Bollocks Fic You!

RENOVATION!

2011-10-18T02:05:00.002-04:00

I've been terrible at updating, but I'm finally stabilizing things offline and online, so please come and visit again in a matter of weeks! I am planning to do random posting, with no promises on them, until December, when the blog schedule will apply. I'm very excited to plan the material out for the blog and I hope things will go well.

In the meantime, take care and don't forget to read books!

Webcomics (Part 1)

2011-07-07T21:40:00.000-04:00

This is the first of my webcomics discussion. I figured I would mention the ones I actively read nowadays, as well as other material I always come back to, no matter how long of a time I take a break from them. My opinions of the content are just that: opinions! You're free to agree or disagree at your leisure, or provide an insight that I and others might have not had ourselves before about the material.

Sinfest - (http://www.sinfest.net) - This is one of the first few comics I started reading when I began to have a consistent connection to the internet. (read: own a computer) I also happen to read this on and off - sometimes Tatsuya Ishida, the writer and comic artist, does not update consistently so I find myself stopping when he has not posted for a matter of days. I find this okay: his story arcs are depicted well enough in the strips (often four panels, but on Sundays there is a full color comic with more than that). This webcomic can be very offensive to certain parties, depending on who's reading them, but I take it lightly so I keep reading. He likes to create parodies using other well-known comic strips, such as Peanuts, and uses current events as fodder for the jokes, like happenings with President Obama and Sarah Palin. I'm not going to describe the characters here, it would take too much time, but he has a

A last, very important note on this comic: Please take note of the URL - the wrong URL ending will lead you to the wrong site. You have been warned!

Gunnerkrigg Court (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive.php) -Start from Chapter One, titled "The Shadow and the Robot," and go from there. If you go to the main site, you will find that it features the most current page uploaded. The story is updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; unless there is a pause for one reason or another. When I first started reading this comic, I thought of the structure of J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I couldn't help it. It was the only other work I've read from a UK writer using the same school system (dividing each grade into houses, students remain in the same house their entire school career, the ages of the students when they start, etc.). Tom Siddell, the creator and artist, doesn't give much of his life away on the internet. He does reveal that he has a day job, works on the comic every weekend, and attends conventions, meeting his fans, via his About page on the website and his Twitter. More about this comic: its main character is a teenage heroine by the name of Antimony, who you discover is growing up in a world where there is a clear division between science and magic, literally and figuratively. The art is colored and often multiple-paneled, with each page paced so that you are brought to either a suspenseful moment or a definitely resolution, depending on where you are in that chapter. If you see a detail that you don't quite get on one page, you can bet that he'll be explaining it on another in the same chapter or will bring it back up again with another chapter. A final note: he allows readers to leave comments on the most recent page, but no more than that. So, if you happen to appreciate his work, leave him a comment!

Summer!

2011-06-28T06:36:00.004-04:00

Hello, everyone!

I've got plans for Bollocks Fic You! blog in the next several weeks. I'm working on a cluster of entries concerning webcomics, an e-book, a debut first issue of a quarterly from McSweeneys, and an anniversary printing of a book, just to name a few. I've also got some ideas for a revamp of BFY's layout, but got to work on the content first at this point.

I'm also planning some storyboarding time for a "webshow" version of BFY, but we'll see if that project is worth doing in the long run.

Anyway, in the meantime, I will be back sooner rather than too much later.

Finally finished: a short tale of distractions

2011-03-08T20:45:00.005-05:00

Having access to the internet does very bad things to a reading list, at least on my part. I kept getting distracted whenever I DID have time to read. I'll be working on that. For one, I finally finished Michael Chabon's Summerland, after having started on it back in DECEMBER. It's a shame that I took this long. The days of reading a book in a day have passed, maybe not permanently but it's definitely been a while.

Summerland was an enjoyable read, to the point that I wish I could keep the copy I was reading. Alas, it is not to be, but I broke my book buying pact and scoured Amazon's sellers for a used hardcover first-edition copy. (Also: Jurassic Park because why not "kill two birds with one stone" when the seller clearly has in their hands a used hardcover first-edition copy of the novel? I feel sorry for Elbert, I truly do, getting stuck with me, a bibliophile growing ever more hardcore even in this age of digital media.) I would like to keep my words on it brief this time:

-if you are a fan of baseball, you may be amused by all of the metaphors that Michael Chabon incorporates throughout his novel (I was amused but I am not a super-enthusiast, I only know the basics of the game.)

-if you are a fan of the end-of-the-world mythologies that exist throughout the world, you may find this book to be a worthy take on them, maybe even feel like reviewing the very stories that the author draws from (I belong to THIS particular group, if there is such one (probably))

-if you like children's books with some serious growing done by the main child characters - there's a few of them

I'm a very new fan to Michael Chabon's work, so any other recommendations of his work are appreciated at this point. I just picked up Summerland without any foreknowledge of the story, and almost assumed that it was about a type of heaven or afterlife, because the word "summerland" has been used as a name for Heaven. With no spoilers, I can tell you that I was very wrong, but I was glad to be wrong.

The second book I'd like to talk about briefly is The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. This book was a New York Times Bestseller and to its credit, I saw several things that might have made it so:

-It has various elements to attract readers from all kinds of backgrounds and interests - the story takes place over the time period when African-Americans were finally given rights and all regions across the USA were adjusting and transitioning to the legal changes, for one; another is the relationship between the child named Lily and of the memory of her deceased mother, and how everyone in the story is impacted by this girl's very mindset concerning the dead

-Again- the relationship between mothers and daughters, except I'm mentioning this again because Lily is a daughter figure to a number of other women throughout the story, and even more intriguing within the story is how outsiders view their interactions because all of these other women are "black" while Lily is "white"

-Bee-keeping! I like honey so I admit, it was kind of THAT detail in the title that drew me to pick up this book. Actually, I think Sue Monk Kidd did a very good job of describing settings and one of the places that I liked to read best concerned the apiary.

-It was a story that was very easy to digest, but still left some room for a reader to think about what might have happened to the characters after the conclusion of the novel.

upcoming postings

2011-01-29T13:27:00.001-05:00

Read a wonderfully-written book review on the New York Times website and I hit upon two ideas to write about in a few days, if the schedule can manage. I'm hoping to share my current book wishlist (to read if not to buy) and right next to each title, I'd let you know why I'd read them. The second idea would be to give a glimpse of what else I like to read, in terms of webcomics. After that, I'll see where else it's going to lead.

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A Resolution Worth More Books Later

2011-01-27T15:37:00.003-05:00

I already have a deal with myself not to buy anymore underwear this year, since one of my last 2010 purchases rendered my entire unmentionables budget underground, possibly into a few inches of metaphorical monetary permafrost. I have no regrets on this.

But, what I did realize, during a Costco trip over the weekend, was that I had already an ENORMOUS collection of books for someone my age and it's likely to get bigger, never smaller, no matter how many I give away, donate to organizations and charities, and even lose due to loaning out but no returns from family, friends, acquaintances, and enemies (here's looking at you, kid?). I also have no regrets here but what I did start to think about concerned all of my yet-to-be-read copies of literature. Just like when one buys some pieces of clothes and still has tags on them a year later because an occasion to wear them has not yet come around, my book purchases sit on the shelf and wait for me to take them out to read, and wait and wait and wait.

Until now. I realized any more books I want to get, whether it's to be purchased or borrowed from the library, need to wait, because the ones on my shelves are already languishing. I'll take pictures, write endless lists, do anything for these not yet in my possession, just to be remembered, for the day that I can get new books.

