Note About Previous Post

I realized after posting that a lot of what I said sounds very anti-Christian, and you're right, in a way it definitely can be interpreted as such. However, this is not in any way intended to portray ALL Christians as the bad guys, since anyone, regardless of what they call themselves, can be cruel. It cannot be attributed to any one group. It was not my intention to present any sort of animosity.

The Great Christmas Debate (and My Unsolicited Two Cents)

Am I the only one who is horribly offended by the outrage expressed by some people who feel that Christmas is being stolen away from them? Here's the scoop. I celebrate Christmas. Not Christmas as it had originally been which is a celebration of the birth of Jesus (and other nuances that I personally don't fully understand because I'm not particularly religious), but the very commercialized thing that it has become. I like the trees, I like Santa, I like the baking, the snow and the music both secular and otherwise. I used to participate in Christmas pageants every December because I went to a Protestant elementary school (although the only difference between us and a public school was that we said the Lord's Prayer in the morning - which was not mandatory, you just had to stand as a sign of respect for the belief of others - and read Bible stories at our weekly assemblies; we had Sikh students and Jewish students and any other number of different religious representations so we were hardly picky). I'm accustomed to saying "merry Christmas" to people when I wish them well during the holiday season.

The thing is, though, not everyone celebrates Christmas. Which, quite frankly, I think is totally awesome. I like seeing the diverse way in which people spend their time and celebrate. It is well within their rights as humans to do so. Conformity shouldn't be mandatory. I would never demand that someone wish me a merry Christmas if they don't celebrate it. It's shallow and unreasonable of me to do so. Fundamentally, regardless of what you believe in, it's a matter of opinion about what you choose to celebrate. You may have your reasons to do so, but they back up opinion not fact. The people who celebrate the Solstice are just as valid as those who celebrate Hanukkah, and the same goes for the Christians who celebrate Christmas. Nobody is trying to take your Christmas away from you, you're still welcome to celebrate it. It's horribly impolite, though, to shove it down anyone else's throats. Is that not fundamentally what the fuss is about? People who celebrate Christmas feel that the people who celebrate other things are shoving it down their throats by protesting?

The way I see it is that a lot of it comes down to the who was here first debate. Since Christianity is the overwhelmingly dominant religion, it is seen as the one that people must abide by, for we live in "Christian" nation. It was what was here first, the Christian people. Actually, if we're going to go into that, if you're white and Christian, you don't belong here. Regardless of how long your family has been here, you are technically an immigrant and your religion is a transplant from another place. It was the religion and way of life that was, at times, violently forced upon the people who were here first - the indigenous population (and I apologize if I'm not using the correct terminology, it keeps changing and I'm never sure what to say). In saying that you have to keep Christmas, are you not denying other people the right to practice celebrations associated with ways of life that are far older than yours?

And if you're one of the people who says that they're welcome to celebrate it, but they're to keep it in their own homes and to themselves, I would like to be hypocritical and say that I want to put you through a window. In believing such things you are doing EXACTLY what you don't want everyone else to do - shut you away in a closet. If you don't believe in what they are doing, that's perfectly fine, but don't you dare oppose it. Nobody has any more right than anyone else. If you wish to illustrate your allegiance to a particular belief set, go for it, but everyone else should be allowed to, too. The next time you're told to wish someone a happy holidays and you want to object, can you honestly say that you would be perfectly fine participating in Hanukkah pageant (for instance) and being wished a happy Hanukkah? If so, feel free to wish someone a merry Christmas. You're allowed to. It's called religious freedom. But they're just as free to say that they don't want to participate in something that's Christmas and that they'd like some sort of representation, too. Never have I ever been wished anything but a happy holidays or merry Christmas, and I would be honoured to think that someone would think highly enough of me to wish me the best of whatever they believe in, regardless of what that may be. I see it as less them forcing their beliefs upon me, and more that they care enough about me to want me to qualify in a category that they value above all others.

That's what I think about all of this. I personally cannot represent all celebrations, religious or secular, but I welcome other people to help me. After all, isn't the point to everything to value love and togetherness, regardless of what it's called?

P.S. Yay for rants that don't make sense! If you're offended, feel free to tell me why. I love to hear people babble on in the righteous manner that I always do.

Evil Corporations = Scrooge

Sometimes blogs can be really nasty and negative, like Regretsy (I still read it though, because I enjoy sarcastic commentary). However, when those blogs try to rally their users to do something nice, apparently they aren't allowed to. Why? Because PayPal is EVIL. Here's a link to give you the gist (the Regretsy one is more detailed, but this sums it up). http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/paypal-ruins-christmas-for-over-200-kids-2011126/

People like this just make me so aaaaangry.

The Final(ish) Report

This year's NaNoWriMo was easily the most irritating of all of them. Last years was really not very great either. Much like this year, I primarily hit my word counts through Write or Die. It was one of the best decisions I've made, since I can get 2500 words plus in half an hour so I can get things done. Unfortunately, this year, even with that. I barely managed to finish. My usual schedule involved me writing right after getting up (and showering, since cleanliness is next to godliness, and everyone knows that writers want to be gods, even if only for their own worlds), buuut stuff interfered with that. There were days when I'd get up and have to get straight to working on homework or I slept in and had someone coming up to see me so I had to get straight to getting reading and didn't have time. A lot of the time, those days turned into the ones where I wouldn't write at all. I'm notorious for being the sort who plans to do stuff and then will do everything under the sun to not do it. I will become bored as hell in my attempt to procrastinate as much as possible. Actually, that's exactly what led to this post. I have an English essay that I don't feel like working on, so rather than doing it, I've decided to get around to writing this like I  said I would. The point is, NaNoWriMo was hard.

Actually, any writing is hard. Getting into the habit of writing is one of the best things anyone can do, but also one of the hardest. Part of writing is that you become so attached to the people in your head when you're in that space that you move to when you write, that it an be hard to get into it and then force the characters out of there. Part of what is needed to be a really good writer is to be able to follow where you think is best and let your characters (well, instincts) guide you, but sometimes you have to kick them in the butt. Whether or not you want to some of them will have to die, or be mean, or painfully homophobic. You have to be able to separate yourself from that, but sometimes it's hard to force yourself to do so. They're like your babies, and you don't want people to see all their faults. Instead, you want to stick them into an oversized crib and hire a nanny to make sure that the other kiddies on the playground don't start gnawing on their head or wiping boogers all over them. Really, the best thing you can do is let it go and just run with it and enjoy the entire process. I'm not at that point yet.

