It comes in the form of a small coffee cup sitting in your menu bar, and can be turned on for anytime from five minutes to five hours, and indefinitely. Again, like with ByteController, I have nothing negative to say!
http://www.lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
5. Perian is the only program that I have listed here, which runs fully in the background. Perian is a group of “plug in” type codes for Quicktime, allowing you to view nearly any file type without downloading extra players. Perian has saved me money and time that I would have spent buying other players, or converting files. A must have!
http://perian.org/
6. Quinn Do NOT download Quinn if you like games, especially Tetris... and have a tendency to become distracted. Quinn is Tetris. For free. With full customizations. (Can you tell I really like personalization?) Yeah, it’a addictive, and you can basically make it as pretty as you want. Downside? Three hours later, you wonder what on earth happened to your afternoon!
http://www.simonhaertel.de/
7. SketchUp can be downloaded from Google, and us available for use on both Macs and PCs. SketchUp is a full-scale digital 3D modeling software. It lets you design the exterior of houses and buildings, down to tiny things like pens and books, and furniture. It takes awhile to really get the hang of the program interface, but once you’re familiar with how things are laid out, you can create neighborhoods and cities... Whee!
http://sketchup.google.com/
So that’s it! Those are my seven “staple” programs. There are a few others that I like as well, but this “Super Seven” will get any Mac user (new or old) on the way to creating and listening to music, creating and editing documents, designing 3D models, playing games, and watching videos, with both obscure file extensions and for long periods of time without the screen dimming. If you know of any other freeware programs, post them in the comments, or let me know via Twitter, at ‘theknittingnerd’. :)
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Pages!
Blogger is OFFICIALLY my favorite blogging service. My one complaint about blogger in the past was the lack of pages, but there they are, and I am one happy camper!
EDIT: I'm going to have my Harry Potter recaps up within the next few days, as well as top seven Mac OSX program picks, to be posted Monday morning. :)
EDIT: I'm going to have my Harry Potter recaps up within the next few days, as well as top seven Mac OSX program picks, to be posted Monday morning. :)
Questions.
I found a list of questions on a few of the blogs I follow, and thought I'd take a stab at them myself- the trick is to answer with only one word. Off I go!
Your Cell Phone? Lifeline
Your Hair? gross
Your Mother? Smiles
Your Father? Listens
Your Favorite Food? Chinese
Your Dream Last Night? Dream?
Your Favorite Drink? Coffee
Your Dream/Goal? Novel
What Room Are You In? Bella's
Your Hobby? Kniter
Your Fear? Failure
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Writing
Where Were You Last Night? Here
Something That You Aren't? Math-y
Muffins? Blueberry
Wish List Item? Books
Where Did You Grow Up? America
Last Thing You Did? Psych
What Are You Wearing? Nailpolish
Your TV? Nonexistent
Your Pets? Oreo
Friends? *points*
Your Life? Busy
Your Mood? Happy
Missing Someone? Angelboy
Vehicle? Bus
Something You Aren't Wearing? Socks
Your Favorite Store? Starbucks
Your Favorite Color? Green
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Earlier
Last Time You Cried? Yesterday
Your Best Friend? Birdie
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Indie
Facebook? Poke
Favorite Place To Eat? Delmer's
Your Cell Phone? Lifeline
Your Hair? gross
Your Mother? Smiles
Your Father? Listens
Your Favorite Food? Chinese
Your Dream Last Night? Dream?
Your Favorite Drink? Coffee
Your Dream/Goal? Novel
What Room Are You In? Bella's
Your Hobby? Kniter
Your Fear? Failure
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Writing
Where Were You Last Night? Here
Something That You Aren't? Math-y
Muffins? Blueberry
Wish List Item? Books
Where Did You Grow Up? America
Last Thing You Did? Psych
What Are You Wearing? Nailpolish
Your TV? Nonexistent
Your Pets? Oreo
Friends? *points*
Your Life? Busy
Your Mood? Happy
Missing Someone? Angelboy
Vehicle? Bus
Something You Aren't Wearing? Socks
Your Favorite Store? Starbucks
Your Favorite Color? Green
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Earlier
Last Time You Cried? Yesterday
Your Best Friend? Birdie
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Indie
Facebook? Poke
Favorite Place To Eat? Delmer's
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The influence of Twilight, aka Confessions of a library nerd
Twilight is the first in a series of books involving an older-than-dirt Vampire named Edward Cullen, and a teenage human named Bella Swan. The two of them, despite Edward wanting to drink Bella's blood, fall in love, and don't "do it" until they get married. Add in a werewolf best friend, Bellathirsty Italian Vampires, a life-sucking baby and a few other characters, and you have the series phenomenon that swept the world. For a little while, anyway.
