May 23. So...I have again failed at updating my blog....I have a semi-valid excuse though!
You see, last month was April, as I'm sure you were aware, and April means Script Frenzy!
I mentioned before that I'm writing a graphic novel and that means I have to write my story like a script. I discovered that this has it's pros and cons (like anything does) but I'm okay with that. I didn't switch to graphic novel because I thought it would be easier to write. I knew I wouldn't be able to write everything I saw in my head that way I saw it without making major changes...and I, being the stubborn person that I am, didn't like that. I feel like my story is so exciting and cool (in my own opinion) that it shouldn't have to suffer being watered down just because I can't explain things correctly! A graphic novel was my best option.
I do like graphic novels a lot! There's a really cool one I would recommend. It's called Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. Apparently it's for kids (I guess that means non-17-year-olds) but I don't care. It's fun and exciting!
I found out something interesting about the term "graphic novel". Apparently a lot of people think it's either a stupid name or an unneeded name for "comic books". They say that comic books and graphic novels are the same thing.
That isn't true at all.
If you're only referring to that fact that they both tell a story with pictures that's the only thing they have in common.
First, let's look at comic books. Most comic books really come from all of the newspaper comic strips or "the funnies" being compiled into large collections for people to read through. Some that you may know are Garfield, Family Circus, For Better Or For Worse, Baby Blues, etc etc.
These are comics. They tells small stories and jokes in a few panels but over all, in their comic book form, they don't tell a story with a constant plot from beginning to end. It's very rare (from what I've seen) that they will actually refer to something they did in a past strip. Comics and comic books are also much less realistic as they are usually based on cartoon like comedy so nothing serious is ever really serious. For example, if someone contracted malaria and was hospitalized this particular arc might go on for a few strips but, ultimately, it will be forgotten because after it's over it is never brought up and it doesn't affect anything that happens in their "future".
Now for the graphic novels. The definition of graphic is "Of or relating to visual art, esp. involving drawing, engraving, or lettering." (Googled this) and the definition of novel is "A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism." (Googled this too).
Some graphic novels are Amulet (as I mentioned before), the Bone series (another I recommend), Maximum Ride (yes, I know it's also a book series but I really like the graphic novels!), and others. I also put most manga into this category.
Graphic novels are what their combined definitions say they are. They are fictitious prose narratives of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism told with visual art involving, in this case, drawing and lettering. They are also more realistic because they are usually written to be like real life in some way. For example, somebody gets in a car crash and gets a severe injury that causes them to lose an eye. They won't ever get that eye back (unless magic or super-healing is part of the story) and the accident and the injury will have a lasting affect on the character and the story.
Summing it up a little: Comics and comic books have simpler plots (usually only involving a few panels and a punchline), little to no character development, and very little to no reference to anything that has happened previously thus making them less realistic because it seems nothing ever changes from "day" to "day" and anything "serious" has no affect on the plot whatsoever...also there isn't much of a plot to begin with. Graphic novels have complex plots and story arcs that you would expect to find in any novel, there is usually constant characters development, and almost always reference to past events making them more realistic because things are constantly changing in the story and serious things, large and small, have an affect on the plot.
Don't take any of this the wrong way. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just want to state that there is a difference and it really does matter what you call each of them. When I hear comic book I think of Garfield and the others I listed above. When I hear graphic novel I think of Bone and the others I listed above as well.
I don't see what the big deal is actually...I mean, people call animated movies just that, "animated movies", not cartoons. The two are very different. You can actually apply most of what I said about comic books to cartoons, and graphic novels to animated movies.
Anyway, I tend to prefer graphic novels because I really like in-depth stories and graphic novels are great for that!
And there are some graphic novels and comic books that sort of blur the line between the two.
I think the most obvious would be most of the Marvel (and others like it) comics and graphic novels.
With Marvel (and others) the stories have become rather inconsistent from the originals. Things get added on, taken out, changed entirely. I've read at least three different takes on how Spider-Man got the spider bite, two different takes on how Wolverine started out (both drastically different from each other!), and many other things!
They fit into the category of graphic novel but it bugs me how the story is always different (and the art changes all the time too) so I'm tempted to put them in the comic book category simply because of inconsistency (and the rare occasion that a serious event is forgotten completely). But they have all the criteria for a graphic novel...but they are also, I think anyway, referred to more often as comic books because they were some of the original comic books!
So I guess there are some that can't be sorted into categories. But that's fine. As I said, my point is just to explain why the different names matter.
So anyway, I'm writing a graphic novel, not a comic book, and I'm very excited because I know telling the story visually will be much more intriguing!
Oh, and one last thing...graphic novels are real literature! Reading graphic novels is not lazy reading, nor is writing them lazy writing. They should in no way replace books (especially not the classics!) but they shouldn't be looked on as something less than a real story. A committed writer gets their story out however they can whether it's a novel, graphic novel, a film or even a blog!
Well, I think that's all for now. I'll update again soon! We're going on a vacation to Mackinac Island and I'll have some pictures to share! I actually need to finish packing! Aahh!!! So forgive any typos and/or grammatical errors...I'm writing this in a hurry because I know I'll forget again!
Until next time!
Thank you for reading and God bless you all!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Hunger Games rule! All Twihards may now LEAVE! (P.S. Hunger Games Spoilers!!!)
Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!
First of all, if you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins) then you really should! I'm not going to say you have to because...well, you don't HAVE to. But the books are truly great to read! My whole family enjoyed them! My mom, dad, younger brother, younger sister, and my oldest sister and her husband! ...Well...I guess not everyone in my family likes it. My second oldest sister, Katie, hasn't read them yet. But last I heard she was going to start. So I think it's safe to say that 99.9% of my immediate family likes them.
Anyway, the trilogy was was awesome! But don't ask me if I'm "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale". The first reason is because Finnick always wins (Haha!). The second, but more important, reason is that the whole "Guy Team" thing was started by all those "Twihards".
Let me say real quick that there is a difference between a Twihard and someone someone who has read/is reading the Twilight books for enjoyment and entertainment. Twihards will fight tooth and nail over why Twilight is better than anything else you could read or watch. The others may just be simple fans, but that's still a big difference.
In the Twilight "saga" (if you can call it that...look up the definition) the story revolves around a girl with an obsession over two guys, so the "Team Edward"/"Team Jacob" thing makes sense because that's what it's about.
