A Writing Story

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Yes!  I haven’t disappeared from the face of the earth!  No I have not quit blogging and yes I have been incredibly lazy these past few months and need to blog more!  Being away from something you love isn’t always a bad thing.  My absence from the blogging world made me realize that I’m not very good at blogging.  All I do is drain on about what I do as a writer yet I barely post any of my work and I build myself up – for what?  I’m just an aspiring author and I should be blogging about books and writing…not what I did over summer vacation.  Not that it’s wrong to touch upon recreational events but my blog wasn’t made for that and it seems I forgot this for a while.  Now it’s a new year and I wanted to blog about the new year because ONE, it’s a popular topic, and TWO, I have a lot to say about 2012 and new years in general.

I’m a big fan of tumblr now.  I go on it everyday which is really sad but it’s a guilty pleasure of mine.  I find going on there to be inspiring and fun and…well for lack of a better word, easy.  Not much work is required on tumblr.  You follow people and you scroll through your tumblr feed and view posts.  Some posts are complete crap and not worth any time but there are lots that also bring me insane joy and make my creative genes flow wildly!  One of these creative posts I found was a Death Cab for Cutie song titled “The New Year”.  The lyrics were posted below the video and I read them through with much enthusiasm.  It was as if this song was meant for me.  In my opinion, the New Year is an excuse.  It is the one time of the year when people decide to better themselves.  I can’t begin to tell you how many weight loss commercials I have seen on TV this week along with Sarah McLachlan asking me to help an innocent animal and don’t even get me started on the proactive commercials.  It’s not that I don’t believe in good deeds or a person wanting to set goals for themselves.  Believe me, I set goals all the time.  What annoys me is that people wait until New Years just to start and fail at something.  If you want to lose weight in September, try to lose some weight.  Don’t wait until New Years.  That’s silly.  Usually when I wait for something I lose interest in it entirely or think about it way too much.  Therefore, I don’t make New Years resolutions and I’m not held back to wait until 2013 to start a new goal.  This New Year felt no different than any other day to me and that is why I connected so much to the Death Cab for Cutie song.  I watched The Big Bang Theory marathon on TBS, watched the ball drop, then surfed the web while my neighbors set off fireworks.  It didn’t feel like a special night.  It was just another day.

While January 1st 2012 was an ordinary day, a thought loomed in the back of my mind back what is to come this year.  The end of the world?  For a while I haven’t been sure what to think about these end of the world rumors.  75% of me believes them to be false while 25% of me lives in fear that the world will end and I will die without being able to complete all my life’s goals.  Then today I stumbled upon a youtube video posted by one of my favorite people, Charlie McDonald.  What a video that was!  Charlie always seems to post videos at the proper time and they always seem to relate to my life somehow which is one of the reasons I love him so much.  In the video he basically debunks the rumors of the end of the world and I’m very satisfied with his explanation of the situation.  It has been one of my highlights of the first week in the new year. (And now I'm thinking about how incredibly sad I am for turning to internet vloggers for advice.  Whatever, Charlie is awesome).

Another highlight of mine is that I’ve been writing like crazy!  I am currently on Christmas break and not working (making no money!) just to try and focus on the novel I am writing.  At the end of the semester I set a few goals for myself.  The first goal I set was to write everyday.  I had a 12 day writing plan that I kept to and now just started a book titled “A Writer’s Book of Days” where I do a writing prompt a day for one year.  Kind of ironic since I just said new years resolutions are stupid…but this isn’t a new years resolution.  It’s just a plan and hopefully if I stick to it I will write everyday and my writing will become better.  I’ve also been focusing my efforts on my novel quite a bit and the other day I sat down to write it while listening to movie scores and instrumental music on my iPod on full blast volume and found myself inspired and my writing to be the best it has been in months!  It was a great feeling!  Another goal I set is to read 50 books this year.  Last year I only read 21 books.  Indeed 21 books is a lot but I love to read and feel I should be reading more.  Right now I’m currently reading 4 books which is very unusual for me considering I usually stick to one book at a time.  I’m reading Peter Pan, Pride and Prejudice, Coffeehouse Theology, and God Never Blinks.  All very good books!  At the end of every month I plan to post my own reviews and ratings out of 5 stars about the books I read!  And now I feel as if my whole new years speech is hypocritical…I guess to elaborate a bit more – I don’t think one should wait for the new year to try and better themselves.  I don’t think it’s wrong to start new goals around new years like the ones I just mentioned.  I just get annoyed with people when they say “this year I will lose ten pounds!” because one can choose to loose weight anytime.  They shouldn’t have to wait until the new year.  I guess what I’m trying to get at is…people look for goals to have at the new year.  It’s like Christmas time we exchange gifts and then new years comes and people feel they need to do something to symbolize the new year (that is really just another day) so they make a goal for the heck of it and try a bit and then give up.  People never have original goals…it’s always weight or beauty or little things.  I wish people would have grander goals and have goals that are unique to themselves and remember what’s important in life.  And lastly, their goals are always tied to the new year.  It’s called a “New Year’s Resolution”.  I’d like to refer to it as a goal or something to look forward to…

