Procrastinators for Tomorrow

NaNoWriMo Rev Up!

2009-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.
Like, over five months.

...Anyway. NaNoWriMo here we come! Here's some dares to start out the insanity:

Have a character obtain an exotic pet in an exotic locale.
BP- If it's a nuisance.
DBP- If it's a dangerous nuisance.
TBP- If it's a highly illegal dangerous nuisance.
QBP- If they get into a lot of trouble because of the pet.
(Kittyfreud)

A chase scene, done in serious fashion, but with bicycles, scooters, or rollerblades instead of the usual. The characters can acknowledge the odd choice of transportation, but it needs to be played fairly straight. The Benny Hill theme shouldn't be playing in the background or anything.
BP if it ends in an explosion.
(erikakaiser)

Use any or all of the following, double points if you're doing an actual Western or have cowboys involved:
"I reckon I'll have me a half-caf double latte with a twist. IN A DIRTY MUG!"
"Gentlemen, rather than get caught up in mindless reaction, let's draw upon our feminine selves for a more intuitive solution."
"Can we postpone this duel till 12:05? I gotta use the little boys room."
"Let's see... hardtack and pemmican... that's three grams of fat, seven grams of protein, and two starches."
"You 'n' Slim round up them strays, and I'll tell Cookie to get started on the gazpacho and the fondue."
"That's him! That's the yella-bellied varmint who shot my therapist!"
"He was a strong man, a good marshal, and I reckon he had a keen eye for interior decoration."
"Hey, Buck, do these chaps make my butt look big?"
"It's like I keep tellin' ya, Earl: men is from Tombstone, women is from Dodge."
(Roecourt)

Have pirate-ninjas. (a combination of both)
BP - if it's already established that pirates and ninjas hate one another
DBP - if they're crossbreeds of pirates and ninjas, and their parents loved one another
TBP - if none of them are brothers and sisters
(swenson)

Have a few of your characters play a drinking game throughout the story -- anytime a specific thing is said (a mission code name, for instance) or someone dies (if they're in a situation where people are dying and they're jaded towards it, something like that), etc.
BP if they carry around shot glasses and alcohol just for the occasion.
DBP if they stop in the middle of something relatively important to carry out their drinking game rules, like combat rolling across a room for a quick shot because someone died and then rolling back to resume what they were doing.
(erikakaiser)

Brought to you by the Adventure Dare Thread.

Cultural Reference: You Lost The Game

2009-05-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

You are currently winning. You just don't know it. Once you read the rules below, you will lose.
Rule 1: You are now playing The Game.
Rule 2: Every time you think about The Game, you lose.
Rule 3: Losing must be announced.
See how long you can go without thinking about it. Once you think about it, you must say, out loud, that you have lost. If others around you are playing, they will invariably lose since your announced loss has reminded them of The Game. I have just lost The Game by telling you about it. Congratulations on your first loss.

DISCLAIMER: Playing The Game may cause mental strain, obsession, and irritability. Most symptoms are irreversible and cannot be alleviated. Only it's too late now since I've already told you about it! HA!

WTR

2009-04-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

There once was a wonderful morning show, the only morning show, in fact, worth listening to. Where other morning shows are idiotic and annoying to listen to, the Woody, Tony, and Ravey Show were idiotic and entertaining. They had the perfect combination of annoying idiots (Menace and Tony) with voices of reason (Greg and Ravey) centered around the steadily reactive Woody. It was awesomeness in a bag.

The Woody Show fought for listener rights when ordered to play that stupid Sublime or Red Hot Chili Peppers song after every seven minutes of talking. Listeners tuned in to hear the cast rant about how stupid Tony was, Menace's inability to spell, Greg Gory Hate Mail, and for Ravey to tell us how luuucky we were. This show was dead to real.

Though they were number one in the Bay, (*ding*) some people just had it out for the group. They called everyone on their shenanigans and freely admitted (proclaimed) their own. Who could get mad at someone calling PETA out on their violence toward people in chicken-suits? (Mega getting it!)

Live105 KITS, pulled the plug on their show Wednesday of last week after the group played a thirty second clip of an unreleased song. That is the official reason, but all the listeners know it goes deeper. They dropped them without warning and are only paying Tony and Ravey until the end of the year, leaving Woody and his pregnant wife unsupported and without benefits during an economic depression. Way to be classy CBS! And to top it off the station played the same clip they fired the Woody Show for playing. Those sonso'beeches.

I don't know where the show will go next, but I'll follow them anywhere! (...Via internet, if they move too far away.) In the mean time: CBS? "I quit dis bitch!"

Civic Duty

2009-03-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. You can see my other blogs Disorderly and Inbetween to see what I've been working on.
I have a jury summons. Joy of joys. I get to complete my civic duty of doling out punishment in April, if I'm picked. What I don't understand is why they put me all the way up in South SF. That's 45 minutes out of my way when I could actually walk to the Redwood City court house... Or how about San Mateo? Another local choice, but nooo, they want me to waste gas and get lost in South San Francisco instead. Stupid re-res.
In other news I started a game called ForumWarz. It's an addicting game for those of us that know about the internets. I was playing half of last night when I should have been working on a paper that's due in three hours. I should also be doing that paper as I blog about it right now. :D

Running into Windows

2009-02-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I was sitting in the TV room when something about the size of a child's fist hit the large window. I was very confused and couldn't see anything threw the top of the azalea bushes, so I went outside. And found a very stunned humming bird laying on it's back.