In The Hunger Games, however, the "team" thing has no place. In the books, Katniss's worry (as well as most of the plot) is divided like this: about 50% percent worry about her family and friends safety, 45% worry about leading a revolution, and 5% worry about whether or not she even WANTS to be with either of her suitors at all because of everything she's been through!
Katniss has different reasons to like both of them and they're actually legit reasons: Gale has been my friend since I was twelve and helps take care of my family. Peeta saved my life and can relate to what I've been through and understands me. Both of them are loyal.
Bella's reasons for liking Edward: He's like a hot, undead, oh, I mean "FROZEN", sparkly statue with "liquid topaz" eyes. He came into my room without me knowing to watch me sleep and told me I was like heroin and that he has to use all of his willpower to keep from tearing me apart to eat me.
...Yay. Great, healthy, relationship you have there Bella...At least he's "hot" because, hey, that's all that matters.
I may go more in depth on the Twilight "saga" in a later post so I won't get too into it right now.
Summing it up:
Katniss = good, fictional female role model.
Bella = horrible, fictional female role model.
So my point is, this whole "Team Peeta"/"Team Gale" nonsense probably came from some Twihards that are starting to feel withdrawal because their series ended and the movies are almost over and they needed something else to occupy their minds. At least they chose a better series.
But people, please, for the love of all that is literature, STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE HUNGER GAMES A NEW TWILIGHT!!! Twilight doesn't come close The Hunger Games so just leave it alone!
And with that being said, all Twihards may now leave.
*clears throat* If you couldn't tell, I'm prone to being intense about certain things...
Now then, I shall continue.
My dad drove my younger brother (Samuel) and I to the theater at 8:00pm so we could be in line to save seats for the midnight premier. My brother dressed up as Peeta (he even dyed his hair!) and I dressed up as Katniss (and my brother and I went all out to make ourselves look fresh out of the Games).
When we got there we were practically the only people waiting in line! There was another group waiting in line for a different midnight showing of The Hunger Games (my friend, Brandon, among them) but until almost 9:00 my brother and I were the only ones standing in line for the 12:05 showing!
My mom and younger sister came later after they finished getting ready. My sister dressed up just as a random Capitol citizen but after being at the theater a few minutes she decided she was Effie Trinket.
I was surprised at how few people were dressed up! People were either wearing T-shirts with slogans on them like "District 1" all the way through to "District 12" and others had "Down with the Capitol", "Girl on fire" "Team Peeta" (grr...), and so on. One of them looked like a homemade football jersey that said "Finnick 65" which I thought was cool. (Finnick Was in the 65 Hunger Games.)
Sometimes the extent of someones costume was simply braiding their hair like Katniss or wearing her Mockingjay pin.
All of them were cool! But I was surprised, considering the books are so popular, that hardly anyone else went all out on their costumes!
Here's what my siblings and I looked like:
(That's real dirt, by the way!)
Yes, I know, I look rather short standing next to my younger brother and sister (especially my sister). But my sister is in heels and both of them have grown a lot recently. And I'm just kind of short....But I don't really care. Haha!
But anyway, back to the movie.
I thought the movie was fantastic! It stayed very true to the book which doesn't happen a lot with book-to-movie adaptations. For example: Eragon, The Tale of Desperaux
Eragon was one of the most disappointing for me.
In Eragon they changed practically everything but the names! They did everything from creating a different plot from the book to "forgetting" to give the elf character, Arya, pointed ears! The actors didn't even have their hair dyed!
I was very pleased with The Hunger Games. The plot was same as the book and I knew what was coming because it progressed in the same way. I could tell the screenplay was written by the author, Suzanne Collins. The characters were the same and acted the same way they did in the book. Some of the dialogue was even word for word! I was quoting it as the characters were saying it!
I've been reading a lot of negative comments about the movie which don't make much sense to me.
A lot of them are people complaining about things that were left out of the movie.
Now, if I haven't mentioned this before, I want to be a filmmaker (more specifically, a director/writer/actor) so I've started watching movies with that sort of mindset especially when it comes to book adaptations.
I took a film production class a couple years ago and I learned how much work goes into making a film. And the one we did in class only lasted about ten minutes! Imagine what it takes to produce a 2hr 22min. movie!
So as the movie approached I started making a mental list of what I would cut from the movie without reshaping it.
By the time the movie premiered I had cut everything that, in a filmmaking sense, was unnecessary.
The list included:
Most of Katniss's flashbacks,
Katniss's "friend", Madge (who actually makes a grand total of two appearances in the whole trilogy),
A majority of the train ride to the Capitol,
The entire remake process shortened to maybe a handful tiny clips,
Katniss searching for water and nearly dying of thirst (this is one of the major problems people seem to have. They seem to think this is a major plot point but, of you've read the book, you would see it's barely has much importance next to the main plot issues),
And a lot of what happens when Katniss finds Peeta.
These things can be left out without altering the actually story. As I said, the story and characters stayed the same.
Something that also seems to get people upset in the parts of the movie that show the Gamemakers controlling the game. I actually found this clever.
In the book Katniss spends a great deal of time thinking about the Games and how the Gamemakers watch them and control the different things that happen in the arena.
But that's the problem. The book is written in a first-person present-tense point of view (something very new and intriguing to me) so it's like being inside Katniss's head as everything is happening. In the movie we can't be inside her head, we're watching from a third-person point of view. So rather than awkwardly having her spout random facts such as "Oh! A giant wall of fire! This must be the Gamemakers trying to corral me near the other Tributes! Everyone knows they control random events in the Games!" to herself (this would be the only other alternative when you think about it) they just show what the Gamemakers are doing. I applaud the creativity of this! It's something that needs to be done for the movie to make any sense to those who may not have read the books.
And that's another thing. I've heard people say, and I can't remember where I heard this, that they thought the movie was "directed more towards people who had read the books".
....DUH!!!
I'm sorry but they make books into movies because the books are popular! If nobody read the Hunger Games it would have been much harder to get the ball rolling on a movie adaptation.
I know they're are a lot of people who went to see it just because Josh Hutcherson was in it, that's not a problem. I watched Time Bandits because Sean Connery was in it, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (after I'd seen it several times already, mind you) last year because some pointed out that David Tennant is Barty Crouch Junior! (Yes. I'm a major Doctor Who fan.)
So I don't consider it weird to watch a movie just because one of you're favorite actors has a part. I just dislike when those people start complaining about the fact that it seems like "you have to read the book to get the whole story".
Another duh. Sorry again.
The book is always better than the movie, no matter how close the adaptation is!
