Winter Trees

       So I’ve been writing a little poetry lately and I wanted to share some of it with you. I’ve been experimenting with some new styles instead of the same old layout and I want to post a new one at least once a week. These poems deal with a lot of different things, I hope they cause you to think. Because the best part about poetry is trying to understand it. Keep in mind, these aren’t very good but I’m trying to develop my poetry style so I can become better. So let me know what you think!

      This type of poem is Arabic and is called a ghazal and is made up of rhyming couplets and a refrain. The Arabic word for ghazal is "غزل" and sounds like the English word "guzzle." But while this type of poem is Arabic, I used its English form. It's one of my favorite styles ever (probably because it's Arabic which automatically makes it awesome).

Winter Trees

In the winter, I see a tree.

Standing alone, alone again.

It slowly begins to lose its leaves.

It always does, it will again.

It’s cold outside, but trees don’t shiver.

But it will look dead again.

But is it dead or is it alive?

Will it just lose its leaves again?

The winter is cold, it always is.

And it will be cold again.

The wind blows by, it hits the tree.

Taking away the leaves again.

But the same wind doesn’t blow twice.

It will not blow again.

The tree might fall, but it won’t die.

It survived, it will again.

Next year it will bear fruit.

It will be green again.

And if it falls, heaven forbid.

It will grow again.

Music

               So I'm one of those people who really like listening to music while I write, but finding just the right music to listen to can be difficult sometimes.

                In my opinion, soundtracks are usually the best, depending on what I'm writing. Lately I've been working on a Sci-fi novel and so I’ve been listening to a lot of soundtracks like the ones from The Dark Knight, Stardust, Transformers, and Star Trek but I when I write regular fiction, I usually listen to some of my favorite music like MuteMath and Emery. I think that it helps a lot with the creative process. I also like listening to bands like Evanescence and Within Temptation while I’m writing.

                Some writers like J.K. Rowling, for instance, don’t like to listen to music while writing for whatever reason. I think that is just ridiculous (but J.K. Rowling is an amazing writer, so I guess whatever she does, works well for her!) 

                Music can help you along with your story so much and I realize that my writing style even changes a bit depending on what I’m listening to. Like when I listen to Hans Zimmer’s music, my story ends up becoming a lot darker than when I listen to something by Ramin Djawadi or Steve Jablonsky (composers have funny names, don’t they?)

                Another great place to find music is a website called Ambient Music Guide. They have some amazing downloads that you can listen to that are perfect for novel writing. The music is so beautiful, it’s just fantastic.  

                And here is an amazing playlist where I have put all of the amazing songs that I listen to while I write, and it’s a group playlist, so if you have any favorite inspirational songs, add them! To pull it up, just click here.

                So I think that you should always be careful about what you’re listening to because it usually has an effect on whatever you’re writing about. Music is a great thing to have when you’re writing, just look at what these authors had to say about music:

 “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.”  -Oscar Wilde

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
-Lord Byron

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” -Victor Hugo

 

                So what kind of music do you like to listen to when you’re writing? Do you think it’s a distraction or do you think it helps the creative process? Let me know!

My favorite songs at the moment:

 I-540 by The Wedding
I don't know why but I've adored this song ever since I first heard the album in 2007. The entire album is pretty much amazing so you should definitely check it out!                      

                          Churches and Serial Killers by Emery. I know a lot of people might disagree with me but their newer music is much better than their earlier sound. It's much more developed and straight up awesome so you should check them out too.

Everybody Loves Me and Made For You by OneRepublic. Their new album definitely has a different sound than their last record but it still has the same piano-driven awesomeness. Really, really good. Different. But good.

Pretty much anything by MuteMath

Seriously, I love every song by MuteMath, they're amazing. Their sound has a very unique, atmospheric sound that shows itself in all of their albums but they always seem to change it up a little with every record they put out. I love it. :)

           What are your favorite songs of all time?

 

          
               Okay, so I’m kind of straying from the topic but there’s this website called Formspring and basically you set up an account and then people can ask questions about you (anonymously or publically) and then the person answers them.

                I think the idea is actually kind of cool, I mean, it’s a great distraction from homework (haha). So ask me some questions if you feel like it, I have a text box on the side of my blog where you can ask me anything. Just click here.

                Follow me and I’ll follow you. :)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Guess where I'm going to be on February 12! Percy Jackson and the Olympians is coming out in two weeks and I'm so excited! The cast looks really good (except for the girl who plays Annabeth and her tragic lack of a forehead) and it was directed by Chris Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter movies (which were, by far, the best). You can check out all the info by click this link. Here's the newest trailer!



    You know, a lot of people can get really picky about movies based on books, I'm definitely not one of those people. The movie isn't supposed to be exactly like the book because of the most obvious reason--it's not a book, it's a movie. I'm sure that in Percy Jackson, some stuff will be taken out and some stuff will be added but as long as it sticks close to the story, I don't really have a problem with that. But that's just me.
       How do you feel about movies based on books? Which movie based on a book was your favorite? Least favorite? I want to hear from you!

Leviathan Review and The 2010 Printz Honor Books

                I just recently finished my first book of 2010 which was Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

                Scott Westerfeld is the best-selling author of the Uglies series and The Midnighters series and also wrote other novels like Peeps and So Yesterday. In the past, I tried to read Uglies and So Yesterday which I thought were too tedious to finish and only made it to the halfway point before quitting. I did, however, think that the plot of these futuristic stories were quite intriguing but they just weren’t written in an interesting manner.
               Last summer, I read the first Midnighters book, ‘The Secret Hour', and felt so disconnected from the characters that I couldn’t finish the series. In all of his books that I have read or attempted to read, the characters never seemed realistic to me and I’ve always felt that his books are more driven by the plot and less driven by the characters which, I find to be the worst mistake when writing a book.

                But Leviathan was a little different than his other books. It was, of course, futuristic, as most of his books are but it was also, as Scott Westerfeld put it in his Afterward, ‘a novel of alternate history.’

                And it most definitely was.

                The book takes place during the very beginning of World War I. It begins on June 28, 1914, the day Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated. The book follows two characters, one of them is named Alek and is supposed to be the son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek. In reality, they did not have one son but two sons and a daughter (none of which was named Alek).
               The story also follows a girl named Deryn who, because she wants to be in the British Air Service and pretends to be a boy so that she can join. There is not much factual truth to this story and many of its aspects are futuristic like the use of elaborate war machines and fabricated animals.

                The plot itself was interesting but I felt, again, that I was disconnected from the characters. Alek and Deryn don’t have very distinct personalities and were very boring and unrealistic. I also thought that the plot (was there even a plot? I don’t even know) was hard to make out.

                I did like the science fiction aspect to it and also the conflict between the ‘Clankers’ who rely on machines and the ‘Darwinists’ who rely more on the fabricated animals that they create by reaching into DNA to fabricate new animals. This is, of course, assuming that, not only was Charles Darwin’s theory correct, but also that he had discovered DNA and figured out a way to reach into them and create new creatures. In reality, DNA was not discovered by Charles Darwin and wasn’t even fully recognized until the 1950’s.

                So, this wasn’t a necessarily bad book, it had a few interesting parts and the idea was definitely interesting but it wasn’t my favorite book. (Although it was my favorite book I read this year, but only because it’s the only book I’ve read this year).

                Right now I’m reading Going Bovine by Libba Bray which one the 2010 Printz Award this year so I’ll have a review on that in the next week or so.

And speaking of the Printz Award, here are the Printz Honor Books for 2010:

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey

Punkzilla, by Adam Rapp

Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973, by John Barnes

                I’ll be reading these books soon (except for Charles and Emma, of course) and post reviews on them as soon as I can. If you’ve already read them, tell me what you thought about them!

Thanks for stopping by. :}

               

What's In A Name?

      What's in a name? Well, a lot, actually. The names that you choose for your characters are really important, these names will eventually help define your character.

      There are some names that have become a symbol for something that the author may or may not have originally intended for it. A name that has become symbolic is Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Carol. It is interesting because in the original story, people who behaved like Scrooge were very common so the story had even more of a meaning then than it does now. Nowadays, the name ‘Scrooge’ has become almost a synonym for someone who doesn’t have any Christmas spirit.

      There are other names that have become symbolic such as Robin Hood, Romeo and Juliet, Lolita, Achilles, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, and Uncle Tom. Good or bad, some characters have become symbols to such an extent that, I am, the authors never intended or even dreamed of. Wouldn’t it be so cool to create a character that ends up having a mind of its own?

                There are also names that have horrible connotations and can sound downright evil because of those connotations such as Voldemort, Darth Vader, Sauron, The White Witch, Iago, and Count Dracula. Without the evil connotations that are associated with these names, they might not sound so dreadful but there is something strangely intimidating about the name ‘Voldemort.’

               

                Why is that, do you think?

                But a name doesn’t have to be symbolic to have a meaning. Take Margo Roth Spiegleman in Paper Towns by John Green for example. Spiegleman is German for ‘mirror maker’ and it basically means that Margo is a mirror maker because when people see her, what they see is only a fun-house reflection of Margo and not the real Margo.  (I know it’s confusing, so just read the book and you’ll understand).

                Some writers are simply amazing at picking out names for their characters. Some of my favorite character names can be found in Charles Dickens’ novels such as Sir Leicester Deadlock, Mr. Smallweed, Clara Peggoty, and Martin Chuzzlewit. Charles Dickens usually took a whimsical approach for his wonderful array of characters, making even the smallest of characters strangely loveable.

                Picking names can be hard, though. Finding a name that fits your character can be a long and boring search but once you find the right one, it can be extremely rewarding and could make your story much more meaningful.

                But sometimes the lack of a name can be just as meaningful.

                In Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Rebecca, the story begins well into the lives of the two main characters, the man is named Maxim de Winter and the woman is unnamed.  Not long after meeting each other, they get married. As the story goes on, the protagonist finds out that her new husband was once married and his wife, Rebecca, died in a boating accident. Everyone she speaks to tells her how wonderful Rebecca was and how she could never be like her. The name Rebecca is always being spoken in the movie but the protagonist’s name is never even revealed. I love how even though Rebecca is dead when the movie begins, the movie is named after her and not the protagonist because the story is truly about Rebecca and not the protagonist.

