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!

The Hundred Theme Challenge!

When I was a wee thing, only 16 years old (this is a joke), I stumbled across something called the Hundred Theme Challenge. Thought it looked cool. Never saved the prompts. Lost track of the website forever.

AND THEN I FOUND IT. HERE. Two years ago. I've tried to make a story of the hundred themes twice now. Both attempts failed miserably.

The rules are to write a story or create some kind of art with each of these themes. If you want to try it, well, go for it. And here are the themes I'm using.

1. Beginnings
2. Middles
3. Ends
4. Insides
5. Outsides
6. Hours
7. Days
8. Weeks
9. Months
10. Years
11. Red
12. Orange
13. Yellow
14. Green
15. Blue
16. Purple
17. Brown
18. Black
19. White
20. Colourless
21. Friends
22. Enemies
23. Lovers
24. Family
25. Strangers
26. Teammates
27. Parents
28. Children
29. Birth
30. Death
31. Sunrise
32. Sunset
33. Too Much
34. Not Enough
35. Sixth Sense
36. Smell
37. Sound
38. Touch
39. Taste
40. Sight
41. Shapes
42. Triangle
43. Square
44. Circle
45. Moon
46. Star
47. Heart
48. Diamond
49. Club
50. Spade
51. Water
52. Fire
53. Earth
54. Air
55. Spirit
56. Breakfast
57. Lunch
58. Dinner
59. Food
60. Drink
61. Winter
62. Spring
63. Summer
64. Fall
65. Passing
66. Rain
67. Snow
68. Lightning
69. Thunder
70. Storm
71. Broken
72. Fixed
73. Light
74. Dark
75. Shade
76. Who?
77. What?
78. Where?
79. When?
80. Why?
81. How?
82. If
83. And
84. He
85. She
86. Choices
87. Life
88. School
89. Work
90. Home
91. Birthday
92. Christmas
93. Thanksgiving
94. Independence
95. New Year
96. Writer's Choice
97. Writer's Choice
98. Writer's Choice
99. Writer's Choice
100. Writer's Choice

Isn't it glorious?

Plotting for NaNoWriMo. Yes, already.

I don't mess around when it comes to plotting for NaNo. It's pretty much how I spend a good portion of the year.

March- May: Figuring out ideas and characters.
June- July: Deciding on an idea and working on fleshing out characters.
July-October: Plotting the entire story, beginning to end.
November: Obvious...

So these are the ideas I have for NaNo this year. So far. :D

• Step in Time to My Heart (WT, albeit one that makes me laugh): Exactly what it sounds like. It's a love story about band geeks. Yay band geeks!
• Sim Saves the Galaxy: A rewrite of NaNo '08, The Wonderful World of Imminent Doom. It's a story about this interplanetary war in a made-up galaxy called Tsu-Min. It's kind of worth the rewrite for this one line: "It's time to save the planet!"
• Key to Hadley's Soul (WT): It like an AU version of our world where people are born with these things called "soul keys" that change in appearance as the person grows. Then one of the MCs, Hadley, loses his key and he starts to forget who he is. (I like this one.)
• Level Up: A superhero story! It's about a college kid named Molly who has super strength and invisibility. Then she meets her arch nemesis who has no name yet, but he has a vast array of mind-related powers. (I like this one, too.)
• Battlefield Suburbia (WT): It's about an angel/demon war. In the suburbs. (And this one, as well.)
• Forever Saturday: Based on a lyric in an Eleventyseven song. "Every single day was a Saturday." Then I just thought, OH MAN! What if time just STOPPED and every day WAS a Saturday?! That would be crazy.

But yeah.

So, anyone weird like me and start planning for November insanely early?

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!

The Writer Nutrition Pyramid

It's a bit flawed, but then again, it's just a joke.

(I got a little bored.)

Qs for Yous*

*Title pilfered and modified from Rachelle Gardner. I am so sorry.