I did say the movie was great, even with things "left out". But the book is way better.
So...it's getting late. I should actually be in bed right now.
Thanks for reading!
I hope I'm updating faster now (even though this is only the first post after my resolution)!
Good night and God bless you all!
First of all, if you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins) then you really should! I'm not going to say you have to because...well, you don't HAVE to. But the books are truly great to read! My whole family enjoyed them! My mom, dad, younger brother, younger sister, and my oldest sister and her husband! ...Well...I guess not everyone in my family likes it. My second oldest sister, Katie, hasn't read them yet. But last I heard she was going to start. So I think it's safe to say that 99.9% of my immediate family likes them.
Anyway, the trilogy was was awesome! But don't ask me if I'm "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale". The first reason is because Finnick always wins (Haha!). The second, but more important, reason is that the whole "Guy Team" thing was started by all those "Twihards".
Let me say real quick that there is a difference between a Twihard and someone someone who has read/is reading the Twilight books for enjoyment and entertainment. Twihards will fight tooth and nail over why Twilight is better than anything else you could read or watch. The others may just be simple fans, but that's still a big difference.
In the Twilight "saga" (if you can call it that...look up the definition) the story revolves around a girl with an obsession over two guys, so the "Team Edward"/"Team Jacob" thing makes sense because that's what it's about.
In The Hunger Games, however, the "team" thing has no place. In the books, Katniss's worry (as well as most of the plot) is divided like this: about 50% percent worry about her family and friends safety, 45% worry about leading a revolution, and 5% worry about whether or not she even WANTS to be with either of her suitors at all because of everything she's been through!
Katniss has different reasons to like both of them and they're actually legit reasons: Gale has been my friend since I was twelve and helps take care of my family. Peeta saved my life and can relate to what I've been through and understands me. Both of them are loyal.
Bella's reasons for liking Edward: He's like a hot, undead, oh, I mean "FROZEN", sparkly statue with "liquid topaz" eyes. He came into my room without me knowing to watch me sleep and told me I was like heroin and that he has to use all of his willpower to keep from tearing me apart to eat me.
...Yay. Great, healthy, relationship you have there Bella...At least he's "hot" because, hey, that's all that matters.
I may go more in depth on the Twilight "saga" in a later post so I won't get too into it right now.
Summing it up:
Katniss = good, fictional female role model.
Bella = horrible, fictional female role model.
So my point is, this whole "Team Peeta"/"Team Gale" nonsense probably came from some Twihards that are starting to feel withdrawal because their series ended and the movies are almost over and they needed something else to occupy their minds. At least they chose a better series.
But people, please, for the love of all that is literature, STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE HUNGER GAMES A NEW TWILIGHT!!! Twilight doesn't come close The Hunger Games so just leave it alone!
And with that being said, all Twihards may now leave.
*clears throat* If you couldn't tell, I'm prone to being intense about certain things...
Now then, I shall continue.
My dad drove my younger brother (Samuel) and I to the theater at 8:00pm so we could be in line to save seats for the midnight premier. My brother dressed up as Peeta (he even dyed his hair!) and I dressed up as Katniss (and my brother and I went all out to make ourselves look fresh out of the Games).
When we got there we were practically the only people waiting in line! There was another group waiting in line for a different midnight showing of The Hunger Games (my friend, Brandon, among them) but until almost 9:00 my brother and I were the only ones standing in line for the 12:05 showing!
My mom and younger sister came later after they finished getting ready. My sister dressed up just as a random Capitol citizen but after being at the theater a few minutes she decided she was Effie Trinket.
I was surprised at how few people were dressed up! People were either wearing T-shirts with slogans on them like "District 1" all the way through to "District 12" and others had "Down with the Capitol", "Girl on fire" "Team Peeta" (grr...), and so on. One of them looked like a homemade football jersey that said "Finnick 65" which I thought was cool. (Finnick Was in the 65 Hunger Games.)
Sometimes the extent of someones costume was simply braiding their hair like Katniss or wearing her Mockingjay pin.
All of them were cool! But I was surprised, considering the books are so popular, that hardly anyone else went all out on their costumes!
Here's what my siblings and I looked like:
(That's real dirt, by the way!)
Yes, I know, I look rather short standing next to my younger brother and sister (especially my sister). But my sister is in heels and both of them have grown a lot recently. And I'm just kind of short....But I don't really care. Haha!
But anyway, back to the movie.
I thought the movie was fantastic! It stayed very true to the book which doesn't happen a lot with book-to-movie adaptations. For example: Eragon, The Tale of Desperaux
Eragon was one of the most disappointing for me.
In Eragon they changed practically everything but the names! They did everything from creating a different plot from the book to "forgetting" to give the elf character, Arya, pointed ears! The actors didn't even have their hair dyed!
I was very pleased with The Hunger Games. The plot was same as the book and I knew what was coming because it progressed in the same way. I could tell the screenplay was written by the author, Suzanne Collins. The characters were the same and acted the same way they did in the book. Some of the dialogue was even word for word! I was quoting it as the characters were saying it!
I've been reading a lot of negative comments about the movie which don't make much sense to me.
A lot of them are people complaining about things that were left out of the movie.
Now, if I haven't mentioned this before, I want to be a filmmaker (more specifically, a director/writer/actor) so I've started watching movies with that sort of mindset especially when it comes to book adaptations.
I took a film production class a couple years ago and I learned how much work goes into making a film. And the one we did in class only lasted about ten minutes! Imagine what it takes to produce a 2hr 22min. movie!
So as the movie approached I started making a mental list of what I would cut from the movie without reshaping it.
By the time the movie premiered I had cut everything that, in a filmmaking sense, was unnecessary.
The list included:
Most of Katniss's flashbacks,
Katniss's "friend", Madge (who actually makes a grand total of two appearances in the whole trilogy),
A majority of the train ride to the Capitol,
The entire remake process shortened to maybe a handful tiny clips,
Katniss searching for water and nearly dying of thirst (this is one of the major problems people seem to have. They seem to think this is a major plot point but, of you've read the book, you would see it's barely has much importance next to the main plot issues),
And a lot of what happens when Katniss finds Peeta.
These things can be left out without altering the actually story. As I said, the story and characters stayed the same.
Something that also seems to get people upset in the parts of the movie that show the Gamemakers controlling the game. I actually found this clever.
In the book Katniss spends a great deal of time thinking about the Games and how the Gamemakers watch them and control the different things that happen in the arena.
