Monday, August 24, 2009

In which I am completly insane.

I have just written what I consider to be the greatest paragraph ever. Of course, my opinion of that paragraph may change if I dared to reread it, but we're going to refrain from that for now. It's very ranty. It reads the same as 80% of my blog posts. We may be seeing a trend in the tone of my writing and blog posts, but we're going to act like my writing has an actual style, not just that of me sitting down at the computer and ranting.
I went to the movies twice today. The first time, I saw The Time Traveler's Wife. It was cute. I read the book, and although the book was confusing, I think the movie made more sense having already understood the plot. The second time, I saw Julie and Julia. It was captivating and it made me want to cook something. Did I tell you that I made naan last week? I did. It was good. I took pictures, but I'm not sure about the location of my camera, and even if I was, I'm much too lazy to actually get the pictures off of it.
I watched The Prestige on Saturday, and the whole time I was thinking about storytelling. The movie tells it all very interestingly, so that you don't really understand what's happened until the end. It's given me a lot of concepts that should be applied to my NaNo, but that depends on which plot I use. Really, I should find a way to work them into my current story, but... when we edit. Because I will finish the beast, and then I will edit it, and then it will be lovely.
Registration is tomorrow, and the very thought of it makes me sick. I really don't want to go back to school this year.

Friday, August 21, 2009


I couldn't tell you how many times I listened to/sang/hummed this song today. This isn't the original, but he has a cute accent.
I'm thinking that Apollo may be my new favorite character. He's like Milton, only he seems to know what he's doing, and he's more of a leader. And he has a different past and different relationships with people.
I guess he's really not like Milton.
In other news, I did some brainstorming for my NaNo this morning. As in, I wrote out 13 story ideas. They range from completely ludicrous (inanimate objects with feelings) to vaugely possible. And there's a lot of metafiction ideas happening, which will end up being interesting or horrible.
Also, these pictures are absolutly delicious.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Difference.

When I was twelve, I wrote an essay about how JK Rowling was my role model. A part of me still wants to be her.
I just hit 20k on Milton's story.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 257, 045 words long. Because I'm the kind of person who can only measure success in 50,000 word increments, that's more than five NaNoWriMos.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Kazoo

I just had this idea for a wildly interesting thing. What if you wrote something and could have a bunch of famous writers (some of whom are dead) read and critique it? There could be some sort of computer program where you could tell it to review your work the same way Ibsen would, or Poe, or Milton, or anybody.
Yeah, I'm actually awake at 7 am without anywhere to be. I'm worried too.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Quote of the Month

Because everyone and their brother is suddenly planning on doing NaNoWriMo.

"Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed."
Ray Bradbury

Friday, August 14, 2009

Haunting.

Yeah, I was wondering how long it would take before Machevelli got used in the story. I finally used it. Honestly, I'm surprised that I got to 13.5 without using it once. I actually used it 13,989 words in. The old man said it.
I'm not sure that Euro will ever leave me. And I think I'm okay with that.
We're going to have another question day soon! You're really excited, I can tell. Put your questions in the comments on this post, and they will be answered. It'll be fun.
I'm wearing this shirt today. It makes me happy. And I finally got a picture of the house I will live in. Someday.The people across the street may have been mowing their lawn and may have given me a funny look while I was taking pictures. Maybe.
ETA: OH MY GOD! Apartmenttherapy+Threadless=Threadcake.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

I'm a winner. Basically.

I've been on quite a roll with the story. I've written about 800 words today, but I feel like I have the energy and ideas to write another 2000 or so, which was my goal for today. I feel like I've progressed in the plot by leaps and bounds, and that makes me very happy. We're approaching jazzhands territory. Milton has friends now. Friends! And a romantic interest! This is so exciting, right? Annnnnd there's enough plot to make things happen. I might actually reach novel length without using all the ideas between 30 and 40k. I am very muchly proud. Even though my father seems to think that it's a rip off of Catcher in the Rye.
The only reason I have to be less than happy is that the doctor wouldn't let me keep my teeth. Which I really wanted to. Because I think the tooth fairy would come.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Contained

The reuburbia finalists are up here. You should vote for your favourite. Or you should just vote for LivaBlox. Because it's pretty awesome. Also, it promotes smaller houses, which are always a good idea.
This is a clip about somewhere they are actually being used.