I have a cat. A very large, feisty cat that likes to bring home things such as squirrels and fights with raccoons. I like ALL animals and was rather concerned that Frodo (yes, my cat's name is Frodo, shaddap already) would find the little bird before it had a chance to recover. So I took a cloth and carefully picked the humming bird up and placed it in a shoe box and went around to the backyard.

Poor little guy was knocked clean out, but it was breathing steadily so I knew it was alive. I sat there with it in my lap for a good fifteen minutes before it woke up enough to start moving around. It was one of the most magical fifteen minutes of my life. I got a really good look at it's feathers, all different kinds of green and tinged like an oil spill, and it's thin little beak. On it's breast there were gray feathers that, when the sun came out, shone as brightly as fire. It was so cute and small and delicate, and they're normally such elusive creatures, I could hardly believe I was actually touching a humming bird.

Pretty soon it had it's little eyes open and it was looking at me. I imagine it was thinking something like "Holy &@#! what the hell happened? And what the hell is that looking at me?" I got to stroke it's back gently before it took off again, flying up to the branches of a near by tree. It was so cool.

I am the Story Teller

2009-02-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

"You shouldn't trust the story teller. Only trust the story."
-Neil Gaiman

Curses!

2009-02-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

I have lost my messenger bag. Sometime between last night after class and arriving home it was misplaced. Which is quite sad because it had my Totoro wallet in it from Fanime last year... Luckily it didn't have anything too important in it, like a favorite book or some such.

Here are the things in it that I will miss:
A pink lighter
My butterfly handkerchief
Chapstick

Here are the things I SHOULD be missing:
Debit card
3 checks from baby sitting jobs last weekend
Bottle of Px drugs for my GAD
Discount and membership cards (Borders, Gym card, ect.)

Canceling my debit card was sort of a pain. And now I have to procure checks from all the people that I baby sat for, which is annoying for me and for them... I liked that bag, too. It had a patch on it that said "Partly Confused All of the Time." >_<;

Passed Among Us

2009-01-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

I have sad news to tell.
Juan the Tiger Spider is no longer with us. I found him last night under the lamp post he had taken to calling home (attached to my house), his large abdomen collapsed. I had not seen him in a while, though I knew he was still there. Every few days I would crane my neck under the lamp and look up to see him pressed into one of the four corners. I knew he was still alive at the time because the corner kept changing.
I probably should have seen the end coming. Juan didn't build his great webs anymore and I didn't see him out and about as before. He must have died peacefully and fell from his perch. I'm not sure how Diega would have taken this, she has since left her spot in the corner of our door, never to return.
There is a new tiger spider, however. A small one, definitely young. I like to look at this one and think of it as Juan's nephew or niece. It must be hard blow to the youngster to lose a great mentor like Juan. If he or she does not move on after the grieving process, I will have to name it...
Juan's death was a shock to us all, I know. But we must press on and think of the good times. When Juan used to spin his web beneath the light and sit so still at the center. *sniff* Good times. Goodbye, Juan. You will be missed.

Ruptured Nose

2009-01-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

I recently took a trip to Utah to visit family over winter break. Being from California, the 20' weather was sort of a shock. Snow was everywhere, though it didn't actually storm during my stay. Utah snow is much different that California snow; it's much icier and dryer while in Cali everything is more wet and humid (even the snow).
It was a great time, but when I got back I had a few nose bleeds. I hadn't had one in a long time and I made the mistake of tilting my head back during the first one, making myself sick on the blood that drained down my throat. I wondered what caused the bloody nose, so I looked it up on a few websites and here's what I found:

"Epistaxis" is the official term for a nose bleed.
A nose bleed starts when a blood vessel close to the surface of the skin is ruptured
There are two types of nose bleeds: Anterior (the front of the nose) and Posterior (the back of the nose)
Most people get Anterior nose bleeds, which do not need medical treatment
Bleeding can start when the nose is dried out due to dry cold/hot climates
If a heavy nose bleed exceeds more the 20 minutes without change, consult doctor
Trauma (including self induced by picking) can also result in a bloody nose

There were also a number of myths I found concerning nose bleeds:
*You cannot cure/prevent a nose bleed by-
A) Shoving a key up your nose then wearing said key around your neck
B) Holding a coin between your lower lip and upper teeth
C) Tying a string around the little finger of your left hand
D) Counting backward from 50--Though it'll probably stop bleeding by then on it's own...
*It is possible to get a nose bleed from over excitement, medication, and blood thinners.
*It is VERY unlikely that anyone has ever died from a common nose bleed
*Despite the displays in anime, manga, and other Japanese culture references, it is not possible to receive a bloody nose from arousal of the opposite sex. Any occurrence is purely coincidental.

During the last few plane flights I have been on, I've gotten a really dry nose as a result. I'm not sure why, maybe it has something to do with the cabin pressure. Since it was so dry in Utah, and the plane flight further dried me out, I think that's where I got the bloody nose from. I'm looking into some sort of spray I might be able to use to re hydrate my nose for the next trip. Unless I pick my nose in my sleep. o_O

Tasty Murder

2009-01-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

Fall, 2008...

Marine scientist make a huge discovery, riddled with possibilities for the future of man kind.

The public holds it's breath for the unveiling of: Sea Kittens.

*wild applause*

Actually, everyone has known a sea kitten in their life. You see there dead, mutilated carcass in grocery stores everywhere. "Sea Kittens" is just another name given to fish in the ocean. Why haven't you heard this term before? Because it's PETA's new slogan to stop people from committing murder. The murder of our fishy friends.