But that's the problem. The book is written in a first-person present-tense point of view (something very new and intriguing to me) so it's like being inside Katniss's head as everything is happening. In the movie we can't be inside her head, we're watching from a third-person point of view. So rather than awkwardly having her spout random facts such as "Oh! A giant wall of fire! This must be the Gamemakers trying to corral me near the other Tributes! Everyone knows they control random events in the Games!" to herself (this would be the only other alternative when you think about it) they just show what the Gamemakers are doing. I applaud the creativity of this! It's something that needs to be done for the movie to make any sense to those who may not have read the books.
And that's another thing. I've heard people say, and I can't remember where I heard this, that they thought the movie was "directed more towards people who had read the books".
....DUH!!!
I'm sorry but they make books into movies because the books are popular! If nobody read the Hunger Games it would have been much harder to get the ball rolling on a movie adaptation.
I know they're are a lot of people who went to see it just because Josh Hutcherson was in it, that's not a problem. I watched Time Bandits because Sean Connery was in it, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (after I'd seen it several times already, mind you) last year because some pointed out that David Tennant is Barty Crouch Junior! (Yes. I'm a major Doctor Who fan.)
So I don't consider it weird to watch a movie just because one of you're favorite actors has a part. I just dislike when those people start complaining about the fact that it seems like "you have to read the book to get the whole story".
Another duh. Sorry again.
The book is always better than the movie, no matter how close the adaptation is!
I did say the movie was great, even with things "left out". But the book is way better.
So...it's getting late. I should actually be in bed right now.
Thanks for reading!
I hope I'm updating faster now (even though this is only the first post after my resolution)!
Good night and God bless you all!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Happy New Year!
Wow. I haven't updated my blog since last year...Oops...
...Well I'm not very good at updating this as often as I should...but things have been busy. So how about a quick recap of what's happened since November, what I've learned, and what I resolve to do this year.
First of all, I did not win NaNoWriMo this year. It was a little disheartening at first but as soon as I got over it (the next day) I was writing again. NaNo motivates me, but that doesn't mean I can't write the rest of the year. So that's what I did and my novel is now 14,680 words and counting! But...I have also decided that my novel would probably be much more enjoyable as a graphic novel...So that means that I'll be writing my story out like a script! Soo...Script frenzy, anyone? Haha! I resolve to attempt to have at least a complete rough draft of this script by the end of the year.
Thanksgiving also came during November and for the first time since I was probably four years old we went away for Thanksgiving. We usually stay home and invite people to our house but this year we made the 2+ hour trek to Illinois to spend two days with some of my mom's side of the family: my aunt and uncle, two kid cousins and one adult cousin, great uncle, grandma, a cat, and a dog. We had a good time with lots of delicious food, fun games, and a cheesy British zombie movie (I watched it with my aunt and adult cousin). What I learned during Thanksgiving is that you should never put a sweet potato-marshmallow casserole in your oven's broiler...unless you're some spazzed out pyromaniac, in which case go ahead and do it. But don't blame me if your house burns down...just throwing that out there.
So then came Christmas! (The first green Christmas I've ever had, by the way! Where did my lovely winter go this year?!) We had lots of awesome family time and cool gifts. My younger brother, sister and I received an Xbox from our Grandma (thanks Grandma!) and some cool games from our oldest sister and brother-in-law. I got a Kindle from my great uncle (and a super awesome case for it from my second oldest sister) which has helped me a lot with reading the books I've been assigned for school and I can also play some rather addicting puzzle games on it when I get bored! Shhh...
(And that reminds me...I've been reading Oliver Twist and it is probably one of the saddest stories I've read in a while! Just saying...)
And along with Christmas came the news from my oldest sister and brother-in-law that later this year (around September 1st) I will be an aunt! Yay! That's exciting to look forward to!
And what else? I got a part in a musical (Twinderella, if you've ever heard of it. I'm the countess/duchess), beat Fable III and Call of Duty: Black Ops (not really an accomplishment...but still...), have researched large amounts of steampunk related things for my graphic-novel, I turned 17 (woohoo!), I've done lots of school related things (biology, math, British literature, etc.), finally watched 'Walk The Line', started watching season 6 of Doctor Who, and have been counting the days until the premiere of The Hunger Games! I'm soo stoked for the movie and, yes, I will be dressing up (I have my Katniss costume from Halloween, complete with silver bow and arrows!).
So that brings us to today, March 8th. Oh yeah! For those of you who are interested, yesterday was the feast day of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity! Perpetua is my Confirmation saint so we had pie for dessert! Yummy!
Anyway, today is March 8th... And...I think that about wraps up my recap!
And like I said in the beginning about resolutions, I resolve to try harder this year to update my blog more often! This 4 month gap won't happen again!
Have an awesome year everyone!
God bless!
...Well I'm not very good at updating this as often as I should...but things have been busy. So how about a quick recap of what's happened since November, what I've learned, and what I resolve to do this year.
First of all, I did not win NaNoWriMo this year. It was a little disheartening at first but as soon as I got over it (the next day) I was writing again. NaNo motivates me, but that doesn't mean I can't write the rest of the year. So that's what I did and my novel is now 14,680 words and counting! But...I have also decided that my novel would probably be much more enjoyable as a graphic novel...So that means that I'll be writing my story out like a script! Soo...Script frenzy, anyone? Haha! I resolve to attempt to have at least a complete rough draft of this script by the end of the year.
Thanksgiving also came during November and for the first time since I was probably four years old we went away for Thanksgiving. We usually stay home and invite people to our house but this year we made the 2+ hour trek to Illinois to spend two days with some of my mom's side of the family: my aunt and uncle, two kid cousins and one adult cousin, great uncle, grandma, a cat, and a dog. We had a good time with lots of delicious food, fun games, and a cheesy British zombie movie (I watched it with my aunt and adult cousin). What I learned during Thanksgiving is that you should never put a sweet potato-marshmallow casserole in your oven's broiler...unless you're some spazzed out pyromaniac, in which case go ahead and do it. But don't blame me if your house burns down...just throwing that out there.
So then came Christmas! (The first green Christmas I've ever had, by the way! Where did my lovely winter go this year?!) We had lots of awesome family time and cool gifts. My younger brother, sister and I received an Xbox from our Grandma (thanks Grandma!) and some cool games from our oldest sister and brother-in-law. I got a Kindle from my great uncle (and a super awesome case for it from my second oldest sister) which has helped me a lot with reading the books I've been assigned for school and I can also play some rather addicting puzzle games on it when I get bored! Shhh...
