I LIKE GOSSIP GIRL, OKAY

Okay, yeah. I've had a good month or so of intelligent writing on here. I'm going to talk about Gossip Girl.

I do realize how incredibly teenage-girl it is of me to like this show, but I have to know what haaaappeeens! I've been watching the show since season 1. It's always been my guilty pleasure, and I've always watched it alone. Sometimes that's nice, but it also means I have no one to talk with about it, because I seriously doubt anyone I speak to regularly watches it too. Anyway, I really like this show. I'm not sure why, really, but I have the INTENSE NEED to know what happens every week. I also kind of like the characters. Some of them, at least. I even kind of like the ones I dislike. I think my favorite character right now is Nate, which is funny because I really didn't like him all that much at the beginning of the show, or even the beginning of last season. I also really like Blair and Chuck. They're both still really complex characters even though they've both grown and matured since s1, which is nice. Jenny is ridiculously stupid, and honestly so is Eric right now, which is sad because he actually used to be cool. I don't blame Jonathan for breaking up with him. He's being a prat. I HATE TRIPP A LOT and I'm very glad Nate punched him in the face. I mean finally. He's stupid. And mean. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Serena, in that I am enthralled by her story and want to watch her, but I also get very annoyed by the majorly stupid descisions she makes. At least she's consisted with her character, I guess. Lily and Rufus kind of bore me sometimes, I'll admit. I used to like Dan a lot better, too. I liked him when he was dorky. Not as much anymore, though I can see him sort of going back to being likable, and I hope that he does. Vanessa doesn't interest me that much most of the time, though some of her storylines are cool. Her mother is Zoe from Firefly, which leads me to believe that her father is Wash. It must be so.

Anyway. I'm impatient for the show to come back on. This whole thing with Chuck's mom confused me and I want to know what that's all about, and I will admit that I want Serena and Nate to be together. Mostly because I think Nate is cool and I would like him to get something he wants for a change instead of just helping everyone else.

Do you guys watch Gossip Girl? And if not, do you have any guilty pleasure tv shows you CAN'T STOP WATCHING? I'd like to know I'm not alone, hah.

In other news, I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic for the first time tonight, and I was surprised at how good it was! It was super cute. I think part of that may have been that Hugh Dancy is just wildly attractive (I can't help it -- I'm SUCH an anglophile, and his hair is perfect!), but it had a really cute story. I love romantic comedies, because they're so easy. They all have similar basic plot structure, and there is no edge-of-your-seat biting-your-nails what's-gonna-happen to it, which is honestly just nice sometimes. It's nice to get away from all the real world uncertainties and pain and just escape into this world where the people will love and lose, and ultimately end up happy and together because they're meant to be that way. It's just...nice. I wouldn't want to watch nothing but romcoms, but I also wouldn't want to watch any movie genre exclusively. The consistency and stability of a well done romantic comedy can be extremely therapeutic, though. I would reccomend one if you're having a bad/stressful day/week/month. Unless you're a boy who's not into that. That's okay too.

I also finished the second draft of a short story I plan on submitting in a bi-monthly contest. If I win, it gets published online and in a magazine, which would be amazing. If that happens, I'm totally linking it here. If not, I could probably post the story on here if you guys are interested. Let me know if you are.

I need to sleep now. Goodnight!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.22
Books this year: 16

EDIT: I also forgot to answer Elisabeth's question as to which modern opera I want to see in Canada. It's called The Ghosts of Versailles by John Corigliano. It's amazing! Here's a link to Marie Antoinette's aria, "They Are Always With Me", which is gorgeous and chilling. She's a ghost in the opera, so it's her memories of her life and especially her death.

NaNo Next Year?

Heeeyyy. So I read the comments on my last blog and they were SUPER HELPFUL, but I'm actually not doing what any of them said. But they were still SUPER HELPFUL, I promise! They made me really think about a lot of different situations and solutions and then figure out what my character would actually do, and since he himself is not a major jerkface, everything he does at least makes sense. I had a nice talk with my sister about it, and she was talking about how when a character does something bad for a reason that's relatable, people are likely to forgive him. So THANK YOU THANK YOU for your opinions. I've figured it out now.

Also, today I got an idea for what might possibly be my NaNo novel next year. I feel it's a little premature, but I don't control when I get ideas. I'm just mulling right now. I haven't even written anything down, though I'm going to soon. This one will fall much more heavily into the YA genre than Goblin Men (which is the novel I'm working on now, fyi), and not so much into the scifi genre, though there may be a slight sense of fantasy through dreams if that makes sense? I don't know, I just thought of this today while I was cleaning a bathroom. We'll see how far it makes it.

I am SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU! We got our tree the other day and decorated it and the rest of the main living area of the house, and now the living room/dining room looks like a lovely, Christmas celebration in and of itself. We have this huge advent calendar that is three little houses with windows and doors, and it's adorable. Right after we got it, my twelve year old sister decided there needed to be little people around it, so she brought out her Harry Potter figurines, which are almost perfectly to scale, and placed them around it. Including Voldemort. Who's standing on a chimney. Like an evil Santa Clause. It's kind of amazing.

Aaaand, like everyone ELSE on the internet, I have a formspring. So, if you want, you can go and ask me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and I will answer them. Yay!

See you soon!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.16
Books this year: 15

Help?

Okay, blog readers. For the first time (I think...right?), I am calling on you for novel help.

See, I have this love triangle because my so-called secondary character decided all of a sudden that he was in love with my FMC, who needs to marry my MC by the end of the book. Great. So far, this guy has been able to convince himself that, while he knows FMC really likes MC, MC isn't interested in FMC. Of course, this is completely untrue, but he's managed to make himself believe it. Trouble is, pretty soon he's going to catch them kissing. Now, I know him and I know that he's a fighter. I also know he makes really rash decisions when he's upset. He's acted vaguely controlling of FMC when he's found out she's doing something that makes him angry/worried out of his mind before, and he hated MC for a while because of the way they met. However, he and MC are good friends now, which is a problem right now. I know something is brewing in my so-called secondary character, because he's been making faces and stuffing down his feelings for quite some time now. SO, my thought is that he will somewhat-sort-of-kind-of accidentally let the corrupt officials know MC's secret, which will result in MC being captured and tortured. So-called secondary guy will be completely overwhelmed with guilt, of course, when he realized what he's done, but he can't be Judas, and I'm worried that's what this plot point will make him.

This is GREAT for my plot, actually. This will work really well. HOWEVER, so-called secondary guy is incredibly loveable and I like him very very much, and I want the readers of the book to like him as much as I do. I'm worried that if I allow him to do this, everyone will hate him.

So here's my question: after reading about this situation, would you hate so-called secondary guy for doing what he's doing, and if so, how can I write this so that you'd forgive him eventually?

I just don't know.

Any input is welcome and appreciated!

See you soon!
Emily

We are the champions, my friends.

I JUST FREAKING WON NANOWRIMO!!!!

Gahhhh I am SO happy and excited right now! XD

Lookie at my graph:

Not bad for a first timer, eh?

Also, this is what my Scrivener word count looked like when I stopped:

Yay! I did it! *victory dance*

I still have about 10,000 words (at least) to write before the book is finished, but I WROTE 50,000 WORDS IN 29 DAYS!!!!

I'll keep posting excerpts if you guys want me to, though, until the book is finished. Let me know.

Speaking of, here's an excerpt before I try to sleep while happy dancing:

Slate got to the door, but hesitated. After a second, he turned around. “Hey, Ronan?” he said.
“Yeah?” she responded.
“I don’t want you to be with Jal,” Slate confessed.
Ronan blinked. “Why not?” she asked.
Slate took a deep breath. “Because I want you to be with me,” he said.

Those are the last words I wrote before submitting my word count and WINNING. Slate is a character that I thought I had figured out before I started writing, and then when I started writing him, he turned out to be COMPLETELY different to who I thought he was. He's awesome, though, I love him. He's also the character who speaks to me the most and gives me a lot the information. For instance, I had NEVER intended to have any sort of love triangle in my novel and then he goes and informs me he's in love with my FMC. Le sigh.

Okay, seriously I need to sleep now. It's almost 1am. Goodnight.

See you soon!
Emily

NaNoWriMo: WON!!!!

I think I'm gonna win this thing.

Arin’s house in the capitol was almost completely bare. There were a few dusty couches pushed into a corner that no one seemed to be willing to touch, but other than that, there was no furniture in the house at all. The entire place was filled with dust and dirt and smelled vaguely musty and spoiled. As Ronan paced the floor anxiously, dust rose with each of her footsteps. Eiley was sitting on the bare, dusty counter in the kitchen as Arin searched the cubboards for any non-perishable food they may have left behind when they fled the city. October and Nym were very subdued as Slate flipped a coin anxiously between his fingers, trying hard to think. Jal sighed heavily, knowing that he had to tell everyone what he’d found out.