I believe that the Harry Potter phenomenon truly made reading among teenagers popular again. It forced non-readers to realize that we bookish types *waves hand* are not crazy due to our literary habit. Harry Potter is certainly not for everyone, but I believe it opened the eyes of my generation (and older generations, certainly) to the power of the written word; allowing a person to travel to new worlds, through words on a page.
Twilight has also captured another branch of that audience, and continued on with the fine tradition of exciting non-readers. I have friends on both sides of the fence, some believing that Twilight is fantastic, others believing that it is somewhere down there next to heroine and... ear infections? Twilight is criticized for it's lack of fancy-pants language, lack of hanky panky, too much hanky panky in the last book, Edward's controlling personality, Bella's lack of spine, a relationship between a 17 year old and an undead guy who's 112 (however old- I really don't care, nor remember) and a wide variety of other issues. This all goes to say, that Twilight opened up a new market not only for readers, but for authors. My demographic is small and rather selective, but the wide and vast majority of books that appeared on the shelves of our YA section for 2009 were vampire books. Yesterday, while I was shelving, I noticed that there are FOUR copies of Twilight in our system, sitting on the shelf. This was completely shocking, in that for the past several YEARS, there has been MAYBE one copy on the shelf at a time.
So, you may be asking... what’s the next big trend? I think it's going over to the Paranormal genre. Paranormal still encompasses some vampirism, but it's expanded. Paranormal mostly deals with ghosts, spirits, and things that should have stayed dead. Ghost hunting, encounters with ghosts, falling in love with ghosts, being haunted by a ghost wanting revenge, you name it. Why does this matter? Like the surge in YA literature sparked by Harry Potter, Twilight has sparked a new generation of readers. People finish the Twilight trilogy wanting more, so they go to their library, go to their book store, and pick up a new book or a series. Paranormal is an expansion of the vampire market, allowing readers to expand their horizons a bit, and a bit more... These new readers then explore other genres and authors, and are transformed. They’re reading books because they realize something that I found out a long time ago. Books are interesting. Books are not just black letters printed in succession on a page, books are moving and powerful, and exciting. "Books are a uniquely portable magic."
***********************
A couple of things to mention/clarify. First off, Paranormal is not the ONLY growing trend in YA literature. I've seen a lot of real-life fiction books pop up, (and now my brain is thinking that I just wrote about pop-up books. ugh.) and know of several more to debut in the coming year. Secondly, people might comment that the next growing trend is fantasy (as in unicorns, and fairies, or faeries, or elves and... dragons). Fantasy is ALWAYS growing. Fantasy has always been there, somebody is always coming up with a new spin on how a person stumbles onto a leprechaun or a colony of elves. That's how it is. Thirdly, the cover image is copyright Stephenie Meyer, (who I am NOT) and the quote in the last paragraph, "Books are a uniquely portable magic." is "property" (can we own words? really?) of Stephen King. That is all!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
New Layout
I feel SO much better about this layout... I'm finally not stuck with the icky white and brown one!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Stephanie Perkins and the AMAZING book giveaway!
Hello book nerds and bloggers alike!
Local author Stephanie Perkins (Naturalartificial.blogspot.com) has a book give away on her blog! Enter for a chance to win a really cool copy of Pride and Prejudice, a copy of the book Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, and Orange Blossom marshmallows from
Laduree, fondly known as HEAVEN. All you have to do, is visit the blog, and post your favorite romance scenes from books or movies (kissing scenes with video clips encouraged) and you're in! *crosses fingers*
Local author Stephanie Perkins (Naturalartificial.blogspot.com) has a book give away on her blog! Enter for a chance to win a really cool copy of Pride and Prejudice, a copy of the book Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, and Orange Blossom marshmallows from
Laduree, fondly known as HEAVEN. All you have to do, is visit the blog, and post your favorite romance scenes from books or movies (kissing scenes with video clips encouraged) and you're in! *crosses fingers*
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, January 29, 2010
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?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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.
:)
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.
:)
Monday, January 18, 2010
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
-M
Monday, January 11, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
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!
Go ahead! Visit!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)