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!

Awesome thing of the day: "I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book."

So today on this blog, Letters of Note, they posted this awesome letter from Chuck Jones encouraging reading. Here's the actual letter:

Here's the actual post.

Word Usage: Say what you mean to say

Earlier this evening, my friend Joe tried to define the word "manifest". I can't remember his exact wording now, but it was something like "something has a shape or it's known". And then I had a blog idea. :D

For the record, here's the dictionary definition for "manifest":

-adjective
1) readily perceived by the eye or the understanding; evident; obvious; apparent; plain: a manifest error.
2) Psychoanalysis . of or pertaining to conscious feelings, ideas, and impulses that contain repressed psychic material: the manifest content of a dream as opposed to the latent content that it conceals.
-verb (used with an object)
3) to make clear or evident to the eye or the understanding; show plainly: He manifested his approval with a hearty laugh.
4) to prove; put beyond doubt or question: The evidence manifests the guilt of the defendant.
5) to record in a ship's manifest.
-noun
6) a list of the cargo carried by a ship, made for the use of various agents and officials at the ports of destination.
7) a list or invoice of goods transported by truck or train.
8) a list of the cargo or passengers carried on an airplane.

Thank you, Dictionary.com. :)

Anyway, that just got me thinking about word usage and how it can be really easy to misuse a word. Like if you're not 100% sure what something means, but you say it or write it anyway. And then someone asks you what it means. Then what? Hate to sound rude, but you sound like you're just trying to be impressive.

Point is, if you're not 100%, you should just look the word up. If you know another word that more accurately fits the situation, use that word. It's OK if it's only two syllables. Honest! :D

And... yep. That's all.

Variety Show Skits!

If you care to watch. (I'll write a proper post later.) Sorry about the quality on the live skits.









So, if you watched, hope you enjoyed it. :)

Something really random.

So Blogger gives you stats for where everybody is coming from and what kind of systems they're using, and this just blew my mind:

I'm really Dutch cheap, so I'm still using a portable CD player (and calling them that without irony). But I had no idea you could get on the internet on an iPod! That's crazy.

The Hunger Games Love Triangle

I don't know why love triangles are so popular these days, or maybe it's just the books I'm reading. Just look at the number of them (that I can remember) in Harry Potter alone:
Harry/Cho/Cedric.
Ron/Hermione/Krum.
Harry/Ginny/Dean.
Hermione/Ron/Lavender.
Snape/Lily/James.
Mrs. Norris/Filch/ Madame Pince (OK, just kidding there. Although...)

I'm sure we can all think of a few more love triangles in other books, but there is one I'd like to talk about in particular. Gale/Katniss/Peeta from The Hunger Games trilogy. Why? Because, and I say this as someone who has a low-tolerance threshold for romance, it's perfect. I'm going to try so hard not to give any big spoilers away. This will be difficult.

So first there's Katniss/Gale. They have been best friends for years. They go hunting together, they tell each other everything, and it's clear from the beginning that Gale at least has a thing for Katniss. He even has a cute nickname for her. They are a lot alike in personality; at the end of Mockingjay, Katniss said they're both very fiery (paraphrasing). To quote the first Veggie Tales movie, they're "two peas in a pod! Two humps on a camel! They always sway the same way!"

And then there's Katniss/Peeta. Gale might be Katniss' best friend, but Peeta actually manages to rival him in that area. But where Katniss and Gale are more fiery and obviously strong-spirited, Peeta is much calmer. He's strong-spirited, too, but in a quiet way. You know what I mean? He and Katniss complement each other.

Also, put them in a cave and look how adorable they get.



They are the sweetest. Ever. But let me tell you something else about the Peeta in the books! He is not quite that *ehem* handsome. (Or British. Heaven help us all if Peeta Mellark were British...)

I can hear it now. The gasps of shock. The WHAAATs of confusion. There is a love triangle and both "options" are not drop-dead gorgeous? YES! I KNOW! He's initially described as "medium height, stocky build, [with] blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead." It is just so refreshing to see a normal-looking person in a book. We can't all be supermodels.

So get to the point, Qzie. Why did this love triangle work so well?


For just so many reasons.


1) Because the choices mean something. You could interpret the triangle in a variety of ways, but here's how I saw it. Gale represented the life that Katniss had always known (that's not necessarily a bad thing, after all). Then Peeta represented the changes in their lives and their world.

2) Because it really could have gone either way. At the beginning of the first book, Gale and Katniss actually talk about running away together. And then... well, did you see the YouTube video? Point is, they both had a fair chance.

3) Because Gale and Peeta's characters weren't totally dependent on Katniss. One wasn't the Designated Love Interest and one wasn't the Other Boy. Their characters were totally fleshed out, and we're able to sympathize with all players.

4) Because when either of them were gone for an extended period of time, Katniss didn't have a complete meltdown. She was still able to function. And that's all I'll say about that...