Okay, so it's seriously not the best excerpt, but I wrote almost nothing that can be taken out of context tonight. I referenced the dust too many times, I know. Meh.

I have less than 2,000 words to go to 50,000. Tomorrow, I will win.

Also, hopefully I'll make a video tomorrow. Hopefully. No promises.

I'm sleepy. I have church in the morning, so I'm going to bed.

Goodnight, my dears.
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 48,232

P.S. There is totally a very good chance that I may be going to Vancouver in 2011 or 2012, and I'm already crazy excited. I've never been to Canada before, so I REALLY home this happens. Also, I'd be going to see a crazy awesome modern opera that I love, so yeah I'm reallyreallyreally hoping to go. Even though it's like two years away...

Computers that talk?! Egads!

Oh, jeez. I just signed on and realized I never posted anything last night. Luckily, I haven't...written...at all today. Maybe that's not such a good thing. Anyway, excerpt and word count. Fuller post later, maybe.

Jal scanned the page, which was mostly about Logan’s condition and how she was admitted and her progress since. “Date of admission for Logan Stidolph?” he asked the computer.
“November twenty seventh,” the computer replied in a cool female voice. “Date of discharge, November thirtieth.”
“Discharge?” Jal asked, confused. “November thirtieth? But that’s today.”
“Correct,” the computer answered.
“Reason for discharge?” Jal asked urgently.
“Tranfer to another facility,” replied the computer.
“Where?” Jal demanded. “Tranfer to where?”
“Information not available,” the computer said coolly.
“Why?”
“Information not available,” the computer repeated.
“Damn it,” Jal hissed.

Haha, I was watching the end of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation last night while I was writing, and figured there could be computers that respond to you in my futuristic world too. Also, they're touch screen. Ooh.

NaNoWriMo: 47,385

Here come the men in black, galaxy defenders.

Aw, see? I totally knew you guys were awesome. All of the comments on my last blog (er, the one before last, I suppose) were highly intelligent and thoughtful. You guys rock. I just knew it. :D

I loved reading what you guys had to say about the whole thing. This part in particular made me laugh:

Elisabeth:
The criticism I hear most is that vampires don't sparkle. Well then, find me a vampire and prove Stephenie Meyer wrong. They're fictional. They can do whatever the author wants them to.

Merani:
And I agree with Elisabeth: Vampires are fictional. They can sparkle if they want to. Leave 'em alone.

You people make a good point. Anything fictional can be bent to the author's desires. Plus, vampires are something that have been legend for centuries. Every region has a slightly different take on them. Just because Bram Stoker wrote Dracula doesn't mean he made the rules, right? Creativity and all that. Since vampires are, after all, FICTIONAL. Lol. You people are awesome.


Oh, excerpt:

“How did it get here?” Ronan asked, the pitch of her voice low. “What is it?”
“It’s a city,” Arin answered, his own voice full of bitterness. “The capitol, actually. It’s where the government works.”
“No, that’s not right,” Ronan answered, eyes on the skyline before them. “It can’t be right, the government doesn’t exist anymore.”
Arin turned his head an looked at her. “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

I hope all you Americans reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was nice. It was just my immediate family, because we live far away from the rest of my extended family, and no one was really available to come over, but it was nice anyway. The food was delicious! I'm super excited about all the leftovers we have, too. :D

I watched the end of the parade this morning, because one of the highlights of my Thanksgiving is always the parade, and we'd taped it, so we watched the rest of it in the afternoon in between cooking and decorating. After we ate, we went on a family walk (because the weather is finally starting to cool down) and then we came home and watched the Thanksgiving episode from season 10 of Friends, which is in my opinion one of the funniest Friends episodes ever made, and then the Thanksgiving episode from season 3 of Mad About You, which was also really funny, and then both Charlie Brown Thanksgiving specials we have.

I'm also really excited about it being officially Christmas season now! I love Christmas!

So, I wrote about four measures of a song today, and I couldn't figure out if I wanted it to be wizard rock or muggle rock. I'm aiming more towards wizard, since I think it could be really cool for my band to do, but I need a plot for it. I only have four measures. Anyway, I decided to try to write a chorus, to see if that would do anything, but ended up writing half of a chorus that has to be for a different song. May have figured that one out, though. It's been SO LONG since I've written any wizard rock. I wrote a ton when we were first starting as a band, so I've sort of written half of our album with songs left over, so I was taking a break. However, I think these two songs need to be band songs, so I guess I'm back at it again.

Also, I have found another favorite band. You guys responded really well to when I kept going on about "Poison & Wine" by The Civil Wars, so I thought I'd share these guys with you as well. Here is the video that made me love them immediately, and then after you watch that, go listen to their music on their myspace. They're SO GOOD! Just, SO good. You should listen. Okay.

And that is all. Goodnight.

See you soon!
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 45,166

Second post today

Please go read and comment the first post I made today. I will love you if you do. :D

“Are there any abandoned boats around?” Jal asked, panting from the walk, still weak from the three days he’d gone without food or sleep.
“Not any that I’d want to get into,” Slate replied as Nym put a hand up to help Jal stay steady on his feet. “Are you kidding? Any boat that’s still out here will have lived through a war and two consecutive years of rot. I’m not getting into a boat that could very well have a huge, unseen hole in the bottom.”

Why are my excerpts always about Slate! He's my secondary character!
(but I love him)

NaNoWriMo: 44,389

In defense of other human beings.

Can I just say something?

I realize this may or may not be taken well among people who read this, but I need to say it.

Why do we as a culture think it's okay to belittle and tear down any group of people? We focus on this when it comes to race and sexuality and religion (sometimes), but is a person whose tastes and opinions are different from yours any different than someone whose skin is a different color than yours?

I don't know about you, but I think not.

I'm going to come right out and say that I'm talking about Twilight here. Now, first of all, DON'T mistake me for a Twi-hard or whatever they call them, because I am most certainly NOT one of those. However, while I acknowledge that they books are pretty poorly written (in some sections, very poorly written), I also enjoy them for the entertainment factor. John Green recently posted a brilliantly written blog about Twilight, that I agree with %100, so if you want to know my views on the matter, that's what they are. So, no I'm not a huge fan of the series, but yeah, I do enjoy the entertainment they bring. I am in that probably %2 of the population that is really and truly nuetral. You can ADORE Twilight, and I'll still respect you*, or you can make fun of it, and I won't take offense (in fact, I'll probably laugh along).

Generally, this means I happily bystand at the Twiboxing matches between the lovers of Twilight and the haters of Twilight. I'm not on either side, so I just don't usually care.

However, this changes when one side crosses the line and starts being actually hurtful to people on the other side.

This has happened with fans to non-fans before, to a small level. People who love the series start mildly hating on those who don't, and while this is annoying, it actually does no real harm because the fan-haters are generally the less mature fans (I mean, the immature HP fans do this too, it's not new to fandoms), and the non-fans who are being bashed don't. . .care. But, with the release of New Moon, the non-fans are coming out in full force.

I get it, okay? I KNOW seeing Edward Cullen's face everywhere is annoying! I turned slightly to my right at the mall today and was greeted with an unexpected picture of EC at perfect eye level that made me scream because it was so startlingly THERE**. I understand that you would want everyone to just SHUT UP because you're not into what they are. But seriously, think about it. Wanting people to shut up and actually demanding that they do it are SUCH DIFFERENT THINGS, because with the former you're merely having an opinion, but with the latter you are forcing your will and opinion on other people who do not share it! That is beyond selfish, and no better than the immature fans who try to make others like it just because they do!

Worse, though, is something I just saw. There's this article/video of a man who decided to not only force his own opinions on others, but to do so in a hurtful and demeaning way. The fact that I am offended by this is not because I can't take a joke, it's because I won't stand for people treating people so poorly. This man seems to think that anyone who likes Twilight is just stupid cattle who he can treat how he wants. And, okay, so he pulled a prank. If it were just that, I wouldn't be so annoyed. I was kind of appalled, though, at the conclusion of the video: "Twilight Fans. Officially the dumbest people on planet Earth."

...WHAT?! Again, I'd just like to stress that this did not offend me personally lest you think I'm just ranting about something because someone badmouthed me. I'm offended, because this sort of generalization of people and then labeling them as the "dumbest people on planet Earth" is appalling! So, we can only respect people who share our opinions? Or is it just the ones we can control? I mean, are you serious?

Perusing the comments, most people seemed to be under the impression that the Twilight fans "deserved" it or "had it coming." Seriously? What did they possibly do that was so bad that they had this sort of hatred coming? Some even seemed to believe that people who were fans of more "acceptable" things like Batman wouldn't have been as annoyed had the same prank been pulled on them, which is ridiculous.

