Friday Fragments

(Geez, when was the last time I did this. I'll try not to spam you guys with videos again.)

1) I'm a bit behind in Camp NaNo, but hoping to catch up this weekend. I've pretty much accepted that this has turned into a collection of short stories instead of something super exciting. Oh well. I'll save the super exciting stuff for the main event.

2) Something amazing happened the other day! I thought I lost the main files for my NaNo '10 story because the computer screen broke and it was all glitchy and terrible, but miracles happened and the files were saved! Don't you love it when that happens? :)

3) I'm feeling a reading binge coming on in September. So many books:
-Memoirs of a Geisha
-Trickster's Choice
-The Light Fantastic
-The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
-And Then There Were None
-The Scoop & Behind The Screen (two stories in one book)

Considering adding Divergent to that list.

4) OK, this one's for The Hunger Games fans. Spoilers ahoy. What did you think of the epilogue in Mockingjay? I thought it worked pretty well. It showed that the world changed, the survivors were trying to move on, and all that jazz. The only part I was kind of unhappy about was that Gale and Katniss were never really friends again, and that was pretty lame.
My friends Kirstin and Courtney weren't really happy with the epilogue in general (but Courtney's never been happy with an epilogue :P). They both thought Katniss sounded really depressed (PTSD anyone?), and there wasn't enough explanation about Panem and their new government and such.
So yeah, what do you think?

Have a good weekend, everybody! :)

Friday Fragments

Man, it feels like it's been forever since I've done this.

1) So last night was the NPP's first show, and it went great. We had a full house, and everybody seemed to really enjoy it. Only downside was that because of stupid university rules, we couldn't film it. So lame.

2) This is too excellent.

Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant!- Case of the Two Watsons from Squadron B on Vimeo.

3) Did you even realize that the Deathly Hallows movie is less than a month away? I know. Sneaking up like a ninja. A magic ninja.

4) I'm really loving this 750 Words site. As an experiment, I wrote all my 750 words before, then copy and pasted it into the browser. This is what it said about the time:

Writing started at 19:12pm and stopped immediately, bam.

So funny.

Anyways, that's all I really have to say this week. Have a good weekend, everybody! :)

Friday Fragments - Story Recs Edition

A few book/series/whatever that are pretty excellent and, if you are so inclined, you would do well to check out.

1) Airborne (The Matt Cruse Trilogy) by Kenneth Oppel
Book One: Airborne
Book Two: Skybreaker
Book Three: Starclimber
I read the first two books in high school, and they were the first steampunk books I'd ever come across. This world is just captivating and has this magical quality, even though it's technically sci-fi, and the characters are so much fun. So yeah, there's this spirit of adventure, but it also manages to cover some pretty interesting issues that steampunk is known for.

2) Other Electricities by Ander Monson
This is a collection of short stories that kind of tell one big story. It's really interesting. It's about this town in Michigan that's responding to a girl's death. The voice is kind of odd and the prose is more poetic than in most stories. There are no real "main characters", exactly. It's a strange story, but a good strange.
And yeah, I had to read it for class last fall.

3) Geektastic by an assortment of writers
This book is amazing and pretty much a must-read if you're a nerd or a geek in any way, shape, or form. Sara Zarr's "This is My Audition Monologue" pretty much makes the whole book. It has all the geeky fun things like conventions and RPGs and such, but there are some pretty deep themes explored, too.

And, if you're into fanfic like my friend Kirstin and me:

The Very Secret Diary. (Harry Potter/ Chamber of Secrets)
Dear. God. This story is terrifying in the best possible way. It starts off slow, but of course it gets exciting right around the October 31 entry (and you probably know why). My friend and I both read it in one night.
But just a warning, it gets really dark and disturbing. This is basically CoS from Ginny's perspective.

Friday Fragments

Well I was going to post yesterday, but Blogspot seemed to be having... issues. (I think I'm going to have to temporarily change the update schedule, by the way, just to accommodate classes.)

1) The New Play Project is excellent. On Tuesday and Thursday morning, we focused on ideas and decided on a show, which we've all seemed to nickname Spacecano. It's about a meteor that's also a volcano that is going to crash into earth in six days, and this team of "super sexy scientists" is trying to find a way to stop it. Meanwhile, there's a volcano cult and all this other stuff happening.
Yeah, this show is going to be kind of amazing.