5) Because we don't have to hear about it every other page! And it's not like over-the-top declarations of love! That YouTube video was the soppiest it got. And the actors actually made it soppier. It's gotta be one of the more honest portrayals of love I've read.

So yeah. That's why this particular triangle worked.

Awesome thing of the day: "Date a girl who reads..."

Found this on the NaNo forums and had to share it.

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes. - Rosemary Urquico 

Let's face it. We are kind of awesome. :D

Bananas Triumphant

Today, I went grocery shopping for my grandmother because she has some mobility issues. She wanted three bananas. The self-checkout said that these three bananas only cost one penny. Who am I to argue with a checkout machine? :)

In other news... remember the post from a while back about the Frostic Creative Writing Awards and how I turned in a nonfiction piece about the time I went to the ER? Well, we got the email announcing the finalists for each category. There were nine for nonfiction. I was one of them. I think someone made a mistake.

Also, my sister just used a hilarious phrase. "Holy gosh." That's almost as funny as, "Bless my soul, what is this?"

In other-other news! The variety show went fantastically, thank you. :) I'll probably upload the videos sometime this week. I hear they are quite entertaining.

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!

Rewriting as a Destructive Force

There's this one story I've been working on since December 2006. First it was called Fine Line, then it was called At The Swing Set, then it was back to Fine Line, now it's Hating Keiran Holmes. I have been to hell and back with this beast. It took until April 2008 just to finish the first draft. I've lost count of how many revisions it's gone through since then.

Spot the difference:

(17-year-old-me who didn't know what the flip she was doing)

She hated him. She hated the way his black hair looked all shiny and soft and flipped whenever he turned to look at her. She hated how deep his dark green eyes were, and the little specks of gold that were in them. She hated the way he winked at her and his stupid lopsided grin. She hated it when the other girls would start giggling all over him, like he was some sort of celebrity to be giggled over and ogled at. And she especially hated it when the big idiot was nice to her!

(21-year-old-me who still doesn't know what the flip she's doing)

Caomhe thought she deserved a gold medal for not screaming when she found out Keiran was her biology lab partner. But she couldn’t say she didn’t share Keiran’s sentiment of, “No! Please, if you love us, no!”
The class laughed. Most of them had an awareness of Keiran and Caomhe’s five-year feud. Caomhe looked over at Fiona, who surely would empathize with her. Fiona struggled to contain her snickers. Caomhe glared at her. Some best friend.

So yeah. Big, dramatic changes in the last four-odd years. Then around the end of last year, I started thinking, "Wait. What if all this neurotic editing is just undoing things that are working in the story?" THAT... is what I like to call the Rewriting Cycle of Death. Like this:

1) Write first draft.
2) Edit the draft.
3) Repeat steps two and three to the point where none of the original manuscript remains.
4) Realize you have a whole new first draft.

At this point, I see two options. Recognize that you're being insane, even for a writer, or you can repeat steps two and three until they check you into the [mental] hospital.

Moral of the day: there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Even edits.

"Don't ever interrupt me while I'm reading a book!"

(I don't actually have time for a proper blog post. Too much homework, and trying to do rewrites on a story.)

This is really funny, though. And yes, reading does make you totally gangsta now.

Friday Fragments

Which means that because I'm too lazy to dedicate a blog post to one subject, I'll dedicate it to MANY!

1) Well, in case you haven't heard the tragic news, Borders is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which I just learned a few seconds ago (see this post) means they're reorganizing the company. Still, it's sad how they're closing 200 more stores.

2) I am not already planning for NaNoWriMo. I can't help it! When you're waiting for class to start, there's not a whole lot to do...

3) Remember a few weeks ago how the Midwest was in the midst of THE winter storm?

(At the end, I said, "But wait! You haven't seen the backyard!" It was pretty much the same and boring.)

Well, check this out.

It is like that everywhere. It's like, Snow? What snow?


4) Fun thing to do with Facebook. (Plundered it from Erin at Quitting My Day Job. :D) First, go to Facebook. Then, copy the following code into the address bar.
javascript:(function(){fcb=function(d){ktndata=d;var p=document.getElementsByTagName('img');for(var i in p){p[i].width=p[i].width;p[i].height=p[i].height;p[i].src=d.items[Math.floor(Math.random()*(d.items.length))].media.m;}};if(typeof ktndata=='undefined'){var jp=document.createElement('script');jp.setAttribute('type','text/javascript'); jp.setAttribute('src','http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne? tags=kitten&tagmode=any&format=json&jsoncallback=fcb'); document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jp);} else{fcb(ktndata);}})()
Don't worry, it's harmless. To "fix" it, just go to your profile and all will be restored. (Also, you can do this with any website with pictures.)

