Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate) and happy holidays...
I hope everyone is enjoying the break from school and time at home :) I know I have!
For Christmas (which was this morning, a few minutes ago) I got AMAZING stuff! There was everything I wanted and more, and it was a nice day and (amazingly) the cat and dog behaved - even if they were close together and wearing hideous collars (Garfield) and scary things that he had to sniff (Odie).
First of all, I got a book called the Maze Runner (left) and Wings, (above right with butterfly-thing).
So, I didn't exactly get any pictures - I couldn't find my camera - but I did see the torch pass by! It was -12 degrees and took forever (seriously, 30 police cars, a fire truck, a Coke truck... it was like the Prime Minister was carrying the torch!) but the person came with all the fire and awesomeness of the pretty 2010 Winter Olypmics clothes (I LOVE how they look!)
The torch looks amazing, and when I followed it up to the fairgrounds/library they were having an interview with the torch bearer (her name was Laura, which is the same as my cousin!).
So dim that spotlight, tell me things like I can't take my eyes off of you I'm no one special, just another wide-eyed girl Who's desperately in love with you Give me a photograph to hang on my wall Superstar
I love this song! It's so much like.. how I feel and connections... (haha, no, I'm not in love with a superstar. Well, not the superstars you know...)
Hope you're having fun getting ready for Christmas!
Sarah
My hand KILLS. Possibly both and I have no idea why. My mom is taking me to see the doctor on Wednesday... (hopefully I can get out of art class!)
I feel horrible about not completing NaNoWriMo... but I'm going to give myself 5 days after this is all over with to finish :P. Then I will feel accomplished, lol.
How was your November?
I'm having troubles in my life right now... not to describe them too much, they are to do with the facts that I want everything perfect (extreme perfectionist), can't just shush about some stuff, and others don't have or want to show their direct, strong opinion. Ahh :S
On another note, school has been going... horrible, but surviving it. It's mainly the people who are bugging me right now ;)
According to the radio, today is World Hello Day. Cool! Just say hello to 10 people (or write it 10 times) and well... you've participated. :)
As for NaNo, I have a pretty spotty progress chart. Some days, I just sit down and write my heart out, and then others I write my character's heart out because I can't think of anything else. I am getting there, however, and 30k is a BIG accomplishment. I know I can do 50, this is the best I've done (last year was worse, believe me). I haven't even used any cheats yet, like the Find&Replace can't to can not and names to their full name. You can get about a 1000 words out of that, and then another 1000 words for long, long, lonnnnggggg chapter headings.
But right now I don't even have chapter headings! Whooo!
Although I did make the messy mistake of killing a ghost like a human, I'm getting over that because I hated the dude (Ethan) and just wanted him dead - I can make his soul forget what a human shape looks like later :)
I just found out that I didn't win the contest at my library. I really thought I was going to win it.. and now I'm just plain sad.
Why do I write? Someone my age who doesn't seem at all writerly (just one of those "I'm writing a book about my life story" people) got an honourable mention. Mehh..
Am I actually a good writer? Sure, I can write fast. Sure, I'm obsessed with it. Sure, I've written lots of words, but as they actually good words?
In a state on confusion,
Sarah
P.S. Read more so see what I submitted. Sure I wrote it a while ago because I can't write short stories very often, but I had hope, you know?
NaNoWriMo is going better than I thought yesterday, but not as great as I thought a few days ago. I'm at a part that usually would have made me avoid the computer for days.. but instead, I blasted through the biggest chunk of that today!
Go me?
Right now what has happened to Echo, my main character is this:
In grade one, we had to write a poster of November. Most of them followed the teacher's style, like:
No Light
No Fun
No Colour
No vember
Right now, mine would be:
No Time
No Blogs
No One to talk to
No Writing perfection
No vember
Hence this: I have no time what so ever with NaNoWriMo (where my account is here). I was going to blog (Ha, what on earth happened to that?), get ahead for NaNo, and all this other fun and impossible stuff.
Shall we say I'm amazing? It took me a morning to make this amazing spreadsheet for NaNoWriMo.
And trust me when I say it's amazing. I was working on it for 4 hours; perfecting every last formula and testing it half a gazillion times.. and now I absolutely love it!
In case you want to see/use it, you can open it by clicking here or for non-Vista (I hope this works) here, and then for both clicking the link again (needs Excel to work). It doesn't exactly work as a page because the formulas don't really show.
Still, I think it's amazing. I added in comments because I got bored, and didn't want my future self to screw it up. But the rest of it is pure genius.
