i will

Finished rereading the Hunger Games series last night. God, but it's epic. For all that I think the author's something of a bitch, she's still a genius. Spent a while looking for good quote icons from the books and found some really cute ones.

But I really miss having friends to talk to who have read and adored the same books I have. I don't think it's really happened since Harry Potter. I mean, Danny read the first two Hunger Games books and I'm trying to pressure him into getting around to the third. But it's not even close to the same. He doesn't like to really, deeply think about stories the way I do, and he gets annoyed when I "overanalyze."

I'll put up a thread at SynTru basically begging for discussion of some of my favorite books, see how that goes.

I need to write. -sigh- I determined that, at the moment, I don't really care about Grey and Kayden the way I do about Peeta and Katniss and some other characters I've truly loved from my favorite stories, which may contribute to why I've been feeling so uninspired about them. I think I need to get to know them better.

And my Secret Santa present is due soon. Blah.

Oh where, oh where has she gone?

-pokes self-

I feel like... it would be an awful shame to stop writing altogether until November, even if I did get through Homesake during/after the month. But I don't feel motivated right now, even to sit down and put together plot events or character profiles... even though these are things I need to do now that I've changed the story around so much.

Maybe I should write something else. Or maybe the break would be good. It seems so horribly long, a month and a half, but...

At least I've done homework.

I went to a writers' meetup in Silver Spring yesterday morning. It was alright. I'll probably try it again, but I'm not sure if it's quite what I'm looking for. I have next Saturday off again, so it's not as if I have anything better to do.

I went to Brandon Sanderson's book signing at the Bailey's Crossroads Borders in Virginia Wednesday night. I picked up a copy of The Way of Kings. I also got Danny something called The Ninja Handbook but I think I'm going to return it since he hasn't touched it despite me reminding him, so obviously he doesn't care and it'd be better to get my $15 back. And yesterday after my writers' meetup I got this young adult fantasy, Eon, which I'm almost tempted to read before The Way of Kings but probably won't.

Did I post already that Mockingjay made me bawl? I think so. Suzanne Collins will be in the Arundel Mills Books-A-Million on Thursday, September 23rd, and I am so going. Shane is reading The Hunger Games. If he likes it and his parents let him come, I'll take him. If they won't let him come, I'll get him his own signed copy. I would think it'd be a good, educational-type field trip, but it's also his Back to School Night, so that might take precedence.

Erm. Yeah.

Righto. I've started my internship. It's made for some long days, but it's totally worth it so far. I'll be keeping this relatively short so I can go shower and perhaps even sleep at a reasonable hour.

Thursday and Friday I went for the professional development days. Friday I woke up at 6:30, got to my internship by 8, left at 3 to get to work at 4, where work was BUSYASSHIT and I didn't get off until 1am. Now, I made $184, so it was worth it, but talk about a long day. Saturday was also very busy, but with no morning events, so not so long. Sunday I woke up at 6:30 to take Danny to the airport, dropped him off, came home and showered, then slept another hour before leaving for work at 10:40am. I was going to be late morning person, but Raechel was risking overtime if she closed lunch, so I stayed late so she could be cut before she hit overtime. I worked until about 6, made $95 or so.

Monday I went to Whetstone for the first day of school. Met all my fifth graders, and found that when I actually put effort into learning names I can pick them up very quickly. By the end of the day I knew all 23 kids even if they approached me out of context. It was a crazy first day--we had an iPod stolen before lunch and returned by the end of the day, and we have this really bright boy in class who is really disruptive and had to be removed twice for a talk... It's crazy because he's a great writer, clever, but just can't be respectful enough to keep from making all sorts of noise when other people are talking.