                Good or bad, names can make or break your story. So what are some of your favorite names in literature?

Characters

               We’ve all read books where the plot was interesting and the writing is good but you feel strangely disconnected from the characters. And then there are books where you have a close bond with the characters and you feel like you know them better than anyone else. It’s a unique feeling, to befriend ‘people’ who don’t exist, but it is easy to do so if the writer is good enough. But I think it takes only the best writers to make you feel that way, (i.e. C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling).

                But what is it exactly that draws us to certain characters in a story? It’s hard to pinpoint it exactly but I think it has something to do with the characters behaving in a way in which the reader would behave had he or she been put under the same circumstances. The characters (especially the protagonist) should simply be human, they should make mistakes and suffer the consequences. They should love someone and wind up heartbroken. They should live, just as we live, unaware of what’s going to happen next.

                Of course we know that these characters aren’t even real so they are, therefore, indifferent as to whether or not they get attacked and killed by a deranged, fire-breathing cat lady in the next chapter but it’s an illusion. Writing is the best form of magic that there is. A good author can make you fall in love with someone who’s not real. They can spin a tale that is so intriguing, you don’t want it to be make believe. But good authors are hard to find.

                Take J.K. Rowling for example. I always loved how I could somehow always know exactly who was speaking in the Harry Potter series without her even having to tell me who it was. There is something very distinct about each character and I felt as though they were my closest friends. I knew them. I could relate to them.

                Also, the characters in the Harry Potter series are so diverse and interesting yet they all have their place. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are, of course, the main characters but there are so many good characters such as Luna Lovegood and Fred and George Weasley. Characters that make you laugh and make you cry. And there are also characters that you love to hate like Draco Malfoy and Snape. It’s a wonderful collection of characters that add so much to the story.

                I am quite confident that one of my favorite literary characters of all time is Hamlet from Shakespeare’s timeless play. The character of Hamlet is so complex and intricate, it can only be related to our own complex characters. Although it is widely misinterpreted, the question ‘to be or not to be’ is a question we all unconsciously ask ourselves when we have to choose a certain path. Hamlet was unaware of his future and his need to know what was to come ended being what destroyed him. We are all unaware of our future and we have to choose whether or not we’ll let it overtake us. And we all do make the decision whether we are aware of it or not. The character of Hamlet, I think, is one of the most relatable literary characters ever. And there I go on another long interpretation of Hamlet. (That’s not even the half of it, I actually wrote a 1,000 page analysis of Hamlet for my Shakespeare class).

                The actual development of the character really is the most important part to the character. It seems that most of the characters in the books I’ve read recently do not develop at all but, instead, they remain as boring as they were originally.

                Without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite example of character development is the character of Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Edmund is a selfish boy who believes Lucy is crazy after she says she found another Narnia in the wardrobe. He was even willing to give his brother and sisters over to the White Witch for some Turkish Delight. But after Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, he changes. When Lucy sees Aslan in Prince Caspian, nobody believes her but Edmund says this: “When we first discovered Narnia a year ago—or a thousand years ago, whichever it is—it was Lucy who discovered it first and none of us would believe her. I was the worst of the lot, I know. Yet she was right after all. Wouldn’t it be fair to believe her this time?”

                This change in Edmund is a reflection of the change that we all undergo when we realize Christ to be our Savior. When we truly understand the sacrifice God made for us, how is it possible not to become an entirely different person?

                Any way, the characteristics a character must have and must not have are easy to recognize but much harder to follow when you find yourself with the pen in your hand. Character development is a tricky thing to master and even some of the best writers fall short. But I think that part isn’t so much something you can learn from reading a book but rather something you must learn with time and experience.

                Experience really is the key to spinning a good tale. The more people you interact with and the more you grow, the easier it becomes to develop your characters. And trust me, I still have a long way to go but, in time, I hope that I will get it right.

                So who are your all time favorite literary characters and what do you like about them? Do you like characters that make you laugh? Cry? Do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

The Maze Runner Review

                The last book I read last year was called The Maze Runner by James Dashner and, I have to say, it was very disappointing.

                The story is about a boy named Thomas who wakes up to find himself in a place he’s never seen before with no memory of anything from his past except his name. He is informed by the other boys who live there that he is in a place they call ‘The Glade’ and outside The Glade is a Maze that changes every night after the walls close. A new boy is sent to The Glade every month and each one wakes up without any memories of their past. Thomas is the last boy sent to The Glade and a teenage girl arrives the next day who seems to have the answers to all of their questions but she conveniently becomes unconscious soon after she arrives. Later (much later) in the story, it is reveals that Thomas is convinced that he is supposed to be a Runner. Runners are the boys who run through the maze and look for a way out but they never do. After many tedious and predictable misadventures, Thomas becomes a Runner and helps find a way out of the Maze to the outside world.

                What I didn’t like about this book was that the boys in The Glade are much too organized. This book obviously has a sort of Lord of the Flies vibe about it but unlike Lord of the Flies, it’s not an allegorical masterpiece about human nature and individual welfare. The boy’s actions in The Maze Runner goes against human nature because these boys have an entire society set up with an extremely organized hierarchy and designated responsibilities for everyone. It just isn’t realistic. These boys in The Glade are all between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, it is highly impossible that a large group of fifteen year old boys would set up their own culture and be able to govern themselves the way that they do.

                Also, it was extremely tedious, the characters are underdeveloped and to make matters worse, Thomas and the teenage girl who arrives in The Glade have a telepathetic bond and they often converse with each other with the use of their minds.

                The story had potential and could have been a sort of rebirthing of the classic tale by William Golding but instead it was an underdeveloped story with boring characters and unrealistic ideas.

                Perhaps it is just me, but I really didn’t like this book. But right now I’m reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld now and it’s extremely good so I’ll actually be able to write a review on a good book very soon!

New Years Resolutions...erm...Goals

     Well, it’s the new year and I’m sure many of you have already gotten started on your New Year’s resolutions. I haven’t. Probably because I don’t have any.

      I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions because I always thought that if you really wanted to change something in your life whether it be your weight, your attitude, or your outlook on something you shouldn’t wait until the new year, you should begin right away (which I did many times last year and even this year!). I refer to the things that I hope to accomplish this year as goals. And when it comes to goals, I’ve already begun my list. :) *ahem*

My Goals for 2010

1. I am going to get A’s in all of my classes this year.

                (I didn’t do too terribly last year but I know that I can do better if I try harder.)

      2. I am going to read more books this year.

                (I only read 21 books last year, here’s the list:

Airhead by Meg Cabot permanently

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Everymore by Alyson Noel

Paper Towns by John Green

One False Note by Gordon Korman

The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Stitches by David Small

Looking For Alaska by John Green

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

And most of them sucked too :/ )

     3.  I’m going to finish writing a novel this year.

(I’ve actually only finished writing about two novels. The first one I ever finished was about 70 pages long (so in all honesty, it was a novella) and I wrote it when I was about thirteen. (it wasn’t that good.) And I finished one last summer and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. (Again, not very good.)  Oh, and NaNoWriMo didn’t count because I never actually finished the novel I was writing, but I did get to 50,000 words.)

      4.  I’m going to write a 100 page script.

(Yep, I’m getting ready for Script Frenzy which kicks off in April. Script Frenzy is almost exactly like NaNoWriMo except that instead of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 insane days, you have to write a 100 page script in 30 insane days. Yep, I have no idea what I’m writing about yet but it’s going to be awesome.)

So that’s about it (for now, at least). :) But what about your resolutions and goals for this year? I want to hear from you!

Oh, and I'll be posting of my review of The Maze Runner by James Dashner sometime this week, so keep checking for updates. (I like parentheses, can you tell?)

'The Story of The Loss of My Zune and the Purchase of My New Mp3 Player' and My New Project For The New Year

Part 1
The Story of The Loss of My Zune and the Purchase of My New Mp3 Player

So here is my account of all of the interesting and strange events that happened in the past week or so. It all started when I took up the responsibility of cleaning my incredibly filthy room by actually hanging up my clothing instead of throwing them on my bed and painting over the lyrics that I had written on my wall with a Sharpie the year before. I also painted six of my favorite quotes on my wall (which looks awesome btw). It was a strenuous task, but one that needed to be done. So after three long days filled with painting and Sharpie-ing, I finally finished.

It was a beautiful moment, looking over my work with a proud smile. But then I noticed it. That fateful moment when I realized that I had written my Oscar Wilde quote the wrong way. I hurriedly grabbed my green paint and painted over the words. I waited for it to dry and then re-wrote the last line of the quote. I sighed with pride, looking over my many accomplishments.

But it was the next day that I noticed something else was wrong.
My zune was missing!

Yes, my zune, in all of its 8 GB glory, was indeed missing.

So I proceeded to look throughout my room in search of my zune without any luck. I then began to look all over the house and even in the trash (I’m not even able to talk about the things I found in there…) but no zune.

I then began to think that I should invest in a new mp3 player because my Zune didn’t appear to be anywhere and I thought it might be time for an upgrade and since I was selling my bass, I thought that it was the perfect time to do it.

I looked up the new Zune HD but I wasn’t really interested in that. So I decided to look up Ipod Touches on craigslist.

Okay, so craigslist is amazing, I’ve bought a lot of stuff on there in the past but it can also be really sketchy. I went on a search for first generation Ipod Touches and found a few. I tried contacting the owners but none of them responded. After a few days of exploring the great world of craigslist, I finally found a second generation Ipod Touch that was within my price range.

I texted the person who was selling the Ipod and asked if it was still available and I was told that it wasn’t but he had a first generation ipod Touch that he was selling.

Can somebody say sketchy?

I decide to look past this and ask him what his address was.