I am at the point, though, that I can say I've written more words in a month than many people who want to write will ever spit out in their entire life. And it's all for one book in this case, not a ton of books that I've started and stopped. I took something, moved past the planning stage (that most people get stuck on for whatever reason and never move past - my chair isn't comfy, my space isn't right, I don't have a name for my FMC's third cousin twice removed who you'll never meet but you'll hear about once in chapter seventeen) and done something. It's not something that the world will ever see in this case, at least I've done something. I have accomplished something that was fun, got a story out of my head, and reminded me that I can write. It's pretty darn awesome all around. Now it's time to move on to my next project - working on the novel that I actually like and starting the rewriting process that I've decided to start on fifty million times. This time, I want to get it done. Before that, though, there's a Christmas story that I offered to write someone. But before I can even work on that, I have an English essay to write.

Pfft. Priorities.

Cheers :)

Psst, Izza Secwet

Not really. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done I'm done I'm done. There's a song for that in my head, but I can't explain that without finale. Well, I have reading to go catch up on, so I'm going to go do that, I shall reflect on the entire process at some point later. Ta ta for now!

Validation

Today is the day when I can officially validate my novel and win NaNoWriMo. Theoretically, at least. I can't actually, since I'm grotesquely behind - by 3094 words, in addition to the rest of the words I'd need, which would be dictated by the number of days left. Soooo something like 11k. Which is a lot when you're getting close to exams and have a bunch of super boring homework that you have to do or else risk losing 20% of your mark in a given course. That's why I haven't been blogging much. I haven't had time. That and I've been lazy. Surprise surprise. Anyway, bedtime before another day where I plan to write and the world interferes with my plans. I sincerely hope I win this year. I'm going to do some serious kitten punching if I don't.

Toodles!

Eeeevil

Is the only word that could possible describe homework. I'm now two days behind, but I've kind of got my mojo again, and I've figured out how to make Write or Die work. So hopefully I can take a couple hours this weekend and get caught up. Anyway, I need to get back to edited a critical reflection essay. Happy writing!

Writing in the Red

I'm around a day behind in my word count, which is pretty annoying. I was hoping to build up a buffer this weekend, but instead I only managed to go the opposite direction. Oh, well, it happens sometimes. That's the nice thing about this being my fourth year. I know how it works. I know that there are times that you'll end up very far behind, but that you can just write yourself out of them and everything will be fine. The only time you're ever legitimately screwed is when you get discouraged because of your count and hardly try. That's not the point. The point is to write and enjoy it. If you enjoy it, you'll get up to your word count in no time. Now if only that same principle could apply to history essays...

Bad Days

Today has been a very long day. One of the ones that you dread happening at any point during NaNoWriMo, but especially this early. To begin with, I have a ton of assignments all due within a day of each other and they all have to be done and done well. I have ideas for two of them, one of them is very vaguely outlined and has the first few sentences of the introduction written, but that's about it. I still have a full line of research to complete for another essay where I'm not allowed to use any material from the course text. Next, I have a ton of personal stuff going on that is leaving me very distracted and that is extraordinarily emotionally draining. Couple that with pre-existing procrastination problems and you've got yourself a winning souffle of fail. It means I spend hours staring at pages unable to do anything, and instead skimming around the internet instead of working on my mountain of homework (which includes a ton of reading, too, not just a few assignments) or working on NaNoWriMo.

Which brings me here. It's 10:30 at night and I am exhausted. Plain and simple. I want to work on WriMo, I also want to get the paper done that I swore to myself I'd get done yesterday. But I can't. I have my fingers on the keys and add maybe a dozen words to my file, or I hold my pencil and poke dots onto my paper. Some days, nothing's going to come. Days like today. And what do you need to do sometimes when that happens? Promise to do it in the morning. Make a commitment to follow through. Go to bed.

Good night.

The Joy of Difficulty

I'm behind. Yes, already. No, not by all that much. However, I am still behind. Why? Because I'm a good student! I've been doing homework. I feel that not flunking out of university is marginally more important than focusing solely on NaNoWriMo. It's a close call though. However, anyone else doing this who is putting NaNoWriMo ahead of all of their schoolwork, you're not getting the point! It's for fun! School is not. You're paying lots of money for school, or your parents are in taxes. Writing may be more fun, but if it doesn't work out you'll never be getting into university, and your options'll be reduced. So remember your homework, people!

P.S. Today's post is brought to you by the exclamation point.

First Day

Happy NaNoWriMo everyone! I just finished my word count for today. I'd forgotten what an amazing feeling that is, knowing that you've accomplished that before 9 in the morning. There's something oddly liberating knowing that you have such a concrete goal that you'll just force yourself to write through any rough parts. If only I could do that every other time I hit a wall.

In the past, when I've hid a wall during WriMo, I used this awesome program called Write or Die. I've discovered that I can't with this computer though, since it has a habit of doing very odd things without my telling it to. I discovered this when I was several hundred words in this morning, and it decided to highlight it. Given the speed at which I type, I didn't notice until I'd hit something and it overwrote everything that I'd written. It was a lovely way to start the day. I still managed to finish though. Hopefully that will be my only NaNoWriMo fiasco.

I hope anyone else who's decided to take the plunge doesn't run into any problems. Good luck, everyone, and remember, it's not to late to start!

One Day More

Not only is that one of my favourite songs from Les Mis (my absolute favourite is probably Red and Black), that's also my NaNoWriMo count down! Cue hamsters singing! I'm so excited. This is my favourite month of the year, and something I always look forward to. It doesn't matter what else is going on that's yucky, this always makes everything brighter. Why? Because it gives you an amazing sense of purpose. I love that.

Anyway, I have homework that needs to get done ahead of time so I don't fall behind on WriMo. Good luck to all the other participants!

P.S. I'm pretty sure I've used that to title a post before. Obviously, I really like Les Miserables.

Another Way to Find Me

For those of you dying to see what I've been up to, I have twitter. I update it far more often than I blog, since it's better for being passive aggressive. Like usual, I'm littlestnewt - go follow me!