After school finished up at 3:45, I left for work and got there barely before 5 due to various traffic ... blahs. Worked until 9:30. Yesterday I had University classes. I thought I was done trekking across campus to the math building, but AGH my second Tuesday class is the building just PAST the math building, it's awful. All the others are in the Ed building, which is right on Lot 1, super close to where I park. After school I went up to Whetstone for the ice cream social, which was nice. Katie was there--one of the few classmates I already knew before introductions yesterday. She's super sweet.

Today I was at Whetstone again with the kids. I met the math and reading classes, which are partially homeroom kids and partially new faces, but I picked up on the new names very quickly. I helped Alice (my mentor teacher, who is beyond amazing) pick out books for reading class teams, and I get to do Ella Enchanted with one of the groups, which makes me unbelievably excited. I love that book. After that I rushed home to tutor Shane.

Tomorrow I'll be at Whetstone again, and I'll leave a little early to run pick up Danny at the airport, back from his conference in San Antonio. If he's up to it, I'll take him to Whetstone so he can see the school. If not, we can wait until later.

The only other news I have, I guess, is that I made a B in the class I was worried about! Yay, no Cs on my record.

AND OH. Did I mention that I read the third Hunger Games book, Mockingjay? It made me bawl. Danny was home for the end of it and he laughed at me crying and it pissed me off so badly. But it was an amazing conclusion. I don't think it'll be long before I'm rereading the series.

Still not writing.

I reread Graceling and it was perhaps even more wonderful the second time through, but the amazing characterization gave me a huge inferiority complex.

I tried to express to Danny how much it sucks that writing is such a big part of me but it's only a frustration to him. He didn't respond. He did tell me, when I tried to express the fact that I wrote way more stories to completion when I had real life friends reading them consistently and caring about my writing, that if I blame him for me not writing a book then we will end up breaking up. Nice stretch there.

I've been thinking about the fact that he doesn't care about my writing though, and how hard that is, and wondering... if I met someone who really did care... what would happen?

D:

I've been trying to think of a way to describe this semester. It's not like drowning. Quite. It's like... lazily floating along on my back, barely afloat... but then occasionally a wave comes in, splashes over me, and I have to doggy paddle like the wind to stay above water for a while, until it calms down again. That's right, doggy paddle. Meh.

( Real life problems... )

Now... some brighter stuff. First the TMI. Don't read if you're squeamish about sexual type stuff. I got a new piercing: a VCH (vertical clitoral hood). I got it last Thursday. It's still healing and I've barely messed with it, but so far I'm pleased. My piercer said to wait a week or two to have sex afterward, but that she only waited five days... I only waited three, and had no problems, although we were very careful about it. /TMI

On to more casual topics. I read Fire, the other book by Kristin Cashore--a companion to Graceling. I still like Graceling a tad more, but Fire was excellent too. I really liked the world presented and how it tied into the seven kingdoms we already knew about in Graceling. It fit together very nicely. It looks like I'll be starting a roleplay in the next couple days set in the world of Fire, actually.

Annndd I haven't started my 100 stories challenge yet, even though it's practically been a week. Fail. But I have gone through a lot of my world building notes, and I've already found stuff I'd nearly forgotten about that will be really fun to play with. The problem for me will mostly be choosing what to write first, I think, haha. That and keeping it short. 100 stories of about 1,000 words each in six months might be manageable, but probably not 100 3,000+ word stories, which has so far been my tendency when it comes to world building in Eysuria.

Finally... I'm really considering making a new character worksheet type deal. I feel like I've mentioned this before... but yes. One that deals in fundamental aspects of character, not the little things like what color their eyes are. Hm.

Finished Graceling. Yes in one day. Which shows you how much I ADORED it.

Wish Danny still listened to audiobooks. Would force him to 'read' it.

Okay so I didn't exactly stop doing the meme. I skipped a few days, but continued on ST. Oh well.

Moving along.