There are whole stories on PETA about how these delightful sea kittens suffer at the hands of their murderers. You can even create your own sea kitten. The new propaganda is aimed, of course, at children and this isn't PETA'a first child-centered campaign. They have a whole website dedicated to scaring the crap out of kids and help them go vegetarian/vegan. They even have a problem with milk. If you look around the kids site you'll find that even making wool sweaters is a terrible idea, though I'm not sure how. Maybe it damages the sheep's psyche to be sheered.

Who would kill a sea kitten? I would. Because they're delicious. Remember: Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder.

Right to Left

2009-01-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

Anime has been part of my life since I was a baby. (Thanks dad!) So much so, that I didn't know the difference between Japanese cartoons and western cartoons. I could see the difference in art style, but wasn't concerned. After all, to a five year old, cartoons are cartoons no matter how they're drawn.

When I got to school, I made friends with other kids that like anime and was introduced to the idea. ("Hey do you like anime?" "What's anime?" "This!" *shows picture* "Oh. You mean the cartoons I've been watching since I was an infant.") Later on, I took to manga (Japanese comics) like a pb&j sandwich. It was a constant staple food in my life since middle school.

Right around the time I reached high school, American publishers of manga decided to preserve the authenticity of the stories by publishing them the way they were being written in Japan: from right to left. So, instead of picking up a book and opening the left cover to start reading like in traditional western literature, you started at the "back."

My manga intake was greater than my anime watching at this time, so I have since automatically associated any and all comics, graphic novels, or even magazines as going from right to left. I know when I've been reading to much manga by going to a store and, when looking at the magazines, start trying to read from the right cover first. The same thing happens with American style comics, too. Even though I tend to start on the "correct" side (the left side) I still try reading from the right side of the page and then wonder why the story isn't making any sense.

Caught Up

2009-01-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get completely caught up in a story. Ones that go fast, where I have an immediate bond with characters. I put myself in the story so completely that my heart starts to race or I get butterflies in my stomach. Reading certain stories, it actually hurts when something happens to a beloved character. It's like being spun up in a tornado where you slowly revolve in the center and can run your hand along the churning air currents like a wave of water. And when it's done, even though the story is resolved perfectly, you more. Right now.

I've done this with my own stories that I've written, or am writing. And I've read some wonder novels that grip you by the soul and drag you, unmercifully, along for the ride. Here are only a portion of the books that have done so to me:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Tythe by Holly Black

Sabriel by Garth Nix

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Alice 19th by Yuu Watase

Runaways by Brian K Vaughan

Young Jedi Knights by Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Last Thoughts of 2008

2008-12-31T16:39:00.000-08:00

What I learned this year:

It's bad to gummy bears someone.
Razor glitter runs in my soul. It will erupt.
Some people will lie directly to your face. And even though you know they're lying, you'll trust them to delay the hurt.
Not all change is bad. Some of it is very good. Especially pennies, they bring good luck.
Pillow sharks are real!
Big Bang Theory is one of the greatest shows of all time. That 70's Show is pretty high up there, too.
I want to learn Gaelic.
Missing best friends that are like sisters and missing my sister are the same thing.
Year four of NaNo- Still not my lucky year.
Yes, graduation makes everything pretty much worth it.
Economic down turns aren't so bad. You get fun-fetti cake for 39 cents.
Sometimes, animals are way better companions than humans.
I need to find my own Edward Cullen. Preferably a nonfictional one.
Facebook Bumperstickers are actually helpful in the writing process.
Shiny Toy Guns are amazing and I often wish I were Chad Petree's wife.
Other people have an affliction known as "normal" and I'm glad I never had it.
Reading XKCD has renewed my desire to try science.

The Bad Samaritan

2008-12-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

You're in a burning car. Any minute now it's going to explode in a blaze of fiery glory, your chard body parts just part of the show. Someone, with what seems like excruciating slowness, drags away the twisted metal door that has held you captive. They stick their head in, you're trying desperately to struggle forward as flames lick at your shoes, and give you a courteous smile.

They ask you, "Do you need any help?"

You swear at your would-be rescuer. "Yes, you prick!"

"Okay, if I help you and accidentally break your arm, do you promise not to sue me?" the person queries.

Stunned, you stop wriggling and stare at the asinine creature God has sent to torture you as you die. Unfortunately, you're so dumbfounded that the car explodes. Killing you and the idiot who might have saved you.

This unfortunate scenario may happen to you as of last week in California. Lisa Torti pulled a girl from a car wreckage after an accident, moving her to "safety" at the side of the road. Torti, however, is being sued by the girl (Alexandra Van Horn) since she is now a paraplegic. Good old California Supreme Court has found that Van Horn is within her rights to sue Torti since it is undetermined wether it was the crash or Torti's actions that caused the paralysis.

That's right. We are so sue happy in America that we're willing to financially cripple the people that try to save us. You can read the whole article in the Washington Post.

Read it in Lolspeak

2008-12-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

The Christian Bible has been translated into Lolspeak. Yes. That's how prevalent the language has become. Soon, we'll just give up spelling and grammar all together. The rules are only holding us back! Reless teh confushons of kitteh speak!

Lolbible

Gone Green

2008-12-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

I was tired of the old template and I need more of the awesomeness that is Neil Gaiman in my life.

Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.

We not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we don't to make it all more bearable.

And there was never an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it.

What power would Hell have if those imprisoned there were not able to dream of Heaven?

I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.

Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes when you fall, you fly.