Anyways, still on the NaNo note, The Reincarnater is becoming pretty well planned. I think I might lay off the planning a bit though, and just have one event per day instead of one for every odd paragraph. That could take the fun out of writing... if that's even possible!
Yesterday and the Friday before that I went skating with my boyfriend - no falling for either of us! I was proud.
So, I'm starting to get busy. Most of it's self-induced business - extra homework really just anything to keep my mind of the downward spiral of my life. But moreover, blogging has been getting hard. I also just don't have anything to write about!
Sure, I could tell you that in The Reincarnater, Echo G'Allen looks like this: ('cept slightly see-through and greyer)
For Business Technology, our term project is to find 20 articles about information technology, write a summary for each, and present in a scrap book. Because November will be pretty busy for me, I've started early on the assembling part of this project. The more I get done now, the less I'll have to rush in December.
Lately I've been getting busy. Really, I should be more busy, but I think this is busy enough for me.
I have had the time to get a for-now title for my NaNo - The Reincarnater. I named it that (with the help friends) because there's a legend about the No-Zone, the all ghosts know - kinda like Little Red Riding Hood, but it's about a group of people that live in a No-Zone and know the ancient ways of wisdom, how to make sense of all things ghost-like and human, etc. That's why Echo goes to the No-Zone nearest her in the first place - but that’s a different No-Zone, not the special one. Still, almost every No-Zone has a group of escapees in it, so it’s fine that the legend goes unfixed because it’s a secret way of telling them to go to a No-Zone. Also, in another No-Zone the legend is real, because that's where the Reincarnaters - the people Echo becomes on of at the end to save all ghosts - hang out between their journeys around the world reincarnating people. That's where she meets the last Reincarnater (should I add the Last in to the title?) who says that she is the only one he's found with the right personality and beliefs for the job (not even Nike) and in his dying breath gives her the power, which she activates sending an old ghost back. From then on she gets a slight tug where ever a ghost is, because all ghosts need to be reincarnated. Even people who don't want to leave tug, like Nike. But Nike decides to follow her (trying to avoid that decision whether he should or not, though) and such... etc.
I, proud to say it, have updated InVincible with a sweet 2-page segment about death. Uh-huh, I rock.
The story about writing it goes like this: It's the girls change room, and the grade 11 girls are back 10 minutes before the grade 9's. 10 minutes, and all of the little niners stuff is thrown all over the room. Ransacked. Wallets missing, ipods, iphones, everything. Even a sweater went "missing". It must have been a pretty amazing ten minutes, because one of my friend's wallet and iphone were stolen out of the bottom of her backpack, and someone took my ipod, Iggy, out of my bag where it had been in a zippered pocket. That's two zippers, a binder, clothing, paper and pencils they went through to get a $50 ipod.
Whoohoo. Congradulations. You just won some Billy Talent and stalker-like photos of a girl's life.
I hate you.
With passion.
So, frankly, I was depressed last night. Very, very depressed. And, when I get depressed, a great way to get out the depressed-ness is too write. So I did. And it ended up being InVincible I wrote, because it's my violent book and I thought this would end up violent. Excerpt below.
(k, so I'm trying out the 'Read More' thing -- IT WORKED!!! --)
This design is different, obviously, and I like it more - this sort of thing can never be perfect, but it's close. I think it's pretty "caliginous" too, lol. There are some "Home", "Comments RSS" and "Posts RSS" links at the very top, and links to Empyrean, InVincible and New Story at the posting-top. PLEASE give me your thoughts and ideas about the new design!
On another note, I saw Fame, a movie about a preforming arts school. It's pretty good, if not a little rushed into 1 hr 47 minutes. In it, from one of my favourite TV shows So You Think You Can Dance (of which there is also So You Think You Can Dance Canada!) is Kerrington Payne, a dancer. It's pretty cool. My favourite character is Jenny Carrison, played by Kay Panabaker.
Editing Empyrean is at 5 pages... whoohoo. I think I'll have to re-do page 5 though, because I edited it worse, not better.
Later!
Sarah
P.S. For NaNoWriMo, I've decidedly chosen my New Story. I have about 2 pages of overall event jot notes, half a page character profile for 1 or the 2 main characters and slight world-building. Will update with more character/villian and worldbuilding stuff later. 27 days will NaNo!
Not exactly sure about all the details right now, just that it'll be written for NaNoWriMo this November. If you haven't checked out NaNo already, do so now! I did it last year, and that's the reaosn I started blogging, how I met Kori, and got my very first novel out.
The main idea of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month - November. There's lots of ways to do this, and lots of cheats too ;) (like loooonnnnggggg chapter titles, would not 's instead of wouldn't's, etc... although I, of course.. didn't use any.. *coughnocough*). So, it's pretty hard, but the satisfaction of winning is just too good to be true.
