Monthly Archives: January 2011

Reba

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I love her, I really do.  She’s not only one of my favorite singers overall, but also my favorite country singer ever!

I remember listening to her a lot when I was little.  Sadly, I don’t listen to her very much anymore, but I will once in a while.  I’ve only seen a few episodes of her tv show (before it was cancelled a few years ago), but she’s a pretty good actress too, which is impressive.

She has so many good songs, it’s really hard to pick which ones are my favorites.  Little Rock, You Lie, Fancy, For My Broken Heart, The Night The Lights When Out In Georgia, The Heart Won’t Lie, and Does He Love You are only a few of my favorite songs.  What’s interesting to note is that most of my favorite songs are from 1990 to 1996. 

Also hard to pick are my favorite albums.  I’d have to say that Rumor Has It, For My Broken Heart, It’s Your Call, Read My Mind, and Starting Over are all tied for my favorites.  Seriously, I can’t pick which one I like best. 

I think a lot of the problem in trying to pick favorite songs and albums of Reba’s is that she has such a long career.  25 studio albums, 91 singles, and 40 #1 singles, 33 of which were in the U.S, starting with her first album back in 1977.  Which is about 9 years before I was even born! 

It’s definitely inspiring, and even if I never publish, I hope her music continues to inspires me.  Plus, she’s multi-talented, and that’s pretty inspiring too.

Resolution Update!

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I thought today I’d talk about how my resolutions are going. 

  • going to the gym/doing any sort of exercise isn’t going well.  I’ve gone to the gym a handful of times, and it’s always when I’ve been out and about doing stuff.  It’s a lot harder when I’m sitting at home doing nothing. 
  • Volunteering: this is going terribly.  I haven’t decided on a 2nd place, and I have yet to make it down to the library.  Although I did volunteer at the food bank a few days ago, so it hasn’t been a complete loss.
  • grad school: this is going to be on a hold for a while, just because I’m trying to figure out what I want to do.  Volunteering will help me decide, but as I haven’t really done anything with that the decision is going to have to wait a while.
  • baking and cooking something new once a month: this is going very well, but I have a lot of things I want to make, so this one isn’t worrying me.
  • Read/reread a book every month: I’ve only reread one book, and I’m attempting to read a few other for the 1st time (which isn’t going to well).  However, I still have today and tomorrow to read a new book, so I think I should have it covered.
  • most of what I’m writing is my daily blog post, although I have managed to write an 4600 for Turning Point in the last couple months.  I have written a few journal entries too. 
  • I haven’t done too much planning for anything else, other then what I’ve posted here. 
  • And I haven’t done any editing/revising yet.  I’m trying to decide if I should finish working on Turning Point first, and then go back and start editing, or if I should do it as I go along.  I’m leaning more towards waiting until I think I’m done writing, because I don’t want to cut stuff out and then have to put it back in.  Plus, I don’t want any revisions or edits to get in the way of actually trying to finish the thing.

A Letter To My Muse

Posted in Turning Point by

Dear Muse:

What is going on in that head of yours?  I fail to understand why Kiora should be with Kyle.  I could have sworn we had decided that it would be Kiora and Dustin, who is closer to her age than Kyle.  Yes, we never settled on how old Kyle is, but we did decide that he is older than Dustin.  And Kyle’s married with a 10-year-old daughter!  How exactly do you propose they get together, besides divorce?  Kyle doesn’t strike me as the get-a-divorce type of guy, unless something tragic happens to his wife.  And furthermore, how do you propose we fix Kiora’s thing with Dustin?  I most certainly do not want to kill him off, and I am really starting to like them together, even if they can’t date.  Well, not yet anyway.  I suppose they could, but I have no idea how they’d manage it. 

While you’re figuring all this out, O Wise One, could you figure out what’s going on with Sienna, Luna, and Holly?  Like what happened between her and that secret service agent?  And why did Luna end up in a psych ward?  Could you explain to me why Holly thinks Kiora would be a good addition to her little group and what she wanted Kiora to edit?  Because these things are very confusing, and I’d like an explanation if at all possible. 

I do commend you on staying away from that ever-so-frightening inner editor, because she’s very scary!  It takes someone very special to ignore her, and you have done a fantastic job ignoring her.  I’d appreciate it if you could keep that up, because she is your enemy.

Thanks!

Is There A Cliff I Can Jump Off?