Is the chemical aftertaste the reason why people eat hot dogs, or is it some kind of bonus?

-For more, visit a lovely quote page here.

Rage Against the Copy Machines

2008-12-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

There's something I find terribly satisfying about fixing large, bulky copy machines. Maybe it's because most of the other people at work--I work at a high school--don't have the courage to open it up and putter around. They have to bug maintenance just to take out a jammed piece of paper. It makes me feel superior. :3

And they get all angry and whine about the copier when they don't even bother to figure out how it works in the first place. I wonder if it's a generational difference, knowing how machines work or being able to figure it out on your own. From my observations, anyone born before the fifties seems to be challenged by technology in general. After that it has only to do with exposure to certain electronics, either the inner workings of the web to the actual hardware of a machine.

No luchboxes, please

2008-12-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

My sister always said if the devil came to Earth, he would drive a minivan. I disagree. He would drive a Toyota Prius.

The Prius is a four door, lunchbox of a car that boasts its hybrid abilities with low emissions and fuel-efficiency. Not that it's bad. But Priuses are taking over the Bay Area and possibly the rest of California. I literally cannot look out my front window without seeing at least three driving by. It's ridiculous.

I'm not against a green economy or the conservation of fossil fuels, but when a third of the cars on the freeway look the same I start to get a little twitchy. The issue of conformity kind of hits a nerve with me. (I say, sipping from a Starbucks coffee cup...)

Never Annoy an Octopus

2008-12-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Octopi may wreck havoc when agitated or bored. Early November in Germany found Otto, the two foot seven inch long octopus, shorting out the bright light above his aquarium tank and consequently shorting out the electricity to the entire aquarium, endangering the lives of his fellow aquarium-mates. No one knew how the light kept breaking until someone slept over to try and find out. Otto found that he could climb onto the rim of his tank and spray a stream of water that would turn off the 2000 watt lamp.

Apparently, Otto requires a lot of attention and gets bored easily in the Aquariums off season (winter, when the aquarium is closed). He's been known to juggle tank-mate hermit crabs, throw rocks at the aquarium walls hard enough to damage the glass, and "from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better-much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants."

To read more on Otto, visit the news article here.

NaNo Finale

2008-12-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Final Word Count During NaNo: 33,578

Status: Very happy, though not an official winner.

Overall Mood of NaNo: Satisfied/Content

Final thoughts: This was the best NaNo I've had. After four years, I still haven't "won" but a personal goal of over 30,000 was reached. That counts for something, and I can't wait to finish this story and for next years challenge!

Final Quote: I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it. -Mary Chase, "Harvey" 1950

NaNo Up Date: The Stretch

2008-11-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

Current Word Count: 22,497

Suggested Word Count at end of Nov. 25: 41,692

Days Left in NaNoWriMo: 5 Days

Status: Only 27,503 words to go... *eye twitch*

Mood: Severe frontal lobe strain

Quote: "He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife." -Douglas Adams

More Forum Madness

2008-11-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, writers are socially acceptable schizophrenics. (For reference, "MC" is short of Main Character, "FMC" is Female MC and "MMC" is Male MC.)

From the forum "My MC Says... *Laughs Nervously*":

My MC just informed me that he's going to be naked the entire book. Anyone else having interesting revelations with their MCs? -lastcrazyhorn

My MC insists that she is going to end up living in a castle on the Scottish highlands. Also that she is going to be a tyrannical ruler of all the werewolves of the world. *headdesk* -TheFlyingGreenPickle

My MC has revealed that she will be attacked by a bear. One of the biggest surprises of my life. -Valeh

Mine can't tell me anything, because she is mute. Ha ha. -perish_song

One of my MC's refuses to listen to Satan and would rather sleep with his angel friend. Jessalyn, Derrick and plethora of others have tried to tell him that he has to listen to Satan, but no. He will not listen. -xNikolex

My MMC just informed me he is being attacked by random mooks-right now-because he was tired of the lack of action. -brimh

My narrator insists that the ten plagues of Egypt were his fault. How exactly do I go about this...? -Eos

My MC just told me that she might be blind. But she won't tell me whether she is or not. How am I supposed to work with a maybe-blind character? One way or the other, please? -twergo35

My MC decided he would deal with being left at the altar by... becoming a schizophrenic vampire? I don't know, either. -GothicRabbit

As for me, the biggest shock I got was that one of my MMCs is gay, likes techno, and falls in love with a GIRL in the next novel. My love-interest MMC is way more angst ridden than his repeatedly traumatized soon-to-be partner. And my FMC is a BAMF, which I didn't plan on. Oh, and another FMC in book two has a prosthetic leg, a chip in her brain which helps her store information, and doesn't mind being in love with a gay guy. All I can really say is that characters take on a personality, and life, of their own once created. Authors have little, if any, control over them after that...

Nano: Start of Week 3

2008-11-17T09:03:00.001-08:00

Current Word Count:14,262

Suggested Word Count by the End of Nov. 17th: 28,3501

Status: Tired? I'm not tired. *Shifty eyes. Nervous laugh.*

Mood: Let's forget this and rock out to some Muse.

Quote: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." -Groucho Marx

Halfway Plot Bunnies

2008-11-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

Another look at the forums. You can drop off your plot bunnies at the Day Care Center!