(And that reminds me...I've been reading Oliver Twist and it is probably one of the saddest stories I've read in a while! Just saying...)
And along with Christmas came the news from my oldest sister and brother-in-law that later this year (around September 1st) I will be an aunt! Yay! That's exciting to look forward to!
And what else? I got a part in a musical (Twinderella, if you've ever heard of it. I'm the countess/duchess), beat Fable III and Call of Duty: Black Ops (not really an accomplishment...but still...), have researched large amounts of steampunk related things for my graphic-novel, I turned 17 (woohoo!), I've done lots of school related things (biology, math, British literature, etc.), finally watched 'Walk The Line', started watching season 6 of Doctor Who, and have been counting the days until the premiere of The Hunger Games! I'm soo stoked for the movie and, yes, I will be dressing up (I have my Katniss costume from Halloween, complete with silver bow and arrows!).
So that brings us to today, March 8th. Oh yeah! For those of you who are interested, yesterday was the feast day of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity! Perpetua is my Confirmation saint so we had pie for dessert! Yummy!
Anyway, today is March 8th... And...I think that about wraps up my recap!
And like I said in the beginning about resolutions, I resolve to try harder this year to update my blog more often! This 4 month gap won't happen again!
Have an awesome year everyone!
God bless!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
NaNoWriMo: Week 2 + Flu
Hey! The title rhymes! Anyway...Week 2 of NaNo is upon us (and I have failed again...my updating of this blog leaves something to be desired...) and my word count should be about 17,000...however it is only a mere 8,316...
Compared to how I was doing by this point last year I feel pathetic! My characters have been stuck in chapter 3 getting almost kidnapped and trapped in an alternate dimension for about four days now! (Um...four days in our world...in their world it's only been a couple hours.)
But the kidnapping isn't the problem, the bad-guys didn't get away with it and are currently doing what minor-villains do: running away. The alternate dimension isn't the problem either, two of my characters practically take afternoon strolls through the place on a regular basis (character #3, my current point-of-view character, however, is mildly freaking out because he doesn't know what in the world is happening...Oh yeah. He's the one who was being kidnapped).
No. Those things aren't the problem.
Do want to know? Do you REALLY want to know what happened to get me so far behind? I'll tell you.
It was......THE STOMACH FLU!!! *cue dramatic thunderclap, lightning bolt, and music-of-doom*
Yes. The stomach flu. Here's what happened.
It was last Saturday and we hadn't been home all day so I had missed all writing time (I had missed all of Friday too for the same reason) and I was planning to do at least a little catching up when we got home after church that evening.
During church my stomach started to feel a little...blech-ish, but it wasn't any worse than some normal indigestion so I dismissed it. After church and on the drive home I felt better so I didn't think about it. We got home and I did a little writing but other people wanted some computer time (we have two computers, my mom's laptop and my dad's laptop, and there are five currently in our house).
So while I had some brief writer's block (grrrrr!) I left the computer to whichever of my family members would claim it (probably my brother want to play World of Warcraft or my sister wanting to email a friend) and went to talk the writer's block out of me by giving a not-entirely-brief summary of what I had written so far to my dad. My dad's a great listener and when I'm stuck he's a huge help, pointing out things I'm not noticing, giving me facts, all that good stuff, so I talked while he finished making dinner and then we all sat down together in our library (it's not like an enormous library, and it has our TV in the room so it's kinda like a rec room where we do family movies and stuff) and we watched True Grit while we ate dinner.
I was still feeling fine (we ate bowtie pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs, by the way. It was good) until the movie ended and we were getting ready for bed and I suddenly started to feel nauseous. I took something for my stomach but by the time I laid down to sleep it was worse. Way way worse. I thought it was probably something I ate. I tried not to think about it but I eventually had to flee to the bathroom. You know how normally after you've thrown up you feel a little better? (except for the whole...throwing up thing...) Well I did feel better so I figured it had been something I ate (my parents said so too) so I drank some water and went back to bed feeling a lot better. However, not more than fifteen minutes passed before I was up again. I figured that now I would be better and could get some sleep so after some more water I went back to bed.
This cycle repeated about two more times before my parents gave me some anti-nausea medicine. That didn't work though, and after the fifth time my parents decided to take me to the emregency room because I couldn't even keep any water down.
I should mention that by this point my dad had started feeling the same way I was (no puking though, so bonus for him) so he drove me.
I have this sort-of-bad habit where I apologize for everything so while I was shivering in the passenger seat, wrapped in a blanket, holding a large, bucket/container on my lap, and starting to run a fever I say "I'm sorry."
My dad looks at me and he asks me why and I say "Because you have to take me to the hospital." (...yeah...it sounds even more stupid when I type it...)
So my dad kind of laughed and said, "Hey, I'm feeling the same way. If I start vomiting all over the place and passing out then the emergency room is the best place I can be."
My response, "Oh."
It was about midnight when we left so we got there about 12:20-something.
After getting called out of the waiting room we went with the nurse and she weighed me and then we we to a room and she asked me some questions.
One of the questions she asked was "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst, how bad is your pain?" which seemed like an odd question because I wasn't really in pain...I was really sick.
If she had asked how I felt I would have said...hmm...probably like an 11 or a 12. But I just answered "Uh...I guess...4 or 5?"
Then I got put into another room where they hooked me up to and IV and over the next nine hours or so they gave me like four or five bags of fluids for my dehydration and a couple anti-nausea injections. I guess it was good that we went to the E.R. because I kept throwing up until about 8 or 9-something in the morning when they gave me a different anti-nausea medicine that worked and they let me go home (and by that time I had developed a delightful headache to go with everything else that had begun to be sore: neck, back, shoulder, etc...).
We got home around 10am and I went straight to bed and slept off and on for most of the day. I woke up sometime in the afternoon and couldn't fall asleep so I watched the first few episodes of the first season of Pokemon on my dad's laptop before dozing off again (I was barely coherent for episode 2 or 3 and when I woke up the laptop was gone...sad...).
So there was no more vomiting (yaaaay!) and by Tuesday I was feeling pretty much recovered. However, since I was feeling better right in the middle of the school week I had to take care of all of that school work before I could write, and with minimal energy due to the flu it left me too tired by the end of the day to do any writing. I was feeling fine on Wednesday but we were out so no writing that evening either.