Anyways, the New Story!
Here is my 10-minute summary:
It's 3013, the world has reached overpopulation and near
destruction. Now, it's controlled by one
single Government - a highly efficient system in which every living being's
voice is heard.
But what if you aren't living? Over time, the ways of the ghosts has been
forgotten, and now the passage to a new life has been forgotten entirely. For the first time, ghosts have shown
themselves to not only a few humans, but the entire population and government. Now allowed to live like citizens in small
highly-guarded villages, the government says they will be safe from the
companies who want to control and experiment on them.
But things are no longer so safe, and in Echo G’Allen’s
town of 50 ghosts, there are daily attacks by annoyed humans who think the
ghosts should go back into hiding – or leave forever. Unable to explain why they can’t leave, the
government is becoming more and more distrusting to the ghosts. After her family is killed, Echo realizes she
can’t stay any more. Leaving her town,
she sets off to the infamous No-Zone, a radioactive, nuclear-testing site that’s
found its way into all of the ghost’s legends and fairytales.
It's not finished, and definitely not final, but that's what I have right now. The main character's name is Echo G'Allen (the G was added because she's a ghost family) and she goes out of her village and meets Nike (n-EYE-k) who doesnt really like ghosts, but joins her anyways. After getting to the place, there is a village (after a while of dissapointed looking) but Nike dies in the process. He becomes a ghost, which he isn't happy about, especially because he's supposed to have special powers - the reason why he was on the run and met Echo in the first place). He does, only after he gets kidnapped... he can make things just materialize out of thin air, which is amazing. Echo can sometimes control electric currents, but after experimenting can cause lightning and extraordinary things - with extreme pain and such as the verdict.
Here's some of my two-second plotline notes:
·Ghost girl in a ghost world
·Ghosts used to hide, or use special ways to get
back
oNow with pop. They are running out of ghost
space
oGhost towns are guarded and imprisoned
oIf they leave, there are agencies going to
experiment
oSome ghosts have special abilities, some more
§Mother – healer
§Father – animals, vegetarian family
§Brother – nothing
§Most powerful in village – only rumoured, but an
old druggie geezer can occasionally cause some sparks to fly
·Wants to get to Nowhere, a past nuclear testing site,
where all the ghost fairytales and stuff takes place
oShe can occasionally stop an eclectic current,
so she can get out – had to keep that power HIDDEN from everyone or else they
would do something bad – a friend of hers said it out loud and was taken away
oMeet dude along the way, become friends
"Now, you can do one of two things. You can run, or you
can hide."
"I really don't see why I can't just punch you in the face."
§He dies in the end, but becomes a ghost
·They were trying to keep him alive because he’s
supposed to have special ghost powers
oBecause of that people trying to kill him
oEquals out = ghostgirl is wanted to be
captured/tested on too, so they stick together
oGet to site, see one hazy form – part 1 end
·There’s a whole community of people – maybe 200,
compared to the 50 of her last village
oIt can take up to a month for the ghost to rise
out of the dude
§Girl must wait, become part of village life
·Hears people talk about other groups, more
secret ghost villages rising
·Ghosts shouldn’t have to hide, this isn’t right
·Revolutions are in the planning – raids are
organized to go out and get ghosts out of the prison towns
oGirls wants to join, trains like most people her
age
oGoes on raid back to homeland, guy wakes up
§Freaks and goes looking for her
§When she comes back he’s gone, must go looking
for him
§magical disturbences lead to him getting
captured,
"Don't you ever shut up? No
wonder your friends aren't coming to rescue you."
§she gets herself captured
§meets him, crazy things going off, kiss and
there’s a heart-shaped bed, which turns into a rampant cow with heart spots
·can make things appear if tries really hard
·gets gun and gets out!
§Can’t go back home, big settlement found out,
whole area unsafe see after coming over
last hill
I was only two dozen feet from sanctuary, and standing in my
way was the man sent to kill me.
"Okay, maybe I can technically survive its loss, but I
still happen to be rather fond of my head; specifically, how it's attached to
my neck."
§Turn around, where now?
·Meet a dying ghost - usually never done, he says hints only on how to die themselves, find it (way) for the rest of the ghosts
That's my really, really, really quick idea-mode session. Girl is Echo, boy is Nike,and the quotes are quotes I found on the Adopt-A-Line which I would love to use. It also didn't copy&paste all too well, so bare with the bad formatting. I had layered bullets in the real thing, lol, because I'm a weirdo organized nerd.