"Plot Bunnies. They are lovable, fluffy and cute . . . until you get more then one and they start breeding like the rabbits they are.
Now we here at the Plot Bunny Day Care Center understand how difficult it is to deal with these oh-so-adorable new additions to the Plot Bunnie family whilst one is trying to write a NaNo. After all, it's hard enough trying to reach 50K in a month without having to work out how all these new little critters are going to fit into one's NaNo when you didn't even want them in the first place.
So drop them off here while your busy NaNoing and we'll take care of them with games and food, lest they demand you for plot placement.
WARNING: Expect to recieve more Plot Bunnies then originally dealt with. No one can imagine the amount of copulating they can do once left to play with others in their spare time!" -Sionainn

GAAAAAAHHHH *gets dragged by the ankles* the bunny is so big it's dragging me!!!

Young Max goes to the refrigerator one day and upon opening said refrigerator he is almost sucked into a vortex that was not there a half hour earlier when his annoying little sister opened the fridge. WTF?! -Staticmissi

i need to drop off Mitch's Mysterious Dead Older Brother Suddenly Being Alive and How the Hell Did That Happen. -junexbug

*Warily carries in small steel box with air holes* This one is homicidal, a small dark room with no interaction with any other living thing would probably be for the best, I write any character and this psychopath plots and sets up their death, I'll collect it with his nuclear arsenal plans in December.... maybe. -Min

Hi, I'm Vicious the Plot Bunny, and I'm here to drop my author off. She's just not getting things done, and I thought it would be best if I just took things from here- Oh. Oh this isn't the Author Day Care Center. I see. Well that's... Unfortunate. Go back out to the car Lidia. -LidiaLavonna

Affairs. Too many affair bunnies.
No, i will not have a story with no plot except for the hordes of affair bunnies just sitting there staring at me. -darkredlipstick

Here, just take it!
*Comedy bunny bites my head* -Kyahchan

"Cappuccino Machine is Possessed by Satan", I don't even know where you came from. But please just stay here and keep away from any other demonic possession plot bunnies. Finally, "Author is Killed off by MCs", I really don't appreciate the sentiment. -Craic agus Ceol

*is dragged into building by six or seven bunnies on leashes*

Woah there! Halt! Cease! Desist! Oh, for the love of God, STOP! -crimeshowgeek10

Gods, you've gotta love NaNo...

NaNo Week 2

2008-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Current Word Count: 9,149

Suggested word count by the end of Nov. 11th: 18,345

Status: Dear gods, I'm rambling like a deranged schizophrenic with no medication. And that's supposed to be a good thing.

Mood: Tense and terribly alert.

Quote: "Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill 'em right back!" -Mal, "Our Ms. Reynolds" Firefly by Joss Whedon

NaNo Up Date

2008-11-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Current Word Count: 3,003

Number of words suggested by the end of November 5th: 8,338

Current thoughts: As a whole, that was the worst piece of prose I've ever written. I like it.

Status: Decaffeinated and going through withdrawal.

Quote: Well, there was this doggy. He was a very clever doggy. He said things like... like... "I would feel infinitely more comfortable in your presence if you would agree to treat gravity as a law, rather than one of a number of suggested options." --Delirium, "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman

Chill- We Got This.

2008-11-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Barack me Obamadeus!

...Sorry. Everyone's either celebrating or-well, celebrating. If you're one of the obvious minority that didn't vote for Barack, you're up in arms. (If you're part of the majority, it's likely you've raised your arms like you're on a roller coster.) And it's to the minority that I would like to speak:

You're upset, in some instances you're afraid. It's okay to be afraid. I think that's why so many people voted for Barack, because they are afraid of what the future holds for America and that he can deal with what lies ahead. You're not convinced, though, and I don't blame you. Barack is cut from a different kind of cloth than we're all used to seeing in US presidents. Different can be scary, but it can also be good.

We're in a spot right now that is either going to make or break us. The new president has a tough, daunting job in front of him and if I were him I'd be hyperventilating. I did not think Barack could handle this job, but obviously everyone else thought he could. It still remains to be seen, but I hope the president-elect can rise to the challenge and prove me wrong. Even though I did not vote for him, he is still the president of these United States and until he does something I cannot morally agree with I will stand by him.

My point, however, is that no matter what happens next we are still Americans. We can handle and bend with whatever is thrown at us because we have before and we'll do it again. Even if Barack does not live up to everyones expectations, we still have each other. As long as we stay together and stick to our guns it will be alright. So just chill out everybody. We got this.

Last Breath

2008-10-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Take one good look before you dive

This is the last of my sanity to stay alive

Things are about to get a little batty

Because my brain's been over run by plot bunnies

Just a few last things to remember

During the long, but far too short, month of

November:

When in doubt- use gratuitous explosions

If you're stuck- kill off a character

Rip the 'backspace' off your key board

Plot holes are for stories with a plot

Talking out loud is not insane

James Joyce will shutter at your ramblings

Just because your characters ate your plot bunny doesn't mean you can't go on

Word buffing with "Twinkle Little Star" is acceptable

Sleeping means the bunnies will attack you

"Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Dirty!" -Ms. Fizzle

NaNo Warm Up

2008-10-29T14:48:00.001-07:00

This is what life in NaNo is like. (Don't know what NaNoWriMo is? Check it out)

Forum: What Does NaNo Taste Like to You?