And that brings us to today, Thursday (*looks at the clock*) okay...so now it's midnight which makes it Friday but you catch my drift. Thursday brought me writer's block...and I used my writing time tonight to update my blog (which I know I am failing at...) with this post which, by this sentence, is 1,247 words.
Well, it is way past my bedtime and I plan to get up early to write. I'm determined to catch up! So I shall be signing off for now! I will try to update sooner!
God bless you! (and keep you from the flu!)
And for my fellow writers: Happy writing!
Compared to how I was doing by this point last year I feel pathetic! My characters have been stuck in chapter 3 getting almost kidnapped and trapped in an alternate dimension for about four days now! (Um...four days in our world...in their world it's only been a couple hours.)
But the kidnapping isn't the problem, the bad-guys didn't get away with it and are currently doing what minor-villains do: running away. The alternate dimension isn't the problem either, two of my characters practically take afternoon strolls through the place on a regular basis (character #3, my current point-of-view character, however, is mildly freaking out because he doesn't know what in the world is happening...Oh yeah. He's the one who was being kidnapped).
No. Those things aren't the problem.
Do want to know? Do you REALLY want to know what happened to get me so far behind? I'll tell you.
It was......THE STOMACH FLU!!! *cue dramatic thunderclap, lightning bolt, and music-of-doom*
Yes. The stomach flu. Here's what happened.
It was last Saturday and we hadn't been home all day so I had missed all writing time (I had missed all of Friday too for the same reason) and I was planning to do at least a little catching up when we got home after church that evening.
During church my stomach started to feel a little...blech-ish, but it wasn't any worse than some normal indigestion so I dismissed it. After church and on the drive home I felt better so I didn't think about it. We got home and I did a little writing but other people wanted some computer time (we have two computers, my mom's laptop and my dad's laptop, and there are five currently in our house).
So while I had some brief writer's block (grrrrr!) I left the computer to whichever of my family members would claim it (probably my brother want to play World of Warcraft or my sister wanting to email a friend) and went to talk the writer's block out of me by giving a not-entirely-brief summary of what I had written so far to my dad. My dad's a great listener and when I'm stuck he's a huge help, pointing out things I'm not noticing, giving me facts, all that good stuff, so I talked while he finished making dinner and then we all sat down together in our library (it's not like an enormous library, and it has our TV in the room so it's kinda like a rec room where we do family movies and stuff) and we watched True Grit while we ate dinner.
I was still feeling fine (we ate bowtie pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs, by the way. It was good) until the movie ended and we were getting ready for bed and I suddenly started to feel nauseous. I took something for my stomach but by the time I laid down to sleep it was worse. Way way worse. I thought it was probably something I ate. I tried not to think about it but I eventually had to flee to the bathroom. You know how normally after you've thrown up you feel a little better? (except for the whole...throwing up thing...) Well I did feel better so I figured it had been something I ate (my parents said so too) so I drank some water and went back to bed feeling a lot better. However, not more than fifteen minutes passed before I was up again. I figured that now I would be better and could get some sleep so after some more water I went back to bed.
This cycle repeated about two more times before my parents gave me some anti-nausea medicine. That didn't work though, and after the fifth time my parents decided to take me to the emregency room because I couldn't even keep any water down.
I should mention that by this point my dad had started feeling the same way I was (no puking though, so bonus for him) so he drove me.
I have this sort-of-bad habit where I apologize for everything so while I was shivering in the passenger seat, wrapped in a blanket, holding a large, bucket/container on my lap, and starting to run a fever I say "I'm sorry."
My dad looks at me and he asks me why and I say "Because you have to take me to the hospital." (...yeah...it sounds even more stupid when I type it...)
So my dad kind of laughed and said, "Hey, I'm feeling the same way. If I start vomiting all over the place and passing out then the emergency room is the best place I can be."
My response, "Oh."
It was about midnight when we left so we got there about 12:20-something.
After getting called out of the waiting room we went with the nurse and she weighed me and then we we to a room and she asked me some questions.
One of the questions she asked was "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst, how bad is your pain?" which seemed like an odd question because I wasn't really in pain...I was really sick.
If she had asked how I felt I would have said...hmm...probably like an 11 or a 12. But I just answered "Uh...I guess...4 or 5?"
Then I got put into another room where they hooked me up to and IV and over the next nine hours or so they gave me like four or five bags of fluids for my dehydration and a couple anti-nausea injections. I guess it was good that we went to the E.R. because I kept throwing up until about 8 or 9-something in the morning when they gave me a different anti-nausea medicine that worked and they let me go home (and by that time I had developed a delightful headache to go with everything else that had begun to be sore: neck, back, shoulder, etc...).
We got home around 10am and I went straight to bed and slept off and on for most of the day. I woke up sometime in the afternoon and couldn't fall asleep so I watched the first few episodes of the first season of Pokemon on my dad's laptop before dozing off again (I was barely coherent for episode 2 or 3 and when I woke up the laptop was gone...sad...).
So there was no more vomiting (yaaaay!) and by Tuesday I was feeling pretty much recovered. However, since I was feeling better right in the middle of the school week I had to take care of all of that school work before I could write, and with minimal energy due to the flu it left me too tired by the end of the day to do any writing. I was feeling fine on Wednesday but we were out so no writing that evening either.
And that brings us to today, Thursday (*looks at the clock*) okay...so now it's midnight which makes it Friday but you catch my drift. Thursday brought me writer's block...and I used my writing time tonight to update my blog (which I know I am failing at...) with this post which, by this sentence, is 1,247 words.
Well, it is way past my bedtime and I plan to get up early to write. I'm determined to catch up! So I shall be signing off for now! I will try to update sooner!
God bless you! (and keep you from the flu!)
And for my fellow writers: Happy writing!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
12 days untill insanity ensues...
In just 12 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes, and 58 seconds (or less depending on when you read this) NaNoWriMo will begin. What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation of National Novel Writing Month. I call it NaNo for short. NaNo is a thirty day challenge for anyone who wants to write a novel. Starting November 1st your goal is to write fifty-thousand (50,000) words by the end of the month. All those who reach this goal are deemed winners. Although if you do not reach this goal you are not a loser. Pretty good deal if you ask me. The only rule: Thou shalt not EDIT! (at least not until December)
I will be participating this year. My second NaNo. I participated last year and I am very glad to say I won! My exact word count having been 50,511. I won't soon forget that!
What I love about NaNo is that it forces you to write. No dillydallying. No Spellchecking. No editing. No time. The no time part is what save me. My current novel has been in the works for about four years if I remember correctly. Why? Because I kept dillydallying, spellchecking, and editing. And I had lots of time to do it! I was going nowhere fast (or slow, for that matter). Actually, I was going nowhere.