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The whole time I read Stab My Back, I felt like jumping off a cliff.  I’ve never read something so funny in my life.  While I expected that it would be bad, I never expected it to be so hilariously bad.  I kid you not, I couldn’t stop laughing, especially for the 1st half of it.  I figured out what I wanted to do with it, and where I wanted it to go after about 25k.  I’m still not completely sure what it’s about, but what I’ve managed to figure out, it’s about this girl betrayed by her friends and family, and she has to lead the magical world to…something.  So here’s a sample of what I found:

  • adttingrer picking them up.  (and once you do that, Izzie, can put the pieces together after picking them up?) 
  • I would look fairly unrecognizable, rather unlike myself.  (that would be the point of disguising yourself, yes?)
  • So, I aslked for an paplicatrion (You asked for what?)
  • I hated not knowing things- and when I did know things, I only knew aprts of things, and not the whole thing, so the pieces of things I did know did not make sense uintil after theyt happened.  Unless I happened to know the whole thing, which was not very often (can I go jump off that cliff now?)
  • a pink and white swirl of light swirled around us.   (Swirling colors swirl?  You’re kidding me.)
  • This was all so confusing.  And I hated being confused, because being confused meant that things were confuising.  (Yes, I’d like to speak to the manager of the department of redundancy department manager.)

And believe me, there’s more where that came from.  I seriously felt the need to bang my head against the wall.  Because this is what happens when 1- you write 100,000 words in one month, especially for the 1st time, and 2- when you start a new novel a few days in, with no idea of what I’m writing about.  I may have to try it again sometime, just to see what would happen.

Sometimes, I Wonder What I Was Thinking

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Right now, I’m in this “I’m going to re-read all my NaNo novels” phase.  Which is fine with me, because usually I only read them once, at the beginning of December, and then I’m done with it.

I did re-read my 2006 novel a few months ago, and it was really interesting to compare it to Turning Point.  My writing has definitely improved over the last  years, and if I were to compare all of my novels (9 total!), especially in the order they were written, I’d definitely be able to see the change in my writing over time.  NaNo is the only time I write anything, although I’m *attempting* to change that this year.

Anyway, sometimes I look at what I’ve written, and there’s a lot I don’t remember writing.  A lot of times too, I wonder what I was thinking. 

I bring you Exhibit A, which is one of my NaNo’s from 2008 (titled Stab My Back).  As you might remember from my very first post, I started it a few days into November, with no plot.  It’s such a trainwreck, and pretty much the 1st 36 pages are based off of different songs.  It’s hilarious though.  So far, there haven’t been too many hilarious spelling errors or anything like that (mostly because of that darned inner editor), but even still, having no clue what I’m writing makes for hilarious writing.  I’ll definitely post anything funny on another day. 

But seriously, this novel has been one big…what on earth was I thinking moment.  It’s a wonder my grandma doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with me, because I’ve been trying hard to not  laugh.  The tv is on slightly louder than normal, and we’re in different rooms, so there’s a chance she didn’t hear me laughing hysterically.  While going in with no clue is interesting, it’s doubtful I’ll ever do it again.  I might, just to see what’ll happen. 

The one thing I love about NaNo is that it tests my ability to just write, and let everything go.  When you write 100,000 words in a month, you tend to let go, and just focus on the writing.  It’s more about quantity than it is about quality.  One of the things that’s popped into my head the last couple weeks is that I write 100k- but I never said anything about them about good words. 

And with the focus on quantity (not quality) it’s no wonder that when I go back and read anything I’ve done during NaNo, I wonder what I was thinking.

10 Most Played Songs

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I thought I’d share my 10 most played songs, according to iTunes. 

1- No Way by Starkid Potter; 34 times; this is one of my favorite songs from both AVPM and AVPS.  It’s no surprise I’ve listened to it so many times,

2- Days of Summer by Starkid Potter; 26 times; also one of my favorite songs from AVPM and AVPS. 

3-Teenage Dream by Katy Perry; 21 times; I think it got played a lot during November, since it was one of the songs on my Turning Point playlist.  Plus, it’s kinda catchy.

4-Wildflower by The JaneDear Girls; 20 times; I was mildy surprised that I listened to this song so many times.  I really have no explanation for it.  But it is a pretty good song.

5-It Is What It Is by Lifehouse; 15 times; for some reason, this song reminds me of Broken (also by Lifehouse) and You Found Me (by The Fray).  For some reason, this song always makes me feel better.

6- Today Was A Fairytale by Taylor Swift; 15 times; it’s a really cute song, which is partly why I like it so much.  But I also like Taylor Swift, so…yeah. 