Best Answers-

"Napalm. And victory." -Piano kun

"NaNo as a vague entity doesn't taste like anything to me. However... My first NaNovel tasted like aluminum, like a soda left out in the sun too long. My second tasted like a blue raspberry Icee. And this year's seems to taste like porkchops." -sirgimpofbaath

"Coffee mixed with raspberry hot cocoa and a little bit of milk. That is the taste that makes me imagine sitting in a warmly lit coffee house, with a laptop and as much materials I need. It makes me think of literacy and dissociative words." -puddingmolester

"After 10 hours at the computer, for some reason the only thing I want are "BRAINS!" :walks like zombie:" -lyrandar

"Barque's Rootbeer and Ho Hos." -americanwriter

"Bacon" -purpleness

"Twizzlers. Most definitelyy twizzlers." -GodRoxMySox92

"I'd say it tastes like a mix of anxiety and bliss - the kind that hits right before a first kiss." -Soultapestry

"This thread needs more single malt scotch... [The kilo of candycorn is] now long gone and my pancreas has since filed for divorce on grounds of abusive behaviour." -Darouk

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)

2008-10-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hang onto your helmets, it's almost time for crazy sentences, abuse of caffeine, plot lines that lead to nowhere, and excessive word padding all for the sake of one goal... 50,000 words. In 30 days. Writers, break out the pens and/or keyboards because it's time to kick down all the walls that have been standing between you and the one thing in life that will make turn you from a wanna-be writer, into a Writer. And not just any writer, but a writer that has a NOVEL. (A sloppy, wordy, round-about novel with shallow characters, nonsense dialogue, and perhaps no discernible plot line... but still a novel none the less!)

This is what makes or breaks us. This is what life is about! It's for people who want to be able to stand on the table tops at Peet's Coffee House with their fellow NaNos (or even by yourself) and and say, with computer/paper held above their head, "I WROTE A NOVEL!" You can be set apart from all the rest of sane, ordinary humanity by celebrating 10 years of literary abandon with your local or internet family from NaNoWriMo.

On November 1st, 12:00.1 am it begins....
Start writing!

Collapsible Telescopes

2008-10-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been looking at our economy and wondering why it was built like a collapsible telescope. Not that there's anything wrong with a collapsible telescope, but the economy is generally not something you want to disassemble and put into a more compact space... Is it? Honestly I've never been one to see the fascination people have in the movement of small bits of colored paper. (<--Paraphrased from Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) So perhaps I'm a little biased. The rise and fall of numbers on some computer screen and it's variation to how it effects me has always been something of mystery to me. There has to be a better way to conduct the system. Seriously. All we really know is that the economy is in death throws and it wont really stop twitching until May of '09. Happy Winter Season 2008!

Another Update

2008-10-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Juan the Tiger Spider seems to be very upset. He has not come out of his hiding place in the corner of the lamp except to re-weave his web every few days. I think he is depressed. He must miss Jose terribly, which leads me to believe that Juan is not the culprit in Jose's disappearance. This does not leave many other suspects besides an unknown creature or Diego.

My money's on Diego.

His web has gotten progressively larger and there's a strange looking round object in the corner of the web.... This could either mean two things: One, Diego murdered Jose and encased the body in the sac. Two, the sac is actually an egg sac and Diego (who now needs a different name if he is really a she) killed Jose as many female spiders do after they mate. I will have to wait and see...

Lesson for males: Never sleep with a spider.

Update on Tiger Spider

2008-10-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Juan the Tiger Spider is still living in/around our front porch light. He's gotten rather large and I am wondering if it isn't because he ATE Jose the other spider. I began to suspect foul play when Jose was missing for several days. Before I found Juan's hiding place (the inside corner of the decorative lamp around the light) it was Jose that I would see everyday without fail. He was always out fixing their conjoined web. It is possible that Jose was eaten by a bird or simply moved on to better accommodations. After all, it's not as if I can find out what exactly happened to him. And even if Juan did do something there's not much I can do. Who knows about the spider judicial system, anyway? But I still don't know if I want a possibly murdering spider living outside my front door. Jose will be missed.

Juan seems to have gotten over Jose's leaving and found a new friend. Diego lives in the decorative window along side the door to our house. He has a rather chaotic web. Nothing round and intricate like Juan's, but it is still stunning in it's own way. It's very jagged and sort of sudden with strange angles. Diego has a bulbous, but nowhere near as bulbous as Juan's, white body. I hope he lasts longer than Jose.

Steal This Blog

2008-10-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Do you buy music from iTunes? If you do, I'm sorry. Try to switch platforms and all your music and videos that YOU paid for are gone. But why?! What makes it so difficult to change settings? Why can't I put my iTunes music on my Sansa media device?

I'll tell you why. It's because of DRM. A DRM stands for "Digital Rights Management" and can be found on music and video from most media providers. It's used by Sony, Apple, Microsoft, and even the BBC. This prevents you from copying YOUR music and videos to YOUR devices. If you paid for it, you own the media and have a right to do what you want with your possessions; baring criminal activity, which brings me to pirating.

Why do people pirate? Because the media is un-DRMed and it's free. If you get pirated media not only are you able to call yourself a pirate (which, you gotta admit is pretty cool) you will have those pirated items for life. You will never have to down load it again due to systems upgrade or platform changes.

There are ways to get around the DRM files on your computer. If you use iTunes, for example, you can either convert all your music to MP3 form or burn all your music to CDs and re-rip it back to your computer. Another option is to locate a program from the internet that can take the DRM from your media files, though this can get costly. Still the best way to avoid hassals is to get DRM free media.

Amazon has a wonderful selection of MP3, DRM free, music. Which can be found on this link:
Amazon

Supporting DRM free is easy. Buy from bands that sell their work on line as MP3s or buy from Amazon and other sites that support DRM free media. This is your music and your right. Request and demand DRM free files! Apple announced recently that iPods will not be able to support DRM free files sometime in the future in an effort to make people give in to the limitations of DRM. Don't let them put restrictions on when and how you listen to your music!

