Day 29 & 30

Day 29: A confession.
I may be writing this post in February.

Day 30: My hopes for my blog.
Honestly. I hope I actually write in it consistently and I get a few followers other than my family. But whatever. I mostly just maintain it just in case I become a famous author so I already have an established blog.

Day 27 & 28

Day 27: What is in my Closet.
Cloths mostly, though there is also a crochet set, shoes, bags, ornaments, sewing supplies, old dolls, electronics, and old awards.

Day 28: Most embarrassing moment.
Um, I once got naked in from of some neighborhood boys. I knew exactly what I was doing at the time. (I had put my bathing suit over my underwear and I was taking them off...the underwear, and for some reason I did it outside, in front of two neighborhood boys.) It wasn't until I had done it that I realized what I had just done was completely mortifying. That was when I was a little kid though. I suppose don't really get into a lot of embarrassing moments, but you could call mine literally em-barr-assing...if you know what I mean. ;)

Day 20 & 21

I know, I know, this is bad! School started yesterday (as of now the fact that this school likes to start and end mi week but have the same amount of material as the other weeks is the only major complaint) and there was not time.

Day 20: Something that makes me happy.
Books.

Day 21: Something that makes me sad.
Not having much time anymore to read books.

Day 19: My Favorite Movie

That is really hard to say, that's like picking a favorite lung or something. Um, well Princess Bride, Inception, Up, Chicken Run, North and South (technically a BBC miniseries I know.) There's a lot more where that came from but I am going to stop for now.

Days 17 & 18

Yesterday was not really that busy, I just sort of forgot.

Day 17: My Favorite Blogs.
Into the Book. Writing Forward. The Curious World of Phillip Reeve. Those are just a few. I actually followed a lot at one point, but most of them stopped posting about two years ago.

Day 18: A Photograph of Myself.

I feel this photo captures the real me, the me on the inside. Not the what I am, but the who I am.

Day 14: 3 Healthy Habbits

Do they mean literally healthy, like for your body, or is it more of a well-being sort of thing?

Exercising, eating a fiber and protein rich breakfast, and getting enough sleep.

Day 13: What's Inside My Fridge

I don't have a personal fridge, it's the family's, and that really is a lot of stuff to list down. And which fridge? There are two of them, and a deep freeze...What, we're a big family and my parents buy in bulk. I'm not going to list all the stuff. Food, juice, condiments, a human hand, you know, typical fridge stuff.

Day 12: My Favorite Childhood Book

Ooooo, that's a hard one. Let's see, I have narrowed it down to A Wrinkle in Time, East, Inkheart, or the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. You can't ask me to make the list any smaller.

Day 11: 10 Favorite Foods

Let's see...

Ice-cream, pizza, salad, eggs, strawberries, yogurt, wheat bread (and I mean actual wheat bread, not slightly darker white bread,) Nutella, popcorn, and nuts.

Day 10: Best Trip of My Life

I don't know. I guess when I went to Latvia in 2010 with my church youth group. Nothing really stands out. Maybe I am just boring, but I like to think that I find contentment and joy and beauty wherever I am. Or maybe I'm just boring.

Day 9: What's in My Bag/Wallet

In my bag there is a wallet (and all the usual stuff that entails), a check book, hand sanitizer, lotion, Band-Aids, two pairs of sunglasses, a lock, gum, lip balm, keys, nail clippers, two pens, a styles, a mini flash light, a passport, a lighter, a Swiss pocket knife, and a measuring tape.

Day 8: 5 Current Goals

1: Have a bachelors in accounting by 2018.
2: Own my own vehicle by next year.
3: Send my manuscripts to at least five publishers this year.
4: Run at least 50 miles this month.
5: Finish the book I am working on tomorrow.

Days 6 & 7

Yes, yes I know, I am a slacker. But I've been doing these things at night and last night kind of got away from me, so I decided to try to do it in the morning.

Day 6: What am I Afraid of?
The unknown and driving.