The Difficulty of NaNoWriMo

Or lack there of. Quite frankly, I don't find NaNoWriMo to be all that difficult. I can write a day and a half worth of words in half an hour, so except for the days when I fall behind and have to frantically drag my numbers back up, it's really not all that much of a stretch. This is why I can never understand why people find it so crazy. Realistically, it's not. It's, like, 15-20 minutes to get your daily word count. If someone were to put down their video games for that long, they could pull it off no problem. People are just scared of failing and if they don't try it, they can't fail. It's reeeeally hard to fail. 50 000 words is not that insane. It's just a first draft. You get used to it. So people who fluff around it need to get their heads in the game and give it a shot, or else just not talk about how crazy it is. Until you've tried it, you haven't got a clue, so don't be discouraging others from trying. It's worth it in the end.

All you need is a basic idea, and you're good to. Let it take you somewhere, and maybe it'll actually work for once and you'll like your characters because you're listening to them and what feels right. When it comes to a first draft, go with your gut instinct. You can run against the grain during your revisions, but spit out the goddamn story or it'll be in your head forever. Cheers, and good luck. Remember: it starts on Tuesday!

The Trouble With Length

I like to write novel length stories. Not the ridiculously long door jambs that are 1500 pages and usually full of suckish drivel (and commonly fantasy), but on the in between side. Generally around 75 000-100 000 words, so somewhat on the shorter side, depending on what genre you're looking at. My mind just thinks in ways that produces plot bunnies for really long story lines. Which is why I struggle with short stories. I simply cannot condense my ideas, and my mind won't give me anything straight to the point without millions of little subplots that need to be fully fleshed out to make sense. Therefore, the submission work is going slowly. I was just struck by an idea I had a while ago that would probably fit right in with one place. Whoot! Anyway, I wonder if I'm the only writer who struggles with this problem. I have a feeling I am.

Proper Submissions

I've decided on what shall be my new projects. In preparation for NaNoWriMo (less than a month away!!!!!), I'm going to be attempting to write a series of short stories. When I say series, I don't mean series series, like Harry Potter, I just mean a succession of them. They aren't going to be the same. At all. Hopefully. That's my goal, anyway.

Unfortunately, though, I shall be the only one to see these. For now. You see, it's long been a dream of mine to actually have something published, and since I've realized that the novel publishing just isn't going to happen for a while and I'm not even going to attempt it because people who are pretentious enough to write a first draft and assume it's good enough should never be published. In fact, they should have bricks thrown at them and rusty nails driven through their feet and the roofs of their mouths. I have very strong, hypocritical opinions on those who automatically assume that they're publishable that I shall likely address properly in another blog post at some time (I'll write myself a note on a sticky so I won't forget). Aaaanyway, I'm going to be writing these particular pieces in the hopes that after some serious revision, they may be ready for submission for the 2012 unsolicited season. While some places are okay with the work having being posted elsewhere, many places get very upset, so I'm not going to risk it. Therefore, my writing shall be kept strictly secret until it's either published or turned down so I can avoid legal ramifications. Besides, while I won't give away too much about the plot, I'll be blogging about NaNoWriMo non-stop, most likely, to give those of you who are too lazy to give it a shot an idea of what it's like. It's really not that hard. Seriously. I'm not one of the crazy people who can get a hundred thousand words before it's half over because I happen to have a life, but there's no reason not to try. Try it at least. Seriously.

POINT IS I'm writing again. Yeehaw.

Surviving

So, I'm having a bit of a rough time of things at school, but I'm getting through it. Hopefully I'll be able to get over myself enough to keep writing. I've been kinda keeping a journal but that's definitely for my eyes only, so it'd be nice to have something to show everyone for once. I may take to posting snippets of the story I'm working on on here. Probably not the entire thing. I don't even know if I'll ever show the internet the entire thing, but some of it will come to light. Cheers.

Startling Realization

I just realized that today is my last normal day at home forever. Tomorrow's my last day here, but the evening'll be different because I'll have to be ready for the morning. After Monday, everything changes forever. It's extraordinarily terrifying. But also exciting. There are a million new opportunities now. Anyway, back to writing my BRAND NEW STORY (that's actually going well). Cheers!

Walls

I've run into the wonderful problem that is writer's block. I'm hoping that by writing this blog post I can get into the proper head space to crawl into the mind of a character and get writing. It's at the point where this is causing me physical pain. I keep tensing up just about every muscle in my body (especially my forearms) and now everything is strained and sore (if it's not seizing). Plus now I keep psyching myself out. I can't just relax and write. Now I'm left just kind of struggling for a fully formed idea (I can't come up with enough plot for a paragraph, let alone an entire story - not that I usually write with a plot in mind). I keep thinking I have one and then I lose it. So we'll see. I'm going to go give it another shot. Ta-ta for now!

Gettin' There

I have officially started about three new projects. We'll have to see how they go. I'm hoping they turn out well. Oh, make that four. I found another one in my head I'd like to work on. This is all part of the magic, sitting here and getting the first little bit for a few million things and finding ones that work. Which is what really makes it enjoyable, but frustrating on the days when you just want everything to work. It shows how many places your mind can go, and also proves that nothing's perfect. If you're honestly so shallow as to assume that anything you write is perfect you've got a hell of a lot of work to do. You can be proud of it, but everything can be improved. That's why I get so frustrated with old work, because I can see exactly how it needs to be improved. Perfection is impossible, but continuing to try and always trying to improve your skills is what will really make you a good writer. If you think you've got it down, you'll become stagnant and it just...won't work. That spiraled off into a wonderful block of text, I'll stop talking now and getting working.

Death and a Tiny Religion Rant

Sooo, my great uncle died this morning. He's been in a nursing home for a number of years, and lost the ability to recognize, well, anyone a while ago so I'm not too, too torn up about it (I didn't know him very well before that, anyways). Does it suck? Yeah. Do people die? Yes. All the time. People who are young and healthy and haven't lived a very successful life. Does it still suck? Definitely.

I just want to point out that while my family appreciates condolences and thoughts and stuff, if anyone specifically prays with me in mind and tells me about it I'm not a fan. I do not believe in that sort of thing. If it makes you feel better, go right ahead, but please don't completely disregard my beliefs and pray to a deity that isn't mine about me and then point it out to me. I appreciate the sentiment very much, but I'd rather just be in someone's thoughts than their prayers. Thank you. (Please note that I speak only for myself when I say this, I am not by any means speaking for my family, as I'm absolutely certain they all have their own opinions on this matter.)