Disclaimer: I do not own this comic. This comic belongs to XKDC, which you should check out because they're as funny as hell.

Erasers are Magical

2008-10-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

The most amazing cleaning product in the world is Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. I'm serious. I just spent an hour cleaning all the corners in my house from where our animals rub up against them. I was like, "ZOMG!" after I did the first few. Then I set about doing the rest of the house. If there was a mark on a wall anywhere within my arm's reach (since I'm short, the marks way above my head were a lost cause) it is now gone! The real issue at hand isn't the fact that I enjoyed it, it's that I can find all sorts of things to clean and do it gladly as long as it's not actually IN my room...

Postive/Negative Gravity

2008-10-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

People can be real schmucks.

I was in San Francisco today watching the Blue Angels fly on top of a parking structure off Chestnut. There were a whole bunch of cars up there parked illegally up there to watch the show, which takes about forty minutes at most. My cousin made some remark about how it would be typical of someone who parked at the top to want to get down while everyone was watching.

About half way through the air show, some guy in one of the last spaces comes up and looks around at all the cars in horror. He asks us, "Do you know what everyone looking at?" My brother just pointed to the sky where an Angel was doing it's best to break the sound barrier.

This guy owned a Subaru, a silver one, and he started pestering everyone, asking who's cars were blocking the road. AND he was being a real jerk about it. People started complaining, loudly. After making ten cars move to let him out, all he could say was "This is a parking garage!"

If we were ripping him earlier, he was getting grilled now. A parking garage? Here!?! I thought we were on a boat! Didn't you tell me we were going for a boat ride? You lied to me!

Someone just looked at the guy, shook their head, and was like, "Dude..." And Mr. Silver Subaru, in the ultimate fail of comebacks, flipped us off. A sure sign that our heckling will ruin him for days to come. Success...

Who the hell besides girls drive a little silver Subaru? Okay, maybe homosexuals, but that's only because they look cute. Any real guy DOES NOT drive a Subaru, and if they do, they are certainly not SILVER.

San Francisco is completely jam packed with traffic during Fleet Week anyway. There is no point in trying to leave right away after the Angels fly. With any luck he took Embarcadero, which was at a stand still for nearly half an hour.

Wonder/Wander

2008-10-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Not ALL dyslexics are like this. This only represents a small part of the disorder's symptoms and challenges. With help and innovative learning methods, anyone can over come learning problems!

The weirdest part about being dyslexic isn't the spelling mistakes. (Though they are no doubt a large part of it) The worst part is reading something at a glance, then going back and finding it really says something completely different.

For people that are not spell-ogically challenged, this is what it's like to have dyslexia:
Read this sentence out loud- "The house had large, red shutters and a blue door." Some dyslexics will read it as "The HORSE had large, red shutters and a blue door." Many dyslexics read by shape instead of by letters, and if you look at the shape of the the two words "house" and "horse" they are almost the same. Dyslexics know that we make these mistakes, and often try really hard not to. It's when we're not concentrating that these errors pop up.

So, if we're asked to read aloud, we may take special care to really read the words and not just go with what it "looks" like. Of course, this has the draw back of making us sound slow and (to be perfectly honest) somewhat retarded. With the added pressure of everyone listening, we might be even more likely to stumble and make mistakes.

Since we can't always be on high alert, we "read" the strangest things when we're not expecting to. When I first entered high school I was tested at the learn disabilities center on campus. They sent a letter home saying that I had learning "defects." I was insulted by their choice of wording, only to re-read it a few days later to find it actually said "deficits."

That isn't nearly as amusing a story as when I'm going down the freeway and think a billboard sign says something completely inappropriate, like "penis," but really says something like "peninsula." Yes. Dyslexics have the ability to ignore parts/all of a word.

Smells Like Team Spirit

2008-10-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

The days don't smell much like October, but if you go out at night you can tell. The air is sort of crisp and it just smells like autumn. I don't know why I notice things like that. Not a lot of other people that I know do. But things like smell are particularly sensitive, for me. October always smells like pumpkins, spices, dryness, cold, chocolate, and death. At first it only smells that way at night, then it starts creeping into the day light until it's a constant reminder of the quiet that waits in winter. The smell makes me sleepy, and hungry.

Tiger Spiders

2008-10-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

There is a tiger spider that has made it's home outside our family's front door. It's web hangs vertically between the porch light and the wall of our house. It's actually rather clever. Since we have the porch light on until ten or later, it tends to catch a lot of bugs and is now a fat tiger spider. My friend and I named him Juan. Juan the Tiger Spider.

When I first set eyes on Juan, I actually wanted to kill him. I mean, it's a spider, a BIG spider. With defined pincers, jutty, angular legs, and a huge abdomen. My first reaction was to step on him and hope I couldn't feel or hear the crunch under foot. Ugh. But then I looked at him sitting in his web, not moving, waiting paitiently for his dinner. If you looked at him closely (without getting too close, of course) you could see all the intricate markings from the darker lines on his tan exoskeleton. His web was pretty big, and it sort of shimmered in the lamp light. Just because I don't like spiders, because I'm affraid of spiders, doesn't mean I have to kill it... That always seems to be human's first reactions to something they don't understand or fear: Kill it. Juan wasn't hurting anyone (except for the occational fly). He was probably more affraid of me, right? Juan had to kill bugs to survive, but I didn't have any reason to kill him. Maybe I didn't have to give into my instincts and destroy things I was affraid of.