When I dove into NaNo, however, that changed. I threw my inner editor in a cardboard box and shipped it to the moon. No more editing until my first draft was finished! However, my novel wasn't completely finished last year. Even though I'd reached my goal I still had a lot left to the story but I was determined to finish.
...Then February came...and my inner editor broke in and stole one of my characters away. And that was okay. She needed to go. I had realized that after NaNo had ended. She had exhausted her usefulness in one of my previous rewrites (I changed the whole idea of the story about four times before NaNo) and I was only holding on to her because she had been there from the beginning and I was feeling a bit nostalgic. At least, that's what my inner editor told me. And so away she went. And with her went the entire beginning of my NaNo rough draft. Why? Because even though she wasn't a main character anymore she was the reason all my main characters met up in the first place. And so what was my only option? Rewrite it.
After many months I have finally cooked up what I think is an equally (if not, more) interesting kick-off for my story. So this NaNo I will continue my rewriting because after this new beginning the middle and "end" (it's not really and end because I never got there) don't make as much sense. But I'm okay with that now because I feel that I've finally found a solid base (or at least a less rickety base) for my story.
NaNoWriMo is a time when writers go mad. And when writers go mad we have a blast! It's crazy, but if it weren't why would we do it?
NaNo saved my novel. But if I ever get my hands on the creators of this thing I'll have a hard time deciding whether to thank them or chew them out for organizing this thing in the middle of the SCHOOL YEAR!!! Seriously! "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November"! Why not June? WHY?
I will be participating this year. My second NaNo. I participated last year and I am very glad to say I won! My exact word count having been 50,511. I won't soon forget that!
What I love about NaNo is that it forces you to write. No dillydallying. No Spellchecking. No editing. No time. The no time part is what save me. My current novel has been in the works for about four years if I remember correctly. Why? Because I kept dillydallying, spellchecking, and editing. And I had lots of time to do it! I was going nowhere fast (or slow, for that matter). Actually, I was going nowhere.
When I dove into NaNo, however, that changed. I threw my inner editor in a cardboard box and shipped it to the moon. No more editing until my first draft was finished! However, my novel wasn't completely finished last year. Even though I'd reached my goal I still had a lot left to the story but I was determined to finish.
...Then February came...and my inner editor broke in and stole one of my characters away. And that was okay. She needed to go. I had realized that after NaNo had ended. She had exhausted her usefulness in one of my previous rewrites (I changed the whole idea of the story about four times before NaNo) and I was only holding on to her because she had been there from the beginning and I was feeling a bit nostalgic. At least, that's what my inner editor told me. And so away she went. And with her went the entire beginning of my NaNo rough draft. Why? Because even though she wasn't a main character anymore she was the reason all my main characters met up in the first place. And so what was my only option? Rewrite it.
After many months I have finally cooked up what I think is an equally (if not, more) interesting kick-off for my story. So this NaNo I will continue my rewriting because after this new beginning the middle and "end" (it's not really and end because I never got there) don't make as much sense. But I'm okay with that now because I feel that I've finally found a solid base (or at least a less rickety base) for my story.
NaNoWriMo is a time when writers go mad. And when writers go mad we have a blast! It's crazy, but if it weren't why would we do it?
NaNo saved my novel. But if I ever get my hands on the creators of this thing I'll have a hard time deciding whether to thank them or chew them out for organizing this thing in the middle of the SCHOOL YEAR!!! Seriously! "Thirty days has September, April, June, and November"! Why not June? WHY?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
When I was in Portugal...
So. It's been almost a week since my last post...I'll try harder to update with something at least a couple times a week...
This post is meant to be a review of a restaurant. My creative writing teacher has given me this assignment and I must oblige him.
However, there is a slight problem. The assignment is, and I quote, "to review a restaurant you go to this week or have been to recently. Describe everything from the food you like and didn't like, to the tables and seat cushions."
This wouldn't be a problem if I had actually been to a restaurant recently. I'm assuming he isn't talking about the McDonald's where I sat with my mom using WiFi so I could read the beginners version of Beowulf (...that's another story).
If you want to define "recently" as "having happened within the past year", then yes. I have been to a restaurant recently.
In August.
In Portugal (also another story).
This is also a place where I'm hitting a snag. The restaurant we went to in Portugal was in a building that attached to a couple other restaurants and because we were all so hungry and tired I hadn't bothered to see what the name was. I hadn't known it would be useful information. I just wanted whatever Portuguese food they had (I was determined to eat authentic food while in a different country). So this assignment shall also be a test for my memory.
Commence the review of the nameless restaurant!
There were four of us from our group there for lunch. It wasn't very big (probably about medium-smallish), but it was nice and it wasn't crowded.
My sister and my mom ordered salads and I can't remember what our friend ordered...it may have also been a salad. The name of the meal I ordered was in Portuguese and I can't remember it but it was a plate of rice, different beans, and pork. It was delicious! There was enough of it for me to fill up on and then let everyone else try some.
Then we order dessert. Two tiramisu-like desserts and one chocolate mousse. I think it was the best chocolate mousse I've ever eaten!
I think I would probably rate that place 4 stars.
That's the best review I can come up with (pitiful, I know).
Now I'll probably head off to bed. It's pretty late.
Until next time!
Oh! And a note on restaurants in Portugal. If you eat the appetizers they have sitting out on the table you have to pay for them. I don't know if that's all of Europe or even other places too, I just thought I'd point that out.
God bless!
This post is meant to be a review of a restaurant. My creative writing teacher has given me this assignment and I must oblige him.
However, there is a slight problem. The assignment is, and I quote, "to review a restaurant you go to this week or have been to recently. Describe everything from the food you like and didn't like, to the tables and seat cushions."
This wouldn't be a problem if I had actually been to a restaurant recently. I'm assuming he isn't talking about the McDonald's where I sat with my mom using WiFi so I could read the beginners version of Beowulf (...that's another story).
If you want to define "recently" as "having happened within the past year", then yes. I have been to a restaurant recently.
In August.
In Portugal (also another story).
This is also a place where I'm hitting a snag. The restaurant we went to in Portugal was in a building that attached to a couple other restaurants and because we were all so hungry and tired I hadn't bothered to see what the name was. I hadn't known it would be useful information. I just wanted whatever Portuguese food they had (I was determined to eat authentic food while in a different country). So this assignment shall also be a test for my memory.