Stats Review

Oh, I forgot something in my last post, and figured I'd post again rather than edit that, since it was getting rather long and this is exciting for me! As I have mentioned before, I like looking at my stats. They make me happy. Especially when I get a lot of views from a place I wouldn't expect to show up. And today that place is Latvia. So, hello to my Latvian readers, I hope you stick around.

Slow Going

I'm starting on a new idea as of today. Since I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it, but I suppose it's about time I get back in the game. I've discovered that when there's a lot of stuff going on, that's it's really difficult to get on with writing. I've had other things to do while I've been up to my ears in writing as well, but never anything like this. Those other times always involved more imminent deadlines. Nothing was quite as concrete, and there was always room for procrastinating. Plus, the things weren't that big. But this time, I can't procrastinate because huge changes are ahead for me in the very near future.

For the first time in my life, I'm on my own. I know it's a transition period, and I'm not really on my own, but my parents aren't living with me. I'll be in my own little room among hundreds of other students all working towards the same general thing - a better future, and something constructive to fill the time with before facing the real world. Everyone's so alike, but nobody's me except for me. And that's what's really filling my head, because I don't know what to do. It's hard to focus on an imaginary world when I'm so invested in trying to figure out my ow and dream up ways to make sure it turns out well.

Plus, I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to put up with that a year early. There are tons of other people leaving, and I know we all mature differently, but it sucks leaving home at 17. I mean, I could've done a victory lap, but I never, ever wanted to. I don't see the value. In all honesty, I think they're stupid. Unless someone has a damn good reason to be taking one (ie expressly needing to be at school to experience one thing or another) they should be out doing something valuable for the community rather than sitting on their asses in a school. I get that people may not be ready to leave home. That's fine. I just don't see the point in taking up space. That part bothers me. Unless there's something you really need to be learning, you could be learning by working part time and also volunteering or something.

Before I get into that rant and offend people more than I likely already have, that's why writing's so rough right now. I've never been in a situation where I desperately want to avoid writing. It's not like writer's block where it's indifferent, this is either I really want to write but can't or I don't want to go near it. Sometimes I wonder if I'm subconsciously afraid of creating something and having it backfire, which could reflect my own world. Or maybe I'll become so invested in something that I completely abandon my attempt to recreate myself at university. Who knows. All I know is that this is the most ominous blank page that I have ever stared at.

Frustration

I'm upset with writing at the moment, so I'm taking a break. I've taken up embroidery again. Once that obsessive phase has blown through, I'll likely go back to writing. Or maybe while I'm  still only thinking about different stitches and how to best trace designs. Who knows. For now, though, I'm on hiatus. Buh-bye. (Well, I'll be around, if you need to find me you can, buuut, yeah, may be a while before I feel like working on stories, and blogging's still up in the air - not to mention next week is vacation week).

So Here's the Thing...

I have braces. Again. I had them a few years ago, and they put them back on because the first time (and a very painful fibrotomy) didn't work it seems. So, it's quite distracting. Until you've had your braces put on with the strongest wire and elastics from the get go, you'll never know how distracting this sort of thing can be (unless you've had some other sort of horrible mouth contraption, in which case you'll know how distracting that can be, I can only speak to tissue biopsies, fibrotomies, and braces). Basically, I'm being a baby and whining constantly rather than doing something productive. Oh, well. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

Camp NaNoWriMo

(Or whatever it's called, I can never remember the order.) I'm about to embark on the part of my newest WriMo project today. It's nerve wracking, since it was something of a last minute decision (kind of like the first time I did NaNoWriMo now that I think about it - I signed up the day of, I think), and I'm not as gogogo about it as usual, partly because it's a continuation of a story already started. Actually, I'd have even more of it had the jump drive with an additional 3000+ words of it not gone missing. It took me two years to get those 3000+ words, because I hit a major block when it came to writing my character out of that particular situation. Motivation is hard to come by when it's not November.

Anyways, I'm off to read what I've got to remind myself of what's going on. Cheers!

Moving Forward

I graduated from high school last night. It was kind of awesome, but awful at the same time. There's nothing stranger than walking down a hallway full of your classmates and realizing that you may never see some of them again (and liking that with some people, which makes me feel like a horrible person). Everything's just so strange. But fantastic because I can finally say that I've completed high school on forms! I can also say that I was awarded the biggest scholarship that my school offers, which is kind of cool and immensely helpful. Although I hate hearing people give speeches on me, it's awfully awkward. But, I like the money I can get out of it.

Now that that's out of the way I can really focus on writing again once I get back in the groove. I had planned to write a road trip style story that I've had in mind for a while, but I decided that I want to finish my fantasy trilogy, so that'll be my focus this summer. Ideally I'd like to get the really skinny first drafts for the second and third books done. This will probably happen with the help of NaNoWriMo camp, which is essentially WriMo but over the summer. Maybe I'll be able to get it done way earlier and be one of those people with hundreds of thousands of words in their pieces. But we'll just have to wait and see. I start working on my second book (which was started in the original NaNoWriMo that that series had come from a few years ago) tomorrow. Here's to hoping that everything's gonna go well and I can finish! And then get to revising...ew. Cheers!

Exams...

Are over! I've officially written my last high school exams. Know what this means? I can actually write again! This means blogging, and stories and my webcomic scripting and revising my novel (which I started doing on...Sunday I think). Point is, I'm back! And I'm excited and itching to work, especially on the Giving Child.

Also, I noticed a recent spike in readers from Russia. Which is exciting, since, as you know, I like Russia a lot. I've been looking into Russian sign language recently, since I've recently memorised the ASL finger spelling alphabet (kinda, I'm still slow and there's a letter or two I don't remember, but I'm getting there!). Although that seems hard, so for now I'm sticking with ASL. If anyone knows of any resources for any sort of sign language though, I'd love to hear about it.

New Work: The Giving Child

Yeah, the title's self explanatory. I posted a new book on writerscafe. It's called the Giving Child. Go forth and read. As usual, it's under my username of littlestnewt (although I guess the name that shows up is Kay, but I don't really know how that works). I hope you like it. Although I hope you review regardless.

The Loss of Sharings

So remember how I was talking about how Didn't Mean To had been shared? Well, it had been up to 3 shares today, I was all excited and felt special, but when I checked moments ago it was back down to 1. Which makes me sad. I didn't know you could unshare something. I feel kinda unloved.

Inspiration!

Every now and again, I'll pop back on the NaNoWriMo website to see what's going on. I did that again today, and went onto the adoptables thread to see what was going on since sometimes that gives me good ideas. And it did.