Day 7: 5 of My Favorite Songs
Then the Morning Comes-David Benoit
Tiger Rag-Art Tatum
Cry Me a River-Ella Fitzgerald
I Want to be Evil-Eartha Kitt
Hello Word-Lady A

Day 4: My Dream Job

Writing a million books while doing the books for small businesses.

End of the Hiatus

Hello world and I am back! With a crazy holiday season with school being the most intense it has ever been, (every singe class actually took effort this semester, until now there had been at least one I could sort of just skate through and still get As) work the craziest it's ever been, (seriously, I worked almost as many days last year, but the shifts were longer this year) and the usual all over business that comes with the holidays, some stuff had to be put aside for a little while. Blogging was one of those things, since I have never been particularly faithful about it anyway. The only reason I keep it going is on the off chance that I do get famous I will already have a long standing blog for people to easily find.

Anyway, to get me back on the blogging track, I will tackle a 30 day challenge. I know, even though there are 31 days in January I am still behind a day. Not to worry, I will do days one and two today.

1. Brilliant in the Weirdest Way.

2. I am 5' 4". Ice cream is my favorite thing food. I love to read. I love to write. My hair is brown. I tend to be uptight. I don't have good dream recall. I got pretty decent at the piano but did not enjoy it enough to exert the effort to keep it up. I am single and getting pretty tired of people wonder "why" as if there needs to be a special reason beyond my not forcing the existence of a relationship where one doesn't happen naturally. BBC Sherlock is my favorite show, (at this moment.) Battlestar Galactica was my favorite show two years ago. Playing table top games is one of my favorite group activates. I am a size 12 generally. I like cats. I don't like dogs. I spend too much time on the internet. I like to debate things. I have read the Bible through five times. My hands and feet are always cold. Morning is my favorite time.

There, all caught up. In addition to that, I have some more exciting news. Yesterday was my first day at a new job! Yep folks, that right. I am not officially working at an accounting office. I'm not actually one of the accountants, currently, I am a receptions, but I will eventually do more and more of the accounting work, (mostly number entry, form filling, stuff like that all pretty simple,) but it is a step in the right direction and it is my foot in the door.

I actually wasn't going to search that hard for an accounting job until after I got my associates, but Mum and KatySue happened to see a job opening in the classifieds for a place in town. I went ahead and e-mailed them, and well there you go.

Day Thirty-Write a Story Based on Five of the Challenges

YES!!!!!! I did it! Albeit, I'm a little disappointed in the story I wrote. It is okay, I mean it isn't bad, at least not really bad. The really sad part though is that I had come up with some rockin' ideas...unfortunately they were all too complex for a short story. Novella length maybe, if I work on keeping things short, but not a short story. At first I thought all of them would work, and it was only a matter of picking the right one. So I wrote short outlines of all of them, thinking that would help me decide. It did, but only because once I had written down the outline I realized the ideas were far too complex. The only idea I could come up with that was short enough, I did not really like. Ah well, the whole point to this challenge was to be inspired to write something larger than a paragraph, and I did write a short story, and now I have a ton more ideas to work with.

Oh, and another mark of celebration, this just happens to be my one-hundredth post. Imagine that! Timely isn't.

Pretty exciting huh? And I managed to do it in under a year. It will be a year in about eleven days, but still, under a year. Honestly, with how little I post I would have thought it would take a couple years at least.

And, another thing to celebrate, (yes another thing!) is I finished editing The Drosselmeyer Legacy. If knows an editor I would be more than willing to let them take a stab at it, I would even make coffee dates with them and we could edit it together. One my own though, I think it is as good as it is going to get. I could go through it yet again, but I honestly don't think I would change it that much. Maybe a few sentences here and there to make the language flow better, but not more than that.

I guess now is when I would usually post the challenge. I don't think I am going to though. Like I said, I am not really fond of what I wrote, but not doing the last challenge? That does seem a bit of a cope out, doesn't it? It is almost even worse than skipping the first challenge. So I will do something a little differently, basically I will be cheating. Instead I will write the ideas for the novels this challenge has inspired. I'll give a synopsis and write down the challenges that were going to be in them. I guess, since it is the short story I wrote for the challenge, give a synopsis of the story I don't like.