He replied by saying that he lived in Town Parks but he wanted to meet by the clock tower.

The clock tower.

So I replied and said that I was no longer interested.

Then he replied and said that he was fourteen.

And I replied and said that I changed my mind and wanted to see it.

Then he said he couldn’t sell it to me because his dad told him that he couldn’t.

*sigh*

And then I get a text later saying that he’ll sell it to me for 20 more bucks than he originally asked for.

The next part includes me getting very happy and agreeing to the terms.

Since I was already in Daytona with my mom, hoping to escape the coldness of my house, we drove to Town Parks at 4:00 and waited by the clock tower.

After ten minutes went by and my mother remarked that she felt like a drug dealer, the kid still hadn’t showed up. I watched as a nine year old kid on a scooter rode by.

"No, no, no, please don’t let that be him!" I pleaded to God.

*sigh of relief* it wasn’t, he just scootered on by (is scootered a word? Well it is now.)

I texted the kid and asked him where he was and he said he was almost there.

So then a kid walked toward the car holding an Ipod Touch in his hand. I asked him some questions and bought it.

And now I have a slightly used Ipod Touch that I bought off a fourteen year old kid by a clock tower.

So that concludes my story. :)

Disclaimer: In case you're wondering, I’m not at all ashamed of owning an Ipod. I’m not prejudiced against Mac, only the people who own Mac computers. Hehe

Part 2

My New Project For The New Year

Since the new year is almost upon us, I’ve been thinking of ways to make my blog more awesome. And thanks to my muse (aka my mom) and Charles Dickens, I’ve come up with a spectacular idea.

As you may know, when Charles Dickens published his novels, it was released in excerpts in the newspaper and the actual books weren’t printed until many years later. These excerpts were called sketches.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m working on a short story right now and once a week, I’ll be posting excerpts (aka sketches) from it on my blog starting sometime during the next few weeks.

But I’ll still be posting book reviews and my uninteresting ramblings on random subjects while I’m working on this project and if you have any ideas for my blog and how to make it more awesome, let me know. I cannot tell you the happiness your comments and insight brings to my heart. ;) So tell me your ideas! I want to hear from you.

I hope you have a very happy new year!

Masquerade

Here's a poem that I wrote that elaborates on my older post, 'Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.' Hope you like it.

Tell me, what is personality?

It is just an idea of me,

Made up by friends, made up by foes.

But they could never truly know.

Who I really am—neither do I—

I’m made up, I’m just a lie.

I am concealed, like I have something to hide,

An empty vase with empty ideas inside,

I know what the world wants, so I do what they say,

The real me doesn’t matter to them, anyway.

I’ve gone in and I’ve fixed all of the previous defects,

And anything bad that the world might detect.

You might say, “be yourself,” well, I agree:

Who else can be other than me?

No one likes the original version, they never do;

So you have to be anyone other than you.

Don’t look at me that way, as if you don’t do it as well,

You’re made up of ideas, in other words, an empty shell—

You pretend too, you hide behind a pretense

In this harsh world, it’s our only defense.

Life is a game, you have to learn how to play,

You have to know what to do and what not to say

Like hide and seek, make-believe, or charades

Life’s just a game, a simple masquerade.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Money

     Okay, so I found myself on the New York Times Magazine online and was looking through the most awesome thing ever to appear on the internet--The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas which is just a compilation of the most awesome ideas ever. A few of them are things like kickstarter.com, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and man-made, carbon filtering trees. And, yes, I do think that, while I haven't read it, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a good idea (it's making loads of money, right?) But now it looks like even more money to be made off of it.

Are you ready for it?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...the movie????

    That's right, apparently a movie based on the book by Seth Grahame-Smith, starring Natalie Portman, will be showing up on the big screen.
    Okay, I like Pride and Prejudice, I like zombies, I like movies based on books, and Natalie Portman is okay--but this might be going too far.
    I'm not really sure how I feel about this yet, I mean it has the potential to be totally awesome and it also has the potential to be horrendous but I think I could get a good laugh out of it either way.

    I really have to read this book, it might forever scar me in that every time i watch the original version of Pride and Prejudice, I'll be expecting Elizabeth Bennett to be sporting ninja gear and her sisters to be fighting off zombies with their martial art skills.
    The thought of that is altogether terrifying and, I must add, completely awesome.
    But I think that the idea is cool, I mean, it's good for people who don't really understand the old English and stuff because it can be hard to follow sometimes. I know that Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters include discussion questions at the end like:

      2. In “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,” painful personal setbacks often occur at the same moment as sea-monster attacks, suggesting a metaphorical linkage of “monsters” with the pains of romantic disappointment; for example, Marianne is rebuffed by Willoughby at Hydra-Z precisely as the giant mutant lobsters are staging their mutiny. Have you ever been “attacked by giant lobsters,” either figuratively or literally?

    While this is good for people who can't understand a story as simple as Sense and Sensibility, it also shows to us all how ignorant the majority of the people in our society are.
     It started out as a good idea but now it's just about the money. These mash-ups are just a part of a short phase that will never be remembered in history and the original versions will remain unscathed. And because of my undying (get it? hehe) love for the classics, my love for the original version of Pride and Prejudice will never be tarnished.

    Have you read the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? If you did, did you like it? How do you feel about a movie being made about it?

Paparazzi

    Okay, time to talk about something that bothers me. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and the whole Tiger Woods scandal has come just in time to help me prove my point.

     I hate how people think that celebrities have the right to privacy. They don’t. By becoming a celebrity, they are automatically subjecting themselves to whatever amount of attention the paparazzi gives them. I have heard so many things from people saying how the details of the Tiger Woods story is none of anyone’s business and, to a certain extent, that’s true. But when a huge celebrity hits a fire hydrant and a tree on his own street, he’s just asking for trouble.

                Celebrities aren’t normal people. They’re things. They’re empty vessels in which we store all of our impressions, thoughts, and (usually) incorrect assumptions about them. So when that thing that we have created does something unusual or out of the ordinary, it is our business to know all of the details about what they did so that we can create more incorrect assumptions about them.  It’s sad, I know.

                These people aren’t real—they’ve sold themselves to the world—to us. And because of that, they don’t have the same rights that we have. No, I don’t think that people should make such a fuss about it but I can’t help but think that these celebrities are basically asking for it. They can’t say that they have a right to privacy—the publicity and rumors and gossip are all in the contract.

                The life of a celebrity isn’t easy, although many of us think that it is. It might look glamorous but you’re put under a microscope and are constantly being judged for what you do. When you’re a celebrity, you’re no longer a person, just an idea of a person. So what’s the point? What’s the point to have everything but not have yourself?

                I wish we could put this “need” to know exactly what happened behind us but that seems impossible. People will continue to read tabloids and make judgments about celebrities. We live in a fallen world, a world where people are more interested in famous golf player’s lives than their friends and family. I don’t know what went down between Tiger Woods and his wife and, to be honest, I don’t care at all and I can’t wait for this story to finally be laid to rest.

But enough from me--what do you think about it? :)

“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” Luke 9:25

Apple vs. Microsoft (Can't We All Just Get Along?)

               Okay so I know that a lot of you think that I hate Mac but this is altogether untrue. Allow me to expound.

                The first time I ever used a Mac was at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona while I was involved in one of the programs about….six or seven years ago. It was a desktop computer and was a piece of crap. The program was confusing and it would randomly shut off, erasing my precious videos and/or documents while they were rendering. This proved to be a problem for me and I was set against Macs for a long time. (of course, in the future, these problems were fixed and they have some nice computers out now but I DON’T WANT ONE.)

                Anyway, it wasn’t until right before my fourteenth birthday that I was introduced to another Apple product—the iPod.

                I was intrigued by this new piece of technology and the iPod was at the top of my wish list. I received a first generation iPod Nano for my fourteenth birthday and I was in seventh heaven (whatever the heck that means). It held up to 500 songs, didn’t play or take video, and the screen was about as big as one of my fingernails. Yeah, totally old school. But I loved and cherished that sorry excuse for a Mp3 player…until it broke about a year later.

                Yep, it straight up broke, the battery power lasted for about thirty minutes and the left headphone stopped working. Not to mention, I had many problems with it before it was rendered unfixable, it refused to turn on a number of times and it also had a tendency of not showing that it was connected to my computer when it clearly was. So I gave up and it was time to invest in another iPod.

                The next one I purchased was a fifth generation video iPod with 30 GBs. It was $250 and I was finally happy again. Until it broke two years later.

                When this one broke, it was even worse than the Nano. It simply would not turn on and it still won’t to this day.

                I know two years might seem like a long time but after spending $250 and experiencing all of the problems I’ve had with it such as not syncing to my computer and not turning on—it’s just not right!

                So after those years of struggling with my Apple products, I decided it was time to make a change. Which is why I purchased an 8GB Microsoft Zune for $120 right after my seventeenth birthday. My Zune has been a constant companion to me ever since then, I have never had any problems with it and it has way more features on it than the iPod such as wireless syncing, an FM radio, the Zune Marketplace where you can buy songs for your Zune on your Zune even when you’re away from your computer, and Zune-to-Zune sharing. I know I sound like a commercial right now but I can’t help it—it’s that amazing.

                Now, all of my Mp3 players have taken their share of falls and scratches and crashes and such but none of them have withstood it like my Zune. I mean, seriously, you should see my Zune, the screen is cracked and it has scratches on it but it still works as well as it did when I first bought it. I can’t say that about my either of my iPods.

                So as far as Mp3 players go, I like Zunes better, at least for the money. Now I understand the appeal of iPhones and such, I think they’re cool and everything and if you like them, then that’s awesome.

                And about the Mac computers, I don’t necessarily hate them, I’ve just had a lot of bad experiences with them. And I know that they’ve gotten a whole lot better since the first time I used one. I’ve used my sister’s computer several times and I understand why people like it so much—it looks cool and it’s easy to use.

                BUT THEY’RE NOT FOR EVERYONE!!!