So here's some background, lots times when I write, I come up with an alliteration or something of the like that that would function well as a title and use the inspiration from that. For instance I thought up the Closet Days and figured out a plot line that would work well under that blanket and voila, Script Frenzy idea. Therefore, the page for title adoptables is heaven on wheels for me. (Oh, in case you weren't aware, adoptables are ideas that people post and you can hijack them, generally you say when you're going to use one, and then leave some behind but I'm sneaky and can't be bothered to post.)

Now I have a ton of different ideas that I'm going to ferment until I know more about them, and I shall then write when I have time. I'm not sure if any of them will turn into post-able ideas, or if they'll all be ones I keep to myself as potential ones to go back to in a few years to rewrite and publish. Regardless, though, I now have ideas and I'm itching to write which is a fantastic feeling and I can't wait to make use of it.

Sharing is Caring

I discovered something new about writerscafe.org today. Apparently, you can share things directly from the website. But that's not the new part. I knew you were able to do that, I'd accidentally pressed the button that would have allowed me to do it half a kazillion times. No, what's new is the fact that people actually use it. And that when they do use it, it takes not of it and puts a little number up there.

How did I discover this? It freakin' happened to me! I'm not mad. This sounds like I'm mad, but I'm really not mad. I'm really excited. That means that either someone knows nothing about technology and therefore clicked on a share button, or someone actually liked something that I wrote enough to share it with the world! Or maybe just their grandmother and her deaf cat, but I don't care! There's a grandmother and a deaf cat out there someone reading something that I wrote! How cool is that?!

The only problem is that I don't know who this person is, and it won't even tell me which platform it was posted onto secondhand. I've tried googling it a bunch of different ways, but I can't find it. So someone out there likes my writing, I don't know who and they've shared it with people I don't know. It's awesome, but kinda disconcerting, because it's weird knowing that it's been read and then given to others to read and I don't know who those others are. I just hope I've been credited appropriately. (If you happen to see it somewhere, let me know, I'd love to poke around where it's been sent!)

Back To Here

So I have ideas for Away From Here! I'm excited! Unfortunately, though, exams are coming up so I have next to no time to write. It sucks. But starting on the 24th I can get back into writing full force. Unless I have a job. Which I desperately need. So I'm not sure which I want more, but we'll see. If you're noticing a lack of posts, or else that they're ridiculously short, that also happens to be why, since I can't dedicate too much time to blogging. Actually, I shouldn't really be dedicating my time to anything that's not schoolwork, buuut, sometimes it's hard. For instance right now I'm taking an...extended break. That I should really end. Siiiigh. Oh, well. Later days.

Job Update

I didn't get it. I'm angry/disappointed/dejected as hell but I'm not surprised.

Old Stuff Resurfacing

I decided to join fictionpress.com against my better judgement, since I'm not a fan of giant conglomerate writing communities. Since I have so much stuff going on right now, I decided to make use of the start of an old story I'd written a really long time ago. So I cut it into some chapters and have posted the first one. We'll see if it actually gets any views. It's called Away From Here, and my name on it, is, like usual, littlestnewt. Cheers.

One Day More

No, this is not a post dedicated to my love of Les Miserables. It's about the fact that I find out tomorrow whether or not I got the job. There's only one day left. I'm nervous.

New Blog

I like books. Find out which ones, and maybe why. Go to my profile, and read away on Reviewery. Toodle pip.

Interview Update

I did it. I didn`t do it well, but I got through it. My problem is that I get nervous and I can`t organize my thoughts. So I fail miserably. That and the fact that I`m sorely unqualified, but I`m really passionate and a quick learner and I hope my interviewers picked up on that. Not to mention I really need some sort of income. I can`t afford school without it. I`ll find out on Tuesday whether or not I got it. Here`s to hoping it went alright.

Interview

I'm very fortunate to live in a community that takes literacy seriously. I have a huge passion for words, if you haven't already noticed, so I love that there are organizations that share the same love as I do. And guess what? I have an interview for a job with one of them! I am beyond excited, so hopefully it goes well. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll post how it goes. :)

Wee Bit of an Obsession With Being Special

A little while ago, I donated blood. It was something I've been dying to do for a really long time, no pun intended, and while I seemed really nervous apparently, I really wasn't. In actual fact, it was really kind of awesome. How amazing is it to sit there for 5-10 minutes and know that the tiny donation you've given could save 3 lives?

Anyway, today I got my card. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Canadian system (or at least Ontario, but I'm pretty sure it's Canada-wide) you donate blood and they send you a card with your name on it and stuff including your blood type. I'd always been told I was A-. I told people I was A-. I was all excited because that meant I was one of only 6% of the Canadian population with blood like then. I didn't look at my card, or the letter it was tucked in. I went straight to the booklet and I noticed that O+ was 39% of the population (or something like that).

Then I looked at my letter. It told me I was O-. It said it was rare and the most needed, because anyone can receive it. I nearly cried. I thought it was the one where I was most common. For some reason that really, really bothered me. I freak out over strange things. Not only was I no longer special, but I couldn't remember enough about blood types to figure out how it was even possible when both of my parents are A-.

So like the average teen, I went straight to Google. There I found out that it is recessive. So I had to receive the O part from both of my parents. I don't know enough about blood to understand the transmission of positive or negative, but that meant I was special. I cheered up. And then I went and actually looked at the booklet and realized that I'd remembered the wrong figure. There's only 7% of the population with a blood type like mine, and we're the most needed. It's not the rarest, but there was a sticker on my card telling me that I have rare blood and that I should donate.

I'm going to. I had been planning on getting my ears pierced right away and then donating after the waiting period is over, but I'm not. I'm going to hold off for an indefinite period of time because I want to keep donating as often as I can. I'm useful. I get to listen to the Canadian Blood Services announcements where they say that there's a need for O- blood and know that I can help fill that. I can save people. Anybody. Maybe you if you're reading this. Think about it - my blood could save you. Now that's a pretty special thing, isn't it.

New Project?

Today, in drama, I didn't have a whole lot to do. We're working on our ISU's and while the other member of my group who was there is totally awesome, and really, really nice and incredibly talented (ie we get along well, and she's not at fault for my boredom in the slightest), I ran out of things. So I started doodling. I originally started off with a drawing of an alligator, but turned into a piece of toast (or bread, I haven't officially decided). With a hat. And a handbag. I decided that his best friend would have to be celiac. That he'd be offended by grilled cheese. And he'd hit on granola bars. His name is Gary. This personified pastry is the result of a spilled science experiment.