Most Twilight fans, I've found, are intelligent, friendly, caring people who just happen to like a series of books about vampires. I mean, watching the video, a lot of them even agreed with what they thought were jokes about Edward. These aren't the immature fans who will run you over with their cars (that they may or may not be old enough to drive) just because you don't like Edward. These fans can take jokes about a character they love. That usually shows some level of intelligence.

Why do people try to discourage love of something? Do we REALLY need to try to encourage hatred? Don't we have enough of that in the world? Even if you don't love what someone else loves, can't you just LET them love it? What is the harm? Is there ever any excuse for judging someone based on their opinions, especially to label them as less intelligent than others or yourself?

And I know that most of the people who regularly read my blog are super awesome people, so I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but you have (maybe accidentally) started thinking about Twilight fans as any less intelligent than yourself, please reconsider this idea. If we really want to encourage love, then let's push ourselves to encourage even the love that we don't share. Sound good?

As John Green (my hero, pretty much) so eloquently said:

There are books that teach us something about the world in which we find ourselves, and then there are books that help us to escape for a few hours the crushing pain of humanness. To deny that these books have value is to deny the reality of suffering (or, to argue, as the WaPo story seems to, that suffering is limited to young and/or uneducated people).

Let's not be among the narrow-minded and judgmental people who really convice themselves that this is true, okay? Let's not forget to be awesome.

I will update with my word count and an excerpt in a bit, as I'm still writing. Sorry for the long post. I really needed to get this out. Please comment and tell me what you think, and we can continue this and maybe end up with some sort of conclusion or something.

Also, no one even tried to guess who the people were in my banner thing yesterday. Is sad. :[

See you soon!
Emily

Ghost Whisperer: 1.12

*provided you're not an idiot, but if you're an idiot who doesn't like Twilight, I'll respect you no more than one who does.
**That's actually kind of a funny story. There was a guy passing me on the left at the time. I screamed, he stared.

I've my iTunes playing the "Classical" Genius mix, and it's kind of awesome.

I honestly can't remember where I stopped writing yesterday and started today. :/

Oh, no wait, I remember! HaHAH!

“Oh, honey, I was so sure I’d lost you,” Arin told her. “I really thought you’d gone.”
Little arms wrapped around Arin as Eiley said, “It’s okay, Daddy. I’m still here.”
Arin sniffed mightily and laughed once. “Yes, you are,” he said. “And I’m so happy you are. But there’s something I have to tell you, okay?”

Evidently, I didn't write anything funny today. It was 2,309 words of drama, I guess. But that's a pretty good word count, eh?

Where did I get all of this classical music? And before you think it, it's definitely not Bach and Mozart. Not even Beethoven and Debussy (actually, there is one Debussy, but I'm not a Debussy fan, so I don't listen to it really). Most of this is modern and contemporary. We're talking Josh Groban and Bond to Ludovico Einaudi and John Adams to Cage and a bunch of minimalists. I don't know where a lot of it came from, but it's making for some good writing music and I haven't listen to most of it in a very long time. This is why I love the Genius mixes on iTunes. There's even a Wizard Rock mix on my iTunes! \o/

Yeah, if you've read my blog for a while, you know at least some of my musical background, specifically the more recent part. Modern classical music is just cool, okay?

Yay, more Josh Groban is on! Definitely a change from the minimalist stuff.


STUPID BLOGGER KEEPS EATING HALVES OF MY POSTS! >:[ NOT HAPPY, BLOGGER!

Anyway, here I said something about the pointlessness of this blog and then mentioned something about remembering that I wanted to show you something.

At the beginning of the month, I made this graphic for my NaNoWriMo signature that is based on the book cover graphic I also made:
And then yesterday, I decided to make another one, which is this:

It may be slightly misleading because it makes it look like Ronan is the main character and the two boys are secondary, when actually Ronan and Jal (the boy on the right) are the two main characters and Slate (the one on the left) is the secondary one (although he's like the secondary character which is actually super prominent, so he's really close to being a main character, but not quite there). Also, they obviously don't look precisely like the characters because. . .well, the characters are in my head, and these are three real people who have been manipulated to look a bit like my characters. However, I'm kind of pleased with how it turned out regardless. Especially since I had to change all three of their eye colors and two of their hair colors.

Also, if you can name all three of the people I used in that banner thing, you win major awesome points.

See you soon! <3
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 42,349
Ghost Whisperer: 1.10

Your hands can heal, your hands can bruise. I don't have a choice, but I'd still choose you.

My problem right now is that I can relate to that a little too well.

Slate went over to Jal and peered at his face. “How do we wake him up?” he asked, looking back at Ronan, who shrugged.
“Just make sure he’s still breathing and slap him on the back,” the man replied.
“You didn’t make sure he was breathing?” Ronan demanded.
“Sure I did,” the man said casually. “And he was. I said to make sure he was still breathing.”
Slate turned back to Jal, checked to make sure he really was breathing, then gave him a sound slap on the back.
Jal coughed heartily and woke up.
“Ah,” Slate said, smiling, “nice to have you back with us again, captain.”
Jal gave him a look of annoyance, but was still coughing and couldn’t say anything in response.

Last night, I watched this movie called "Carriers" that had Chris Pine in it, and honestly it was pretty bad. It had some good scenes (mostly, I noticed, scenes that were mostly Chris Pine monologues), but the storytelling was just bad. Too much telling, not nearly enough showing. And there were SO many missed opportunities, which was bugging me. I kept heckling it over Twitter because my sister wasn't there, and she's the person I always heckle with. Also, Chris Pine was the ONLY GOOD ACTOR IN THE MOVIE! At least the only good actor of the leads. It didn't have any redemptive themes in the end, because I think it was going for the whole look-what-humans-are-capable-of-when-they're-trapped-and-desperate thing, but it did a really poor job of actually putting that across. It was very disjointed. I thoroughly enjoyed the two Chris Pine Monologue Scenes, but the rest of it was not very good. I did watch the whole thing, though, so I don't know what that says.

So, uh, it's about 4 in the morning and I've already FINISHED the quota for today's NaNo! *fistpump* I'm pretty freaking excited. One of my characters cursed again, though. I was really setting out originally to not have cursing in this one, and that really didn't happen.

Anyway, I need to go to bed now. Goodnight.

And, oh, by the way, thank you to those of you who have told me you like my excerpts! I'm not showing anyone this manuscript until it's done (and revised at least once), so the fact that people seem intrigued by my little bits and pieces really means a lot to me. Keeps me writing. So thank you.

See you soon! <3
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 40,040

Innuendos at 5am

I'm posting a few today, because my MC and my secondary male character have finally made friends, and I love their dialogue.

“What is it?” Slate asked quietly.
“I heard something,” Jal answered, searching the trees for a sign of whatever had made the noise.
“Squirrel?” Slate asked.
Jal glared at him.
Slate shrugged. “It’s possible,” he hissed.
“It wasn’t a squirrel,” Jal whispered back. “It was bigger.”
“Racoon?”
“Not helpful.”
“Sorry.”

“Do you feel like there’s an army of Satan’s minions at war with God in your head, too?” Slate asked.
“I don’t know if I’d have thought up that similie on my own,” Jal answered, “but now that you say that, yes, that is in fact exactly how I feel.”
“Great.”

“What is it?” Jal whispered, stopping with him.
Slate pointed. “Bread,” he said simply.
Jal looked. There was, indeed, what looked like a piece of half eaten bread sitting exactly where Slate was pointing.
“Squirrels eat bread,” Jal pointed out softly.
“Ah, but have you ever met a squirrel who baked bread?” Slate asked astutely.

“You think they won’t believe us?” Jal said. “They’re girls, Slate, not idiots. They know woodland creatures don’t bake.”
“I don’t want to worry them,” Slate clarified. Then he rolled his eyes. “I know they know woodland creatures don’t bake. What are you crazy? I don’t ever mess with those girls for fear that they may someday prove to be able to kill me with their little fingers.”
“I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Me neither.”

Have you been listening to Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars as much as I have? I hear I've gotten a few people hooked on it. :D

Okay, so today was less than awesome. In fact, its sheer notsomeness bled over into today and made me lie around in my pajamas for an ungodly amount of time before taking a shower. Even then, I stayed in a funk for most of the day. Ranting at dinner to my understanding family helped some, and then I cleaned all three and a half bathrooms in my house (not by choice, mind you, I was getting paid for it and I need money for Europe), and cleaning is catharsis to me, so that helped too. Then we watched Star Trek as a family, and as I've mentioned, that's one of my favoritefavorite movies and I'm in love with Chris Pine's Jim Kirk (William Shatner creeps me out, so I'm not at all attracted to the original Kirk...sorry) and I think Chekov is adorable and of course Spock is awesome and Bones and Scotty are hilarious, so that helped a lot too.