Binder's Keep-Alexa finds a mysterious book shop and meets mysterious people inside of it. Day three, Day five, Day Nineteen, Day Twenty-Two, Day Twenty-Five.

Now on to some of the ideas I actually liked.

God Syndrom-Alexa Quillan is a wanna-be writer. Sure, she does write, and she is even published, but her books sell so little, she struggles to make more that 25,000 a year off of it. She's only able to actually live in a house because of part time work at a local coffee shop. She likes to view herself as an undiscovered genius. That the books she writes are actually really good, it's just the public is so shallow they can't swallow her realistic writing style. One un uneventful day though, one of the characters from her first novel comes back and hunts her...literally. Day Five, Day Nine, Day Twenty, Day Twenty-Three, Day Twenty-Nine

Relic (working title really)-In the future, it is a requirement for every single person to collect something. Whether it be a brand of toy, cars, baseball cards, or even gum wrappers. Nothing is considered trash, and everything is considered a treasure. This may seem an odd costume, but there is a reason behind this odd tradition. Much culture and information was lost when the computer system failed, and the only way the information was conserved was through the use of people who remember. Quite a number of these people, were collectors. Collectors studied in depth what they collected, they understood the history behind it, preserving that piece of history. Day Ten, Day Twenty-Five, Day Twenty-Seven. (I would have added more challenges if I had actually written the story)

The Story Doctor-Nobody really knows who the story doctor is, all they know is that sometimes stories break, characters do something they aren't supposed to do, or something happens incorrectly, and somehow the story doctor knows to fix it.

I didn't actually come up with any challenges for this one, after writing down the idea, I already knew I couldn't fit it into a short story.

Day Twenty-Nine~Write a Conversation

Sam: So...
Bill: So what?
Sam: I wasn't sure how else to start.
Bill: Start what, exactly?
Sam: This conversation.
Bill: Oh.
(Pause)
Sam: So...
Bill: Not that again.
Sam: Then do a better job carrying you end of the conversation.
Bill: There was never a conversation to begin with. All you said was "so."
Sam: Listen, we need to say something interesting enough to write about.
Bill: Why?
Sam: Our friend is doing this thirty day challenge thing on her blog and was stuck for day twenty-nine. So she asked that I would go talk to you and say something interesting enough to put on her blog.
Bill: Sorry to be such a disappointment, but I am uninteresting by nature.
Sam: I'm sure if we talk long enough we'll get something. Look over there. She's scribbling like mad in that note book of hers.
Bill: Do I care?
Sam: No, but I do.
Bill:This conversation should have ended at, "so."
Sam: Please, just a little while longer.
Bill: Fine. Say something that is witty and will carry us into an interesting conversation.
Sam: Uuuuuuuu...
Bill: Fascinating
Sam: Oh, she's putting her notebook away. Guess we got too tiresome.
Bill: How disappointing.
Sam: Is she crying?
Bill: Yes, or laughing, but crying is more likely.
Sam: I wonder what she'll use for that blog post now.
Bill: Who knows.

Day Twenty-Eight~Write a Movie Review

We are certainly drawing near to the end! I was supposed to finish last weak, that had been the plan. Then life got busy, and I got lazy. Not a good combination. After the 30 day challenge is done, I will try to post about randomness from my life more. I'm sure you all care greatly.

~*~*~*~*~*~

In an adaptation of the traditional fairytale, Rapunzel, Disney's "Tangled," gets everyone tied up in knots. A princess who has magical hair which can heal is stolen form birth, and locked away in a tall tower in the middle of the woods by the evil witch, Mother Gothel. Repunzle, not knowing who she really is, spends the next eighteen under the care of Mother Gothel. Every year on her birth day, glowing lights would appear in the sky. This, more than anything else, puts a feeling of longing for the outside world.