Worst idea? Let them Burn. What a fail. And it uses Devil's Night as an example? Devil's Night is not about making Detroit a better place, and it doesn't help anyone.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I just need to vent

I'm not good with people. Recent involvement in the group is the closest I've come to making friends in a long time. I was planning on sleeping over at my friend's house tonight with some other people, and we were going to watch the meteor shower. And it was going to be really awesome.
I get home this evening and ask my parents if I can go. I've slept over at this friend's house before, with their knowledge. They say no. I eventually persuade them to let me go, but they want to go and meet all my friends and make sure that there's other girls there. No one else's parents have ever done this. They say that I could have people over here, as long as we're quiet, and we have to have a chaperone if there are boys here. Yeah, we can have a sleepover, as long as we don't do anything and have my parents watching. That sounds like a fucking blast, doesn't it?
My mom is even staying downstairs and reading. Of course, she would normally be in bed by now, and I'm sure it's just a conincidence that she's down here and I want to go somewhere. I wonder if she thinks I'm going to sneak out or something?
I've never snuck out. I've never had alcohol without their knowlege. I've never had sex (hey internets! I'm just going to let the entire world know that I'm a virgin. There.). I've never smoked anything. I don't even know where to get drugs if I wanted them. I've never done anything to make them not trust me, but they want to meet everyone who's going to a sleepover before I'm allowed to stay.
This is why some people coughmiltoncough don't really have relationships with their parents.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Milton

He's currently sitting in a stranger's house, reading. He has recently eaten a piece of bread with peanut butter on it and marveled at how normal this house feels while the rest of the world is empty and screwed up.
I need some help from you. What does Milton look like? As with all people who I don't know in real life or see pictures of on a regular basis, I imagine him looking astonishingly like me. But Milton shouldn't look like me, because that is weird. This is where you come in. The story has no physical description of Milton, and it should have something. Tell me (in the comments) what you think Milton should look like. Be descriptive. Be a winner.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Interwebs

I'm thinking about the internet and how it blurs the line between fiction and reality. More specifically, I'm thinking of Paige Railstone, publishing, and John Green.
DJ Railstone intrigues me. Am I more real than she is? I, after all, am not a DJ and have never been to Estonia. Her life is probably more interesting than mine is. She has more internet presence than I do. She has more fans than I do. Is she real? Am I real? Or am I an effort by myself and the people around me to create something that fills a space? This concept is making my head spin just a little. If Milton had his own website and facebook and twitter, would he be real? If Hogwarts was a real castle with real students going to school there, might Harry Potter be real?
Publishing is interesting. I really don't think that novel legnth fiction is dead, but I think that it's changing. I think it's possible that it would be normal to read most books on a FanFiction.net type website. Everyone could publish things and make money off of them, but the ones being the most sucessful would be the ones who have the most readers, getting the most advertising revenue. I'm not sure if this site would be free to read or not, but if it was, you've got a lot of your copyright issues gone right there. Still, the idea of never having a paper book to hold and read and hi-lite (okay, I can't write in most books, but some people do) sort of bugs me. And yes, I think it's cool that the internet messes with things that have been the same, physically, for hundreds of years.
John Green makes fictional characters real. It's not his writing, although that's good. It's stuff like Omnictionary, having facebook pages for fictional people, having nerdfighters, having the school in Looking for Alaska be remarkably close to a real school. This is really cool. Authors like John Green and Jackson Pearce (although her book isn't out yet, so I have not idea how real the characters will become) feel like real people, and that is really, really cool.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Adult

At camp, I was an adult. Not a teenager who had been granted permission to do something out of the ordinary, but a full fledged adult. I was responsible for other people. I got up early. People looked up to me.
I think I like this. At least, I like the camp version of being an adult. I think it has responsability without so much stress. That's the kind of adult that I think I need to try on every once in a while, just to remind myself what it's like.
And I got to drink counselor coffee. Which is hilarious.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Rebecca

I finished Rebecca (the Classic tale of Romantic Suspense!) last Saturday. It was really good.
What I thought was sort of strange was the DeWinters' relationship. Mrs.DeWinter feels like she'll never fit in at Manderly and is sort of distant from her husband in the beginning of the book. Then, she finds out what happened to Rebecca, his first wife, and everything is suddenly better. If you found out that your husband killed his first wife, wouldn't it make sense to be a little bit freaked out? The only thing she was worried about was him getting caught.
Also, Rebecca was sleeping with her cousin. Creepy!
Also, am I the only one who would go to someone's home before getting married to them?
Also, Manderly sounds absolutly amazing.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Reunited

I had a most excellent time at camp. I was a counselour at pioneer camp, which was for fourth through sixth graders. I could write ten more posts about what I learned, and you'll probably see them in the next month or so. But really, the exciting part is this:
My pants are back!
That sounds very strange, so I'll explain a little more.
Last year, I went on a kayak trip to Grand Island in Lake Superior. I had all my clothes packed in plastic bags, and my the bag that contained two pairs of shorts and one pair of pants went missing. So I wore the same pair of pants for the entire trip. It was gross. I had written these pants off as lost. Last night, the people who went on the kayak trip this year got back the assistant director of the camp, who went on the trip, had found my pants when she looked in the hatch of the tandemonium. This made me laugh. A lot. This is wildly awesome. It's like getting new clothes, but without the trying on a bunch of stuff part. Here's some pictures. Because I'm a fan of pictures.Also, commies know how to party.
Also, I have trouble knowing how to react to some situations. So, for right now, we're just going to act like everything's okay, even though it might not be. Right? Right.