Another thing that helped was that I have a few amazing friends who were definitely there for me yesterday, even though I couldn't tell them everything that was going on. You guys mean a lot to me. Thank you. <3

Somehow, half of this paragraph disappeared, but here's the gist?:
The crap that happened, hasn't been fixed yet, but at least I'm not stewing in the funk anymore. Tomorrow, I will surround myself with supportive people and try to have a good time at church and not slip back into the moping and funk. I actually ended up not being able to sleep last night because of everything that happened, so I ended up just stopping trying and then I watched Me and My Dick until 5am, which was definitely mature (and by that I mean for mature audiences...a lot of the jokes were sort of hilariously immature), but also really funny. After that, I was able to sleep. Hah.

Okay, I should go shower and get to bed. Goodnight, lovely people.

See you soon! <3
Emily

NaNoWriMo: 35,281
Ghost Whisperer: 1.08
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11
Books this year: 15

No, not today.

I have had the crappiest day that I've had in a really long time. The only upside was briefly going to the open house of a family I really like who adopted the little boy they've been fostering for a while today. He's adorable, and everyone was really happy.

Other than that, crap.

I've learned never to check my email. Ever.

Okay, that's a lie, but still.

Rawr. Haven't written because my FMC's life is too much like the crap in mine right now. And I wrote a ton yesterday, so I'm okay.

Whatever. This day sucks.

Emily

Poison & Wine

“Ronan?” Slate whispered in her ear.
Ronan blinked, breaking her gaze through the trees. She realized that Slate was literally holding her up so she wouldn’t fall down again, and steadied her feet under her so he could let go of her waist. She turned around toward him and he ducked his head so he could look her in the eyes.
“Do you want me to take over the rest of your shift?” he asked, sounding very concerned for her. “I don’t mind, if you’d rather. . .sleep.”
Both Ronan and Slate were very aware that she would not, in fact sleep, but stay awake preoccupied with thoughts of where Jal could be at that time. Ronan shook her head.
“I’m fine,” she said softly. “And you need sleep, you’re tired.”
Slate frowned down at her, inspecting her face for truth.
“I’m fine,” Ronan insisted. “Really.”

NaNoWriMo: 32,777

Yeah, that's right. Not only am I no longer behind, I am not AHEAD. I sat down about an hour ago and completely finished my word count for today and THEN almost all of my word count for tomorrow! *fistpump* So stoked!

Also, I have become kind of obsessed with this song by The Civil Wars. Ohhh my Lord. Lovelovelove! You must go watch the beautiful video and listen to the beautiful song!

<3 Emily

Too tired.

“This is a stupid question, but may I ask why you don’t like me?” Jal asked.
“Because I can’t trust you,” Slate said immediately. “We all have stories. Mine is bad, too. Maybe not as bad as yours, maybe worse, but all I know is that it’s bad. I’ve learned, over the course of my bad story that if I can’t trust someone, I can’t like them. Ever. So, what do you say? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

NaNoWriMo: 30,307

I'm going to start putting my favorite lines/sections from my writing that day in my blogs. Fun?

Goodnight.

All caught up

NaNoWriMo: 28,349

Too tired to say anything else except that Rachel and I bought the new Star Trek movie (which, by the way, is one of my favorite movies and I've been waiting for excitedly for a while) on our way home from choir practice tonight and decided to start watching it at midnight. I adore that movie.

AND THEN I FOUND OUT THERE IS GOING TO BE ANOTHER ONE! XD

AND I'm all caught up to NaNoWriMo now!

My life is good.

<3 Emily

I won my own bet, yeah.

37 minutes ago, I tweeted this when I hit 24k: "24k!!! YES! Think I can make it to 25k in the next half hour or so? Who wants to bet?"

9 minutes ago, I tweeted this: "HAH! I DID IT!!! 25k!!! XD *victory lap* #NaNoWriMo"

THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS! 1,000 words in 28 minutes! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. And EVEN BETTER, I'M FINALLY AT 25,000 WORDS!!!! FINALLY HALF WAY!

Wow, I can't believe it! I am half way DONE with my novel! HALF WAY! I am sooo excited right now! I think I'm going to go take a victory lap around my house and then try to see if I can spot some meteors. 'Cause, you know, that's what cool people do when they get to the half way mark in their novels.

Pshh yeah.

XD

<3 Emily

NaNoWriMo: 25,019

Oops.

I forgot to post my word count last night. Here it is:

NaNoWriMo: 22,265

Nothing else has changed, although Rachel (mah sister) and I are pretty much planning on trying to watch the end of Doctor Who s4 today because WATERS OF MARS aired yesterday in the UK and although we knew it was going to be, the date snuck up on us. We wanted to be all caught up to watch it, but we're not. So we're going to watch the end of s4 (hopefully) today, and then the two specials after that maybe tomorrow, so we can watch Waters of Mars on...Wednesday maybe. Hopefully. Incedentally, if anyone has a link to where we can watch said episode online, could you please give it to me? Pretty please? :D

Also, I've been getting more comments from people telling me they read my blog, but don't really comment often and I want to say hello! It's really exciting to me that people are starting to comment more and we can have more of a dialoge-type-thing. So if you're reading and haven't commented yet, go ahead and introduce yourself! We can be friends!

I need to make a video for the collab channel I'm on today, but I'm also hoping to find time to make a quick one for my own channel, so that's not left abandoned to the four winds anymore. I swear, there are tumbleweeds rolling across that thing by now.

Anyway, I need to go make a video/finish arranging a choral piece/NaNo, so I'm going to end this here. Hopefully I'll start posting more interesting things later on. :]

See you soon! <3
Emily

40 Minutes WHAT!

NaNoWriMo: 20,370 (more than half of that 2,000+ I wrote today was written over the last 40 minutes. Oh yeah.)
Ghost Whisperer: 1.04

How did this happen?

NaNoWriMo: 18,181 (I have no idea how that happened, since I didn't really write for that long today, but yay! Still behind, but getting closer)
Ghost Whisperer: 1.03

If you read my tags from yesterday, you already know this, but Luke Conard's song "Happy" is really the biggest thing that's getting me through the thousands here. I honestly have no idea. His music along with some other YouTubers' music really made me focus when I was finishing school in May, and now this song is working it's magic over my attention span during NaNo. I really don't get why I'm able to focus better while listening to it (it's magic! woo!), but I'm not questioning it.

QUESTION: Is there any specific song/band/soundtrack that magically makes YOU focus?

Better tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo: 16,517
Still behind. I'll do better tomorrow.
Everything else is the same.

So close. So tired.

NaNoWriMo: 16,024 (passed 15k AND 16k today!)
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11
Ghost Whisperer: 1.02
Books this year: 15

Almost caught up!!!

NaNoWriMo: 14,213 (that's right! Almost all caught up! And I didn't write a word yesterday, so that's all 4,119 today alone! XD)
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11
Ghost Whisperer: 1.01 (although I've seen a fair few interspersed episodes on tv, I'm just counting the ones I've seen in order for now)
Books this year: 15

Milestone!

NaNoWriMo: 10,094 (my first big milestone! \o/)

The rest is the same. kthxbai.

Still Behind

NaNoWriMo: 8,851
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11 (s3 was on SyFy today!)
Books this year: 15

Rachel is now crashing in my room. A bug chased her out of her own.

<3 Emily

Faling at Life

NaNoWriMo: 7,759 (I fail.)
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11
Books this year: 15

Meh. I suck.

Got my first NaNo CD Swap disc in the mail today, though! That was exciting! All the way from KANSAS! :P

Keeping Up the Count

I have nothing really to say today.

...

Um...I'm re-reading the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix, which I always list on my favorite books despite the fact that I haven't actually read them in pretty much forever. So, as you can imagine, I was kind of nervous picking them back up, but about three pages into Sabriel, and was thinking "Oh, there are good books!"

So that's exciting.

Also, last night I picked up another favorite book I haven't read in a while, which is Crown Duel/Court Duel by Sherwood Smith (it was originally published as those two books, but I have the edition that was published as one big one, as the author originally wanted). I ended up randomly reading a bit of it out of context, and now I really want to read it again too. Once I'm done with the Abhorsen books, I think.

Okay, here's the point of this entry. I want to keep up with my daily word count, and I'm going to do it here. So, I'm sorry if many of my entries this month are incredibly boring. I'm also going to be keeping up my TV counts, and I'm going to start posting how many books I've read this year, because my goal was 50, and I'm SEVERELY behind (and most likely not going to make it), so maybe being public about it will motivate me to read more?

NaNoWriMo: 7,058
Firefly: 1.06
Doctor Who: 4.11
Books this year: 15 (pathetic)

Remember, remember the fifth of November...

See you soon! <3
Emily

Word War Win!