7- Love The Way You Lie by Eminem; 14 times; this song is really heart-breaking.  At least for me.  And haunting.

8- Obliviate from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 Soundtrack; 14 times; this song is also really haunting.  It’s easily the most recognizable from the soundtrack, and everytime I hear it, I think of Hermione erasing her parents memories of her. 

9- She Is Love (Full Band Version) by Parachute; 14 times; this song is really sweet. 

10- Jump Then Fall by Taylor Swift; 14 times; the 2nd Taylor Swift song on the list.  It’s also a very cute/sweet song.

Of Two Minds

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I’ve read my 1st book for the 100-book challenge!

Title: Of Two Minds

Author: Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman

Pages: 200

What I Thought: It was a pretty quick read, and it took me about an hour or so.  I haven’t read it since 6th grade, so I was long overdue for a re-read.  Princess Lenora has the ability to make her imagination come to life, while Prince Coren has the ability to read minds.  For Lenora, the laws (not to mention her parents) prevent her from imagining things to reality; everyone can read Coren’s mind, which means his thoughts are rarely kept to himself.  The premise of the story is that Coren and Lenora are to be married, but during the wedding ceremony, Lenora imagines herself in a completely different world, and Coren is taken with her.  Together, they have to defeat Hevak, who’s an evil tyrant that can make people disappear.  Not have groups of people just disappeared, people have forgetten about them.  With Coren’s ability to read people’s minds, he can look for groups of people that have been made to disappear by Hevak (trolls, fairies and elves), and combined with Lenora’s ability to make them real, they are able to defeat Hevak. 

There were a few things that were interesting.  One, Hevak was trying to create a perfect world with no misfits.  I honestly have no idea if this was the authors intent (since the book is aimed at kids), but it did remind of me of Hitler.  Two, it turned out that Hevak was Lenora’s imagination!  Throughout the book (but mostly at the beginning), it was obvious that Lenora didn’t like the fact that no one used their ability, and all lived in the same boring world.  Hevak definitely was there to show Lenora what can happen when you mess with the balance of things.

Rating: On a scale of 1 to 5, I’d give it a 3.  It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible either.  Just average.

Weird Dreams

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I know I have a lot of them, but unfortunately, I don’t remember a lot of them.  There was one I had (sometime during the night) where I was at Cosmos (cool coffee shop) and there was this girl doing ballet dressed up as a walrus and was trying to make it look like she was trying to fade into a picture of a whale. 

Found this one in my journal and copied word for word from it: back in march 2010, “a little girl went missing, and people are still looking for her, checking new technology.  I walked around the museum.  There was a filmmaker in communist Russia telling people that they could still leave, and that those in Communist Germany couldn’t.”

Apparently, there was no connection between, the little girl, me walking around the museum, and the filmmaker.  Apparently I was walking around the museum talking about shoes, according to the notes I had. 

And another dream: In April 2010 (nearly a month after the dream mentioned above), “I couldn’t find the keys for the north doors, and had to stay at the museum all night.  there was a camp-in.  all of the leads were there trying to figiure something out.  Another vsa was there too.  I tried locking the doors with a different key but I couldn’t.  People kept trying to come in and I kept telling them we were closed.  One man wanted to know why we closed at  and I just stared at him blankly.”

This one was also taken directly from my journal.  Honestly, I’ve had a lot of dreams about the museum, and most aren’t too weird.  Or at least, they weren’t weird enough for me to write down, apparently.  Of course, I’ve spent enough time there over the last 3-ish years to where dreams about the place weren’t unusual.  I guess it’s a byproduct of working at such a cool place.   

And another dream, date unknown, although I think it might be from June 2010, taken from…my random notes document: ”

I was at a birthday party when three people disappeared.  The one boy felt like his protection had disappeared because he was turning a certain age (unknown during the dream).  There was a neighborhood of creepy two-story houses.  The trio were trying to sell harry potter’s biography to get people to support their cause (also unknown).  They were traveling at night down a street that appeared to be H st.  They also traveled by plane with a Dumbledore-like man, so they could be protected.  The one boy went to this one house where he could only go up to a certain point.  There was a woman standing on the second floor balcony.  She later came up to the one boy and asked if she could have a copy of the book so that she could have information on harry potter.  The two boys went to this factory type place and it blew up.  There was wreckage, and the boys couldn’t get out because there were too many things in their way.  The things weren’t their earlier.” 

It’s some weird twist on Harry Potter!  I do believe it’s my 1st harry potter dream…one that I remember anyway.