Currently, my set up here in California has no rhyme or reason, but at least I know to an extent which books I've read already or started on, and which books I haven't even touched yet. (My collection's not THAT big. Yet.) In New York, before I started yanking books from every which way off for the big move, I had a shelf dedicated for books I had not yet read, another shelf for those that I like to read over and over again, and a shelf where I was giving the books away over time for various reasons (e.g. might not have read the books to completion because I really didn't want to waste my time any further). (I think my parents will be glad when my books completely leave their home, but for now, the majority of them sit in boxes in their closet or remain on shelves in various spots of the house.)

So, with that said, right now, I'm reading the following:

-Summerland, Michael Chabon

I've recently finished:

-The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

-The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

-Forgive My Fins, Tera Lynn Childs

I will be reading (because they're due soon)

-Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton

-Seventh Son, Orson Scott Card

I'm looking to write a little review about The Secret Life of Bees when there's some breathing room again on my schedule; for now, I thought I'd just sit on my thoughts about it and go about some other business in the meantime.

The past makes your present, yes? Maybe. We'll see.

2011-01-09T03:42:00.005-05:00

I was working on my writing but multitasking. One thing led to another after chatting with Britta about her interest in film, and now here I am, writing of an experience (out of many, but not that much, considering my age) that I know by now is rare within New York City, and rarer still for those that are outside of the Concrete Jungle.

I want to express my thanks on the internet (haha, I don't find anything wrong with this, considering my heavy editing and the lack of details, thank you very much) for Dr. Weinberger and her intense interest in her students' lives. In my case, I believe she jumped through hoops during a number of lunch periods, to get me to do something for the summer in 2003. (I mean, I think I took up a lot of her time in the first place just by invading her guidance office when I was only a student in her english class, not even one under her guidance concerning graduation and grades.)

During those times, we looked at summer programs listed by the guidance department in a packet. I remember her asking me point blank about my interests, just to get the search started, and frankly, the suggestion of filmmaking (from her) was probably more of a surprise than anything (to me)- I only liked watching them at the time, but sure, why not? Then, after looking at the lists, we made phone inquiries.

Serendipitously, while she was looking for the contact for Columbia U's summer film program for high school students, she ended up getting in touch with NY Film Academy about their program. From what I can remember, it was due to a switchboard mistake. She told me to try talking to these folks at NY Film Academy for a way to help with tuition costs for the program and to not get my hopes up because it was a private company, and she knew that my parents probably couldn't afford their prices out of their own pockets by themselves. I went along with it, I didn't mind, and I THINK I told my parents about what was happening concerning that.

A conversation with the filmmaking school led me to have a little extra work for a particular week. I took a couple of trips down to Union Square where their headquarters are still housed (as of the time of my writing this) and toured it a bit. At the end of the tour, I was asked about my interest within a conversation with the coordinator, and following my response, I was then asked to write a script, no strict format, just a scene. I sent it via e-mail, as per their request. (That script's scene? Well, I can't admit this here. Ask me in passing, if you want; as of now, I don't want to write about it.)

This was where serendipity came in again: Dr. Weinberger and I were speaking of what happened and again, she told me that it was only a chance to take - and maybe we should look up other programs while we're at it? But, sure enough, the coordinator eventually called back and told me that arrangements were made so that it was possible for me to attend a summer session in the city-based location for high schoolers. She was pleased for me and glad, it was something to go on my college application, after all, and would keep me busy.

That summer, I met some really good people and I still keep in touch with one every so often, when we're not busy with our lives. But, actually, besides having attended the program, I'm thinking I'm even gladder to have had Dr. Weinberger that year as an Honors English class teacher in the first place. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have had that part of my memories, experiences, and current knowledge, etc.

I hope you're doing well, teacher.

P. S. A note about a side effect to this experience that might also serve as a warning to those interested in becoming deeply involved in ANY field as a hobbyist or otherwise: While I watch movies, I get drawn into thinking about how they might have shot a fascinating scene and how many times they could have shot it, then how it could have been edited, and it can become a source of annoyance when I drag other people into a dialogue with me about what we had been watching at the time.

P. P. S. If you have NEGATIVE commentary about the teacher, keep it to yourselves or speak of it somewhere else, not here - let's keep it only POSITIVE.

Happy New Year, what's up?

2011-01-04T01:58:00.002-05:00

Thank you for reading! I appreciate your attention and wish you a healthy and beautiful new year, filled with positivity. Don't let the 2012 doom-sayers get you down - for one, I believe 2012 is going to be a different story, so make sure your 2011 is exactly what you want it to be for yourself and nothing less, before 2012 comes in the first place.

Moving on with things, I'd like to update you all on a few of my projects.

I'm working on Short Harbingers, an online literary magazine. I have updated a little bit and am now welcoming submissions for the first issue. Please check it out: www.shortharbingers.com. If you're a writer, I welcome you to participate, and if not, please consider the literary magazine anyway - I want to be featuring visual artists, photographers, and maybe even some videos of other types of art. I'm at the beginning of this project so "the sky is the limit," as many say. I do ask that your submission have something to do with the theme. The debut issue's theme is "metamorphosis." I hope it can inspire you.

I also signed up for The Fiction Project (www.arthousecoop.com/projects/fiction) and I'm currently waiting for the book they want all participants to use. My theme is "THINGS THAT CHANGED OTHER THINGS," but they have other themes offered and if you don't want to pick one at the time of sign up, leave your selection to be a random theme and you'll get one. I left it to be random and look at that, I ended up with something about change. (Seems like a good time as any to do that, right?) I don't want to summarize what The Fiction Project is on my blog when the website has all the information, so take a look. I do want to recommend that if you are interested and know a few others that might also be interested, they offer group discounting of their fees for groups of four or more, so take advantage. If you're not a writer, take a look anyway at the website and you could find that they have other projects that could be worth your time and effort.

My writing is coming together but the final products are secret. However, I might do some mixed media stuff related to what I'm working on in the future, in the forms of pictures, sketches, collages, and/or video - just so you all can get to know a little bit about my characters and how I've been fleshing them out. We'll see- there's already a little bit of this going on but I'm not going to vocal about it as of yet.

As a last note, my workspace is so awesome (to me) that I might just take pictures of it to post up, since in some ways, I think it fits under "bookshelf porn." Also, I just want to share what I've been going through a little bit since moving and I am very proud of how the space has come together.

NaNoWriMo: Final thoughts

2010-12-01T15:00:00.002-05:00

This year's NaNo was a bust for me, being stuck at 1,142 words, and having started days into November. Still, it was exciting to start FIFTEEN SOULS and I feel like I need to continue it! Now that I have my workstation in the house all set up nicely, I can take my progress seriously.

NaNo is a great thing to participate in, though, and I think next year I will definitely try again, hopefully with plans all up BEFORE the start. In the meantime, there's plenty of stories to work on, big and small. Besides FIFTEEN SOULS, I'm going to have to finish this short story that I started a while ago and then edit a couple of times, then try to submit it to some magazines. No clue where yet, but I want to finish it first, so I am trying not to get ahead of myself.

I know a woman who is working on her novel so earnestly that she decided to deactivate her Facebook so that it doesn't distract her. I'm taking a few leaves out of her book- I'll be sitting out of Skype and AIM for now, then later on from Facebook Chat. I'll leave my account up, since there are days where I don't even check my profile and I don't mind it at all.

In other news, I've had this migraine for two days now, and I'm wondering, when will it go away? But, it's funny that I have it right now, since FIFTEEN SOULS starts with a migraine within the story. Go figure.