I just finished the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, and I have to say, I liked it way more than I even thought I would. I loved the way it escalated throughout, until the final book was practically one big battle with little breaks in the middle. And I learned a ton about Greek mythology. I mean, not all of it is 100% accurate, but most of it's on the level. Finishing this series has me interested in Labyrinth and that new move Clash of the Titans (well, new remake). Though why it's called Clash of the Titans when there are no Titans in it is beyond me.

In other news. Brandon Sanderson's LJ (mistborn) now has the artwork for The Way of Kings up. I'll admit I saw this the other day and it completely went over my head what that meant. I thought it was part of the Wheel of Time series he's finishing for the late Robert Jordan. But no--it's for his own new series, starting in August, and I am beyond excited. I mean, really.

I should really read the Wheel of Time books. I mean, if he loves them, strong chance I will too. But anyway.

I think my next stop will be reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I got it a while ago--just before NaNoWriMo--and Cashore was actually one of the NaNo peptalk authors, yet I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I mean, technically I should read The Book Thief since it's assigned for class, but er, not if I can avoid it. Blah. I've read half, and I like the writing style, but the topic just isn't my thing.

Guess that's it for now.

Well two days off actually. Not that work has been terribly strenuous the last couple days with my four hour shifts, but it's nice to know I don't have to be somewhere by 5. I've got a lot to do on Stories. And I foolishly signed up to co-Admin a Hunger Games RP on proboards. If it was InvisionFree or IPBFree I'd probably already have a layout made, but for proboards I have to figure out the coding all over again. Blah. But I do love the Hunger Games, and an RP could be cool. (Was I drunk when I agreed to this, though? Really?)

Here's my To Do list for the day:

* er, laundry, at some point. No really.
* nano banner for Kat (forgot!)
* layout for Hunger Games RP (rawr) (sort of)
* reply to princess round robin (& start new one?)
* look into january of the month possibilities
* Demitri's story (Perspectives challenge)
* Genre tournament - Lincoln assassination / Booth death!
* choose a weekly portfolio - Blitzen :3

Not in that order, since I'll probably be choosing a weekly portfolio first.

I emailed my dad. He said he has an eBook reader so he didn't bring the books I got him, though he downloaded them to it to read when he's done with what he's reading currently. I've been thinking about getting an eBook reader too, so Danny and I just researched them, and I think I'll be going with the Nook. The only real advantage I've seen for the Kindle over the Nook is slightly faster page turning, but that's cool. The Nook has a ton of better features that outweigh that. I'm going to ask that people get me money toward it for my birthday instead of gifts. Although that's 5 months away. Wow. Maybe I'll buy it early and ask for after-the-fact money :/ Or Barnes and Noble gift cards for books. Or something. Probably not though. I can't afford a $260 gadget right now.

All my final grades posted but ARHU318 (Writers' House). The prof for that sent me an email asking for the introduction I forgot to put in my final portfolio, which makes me feel even more stupid and anxious about my potential grade in that class; it was in the instructions, I just missed it. Gah. I mean, since I wasn't there the day she assigned it (and with an excused absence, no less), maybe she'll give me some leeway. I wasn't the only one who forgot it either. But I still need to reprint my portfolio for Johnna because apparently she needs it in 12pt Times.

Anyway, I did scrape an A- in French, so she must have curved the grades a bit (omg thank you). So that's two As and two Bs on my more weighted classes. In fact, one of each for my two 4-credits and one of each for my two 3-credits. ARHU318 is only a one credit. I'm not going to hope for an A. I was not an A student in that class this semester, even forgiving her lack of a syllabus. But a B shouldn't be too much to ask for. I feel like you'd have to really fuck up to get a C in a Writers' House course.

They cancelled one of my summer courses due to lack of enrollment. I added Junior English to try to make up for it, but I'm waitlisted. I added myself to two of the waitlisted sections and I'm first on each, so it's reasonable to hope I'll get in; surely at least one student will decide they don't want to pay for the class and drop out, right? So the only thing I'm really worried about it the fact that MATH212, the cancelled class, is a prerequisite for MATH213, which I'm also enrolled for. I hope they still let me take it. It's not my fault the prereq was cancelled. And I doubt there's really anything learned in 212 that I can't pick up just from taking 213. They're the same concept, just 212 is for teaching more basic math and 213 is for geometry-type-stuff. I emailed my advisor to let her know what's going on and ask her advice.

