Tag Archives: Inspiration

What Would I Do With $1000?

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Prompt: Here’s $1000.  Spend it in the next hour or lose it.  No online shopping allowed. 

  • I have a list of books I want to get, so a good chunk of it would go to books.  It’s a mix of cookbooks, fiction, and non-fiction.  Me wanting books isn’t anything unusual, so of course it’s going to be at the top of the list.
  • Sephora is a must, and very convenient since it’s next to Barnes and Noble.  You can never have too much lip gloss or nail polish.   
  • Food- what I like to eat is so different from what my mom and grandma eat, so I’d totally buy some stuff that would probably confuse them.
  • Let’s see…I suppose a new iPod is in order, since there’s not enough room on my iPod for all the music I have. 

I just got an idea for a story of some sort- a scavenger hunt for strange items you have to buy.  Maybe a short story, because I don’t know if I could sustain for 50k.  It could definitely be a comedy though, with a quest for the final item that cannot be find.  I suppose it could be more serious, but it screams comedy.  Maybe writing something shorter will get me going as far as writing goes.

What I Want To Know More About

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I honestly have no idea where to begin with this.  There are so many things I want to know, and there’s so much out there, that I’ll never know everything.  I think I’m going to talk about the classes I wish I had time to take.

I wish I had taken a few more history classes- I love history, so I wish I had more time to take a few extra history classes.  And actually, I wish I had taken history classes in place of some of the other classes I had taken. 

I also wish I had taken a few more English classes- I took only the required classes, and none beyond that.  I wish I had though, since English was always one of my favorite classes in high school.

Psychology- I always liked psychology, and wished I took more than Intro to Psych and Abnormal Psychology.  Abnormal Psych was really interesting- and all of the disorders that I never knew existed!  I’ve debated getting a copy of the DSM-IV-TR, which is probably the current edition.  If it’s not, then the newest edition.  Mostly because I’m weird, and because I know there has to be more than what we talked about in class. 

Sociology- I love sociology!  That should be expected though, since that’s what my degree is in.  And like everything else I’ve mentioned, there were a few classes I wish I had taken.  My two favorite classes were sociology classes- Minority Group Relations (best class ever!) and gender roles and the media.  Both were really interesting, and the professors were awesome.

Women’s Studies- I took one class, about women in the media, and I was fascinated.  I didn’t really glance at the other classes offered for Women’s Studies, but I was interested enough want to take another class.]

One day, I’m hoping to go back to school so I can take some of the classes I never got around to taking the 1st time.  Plus, I need to do some more reading, and see if I can learn anything, because I like reading, and learning new things.

How Hard Is It To Come Up With An Idea?

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I’ve given some thought to one of my other plot bunnies, and I’ve been struggling with it.

The premise is that someone stumbles across a secret government agency- it’s an agency so secret even the president doesn’t know about it.

I’ve been struggling with it because what would be so secretive the president doesn’t know about it?  Right now, one of the ideas that popped into my mind was something similar to The Event, which is a great t.v. show.  Or maybe something based off The Adjustment Bureau.  I haven’t seen it, but the trailers I’ve seen intrigue me. 

I’m hoping to have a more developed idea in the next month or two.  I definitely need to work on my characters too, because there’s only a couple that I’ve come up with. 

The idea needs a lot of work, so hopefully by November I’ll have a lot more to work with.  I like the idea though, so I’m hoping something will come to me. 

I may end up taking it in a different direction, since I’m still not sure what I want to do with it.  Coming up with a vague idea is the easy part- it’s developing the idea and the characters that’s slightly more difficult and somewhat problematic.  I think I may end up coming up with notes for each idea and see what happens.

Recurring Dreams

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Writing Prompt: Have you ever had a recurring dream?

There was this dream I had when I was little, but I unfortunately don’t remember it, other than Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty was in it. 

Lately, I’ve had several dreams where I get into arguments with both my mother and an aunt.  I guess you could say that it’s a recurring dream, because in the dream, I’m arguing with them (not at the same time, thankfully, because I don’t think my mind could handle it).  The location is usually at home too, and while I don’t remember what I argued about, but they’ve been really weird. 

I had a dream the other night where I saw some random person smother someone else, and then went to look out a window.  After calling 911, of course. 

I had this other dream where there was a fire, and my house was full of smoke.  I grab my magical binder, my flash drive, my laptop, and underwear, and throw it into my backpack.  There was something about being in a restaurant, and people staying over. 

What I find really interesting is that I tend to dream more vividly, and have dreams that mirror real life when I write in my journal before I go to bed.  Perhaps it’s an easy way of dealing with my thoughts and feelings if it appears in a dream, like writing about it opens the door for me to think about it.  A dream  could be just a dream, and there could be nothing behind it, but it’s still an interesting connection.