And that's where the other characters started rolling in. I really hope nobody else uses the ideas I've already listed, because that would really upset me, but I have decided to start scripting a webcomic. For those of you who don't know, I have an unhealthy obsession with webcomics. I read a kazillion and keep adding onto my list, and when I find a new one, I read it from beginning to end. Lately I've taken to rereading. Especially James Kochalka's, because his are rereadable and still really funny, because you remember specific ones better because each is a specific incident.

The only problem is, in case you haven't read my post on children's books, that I can't draw. At all. I'm really, really bad. Like, suuuuuuper bad. It's painful how bad I am. So I can script to my heart's content, but drawing will be hard, especially since I have a particular style that I like. That particular style is pseudo-manga style dealy, in case you were curious. Therefore, I plan to script out a bunch, and ask a very talented artist cousin of mine if he'd be willing to illustrate it for me. After that, we can rule the world, bwahahahaha. Or at least I can post a weekly webcomic or something. But we'll see how the scripting goes first before I go full into this foray into webcomiccery.

Whoot! Yay for stats!

My stats page just informed me that I've had a reader from Russia. I should not be ridiculously excited but I am. I have this bizarre obsession with that country. The history, the language, the culture. If I could study it, I would. If it weren't for the fact my mum doesn't like the idea, I'd totally love to go there for a study abroad year. I still plan to learn Russian for the second language it's recommended to learn before you get your masters. Anyways, yaaaay for the world's largest country and whoever from their read my blog! =D

New Stuff

That no one can see until it's done. And even then it'll go to my initial reader, and then I'll test the waters from there. Aaanyway, I've found a new, controversial thing to write about. It's making me happy, and it fits in well with my goal to write every day for 100 days. Well, that's all I have to say, there isn't any more. Cheers.

Long Time Coming Stuff

I have news! Screnzy is complete! My school play goes in front of an audience tomorrow! Osama Bin Laden ( I think it's spelled right? I have a really hard time with names :S) is dead! Although  I keep wanting to put Obama, which would be bad. Fortunately, though, he's not dead. On the note of politics though, unfortunately, Canada has a majority conservative government, because we are apparently incredibly stupid. It makes me grumpy, but that's another story for another day.

Where was I...right, right, Screnzy! I won. At around 9 o'clock. In the end, I'm really not a fan of my script. It's kind of reeeally awful, but I got really quite close to being finished. I didn't develop a whole whack of characters, and I eventually just started writing scenes I figured I could do, so it was inconsistent but it's done. At the moment, I think I'll just let it be. I don't want to revise it, or finish it. I still have my outline, and I haven't deleted what I've written, so I may come back, 10, 20 years down the road and remake it.

I've done some other writing since Screnzy. It's funny though, while I was writing, all I wanted to do was work on either an old novel manuscript, or start up a new one. At the moment I'm working on a series of short stories I've been planning out for eons that all involve the different forms of gender, particularly with a trans/non-conformist spin. Not to mention I've been planning out my novel for the summer, which is a traditional coming of age road trip sort of thing that deals with the same stage I'm at, at the moment.

I had more planned that I wanted to mention, but I went off to do other things, and now I forget. So, I think I'm going to leave it at that. Ta ta for now.

Screnzy

For the first time ever I am an official Script Frenzy participant! I technically signed up last year, but I didn't even bother to attempt it, so I'm counting this year as my first. I'm upwards of 20 pages behind. It's fantastic really. I'm just so happy about it.

In actual fact, I am quite happy with my script. I'm writing a screenplay called The Closet Days and I love my characters even if they are pretty much all the same (although I can fix that during the revising process) and for once I actually have well thought out plot lines with multiple layers! There's the big event and an unrelated, but intertwined mystery! It's exciting. Probably only to me but who cares. I'm writing it and it's making me happy, so in the long run who cares if it's only important to me. It may not make me money, but I can live with that...not really, but I'll deal with that later.

I'm getting upset with writing on my iPod, so that's it for now. That's all there is, there isn't any more. Cheers.

Picture Books FTW!!!

Why yes, that was indeed chatspeak right smack dabby in the middle of my title. Be afraid, be very afraid, for I am slowly sinking into the depths of simplicity.

The preceding statement is actually correct. One of the courses I'm taking is Writer's Craft and a recent assignment was to write a children's book that has to be illustrated. The writing part took me half an hour. I delved into the world of childlike fantasy through the eyes of Carolina the Crocodile as she goes on an amazing journey of friendship and acceptance. Long story short, it's stereotypical and cliche, but I needed something and it was readily available in my mind.

The unfortunate part of this entire endeavor is the fact that I can't draw at all. And by at all I mean I can't even draw a stick person. So that part is absolutely killing me. If I'm ever a children's author, I've always known that I'd be enlisting my cousin (he's an amazing artist) to illustrate them for me, so this really isn't fair. Hopefully I'll get through it. If I die during this, I want to be buried with one hell of a nice epitaph. And I want Another One Bites the Dust to play at my funeral.

Kay over and out.

I Can Haz Rp?

I used to roleplay. I used to roleplay a lot (and yes, I do squish the two words together and I really don't care if it's incorrect or not). I figured that a way to combat boredom and get into the habit of writing and rolling with twists that I can't really control which may happen with an editor would be to give it a shot again. So off to neopets I ran.

That was a mistake. Not only has it changed, it's gone even farther downhill. The board for it was practically dead and nobody understands the meaning of the differed levels. I was looking for lit or advanced and I wound up with someone who can't spell and doesn't understand continuity. Some times you have to shuffle around a bit to make things work, but don't godmode and don't completely redo what I've done. Yes, I'm rusty so I'm not the greatest partner but I can write. My style is informal but I know what the fuck I'm doing. Needless to say, I'm bored and irked.

If somehow someone who trips over this blog sees this and is a roleplayer to get in touch with me. My info can be found at littlestroleplaying.webs.com

Crazy Little Thing Called Life

Please ignore the horribly misquoted lyrics that are comprising the title to this post. It was the only thing I could think of. Normally, that wouldn't be an excuse, however today I feel this is valid since I've been up since 5 in the morning (and it's Saturday!).