Oh, and it seems like no one's hiring but restaurants. Justin talked to his manager for me at Safeway and introduced me, but Safeway has a hiring freeze on currently; the manager said they're trying to shuffle current employees around before hiring new ones since some stores are understaffed but others are overstaffed. But he also said that no one wants to move, so they're having trouble; no one wants to drive too far to work. Starbucks isn't actively hiring. Heather said her work is hiring because a lot of their girls went home for the summer, and she said that she thinks I could teach a summer camp with no problem; if she says so, I'll believe her. It's a little intimidating since she works at a place where they coach gymnastics, and she used to be world-class. But she said she'll talk to her boss and ask for me. She also said starting is $9/hr while training. And it sounds like I could get at least semi-decent hours. So here's hoping, but I won't find out until she gets back from wherever she went with Dennis this weekend. It's crazy how great my roommates are though. Justin and Heather both so willing to help. I know I'm a bit of a shut-in, kind of on the antisocial side, but they're still so helpful.

People can be so wonderful.

Also, I'm reading Warbreaker, Sanderson's free e-Book. It's interesting; his worlds always are. I think he did a better job in Mistborn of introducing names of places and concepts more gradually and naturally, but I'm curious about the world and the magic system, so I'm along for the ride. He's releasing it in book form for sale in early June; I'll almost certainly buy it, if only to support him. Maybe I'll buy Elantris too and give it another shot.

So, much to Danny's dismay, I'm currently rereading the Mistborn books -- and I'm once again struck by how much of a genius Brandon Sanderson is. I just finished the first two, and they're amazing enough without even taking into account the levels I know book three adds. The reread is so much better than even the initial read, so I can't wait until I finish this final book and see what little details I've missed. Ahhh!

And it really makes me want to write my own books. Bah. I could finish Blood and Heat -- it's a good story, lots of potential, though certainly not fleshed out all the way. I have to believe in myself and remember that even my favorite authors, who are completely brilliant, make mistakes. Martin making mention of Jaime doing something requiring two hands after having lost one, for instance. Or Sanderson writing that Vin had Clubs -- a Smoker Misting, meaning he can only burn copper -- burn bronze to try to sense Allomantic pulsings from the Well of Ascension only she could sense anyway. It took me about two paragraphs (on the second reread!) after reading that for the lightbulb to go off -- wait! He can't do that! Haha.

Anyway yeah. So rereading these books is quickly elevating Sanderson. He was certainly top five before, but distinctly below Martin and Orson Scott Card in "rank" so to speak. Now though... I feel they're all fairly evenly matched (not that I can really judge, eh?). Hell, the Hero of Ages (third book, which I just started) has praise from Orson Scott Card right on the cover, so I shouldn't be surprised!

Um so. In brief, beyond the writing. I'm taking Danny to dinner tonight when he gets home. I feel bad because I upset him last night (well, his version of upset, more mopey and irritated) by resizing a bunch of pictures on my computer and uploading them to Facebook, then reading a couple chapters of the Well of Ascension. There was a movie he wanted to watch, but I didn't realize he wanted to watch it right then and he wanted me to stop what I was doing to watch it. So I'm trying to make up for it, and I'll try to be less oblivious in the future. Plus, it'll be our first time at Fridays when I can drink too!

Speaking of, my 21st birthday was great. Perhaps I'll detail that one later. Pictures on Facebook!

My classes still aren't posting my grades. I know that as a group my comm group made a 94 on our paper, which is great, but I don't know if individual scores were weighted differently. I'll keep checking Blackboard.

I'm hungry.