So, I let the spider live and gave him a name, Juan. I also made a bargan with him. If he would leave me alone, I would leave him alone. He was not allowed to come inside and I would not hurt him or his web. I would even stop other people from destroying him or his home if I could. We would respect eachother from afar. Juan now has a friend his web, Jose, who is not a type of spder I recognize and is small and brown. I think they take turns keeping up with web maintenance.

I would have provided a picture of Juan and Jose, but both are rather camera shy...

Shiny

2008-10-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

I went to a Shiny Toy Guns concert on Wednesday with one of my best friends. It was all the way up in Orangevale. (In case you were wondering: Yes, it's a long drive.)

It was at a little venue called The Boardwalk, it only held about 200 people though there were probably less than that actually there. There were three opening bands, which took forever because there were technical difficulties with the speakers and equipment. But once STG got on stage they were phenomenal.

One of my favorite interments is the bass because of the way you can feel it throughout your entire body. Watching STG was an even better concert because of the small venue and we were so close to the stage you could feel the bass rattling your bones. It's one of the most awesome feelings to stand there, in a crowd with people jumping around you, close your eyes and let the sound wash over you. It's sort of like the vibrations shake you up on a cellular level and at the end you feel fresh and better than before. If you stand next to the speakers, you can can almost feel it in your heart.

The best part of the entire evening was when we got to meet the band at the end of the night. Don't get me wrong, I love Shiny Toy Guns, but I really went to this concert for my friend for her birthday. The look on her face when she got to get a picture with Chad Petree was beyond worth it. It was kind of like watching a little kid given free reign in Disneyland after hours.

Blow Out

2008-09-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do is go to one of those car washes where you get to sit in the car while you go through and turn up the classical music as I go in. It's a really weird, and strangely inspiring, experience. No matter what composer is on the radio, it always has a nice effect when the big, wavy brushes start to scrub the car. Then, when the water's running down all the windows, it's like being under water. It's sort of surreal at that point. Like you're in another world, or even another universe. Sometimes, I even recline the seat when I go in. It makes me feel like I'm star gazing or something. You should try it, it's really refreshing.

On the more pressing issue of the economy failing and Wall Street drying up, I think we should hold funeral services. It'll give us a chance to talk about the good times (if there were any) and not focus on the back stabbing CEOs that ran them. Funerals aren't held for the dead, after all, they're for the living. At the wake, I would say something like this:

"Economy was a good guy. I remember when he was a meer $1.85 a gallon in gas. When I was a little girl, I remeber how happy he was. Even though he wasn't quiet so carefree in his last few years, I try to rember him as he truely was. I think that's how he would want to be remembered, full of promise. I do wish he was still here; I never expected to say goodbye to him so soon. But God works in myserious ways, and maybe he had a higher purpose than we can imagine. Economy, you will be missed, but you will live on in our memories forever."

I think a funeral would give people a sense of closure and a chance to start the healing process, since most people are still in the disbelieving stage of the grief cycle. Although I think the President has moved on to the bargaining stage. The faster we go through the cycle, the faster we all end up at acceptance. Then we can finally move on and let the dead rest in pieces...

Awkward Transitions

2008-09-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

My dentist told me that I have to start brushing with my left hand. This is difficult since I'm right handed. Apparently I'm brushing my teeth TOO WELL with my right hand, and to prevent any gum recession I'm supposed to brush with my left hand from now on. The weird thing is that, after a month of doing this, I've started to do other things with my left hand. It's really strange to suddenly try to write with my left hand, especially when the hand writing ends up looking like it was written by a crack head during an earthquake.

On a completely different note, I saw gas below $3.70 today. Shh! If we don't say anything out loud maybe we wont scare it away...

Obama for a Dream?

2008-09-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

The current generation coming into it's own for this years presidential election comes at us like a shot in the dark. They are more politically involved than any previous generation; they are more socially, economically, and ecologically aware than the people before them. What does this mean? Do they have more hope? More faith in human nature than their elders? Fresh out of high school or in college, these kids are getting ready to rock the world.

Looking at the impending election, we see a younger crowed than ever before in the Obama camp. Traditionally, the 18 to 25 year old category have a low turn out at the polls, but this year might be different. Maybe it's Obama's youth or his hopeful message, but whatever it is, he seems to speak to our young people like never before. I have heard the Republican Party express some skeptical views on this matter. Sure, the kids like Obama. They turn out in droves to hear him speak. But getting those same people to the voting booths is another matter, isn't it?

If I were McCain, though, I wouldn't underestimate this new wave of voters. They are young and impulsive just like anyone once was, but they seem to be out to change the world. They are optomistic about the power they hold and are convinced they can make a difference. I may not share half the views of other young adults my age, but I can see the hope we all have to impact our world for the better.

Watch out, doubters. The new kids are out of school, full of idealistic tendancies, and the arogance to think we can achieve our dreams.

Awesomer

2008-09-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that Lysol kills 99.9% of germs. But did you know it also kills Herpes? You do now. So next time don't reach for that condom, just spray on a little Lysol! ....Ouch. Too bad it's not a real cure.

2008-09-17T23:51:00.001-07:00

There's something cathartic about lolcats. Have some moar!

Nihonji desu ne!

2008-09-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

On one of my networking sites I switched the main language to Japanese. Unfortunately I can't read kanji yet. It did, however, confuse the hell out of my mother when she went on my site.