BFY! Book Review: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

2010-11-24T16:54:00.005-05:00

So, I decided that BOLLOCKS FIC YOU! will be about what I'm reading, what I've finished reading, and what I'm currently writing. (While I'm always writing, I'm not always finishing. Sadly, there is a difference in my little world.) I also will hint at what's happening on other things I'm working on, but not as much, especially when I finally get everything set up.

I thought I'd start the great USA Thanksgiving Weekend of 2010 by giving a personal review of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. I watched the film months before and as a result, kept picturing Anne Hathaway as the main character Andrea. Also, in my imagination, her best friend Lily was the actress who played Lilly from The Princess Diaries. Fancy that! Good thing that the book's version of Miranda Priestly was not Meryl Streep but, rather, whomever I wanted to imagine her as according to Ms. Weisberger's writing. I want to steer away from biases like these at all costs, but I really couldn't help it, it was too easy. (This is starting to happen with the Harry Potter series, too.)

Either way, all mental pictures aside, the book's version of Andrea and Miranda Priestly felt developed for what it was: a simple, almost "popcorn," read. I had both empathy and sympathy for Andrea, especially after having had a glimpse of the fashion industry within the last year myself. Her thoughts of getting through her year-long term with the fictional magazine Runway consistently changed with the progression of the book. I thought that was a really good thing to do- I saw the progression of Andrea's personality go from someone who was unaware of the big city life and too innocent of what she was getting into to a person who was on her way to being a worldly human being, but definitely was still far and away from it at the end.

The antagonist Miranda made me laugh. Her demands were so absurd and her personality was awful. I loved it, she was definitely a great villain to have in a story. It's too easy to create a villain and just have them throw one bad thing after the other at the protagonist without justification. The background for Miranda also gave Andrea a foundation to find out what she wanted out of her life and rounded out Miranda just a little bit. I liked the timing of revealing the meaningful bits through the research in the beginning, chatter between characters, and even Miranda herself admitting what a shadow of her former self might have been. I say "might," since the conversation with her admitting this happened to be when she and Andrea are together alone in a car and she is still cold and inexpressive, according to Andrea's observations of the event - a bias that the book understandably has, considering everything has been written to be in Andrea's point of view.

Supportive characters were important in this book, too. Andrea's immediate family kind of served as a contrast to Miranda Priestly's own, and appropriately, they showed up less and less throughout the novel as Miranda's role in Andrea's life expanded more and more. Alex the boyfriend was O.K. but I think even without him, Andrea functioned well and was still a good character. If anything, I think Lily was the better of the two non-familial people in Andrea's world to both interact with her and be a catalyst to Andrea's major decisions.

Having recently moved away from New York City, The Devil Wears Prada made me miss it a little bit, since the bulk of its action happened in Manhattan. I had an opportunity to see both the Hearst and Condé Nast buildings at one point, very briefly, and kept filling in mentally that the Elias-Clark Building was a combination of those two plus some other offices, but even if you haven't seen those buildings I mentioned, Ms. Weisberger describes the layout of Elias-Clark with enough precision expected from someone who only works in it and not having had anything else to do with its appearance.

I think it is an easy read, took me a total of a day to get through the entire story. I kept going on and off while reading, so I didn't just start on it today. I would recommend it for anyone above age seventeen, since some folks at that age tend to have a grasp of how post-college life might work, due to research about post-high school life or by questioning those that have already gone through college. Since this book happens to be about a woman who is coming into her first career after graduation, I would think anyone younger than a college-bound person might miss out on references or think less of what's going on between characters.

Short Harbingers

2010-11-19T15:48:00.003-05:00

Short Harbingers
Above is the URL I mentioned in my previous entry. What's with the name? Well, this has everything to do with the upcoming online (for now) publication I've been planning. I would like to do a kind of literary magazine, the bulk of it to be concentrating on short stories, with spattering of poetry- a genre of literature I'm not very good at being picky and critical over- and, hopefully, some photography, especially those that can tell stories with the series of images, whether literally or if there's a theme going on. I figure it would be a learning process all around. So, the short stories bit is where "SHORT" comes into the name.

"HARBINGER" is a very intense word in my opinion, meaning "messenger." My intent with the publication is to deliver stories, which are messages from their authors. Whether the messages within stories are deliberate or they are totally just STORIES in someone's mind, it's all right- I believe all writing pieces are ways to deliver messages. Hence, the place of "HARBINGERS" in the name. It's also not very commonly used in the Modern English language. I note that when it is used, it usually is in a dramatic or even foreboding tone.

In the meantime, I am redirecting the URL to the my page on the aggregator, Flavors.me, which is a great site, by the way. It's easy to use, but not all social media and blogging services can be linked through it, so you have to do some exploring.

In other happenings, I've relocated and all the fun of settling down had definitely taken up a lot of my time, but now that the house is just about finished in being equipped with necessities (more or less), I will be devoting more time to myself and my writing. For example, I have chosen to put my project, FIFTEEN SOULS, as a NaNo. I doubt I'll be finishing on time, since as of this entry its word count stands at 1,142. Still, you never know. It's worth a chance and I'm finding it good for me to have started on this project.

The RETURN!

2010-10-19T15:47:00.001-04:00

So, I have returned. Sorry for my delays. I have nothing to say about my delays.

What can you expect for the next few months from me on this blog? Quite honestly, I will be working on a number of projects by myself as well as with a few friends. In addition, I mentioned on my Twitter that I would be launching a publication. I would love to say more but I am still planning the heck out of it. Also, I have purchased a domain name and may be using it within early next year, which could mean that this blog will either get a new address or a different focus!

I am pleased that things are moving along and will provide more substance soon than just some almost-random entries on this bit of blog.

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BLAST you, Polyvore!

2010-05-23T21:35:00.002-04:00

Damn Polyvore site...some of the pics I wanted to use for a set just keeps fucking up.
So, I copy and paste here the damn text I wanted to use for the set. But, it doesn't mean as much when there's no pictures of the reference. (BUT there's always Google and if you know who Keira Knightley is, then you can skip the Googling step.)
---

I thought I'd make a polyvore...reminding myself of how awesome Keira Knightley is as an actress and as a model. I admire her portrayal of her characters, and I can't wait to see her in NEVER LET ME GO, a film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's book of the same title (which I love!). It's a pity that when I first encountered the news on the internet, the synopsis clearly states the entire movie.

As a writer, I admired the brevity of the summary. At the same time, as a writer, fan, and reader of Kazuo Ishiguro's work, I was really miffed at finding out the entire movie's story laid out like that.

ANYWAY! My favorite images of Keira Knightley are here, especially with her in the green dress from ATONEMENT, one of the best stories I've ever read/watched. I was trying to find the picture of her from an editorial where she wore so well a dress from Vera Wang's S/S 2010 collection...but I can't. Oh well.

Halfway through 2010...almost

2010-05-16T01:37:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling like there's been a lot of failed relationships lately! How could some of them start back up to the same way as they were before?

I think I've ruined a lot of my own myself. There's plenty of acquaintances that could have been friends eventually. There are friends who could have been 'Besties,' and the 'Besties' into FAMILY. And FAMILY itself is another level. But, I think I'm coming to terms with a lot of the failures, if only because I am very aware of how the next several months can be like if it goes in the direction it's going in right now. (being cryptic on purpose <3 sorry folks, ask me in person and I MIGHT answer- otherwise, won't reveal for a while, if ever, on this)

I don't regret having certain failed relationships, because of the learning experiences...but I do regret having lost time with those I still want to keep in my life. But only for a moment, because I might lose some more time if I dwell too long.

10 is a magical number

2010-04-10T18:59:00.003-04:00

I was born on the 10th and I always thought, since I was an even younger girl than I am now (start your giggles), it was a great number.