                It’s not so much that I hate the computers but I can’t stand the people who think that Macs are the one and only computer out that everyone MUST have and if you don’t have one then you suck.

                But I’m perfectly fine with my computer. So why are you trying to convert me?

                You have to understand that Macs aren’t for everyone. I understand that Microsoft isn’t for everyone. So why can’t you do the same for me?

                I’ve got some news for you—some people actually like Microsoft

                *gasp!*

                I know it’s so hard to believe. -__-

                We’re happy, okay? So for all that is holy and good, leave us alone.

                I get it. I understand. I know why you like Macs so much but it’s a matter of opinion. Macs are expensive and my Acer works just fine. I’m perfectly content with my current level of technological advancement.

                Macs look cooler than my computer, I’ll give you that. So what? And they have a bunch of useless programs that I am not interested in. I don’t want to pay $600 for that!! Sorry. (I’m lying, I’m not sorry at all, actually)

                Let’s live and let live, okay? I won’t hate on you because of your computer and you can’t hate on me either. I understand the appeal and I understand that Microsoft isn’t the only computer out there—some people like Macs better. I get it! So you have to understand that not everyone wants a Mac. Sorry, but it’s true.

                I am happy with my computer. I am happy with my Zune. And I am happy with Windows Vista. And guess what? Jesus still loves me. :)

Charles And Emma Review

    I have to say, I liked this book much more than I Stitches and Jumped and while the author and I don't see eye to eye on evolution, the book was written in a generally unbiased way.
    This book is non-fiction tale about Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin and their religious beliefs. The book starts out with Charles trying to decide whether or not to get married and, of course, he eventually marries his cousin, Emma (I know it's weird but that was normal back then). Charles was supposedly a “Christian” because they believed in Unitarianism which is a watered down version of Christianity while Emma was a devout Christian. The author basically tells the story of how their marriage affected Charles’ scientific work with the help of excerpts from their letters and journal entries.
    It is a very interesting story about Charles and Emma’s lives and how, despite their difference in their religious opinions, they loved each other until the very end.

    “‘Without you when sick I feel most desolate…I do long to be with you and under your protection for then I feel safe. God bless you.’ –Charles to Emma, May 27, 1848” (Awwww!)


    In the book, you learn all about Charles and Emma’s lives, their children, Charles’ scientific work, and Emma’s religious beliefs. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I learned many things I didn’t know before and it really got me to think, which, to me, are two very important aspects to find in a book.
    It is obvious, especially near the end, that the author believes in evolution but I think that the book conveys the story of the Darwin’s in a mostly unbiased way. But at times it was saddening to read because it is obvious that Charles comes to some conclusions about God and evolution because he never really heard the Gospel. I think that it was very insightful to read this book and while I was reading it, I had the wrong idea about Charles Darwin. In all honesty, he was a pretty good guy but he just had the wrong information. I believe that if Charles Darwin knew what we know now about science, the theory of evolution would not exist. But that’s another blog post for another time. ;)
    I think that, as Christians, it is good to be informed and this book is definitely full of interesting information. So if you’re looking for a good book to read, I would definitely recommend it.

     This pictures made me laugh. It's so true (expect for the God part haha)

I WON!!

WINNER!! This morning I crossed the finish line. I finished with 50,190 words! It took a long time to get my page to say 'Winner' on it but it was definitely worth it haha. That's what my page looks like now so I'm pretty excited. It took a lot of work but I'm so glad I did it. I'm only halfway finished with my novel but I don't think I'm going to continue it now that NaNoWriMo is over. The reason why I wrote it was so that I could practice writing and to try to develop my writing style. So now I'm going to be working on a new novel (fantasy, maybe??) and I'll keep you all updated on that. BTW I finished Charles and Emma and I'll be posting a review on it tomorrow at the latest. Thank you sooooo much for checking my blog!! God bless. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hooked On Nook?

        In case you didn’t already know, I love books—but I’m not just talking about the actual content of the books, I’m talking about the book. I love holding it and flipping each page and, of course, I love the smell of my books such as The Hobbit that always reminds me of my childhood.

        But technology is changing all of that.

        Meet Nook, a digital reader. You might remember seeing something like it on Amazon (ever heard of the Kindle? Yeah, didn’t think so) but this one is supposed to be way more awesome. On Barnes and Noble’s website it says this:

         “Choose an eBook using the beautiful color touch screen, then watch it appear instantly on the E Ink® display, where text appears as crisp as a printed page. The 16-level gray scale display offers great contrast with no glare or backlight. Choose from five font sizes so you can read with ease — plus, bookmark, highlight, and make notes as you go.”

                Interested? Too bad.

                Because it’s sold out until 2010.

                It looks like America’s good and ready to electronify* my favorite thing in the whole world!

                Now, don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more books because if there are people out there like you and me, they’ll still make old fashioned books (but your grandkids might be looking at old school paperbacks like you might look at a cassette tape.)

                But while I love old fashioned books, I think I might be interested in something like this, especially for road trips and vacations and other stuff like that. Most books are about $9.99 and you can also subscribe to newspapers and magazines (cool, right?) There are also a lot of free ebooks like Emma and David Copperfield.

                And Sony is getting in on the action too with their new digital reader which works the same as the Nook and the Kindle but the new edition has a touch screen which is more convenient, I think.

                But before I can jump on the bandwagon, I think it needs to work out a few quirks first, like, I think it would be awesome if you could rent books and pay monthly instead of buying a book straight up. The reason why I buy books is so I can let other people borrow them and also because I want to give it to my kids one day so I wouldn’t really see the point in buying one that I can’t let anyone borrow and I’m not a big fan of rereading books. So, that’s my only problem with it, I guess.

                So do you think that this new invention will replace old fashioned books completely or is it just a fad? Comment on this post and tell me what you think!

*e·lec·tron·i·fy v.

1.       To replace a perfectly good thing with an electronic version. And yes, I made this up ;P

Jumped Review

                I just finished reading Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia which, of course, was nominated for a National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.

                It’s a small book, only a 168 pages and is about 7 inches tall but it took me a long time to read because it was so tedious.

                This story is told from three points of view: Leticia, Trina, and Dominique. Dominique is a girl who will tell you things straight up and won’t take your crap. Like she said in chapter 10: “I know what I want. I have my priorities. My rules. You can trust me to mean what I say, do what I say. I don’t give off crossed signals. No smoke signals. I don’t make confusion. I keep it clear.” This way of thinking gets her into loads of trouble further into the story.

                Trina is too caught up in herself. She goes off many, many (many, many) times about how hot she is. “I’m a crowd pleaser, custom blended. Half Latina with a little this and a little that. It dosent matter which what, like it doesn’t matter if a girl has a blue eye blinking this way and a green eye blinking that way in Picasso. It’s all about the colors, the mixes, the shapes, the music. Like me. Color Mix. Shape. Music.”

                And finally, there’s Leticia who just observes the whole story and doesn’t do anything and this inability to do anything is a main part in the story.

                This book is all about these three girls and how Trina got on Dominique’s bad side and she swore to beat the crap out of Trina at 2:45. The entire story is basically just a build up to the final, gut-wrenching climax.

                And while I usually don’t like stories with more than one narrator, it was kind of interesting and it was how the story needed to be told.

                However, I didn’t necessarily like the book, it was a little bit tedious and prolonged. The ending was clever though, I have to admit. The three narrators finally intersect and how they all handle the situation is very true to their characters.

                But the ending was the only thing I liked about the story, the characters were not very relatable and definitely not likeable but I think that’s how the author wanted it to be.

                So, in the end, it was better than Stitches by David Small. And, like I said before, I liked the ending, it was very abrupt and chilling—but also, very sad and almost haunting. Definitely not my favorite, but not the worst book I ever read. I’ve definitely read worse.

               

                Right now, I’m still reading Charles and Emma, which was one of the other contenders for the National Book Award. So I’ll have a review on that soon.

                7 days of NaNoWriMo left and I have 13,000 words to go! The road’s been bumpy and hard but I have almost reached the finish line thanks to gallons of coffee and my project playlist. :) But, even after I reach 50k words, I’ll have about 50k words left in the story so I’ll have that to look forward to in December. :)

               

Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

   Okay, okay, I know I might be the only person who thinks that this is incredibly intriguing but just bear with me for a moment.
The other day, I stumbled across this article in The New York Times Magazine: The Self Manufacture of Megan Fox.
   Don’t you exit out of this browser just yet! Listen, I know you’ve heard a gazillion things about Megan Fox but this is on a very different note than all of the crazy controversies and all of that other crap that the tabloids have been shoving down your throat.
   After reading the article, I became enlightened. I’ve always been fascinated (and saddened) with the idea of ‘inventing yourselves’ (which is something we all do, unfortunately) and this is exactly what Megan Fox—and many other celebrities have done.
   The only thing is that I’ve never seen anyone create an image of themselves with such persistence. She has mimicked actresses like Marylyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie almost religiously. If Megan were to say all of the right things and do all the right things and be in all of the right movies, she would never be who she is today. If she keeps this up, I’m afraid she’ll be around for a long time.
   Because if you think about it, Megan Fox might be good looking and everything but there are hundreds and hundreds of good looking actresses out there. How has she been able to stay in the spotlight for so long?
   Everything that Megan Fox has ever done has nothing to do with the real her and everything to do with her image. She has created this monster to take the place of her that there really isn’t a real her anymore. The article reads, “She’s not warm or particularly friendly and doesn’t seem at all interested in small talk. Instead, she’s self-contained and a bit wary. She will answer any question, but she resists true dialogue. With Fox, it’s not a conversation but a presentation.”
   She might have nothing in her brain but she knows how to keep people talking about her. She has a game plan, a precise way to get herself into the limelight by stirring up controversies such as her infamous bashing of Michael Bay and her new movie, Jennifer’s Body, about a bisexual cannibalistic cheerleader. (Oh, Hollywood, when will you ever learn?)
   But I find it fascinating that we can all find parallels to Megan Fox’s reinvention of herself to our own reinventions of ourselves. Because, unfortunately, we are all presentations for the people around us. What are personalities but presentations? Everyone pretends to be someone they’re not.
   Further into the article, Megan says this, "I created a character as an offering for the sacrifice. I’m not willing to give my true self up. It’s a testament to my real personality that I would go so far as to make up another personality to give to the world. The reality is, I’m hidden amongst all the insanity. Nobody can find me.” 
   Why are we so willing to give up ourselves to impress people and why do we even want to impress the people around us? If we are fearfully and wonderfully made already, why do we insist on wearing masks?
   We all play a part on the stage of life; we always change depending on who we’re talking to. We are all an idea of who we want to be. Like John Green wrote in his book, Paper Towns:
  "Maybe it's more like you said before, all of us being cracked open. Like, each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen— these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel cracks open in places. And I mean, yeah, once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable. Once it starts to rain inside the Osprey, it will never be remodeled. But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and we finally fall apart. And it's only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through the cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out."
   Anything that we make ourselves will fall down. Our barriers and facades will eventually crumble because we are relying on ourselves and not on God.
   Most of the things that we do are based on other people’s expectations of us but when will we learn that what matters is what God thinks of us? It’s a much harder concept than we realize. And you might not think that you have reinvented yourself but, in truth, we all have. Granted, some people do it more than others, but it's definitely safe to say that we all do it on some level. So how do you know that you’re self-manufactured? I think you should start by asking the question, “Who am I trying to impress?” And you’ll have your answer right there.