I guess people make new years resolutions because new years is like this invisible marker that the world has crossed and it seems legit and official.  If I had to make a cheesy new years resolution though, I’d say that I hope to get a job and make some money this year and hold onto it!  And I hope to become more independent.

Happy new year to you all!  Anyone have a fun goal for the year?  If you wanna share, don’t hesitate to shoot a comment my way.  I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think about new years resolutions?

Side note to add as I end this blog – my cat has been running around the kitchen like crazy as I typed this blog.  She’s really worn herself out and I can now hear her breathing heavily as if she ran a marathon!  What a silly kitty!

I always wanted to be the sort of blogger who talks about the little things in life that add up to the big picture or a blogger who writes about an event in their life that ties in with some kind of moral message at the end.  But, sadly, I can only be that blogger randomly and I have a feeling that this blog is just going to be a random blog about me expressing my inner feelings about certain aspects of my life and the world. 

To start it all off, I am afraid of the dark.  I'm afraid of a lot of things...bugs, public speaking, meeting new people...but the dark has got to be the worst.  I think that what I hate most about it is that the dark forbids me from seeing ahead.  Through the darkness I can't see a shadow to warn me if someone is coming and my eyes always play tricks on me leaving me in a terrified state not knowing if someone is watching me or I'm just being paranoid.  Always it is me being paranoid.  But I guess the actual dark can also be figurative.  We are left in the dark about a lot of things in life and it scares us...or at least it scares me.  Or minds play tricks on us and we never truly know the outcome but when the outcome finally arrives...I'm always left saying, "That wasn't so bad."  Yet I still worry constantly.  I guess this is just me saying that I am trying harder to do things I'm not comfortable with and to grow up.  There have been a lot of new changes in my life...and I welcome them!

Another thing I wanted to mention in this blog was last night's Emmy Awards.  I didn't watch them...I sort of wanted to but obviously didn't care all too much.  As usual, Yahoo had an article about it this morning and I brought it up and began to read.  I read about some disappointments and surprises...some I agreed with, others I didn't.  But then I happened to scroll down to the comment and found this one by a guy named Dan..."Spend 2 or 3 hours of my life watching a bunch of people give each other awards for playing make believe? No thanks. If they really want to impress someone, how about taking the hundreds of thousands of dollars they spend on this stuff and donate it to a worthwhile charity."  WOW!  Thank you Dan!  I totally agree.  And it isn't just TV show stars, it is sports stars and movie stars and stupid stars like the cast of Jersey Shore and Keeping Up With The Kardashiens...or however you spell it.  SO, I wanted to blog to talk about the new changes in my life.  Instead of reading or watching the daily gossip I am going to go to church and I wanted to volunteer.  I also want to write more (because I procrastinate like hell!) and I want to study more (because sadly I may be changing my major!  URG!).  I want to do something good with my life and since I don't have enough money to help, I want to make a difference using old fashioned hard work. 

So I guess this blog does tie itself together by the end.  Basically, I have never done this before and I am stepping into the unknown.  I've always wanted to help and make a difference but the idea of it all is a bit intimidating.  Growing up in itself is a scary thing to think about.  I just want to say that I am ready to make changes in my life and I hope I can inspire or help anyone else who feels the same way.  Please don't hesitate to message me with a prayer or a message for guidance even if you don't practice religion.  I will be sure to update you guys on my "adventures" (though it hardly feels right to call them that) and my writing which hopefully will move much faster if I actually stick to it.  As the Brits say, CHEERS!