Today, I:

-- Slept for a very long time. I had a crazy weekend in which I didn't really let myself rest, and so I pretty much slept for a hundred years trying to make up for it. I'm also paying for it, because today I've felt like crap.
-- Made a Monday video. Of course.
-- Ate yummy ravioli soup. That's not really that significant, but it was yummy.
-- Wroteandwroteandwrote.
-- Procrastinated doing my modly duties on heroes_meta. :/
-- WON my very first word war against Rachel! 954 words in 30 minutes! Not too shabby....
-- Wrote 2,095 words so far. Hoping to get another 517 before bed. I'm well proud of how well I'm doing so far. I know I'll slack off more later in the month, or I'll get busy or something, so being ahead now is really my best bet for winning this thing. I have much optimism.
-- Watched Ghost Whisperer, and a bit of North by Northwest, which is still on as I type this.

I may or may not watch Gossip Girl before I go to sleep -- mostly to get a short break from all the death and destruction that my first chapter has to be full of -- but I'm still very tired despite my hundred-year sleep last night.

That's really it. I kind of want to try to blog more often, but we'll see if that happens.

See you soon! <3
Emily

Edit: I ended up writing another 1,345 words before bed, putting my word count for the day up to 3,440 (!!) and my total words count to 5,828. Oh yes!

But it's not Monday!

Picking up from where the last blog left off, Thursday morning we all woke up -- or tried to, anyway -- and goofed off like crazy. Steph dressed up like the emperor of Rome and chased Rachel and I creepily around, resulting in her and I on the floor, on top of one another as I struggled to get away and she crushed my left arm. This sort of behavior is not atypical when it comes to us. Brian also managed to video tape some of it, which was...fun.... So then me and my family left for Asheville, secure in the knowledge that we'd see our friends the next afternoon. I slept for a lot of the drive up, and then we didn't do all that much when we got to Asheville except chill and rest and then go to dinner at this adorable little family-owned place that was caffeteria-style serving, but had really good food. I also managed to miss the 'lowskis (as my mother refered to them) in the few hours I was without them, which even at the time seemed a little ridiculous to me.

This was also the day all the Balloon Boy drama happened. I swear, for the entirety of the terror moments, I was in the car feeding desperately off of phone twitter for news. It was horrifying.

Friday morning was not interesting. A little after noon my family headed over to Biltmore, where we ate and then met back up with the Strys. That's really where the fun started. Not five minutes after we'd entered the house, we got into a sort of conversation with a security guard who seemed absolutely, without a doubt convinced that Brian was a computer hacker, which was hilarious. Then Brian and Rachel got in an argument over which room we were in (Brian sure he knew from memory, Rachel reading from the guest pamphlet), then went onto the balcony where we looked at the gorgeous view, took pictures of both serious and silly nature, and found a wild turkey. The rest of the house viewing was lovely and interesting and fun, and at some point Rachel and Stephanie and Brian and I all decided that once we're married we're all going to buy the Biltmore house and...live there. With our families. It was certainly big enough for four large families. Probably more like ten large families. We think it's a brilliant idea.

Once we were out of the house (the whole tour took about an hour and a half), we started to go a little crazy. We think it was from being too long inside with a lot of restrictions and needing to be quiet. Pretty much as soon as we were out we started going nuts with taking weird pictures, seriously considered sneaking out of the guest area and walking around the grounds behind the house (that was mostly Brian and I -- even when they're acting like children, Rachel and Stephanie are more responsible than that), and then pretty much ran around the gardens. And fell down...once. Actually, believe it or not, that wasn't even my fault. Brian fell and took me with him. It's true.

After the gardens, we went to the farm area where we impersonated a scarecrow family, collectively ran Brian over with a tractor, pet a sheep (who, by the way, waltzed right up to me and Brianna to get said petting...we weren't even near him), held ADORABLE little chickies, and then...froze. It was pretty cold at this point. So we went to get hot chocolate. It was lovely. Then we visited the giftshop and then left. But not before Rachel because a homewrecker and found a boyfriend.

We then went to a Chinese buffet and discovered that since Rachel and Brian are both dragons and Stephanie and I are both horses, we can only marry people who were born in very specific years, because while the Chinese zodiac thing gave us all two groups of people, unfortunately one of the groups of people Steph and I could marry are the very same group that Rachel and Brian hate and vice versa, so we're a bit restricted. Then we left, and that was hard and not fun and we're not going to dwell on it. All I'll say is that there was a time of a lot of hugging in the parking lot and people stared.

Now I'm home and working on my NaNoWriMo idea because November is almost upon us! I've also figured out what food I'll be bringing to the Tampa kick-off party if I end up going (it has to be somehow related to our story, and I'm very excited about it).

Also, I was editing a video for my personal channel today and my mom looked over and asked what I was doing. "I'm editing a video," I replied, thinking it was obvious. "But it's not your day to make one!" my mom protested. Evidently I've been REALLY neglecting my personal channel if my own family thinks it's ridiculous that I'd be making one on any day other than Monday. Sigh.

See you soon! <3
Emily

Attractive: Ingrid Michaelson's talent. I cannot stop listening to The Chain (the song on that starts a little less than a minute and a half in) and Men of Snow! Gorgeous. Sort Of and So Long are really lovely as well. I've loved her since her first album and her newest is just...wonderful.
Unattractive: Geography.

Doctor Who count: 4.11
Firefly count: 1.6

The Hobbit's Racial

So this past week, I've been in Charlotte, NC visiting my dear friends the Strylowskis whom I've known since birth and are basically my family. We left last Sunday, so most of that day was driving. It was a pretty fun driving day, though, all things considered. We got smoothies in the afternoon, Rachel attacked me with Jesus in the morning, Raich and I watched the pilot of Firefly, we had a pretty good family time because we were all so excited to see our friends. We got to their house that night and just talked and hugged and watched YouTube and hung out until about midnight when Brian had to go to bed in order to wake up for school and work the next day and Stephanie, who had been sick and has never in her life been a late night kind of person, wanted to sleep too. We were all pretty tired from the drive, so we were okay with that and we all went to bed.

The next day was Monday, and Brian had school early and then had work until 7pm, so we basically didn't see him until dinner. I don't really remember what we did all day, except show each other YouTube videos, go to the mall to try and get my computer fixed (that didn't happen), and play Beatles Rock band. Jennifer was also over all day so we spent time with her, and that was very nice. That was actually pretty much all we did. Then Brian came home and Chris showed up and we had a nice dinner and then played more Beatles rock band with Chris and Brian. After Chris and Jennifer and her husband Jared had left and the parents had pretty much gone to bed, we watched the last half of "Boomtown", which was the episode they were on in Doctor Who, and then Stephanie pretty much fell asleep while Brian and I were talking about The Hunger Games, which he'd read recently and we hadn't had a chance to talk about yet. We like to talk about books. We have fairly similar tastes in books, and even when we disagree, we enjoy the debate. That's one of the things I like about talking to Brian, neither of us ever feel like we're attacking the other personally just because we disagree. We're free to pretty much air our opinions, whatever they be, and not have to worry that the other may take it personally. While we were talking, we were trying to make up the air matress, since Stephanie had fallen asleep and Rachel had gone off to get ready for bed. All was going well until some point when Brian accidentally knocked the computer keyboard off the table. It made a kind of loud crashing noise and Stephanie leaped up and stared at the keyboard with this look on her face of just utter terror and shock with slightly homicidal undertones. She started going for the keyboard and it was actually kind of scary, but Brian talked her back into bed and then forcibly closed her eyes and she went back to sleep. Well, really, she had never been awake. Brian sat back down on the floor and I whispered to him, "If someone was going to get up and kill us all in our sleep, I vote Stephanie." Brianna and Brian agreed. We started talking at a normal volume again a few minutes later, and had another small scare when Brian accidentally knocked into the TV cabinent, making another loud noise. We all stopped a stared at Stephanie, but she just rolled over and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, she woke up fully and asked, "Did something really scary just happen?" We all tried not to laugh as I replied, "For us...."

Tuesday, Brian went to school later, but had to stay until around 4pm, and I had an appointment at the Apple store to try to get my computer fixed at 1:15, so we all went to the mall sans Brian, and I talked to someone who didn't fix my computer but gave me a few tips, and then we went to get lunch at this place called The Counter, which is an AMAZING burger joint where you basically build your own burger and they make it for you and it's delicious and amazing! My burger had Jalepeno Jack cheese, grilled onions, grilled pineapple, scallions, tomatoes, and spicy sour cream, and it was incredible! Then we went to Barnes and Noble where I got the new book by Jay and Grant from Ghost Hunters, Macbeth, and the paperback of Paper Towns! Then we went home where Brian already was with his friend Nick and Steph and I ended up being handed PS3 controllers and started fighting against each other in a game I never heard the name of. She was basically playing instead of Nick, and I was playing for Brian. I started out really strong and beat her a few times, but then Nick started giving her tips and she got the better of me. Then we started ignoring them completely, and I was beating her again. Then she beat me a few times. Then I beat her again. I guess we were pretty evenly matched. I was just...a bit more vocal than she was, but that's typical. Nick then stayed for dinner and then all of us kid-like-folk went outside and hung out near the fire, which was lovely. Brian had to be in bed by midnight again, so after Nick left, we chilled until then and then went to sleep.