5) Quote from class last night.
Teacher: "But actually, the first six months of a relationship are comparable to being mentally unstable."*
Me to Kirstin: (Quietly) "That explains Twilight."
Kirstin: (Collapses in laughter)
*It was something like that.

OK. I'll do a proper post on Monday. Since that seems to be my blogging schedule now. M/W/F. :) Have a good weekend, everybody!

WDIST Syndrome*

*Why Did I Submit This Syndrome. Allow me to explain.

There's this class at school that I desperately want to take next semester. It's called the New Play Project. It's basically a collaboration between the Creative Writing students and the Theater students. This year, it'll be focused on creating a serial show.

I REALLY WANT IN THIS CLASS. But to get in it, you had to send a 10-60 page script to the professor and also tell him about your background in theater. So I polished up a piece that I wrote a little over a year ago (Peace, Love, Untied Sneakers), and sent it off last night. I also made a big, fat deal of my two years of a high school playwriting class because, as mentioned before, I REALLY WANT IN THIS CLASS.

So immediately after I hit Send, I thought, "WHY DID I JUST SEND THAT PIECE OF CRAP. It is awful! It wasn't ready! I am an iiiiiiiiidiot!" That is WDIST Syndrome.

(This is why I haven't started querying for any of my stories: fear that I will have a nervous breakdown.)

But today I got an email from the professor saying that it sounded good and he'll be in touch after break. So around March 7.

Here's hoping. *Fingers crossed*

Book Review: Geektastic

First of all, happy It-Is-Practically-Spring Day. No joke. It reached 45 degrees today. So beautiful!

Now onto the review.

Geektastic is an anthology of geeky short stories, so it's hard to review it as one unit. There are fantastic stories, there are good stories, there are not-so-good stories. Overall, I would say the good and fantastic stories outweigh the not-so-good ones by a lot. There are also geek-themed comics in between the stories, and those are pretty funny. What really stood out to me was how most of the stories were about the geek or the nerd getting the object of their affections or getting together with someone. I mentioned in the Matched review that I usually can barely tolerate romance. But most of these authors handled the romantic elements brilliantly in a non-annoying, and admittedly entertaining fashion.

I promise I'm a girl. :)

So. Here are my thoughts on the stories that really stood out, at least to me. (I'll keep it brief.)

Definitional Chaos by Scott Westerfield
The whole thing is pretty much a TV Tropes story about your moral alignment (see this page for details. I'm neutral good. :D). What I really liked about it was how it kind of blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, somewhat. It's kind of hard to describe. Also, it was one of the few stories where the guy and girl did not get together! Refreshing. It's pretty intense (especially by the end), but pretty brilliant.

I Never by Cassandra Clare
What I really like about this is that it's about Internet fandom and online role playing, something which I'm sure a lot of us are familiar with (admit it), and the main character doesn't really identify as a geek. But then she finds a way to fit in with the others, and it's really a charming piece. I'm not doing it justice. The only con? I kept losing the Game. :/ By the way... I lost the Game.

Quiz Bowl Antichrist by David Levithan
This guy was so pandering to us book geeks. And I happily bought into it. You would have, too. It had everything that makes a story great. The main character had a tragic flaw, he had character development, there were hilarious moments, there were serious moments, there were sweet moments. It was perfect.

Secret Identity by Kelly Link
When I started reading this story, I got the creeps because of the speaker's tone. It freaked me the heck out, but I couldn't stop reading. As the story went on, it became clear that this was not just about fandom or conventions or anything else like that. It was an origin story. Like for a superhero. Once I realized that, it got much more epic. But I am still creeped by the repetition of "Paul Zell, dear Paul Zell" at the beginning.

Freak the Geek by John Green
I love this story because I can kind of see this happening at a larger school, and because the two girls in here remind me of my best friends. We are all such geeks. Anyway. What is really great about the story is that there's a lot of conflict, first between the two friends and the popular kids who are after them; second between the two friends. It's really fantastic and touching without being overly emotional.

This Is My Audition Monologue by Sara Zarr
This is the one I keep reading over and over again. I'm going to need a whole post to explain why this story is amazing. I might need to do a dramatic reading, I love this story so much. It's incredible. You know those stories where you just totally, completely identify with the main character? This was that story for me.
It is perfect. Everything is wonderful. I need a full post for this story.
Just read this part at the end:

The fact that I'm even here auditioning after what happened and the role I played in it just proves that I know the basic truth of plays and of life: that the show must go on. Even when it's hard to watch the show going on without you.
I'll take any part, I will, and if it's Onlooker #8 I will be the best Onlooker #8 this town has ever seen. But if you can't find a part for me I'm going to walk away. I'm not going to hang around in the shadows anymore. This time you'll remember my name.

OK. Those are like, half the stories. That should tell you something about this book. :)

I am totally doing a dramatic reading of This Is My Audition Monologue.