“Remember to always be yourself... unless you suck.”-Joss Whedon

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14 <3

P.S. If you want to read the article, you can by clicking on this totally awesome blue link 

In other news, there's 11 more days of NaNoWriMo left and I have 18,000 more words to go. Almost there!!

Oh yes, and The National Book Awards were last night!! This fact gave me yet another reason to want to be in New York. Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin won the award for the best fiction novel, I'm very pleased with this outcome. I'm reading Colum McCann's book right now and it's fantastic. But, I am very disappointed with the winner of young people's literature: Claudette Colvin by Philip Hoose. Don't get me wrong, it's a great story and, granted, I have not read the entire thing but I think that this decision was based more on the story than the actual writing. It was good, but I don't think it deserved an award. Oh well. I'll post reviews of all of these books as soon as I can break away from NaNoWriMo to actually finish them.

GOD IS GOOD! <3

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac Book Review

   Okay, let’s get this straight. I’m particularly picky about the books I read, there have only been a handful of books that I have read that I have truly enjoyed.
   This was not one of them.
   Putting it nicely, I wanted to tear out my eyes while I read this book.
   The book is The Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. It is about a girl named Naomi who wakes up and finds out that she can’t remember anything that happened since the sixth grade because she hit her head when she fell down a staircase. It turns out that during that time, her mom cheated on her dad and had a baby and her dad was dating some slutty dancer woman. She finds out she has a hot boyfriend whose brain is about as big as hers (which isn’t very big). She also has a best friend named Will who seems kind of pointless at first but it turns out she had a big thing for him right before she lost her memory (convenient, right?) But she doesn’t find this out until after she chases after this messed up kid named James who kind of appeared out of nowhere and then, in the end, kind of disappeared back into nowhere.
   What really gets me is that she isn’t even upset that she’s forgotten everything. Instead she freaks out because of what her mom did and never wants to speak to her again. What about the fact all of the memories since sixth grade were totally erased? I guess she forgot about all that.
   And if that isn't bad enough, the character of Naomi was seriously irritating. Everything about her drove me crazy. First off, she had horrible taste in guys because her boyfriend was as dumb as a brick wall, James was a loser, crack head, and it was obvious that the author wanted Will to be likable, witty, and funny but in the end, it was an epic fail.
   The entire structure of the story was crafted so terribly; I could tell that the author wanted this book to be an epic story of a young girl who gets a chance to have a ‘do-over’ and change her life around.
   But, in reality, she never changed.
   Before she became an amnesiac, she was a stupid teenager who had an affinity for stupid guys.
   And after she became an amnesiac, she was still a stupid teenager who had an affinity for stupid guys.
   I will admit, the idea of the story was a kind of clever and it probably could have been made into something good if it had been put in the right hands. But it wasn’t.
   In fact, I would have liked the story much better if Naomi hadn’t woken up at all.


  On another note, I just made it to 30,000 words for NaNoWriMo!! So far my rough draft is incredibly crappy and I will probably end up deleting most of it after NaNoWrimo is over but it's a rough draft--it's supposed to be incredibly crappy. So at the moment, I'm a fairly happy person. ^_^

Vampires Again. I Just Keep Coming Back

   As you might already be aware, I’m quite interested in the subject of fictional creatures. There are many creatures that I am fond of such as werecats, zombies, and dryads and many that I don’t like such as unicorns and elves (they’re so overrated). But one creature I have not been able to come to terms with is, of course, the vampire.
   My relationship with vampires has always been a bumpy one. The problem is—I used to think that vampires were cool.
   Until Stephanie Meyer went and screwed them up.
   Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a gorgeous, arousing, smart, funny, athletic, amazing, perfect vampire—that’s the problem.
   There are no people like that in real life!
   So I find myself utterly disappointed at the thought of such a creature because I will never find anyone that amazing and perfect to be completely in love with me—which may or may not have anything to do with the trusting in God post below. ;)
   I feel as though these fictional creatures are doing a great disservice to the female population because these women will search their whole lives for a guy who writes songs for them, watches them while they sleep, and has unforgivably big hair. But they’ll never find them—because they don’t exist.
   I don’t understand! You don’t have a problem not believing in the cool stuff like wood nymphs and phoenixes and suddenly some weird, obsessive, and totally creepy vampire comes along and you’re all ready to throw away everything for him.
   So, you vampires who are reading this right now, I haven’t figured out if I like you yet—despite the fact that you allow me to come up with an unjustifiable amount of puns like this:

Dear Vampires,
   It’s really killing me (1) to have to write these words. I have tried to like you but I can’t pretend anymore. I feel like our relationship has come to a dead (2) end. I tried to read books about you, but I just couldn’t sink my teeth into them (3). I just don’t love you like the rest of the world does. Bite me. (4) You just pale (5) in comparison to creatures like dryads and werecats, you’re just so lifeless (6) compared to them. I’m sorry but you make a really sucky (7) boyfriend because you’re so perfect, you turn a cold (8) shoulder to me when I tell you about my human problems. I just don’t think this is going to work out, especially since you’re not real. So basically what I’m saying is that you suck (9).
                                                                                                Sincerely,
                                                                                                      Lyssa
   FTW!!

   So despite the fact that hate vampires for all the trouble and havoc they cause to young and impressionable teenage girls who are dumping their perfectly good boyfriends and/or husbands left and right because they are in love with a fictional creature that’s main intent is to suck people’s blood, they’re fun to make fun of (and they’re totally hot). So I keep them around. I’m not ready to break up with them just yet. :)

   "Robert Pattinson, you may be nothing but a series of constructions made up by people who love you, but you're still real in my heart." -John Green

Evil Cats

The cat was asking for it.

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

'Wings' Book Review, Day 6, and Speed Reading

Part 1:
        Wings by Aprilynne Pike
        If you’ve seen this book before, you’ll notice that there’s a quote from Stephanie Myer (author or Twilight) that reads, “Wings is a remarkable debut!”
        Do people even know what the word ‘remarkable’ means anymore? There is nothing remarkable about this book and Stephanie Myer’s quote makes that even more obvious.
       This book is targeted for the readers of Twilight who are ready to read any sort of story about a girl falling in love with a perfect, amazing, gorgeous guy who, of course, falls in love right back.
(Oh yeah, and you know that Stephanie Meyer probably didn’t even like the book but it’s not about art anymore, it’s all about the money.)
       But there is a different twist in this book. The main character, Laurel, (who narrates the story) is the perfect, amazing, gorgeous girl who the ordinary guy falls for. (BORING) The story begins when Laurel moves to a new town and meets this totally awesome guy who is really into her (sound familiar?) As the story goes on, Laurel finds out that she has wings growing on her back. Then this kid named Tamani who is described as this totally gorgeous guy (who sounds gay to me, but whatever) tells her that she’s a plant.
      A plant.
      Seriously?
      He tells her that she’s a plant, specifically a fairy—apparently plants are fairies now. Who knew?
      Then the story goes on in its failed attempt to be clever and intriguing but it is just an epic fail and all this time Laurel is torn between her love for David and her supposed love for Tamani. (when really there’s no hope for Tamani, he’s just there to add a little drama which twilight lovers seem to thrive on.)
       Please.
       One thing I’ve learned after many years of reading obscene amounts of books, an author will never create an attractive, smart, interesting character that everyone knows the main character would be perfect with, just for him or her to end up with the underdeveloped character that no one really likes and is probably gay.
       Okay, so it’s safe to say that I’m not necessarily crazy about this book, but it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read—I’ve definitely read worse.

Part 2:

Day 6 was an epic success! I wanted to get to 12,000 and I ended up with 13,027 words! Woot! Today I’m going for 15k today. Here’s an excerpt:

                Okay, so when you live in the middle of nowhere (literally) you don’t have much of a library. The only library I ever went to was about an hour away from my home and was unforgivably small. I read almost every book they had at that library—from Charles Dickens and Jane Austen to John Steinbeck and Arthur Miller.

                Seeing that I had never been to a library that was bigger than my kitchen before, I was instantly enraptured by the thousands and thousands of books that were available to me at West Haven’s library. It was like a portal to heaven had suddenly been opened to me and thousands of paradises were at my fingertips.

                And soon in my arms.

                Blah blah blah. I can't wait for you all to read the whole thing!! :D

Part 3: Okay so I’m taking a break from reading Charles and Emma because I need to read The Time Traveler’s Wife by the 14^thof November because that’s when it’s due back at the library. It’s a little over 500 pages long so it will be quite a feat—especially because I’ll have to write 14k words before then and I have a lot of homework.Time for some serious speed reading! :)

Vote For Ninjas

Vote For Ninjas...they know where you live o_o

Day 5 and Trusting In God

Only two parts today!

