i will

Posted at SynTru:

OKAYSO. Two major events on Kher's writing front today.

The YAY, as several of you already heard me gush about in the chatbox, is that I met Brandon Sanderson today. He signed my hardcovers of his Mistborn trilogy and also my Writers of the Future certificate. It's the same exact award he won the year immediately before his first novel was published.

I've developed a new goal to publish my own novel within a year and send him a copy with a huge THANK YOU.

On that note, in my rush to get to my appointment to have my computer looked at this morning, I was an idiot and accidentally erased 2,000 words of my book instead of backing it up D: I'm just that much of a moron. Fortunately, that's not a huge deal. I'm hoping to rewrite it and use it as a slingshot to get me through the slow part I was struggling with anyway.

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Yes. Brandon Sanderson is basically amazing.

Danny is away for the weekend on a motorcycle trip with his dad. I kinda miss him but I could really use this time for writing. (I should do that now.)

Also, went to see Sex and the City 2 with Sue and Peggy. We had drinks beforehand, it was a fun outing. But there was one point in the movie when the audience reaction made me despair for the state of the modern relationship D: I won't say what in case anyone cares about spoilers, but yes.

Work was kind of crazy today. Not bad--I mean, it's hard to have a really horrible day when you're just standing behind a register ringing people up. But Mike texted Pat last night to say he wasn't coming to work (supposedly he had a funeral to go to, but we all know he thought he just wasn't needed because there were supposed to be two other checkers), and then when Janet showed up she was really sick and they ended up sending her home. Jimmy got back from vacation today, so he stayed until about 4:45, but then it was just Pat and me... with Tony outside loading mulch and such. Pat has apparently been awake over two days straight... his dad is in the hospital for something pretty serious and he's been trying to take care of that when he's not at work. So his temper was pretty frayed. I felt bad for him, but he didn't say anything mean to me--he was just glad I was there.

Will be glad when summer session 1 is over though, because then my work schedule will change and maybe not be quite so nonstop. I get up early all week now unless I oversleep, which happened Wednesday. Tomorrow and Sunday I have to be to work at 7, and damn but I'm tired. At least tomorrow afternoon I'll have plenty of time for an extended nap.

Need the money though. Danny and I are both feeling stretched thin. When I get paid Monday, all but $35 of my money will go straight to bills, and that's including the leftover money from this week's paycheck. Although the Monday after that my paycheck will be pretty much mine. But I need to save, build up funds again, if possible.

( Transformers, and writing. )

Got an A- in Writers' House. Means I managed the Dean's List (barely). That's three semesters out of four. It was my first semester that I didn't make it. Hopefully I can stay on there the rest of my time at school. Maybe even make a couple more 4.0s.

I'm thinking I need to get serious into worldbuilding for both my worlds. I think I'll get a binder and a bunch of loose leaf paper, and of course some dividers. That way I can add bits here and there. That's what I hate about notebooks. If I want to go back and add something, I have to leave room. But I don't know how much room I'll need to leave, if any. But I realized part of the reason I have such trouble getting into my writing is that the worlds of other authors seem so much more real to me than my own. I'm always uncertain. What can the houses be made of? What would be realistic? I know it doesn't have to obey the rules of our world, but it has to make sense according to the rules of my world. So I'm going to try to spend time making my worlds more real.

Work work work. It's a bit more tolerable now that I've given up on caring. Funny, huh? But I don't think it can last long. Especially when summer classes start if he schedules me when I said I can't work.

Just saw Night at the Museum. It was good, pretty fun, but too unrealistic this time (I mean, they flew from DC to New York and back presumably in under an hour in Amelia Aerhart's old plane). Star Trek and Terminator Salvation were much better, but I guess that shouldn't be too surprising. I am weirdly fascinated by the fact that the actor for Chekov in Star Trek was John Connor's teenaged dad in Terminator.

I'm tired. We drank last night (went to Medieval Times with Morgan, fun times), and I didn't sleep that well due to it. Danny woke up at 7, crazy man that he is. He'll be tired soon, especially with it raining now.

We're thinking about trying to buy a townhouse and rent out one of the rooms, but first I'd have to have a job with regular money. So here's hoping the hiring freeze lifts soon.

When I finally checked my phone this morning around 11:30 I had two voicemails from Jordan asking where I was... which meant he'd changed the schedule since I last looked (on Saturday) because I wasn't supposed to work today. Especially since I haven't worked Thursdays all winter break; I've specifically said I couldn't. ( Whatever. )

Beyond that. Called Mom today because a refund showed up in my checking from school. I bought my books and asked her if she might leave some of that money in there to help cover them; they were about $420, or will be if there are no used copies. So she agreed to leave half that amount and then proceeded to lecture me about how my savings hasn't been building money and how apparently I'm still supposed to be putting half my pay in savings. Well, that's not doable currently, but then again the only bill she's aware of me having to pay is my cell and she doesn't even know how much that is so maybe that's why she expects that from me. Although I do still have to pay for my own food and any new clothing etc I need, which can be a considerable amount of money by itself. Maybe she just overestimates what I make.