That being mainly what I have at the moment, can you guys think of any plot-fixes and such to suggest? I'm open to suggestion ALL the time with writing, and I have a pretty thick skin so dunt worry :)
(Weirdly enough, I like it when I get essays back with red pen ALL over)
Sarah P.S. will update with photos I find later, probably tomorrow or Monday.
Okay, going along as a conformist here, I've made a new blog. I've called it Insight and have turned off the comments.... I have my reasons. I'm planning for it to be not only different than this one, but also shorter and more about my thoughts, so this one can be more about writing and my life.
That's pretty much it folks :)
Also, I'm on page FOUR of editing Empyrean! It's amazing! I've looked up agents too, just in case ;) - although I have a long way to go... about 2 years of editing... but the morale is good :D
Horrendous cold-ish thingy - headache, swimming sensation, pressurized world, stuffy nose and dry throat (but not when I talk, only when I swallow). Fun, right?
Plus with the whole highschool thing going on, I don't think it'd be a good idea to miss class - no sick days for Sarah, hommes et femmes. Most days see all pretty important - or so it seems to a goody-two-shoe.
The only good thing in the near future is the Fall Fair - games, rides, cute little bunnies and friends galore? Sounds good to me! (I just hope this horrendous thing goes away by the time I get there.... urgh).
Anyways, Empyrean is going well, seeing as it's the #3 thing on my recently opened list, and has been there for a while. Right now I'm just editing the boring, read-a-thousand-times beginning.. making the fire scene longer and adding up suspense, family ties and other stuff before she goes to the school. I think I've made a lot of progress ;-)
In Buisness tech class we studied ergonomics (which included a 20-minute speech on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from my teacher who had the surgery done to him - very, very, very detailed. And, I'm really sorry but I never managed to take a picture of my wonderful artwork for Art, but expect something sometime soon. In gym we're learning that it's normal to drink a bathtub's fill of pop a year and that ceasar salad is sometimes worse off calorie-wise than pizza (seriously, they're telling a room full of nearly anorexic girls that they are probably eating too much calories, fat and sugars. Greaatttt.) You guys already know what I'm up to in geo though, so I wont bore you again.
Odie turned ONE on the 20th! My little baby puppy-boy is growing up... but he doesnt act much different! (Besides gourging on GRASS).
Speaking of grass, I went to the park with my friends and there were these people (6 or something) doing weed. Oh, the wonders of high school.
And, I would just like to point out that me and my other friend left, but not before I saw my cousin. Not sure if he was doing it, but apparently he was another time.
Oh, my.
And that's the same cousin who told me to "have a safe walk" when I got accidentally dropped off at his house.
The feeling I'm getting right now is definately not a good one.
For homework this weekend I have 2 different maps of Canada due: one of the cities, provinces and such, and the other of the rivers, mountains and lakes. Both need to be coloured.
Do you know how hard it is to colour all the tiny, minuscule islands in Nunavut and the North West Territories?
There's Canada. It's annoying to colour - I envy people who don't have to colour maps of their country or the tiny islands. But I still like Canada - I mean, it's only us who come up with names like Moosejaw, Great Bear Lake and Churchill (which my friend illustrated on a map with a hill and a church).
Plus, as a random connected fact, there's an island called "Devon Island", which looks like a whale and was really hard to find - but here it is:
See if you can find that on the main map! It's WAY up there - like, no one lives there and there's an ice research facility and all. Plus it can get down to -50 degrees Celsius in the winter. Devon Island also probably doesn't see daylight for a month or two during the winter because of the earth's rotation.
So, fun geography lesson?
I've also been editing a little, and I read a really good book: Wild Roses by Deb Caletti. Well, I think it's pretty good - sorta girly, but still good. I have a craving for guns though - solid, strong action movies. Like Gamer. Has anyone seen that? I really want to!
What are these things? These wierd stops in the middle of school.... weekends? Yes, I think it's called a weekend...
Odd.
Facts About The Newly Discovered Weekends:
They provide dates for things like a soccer tournement
They provide chances to sleep in (although the chance has so far gone untaken)
They provide chances to stay up late (again, untaken)
They let you invite friends over (taken for tomorrow! :D yay)
They let you find time to write. Note the excerpt below.
They bring about boredom which I suffer from right now.
So, I'm bored. This morning I had a soccer tournament, in which the previously last team came in first, and the second last (my team) came in second! Whoohoo!! I rocked at soccer today, despite the headache, sun, wet grass and hurting all over. Ouch, but it was still fun. Plus, I get this pretty metal. Go me!