Why, you might be wondering? Because I had to travel to Peterborough for Trent University's open house. Which was an adventure, since google maps told us it would take a half hour longer, randomly advised a u-turn (which we didn't do) and then led us to the back of the university, not the front where we could actually enter (hurray for dead ends). We got there eventually, went to the opening thingy which included this absolutely awesome history prof which is fantastic because if all history profs are like that, then that means that I'm in for awesomeness if I go there, since I'll be studying history. 

After that, my parents and I hung out waiting for a tour since their schedule was absolutely ridiculous in a stupid way. But that was okay. Then lunch. Then res tour of Lady Eaton College (Trent has a college system, so think Hogwarts' houses, it's a residence, but you're just categorized by name which is defined as a college). 

So now I'm left wondering if I would like to attend Trent or Laurier. It's a conundrum. It really is. I debated for a while typing up the names to both, taping them to a wall and whipping a pokeball at random and seeing which one it hits, but I figured I couldn't afford to be putting holes in my wall. I'm not sure if I like Trent. I think that'll be where I end up, but off the top of my head, I still want to go to Laurier. The biggest problem is that I'd been dead set on being a golden hawk since in and around grade 7, and only this year around Thanksgiving did I decide to even look at Trent. Laurier is bigger population-wise, brighter, and more bustling (or it was when I saw it), but then again, that was during homecoming, so that changes things dramatically. Trent seemed dreary and institutional (ie very concrete inside the buildings, the outside is total wilderness almost, in a cultivated way, and will be beautiful when it's not a miserable day in the middle of winter). On the other hand, though, Laurier would have bigger classes, I could be caught up in the rush, and it seems snobbier, not to mention some of the residences are iffy and the scholarships suck. At Trent it's a tighter knit community, which I need, small class sizes, really awesome residences (at least at Lady Eaton, the others are really cool too, especially Gzowski since they have semi-private bathrooms, air conditioning, double beds etc but it's crazy expensive) and they are top for scholarships.

Ultimately, I'll wind up at Trent. I think. As much as I don't want to right now, I know it'll be the better option for me. It's just kinda hard. Going to university is a huge adjustment, and it's nerve-wracking, especially if you're a naturally skittish person like me who's also a year younger than all your classmates because you skipped a grade.

That being said, nothing concrete has been decided, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Snow and Music

Today is Saturday. Which was fun. Involved the visiting of friends. However, it was yesterday that I'd like to highlight. Now, wee bit of exposition. I've been playing flute for going on seven years. (And piano for two years more. Not well, mind, but I can play both.) So, given my useless experience, I've joined band. They're rather unrelated, we have some incredibly talented musicians in band, I just so happen to not be one of them. Anyways, bands (I'm in concert, just figured I should specify, in addition to a flute ensemble, but that doesn't come into play today), enter music festivals to be adjudicated in order to grow and learn since you never stop learning if you're involved with music.

Our director doesn't like the local festival, so we go to Sudbury. Which is a 3.5 hour drive or so away from our school. So off trekked the members of our band to the school to leave at 7:30, which really isn't all that early. We drove, stopped shortly to get changed and potentially grab something to snack on on our way to the school that was hosting the festival.

That in and of itself was an adventure. The school was practically all stairs. It was absolutely ginormous. Coming from a school of around 500 students that has a total of 9 hallways, in addition to three staircases to get to our very tiny second floor, we were all in awe. There were stairs everywhere, and seemingly never ending floors. While it was clearly very old, they had some absolutely amazing murals. I really rather wish my school had the drive and the finances to do something like that, but that's neither here nor there. But we got to the auditorium (which was another unheard of thing, my school has a gym that we push the weight equipment to the side of if it needs to be used, and they hate the band program because they're pretentious idiots, so we never use the stage for band, the play does, but that's different, but the band just uses the floor to avoid being harassed), played, and went to go home.

It was snowing on the way home. Actually, it was snowing when we got there, but it was bad. And we had time constraints, since everyone wanted to be back for the annual semi formal dance. Especially me, since I'm on student council and am expected to help out with it, running things. The weather didn't like that though. So we got stuck behind a plow in absolutely awful weather that just kept getting worse. It took eons to get even to Parry Sound. While we were driving, apparently there were several accidents. We saw one car on its roof at the side of the road. Then I guess other students witnessed people going into ditches and whatnot. However, what really bothered me the most, and that's still haunting me, is the accident I witness. Keep in mind, that I've never seen an accident happen before. Ever. Actually witnessing that would have been traumatizing in and of itself, if it weren't for the way it happened. I was staring out the front window of the coach bus, since I get car sick and it helps to look out the front, and all you can hear is the faint screaming of breaks. Then a car in the lane beside us apparently spins (this part I missed) and slammed head on into the guardrail. That part a saw. Our bus didn't stop. That I can kinda understand, we couldn't get over, it was mucky, and there are kids on board so we have to avoid being a liability. But we didn't even call 911. I had no idea where we were, so I couldn't do it. All I know is that someone could have been seriously hurt, but we couldn't tell because we were already gone. From what I could see no one else was stopping either. Even if we couldn't stop, we should have called and let them know. If nothing else, they could have damaged the guardrail which could hurt someone else, if not bashed their head in during their own accident. So I'm still horrified by that and not knowing if the person (or people, I just realized there could've been more than one in the car, which makes it even worse) was hurt, and not knowing if they got help in time. Because of this, though, I think I got an idea for a potential novel, but we'll see.

Anyways, so we continued to slog on. Snow turned to sleety rain. Sleety rain turned to more freezing rain. Then freezing rain turned into rain that was technically freezing but didn't seem to be as loud. We made it home. An hour later than planned, but we did it.

And that is my fabulous anecdote. It's nice to write it down, get rid of my car accident demons. I just really hope everyone involved was okay, and that everyone else who was in an accident on the road that night is fine, too.

This wasn't really about my life, but if we were to talk just about my life nothing exciting would happen. So you get my bad band story.

I'm done babbling now. Cheers.

Fanfic Update

So Ways of a Weasley has finally been validated! I don't know if I wrote about it before (at least not specifically), so if I didn't, it's a Harry Potter fanfiction, and now the world can read it! Except...it's been validated for 3.5 hours at the moment and I have an astonishing...1 read. That's even worse that writerscafe. It's quite deflating. I mean, I know I'm just getting back in the habit and that I don't have a banner, which is practically mandatory these days, but I still thought I'd have m ore than 1 read. Even though my summary sucks. But, oh well. It's not my favourite of fanfics, but the stories I want to tell still have issues, so it's my way of getting my foot in the door. I'll just grin and bear it for now. Or forever, depending on how I feel. Aaand, that's that. There isn't any more.