Right now is my 2nd anniversary of being a Moo! It happened to fall on the 10th, because he decided that he shouldn't ask on the 9th since I was expecting it.

Clever of him to, since it was one of the most pleasant surprises of my life!

Working full-time...

2010-03-10T19:56:00.003-05:00

I have to say that the universe is watching out for me, keeping me employed in such a nasty economy, which is getting better slowly, many are saying. But, of course, it's not the same as before for me, as well as for everyone else.

"It'll never be the same."

What a used line. Whatever. The world is cyclical, and knowing my life, it'll be fine enough, even after all of the economic hoohah.

Anyway, all this work and hardly any ME time!!!! But then, HARDLY ANY FRIEND TIME! The biggest issue at hand, then, is budgeting the time that is available....outside of work. Now, how am I going to use the time...

So, with that...I have decided to forgo using FB for primary contacting! Most of those that I keep in touch with already have my cell phone number, and I theirs, but the rest of the ones that want to start contacting me out of the blue, there are ways to get to me. If you really want to talk to me, it will get done, I promise.

I'll keep my account, and check it every so often. But, by not using it as heavily as I did before, I will definitely free up a lot of my time for other pursuits, like repairing a jewelry box, practicing my violin, and spending time with loved ones.

Now, on to watching Doctor Who before it's due at the library tomorrow...

Happy New Year?

2010-02-21T18:52:00.003-05:00

As ridiculous and as "under-a-rock" as I can sound, Happy New Year! Seriously, this is my first blog entry here since 2010 started, so I only think it's proper to greet with that. I also celebrated Chinese New Year (though, not as serious- I don't know enough about it yet), which makes my greeting valid, especially since many people throughout the world are still celebrating the joyous Lunar New Year!

But what have I been doing? I don't think I've been doing too much. It's almost the same old routine before the solar and lunar new years took place. I've been reading, writing, resting, working full-time, sporadically working with my violin, shopping, etc. etc.

Yet, it feels like everything I've been doing has a new twist, something never seen before to anticipate. I don't think it's just because of a new decade. I am feeling a constant flow of hope and appreciation for just about everything that I've always done or been around.

However, I do believe that I should express that in this new year, I have a few goals I don't mind sharing with the internet's public:

1) I want to buy more (newly manufactured) items as locally as possible - I feel borderline ridiculous, but I've finally come to realize that I would rather take time to find as many items as possible that have been made in the United States; then going from there, depending on the item, I'd rather go as locally to my area as possible. Sometimes, I've gone into stores and walked away from good prices- because, upon examination of the items that attracted my attention in the first place, I found that the qualities of the items are just not that good (strings hangout, the stitching can be undone, the fabric is a bit too cheap and feels gross on my skin; or, the items are plastic AND in terrible shape already) and they're made in different countries!

2) ORGANIZE! - Messes are often caused by just living in the space alone. I am a bit particular about how things are organized but I have not been able to organize everything as how I'd like to. So, this year is the year I find out what I want to get rid of and what I want to keep, and then keep as best as possible whatever stays with me by the end of the (constant) purging

3) I need to exert more patience than ever before - I considered myself a decently patient person but lately, I'm finding myself more and more tempted to smack away what bothers me, just right when it starts. (Most of this occurs on the subway trains that I ride- it seems like there's more people riding them than ever before) The stress won't help me nor anyone else around me out, if I let things get to me.

4) Revise revise revise - My habits, eating, writing, music (this one by practicing, not writing the music) - Anything I want.

Also: I've been working on a list of 101 things for 1001 days, and as it's 2010...and the deadline happens to be on September 30, 2011. As it's 2010 and certain sections have yet to be really worked on...well, I better get a move on.

Thanks for reading!

Journals

2009-11-08T09:59:00.002-05:00

I was at my parents' last night. I looked for my music teacher's required material, and found it, plus a lot of other music material I had either played or planned on playing in the past. Most were kept in plastic boxes that I had obtained from a Japanese products store that was opened near that house years ago. They're gone now, but there's always more of those types in Chinatown. Anyway, the point here is that while I looked for and through the music materials, I started to think about writing on paper again, and used my time to look for all the blank books that I had amassed over the years, some bought with the sole intention of filling up for a particular story, other ones were gifts from family and friends.

All of those items, I am asking myself, can I still use them? Do I still want to use them?

The answer is building up to be a very loud YES.

Why hello there again

2009-10-18T02:19:00.002-04:00

I've been ignoring writing in this, only because I got out of my writing groove between graduation and a few days ago. Why couldn't I update lately? Let's just say I had to get some items done fast on my to-do list that is the length of forever. (To me, to me! I'm not going to live forever in terms of you.)

So, yes, hello there again.

I still didn't do the blog about my vacation in July. I didn't upload any pictures concerning it. But I am getting back into this groove (as previously mentioned), so this may all change within the next few weeks.

What kind of stuff am I reading lately? Fashion magazines, especially Elle because of a number of its smarter articles, and re-reading the last volume of the Harry Potter saga. I have a nostalgia for the latter, and as for the magazines, I've been finding I need new fodder for thoughts, characterization and they give advice that I can't seem to ask for...yet. I don't think the right people have come along for them, or maybe just not the right times. I've yet to figure this out.

Then there are comics. I grabbed a translated version of Clover by CLAMP, all four volumes clad in paperback and with colored cover and extra art the group did for it. (I have the Japanese ones, except for ONE volume, but I have a feeling I'd never read it properly. I did, however, figure out words I was translating on my own by drawing my conclusions from it, in my reading the English one...) By way of recommendation from a Twitter user who also has a blog, I started reading Ikigami, but with the 2nd volume, because that was the only one available at Borders near work.

I'm trying to write a fiction story that I deliberately put myself and my boyfriend as characters in, and so far, I keep having all these neat adventures to write about...but only in my brain. I am terrified of putting anything down on paper just yet. (Read: Just really SLOW about it.)

OMG! 20th Post!

2009-06-18T13:43:00.003-04:00

Not really a highlight but it's all good.

Someone asked that I post my recommendations up. So, here they are, without my descriptions or reasons for why. :) Next post might have them!

Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Coin Locker Babies, Ryu Murakami
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami
Suppli, Mari Okazaki
What Dreams May Come, Richard Matheson
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Unabridged fairy tales, Hans Christen Andersen
Ramayana

Sorry about the fairy tales, but there's one version of it with these beautiful pictures. It'd be an oversized book at a bookstore. Personally, I read this when I was much younger and took it out again for one more read from the Fort Hamilton Brooklyn Public Library Branch, before moving from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst. I don't think I'll ever forget it.

Been a month and all I have is a list

2009-06-15T15:22:00.003-04:00

I'm serious about this list. It's a big list.

I'm in the middle of cleaning my living space, and lo and behold, I come across papers of some importance. But, before I chuck all of these papers that were on the left side of my desk, I'm typing up the book titles that I have highlighted on them. The deal with these papers is that they were from classmates in a fiction writing class I took last year. They contain book recommendations that our professor said we should bring in on the last day of our class. I looked at them again just about an hour ago and decided I should write down the highlighted ones for my own future reference. Hey, you can use them, too. If you have a review of the stories behind the titles, please feel free to comment. I'd be more than glad to see opinions from you.