Overall, I don’t have very many recurring dreams, other than the ones where I’m arguing with family.  If I do, I don’t remember having them, which wouldn’t be that unusual.  While I don’t remember every dream I’ve had, I do remember a fair amount of them.

Reading Minds

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Today’s Prompt: If you could read minds for a day, would you?  Whose? What would you want to find out?

I would definitely jump at the chance to read minds if I could. 

I think I would start off reading some of my family’s minds, just to see what they’re thinking.  If they’re as bad as I think, and what motivates them to do and say the things that they do.  It would mostly be to see if I can trust them, which I’m positive I can’t anymore. 

It’s definitely geared towards one person in particular, although it would be nice to see where the rest of my family falls.  I’m pretty sure they don’t think of each other the whole day, so if I could pick the day, it would definitely be when the whole family’s together. 

I’d also like to read the minds of some of the people I work with, just because they’re all really interesting, and it’d be cool to see what goes through their head.  They all seem like they would have interesting thoughts.  But don’t tell them I said so!

And definitely some of the visitors who come into the museum!  Mostly to see if some of them really are as stupid as they sound.

It is a pretty fine line though.  On the one hand, it would be interesting to see what the people around me think…but on the other hand, I could end up finding out a lot of stuff I don’t want to know.  And I would never be able to take it back.  I could never unknow something once I find out about it, and I’d have to live the rest of my life knowing what they really thought.  If it were silly and mundane things, I think I’d be fine, but with so many people on my list, I’m bound to find out something I don’t want to know, and I honestly don’t know if I could live with that.

I suppose a lot of it depends on what parameters are set in place, but it does bring up some interesting questions.

Secrets

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After my PostSecret book review, I’ve been thinking about secrets.  We all have secrets, and it got me thinking about my own secrets.  I’m not going to share any, for now, because I’m not comfortable sharing them just yet. 

I think it would be interesting to do a “postsecret” for each character, but the only one I did one for is Chloe.  I didn’t do any of the artwork, but her secret is pretty integral to her life, and influences how she relates to people and how she sees the world.   

It does remind me of a scene in an NCIS episode where Tony and Abby are talking about secrets and how everyone has a “mother of all secrets.”  I think we all have that one big secret that we don’t share with anyone.  I definitely have a couple of those.   

Alright, back to Chloe.  Chloe’s mother of all secrets is that life is passing her by, and by the time she gets her life together, she’ll be too old to care about living her life.  She’s spent her whole life worrying and taking care of people that by the time she’s not taking care of anyone, she won’t even care that her life is her own.   

I secretly wanted to be a singer when I was little.  Too bad I can’t sing if my life depended on it.  There is auto-tune, but I will not resort to that!  Even though you don’t really need to be talented anymore in order to be famous- in some cases anyway.

And maybe that isn’t my mother of all secrets, but it is a secret!  That might be why I’ve had several characters who have a talent for singing, so I can act out my inner popstar through them!

I think I’ll add coming up with a postsecret for each of characters.  You know, in addition to all the other stuff that I said I would work on, and still haven’t. 

Speaking of working on stuff, I may do Script Frenzy.  It’s done by the same people who do NaNo, but instead of novels, it’s a script.  I’m definitely not a script person, as I learned the first couple years I tried it.  So I’ll probably end up using it to work on other projects, like the nice list of stuff right above my desk.  So maybe I’ll actually do a lot more novel-writing next month than I’ve done the last few months.

Black Stone Cherry

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I can’t remember how I heard about them, but I love them.  They only have a couple albums out but both are 2 of my favorites. I can listen to them without skipping any songs…and for me, that is a rare feat because I tend to skip ahead to random songs. It’s why I never put my iPod on shuffle. So when I can listen to someone straight through, it’s a sign they’re good.    

I like Folklore and Superstition better than their self-titled album.  I can’t remember how I heard about them- it was either Pandora, which I’ve mentioned so many times you’re probably tired of hearing about it, or they popped up in the recommendations thingy on iTunes. For some reason, iTunes seems much more likely.  

Some of my favorite songs include Blind Man, Please Come In, and Soul Creek from their Folklore and Superstition album.  Some other good songs are Lonely Train, Big City Lights, and Hell and High Water from their self-titled album. 

They do have a cd coming out sometime this year, and I’m excited, mostly because their last cd came out a few years ago.  I only found out about them a few months ago, so it’s not like I had to wait a really long time or anything, but it’ll be nice to see what they come up with for their new cd.

I listened to them quite a bit during November, because they are one of Kiora’s favorite bands.  I never mentioned it in her profile, but I can see her listening to them, since their music has a country feel to it, and Kiora does love country music.

I think they’re a great band, and definitely one that has been some inspiration for writing.

PostSecret (Times 2)

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Quick Note: Today I’m reviewing two books instead of one.  And Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Title: PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives and My Secret: A PostSecret Book

Author: Both are compiled by Frank Warren

Pages/Format: Postsecret: 276/Hardcover; My Secret: 144/Hardcover

What I Thought: Since these two books are both PostSecret, and very similar, I thought I’d lump them together.