Flynn Rider, the most handsome and daring-not to mention most wanted-thief in the kingdom. One day, while running away from several guards after stealing the crown of the lost princess, Flynn stumbled upon the same tower Rapunzel has been imprisoned in. When he scaled the tower wall, he planed on hiding there. Rapunzel, on the other hand, had other ideas. Rapunzel convinces Flynn to take her to the glowing lights after taking his crown hostage. The due set out on an amazing adventure, soon finding themselves "tangled" in a dangerous and exciting plot.

After several "okay" movies from the Disney animation studios, Tangled was a breath of fresh air. Disney animation studios had its hay day in the 90's, but ever since then they haven't made anything that I would consider a "classic. True, Pixar was dealing out at least one really good movie a year, and while I thoroughly enjoy them, they simply weren't what I would call quintessential Disney. The last movie from Disney animation studios that I really enjoyed was The Emperor's New Groove from 2000. And even that didn't have the quintessential Disney feeling for me. The last movie that did that was Mulan in 1998.

But Tangled, man Tangled brought it all back. The beautiful animation, the heart felt story, the subtle comedy that can appeal to children and adults alike, the singing, (I LOVE the singing,) it was all there. Tangled did what The Princess and the Frog tried to do. Bring back the Disney fairy tales. While I am somewhat sad to see the 2D animation fade out, I am glad Disney has proven it can still capture that fairytale like feeling it did with the movies from the 90's, but with this new age of animation.

Day Twenty-Seven~Write a Character Sketch

Luke was his name. Medium built, height, and looks. He wasn't ugly, but he wasn't exactly what would be considered handsome. What almost might have been an endearing, boyish face was ruined by a large roman nose and slits for eyes. He wore his dark blond hair in an inch long crop.

He had one of those personalities which were likable, but not companionable. He had too many acquaintances to count, but not many friends. He was friendly, energetic if even keel, and a good talker. He was very clever, and could enter any conversations sounding like he knew what he was talking about, but lacked the long term patients and deep intelligence that made for someone who did know what they were talking about. It was like this for him with almost everything though. He did not have much an interest in anything. He had no talents or particular hobbies. He was lazy and undisciplined. Whether he lacked interest in anything because he was lazy, or he was lazy because he had no passion to drive him is hard to say.

He did not have a large selection of clothing, but what he had was always nice. By looking confident and in control, through the use of a well-put-together wardrobe, he could make others believe his life was more than a disorganized mess. It was a lovely charade, and had nearly everyone convinced he had a productive and efficient life.

He always sense a lack inside himself though, and sought after the next new thrill or must have product or exciting place. That is, as long as it did not take too much work. Nothing ever did the trick though. He stumbled through life, basically friendly and happy, but he lacked real depth of character and contentment, which is a more sturdy form of joy.

His name was Luke.

Day Twenty-Six~Write a Poem

Little girl in bed at night,

Feels scared, feels fright.

Mother by her bed she stands,

Gives to little girl her hand.

Mother kissed her, bending low,

Began to sing so soft and slow.

If you just take my hand,

I'll take you 'cross the land.

Up so high,

Like birds in the sky.

We'll dance on the clouds,

Spin round and round.

Then laugh so hard we cry.

So even if you're all along,

And very far away from home.

I promise that you'll be fine,

Only remember this lullaby.

Little girl has grown up fast.

Her bad dream days are in the past.

She's going away to college now.

Mother hugs her, kisses her brow.

Mother tells girl of a promise to keep.

Wither awake or wither asleep.

You are going far from home,

And if you ever feel alone,

You know that you'll be fine.

Please just remember the lullaby.

Little girl continued her life,

Fought through the pain and the strife.

Sometimes the only reason she got by,

Was because she remember the lullaby.

Little girl married, kids of her own,

Goes to see Mother at the old folks home.

Holding doll she thinks little girl,

Mother sit wrapped in a blanket curled.

Little girl gets down on her knees.

Tears in her eyes, she begins to sing.

If you just take my hand,

I'll take you 'cross the land,

Up so high,

Like birds in the sky.

We'll dance on the clouds,

Spin round and round.

Then laugh so hard we cry.

So even if you're all alone,

And all your memories had flown,

I promise that you'll be fine,

If you only remember the lullaby.