The next day, Brian got home at 10:30am, which was only about 15 minutes after most of us woke up (Stephanie always wakes up early...always), so we had pretty much the whole day with him. We watched the last two episodes of Doctor Who, s1 while everyone was showering and getting ready, and then we watched "The Christmas Invasion", which was fun. It was really funny hearing all their theories, and their reactions to basically everything Jack-related were hilarious. Then we had lunch, pranked Zack, and had a really fun Skype conversation with Lauren, which was evidently the first time Brian and Stephanie actually talked to Lauren face-to-face. We did the traditional parents-go-out-to-dinner-leaving-kids-at-home-alone-to-be-crazy thing we always do when our familes are together that night, and part of that for us was Brian, Brianna and I going out to get soda while Rachel and Stephanie cooked the pizza that was our dinner, and then us all going out after dinner to Rock River Coffee to get lovely hot drinks so we could come home and take a walk in the cold. It ended up being sort of misty-type rainy, so Stephanie didn't come on the walk with us, but the other four of us had a really nice times walking around their neighborhood in the cold, and we realized that our shadows made us look like The Boxcar Children. Brian kept walking way too fast, so I was trying to keep him with the rest of the group, but I then would try to keep pace with him, and we'd get to far in front so Rachel would flash the flashlight all over the place and we'd stop. It ended up being a pretty good system. We got home and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, which they'd never seen before and only knew from playing Kingdom Hearts, and then we had our traditional stay-up-really-late-the-night-before-we-leave night because the actual night before we left, we weren't going to be together. This night consisted of our usual crazy shenanigans, resulting in our usual tweetable quotes such as ''Well, first off, the hobbit's racial...'', ''Oh, now we are holding hands. This is not what I wanted.'' and ''That's what you do when you have small hands. You have people throw sticks at you.'' That was fun. We went to bed at about 4am.

Aaaand, I'm going to write about the rest later because I've been writing too long and I want to go watch either Psych or Firefly. Goodnight.

See you soon!
Emily <3

Doctor Who count: 4.11
Firefly count: 1.6

Darnkness and a Lack of Air

Hello, blog. Sorry it's been a while. I haven't really had much to say recently. However, today I have two funny, Doctor Who-related stories for you.

I'm sorry if you're getting sick of these, but I'm near the end of series 4, so it won't be much longer.

Anyway, last night Rachel and I watched "Silence in the Library", "Forest of the Dead" and "Midnight", which are episodes 8, 9 and 10 of series four. We were sitting on my bed watching "Silence in the Library," and the Doctor was talking very intensely about how almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark, and that it's not really irrational because it's Vashta Nerada. "It's what's in the dark. It's what's always in the dark."

At that moment, Rachel turned to me and said, "Can we turn off the light?"

I just burst out laughing. She proceeded to explain that there was a glare right in the middle of the computer screen and that every time they looked into the dark, she couldn't see because of it, but I was still laughing at the sheer TIMING of the comment. "Oh, there are monsters in the shadows? Let's turn off the light!"

Rachel offered to turn on the desk lamp, and I joked that leaving all the lights would give us a "more authentic experience." "Do you want a more authentic experience?" Rachel asked. "I'm game if you are," I answered. So we watched both episodes in the dark. Honestly, it was more fun that way. We've taken to watching all the episodes in the dark now.

We watched "Midnight" in Rachel's room and thought it was EXCELLENT! David Tennant's performance is always fantastic, and this episode in particular he was just so spot-on, it was incredible. We also really loved the psychological Twilight Zoney-ness about it. It's not an episode we ever heard anything about, but we're perfectly willing to sing its praises. It's on our "best episodes" list, definitely.

Anyway, story number two:

Today we watched "Turn Left". The preview for it had us yelling and screaming last night, but since it was, ironically, midnight, we didn't watch the episdoe until tonight. After watching Heroes, actually, which was...typical of Heroes nowadays and honestly just ridiculous. :/ So we watched "Turn Left" and we were freaking out throughout most of the episode, and then the end came.

I didn't realize it at the time, but as soon as the Doctor started realizing that the woman who'd talked to Donna was Rose, I started holding my breath. I honestly didn't know I was doing it, but I was. I gasped when Donna said "Bad Wolf" and they ran outside and everything was saying "Bad Wolf," but then continued to unknowingly hold my breath until the Doctor entered the TARDIS and I suddenly felt the urgent need for air.

And then the episode ended and I screamed. Rachel did too.

We're really worried for our dear friend Donna. We love her! We are very distressed. I'm afraid to watch the next two episodes. It's sort of like when we were about to watch "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday," only different. I'm scared. D:

We'll probably end up watching them on Thursday.

Like I said to Rachel, why does Doctor Who love to make us so intensely emotionally invested in these characters and the RIP THEM AWAY from us unceramoniously? Rawr, I don't like it! And then we have just a few more episodes before they take Ten from us, too! Sad faces all around!

I mean, I used to love Heroes, but when I sit there for the whole last half of that show just waiting for it to be over and then I go and accidentally deprive myself of air during Doctor Who...well the two shows just don't compare, do they? Oh well. I've gotten used to Heroes being disappointing.

I was going to blog about something unrelated to Doctor Who, but I've been feeling quite sick and don't remember what it was. Sorry. Maybe later.

I'm hungry now, so I'm going to go. Goodnight, bloggy people!

See you soon. <3
Emily.

Doctor Who count: 4.11

Book Survey

I have nothing really to say, except I have a new video up on StephandEmmy, and that you should go watch and comment. :]

Also, I'm copying hayleyghoover again, and I'm doing this lovely book survey she posted on her blog. :]

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Jo Rowling. I have ten books by her, and multiple copies of ALL seven Potter books.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (original decrepit hardcover, well-worn paperback, spanish translation copy, 10th anniversary edition). Unless you count all the Lord of the Rings books my dad owns, or the massive amounts of Bibles in my house, but of the books I exclusively own, Sorcerer's Stone.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No, that's how most people talk.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
There are no secrets here. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm madly in love with the Tenth Doctor, Harry Potter and Edmund Pevensie. And I realize one is from a TV show, but he still counts because I adore him.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Ehhh, I'm going to sound like a child here. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I lost count after 12 times. It's probably closer to 16 now. I promise, I have read other books!

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
Ella Enchanted by Gale Carson Levine and Harry Potters 1-3.

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
That's a good question. If we're only counting from January, probaby House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo, and it wasn't even that bad. I just didn't enjoy it as much as the other books I've read this year.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Paper Towns by John Green and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Oh! And Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. If that counts, because it's really a play, so I'm not sure.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
*makes uncomfortable writhing noises because you're trying to make her choose bits of her soul*

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Most movies from books aren't particularly good, so I'm reluctant to see any movie adaptation of books I love. I guess no answer here. COP OUT, I know. Sorry. :[

11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Off the top of my head, probably The Hunger Games. It's contained perfectly in my head! Don't ruin it for me!

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I once dreamed that I was Legolas, and I was running around with the Fellowship, and Aragorn and I had to get up this really big cliff thing, and there happened to be a giant, sleeping Galadriel at the base of the cliff thing who lifted us up to the top. Nice of her, really.

13. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Yeah, probably Twilight. Unless I read Eragon after I turned 18...

14. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Wuthering Heights. I never finished it. I feel like I should because it's a classic, but I just...couldn't get into it.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I've never seen his obscure plays performed! Only the mainstream ones. :[

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Oh, this is the part of the survey where I begin to question my standing amongst the literati. Haven't read enough of either to be able to say, unfortunately.

17. Roth or Updike?
I'm sorry....I haven't read either.... *hides*

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Myeh, I feel inadequate. Haven't read them either.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
SHAKESPEARE! Because I love him.

20. Austen or Eliot?
Ooh...um...Austen, I suppose. Yes.

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I haven't read nearly enough classics. Actually, most embarrassing is probably that I haven't read The Catcher in the Rye. But I will! I promise!

22. What is your favorite novel?
RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, they are as follows: Harry Potter (all of them, but with particular emphasis on Deathly Hallows and Prisoner of Azkaban), Paper Towns, The Hunger Games, Ella Enchanted and the Abhorsen Trilogy (by Garth Nix).

23. Play?
Much Ado About Nothing, probably. Love Shakespeare.

24. Poem?
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost; Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (which is a recent find but most definitely makes this list); and Shakespeare's 116th sonnet. <3 I also the The Second Coming by Yeats.

25. Essay?
I don't really read essays outside of school.

26. Work of nonfiction?
Well, Melissa Anelli's Harry, A History made me cry about four times, so I guess it takes top bill right now.

27. Who is your favorite writer?
NOT FAIR! :[ I can't choose! I do love Jo, though. Quite a bit. I suppose I could go with her.

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Stephenie Meyer. Hey, I like Twilight well enough, but let's face it.