Tomorrow I think one of my friends is coming over... not sure what we're doing - but I know before he comes, I'll need to spend at least 4 hours cleaning my room. During the school week I don't have time to clean it, and now the floor has gone missing.
Also, I've written an added bit of Empyrean - now 47,000 words. This happens at the beginning, when she's in a burning building, 6 years old, and about to discover her power. I think it's pretty good, especially for a situation I'd deemed impossible to add on to earlier. Who knew?
I love this song! It's on repeat and I can't make it stop.. and I don't want to!
Ahh?
Yup, something weird is definitely up.
Anyways, I officially have a locker! 1513, they gave me the wrong code... and now it works! And it's an awesome lock - not stuck or bad like the other locks... hehe.
School's going pretty good, my art teacher/class is deranged, but hilarious, and the business tech is pretty good too - exactly how I thought it'd be. Geography is also really funny, because it has almost all of my old extended friends, and a teacher who can't keep us quiet :P
Also, I've been editing, nerding, and looking at InVincible... no writing yet, but I can feel it coming.
Highschool, for some odd reason, didn't totally suck. Sure, it was some really dumb "Great Start" day where we went to out classes for 15 minutes and then watched movies about bullying/anorexia, but still.
All my teachers are pretty nice, especially my gym and geographie ones. Still haven't found my locker... (I found 1512 and 1514, but 1513 isn't there or across the hall or anywhere, as far as I can see (or any other odds). But I asked my gym/homeroom teacher and no one else can find our lockers either, so its all ok.. I guess.
Exhausted though.
I'll update more later - I started editing Empyrean! A good start, I say, on the first page. Then, I think I'll print it out and edit again on paper (not just comp. edit cuz you don't get anything).
Sorry for the OOCness.... but it does some what apply because I'm battling being without my friends/boyfriend in high school.
So, I though I'd share my own list (one of my friends did this on her private site) :
My Perfect Boyfriend
Would call to say goodnight
Would go Ice Skating... because although I hate it, it's also very romantic and sweet.
NOT kiss in front of friends. Or a camera, etc. Weirdos. That's just plain freaky.
Say cute things.... but only the best ones - the best ones I google for and save for my male protagonists. That way I'd have some super cute and meaningful ones to put in my story.
Compliments never killed anyone. Neither did words like beautiful, or even gorgeous (IF applicable, though)
Would say things I believe, believably.
Touch hair... because I like my hair, and me and my friends are always fiddling with it (or more me) so why can't he?
Tell stuff... maybe not the deepest darkest secret, but stuff that the average person doesn't know.
Hand-holding and such is nice too... so are hugs. Not all the time, but a lot of it.
Would write letters/emails. Because reading+friends=my life (besides writing+blogging)
Understand that I'm a hopeless romantic at heart... because I'm considering myself that right now. I just might need some serious help.
Okay, with that over and done, here is another song I like:
My principal's funeral is today. At 2 o'clock. I don't think I'm going, because I was just one student in a school of 600 - a school which she'd been at for 7 or 8 years. I'm not even sure she knew my name.
But really, all that matters is that I knew hers.
Mrs. Scott missed my Graduation because cancer, which she'd already fought off once, was back - but she still tried to come and asked for the ceremony to be taped so she could watch it later. From the hospital, I guess.
She died on the last day of August.
I think she was the best principal I've ever had - out of the 5 I've had. She tried to get to know each student individually with things like an exit portfolio and was always around the halls talking to students. A lot of people made fun of her because it was rumored she wore a wig - from kimotherapy.
I really can't believe Mrs. Scott died, it was probably the first death of someone I knew personally - I've had 2 different relatives die, but I've hardly ever met them. I saw Mrs. Scott every school day for the past two years of my life.
But she did die. And as unbelievable as it is, I have to accept that.
So, I'm back. My new-ish computer now has internet (thanks to my sister and a computer-geek friend) and I can officially post from JaceSterling!
Amazing moment.
But moving on, I figured out my classes for grade 9 at high school! Here they are:
Term 1 Period 1: Gym Period 2: Buisness Technoligy Period 3: LUNCH! Period 4: Geography (In French) Period 5: Art
Term 2 Period 1: Extended French Period 2: Math Period 3: LUNCH! Period 4: English <3 Period 5: Science
Notice that I have all the easy subjects in my first term, and the harder ones in second? Fun, fun, fun... I think I'll either become a super nerd second term or help my friends with their homework so I know the material first term, lol.
A sad note is that I don't have that many classes with my best friends, which is understandable.. but I still wish it was better.
InVincible and Empyrean are going slowly, but at least they aren't moving backwards, right? I hope I'll get some new stuff to talk about soon.. an excerpt or something is kind of needed right now. (Oh, and in Empyrean my teacher agrees that killing Quint was a good idea :D haha).