Here is the Yahoo! article about the Emmy's: http://awards.tv.yahoo.com/blog/73-snubs-and-surprises-from-this-years-emmys

Wow, summer is gone?  Barely said hello!  I feel neglected of a visit from summer 2011! 

Yes, summer came like a thief and now the new semester has started with piles and piles of heavy textbooks, flimsy novels, stacks of sticky notes, and countless late nights and early mornings.  Poor eating habits have resurfaced and new stresses have been added to the old ones.  It feels as if I have been studying for months but it is only the 3rd week of classes.  Despite the down side to school, everything is going great.  But I want to take the time and blog about my speed demon summer.

The first aspect of summer I am going to discuss is my summer course.  Well, I can definitely say I hated that course.  Every week we were required to write a 4 paged single spaced paper about the week's readings and...it sucked.  To my surprise, I passed the class with a high B and ended up getting 100% on the final paper.  While I wasn't studying I was chilling with my family watching sitcoms like That 70's show, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, George Lopez, and Friends.  I also spent a lot of time watching old 90's shows like Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens, Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, and Hey Arnold. 

I had a birthday.  My cat had a birthday (3 years old!).  I got a cool Harry Potter poster frame from a friend, a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card from another friend, lots of checks from the family, and a new laptop!  When I wasn't writing a birthday list (totally kidding), I was making bookmarks.  I know it sounds silly but its true.  I will have to post a "how to" later this year on how I make them because they are super easy and end up looking store bought!  And speak of the devil, need I mention school books?  This year they were extra expensive and half of them are Shakespeare plays.  A plus to my books this year is that we will be reading Pride and Prejudice!  Woo!  And then I sadly found out that my roommate couldn't room with me any more which was a bummer but no worries. I ended up getting an apartment with my friends!

I saw a few awesome films this summer.  The best by far was Deathly Hallows Part 2.  AMAZING!  I also saw Pirates 4 which was good but can hardly be called a stand alone movie...and I missed Orlando and Keira.    I also saw Black Swan for the first time and it was...disturbing...but in a good way...I think.  And to go along the lines of film, my friends and I had a few Disney marathons that never went according to plan.  I read some really good books this summer as well.  I first read "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks.  It was cheesy but good and the message about God was really powerful and moving.  The movie wasn't as good...Miley Cyrus just doesn't do it for me.  After that I jumped to reading a book called Different Seasons by Stephen King which is a book of 4 short stories.  I only read two of the stories..."Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" and "The Body" (both made into films The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me).  Shawshank was very good but The Body was phenomenal!  It is one of my favorite books!  Stephen King really is an amazing writer.  After Stephen King I read a book called Never Let Me Go which was very moving and I loved it but it isn't a favorite book.  Then I read a book by Hilary Duff...because she is so darn cool.  The book was good and I think it is awesome that Hilary is showing off all of her talents but it was a bit too much like Twilight for my taste.  And then I re-read all of the Harry Potter books.  I rushed to finish them before the semester ended and once I was done I felt as if I wanted to re-read them all over again...it was like I lost a really good friend.  Since school started I have read one book titled "My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece" and all I can say is WOW!  Definitely another favorite book.  I am now reading "The Girl Who Played With Fire." 

I went on a few fun trips over the summer.  I already blogged about NYC and seeing Dan Radcliffe in How to Succeed.  I then went to Hershey for a weekend with just my parents and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend!  Then my family drove to Ocean City Maryland which was very relaxing but very uneventful...despite driving jet skis and the huge storm that flooded the roads for a night.  Then the last week of summer I went with my mom and grandma to Oswego, NY which holds a special place in my heart because my grandfather used to live there and it is where my novel takes place!

And now we hit my writing.  I got very far as far as brainstorming goes and I am becoming more confident with myself as a writer but I am know fully aware that I am a perfectionist and I need to just write this damn book and stop being nit-picky!  While I was being a perfectionist and a procrastinator, I was also working 4 days a week from 9:30 to 4:30.  My job was at times boring and at other times a bit annoying but I enjoyed it none the less.  I guess the best bits of working were spending time with my fellow employees!  I miss them SO much!  It was nice making money. 

This concludes my summer blog.  It didn't take me as long to type this as I thought.  Cool...hope you all had great summers!  I hope to blog more but can't make any promises.  Have a great school year!  Sorry if there are any minor errors...I don't have time to fix them because homework is calling!