I’d have to go through my old journals to see if I have any other weird dreams written down, because there aren’t many in this current one, which goes back about 3 years.  Only in the last month or so have I started to write in it more often.  Entries became more sporadic in 2009, it looks like. 

I didn’t have many weird dreams over the last 3 years.  Or if I did, I didn’t make an effort to write them down.  Because I feel like I did make the effort to do so at one point.  Dreams can definitely be a good inspiration for dreams  for writing, especially if they’re interesting enough.  I may need to write some of my dreams into my novels, since these aren’t enough to spark a novel.  Well, maybe the first one I talked about is…

Odds and Ends

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Yesterday afternoon, I spent a good hour or so trying to figure what books I’m going to read for the 100 book challenge I’m doing this year.  I have 49 books over at google books, just waiting for me to read- and the best part is that they’re all free!  Well, the ones I decided I wanted to read are free.  Plus, I have a bunch of books I haven’t read that are sitting on my bookshelf (and they’re feeling very sad that they’ve been sitting there so long).  And a bunch of books that I need to re-read and haven’t yet entered into goodreads.  I know I’ve read more than what I’ve entered, but I honestly can’t remember all of the books I’ve checked out from the library. 

The other day, I realized that I have a lot of stations over at pandora, and they’re all really different.  And random.  And speaking of music/stations, I’m really glad Jeff and Jer are going to back on the radio tomorrow!  It’s been a long year and a half without them!  Nothing against any of the other morning shows, but Jeff and Jer are, without a doubt, my favorites.  I’m even going to be up at 6 in the morning so I can listen to their first show since they’ve been off the air. 

It is pretty interesting looking at my favorites at stumble upon.  Apparently, I’m really into food/cooking, nature, photography, crafts, dance, ballet, writing, and history.  Well, of course, food/cooking would be the most popular, since the last few months, I’ve really been taken with cooking and baking.  Just from stumble upon, I’ll be busy cooking, and that’s not taking into account all of the food blogs I follow!  It amazes me that there’s so many cool things just floating around, and I never would have found it if it weren’t for stumble upon.   

I’m also excited because later, I’m going to extraordinary desserts in little italy.  Any place that has dessert in their name is a place that’s cool.  Plus, the lemon bar and blackberry (at least, I think it was blackberry) tea that I had from my 1st and only visit was pretty good.  Not extraordinary, but still pretty good.

Random note: If you want to see what I’ve read/am currently reading, what I’m listening to over at Pandora, and want to see my favorites at stumble upon, click on the purple, and it’ll take you to my pages.

Another random note: I managed to write an astounding 654 words yesterday morning!  Usually I manage 100-200 words, at most, but the words just kept coming, which makes me happy.  Turning Point is still the only one I’ve managed to continue adding to, even though I’ve had some of my other stuff open.  I just sit there, looking at it, and then I close it a couple minutes later.  So at least I’m working on something, even if I’m not working on everything that I had originally planned.

Stuff I’ve Made

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Today, I thought I’d share some pictures of some of the stuff I’ve made.  Going through some of my favorites from Stumble Upon (one of the best things ever!), and from a bunch of food blogs I follow, I’ve realized I have a lot of potential food to make!  For the time being, I think it’ll be 2 or 3 things per month.

So, I made sugar cookies a couple days ago, and they’re already gone.  I’m not kidding when I say that these sugar cookies are some of the best that I’ve ever made.  I found the recipe over at Butter Sweet Melodie’s blog, if you want to check it out.

So, the above picture is a breakfast casserole, and it’s seriously one of the best things ever!  It has eggs, cheese, sausage, and the bottom layer is biscuits.  I found the recipe through stumble upon, and it’s buried deep in the 10 pages I have for food/cooking.  It’s pretty good as leftovers too.

And finally, taco soup, topped with sour cream and cheese!  Also very good; yet another recipe I found with stumble upon.  I have to say, I love the crockpot.  Seriously, you just throw everything in the crockpot, let it sit for most of the day, and then it’s ready!  I must find more crockpot recipes.

I already have 3 winners for November, and anything that goes in the crockpot is a winner in my book, just because in the few things I’ve made in the crockpot, there’s been minimal prep work.  Anything that’ll save time in November is a good thing.  Plus, with soup, I can make it in October and then take it out in November.  Cookies also freeze pretty well, so maybe this year, I’ll actually make stuff ahead of time, freeze it, and then I’ll have stuff pre-made for November.