Part 1: Day 5 of NaNoWriMo was a complete success! I got way behind on Day 4 when I was supposed to write 8,000 words and ended up writing only 7,695 but I got all caught up and finished with 10,230 words. Today I’m going for 5,000 words so it's going to be epic. 

Part 2: I’ve been thinking about the whole idea of trusting in God lately and how I thought I had been trusting in God for a long time until the past few weeks it became evident that I wasn’t. It can be easy to say that you trust in God, especially when times are easy but when times get hard, we (especially me) tend to drift away and charge God. But I’ve found that most of the time, I learn more about who God is and who I am in the hard times—like when gold is refined in a fire. God knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s using these trials to shape me into the person he wants me to be.
Life sucks. It’s true. But should we stop trusting in God because of it?
We need to trust in God wholly. We need to wholly lean on him all of the time. We can’t just trust him partially—in the good times but not the bad. And even know we might not wholly understand what he’s doing or why he’s doing it, we need to know that we can’t do anything by ourselves.
God is waiting to take the burden off of you, like he did for me. But will you let him?

“To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way.”

God is good! Comment on this post if you agree!!


(hehe)

NaNoWrimo Day: 3 and 4, La Casa Tomada, and Hamlet

Part 1: Okay so day three of NaNoWriMo was awesome. The goal was 6,000 words and I ended up with 6,354 at the end of the day. Day four didn't going as well, I got stuck in a rut (a small one, but a rut nonetheless) and I did not manage to get to 8,000 words last night but I did finish it up this morning and logged it into my account. I'm at 8,385 words right now and I have to get to 10,000 by the end of the day. Woot!

Part 2: La Casa Tomada will be playing tonight at 7:30 and it’s totally free (if anyone’s interested) it’s at the Goddard Theatre at Daytona State College. Tori, Elizabeth, and I are all in it so you should definitely stop by!
Oh, and Romeo and Juliet will be showing also at the J. M. Goddard Center (bldg. 230) from Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. through Saturday, Nov. 14. And don’t forget to go to the Celebration of Shakespeare at DSC on November 14th from 9 to 4. (I’ll be writing an article about it for InMotion so I will also be found there on the 14th.)
Okay, part 3: So Shakespeare is awesome, and if you don’t agree then we can never speak again. Right now Hamlet is on Broadway and it’s starring Jude Law. I’ve been watching clips from it all afternoon because it looks amazing! It’s running until December 6th and I so wish that I could go. I guess these videos will have to suffice.

Click here to watch an awesome video that I currently can't get enough of. :)
Check this video out too:


Hamlet is my absolute favorite play and it’s going to be showing at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre in January and costs $30. I’ll probably be going and I’d love some company. Any takers? Let me know! :)
“For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favours,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute —
No more.” –Laertes, Act I, Scene iii
Gah! It’s so beautiful and poetic, definitely the best play ever—I can’t wait to see it in Orlando in a few months!!

NaNoWrimo: Day 1, C.S. Lewis, and Pirates vs Ninjas

 Part One:
Day 1 of NaNoWriMo: 2,165 words

       At the moment I’m at 3,386 words and I feel deep in my heart that if I continue on at this pace without exploding and/or going insane, I’m going to need a heck of a lot more coffee.
      My goal is to write at least 2,000 words a day so at the end of the month, I’ll have about 60k words. (Which sounds easy enough but let’s not forget the increasing amounts of homework,  InMotion and English club meetings, blogging, play practice, and the fact that I intend to read at least five books this month.) But I love staying busy :)
      Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter which can also be found at my NaNoWriMo profile

      I remember many years ago, sitting in the kitchen, writing a poem about snow. My mother looked down at the paper and then looked at me.
       I waited for her to praise me.
      But she did not.
      "Do you know what snow feels like, Tobie?” she asked me, looking up at me with her deep hazel eyes. “Do you know what it looks like, what it sounds like, what it tastes like?”
      “Uh huh,” I replied innocently.
      “But do you really know?” she pressed me. “Have you held it in your hands and felt the tiny crystals of the icy substance turn to water and trickle down your arm? Have you placed it on your tongue and savored its frostiness in your mouth? Do you know what that’s like, Tobie? What it’s really like?”
      It was then that I realized that I had not truly noticed these things and the words I had written down on the page were basically meaningless—empty in their unobserved obscurity.
      “You have a very good imagination, Tobie,” she said kindly, moving my long, thick dark hair from my face. “But there are some things you have to experience in order to write about them. Observe things, Tobie, experience things. If I could give you any advice it would be that. There’s a world out there for you to explore, so go explore it.”

        I don’t know. It keeps me occupied.

Okay, part two. I love this excerpt from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis and I thought I would share it with you:

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

And now for part 3: Pirates vs. Ninjas. Vote for your favorite up there ^^^ *cough* ninjas *cough*

Distance

 So I didn't have anyone in mind when I wrote this (haha) but I've been thinking about this concept recently and thought I'd write it down..

Distance
What is distance but a place,
Measured in miles, feet, yards, and meters?
It is just a space,
Where neither of us stand.

Miles and miles you are from my side:
Where I stand, thinking of you.
The gap between us may be wide,
But we are closer than you think.

For distance is not measured in yards—
But how far your spirit is from the other.
My heart is never far,
From yours, that I promise.

Our hearts are entwined, so here you stand:
Next to me, even though you’re far away.
In the flesh, what separates us is only the land,
But in spirit, you are next to me.

(Oh and btw, NaNoWriMo starts tonight at midnight. I'm so excited!)

Zombies vs Vampires

There is a battle raging inside me. I have evaded this question for much too long. The answer to this eternally mysterious and unsolved question is weighing on me because I know that in order to continue being a fantasy writer, I must know the answer to it. I must finally admit to myself and to the world. And in doing so, I  feel as though I am denying my womanhood and femininity but it must be said:

Zombies.

Why? Why? I’ll tell you why: Zombies have and will always be the epitome and the very essence of awesomeness.
(Because vampires have gone up and down on the coolness scale over the past hundreds of years while zombies have reserved a seat of awesomeness and fear in all of our hearts for decades.)
I also don’t like that vampires feel a need to change up their style ever few hundred years. I mean, the first vampire wasn’t even called a vampire—it was called an Upir Lichy.
Upir Lichy???
Anyway, in 1710, a vampire hysteria broke out in East Prussia. You know those East Prussians, they just love Robert Pattinson. But unlike the recent vampire hysteria, people were actually terrified of vampires, not wishing with all of their being that they really did exist so that they could bite them and subsequently live for eternity with them. Unfortunately, back then, vampires didn’t have impressively sculpted hair or drive a Volvo. They looked something like this:

GAHH!! That's no Edward Cullen!

And then in 1897, Bram Stroker came out with the book, Dracula.


^^^ The original Stephanie Meyer (only better)

Then in 1931, the movie Dracula was made and by that time, vampires looked like this:

And then in 1971, they looked like this:

And now finally, in 2008 they magically turned into this:


Oh, Edward Cullen, how will we ever understand the mysteries and wonders of your incredible overestimation, your overvalued and creepy ways, or your unjustifiably big hair?

Now with that being said, look at this:

Zombies then:

Zombies now:

FTW!

Don't get me wrong, I still find myself in a shameful love/hate relationship with vampires--I just can't bring myself to fully say that they suck. So while 2008's version of vampires may win the 'Hotness' award and the 'Just Okay' award, the 'Overall Awesomeness For Forever and Ever' goes to zombies. Congrats, zombies, you deserve it. :)

Not Convinced?

Why is it awesome to be a nerd? Well if reading books about teenage demigods didn’t persuade you, you should check out the Amazing Fact Generator on Mental Floss’ website. Because nothing says nerd like finding out random facts like that brown-shelled chicken eggs are identical to white-shelled chicken eggs in both content and nutrition. FTW!

http://www.mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator/

(And btw, if you don't know what Mental Floss is, you're not welcome here. haha jk, go check it out, it's full of awesomeness aka nerdiness!)

Stitches by David Small

I got my hands on a copy of Stitches by David Small (which, of course, is a National Book Award Finalist) and I thought it was okay.
Even though this book is said to be in the “Young Adult” genre (although, I don’t believe that the marketers of the book should be making that decision and that it should depend solely on who actually reads the books, but whatever) it is a picture book.
Now it’s not a comic book or anything like that…it just has pictures and words like a comic book (much like The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.) But the topics that are discussed in the book are rather mature and downright strange sometimes.
In a nutshell, it’s about a young boy who wakes up from a supposedly minor operation and wakes up to find that he can no longer speak. Then he finds out that his father gave him cancer because he always used to use x-rays on him as a kid and never bothered to tell him. It also goes into how his family never communicated anything in a straightforward manner and how it obviously had an effect on them.
The art is amazing, I have to say. David Small really knows how to paint a story but I got really lost in the plot. In theory, it might sound like a good idea (although, still pretty strange). Maybe I just don't understand its brilliance and I missed out on an amazing and genius story full of epicness and awesomeness. It's a shame.
So, I think this book was just okay. There were some thought-provoking parts and some tedious parts as well. The art, however, was very good and I can appreciate the book…it just wasn't my favorite.
So one down, four more to go. I’m reading Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman (one of the other finalists) and I’ll post a review of it soon.

It's That Time Again

"I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me."

It's that time again. Time to re-read all of the HP books all over again! In celebration of this joyous event, post your most favorite HP quotes of all time in the comments, I would love to hear your favs! <( @.@ )> (that's supposed to be hedwig, sorry, it was the best I could do) ^__^

Oh, It's Great To Be A Nerd

Seriously, being a nerd is the best. Know why? Because we get to read books like The Lightning Thief and think that they're epically awesome. The Lightning Thief is about a normal kid who finds out that his father is a Greek god. FTW!! What's great about it is that it all takes place in modern day and the ancient myths (which are awesome) are all intertwined in the books and the gods live in New York City. What could be better?---A movie about it!! I've been waiting for it for what feels like a lifetime and now it's finally coming out in February of next year. Here's the trailer which I'm so friggin excited about. So put on your Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, brush up on your Greek mythology, and check it out! @)

Can You Hear The Music?