Close to the Knives, David Wojnarowicz
Geek Love, Katharine Dunn
Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Vow to Poetry: Essays, Interviews, & Manifestos, Anne Waldman
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
The Writing Class or anything else, Jincey Willett
A Colour Out of Space, H.P. Lovecraft
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July
House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski (This has been recommended to me by those outside of the class.)
I Capture the Castle, Dodi Smith
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Trial, Franz Kafka
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Mystery Guest, Gregoire Bouillier
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Ham on Rye, Charles Bukowski
The Complete Poems of Edgar Allen Poe (Really, do I have to put an author?)
Hazmat, J.D. McClatchy
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
A Spot of Bother, Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon
This Way for the Gas, Ladies & Gentlemen, Tadeusz Borowoski
Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Factotum, Charles Bukowski
Women, Charles Bukowski
Fortress of Solitude, Jonathen Lethem
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
Less than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis
The Cold Six Thousand, James Ellroy
American Tabloid, James Ellroy
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
Tenderness, Robert Cormier
Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
Drown, Junot Díaz
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Friends, Rosa Guy
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Love Medicine, Louis Edrich
Anthem, Ayn Rand
Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Joanne Greenberg
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
The Liars' Club: A Memoir, Mary Karr
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (Though I think my brother hates this book? What? Maybe I have that information completely wrong?)
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
The Girl Who Owned a City, O. T. Nelson
The House at Riverton, Kate Morton
The Art of Fiction, John Gardner
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Tom Berendt
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond
Gödel, Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hoffstadter
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
Sherlock Holmes, Assorted short stories, Arthur Conan Doyle
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
At the Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft
Salem's Lot, Stephen King
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers
The Road, McCarthy
1984, Orwell
Various Novels by Sarah Waters
The Passion, Jeanette Winterson
Native Son, Wright
To the Lighthouse, Woolf
Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison
Desperate Characters, Fox
The Price of Salt, Highsmith
Song of Solomon, Morrison
Othello, Shakespeare
The Color Purple, Walker
The Age of Innocence, Wharton

Really, back to cleaning now.

Borchert Interpretations in German and English

2009-05-11T21:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, as shameless as this is, I want to post them the way they are, so I can show you a bit of my writing style in both languages. I feel foolish about German, though, since I am still learning. If you are a German-born person or are very much advanced in German, and if you would like, please provide some constructive criticism; but before you do that, please comment first that you would, and we can come to arrangements.

The original short story that this assignment had been based on was "Der drei dunklen Könige" by Wolfgang Borchert. Somehow this story really made me pay attention to German and I told my professor this. She's letting me have an indefinite borrow (so to speak) of her book of short stories by him. I'll write about my readings of his other stories eventually, but in the meantime, here's my...take on one of his characters, der Soldat ohne Hände, or the soldier without hands.

A note about my German: I am at an intermediate level and slightly struggling to memorize all that I can, all the time. I am learning to be patient with myself in terms of German. So, my work is not as elaborate because I do not know it as well as I know English.

---GERMAN

Ich heiße Kaspar und ich war ein Soldat in am großten Krieg so weit. Aber jetzt, ich bin ein sehr alt Mann. Meine drei Enkelkinder rennen, während ich schreibe an dem Maschineschreiben, aber habe ich keine Hände. Ich habe viel Glück in meinem Leben, und ich möchte euch es erzählen.

Ich kämpfte in dem großem Krieg, dass der meine Heimatstadt untergegangen. Mein Kommandeur sag mir, alles waren das Werk der Feind. Ich fühtle mich kummervoll. Aber fand ich Trost in meinem Freunden, sie heißen Melchior und Balthazar. Sie waren von der gleiche Heimatstadt und in der gleiche Truppe. Wir trösteten einander und wurden am engsten Freunden sein. Wir gingen zu der gleiche Schule und kannten die gleiche Personen. Personlich, ich hatte einen Grund zu streiten, weil sie Freunden waren und ich ein gute Soldat werden mochte. Ich war junger als Melchior und Balthazar.
Nach am Ende von Krieg, wir wollten zusammen nach Heimatstadt kommen. Wir wollten sehen, ob jemand von unser Familien war noch da. Wir hatten ein bißchen Hoffnung auf ein Chance, dass wir jemand fanden, irgendjemand.
Es war ein warmer Herbst, dass wir leicht reisten. Wir waren sorgenlos, weil der Stress weg gang. Der Krieg, es war zu Ende. Aber vielleicht waren wir so optimistich. Wir dachten, vielleicht mehr Soldaten wie uns wurden in gleicher Richtung reisen. Wir erwarteten das. Personlich hoffte ich, dass jemand mit einem Auto uns aufheben konnte.
Aber wir gangen zu Fuß und hatten wir Pech. Wir abhanden zu viele Zeit gekommen. Viele Straßenschilder waren nicht da oder unleserlich. Immer schlecter waren falsche Straßenschilder, die niemand nicht korrigierten hatten. Es waren falsche zu austricksen die Feinde. Auf einmal wurde das Wetter sehr kalt. Wir sollten es besser kennen, wir begannen durch dem Anfang des November.
Denn hatten wir etwas unglücklichen und wichtigen Sachen. Melchior, ein sehr gute Schnitzer war, verlor seine Handschuhe. Melchior hatte ein Esel für ein Kind, von seine Träume- er sag. Balthazar, ein Arzt war, verlor seine Nervenmedizin. Ich mochte sie helfen, so gab ich ihnen meine Handschuhe und Zigaretten. Ich mochte, dass Melchior den Esel für das Kind beenden und Balthazar besser jeden Tag fühlen. Damals ich dachte mir glücklich- ich hatte nichts verlor. Aber ich hatte kein Auswechslungen und denn hatte ich mein Pech.
Ein Nacht in Anfang von Dezember, wann wir in der Nähe die Heimatstadt, ich fühlte nicht meine Hände. Balthazar sah, und sein Gesicht sag, dass es meine Reihe Pech zu haben war. Ich sag ihm, ich vertrauen ihn, aber bitte, tue es schnell. Für meine Hände, es war zu spät. Er stoppte gut die Erfrierung.
Meine Freunde halfen mir gut und ich vermutet, dass Melchior mir seine Essen gab. Er hatte Schwellfüße. Ich wollte, dass er Essen hatte, aber er wurde nichts hören. Es ist eine nicht gute Idee, er sag.
In der Mitte von Dezember traffen uns in der Stadt. Die war sehr ruhig, untergehend und sitzengelassen. Zussamen besuchten wir nach Hausen, und ich sah, niemand legten tot an dem Boden.
Wir blieb in der Stadt und machten die Hausen sauber. Ich hatte keine Hände aber ich trat den Abfall, und ich hatte noch meine Augen. Weil meine Augen, dass wie wir das Kind fanden in der Nacht.
Es war sehr kalt und immer noch hatten die Stadt bewegte. Wir fanden mit Glück ein Pappkarton mit gelben Bonbons, und bald hatte wir mehr Dinge fanden, die Melchior in seinem Sack gelegt hatte. Balthazar mochte ein Zigarette. Er rauchte und bald er ging zurück. Er hatte gesehen ein kleines Licht in einem Haus.
Wir hatten fanden ein kleine Familie mit drei, ein ein Kind war, er sehr jung aus sah. Die Eltern sah ängstvoll aus, aber Melchior hatte Ehrfurcht vor das Kind, und gab das Holzesel. Direkt gab Balthazar die Frau zwei gelbe Bonbons.
Ich war sehr nahe zum Kind und er lachte. Nach immer fühlte ich schön. Bald wir sind zurückgelassen, aber wir fühlten dankbar, dass, ebenso die Familie war in ein schreck Platz, die hatte viele ihre Glück und Zufriedenheit.