2) It was so hot this week! It got into the 90s or near the 90s on a couple days at least. It was pretty nice. Guess it's supposed to cool down again, though.

3) I heard someone mention that they're turning The Perks of Being a Wallflower into a movie. This is one book I've wanted to read for a while, but everybody seems so divided on it that I'm a little apprehensive. If any of you have read it, what did you think?
Also, I have no idea if the movie thing is actually true. *Googles* Nevermind. It is true and it is supposed to release next year.

4) Is it super obvious that I am burning out from everything in the world? :)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Friday Fragments

Haha, just kind of disappeared again this week. Sorry about that. I have no real excuse except I was either out doing stuff or reading stuff or writing stuff. So yeah.

1) Here's an awesome thing of the day from Letters of Note about libraries. You can get the full context at their blog, but here are a couple of the letters:

I love that Dr. Seuss' letter is written in crayon. There are also letters from EB White and Hardie Gramatky which are really interesting.

2) So it's Mother's Day on Sunday. Most people get their mothers some kind of plant life... but not for my mother. You see, she kills every plant she touches. I wrote a poem about it last year. She wasn't amused.

3) Wednesday night at youth group, there was a conspiracy to saran-wrap my friend Joe's car. It was amazing.


4) School starts again on Monday. This semester I'm taking:
Communication Inquiry (which I recently learned is basically how to do research)
Piano Class I
New Play Project (which will be super awesome)
Group Problem Solving
None of the classes sound particularly difficult (except maybe piano class...), though NPP will probably present its own challenges. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

Have a good weekend, everybody! And if you're a mom, happy Mother's Day!

Friday Fragments

1) It was the last week of classes this week, which means there are only 67 days until my last day of school. Ever. (Nope, no plans to go to graduate school.) The *grin* emoticon doesn't do this justice, so... ^________^

2) I've been working on this new story called "Evan's Almost Dead Again" (for now). Not completely obsessively because school keeps getting in the way, but it's been fun.

3) Just curious. Anybody here into fandom? Cuz I just discovered this, frankly, really entertaining Livejournal called Fandom Secrets, which is kinda like PostSecret except with... fandom.

4) And because a post just isn't complete without some sort of visual...


5) Happy Easter! Hope you all have an excellent Sunday doing whatever you do. I think my dad's side of the family is getting together Sunday evening for dinner. Plus we have church earlier in the day. We're not very exciting people. :P (Though church activities can be exciting. Like that time with the grill exploding into fire and almost melting my friend's face off. No exaggeration.)

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Friday Fragments - We're All Winners Edition

I got the website wrong yesterday. It's not random.com, it's random.org. WELL. After doing magical things, we have a winner for the book giveaway. First, thanks to everybody who entered. It was a lot of fun reading your comments (although I'm way too scared of that post to reply to them all individually, sorry).

Without further ado.

Can I get a drum-roll?



Thank you. And the winner is... Sarah Reads Too Much! I'll be sending you an email by the end of the day, but if I don't hear back by Monday, I'm just going to assume you don't want the book anymore and choose another winner.

In other news. Allow me to fill the rest of this post with awesome YouTube videos and delay the very special episode until tomorrow.







Have a good weekend, everyone!

Friday Fragments

OK. So it's already the 8th. Weird.

1) So last Friday night, I started feeling a little weird. By Sunday, I was totally bed-ridden and felt like I was dying, which explains Monday's post. This lasted well into Wednesday. So yeah.

2) Finally got my hands on If I Stay! It was alright. Not a bad read.

3) The fountains at school are running again, which means spring is officially back. And to prove it, it's supposed to get into the upper 70s (like between 75-78) on Sunday or Monday. :D

4) On the eleventh, the Autism Awareness Book Giveaway is starting. Be excited.

Have a good weekend!

It's April 1. You know what that means.

It means it's Friday! So here are this week's fragments.

1) It's Autism Awareness Month! (Note the change in banner.)

And there's a book giveaway hop over at the I Am A Reader, Not A Writer blog.