It's the sequel to The Hunger Games, which is also amazing. Both are by Suzanne Collins, an amazing author. She doesn't have many books out, but her other (somewhat younger) series is about 5 books, so The Hunger Games has hope of getting a third, maybe fourth book. Definitely a third - these books leave major cliffhanger endings. It's amazing. Plus, all though the book, there's not really anything I would change. It's very, very well written. And twisty. And amazing. In short, I love these books.
I'll update later - maybe about my first day of school...
Right Now: pulling an all nighter while parents are gone.... which may sound kinda not-so-great, but including the fact that I've baked, played sims and cleaned our entire washroom and kitchen with my sister, I think that thought needs to be re-thought.
Sims: Once again, I love Sims 3! I even made myself; bookworm, clumsy, genius, hydrophobic, friendly and all. Seriously, it took aout half an hour for my eyes to be right - grey, green, blue... really hard to get :P ended up with it perfectly, my parents even agreed. Ge me :P
Writing: What can I say.. lost muse? Empyrean, InVincible... everything has stalled. I just don't think summer works well for writing, with me at least.
School: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have I ever mentioned that I'm starting highschool? Reuniting with my old school, some of which I'd hoped to forget forever? Plus I'm meeting about 400 new faces, new teachers, and one big first impression. I'm so nervous, I've been reading all my sister's 17 magazines (esecially the back-to-school issues!). I think I have something to wear, but a few days ago I was shopping and found this:
Beautiful, right? I'm seriously in love with a jacket (who knew?). The only problem is that it costs about 95$.... and although I have 110$, if I bought it and the other stuff I need to get I'd be 15$ in debt, or more.
Although... beautiful jacket on first day of school? One of the only materialistic wants I've ever had? Sounds supremely tempting. Any ideas?
Other: As a random side note, the internet is still not on my computer. Again, sorry for the absense (if I did have an interneted computer, I'd be taking/bothering a lot more). It's really my dad's job, and he's been really busy. Hopefully by September though.. we're getting close!
Music: Oohhh... I found a song that's kinda like InVincible! When I get back to writing, I promise I'm going to listen to this... (even if it makes the story sappy..)
Totally love that song. And the band, too. They usually have happy love songs (my favourite, cuz right now for me they should be happy :P :D lol)
Movies: I saw G.I.Joe! It's incredibly corny and there's major character flaws, but overall a pretty good movie that makes you actually happy after watching it... which most movies I've see lately, like The Dark Knight and Lord Of The Rings.
Sincerely your midnight writer,
Sarah
:)
P.S. Appologies if I seem a little out of sorts... Timbits are really, really good :)
Right now I'm grounded from the computer, and will be for the next two weeks. But, computer-a-holic me just has to sneak on, right? :P
Anyways, here are some pictures I took during a day of my life... hope you like them :)
My bed... where I woke up this morning, obviously. Note the total mess of things and the nice orange pillow :D I'm soo lazy.
My beautiful cat, Garfield, slept beside me. The first thing I did when I woke up was pet him <3
Then I had breakfest - a bagel with peanut butter, watermelon on the side.
I talked to my boyfriend, Cam, on the phone for a while.
Then fiddled with my computer (gasp! Who says I can't go on when no one's around to stop me?)
Then I read a book. (I read the Host. :$ I know, it's against everything I beleive in, but it's much deeper than Twilight. I really, really like it).
Then, whilst being on the phone again, I took a picture of my hair. It was a lot harder than you think.
Ok, so I know the day isn't over yet, but I'll try to edit or post part 2 later - not sure when I'll be able to get back on though, so don't hold your breath :(
Oddly enough, the summer started out boringly simple... and now, it's a mass confusion.
I'm leaving for camping tomorrow, and won't be back until Tuesday. Usually I hate camping and beg my parents not to go, but this time I actually want to(we're also bringing our dog, Odie <3 so that's part of the reason why.. also because I haven't gone camping in ages). But the problem is that me and my parents have been fighting a lot - which regularly sucks, but in the close quarters of a trailer 3 hours away from home? I'll be lucky to survive. My parents and I haven't have a normal conversation with out insult or yelling for weeks.. maybe May, I think, was the latest time. And that didn't last long - nothing good has lasted for the last two years, and it's really getting unbareable. I mean, it's getting to be almost impossible to think highly of myself when I have people who apparently love me saying I'm selfish and rude and such a horrible person. (There's other things too, all along the lines of horrible). The sad thing is I believe it entirely. Tortured soul.