---ENGLISH

My name is Kaspar and I was a soldier in the biggest war so far. But now, I am a very old man. My three grandchildren are running, while I am writing on a typewriter, though I have no hands. I have much good luck in my life, and I would like to tell you about it.
But I found solace in two fellow soldiers, named Melchior and Balthazar, who came from my hometown and were in the same unit. We consoled each other and grew to be close friends. I found we went to the same elementary school and knew some of the same people in our childhoods. Personally, talking to them caused me to have a reason to fight- I wanted to show I was just as capable as a soldier and a man as they were, though I was younger than the two by a couple of years.
After the war ended, we decided to travel back together, to see if there was anyone from our families who could have come back, too. For some reason, we had a small bit of hope that there was a chance we would find someone waiting for us, any one.
It was a warm fall the year it ended, so we travelled light. In a way, we were carefree, because the stress was gone for the meantime and the war was over. But we were slightly too optimistic- we thought that maybe there would be more like us travelling in the same direction. We expected to be able to cross paths with others who might be travelling the same direction. I personally hoped we would get to ride with someone, somewhere.
But we did not have so much luck and we were on foot. We ended up getting lost too much. Many signs on the road were either blown away or unreadable. Worse yet were the false signs that were meant to confuse any incoming enemy. They were not replaced with correct ones yet. Our luck became worse because of the sudden cold weather. We should have known better, we did start out in early November.
Then we had some important unlucky things happen to each of us. Melchior knew how to carve wood very well, and I always admired him for it. He was trying to finish a project he started while we were still deployed. I think he said that he was doing this for a child and told me that he had been inspired by a dream. At night, while we rested and it was his turn to be a lookout, he would carve it. When the nights got colder he worked with gloves on, but somehow he lost the pair. Balthazar was a meticulous medic, but somehow he actually lost his personal medicine for his nerves, though it was normally placed with his regular medicine. I counted myself lucky- I lost nothing at that point, but I wanted to help.
I gave my gloves to the carver and all of my cigarettes to the nervous one. I did all of this because I thought I could get along without them. I wanted Melchior to complete his dream. And as for Balthazar, I noticed that cigarettes calmed my nerves but really wasn’t so bad as his, so I thought he could use them better. I did not tell them I had nothing else to replace either of these things, so they would not refuse me.
One night in early December, when we were so close to arriving back at home, I felt nothing on my hands, and had Balthazar look at it. His face told me that it was my turn to have bad luck. I told him, I trust you, please be quick about it. He stopped the spread of frostbite and made sure I lost nothing else, but for my pair of hands it was too late.
Still, I think I was lucky to have them as my friends. They always made sure I was eating and cleaning my wounds. I can’t help it, but I suspected at the time that Melchior was having less to eat because of me, and eventually his feet became swollen out of hunger. I insisted that he eat my portions but he would hear none of it- to travel while injured, he said, is already a bad idea but it was something we had to do, so he wanted to minimize the damage.
By mid-December, we came to our destination. Our hometown was quiet. There were many ruins in the main part of town, and on the outskirts I saw more whole buildings but abandoned. It seemed that there was no one around. We came to visit at each of our houses, together. We all saw evidence that our families abandoned the places and no one lay dead on the floor.
Saddening as everything was, we still stayed put and started to fix things. I had no hands but I kicked rubbish into piles for the others to move, and I used my eyes to find things out. Because of me, that was how we found the child Melchior dreamed about.
It was one of the coldest nights, yet we were still busy moving around. Somehow we had been lucky enough to find a cardboard box with some bonbons, and carried that around, hoping there would be more stuff. Melchior had a sack with him and soon we were filling it with basic things we needed. Then we took a break, in which Balthazar stepped away to have one of his cigarettes. He came back a minute later, saying he spied a light houses away.
We followed this tiny light and found a family of three, one a baby who looked very young. The parents looked fearful of us. We still had our uniforms, but they were becoming worn out. I think that we looked dangerous as well as shabby. Melchior was awestruck but I saw that he made no hesitation to produce his carving, and Balthazar promptly handed over two of the golden Bonbons to the mother.
We looked closer at the baby and he started to laugh when I was the closest. It was as if he was happy we were there to visit.
We soon left but were grateful that at least, even if the family was in a terrible place, they were blessed with some of their own good luck and happiness.

BORCHERT, I HAD TO...

2009-05-11T20:39:00.003-04:00

I am saddened that I could not write to the full extent in German that I wanted! VERY ANGRY with myself, but what am I gonna do. I'm going to wait for my comments from my professor to really work at improving what I left out, but in the meantime, my progress...will be...posted. SOMEHOW. ARGH.

I'll figure this out...

Writing Cycle

2009-05-05T09:28:00.008-04:00

After several years of contemplating on the same stories and ideas, I decided to own up and create for myself a cycle. I'm not even sure if the stories are going to qualify as short stories or novels, or just fragments after a while.

The cycle is somewhere close to the realm of reincarnation, but not so much as the dying and rebirth idea behind it, but for the second-chance aspect that it seems to grant. I'm not saying that every particular rebirth means a second-chance at something, but there is the idea that there's something to make up for from a previous life. I like that very much.

I'd have to say that a book was the cause for a budding interest. In high school, I started reading Richard Matheson's work, and one of those was What Dreams May Come. It left a very strong impression. While I was at Adelphi, I even started to do research about it. Of course, researching all that, I didn't really have much else to talk about and I think I was pretty bad at coming up with palatable conversation topics. And now, I want to write much more about it? My friends will get more death-related talks than they ever want, maybe.

However, I don't remember exactly what sparked that particular topic to keep popping up so frequently. I think it can remain a mystery, anyway, and I am quite excited to actually embark on this writing journey, now that I'm comfortable with it. Stories that I can safely include in this cycle are The Puppet Project and Fifteen Souls, titles that I am comfortable with for now while I'm working on them. Who knows if I will ever come up with something better? I am certain that The Puppet Project will be a novel, while Fifteen Souls might look nice visually, if I could find a partner to help me in that aspect. In the meantime, it's in a planning stage that kind of makes me feel like I'm going crazy whenever I write down stuff about it. It's this story that also makes me NOT want to read anything else while I'm working on it, so that aspects of other work does not affect it.

I understand that I'm writing about these stories without any specific details concerning them, so I will attempt to summarize with one (awful) sentence for each one.

The Puppet Project: A family, unwilling to be the way they turned out from a recent tragedy, adjusts to another, sudden unwelcome addition, who has to earn his way back into having his own skin again.
Fifteen Souls: A young woman finds out that what she thought was multiple-personality disorder, wasn't.

My gosh, those summaries...are kind of lame. Oh well, that's all I'll reveal.

In related writing news, I am planning to use next month to finish up “The Little Girl Who Ate Nuclear Warheads.” It's been two plus years since I started that story, and only last year did I start to fix it through workshop classes. It's so close to completion, but it's the end that's jarring me. I want to make sure I have everything consistent in the flow of the story and characterization. I'm very excited! When I finish it, I will create a file of it that can be distributed on the net, so everyone can read and see if they like it or not. This short story is about a little girl with an acquired appetite.

The Five Things About Me [That Shakti asked for!]

2009-05-04T13:23:00.003-04:00

Hallo there everyone, I have some downtime before I get back into studying. So, I choose to write a long-awaited and long-owed entry.

My friend Shakti actually responded seriously to a note on my FB above five things that I should talk about on a blog entry. So, below is the list with her requests, verbatim! Thanks friend! :)

We talked really briefly about your interest in German and orchestral music, but I'd love for you to write about it here.
- German: My interest in this was practically late in adolescence. I was in orchestra classes from 2004 to 2006, while I attended Adelphi University, and in those classes there were German songs selected by singers. The professor/conductor (one and the same person!) would let us know about details about the song's background and language, which I found myself getting more curious about. Then, there was this classmate, a flautist named Sara, who was taking German at the time. She taught me and other orchestra mates how to say "excellent" [ausgezeichnet!], and we'd have our laughs about it because of the way we used it everywhere. After I transferred to Hunter College, I saw that I had to take a language for a requirement, and picked German because not only was it available on their list of offerings but it was something new that I wanted to try because of the past from Adelphi.