Commence the review of the nameless restaurant!
There were four of us from our group there for lunch. It wasn't very big (probably about medium-smallish), but it was nice and it wasn't crowded.
My sister and my mom ordered salads and I can't remember what our friend ordered...it may have also been a salad. The name of the meal I ordered was in Portuguese and I can't remember it but it was a plate of rice, different beans, and pork. It was delicious! There was enough of it for me to fill up on and then let everyone else try some.
Then we order dessert. Two tiramisu-like desserts and one chocolate mousse. I think it was the best chocolate mousse I've ever eaten!
I think I would probably rate that place 4 stars.
That's the best review I can come up with (pitiful, I know).
Now I'll probably head off to bed. It's pretty late.
Until next time!
Oh! And a note on restaurants in Portugal. If you eat the appetizers they have sitting out on the table you have to pay for them. I don't know if that's all of Europe or even other places too, I just thought I'd point that out.
God bless!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
My first blog post: About me.
My name is Emily Perpetua. I am 16 years old.
I am in 11th grade (high school junior) and I'm home schooled.
My family includes my Mom, Dad, oldest sister (Jessica, 22), second oldest sister (Katie, 21), younger sister (Anna, 13), younger brother (Samuel, 12)
My favorite colors are green, black, silver, blue and purple.
My favorite seasons are Summer and Fall.
My favorite movies are The Princess Bride, DragonHeart (but not the sequel!), Inception, How To Train Your Dragon, Tangled, Megamind, and Toy Story 1, 2, and 3.
My favorite television shows are Doctor Who (long live the Whovians!), Merlin, Phineas and Ferb, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and some different Anime shows (though not many because it’s hard to find anything clean…)
My favorite books are Dragons in our Midst (series), Oracles or Fire (series), Children of the Bard (series), Dragons of Starlight/Tales of Starlight (series) (all of those are by Bryan Davis), The Chronicles of Narnia (series by C.S Lewis), Percy Jackson and the Olympians (series by Rick Riordan), Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath (trilogy by Cornelia Funke), The Tale of Despereaux (by Kate DiCamillo), Harry Potter 1-7 (by J.K. Rowling), and The Inheritance series (by Christopher Poalini).
Books that I want to read are The Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins), Echoes from the Edge trilogy (by Bryan Davis), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (by J. R. R. Tolkien), and many others!
My favorite video games are Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 (PS2), Eragon (PS2), The Hobbit (PS2), Pokemon (Gameboy Advanced. Currently playing Fire Red version), World Of Warcraft (online) and Neopets (online…not technically a video game but it doesn’t fit anywhere else.)
My hobbies are reading, writing, going to youth group, hanging out with friends and family, playing video games, and drawing manga.
Other random things about me: I am what my older sister, Katie, calls a genork (a combination of geek, nerd, and dork) as you can tell from everything listed above.
As mentioned before I love writing and I am currently working on a modern-fantasy novel (which should eventually become a series if I can ever finish the first book) that I hope to publish! I haven’t had much of a chance to write since school started but I’m okay with that as long as I make up for it this November during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ).
I’ve been trying to teach myself how to draw manga but I haven’t drawn much of anything since summer because we've been busy helping my sister get moved out and because of school.
I am in 11th grade (high school junior) and I'm home schooled.
My family includes my Mom, Dad, oldest sister (Jessica, 22), second oldest sister (Katie, 21), younger sister (Anna, 13), younger brother (Samuel, 12)
My favorite colors are green, black, silver, blue and purple.
My favorite seasons are Summer and Fall.
My favorite movies are The Princess Bride, DragonHeart (but not the sequel!), Inception, How To Train Your Dragon, Tangled, Megamind, and Toy Story 1, 2, and 3.
My favorite television shows are Doctor Who (long live the Whovians!), Merlin, Phineas and Ferb, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and some different Anime shows (though not many because it’s hard to find anything clean…)
My favorite books are Dragons in our Midst (series), Oracles or Fire (series), Children of the Bard (series), Dragons of Starlight/Tales of Starlight (series) (all of those are by Bryan Davis), The Chronicles of Narnia (series by C.S Lewis), Percy Jackson and the Olympians (series by Rick Riordan), Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath (trilogy by Cornelia Funke), The Tale of Despereaux (by Kate DiCamillo), Harry Potter 1-7 (by J.K. Rowling), and The Inheritance series (by Christopher Poalini).
Books that I want to read are The Hunger Games trilogy (by Suzanne Collins), Echoes from the Edge trilogy (by Bryan Davis), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (by J. R. R. Tolkien), and many others!
My favorite video games are Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 (PS2), Eragon (PS2), The Hobbit (PS2), Pokemon (Gameboy Advanced. Currently playing Fire Red version), World Of Warcraft (online) and Neopets (online…not technically a video game but it doesn’t fit anywhere else.)
My hobbies are reading, writing, going to youth group, hanging out with friends and family, playing video games, and drawing manga.
Other random things about me: I am what my older sister, Katie, calls a genork (a combination of geek, nerd, and dork) as you can tell from everything listed above.
As mentioned before I love writing and I am currently working on a modern-fantasy novel (which should eventually become a series if I can ever finish the first book) that I hope to publish! I haven’t had much of a chance to write since school started but I’m okay with that as long as I make up for it this November during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ).
I’ve been trying to teach myself how to draw manga but I haven’t drawn much of anything since summer because we've been busy helping my sister get moved out and because of school.
I also have had an interest recently in making Japanese food (so far I’ve made Japanese style hamburgers and Miso soup).
I really enjoy acting and have been in two plays: The Importance of Being Ernest (I played Aunt Augusta) and Arsenic and Old Lace (I played Elaine Harper). In the spring I’m going to try out for a musical in our area.
Because of my love for writing, acting, and movies I hope to become a film director one day and I want go to college to study film (I just don’t know where yet…). I also want to be able to write and direct (and maybe even act in) my own movies.
Well, I think I've given as much info of myself as I can. Here are some pictures from this Summer!
Well, I think I've given as much info of myself as I can. Here are some pictures from this Summer!
This was in the airport before we got on the plane that would take us to Portugal before we headed to Spain for World Youth Day.
On the balcony at our hotel in Portugal.
At my friend's Harry Potter party.
Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw! We're nerdy and proud of it!
Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw! We're nerdy and proud of it!
(this one is actually from Spring...not Summer.)
My sister's college graduation.
My sister's college graduation.
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