For those who aren’t familiar with PostSecret, it’s where people send in a secret they have neve revealed to anyone.  The secrets are sent to Frank Warren on a postcard, which are often decorated or go along with the secret in some way.

I really liked both books.  I could relate to a lot of the secrets, but even with the ones I couldn’t relate to, I still feel connected to them.

One of my favorites is from PostSecret, and the person had sent in a postcard that said they had no idea which secret to send in, because they had so many.  Or the one from MySecret that goes like this: wanting someone to recognize one of their secrets so they could stop pretending.

Some are sad, some are heart-warming, some are silly.  There is a sense of relief in sharing your secret, even if it is on an anonymous postcard sent in to a stranger.     

Rating: PostSecret gets a 4 out of 5.  I loved the secrets, and it’s great to flip through it every once in a while to remind myself that there are other people out there feeling the same way I do.  There were a wide variety of secrets to go through.

MySecret gets a 4 out of 5 as well.  I also loved the secrets in this one, and I felt the same way when I read this one as I did when I read Postsecret.  There weren’t as many secrets to flip through, but that’s due to the fact that MySecret is considerably shorter than PostSecret.  Despite it’s length, I still found it enjoyable and heart-breaking.

Cookbooks

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I only have a handful of cookbooks.  For the most part, they’ve been collecting dust out in the kitchen, especially since I tend to get most of my recipes off the internet now.

But I decided since I’m going to be cooking a lot (as long as I don’t injure myself anyway), I might as well get some use out of them. 

The very first cookbook I got was one put out by Vegetarian Times, which is a magazine for vegetarians.  I used it a few times, but it’s been collecting dust since 2005 or 2006, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing when I got it.  I didn’t really cook before I got it, other then throwing a few veggie burgers in the microwave.  And I didn’t really do much cooking after I got it either, but it did spark an interest in cooking. 

So fast foward a few years, and I stumbled across Rachael Ray.  I found a copy of her veggie meals cookbook, and decided it was time to make another attempt at cooking.  It started my obsession with Rachael Ray.  I love her!  Okay, so most of her recipes aren’t vegetarian, she has enough vegetarian recipes that I feel okay buying her cookbooks.  Plus, she has a bunch of recipes that I can make vegetarian by swapping out ingredients.  

And the last cookbook I have is a trader joe’s one.  I don’t know if it qualifies as a cookbook, because quite a bit of the book consists of “buy some product that takes 5 or 10 minutes to make, and serve it with some other product that takes 5 or 10 minutes to make.”  There were some good recipes in it, but the fact that a good 2 or 3 sections read as a meal plan, instead of an actual cookbook turned me off from it.     

The Rachael Ray ones are probably my favorites, and the ones that get the most use, although I am willing to give the Vegetarian Times one another shot, especially now that I have a tad more cooking experience.  I’m definitely going to have to do some menu planning now, but that’s okay, because it’ll help me figure out what I need and all.  I’m debating whether or not to post reviews of the cookbooks, but it’ll be a while before I get through enough of the recipes to actually do a review.  If I do decide to review them, they’ll be posted here.

My Poor Finger!

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You may have noticed that my posts have been…slightly more sporadic over the last week or so.  That is because I am a complete idiot.

It started out innocently enough.  It’s cold and rainy, I’ll make some soup.  So the soup needs some chopped carrots, and I decided to use the vegetable slicer.  However, the carrots are being uncooperative, so I decide it would be a good idea to get the carrots out by putting my finger into the vegetable slicer.  It was a good idea until I cut myself.  And about 30 minutes later, I found myself in the emergency room at 10:30 on a Saturday night in need of s0me stitches.  Thankfully, it was just a couple stitches but still, stitches!  While my right hand has been functional, it hasn’t been as functional as it normally is.  Partly because I didn’t want to do anything weird to my stitches, but also because when it comes to needles and stuff, I am the world’s biggest baby. 

My Poor Finger!

It’s really hard taking a picture one-handed, especially when the hand taking the picture is the one you don’t use on a regular basis.  I somehow managed to not use my finger, which is a small miracle, but it’s better now, especially since my stitches are out.  Using my now better finger is weird, since it’s been a bit since I’ve used it, but it will be back to normal soon. 

It made me glad I had some posts in my queue that I had been working on and had no idea what to do with.  I’ve been (mostly) unproductive, spending my time watching the travel channel.  Mostly because I was bored with the history channel and there really isn’t anything on in the middle of the day.  I did watch the USA network a few times though.  Plus, I caught up on a lot of the blogs I follow, since I could manage that one-handed. 

I’ll be posting a few book reviews over the next few days, since I did do some reading.  Plus, I’m itching to cook and bake, especially as I found a lot of stuff I want to try.