Or perhaps there is. I quite want to go watch Madeline now. But instead I think I may write YET ANOTHER blog post about things that don't involve writing. (Which is mildly blasphemous, but who doesn't love a good scandal these days.)

From the Keyboard of an Emerging Writer

Also known as a beginner who doesn't know what the fuck they're doing.


A wee bit of back story, first. An assignment I'd written for my writing class was handed back to me a few days ago. On my mark sheet was a comment (my teacher is totally awesome and always has something positive to say even though she's a very hard marker) that I should really look into submitting my work for publication, because that should be where I'm headed. Obviously, I took that very much to heart and spent the better part of the morning looking for literary magazines that accept submissions from everyone. There are lots. Even though half of them are no longer in operation...buuuuut, oh well. I still managed to find a ton of possibilities.

Now comes the big problem. The writing. I don't think I'll mind sending something out, or even being rejected (well, maybe a little, but something that's ginormous like a publisher for a book, I think I'd care more about being rejected for), but I haaaate the writing part. Which doesn't really make sense, even to me. But from what I've gathered, professional writers run into this problem. It's not all lollipops and gumdrops, it's legitimate hard work. And I haven't felt passionately about anything I've written in a really long time. It's kinda meh, but everyone else is okay with it, so I just run with it. So I need to write. And it hurts. For all intents and purposes, it causes me physical pain to force myself to write. I just need to get out there though. While earning even a small cash payment would be awesome, right now I just want my name in print. I need validation that I can actually do this, that there's a point to it. To prove that I have potential, even. I don't need to be famous. I don't ever need to be famous. But what I do need is to know that somewhere out there, someone is going to read my work. Hopefully they'll think it's good, but if it's not, I think I could be okay with that. I just want to get out there. I wanna give it a shot. If I succeed, that'll be amazing. If I don't, well, I gave it a shot. My ultimate plan for life has died (probably a dramatic, self-eviscerated samurai style death) but I can move past that.

So, tonight I plan to write. Up until I wrote that down, I had no plans to write. I just wanted to get away from that paragraph. But, now that I think about it, it's probably a good idea. If it's publishable, that's fantastic. As it stands, though, I just need to get in the habit of writing, and forcing myself to write even if I don't like the end product.

Here goes nothing.

Blast to the Past

So, hey guys, guess what...I just posted my first freakin' fanfic!!! Whoot! Actually, well, it's not my first fanfic, per se, but it is the first one for my littlestnewt account. Plus, I'm not entirely embarrassed about it. Well, kinda, but not really. Not as much as I am when I look back at the other stuff I've written. I know this'll haunt me in six months, a year, however long until I bother to look and see how juvenile it is, but for now I'm happy. Now being the operative word.

I just have to wait for it to be validated now. I'd forgotten what this part was like. It had been so long since I'd posted something, and then on writerscafe you just post and it's up, that I haven't needed to have anything go through the validation process in a really long time. It's kinda a pain in the ass. But, with hpff, I'm okay with it. Since it means that when it goes through, I'll have oodles of lovely readers, since that site is far more frequently visited and the people are, as a general rule, far more likely to review. Fingers crossed.

And, yeah. That's it for now. Cheers.

Depressing Readership

Well, as promised, I posted That's My Problem on writerscafe. Unfortunately, I've had about 15 views. Keep in mind that's 15 views on a single page, but that's the highest viewed of all of the pages (of which there are 8 because of how writerscafe swings their formatting). And, to top it all off, I have no reviews. Which I find to be sad. I mean, I can't very well complain since I rarely review things, but I must say it's always reassuring to have some indication of what people thing. Although, in my defence, I never read anything in order to review. I'd just really like to come across a new website for posting my work where I have the potential to fair better. This site seems to lean more towards poetry, which is where I fail every time I try. I think I may run off and give fictionpress a shot, it keeps popping up. It's huge, so I won't gain any notoriety, but it's still more likely to be viewed by more people. I hope.

And Then There Was

Music. And not just any music, it was music at my school. We have a program in place where professional musicians come in and play for us and answer questions and so on and so forth. And every time I never fail to realize how unaccomplished I am. I mean, it's like every time I see someone else doing something they love and getting payed for it (regardless of whether or not it's a full time job) I'm reminded of how very little I've done with anything I've achieved. I've never won any contests, or been published, hell, I hardly get any reviews on anything I write and post (although that may partly be because of the fact that I never review anyone else's work so my name is hardly out there so people don't know to look at my work).

So this is rabidly becoming a venty, ranty expression of melancholy. Which is not what I want. Therefore, I am going to end happily! Or, well, try to. It depends on your idea of happy. To some, happy is death. To others, happy is a warm kitten. I don't know why a warm kitten specifically, beyond that it's alive, but who knows. Perhaps some people have temperature preferences for their pets, who am I to judge. Unfortunately, though, there shall be no death and no kittens. However, what there shall be is the reposting of something else I've written. If I get in trouble for it, I'll just take it down, but as it stands I plan to re-post That's My Problem (ie my lone attempt at comedy) on writerscafe.org under my username of littlestnewt (which is kind of my default if you hadn't noticed). Ideally the same pen name and the same story and names that work out and whatnot shall ensure that there won't be any copyright issues, but as far as I'm aware, submitting to the one site doesn't give them exclusive rights and I still hold copyright for it so it doesn't really matter. Anyways, technical worrying over and done with, I'm off to go edit and then post. Cheers!   

Once Upon a Time...

I was told I should write a blog. In previous years I've been told to do a number of things. Eat hot sauce straight. Get my license. Take up painting. This seemed to be safest. Plus, I've tried this before. I have yet to succeed but since I'm an impressionable person who is easily swayed through flattery, perhaps this time will work. And by work I mean that I'll stick with it.

Anyways, the purpose behind this blog is to chronicle. In this case, I shall likely be detailing my life and my writing. Hopefully more of the former than the latter, since talking about my writing is mildly less pretentious. But not by much. Anyways, I suppose I shall get used to Blogger (historically I'm an LJ user, but that's a wee bit too emo for me) and get back and try and actually figure out this blogging concept. Cheers =)