Naturally, I am all over this. Erin at Quitting My Day Job is participating as well. You'll be able to see a full list of all the participating bloggers at the previous link. What book am I giving away? Not sure yet.

2) This makes me laugh. So much.

3) Script Frenzy starts today. I am not going to attempt it this year, and I'll tell you why.
2009 (by myself): 6 pages. Finals happened.
2010 (collaborated with Kassy): 25 pages. Finals happened.
So yeah. I can sense a pattern here. Any of you participating?

Have a good weekend!

Friday Fragments

Wow, it's already Friday. It appears the timey-wimey-rollercoaster that comes after spring break has set in. (Timey-Wimey-Rollercoaster: Time appears to accelerate and weeks pass before you realize it.)

1) Don't know how I missed this last week, but they cast Katniss in The Hunger Games adaption. I was kind of rooting for this unknown actress on YouTube, but if they say she's good, then I'll trust their decision. Now I guess they're focusing on Peeta.

2) I became Facebook-popular this week with this music video I've been working on to Owl City's "If My Heart Was A House". Two weeks with Paintbrush and Windows Movie Maker. And it's not finished yet.


3) If you're like me, you might occasionally wonder what kinds of delightful stories JK Rowling is cooking up these days. College Humor has an answer.

4) A conversation from Wednesday:
Nurse: So what's your major?
Me: Creative Writing.
Nurse: Oh my gosh, WHY? What can you do with that?
Me: *Stunned laughter*
True story. Have to give her credit for being honest.

Well, have a great weekend, everybody!

Friday Fragments

It is Friday, and it is the third day of absolutely gorgeous weather. I think I'm justified in sharing this song with you. It's called "Spring" by Your Heart.



It's also a free download if you absolutely must have it on your media playing devices. :)

1) Jesi Marie was kind enough to share this picture with me.

Thought the cheetah with an eyeglass was a bit random, but it's funny. :D

2) I've been showing this to everyone because it's just so funny. These people took the music video for Total Eclipse of the Heart and rewrote the lyrics so that the song fit the music video. Hilarity ensues like you wouldn't believe. Embedding has been disabled for it, but here's the link.

3) Did you hear about the Fukishima Fifty? They're these nuclear power plant workers who stayed behind at the plant to make sure that nothing worse happens, even though it greatly endangers their well-being. Now that's heroism, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, have a good weekend!

Friday Fragments

1) So... with the New Play Project and the Creative Writing Awards... they said we would hear about both things shortly after spring break. Spring break has been over since technically Sunday. No news about anything. I wonder if they're trying to drive us insane.

2) It was my poor mother's 50th birthday on Wednesday. My uncle Chris asked her at her birthday party, "So, how does it feel to know half your life is over?"
Let me tell you something crazy about the March birthdays on my mom's side of the family, though. Mom and her younger brother, Uncle Kevin, are four years apart. Mom's birthday is March 9. Uncle Kevin's birthday is March 15. His oldest daughter Chelsea's birthday is March 5. My birthday is March 19. Chelsea and I are 4 years apart in age.
CRAZY WEIRD. I know.

3) Here are two of my best friends, Kirstin and Courtney, being hilarious. (Kirstin's iPod was hooked up to the sound system, I was pressing random buttons and landed on "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", and this happened.)


4) I found this cool website where they have a writing competition once a month, and it only costs $5 to enter. Yeah, I know. It's called WritersType.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Friday Fragments

It's Friday!

1) And it's my last spring break ever! I love spring break. It means the semester is halfway over, and the rest of the semester tends to go by so fast it gives you whiplash. My friend Kirstin and I are so excited for this one because it means we are PRACTICALLY GRADUATED. Woohoo!

2) Tomorrow night, our youth group is having its annual spaghetti dinner and variety show (I wrote most of the show. So yeah. :D) It's a fundraiser for our summer trip to Christ's Outreach for the Blind. And it's going to be so much fun.

3) I was listening to "If You Wanna, I Might" by hellogoodbye earlier and slowly realized that it's not a love song. It's a song about the query process! Pay attention to the lyrics and think about it:



So... that's all I got for today. Have a good weekend!