Also, I think I just may have dissapeared off the face of the planet for some certain friends... and ditched them. I really didn't mean to.. it's all confusing.
But that's what happens when I have fun, lol.
Yesteday I went to Wonderland with another one of my friends - it was really, really fun. I think we went on about 19 rides - a lot of them more than once. For you people who don't know what Wonderland is, it's an amusement part kind of like Disney Land - except, although it used to be owned by Paramount, it's now lost the rights to the little kidie shows and has just normal rides. Normal, awesome rides - like the Behemoth (the one in the picture). It's the newest ride there and superdeedooperdee fun -and comfortable, even in the rain (it was raining there in the morning :P). It's so confortable, that even though you feel like your about to die going up, your not so worried, because you're dying confortably. Yup, that's how I think.
Anyways, the one thing in my life that has not screwed up yet (yet) is InVincible - although I just may have lost my latest copy of it switching computers... but probably not. (Although, the reason why InVincible hasn't screwed up is because it's inanimate and it can't.. lucky me :P). I've planned it all in jot-notes am starting to write the end, because I just can't wait (I mean, jumping out of an exploding helicopter? Spy school? Wings coming back? Sounds like fun to me!) to write it. Jamie... Jamie Pellar... seriously, is it sane to dream about your MMC? Because I have, and have a lot - mainly just about him jumping out the the plane, and getting shot at by his brother.. I'm dreaming the scenes I don't have time to write.. too bad I can't just put the video in there in place of the words, haha. That'd be a LOT faster! Anyways, Jamie Pellar/Vince has also taken life in Sims 3... where I've made him a criminal. Oooh.. fun :D
Speaking of Sims 3, it is THE awesomest game ever! I don't use the cheats (unless I need something, like a beautiful house.. but usually I just marry a rich sim) which in the Sims 1 was almost impossible.. but I love this! I'm not much of a gamer person, so I don't have much to say, just it's awesome and lifelike and... er.. I love it, simple as that. :D (although it did randomly screw up and delete my games.. but my sister was on when it did that so she could'v done something).
Anyways, I should finish packing. I'll update later, hopefully with something more interesting than the tragic life of a teen.
S a r a h
P.S. I would just like to say that...
I WON MY SOCCER GAME!!!!!!
First game I've played in that we won! And I was beginning to think I was bad luck... :D I did a ton of amazing kicks (like a pro defencer!) and helped the goalie save a goal... (not to mention got hit in the leg, stomache, shoulder and knee, and got tripped, fallen on and the other team stomped on my feet with cleats :( but still!) WE WON! Did I mention the amazing kicks? Uh-huh? Well, just add another amazing onto them.. I passed the ball to the person who assisted the winning goal.. and got the ball away from their star player...
I rocked. Even after a day at Wonderland - and was SO tired :P
(Oh, and also we had an 8-year-old on our 12-14-year-old team.. who was soo adorable, but helped too :D)
Finally, I'm back on track. It's my goal to write at least 800 words a day, and so far I'm having no trouble doing that (though it is still freezing down there, and I have to wear a thousand layers of clothes... when it's 30 degrees celcius!) and InVincible is at 16,200 words right now. Yesterday I jot-notedly planned the rest of the story, and I think it'll be about 120,000 words - though I really want to break into the 150's.
Here's an excerpt of what I wrote.
P.S. this is an extreme rough draft - because the NaNoWriMo writing style worked for me (otherwise it's hard to write because my inner critic is a beeper) so please don't judge this or think I'm a bad writer or anything. Please. (I'm a little bit more insecure about this piece because I was really trying to get a guyish look on things.... lately Vince has become somewhat girly).
InVincible
She even insisted on walking me home.
“This is where you live?”Our backup for tailings, a tall apartment building with relatively low security, admitted our access.
“Yes.”
“And your parents are what?”
“Never said what they were.”
“So tell me.”I was trying to avoid looking in her eyes but she caught me, and I couldn’t look away.
“Dead.”
She looked shocked and I almost liked it – it was hard to find something to shock Wings.I’d only seen her four times, but each time she’d been so used to weirdness and adaptable in any situation, I’d actually spent some time thinking about a way to surprise her.But I’d never admit it, just as I would have never admitted my parents were dead – even if it was only to me.That was private.She hadn’t needed to know, but now she was looking at me and trying to share my grief.I’d made a mistake telling her, opening up, and it was partially her fault.Still, I needed to fix it.
“They’re dead, to me.”I tried, then as she opened her mouth to prompt me with more questions, “it’s too complicated to explain.”
“Okay.”Relief flooded my veins, and I pulled out the old fashioned key which would have no use on this door.I faked realizing this, and dug around in my empty pockets.