29. What is your desert island book?
Um, probably that book I've read near 16 times....

30. And... what are you reading right now?
Devilish by Maureen Johnson, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Jo Rowling, and An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

See you soon! <3
Emily

About Time, Martha!

Martha is gone. Quite right, too. It was honestly the smartest thing she did all series. And I'm not just saying that out of hate. I'm saying it because it's true. Because she's not very clever, she just isn't. She's fiesty, oh yes, I'll give her that, and she's determined, but she's not clever. Her little speech about her friend right before she left shows that leaving really was the smartest thing she did all series. Because she can't make him love her, and she's FINALLY realized that. Thank the lord.

Anyway, I feel sad for the Doctor because he's all alone again, and he doesn't want to be alone. Now that the Master and Martha have both left him. But from what I hear, Donna will be along soon.

Soooo, yes. Series 3 complete! On to series 4!

I'll get a life again soon, don't worry. The last week, however, has been consumed with Doctor Who. I didn't even make it to church tonight because of heavy rain and a flooded street, so there really has been no social life for me.

See you soon!
Emily <3

Story of a Doctor

I don't think I've ever really talked about my love for Doctor Who here before except for once when I called David Tennant attractive (because he most certainly is)...hang on...yeah, I just checked and that's about it. Besides the original trock lyrics I posted in the same blog, and then I think twice previous to that in a very passing way. SO I believe it's high time.

I-FREAKING-LOVE-DOCTOR-WHO!!! Very very much!

I can recall seeing my very first episode of Doctor Who while surfing channels. I couldn't find anything to watch, and as I passed the SciFi channel, I saw that Doctor Who was on. I'd heard a bit about it, but didn't really know anything about it at all. I did, however, immediately recognize the man who played the Doctor as Claude (one of my favorite characters) from my then-favorite program, Heroes. It was Series 1, Ninth Doctor, episode 3: "The Unqueit Dead". I only caught the last half or so, but I enjoyed it well enough. I thought it was entertaining, and I really liked the characters. I didn't watch any after that for a long time, though.

I kept hearing from friends that I should watch it, and I had every intention to...once my schedule cleared up a bit. I had other shows to keep up with, after all. I'd get into it later. Then some of my favortie YouTubers were talking about it...a lot. And so I made firm plans with my sister (this was sometime early this year) that we would start with Series 1 as soon as the summer started. After telling a friend of mine this, she transferred all Tenth Doctor episodes from an external hard drive she had onto my computer. I know had no excuse.

We had every intention of starting in May as we'd planned...until Easter. There were a lot of people in our house and we weren't really enjoying any of their company, to be frank. So my sister and I stole away to her upstairs room and started watching the first series on Netflix. We watched about four episodes in a row that afternoon. We'd soon learn that we'd never ever be able to watch just one a go.

We finished the first series pretty quickly, and moved right on to the second. I was aprehensive about having a new Doctor after I'd become SO fond of the Ninth one. The only thing I'd ever seen David Tennant in was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I knew he was brilliant in it, but I just didn't know if I'd love him as much as Christopher Eccleston. And then he was unconcious for half the episode and I couldn't even get used to him! I was very whiny and upset...until David Tennant woke up. He started asking very seriously and in the middle of a crisis whether he was ginger, he ignored the imminent danger while joyously greeting a very bemused crowd, and then...he stole my heart. He referenced The Lion King, and the absolute perfection and brilliance of his delivery of that beautiful line had me hook, line and sinker. I was officially a David Tennant fan. My sister and I had to pause the video for a good 4-6 minutes as we laughed uproariously and uncontainably because we couldn't hear the dialogue over our own laughter.

Well, we had a very busy period for a while, and after watching "The Girl in the Fireplace" with a friend on a plane in late May, we didn't watch any for a while. And by a while, I mean over two months. Finally, a few days ago, we decided it was time to get back into it. We watched episodes 5-7 of Series 2 one night, and then 8-11 the next. But we knew Rose was leaving in the last one. We didn't know why or how, but we knew she'd be gone. We didn't WANT her to be gone! I adore Rose! I love her oh! so very much, and I don't want her to leave! We didn't want to watch the last two that night anyway, since we'd stayed up far too late as it was, so we thought we'd watch them the next day. We didn't. We put it off for a few days, and then finally decided to rip the bandaid off tonight. I mean, I was legitimately stressing IRL about Rose leaving. "But the Doctor loves her!" I'd protest. "And she loves him! They need to beeee together!"

Nevertheless, tonight I knew it was time. We fretted and made worried noises all through "Army of Ghosts", and then it was on to "Doomsday".

I've never cried so hard at a television show. I've never been so emotionally invested in a television show. Usually, even if a storyline makes me cry, as soon as the program is over, I'm over it too. Not this time. We cried. We made tea. We moaned to our family about how UNEARTHLY SAD it was. We cried some more. It's not fair. It's so sad! It's not FAIR!

And no spoilers, please. I really want to experience this show in as unspoiled a way as possible. I'm aware that there are supposed to be more things that happen with Rose, but I don't know what they are and I want to keep it that way! I'm just...very very sad about Rose leaving. I love her. <333

:[

We watched "The Runaway Bride" and "Smith and Jones" tonight too. And I got sadder every time the Doctor remembered Rose. I also cried again when he said her name at the end of "The Runaway Bride." I got very confused because I was sure my friends had told me that Donna was NOT the Doctor's next companion, but then she didn't go with him and it made sense.

Donna is kind of cool, except she's kind of annoying sometimes, but I could see myself liking her in the future.

I hate Martha. She has stupid hair. And she's not clever except a few occasional ideas she has. She's actually really daft, mostly. I hate her. I also realize my hatred for her is completely unfounded, but I don't care. She's not Rose, and she's trying to replace Rose, therefore I hate her. Rawr.

Sooo, yes. That's my Doctor Who story to date. I loooove this show. I want to marry the Tenth Doctor. 'Nough said.

However, I do want to say something. As I was going through my blog to see if I'd ever written about Doctor Who before, I came across this entry, in which I talk briefly about Doctor Who (Series 1), and then talk a little about what fictional character I relate most to. I didn't have a very good answer, because I mostly just talked about to characters I WANT to relate to. Well, now I have an answer: The fictional character I relate most to is Rose Tyler from Doctor Who. I get her. I'm a lot like her. I understand. That is my answer. Rose Tyler. That's probably why I love her so much. And why I'm so sad at hear leaving.

Sigh.

Goodnight, internets.
Emily <3

Half-Blood Prince REDUX

I have now seen HBP for the second time. I have to say: I LOVED IT SOOOO MUCH!!! I mean, I loved it the first time, but I LOOOOOVED it the second time! I want to smother it in huggles. I still miss the things I missed the first time, but I've accepted the fact that they're not there.

I do, however, have to make one correction to my last post: Snape DID react to being called a coward! He didn't freak out, book!Snape style, but movie!Snape has always been slightly more menacing and slightly less heated than book!Snape. Movie!Snape has ALWAYS been about the facial expressions (the first time he saw Harry, anyone?), so it only makes sense that his reaction would be all in his face! There's just a little moment, right after Harry calls him a coward, where his expression changes so he looks hurt and angry instead of stiff and villianous. Rachel and I were very happy to see that.

So yes, I had a ton of other thoughts, but I have things I need to do tonight. :]

P.S. I definitely cried longer and harder than I did last time. :/ That wand lighting scene is still too beautiful and perfect for words. I got choked up just talking about it.

The DWQ

I have been SO behind in MaNoWriMo (it's like NaNoWriMo, but just me, my family and my friends, and it's in July...yeah) that it's just been really discouraging, and I wasn't sure if I could catch up. I'd been writing 1,612 words a day and it was going pretty well until I missed about four days in a row thanks to other life events and then there was the unavoidable Potter distraction (where you can't think about ANYTHING but Harry Potter for the 48 hours before you see Half-Blood Prince), plus I was starting to feel like everything I was writing was crap and I wasn't getting into the real story and I felt like I would NEVER get there, and everything was just a mess.

So today I reevaluted the whole situation, redistributed my Daily Word Quota (I'm now writing 2,350 words a day to keep up...yikes), and decided to just plod on through. I wrote 300-500 words after dinner, but I've been pretty much feeling like crap all day, so I didn't get THAT much done.

I really should be sleeping. I know I should. But I just wanted to write a little bit more before bed so I wouldn't be SO behind, and I probably would have stopped after writing around 1,300 words today, but it just didn't feel right. I had a good idea for the next segment, and I just wanted to do a little more.

I ended up writing a whole dramatic action scene (which was actually pretty good, I think), and an importnant plot point, AND a big revelation scene which neatly finished of Chapter 4! AND I EXCEEDED MY DWQ!!!!

Yaaaaay for meeeee!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Review

I'm just back from seeing HBP at midnight, and these would be my thoughts on it. If you haven't seen it yet, know that I really liked it and STOP HERE. THERE ARE SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!