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music." --Angela Monet

My Life Is A Mystery Novel

In many ways, I think writing is a remedy from God to help that helps take away the pain from life. For me, writing is something that I use to vent everything I’ve been unable to say and say it how it really ought to be said. Then I can really understand what I’m feeling. In life, we make a lot of mistakes but in a story you can clean that all up and make it presentable; only then can it have a happy ending. But sometimes our mistakes are supposed to show themselves in the stories we write. Happy endings are, after all, incredibly overrated.
When I look at my life as if it were a storyboard, I start to realize that the mistakes and bad things that happened were all for my good and instead of regretting the things that I did wrong, I can see what I should do next. In a way I am writing my own life story, after all. I think when you look at life like its one big story, it suddenly starts to make sense.
Regardless of all of this, God is amazing. He is good. I realized today that mistakes happen for a reason and God knows my entire story and I am sure that from his perspective, it all makes sense. Just like the stories I write make sense and everything that happens, happens for a reason.

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." -William Wordsworth

"A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right." -John K. Hutchens

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Review

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found out that The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart was selected as a 2009 Printz Honor Book. It was also a National Book Award Finalist last year. I read this book a few months back and instantly fell in love with it.

Let’s start with the characters. If you know me at all, you’ll know that I usually don’t like the main characters in stories, but I found the character of Frankie to be a very relatable girl whose wit and intellect is repressed by the power and supposed cleverness of an all boy’s club at her new school. The boys in the story are depicted as pompous and oppressive while the girls hardly have a voice in the story at all and their attitudes, which are usually quiet and passive, is, I think, exaggerated for the author to bring across her point.

I found myself laughing out loud many times throughout the book and the way the story is told was very clever. The book narrates the story of Frankie’s experience at her new school and how an oppressive group of boys drove her to be a criminal mastermind.

The story was slow at times but the witty writing of E. Lockhart always kept it from being truly boring. The book got me to think—which is the most important aspect to me—some of the points she makes are excellent and incredibly interesting.

After the book was selected as a 2009 Printz Honor Book, E. Lockhart said in her acceptance speech that an inspiration for the book was The Suicide Club by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

“My own book pulls from Stevenson's the notion that membership in a club involves a renegotiation of oneself in relationship to the rules of the larger society; from the San Francisco club, the idea of people staging events that are rebellious and funny. Kind of like theater and kind of like protest. Also the idea of people scooting around in sewers or steam tunnels, climbing the outsides of buildings – I imagined those as ways my heroine would challenge the orderly rules of the boarding school society in which she lives.”

If you look hard enough, I guess you can find a few aspects of The Suicide Club in this The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks but saying anything more might be over dramatizing it. This book is a Young Adult, chick-lit, coming of age kind of story. It's a good story but there really is nothing revolutionary about it.

One more thing: this book isn’t a ‘kids’ book. It’s a YA novel so there is some cursing but nothing truly inappropriate. I didn’t find anything truly convicting in this book, but that’s just me. So give it a chance and find out for yourself, I guess.

All in all, it was a good book, definitely an intriguing read. Nothing groundbreaking, really, but if you want a well written, interesting, and funny book to read, I would recommend this book.


“Matthew had called her harmless. Harmless. And being with him made Frankie feel squashed into a box--a box where she was expected to be sweet and sensitive (but not oversensitive); a box for young and pretty girls who were not as bright or powerful as their boyfriends. A box for people who were not forces to be reckoned with.
Frankie wanted to be a force.” -The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

2009 National Book Awards and NaNoWriMo

So the National Book Awards finalists were announced on Wednesday and I just got a chance to look at them. I haven’t read any of the books yet but I’m looking forward to reading them. I just ordered a lot of them from the library so I’ll be posting reviews of those soon. You can check out the finalists here and maybe you’ll want to read them too.
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2009.html

Also, NaNoWriMo is coming up in fifteen days! It’s almost here. You should definitely sign up. All you have to do is write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Think about it: that’s only about 1,600 words a day! That’s not so bad. And remember, NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing a perfect novel—it’s just about actually finishing a novel. It’s just a rough draft and after you’re done, you can perfect it as much as you please. How can you miss out on this epic event? Sign up here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/register

Would You?

So I felt like writing a poem today and here it is...it's not very good but tell me what you think. :)

Would You?

To not live up to your full potential,
Is better left confidential.
Just think of thing you could get done!
And all it takes is just one.

But you take a break; call it quits,
You say “There’s other people out there so its,
Okay if I sit back awhile—
Changing the world just isn’t my style.”

But what if it is and you could change,
A whole world. And you could rearrange,
Your life and maybe someone else’s too.
If you could, would you?

You can change someone’s life,
Help them out of any sort of strife,
By one look, or one kind word.
But to you, the thought’s absurd.

There’s so many thing you could do;
So many things that you,
Could change if you just wanted to.
If I said that you could change the world, would you?

8 Easy Steps To Get Inspired

Haha I thought this was funny, I found this on wikihow.com. I never knew there were steps to getting inspired but wikihow.com proved me wrong. If you're trying to write a story or anything really, you might want to look these over. Who knows, you might be inspired.

1. First, take a moment to breathe and reflect on your goal. Do you want to write a poem? Do you want to write a short story? This step may take some time, and you should be relaxed while you think.
2. Try jotting down ideas that you have thought of previously. Try to recall thoughts that you have had that you found particularly interesting, and branch out from those thoughts with more complex analysis. For example, if you thought of a cool way to get around, decide just what makes your transportation work.
3. Look around you, wherever you are, and see if you notice anything that stands out to you as interesting. Try not to be "looking for something". Just think deeply about your surroundings. Remember, if it causes any emotion whatsoever, it is probably a good source of inspiration.
4. Your source of inspiration may not be made of matter. Often, the most inspirational of concepts or ideas can be found only in your mind. Think of a certain memory you have of a circumstance or situation. Also, think of things that you feel strongly about or of moral opinions that you may have. War, religion, politics, relationships, death, etc.
5. Once you have an idea that you find interesting or emotional, close your eyes and picture exactly what it is that you are thinking about. Then imagine yourself observing this idea from the outside. See the idea as a whole, and note how it makes you feel.
6. Once you feel that you have captured the essence of your idea, produce a rough outline on paper with more ideas relating to your main source.
7. The final step is to exercise your creativity and embrace your source of inspiration. Fill out your idea, and find a place for it in your work!

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." -William Dement

Fulvia Mombello

So today I was looking at my bookshelf and I found a copy of 'Notre-Dame De Paris' by Victor Hugo from 1931 that my mom bought from a library book sale about a month ago. Inside the book was an invitation to a play called Lady Lovington on May 2, 1931 at the playhouse at Washington Square College which is in the middle of NYU in New York City. On the back of the invitation was the name Fulvia Mombello. I googled Fulvia Mombello and found her obituary in the Farmingdale Observer which read:

"Fulvia Mombello Russo, 96, of Port Orange, FL, passed away on May 22, 2009. Formerly of New York, she was an attorney in private practice, a member of the Alumni of NY Law School, past president of the Queens City Women’s Bar Association and member of the advisory board of Port Orange, FL. Predeceased in 1985 by her husband Joseph. Arrangements were made by Arthur F. White Funeral Home. Interment took place June 8 in Pinelawn Memorial Park under the direction of the funeral home."

It's interesting to think about her life and why she came to Port Orange, FL of all places *imagination recharge* It makes me want to write a story about it...hmm...

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." - T.S. Eliot

Writer's Block

lol That's me

Top Six Favorite Websites

Here are a few of my most favorite websites that I probably couldn't live without (excluding facebook and blogger, of course) :)

1. This is pretty much the coolest website ever, what you do is set up and account and then you put your unwanted books in your inventory and people can mooch them and when you let someone mooch your book, you can mooch off of someone else. I've gotten most of my books by using this website. http://bookmooch.com

2. So November is a few months away but it's never too early to sign up for National Novel Writing Month. The website describes it as: "a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." So if you're a writer and you're completely insane, you should definitely join me in the novel writing craziness that is the National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node

3. Project playlist is probably one of the most visited sites on my computer. It's really awesome, all you have to do is sign up and create a playlist (which is super easy) and then you type in the name of the song that you want in the search engine and it comes up and you can listen to it as much as you want. Pretty amazing, right? I think so. http://www.playlist.com

4. Skype is pretty cool, if you download it onto your computer (which isn't hard) and you have a mic on your computer, you can call people for free. Or if you have a webcam, you can talk to your friends face to face for free. Don't forget to add me!! :) http://www.skype.com

5. I basically could not live without this website, because I write so much, I need a place to store my files just in case anything happens to them. I used File Dropper and it's on 99 cents a month for 5GB. http://www.filedropper.com

6. Last, and definitely not least, there's Picnik. This is a free photo editing website that's pretty much amazing. You just have to upload your pictures and then you can edit them. And it's free! yay http://www.picnik.com

So that's it, thanks for checking in. :)

Create

I got the idea for this poem from my favorite quote by C.S. Lewis:

"Every poet and musician and artist, but for grace, is drawn away from the love of the things he tells to the love of the telling."


Create

Why is it that we sit around,
And write down random signs?
As a race, are we bound,
To go outside the lines?

What is it that makes us write?
What is it that makes us compose?
A single word upon a page of white,
Or describe the look of the rose?

Why do we make up stories?
In our heads then write them down?
Is it for our own glory?
Or so our lonely hearts might be found?

Is it because we were created first,
And to be like the Creator is our desire.
And so it is, crafting quenches our thirst,
And by creation, we are inspired.

We want to tell stories to the young and the old;
To live our lives and make up fanciful tales.
To hear stories both spoken and told;
To let our dreams set sail!