Wings just stared, trying to find more words.“Who’s apartment is this?”The questions started again.
“My brothers, but I forgot my key.”
She looked worried.
“It’s ok, we hid one around here just in case.”A smile lit up the dark space.“But I can’t show you where.My brother would kill me.”
“Oh.”She frowned, “Is it Paul?”
“What?” I exclaimed.
“Paul, is he your brother?”
I decided to let her have it, even if it wasn’t true, just to end the questions and get rid of her.
“Yes, goodbye.”
“Bye.”She turned, then turned back to me, smiling again.“I knew it was Paul because he has the same jaw line as you and he looks like he could kill someone.”
I had to admit, I was surprised.Not only about the similar face shape Wings thought we shared, but the idea of him killing someone.She definitely wasn’t wrong about his abilities, but one thing bothered me.
“Do I look like I could kill someone?”
She smiled, as if her answer was good.I wasn’t so sure she knew what the ‘good’ answer would be.“Nope, your too nice, and your arms aren’t as thick.Paul could strangle you to death with one arm.”
She left, but I stood there for a few moments before heading down the fire escape.Her face was still on my mind, burned into my eyelids.She didn’t know that you hardly needed any muscle at all to strangle someone, but nonetheless she thought Paul was stronger than me.She thought I couldn’t kill someone.
I geared up into a slow run as I wound down the street leading to the warehouse.It was an insult, I was sure, to tell a trained killer he didn’t look like he could kill someone.I could kill anyone.I could kill her, although for some reason I didn’t want to do it.I’d had plenty of opportunities though.
But what about our faces?I’d never looked hard enough to compare my looks to anyone else, hardly even cared about them.But Paul, it was plain to see, was pretty good looking.Stocky, constant 5 o’clock shadow, and deep dark eyes made our boss literally beg him to go on cash.For the sake of the Mass, he’d tried, but the amount of stupid, flirty girls he couldn’t stand had made him quit before he lost his mind.I’d never had any girl look at me twice, which I took to be a very good sign.But Paul’s looks were something to be dreamed about in your utmost weirdest and nearing girly thoughts.Wings thought I had a piece of those?That was a compliment – but if I accepted, what would happen?
George opened the door for me.His hair was wet with water, and soap covered his face.“So, I heard you’ve gots a girlfriend.”
I ignored him, but Peter had caught on to what George said.He whooped, then yelled “Little Vince has got a girlfriend!”
“No I don’t!”
“Yes you do!” Leddie laughed.My face turned red, and I rapidly tried to control my emotions.This was not the behavior of any of the Bishops subjects, and definitely not the Mass’s either.
I rushed away to my room, still struggling to be indifferent.I hesitated before opening the door, my unnatural sixth sense feeling something my conscious mind had not.I opened the door, ready for anything.
A hand came out from behind the door, grabbing my face and banging my head against the doorframe.I struggled to stay conscious, the hours of training at the Bishop’s school kicking in after their long dormant sleep.Immediately, I dropped to the ground, rushing through the steps of kicking the legs of my opponent – who cares who it was – and getting back up.But he was ready for that, pining me to the ground the moment I dropped.The move was a simple one, but it was hardly protective and once caught, hard to get out of.But I knew how.Spitting where I hoped a face was, I struggled until the hand on the throat came free.In a flash, I was standing on my bed, ready to jump on the recovering attacker.
It was only once I’d pinned him down, I realized it was Paul.He gave me a curt nod, blood and my saliva dripping down his face.
“Good move there.” He said.“But I was ready for the drop.It’s too dangerous with trained men.”
I nodded and released my hold on his neck - slowly.Paul didn’t make a move to continue the fight, so I let him up.
“Don’t let this go to your head.I was being easy on you kid, you’ve still got much to learn.Watch me and Frank practice sometime, there’s new moves in the higher levels.”
Even though they knew why I had never advanced and understood, maybe even admired my thinking, everyone knew I was a weaker fighter.I have Paul a nod and he turned to leave.Then he turned back.“Don’t ever let girls get in your way.I won’t let them in our way.”
He left, and I sat down to think.I didn’t want Wings to get hurt – sure, she was annoying and a little too inquisitive for me, but she was also the beginnings of a friend, something I didn’t know anything about, much less had ever had.But what about Paul?I doubted he’d never met someone like Wings, someone you could be a true friend with, if you let yourself.Paul would never let himself.Had I?Was I already too far gone to save myself?
Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate) and happy holidays...
First of all, I got a book called the Maze Runner (left) and Wings, (above right with butterfly-thing). 