-Orchestral music: I was about five years old when I started listening to classical music, on the radio. Around third grade to fourth grade, I started taking piano lessons. I eventually stopped taking piano lessons but, courtesy of school, there was still the recorder (hahaha gotta start somewhere), chorus, and a year on the trombone. Eventually, during high school years, I got into playing the violin (though my initial interest was in the viola, that did not work out in my favor because my mother bought a violin from a Philippine store that did not carry violas). That was when I actually had a good time- all four years were musically-filled. In short, I'd have to say that this all started due to elementary school- there were many music-type of trips! Plus, as I got older, I'd have to say that the orchestra as a body of musicians working together is just plain attractive.

what sort of fiction do you write? amazingly, we haven't spoken about this!
I write whatever comes into my head, so I'm not really into one particular genre; but I can tell you that I cannot write military fiction, nor do I want to attempt to do it. I think I would generalize what I have finished in the past as modern fairy tales, in their own ways. I like making my own worlds in the stories. I think I would say that short stories are my thing for the past several years, though I've been working on a few novels whenever I have the chance. I hope this answered your question!

list your fandoms. ones you're in and ones you wanna be in. i would LOVELOVELOVE to eventually share one with you.
:)
-Current Fandoms I'm in- Scrubs (Up to Season 6!), Chuck (finishing up current season using the internet- please don't cancel this series, NBC!), Perfect Girl Evolution (The Wallflower, a manga), Koukou Debut (another manga), Studio Ghibli film offerings, Life on Mars, Dr. Who, Coupling, Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries (the books, not True Blood storylines)
-Fandoms I'd LOVE to be in! (lack of time, have not started yet, etc.) - Battlestar Galactica, Hana Yori Dango Japanese live action, Goong live action

There's definitely more but I have to say that these are the ones on my mind lately. Always subject to change, right?

---

WHEW time to nap before prepping for German class! Posting again soon!

Decisions

2009-04-18T13:16:00.002-04:00

I made some decisions this past week (spring break).

Again.

-2nd Degree HOPEFULLY going to come through (pending application status still, it's only been a month filed and two more weeks 'til I ask "Please tell me if something went wrong?") for PRE-NURSING
-Finishing a piece of writing is harder nowadays.
-Take some lazy days seriously, too.
-Cleaning the room is a forever-type of thing, but heyyyyy can't be cleaning all the time (see previous dash.)
-This summer will be filled with writing, working with families, then vacationing, then working with families again. It will be soooo gooooooooddddddddd. (Trust me.)

If you know Elbert, please congratulate him on scoring Developmental Engineering (Electrical) for the US Air Force. He commissions next year. :)

I lag

2009-03-24T10:58:00.002-04:00

I'm very bad at blogging, as you might have already guessed by the timestamps. I thought the title appropriate a few seconds ago. I'm leaving it like that and going on with this entry.

I think it's more from the inconsistent (Question: would I rather have consistent?) lack of sleep, but I've been feeling this kind of pinch on my motivation. What I want to do right now is have some consistency with schooling, working, and my free time activities. For the most part, I do, yet I can't shake this feeling that I'm either not doing enough or I've got to be doing some more things. There's not enough energy to do everything that everyone wants, that's for sure.

I hope people can understand where I'm coming from (albiet vaguely). If not, then I hope they will learn.

PROMPT update

2008-12-19T02:39:00.001-05:00

Last final on Saturday.

This Sunday, hopefully- I'll have a short story / flash fiction piece. Most likely flash fiction piece.

HEART y'all, have some! I gots plenty, cos I'm gonna get this story out~! ♪

November Writing Prompt

2008-12-06T16:30:00.002-05:00

Hi Folks,

I have been really swamped with writing work, but I'm getting to the finish line! So, the writing prompt I promised will be delayed. However, here are the "winning" top comments' prompt lines (edited for easier blogging ♪♪):

1) Extramarital sex... except it's the wife with the pool girl. The husband is a conservative dude, so a threesome would not be in his mind.
2) The sun and moon are fighting.
3) Steve DeSiena as a child having a premonition about his adulthood.

Thanks for your commentary! The next request for prompt will be up when the November's story is up.

Until then on the story prompt!

TAP

2008-12-02T08:34:00.003-05:00

No, this has nothing to do with my story, The Angel Project. This has to do with NY State aid. Apparently, now I'm "not TAP Certified." Like, hell duh I'm not certified! PEOPLE have been taking so long with my paperwork (two months and counting), causing me to go back and forth with re-applying for certain qualifications. I am actually going back later today to follow-up, and NOT hoping for the best. I don't want to do this anymore. No one's listening on their side to me, so I give up on CUNY system.

Yes, Financial Aid, you can keep your money for your drinks and some other "well-deserving" individual, because I just don't have the proper amount of paperwork for Registrar to approve my residency...either that or they don't have the brain power.

I am SO SICK of administration, on behalf of other people that have dealt with them as well as myself!

For post-grad and post-bacc, you can bet your bottom dollar I am NOT going to be applying to CUNY as any of my top three-choices. They'll be last resort.

Baked

2008-11-30T20:36:00.002-05:00

I baked cookies for the second time in my life this weekend.

The first time was not out of scratch and on parchment paper- I used a ready-to-mix kind of product and aluminum foil. The bottoms got burnt and people had to watch out for foil pieces that might've been stuck on the bottom of the cookies when they were eating them.

My first batch was white chocolate and blueberry cookies on Thanksgiving. My second batch and third were today- almond biscotti for Elbert's mom's birthday (they kind of came out really hard cos they were left in the oven too long, but the flavor was good); and white chocolate cookies (just so I can finish up the white chocolate chips in the cupboard). Elbert helped me out with all batches, the sweetheart.

I'm happy the cookies came out well but already I can see I have to account for plenty of things in recipes, including the recommended amounts of sugar and baking time. Plus, it's all about taste and texture combined.

Meantime, I'm working on the first writing prompt. Stay tuned.

New.

2008-11-26T22:52:00.003-05:00

I went onto Google and started to look at templates, then I went to Zoraida's blog and found her template source. It was a desire come true. :)

I love it! For now. <3

Pay attention to the titles on the right- they're either short stories or novels in the plans or the works. I'll be linking to them when they're posted on FictionPress.com, but post up teaser excerpts here. If the titles are failures, then they're failures- nothing I can really do about them but actually work on the work I...titled them with.

Enjoy the anticipation. I know I will.

Sleepies

2008-11-25T21:16:00.002-05:00

I'm supposed to be doing a myriad of other things, but I've been so tired lately. It's really sad. :( Hopefully Thanksgiving weekend'll be kind to me.

Switched

2008-11-23T13:36:00.001-05:00

I'm not using my WordPress blog anymore. I feel like staying here.

Thanks guys. :)

First session was

2008-11-22T19:19:00.001-05:00

A BLAST!

Thanks for coming, everyone! Your input is important and your participation will always matter.

Now, it's time to prepare for the SECOND session. ^_^

I keep thinking...

2008-11-21T08:34:00.004-05:00

I'm applying to career-making jobs soon, and I just thought I'd place a blog entry here (as opposed to somewhere else, trust me) about it.