It's so beautiful outside that I can't concentrate on anything. I actually skipped class (OK, so that was more of the fact that I needed to go to the Secretary of State and get my registration renewed). So here are some questions for all of you out there.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? (To clarify, just in case: do you outline your stories, or do you make them up as you go along?)
I'm more of a plotter, but leave wiggle room.

Where's your starting point for writing? Do you usually think of the characters first? The basic premise? The plot? Title first? First sentence? Last sentence? A particular scene? Anything else I failed to mention?
I tend to flip-flop between the characters and the premise.

Music while you write?
Only instrumental here. Can't concentrate if it has words.

And now it's your turn. :)

Because the video isn't working.

Here's a song called I Am The First Fifty Digits of Pi. It's kind of amazing.

The aforementioned proper post.

So I finally heard about the New Play Project. And I got in. :D It actually turns out that one of my old classmates from EfA Drama and Screenwriting in high school is in the class, too. I don't know if I mentioned what we're actually going to be doing in the class. We're going to be writing a live serial over the semester, so that'll be really cool.

In honor of National Pi Day, here's a math-related love poem containing all the math concepts I understand. :) It's called Casting Nines.

If I were casting nines
And I cast out you
I’d cast out seven
And then me two

If we were a triangle
You’d be Leg B
I’d be Leg A
So the hypotenuse is you and me

If I was X
And you were Y
Then our love would be
(xy)2 = ∏

You’re my common denominator
My other digit and radius
The 1 degree who makes 360
Dividing by zero would destroy us

(xy)2 / 0 = ………

But since you’ve been gone
Since you left me
Our right triangle
Became my isosceles

I was casting nines
I cast out you
So I’ll cast out seven
And then me two.

Have a nice day, everybody.

Happy Pi Day!

I scheduled this entry to post automatically at 3:14 in the morning. Well, EST.

Now here's what pi sounds like.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Proper post later. At 3:14 in the afternoon. :D

Sorry about that.

Here's a puppy.

An Appeal for Sanity to Michigan's Governor

(I know I have this tendency to get borderline political at times. But dang it, I am angry and I have a blog. With that being said...)

Dear Governor Snyder,

Let me tell you about my younger sister Laura. She's a better person than you'll ever be, so please attend carefully. Laura loves to sing and dance. She was in ballet last year, and she used to participate in Challenger League every year. She loves watching movies with the close caption on so she can copy down the words, and I swear she can act out entire movies by herself. She is funny and yes, she's spoiled, but she's spoiled sweet. She's endlessly supportive of everything everyone does - pretty much the world's #1 fan.

Yeah, Laura was diagnosed with moderate autism when she was two. Thankfully, she got a lot of support and help from WMU's ABA studies, the Croyden Avenue school, and lots of other schools with AI classrooms. It certainly helped that both my parents work with developmentally disabled adults. She graduated from Schoolcraft High School back in 2009 with her friend Travis. It was probably one of the happiest days of her life.

And let me tell you something about her teachers. They worked so hard with her. They taught her how to handle some everyday tasks, they got her involved in choir and gym, and they even pitched in and bought her a trophy when she graduated. And my sister, though a delight, can be a drama queen.

Let's cut to you. You are cutting all the wrong things. Get a clue, guy - when you start taking money from education, people get angry. People start wondering what they were on last November. And when you start taking money from education, here's some news. That affects their actual education. Now we're seeing special education cuts in schools all over the state. Over in Allegan, they are talking about just putting special ed students in regular ed classes. Even though these kids have completely different needs. That makes total sense.

It's bad enough that you're cutting from what the government apparently considers the expendable industry (it's more than obvious they think that), but now you are taking help from people who really need it. Hey, Mr. Snyder? At which point are you going to start twirling your moustache?

The rate of autism is not decreasing. 1 in 125 kids were diagnosed with it in 2009. This year, it's 1 in 110. Schools need proper funding to give them the education they need. Stop wearing your stupid hat and think of a better plan.

Sincerely,
Carissa Hanson

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.