It is not for the love of the creation,
That we become painters, sculptors, and authors,
But the love of the creating,
So we might follow after our Father.

The Autumn Morning By C.S. Lewis

This is an amazing poem by my favorite author. I find it inspiring. I hope you feel the same.

The Autumn Morning
by C. S. Lewis

See! the pale autumn dawn
Is faint, upon the lawn
That lies in powdered white
Of hoar-frost dight

And now from tree to tree
The ghostly mist we see
Hung like a silver pall
To hallow all.

It wreathes the burdened air
So strangely everywhere
That I could almost fear
This silence drear

Where no one song-bird sings
And dream that wizard things
Mighty for hate or love
Were close above.

White as the fog and fair
Drifting through the middle air
In magic dances dread
Over my head.

Yet these should know me too
Lover and bondman true,
One that has honoured well
The mystic spell

Of earth’s most solemn hours
Wherein the ancient powers
Of dryad, elf, or faun
Or leprechaun

Oft have their faces shown
To me that walked alone
Seashore or haunted fen
Or mountain glen

Wherefore I will not fear
To walk the woodlands sere
Into this autumn day
Far, far away.

Imagination Recharge

I'm often in need of an imagination recharge and I have a few exercises that help me get inspired when I'm feeling brain dead. All you do is look at a photograph and describe it. Pretend that you have to describe it to someone who has never seen it before so you have to use as many adverbs as possible. Below are some pictures that I've described before.

(For example: The long, whispy arms of the wool grass stretched from their deep green stems toward the sky. The thin white arms tried to catch the wind in their grasps as it passed them by but it slipped through their fingertips every time.) It's an imagination recharge and it's a great way to keep your creativity flowing. I hope it inspires you as much as it inspires me.

My Work

Every day I work, I work hard in the fields,
I plant seeds of intellect and harvest the villanelles.
I grow sonnets and limericks, and often grow ballads and odes;
I bury the seeds carefully and watch them as they grow.

Every day I feed my mind with food, it is fiction I prefer,
My mind is always thirsty, always craving the words.
And I feed it also with learning but experience is best,
But there is nothing it likes more than to sit back and to rest.

And when I am asleep I always tend to dream,
For that is where I plow the fields and plant the many seeds.
That is where I harvest the monodies and palindromes,
When I’m asleep and dreaming is when my best work gets done.

Masks

Susan walked down the street, her face covered with a mask. In fact, everyone’s faces were covered with masks. No one could see who they were or what they looked like. Everyone wore a mask. It was a part of life.
Susan scratched the skin behind her mask; she did not like wearing it, especially in the hot sun. But it was uncivilized to take them off. Ever.
The wearing of masks began sometime after World War III, people were afraid to show their faces, in fear that people would not accept them for who they were. They had to pretend to be someone else in order to be accepted. No one was good enough; everyone had to hide from the world and pretend to be someone else.
Susan wandered around the town and picked up some bananas at the supermarket. She walked over to the counter and looked beside her and saw a young boy whose skin was painted red and he had a long paper stem on the top of his head.
“What a darling little boy,” said the clerk to the little boy’s mother, a pale woman with short brown hair.
“Oh, he’s not a boy,” the mother replied. “He’s an apple. He decided to become an apple when he was five. It’s very natural.”
“Oh, I see,” said the clerk without giving it a second thought.
Susan brought her bananas up to the clerk who smiled, or she thought she smiled. She couldn’t really tell because her face was mostly hidden by her mask.
“Good afternoon,” said the clerk.
“If you say so,” Susan grumbled, scratching her mask-covered face again.
“Is something the matter?”
“It’s just that this mask is so horribly itchy,” she replied irately. “I wish I could take it off.”
The clerk looked at Susan, appalled. “But then people will see…who you really are.”
She blinked at her, only the clerk didn’t know that. She had said the words as you would for a curse you were afraid to say aloud. Susan thought about asking her what would be so wrong with that, but she decided against it. She took her bananas, which were now in a plastic bag, and left the store.
Susan walked down the street, clutching her bananas in her hand when she heard a small whimper beside her. She looked to her left and saw a little boy wearing a white tattered mask, from what she could see of his face, she saw that he had dark skin, very, very dark. He was crying, begging for money. She saw people look at him sadly and they would do nothing else it was as if giving him their thoughts or sympathetic looks was equal to a meal. But they just walked on, without giving the little boy another thought. Susan walked up to the boy and handed him three dollars, he smiled at her.
“What’s your name?” she asked him.
“Africa,” he replied.
“That’s a beautiful name.”
“You think so?”
“I do.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” said the little boy, smiling brightly.
She smiled back before walking on.
As she walked down the road, she headed down an empty alley. Beside the opening of the alley there was a blank yellow sign. There were no words or markings on the sign; it just stood there, looking down at her intently as if it knew something she didn’t. She glanced at it before quickly looking away. She then proceeded down the alley. She gasped when she saw someone walking next to her, but when she looked to see who it was, she realized it was herself looking back at her. It was a mirror. She was about to walk on, which, in fact, she probably should have done but instead she cocked her head and stared at her face. Or, at least, what she could see of her face. She had never seen her entire face before, in fact, no one had ever seen her real face before and no one wished too. She had never even seen a mirror since she was about seven years old. Mirrors were banned from every home in the country in an attempt to keep anyone from looking at themselves. She had been taught by her well-meaning parents that no one was to take off their mask unless they wanted to be humiliated. It was a common practice, one that everyone did and no one thought was out of the ordinary. It was like running around a supermarket in only your under garments or swearing at a small child, it just wasn’t done—unless you were completely uncivilized. It was taboo.
Suddenly, Susan did something that she had never done before. She took off her mask and looked at herself. She had very sharp features, a pale face and deep auburn hair, in fact, she was quite attractive. Even still, she would not be accepted into society if she did not hide her face, she had to pretend to be someone she was not. It was a part of being normal, well-behaved members of society.
Suddenly, she heard someone scream.
Susan looked up to see an elderly woman wearing a blue mask drop her grocery bag and scream at the top of her lungs.
Susan quickly looked around in an attempt to find her mask; she saw it fly away in the wind toward the busy street. Her already pale face became even paler. After dropping her bananas on the ground, she ran after her mask and found herself surrounded by people who began screaming and howling in horror.
“Someone call the police!” the woman with an apple as a son wailed.
Susan began to run after her mask when she felt someone grab her arm. It was a tall man who was wearing a white mask which covered his entire face except for his eyes and mouth. He smacked her in the face.
“What’s wrong with you, girl?” the man asked angrily.
“I dropped my mask,” she whimpered.
“She only could have dropped it if she already took it off!” a young woman yelled and the others agreed.
“I…I just wanted to see what I looked like,” Susan replied, tears running down her pale face.
The man smacked her again and now blood was running down from her nose. She cried.
“You sinful girl!” a woman cried as she hurled a stone at Susan’s body, it hit her in the leg. “How dare you show your face!”
“You could offend someone!” the woman with the apple son cried, horrified.
“I’ll put my mask back on—I just have to find it—”
Another rock was hurled at her body, this time it hit her neck. She screamed in pain.
“I found her mask,” a young man came running up toward her and handed it to her.
Susan quickly put on the mask and the man dropped her. She fell onto the ground with a sickening thud. The crowd soon began to disperse and everyone muttered fowl comments as they walked away, a few of them even spat on her. Susan stood up; blood mixed with the tears as they fell down her face, but of course no one could see the blood now. She brushed herself off and fixed her mask, wondering what kind of a world she lived in.

Addy

Last night, I had a dream,
There was darkness all about me.
I saw the face of a child:
Tear stains on her face and her hair running wild.

It was only her face that I could see,
And then I heard her scream.
“Who’s there?” I managed to cry,
And came this reply:

“My name is Addy, I’m alone,
I have no place to call home
Can you save me, save me please
I am down on my knees,”

“What am I to save you from?
You are such a little one.
Surely there is no harm that anyone could bring
On such a small and delicate thing.”

“I am afraid there are many who
Want me to die while I’m still in the womb.
They say I’m not alive, that I am nothing,
But I can move, feel, and breathe.”

“But surely your mother can save you,
And what of your father? Think of him too!
They would want to save you from this fate,
They will not let you die this way.”

“I’m sorry to say it’s not what you think,
My mommy is but sixteen.
My daddy left two months before,
He found that I was to be born.

There are many others like me:
The ones with silent screams.
They are dying, more and more each day,
Before they are even given a name.”

“But how could this happen, how did I not know
That little ones are dying before they can show
The world what they can do, the change they can bring?
How did I not hear, how did I not see?”

“Most of us do not want the truth to be revealed.
We hide it so that we can feel
Better about the choice we made, and feel we have done no wrong.
But I will come back in your dreams all the day long.

And some call it ‘choice’ that they deserve rights—
But what of the my right to live my own life?
Does it mean nothing because I can’t speak?
That hardly seems fair to me.

So please, listen now!
Tell the world what you found.
Perhaps, for me, it is too late,
But it’s not too late to make a change.

So tell them all of the truth,
Tell them what I’ve told you.
Don’t listen to their lies and deception.
Tell them to give us all a chance to live.”

And then she was gone with a loud cry
And I awoke with tears in my eyes.
It was all so real, so real that it seemed
That it had to be more than just a dream.

And now that I am awake finally,
I will never journey back to sleep.
Where are their rights, were did they go?
A girl named Addy would like to know.

Violin

What a beautiful song the instrument breathes;
The sound, what a sound that whispers to me.
It speaks of loves sad lament, of battles won, and of battles lost,
Of gaudy springs, sunlit summers, and winters engulfed in frost.

How is this sound made, how is it formed?
How does such a sound come from wood and silver chords?
How can it create a gateway into my soul-
How does it enter? I shall never know.

But onward it sings, it never stops,
It echoes my every breath, the beating of my heart.
Oh! What stories it has seen and told!
When it sings, I feel it gently kiss my soul.