If this stuff doesn't work out within a certain number of years (haven't decided yet- maybe three or five, depending) I'm going to go back to school, post-bacc style. Then, apply for...dun dun! MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Because I can!

But it's less shallow than that. Know what? I just keep having this drive to help people. But, if I can't help people literary-style, then I'm going to try to help medical-style. We'll see, though. The economy isn't so nice at the moment and if I tried to apply to schools now, there's more people trying to get in to advance, so my chances of trying to get into schools for post-bacc can be a little shot. Plus, I have no money. Unless someone's going to give me loans. (I don't know...that's not likely.) I'm going to wait until I'm completely independent (meaning on my taxes) to apply to post-bacc so I can receive MAXIMUM AID...yeah...

Besides, I still want to try myself in the publishing business.

Plans for the Vacation!

2008-11-12T19:39:00.002-05:00

The semester's going to end and with that, my first half of my (supposed--so let's keep our fingers crossed!) senior year.

Academically, what do I have planned for winter break? Well, for starters, I'm going to keep going with the writing prompts. The November prompt has yielded extramarital relations between females and a conservative man...all within Steve's dream. Confused? So am I, even if it's my story. So stay tuned.

I have to study, so I'm choosing to study for German. I have my minor to finish, you know! There should be an awesome amount of time for me to study this.

Then, there's career-making positions to look for. Fifteen guesses as to what I would like to become. But, in the air of the current economy, I may not have that much luck. Anyway, I'll still be hoping and searching. Nothing like optimism to keep me going.

Other plans...are all up in the air. :)

Why am I silent every month?

2008-11-04T21:10:00.002-05:00

All right folks, I think it's time I did something useful with this blog. So, starting this month, I'm requesting people to give me "writing prompts." I will take the first three in any list of comments and write a short story of some unknown length. I plan to publish said story the next month. So, at least, you know I'm going to have to write something up the next month. :)

Recount: Francine Prose reading @ The Strand Bookstore

2008-10-13T00:02:00.003-04:00

At 19.00 on Tuesday night, 07 October 2008, Francine Prose was at the Strand Bookstore, giving a reading from her newly published novel, Goldengrove.

It was a small section of the store on the second floor, in the space where the Art & Photography books were shelved. Zoraida and I arrived minutes before the hour, and found that there were approximately thirty or so chairs available for the reading. We saw that many towards the back of the section were empty, but they quickly filled up a couple of minutes before the start of the event. The owners had placed a platform with a podium for her to speak at, with a sound system used to amplify her voice over the traffic heard from the street.

The event started with a brief introduction made by the owners of Strand, the Basks. They mentioned that Ms. Prose wrote fifteen books of fiction and that she was President of the Important Pen and American Center. The program for the night would be the reading, a Q & A session, and personalization time for books. Then, they introduced the author.

Francine Prose walked up to that podium, thanked the small audience and the owners, and briefly talked about herself in terms of The Strand. She lives only about half a block away from the store and has been a faithful customer at the bookstore for more than thirty years, before her kids were born, buying and selling books. Then she started to talk a little about Goldengrove.

What caught my attention real well was the detail about the beginning. She admitted that her original beginning was the second page of the first chapter, and not the first page of the published novel. During the Q & A, when someone had asked about her inspiration for the novel, she said that it was tied to a family living upstate in New York, a real-life situation that was so “gothic” and “bizarre,” but for reasons of privacy she could not reveal anymore than that. She started to write the novel in 2003, the first chapter in the middle of the night. Then she stopped work on it until 2005, when her mother died. It was in that year that she realized that Goldengrove would carry a grief theme, aligned with her own feelings about her mother.

I listened to her read, aware only that the narrator was supposed to be a thirteen-year-old girl who would later grieve for her sister by carrying on relations with her sister’s boyfriend, an older adolescent who was supposed to be college-bound. “If all the clocks and calendars vanished...,” she read. Goldengrove’s narrator, Nico, was school-aged and referred to her sister, father, and mother constantly in the first several pages that Ms. Prose read outloud to us. The setting is in a small town, happening in 2004 or 2005. There is a defined contemporary moment that occurs when Nico mentions global warming to her older sister, Margaret. Altogether, it wasn’t a long section, and the author could only read so much- it was an event only up to 2030. But, it was interesting to note that the title of the book is the name of the father’s bookstore, a piece of information that was mentioned in the reading.

Then, Francine Prose opened the floor for the Q & A. At first, no one asked anything. She made a light comment made about how people wanted to ask questions but it was a matter of courage and being the first one to raise their hands. Zoraida and I were not going to be two of those types of people, but we did ask our own questions. Questions were predictable and safe, ranging from her name (it IS her real name!) to about her writing the book and Chekov, an author she holds in high regard. In her other book, Reading Like a Writer, she reserved the last chapter entirely for him and wrote of his prowess and technique.

Ms. Prose admitted to creating many drafts. Her method of revision consisted of making manuscripts on the computer, each draft with possibly ten drafts to it. For Goldengrove, she said that there were thirteen drafts saved on the computer. So, technically, she may have made as many as 130 drafts of Goldengrove. To revise for her means to go by each word, then line by line, a “micro to macro” technique. She wrote notes to herself about the characters and what they should be like, but not all those notes would come to fruition right away. In one instance, she made one of the characters sympathetic by the fifth draft. Imagine! Anyway, the second part of that question asked about finishing. When did she know that she was done with the manuscript? She knows she’s done with the book when the last comment is taken out and put back about one hundred to two hundred times. The last sentence of the novel, she said, took three months to complete.

As far as the narrative voice was concerned, she had no choice about making it a thirteen-year old girl. At first, she tried to put it with multiple points of view, using all the other characters besides the young girl, but eventually she wanted the intensity from the thirteen year old. The last chapter, she replied, was told in the view of the same person, but as an adult.

Francine Prose admits that she can’t keep a journal, mainly because she could probably not find a tone to write with. Within adolescent books she looked to for examples and inspiration, she found that there was a natural tone that she herself “couldn’t do.” Adolescent books she referred to were Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye, but the one that struck this natural tone in her was The Diary of Anne Frank. She does keep an idea notebook.

In dealing with writer’s block, she replied, “Time is really great for giving you the thing you don’t have.” Whenever she would get stuck with a story, she had to put it away because she couldn’t come up with what to put into it. Eventually something happened, and she would find that she could put it into her story and proceed. And so it goes with her writing.

Further writing questions she answered dealt with genre. She was asked about writing in the thirteen year old point of view versus writing for young adults. Ms. Prose explained that there were differences to account for: pacing, the language, and the complexity of the story. Those would often be subtle differences, but in doing so with subtlety, it could be found out who the story is intended for. While Goldengrove can be read by young adults, the reference to Nico’s name is dated, because it comes from a singer who covered “My Funny Valentine.” But, she does not hold teenagers to a lower standard. She thinks they are underestimated. In terms of the literature available for the young adults of today, she does not read them but she thinks that she may start again as her granddaughter approaches that particular age.

That was when Chekov and other bits about literature were mentioned. Yours truly asked about her second favorite author, because her favorite was clearly Chekov. She said that her list would be huge, but right now her newest favorite was an author by the name of a Roberto Bolaño, or at least that's how I felt with the spelling. (If you have a correction, please comment.)

The signing went rather quickly for me and Zoraida. I lamented for the entire reading on not bringing my copy (1st ed.!) of Reading Like a Writer, but I promptly took the opportunity of the night to buy Goldengrove and get it signed by the author. Zoraida purchased a copy of Reading Like A Writer.

We both exited as happy owners of personalized, signed copies. Next time I go attend a reading with Francine Prose, I’m not leaving my book again.