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Are they gone? Hopefully we're now left with people who have seen the movie and don't care that I'm about to lay it all out in a blog post.

First things first, I loved it. I really did. It was obviously not 100% perfect, but it was amazing and beautiful and I really loved it.

That being said, there WERE four major points that were left out of the movie that I really missed.
1. The Tonks/Lupin storyline. They are one of my favorite couples in the books, and I appreciate that they at least mentioned that they're together, but I love the sub-plot and how it reaches its climax at the end and we see a glimpse of love amid death and darkness.
2. Okay, the scene in the Room of Requirement was sweet, I guess, but I REALLY wanted to see the Harry/Ginny kiss after the Quidditch match! I missed that a lot. I also wish there had been more happy-together moments for these two since they're going to be separated for the next long while.
3. In the trailer, Harry has a line where he says "I won't need luck, I'll be with Dumbledore," and in the book, Dumbledore tells Harry, "I am not worried, Harry, I am with you." Neither of these lines were in the film. Both have the same sentiment, they portray a deep faith both characters have in one another. You sort of got that from their interactions, but not as intensely as it would have been if either of them had actually verbally expressed this faith.
4. Dumbledore's funeral. There wasn't one. I would have liked one. HOWEVER, the death scene was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and it almost made up for this one.

Which leads me right into talking about said death scene. I have never liked Michael Gambon's Dumbledore. Richard Harris was not exactly how I imagine Dumbledore, but Michael Gambon has never been ANYTHING like I imagine Dumbledore. Until now. He still wasn't exactly right, and he still had some odd moments, but I found myself actually liking Dumbledore through most of this movie*. This was helpful, because I really wanted to be able to mourn his death and not just be like, "Eh, alright, at lease we don't have to deal with HIM anymore." When Harry came back, and all of the students and teachers were just standing there in shock and grief, I started to mourn. When Ginny broke free of the crowd to hold a shaking Harry and tears rolled down Hermione's face, I started to sniffle. When a tearful McGonnagall raised her lit wand, followed by Madam Pompfrey, followed by Luna and by Ron and then the entire crowd of grieving students and teachers, standing with each other in a moment honoring the man who'd brought them all together and taught them so much about life and magic and love, and the Dark Mark began to disappear as the light shone through its darkness, I lost it. Most of the theater lost it. This moment was beautiful and moving beyond words. The following shots of empty, broken Hogwarts that were accompanied by silence in the soundtrack, were joined by silence in the theater. This theater which was full of people who giggled and tittered and hissed and moaned and yelled after EVERY TINY LITTLE PLOT POINT, was silent but for the sounds of several hundred people quietly sniffling or pulling themselves together.

I also REALLY enjoyed the Felix Felicis scenes. Harry was absolutely freaking brilliant in these. I loved his sass!

Actually, I would like to take a moment to say that the acting across the board was VERY impressive, but particularly Daniel Radcliffe's (Harry Potter) and Tom Felton's (Draco Malfoy). Both of them were absolutely OUTSTANDING. The little things Dan Radcliffe added to the character, tiny facial movements, little expressions and reactions, were just SO perfect and really made Harry seem very real and very relatable, and were just freaking BRILLIANT. Tom Felton hasn't had much of a role up till now except for skulking, sneering and screaming, and suddenly he's handed this hugely important, emotional role and he pulls it off FANTASTICALLY. The acting from these two guys especially was just superb. Really excellent.

Some scenes I particularly like:
The sectumsempra scene. I thought it was really well done -- very edgy and angsty and really emotionally charged as it should be.
The scene where Harry first comes to the Burrow. I loved how Ginny found his belongings and then almost everyone in the house started poking their heads out of the staircase.
The scene when Harry takes the Felix and then sneaks up on Slughorn and sasses him. XD "Harry!" "Sir!"
The scene when Slughorn gives Harry the memory (the whole Felix sequence, actually, but I'm already said that). I really adored the addition of the fish story. It was so well-placed and really added to the emotion of the scene.
The love potion scene. Rupert was hilarious. 'Nuff said.
Hermione's birds and boys. It was funny when that was called for, but the whole "How does it feel?" "It feels like this." conversation was SO well done (again, props to Dan for the acting skillz and ALSO to Emma!), and really sweet and sad at the same time. I've never been a H/Hr shipper partly because I LOVEANDADORE R/Hr and H/G and partly because I love the two of them as sibling-like friends, and I really liked the glimpse into their sibling-like relationship in this movie.
The Snape/Dumbledore argument. It was short but really really well done.
The way the camera followed Draco after Dumbledore's death. It could have followed Harry (and it did, some), but following Draco was just sheer brilliance. All the other Death Eaters around him are celebrating and pretty much frolicking with joy at their victory, but all he looks is scared and sad and lost and alone. Surrounded by people, but alone. It was perfect.

I'm sure there are dozens more, but that's all I can think of for the time being. Because it's almost 5am. :]

A few things I wish there had been more expansion/explanation of:
Horcruxes. I get this one because there just WASN'T TIME, but it would have been nice for Harry to know a bit more of what he was supposed to do before Dumbledore kicked it and left him alone to figure it out. I mean I almost feel like we should be expecting Zefron posters. :P Not really, but still.
The Riddle memories. I wanted all of them. The ones we got were good, but if time were no object, I would have loved seeing all of the memories (side note: why wasn't movie 2 Tom Riddle in this?! He was so good!)
Lupin/Tonks, and I said that, so I'll shut up.
Sweet, happy moments for Harry and Ginny, but I said that too.
Snape. He should've had more face time.
The Half-Blood Prince? I mean, it was sort of like "Yeah, idk who he is, so hwat?" "Btw, it's me." "O hai." Would have been nice to have more mystery and buildup to that big reveal at the end.
I WANTED SNAPE TO LOOSE IT! I mean there's a REASON why, in the book he flips out when Harry calls him a coward. He didn't flip out. That scene was still REALLY GOOD, but he didn't flip out which made me a little bit sad-panda-ish.
The Hogwarts battle scene. I know the big one isn't until the end of DH, but there wasn't even a LITTLE one. :[

I really liked the way they built up the sort of to-and-fro tension that is Ron and Hermione, because we'll need that later on. Also, the way they isolated Ron at the end was sort of odd to me at first, but I now realize may be buildup and foreshadowing to what happens during the semester-long camping trip next year.

So, yes. There were things I missed and things I loved, but overall, I REALLY loved this movie. It didn't end on a high note, but it wasn't supposed to. The wand-lighting scene really depicted what Dumbledore fought so long for and what the whole series is about, which is fighting darkness and evil with light and love, and watching Fawkes fly away was a perfect end to the movie. Something has ended, and it's full of sorrow, but we're still here, and we're still fighting.




*To clarify: I FREAKING LOVE BOOK DUMBLEDORE! Lovelovelovelovelove! I just...really don't like Michael Gambon's Dumbledore, so I find it very hard to like movie Dumbledore most of the time

A Hair Problem

I know I'm a horrible blogger. It would be a complete lie to say that there's not much in my life to talk about. Summer is actually usually the busiest time of my year, and this summer is no exception. We're finalizing pre-production for Zombie Nation, getting ready to start filming next week. I got back in town this past Saturday, and while a ton of crap happened while I was away, it still makes me feel exhausted to think about it, so I'm not going to blog about it just yet. I will, perhaps, vlog about it soon.

Anyway, there is one true purpose for this blog today: I need hair advice.

As soon as Zombie Nation is over, I'm pretty sure I want to cut my hair. I love it long, but it's getting hard to manage, and it's June is FL which means it's freaking hot and can only get hotter! I don't think I can handle this mane much longer. But I'm pretty bored of my hair, as I've had it pretty much the same way for a long time, and I want a change. I'm cutting it, sure, but the basic shape will remain the same. I'm not going to do anything to my bangs because I like them. I'm kind of thinking I might want to add blocks of bright color to it. Not anything too dramatic, just some bits throughout and probably the bottom layer of my bangs. I just pitched the idea to my mom, and she's not too thrilled, but willing to think about it. Also, I don't think she'd forbid me from doing it if I payed for it. I think she thinks that, as I'm a 19 year old adult, I can make my own decisions about my hair. She just might not pay for it. Which means I might need to have a job and income before I do this.

But anyway, I'm actually asking you all what color you think I should go with. Red, maybe? Or blue? Pink? I have fairly dark hair, so I'm going to need to ask my friend/stylist about the whole idea. If it's going to be super high-maintenance, I may forgo it altogether, and if I can't dye my hair back to its normal shade (as I'm almost certainly going to need to have it bleached first), then I'll most likely pass.

It's all still very up-in-the-air, but I need color advice! Leave a comment here or even @reply my on twitter, if that's more your thing (@emilymacagy).

Thanks in advance!
Emily <3