Whatever. It's not too heartening. She still hasn't called me though she mentioned she "misses hearing from me" in her email about a scholarship I told her I need to apply to. And I know she cares about me and I know she's having serious money issues, but at the same time I don't need her telling me that I'm not saving enough money when at least I'm saving something and not in any more debt than my student loans (which I'm already working toward paying off, albeit with baby steps) and I really don't need her asking me what I'm going to do if Danny and I "get sick of being so close all the time" if we live together next year. It's been over two years and I know I've been complaining in my recent posts but I freaking love him to death.

Today was really nice for us, actually, despite a fire alarm being pulled in the middle of My Bloody Valentine (which I was really enjoying and wanted to know the end of) and a couple little instances when Danny seemed to snap at me for no reason (but I suppose that reason would be that he slept really poorly last night). He's doing an inventory right now and I can't wait for him to get home so I can be sexy for him (schoolgirl skirt being the key piece of the outfit) and we can watch Smallville together.

So I spent like the last two hours cleaning. Danny's and my rooms were a horrible mess and I knew we'd never clean it together, and he certainly wouldn't clean it alone. Not the way it needed to be cleaned, at least. We had like a dozen cardboard boxes just sitting in the corner from Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and beer. I broke them all down and put them in the recycle bin. I folded the clean clothes that have just been sitting for like a week, maybe more. I cleaned up all the trash, straightened up. I started putting the ginormous pile of dirty laundry scattered throughout the bedroom through the wash. I've moved the first load to the dryer and put a second load on to wash, and I've got two more loads sitting ready in the basket in the laundry room, plus there's at least one more on the bedroom floor. Yes, it was that bad.

We're supposed to watch Twilight tonight. I think I'll be snorting at a lot of it, and I'll probably be disappointed by how it ruins the book, but I mean... it's a movie based on a book, what're you gonna do? I do still wanna see it. And while there was something addicting about reading the book, I will admit that it wasn't actually that good.

Um. Danny won't pick up his phone or answer texts. It could be that his phone lost battery or something, I dunno. But he's a butthead.

While I was cleaning I had the strongest urge to go to the gym, but Danny should be home by six, which doesn't give me much time at all. I'll ask him to come with me when he gets home but I don't have high hopes. I wanted to ask him to bring home Chinese but he wouldn't answer his phone, like I said... and I guess Chinese before the gym would be really dumb anyway, right? Haha.

I should do schoolwork. I have a decent amount of time at the moment, which makes it easy to procrastinate. I did a little French today, I think it's due soonest... but I also need to rewrite my Writers' House piece, write my review on Between Trains (which was crazy, but I enjoyed despite not understanding it really), and work on my final exam for HONR239F (it's a take-home). There's also a group capstone paper in COMM. Most of this isn't due until December, mind you. I think French is due the 25th, but that's about it for this month.

There's work stuff but I don't feel like writing more. Blah.

Well for starters I found a really cool roleplay I was thinking of joining at first, but now I'm not so sure I will. I'll probably keep poking around there and I may change my mind in a while... or maybe not, I may not have time.

We watched Hellboy last night. It was pretty good, though I can't see why it got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn't that good. I definitely liked Wanted more. But then, for some reason Hellboy was never really my thing. Oh, it's fine, I just never fell in love with it in any shape or form.

So yesterday at work I was on my lunch break doodling on a piece of paper in the back. My version of doodling is just thinking on paper, and I was thinking about how Farida (the new manager) gave me a shift Monday evening 3 to 9 but it still doesn't bring me up to even 20 hours next week. About how if Hooters and Cornerstone (Danny's favorite bar; I applied there for the hell of it because it's within walking distance of my dorm) didn't pan out, at least maybe the College Park Starbucks would be better. And maybe I wouldn't need as much money since I wouldn't be paying rent/cable/whatever at Danny's anymore because I'd actually live at the dorm properly. What I meant by College Park being better was that I might like it better, but to someone just reading the sheet of paper it probably sounded like the money might be better. Anyway, I threw the sheet of paper away, then the trash from my lunch away on top of it.

Couple hours later Farida told me she found my paper in the trash and read it. Which freaked me out a little. Why was she digging in the trash, and why did she pick up a piece of paper written on by someone else and decide to read it? It's almost... invasion of privacy. I dunno. She said she was sorry about the limited hours, it's just that this store doesn't have that many and she has to try to spread them among everyone. I told her that I know that.

Anyway after agreeing to take that shift I get home, fall asleep, and wake up with a voicemail from Hooters saying orientation is Monday at 3:30 and I'm invited to come with my driver's license and social security card. Awesome. I had to agree to pick up a shift at exactly the wrong time. So now I'm trying to get it covered so I can go to orientation at Hooters. Today I'm going to try switching with Marden, working his Sunday morning next week if he works mine tomorrow. I don't think he likes Sunday morning shifts so it might work out, we'll see. If not, I'll have to switch with Amy and work tomorrow morning 5 to 11 and then go to Hooters for the orientation at 3:30 until god knows when. Which is doable but something I'd really like to avoid.

We went to the midnight release of Hancock last night and I really enjoyed it. There were corny moments and such, but the plot that developed was something very unique and original. It surprised me, which is always nice in a movie. And it definitely gave me food for thought. I love movies that leave me thinking about the backstory, how the characters got to the point they were at in the movie, and where they're going next. That's the birth of fanfiction a lot of the time, though in this case I think I'll just poke around in a few days or a week and see if anyone has written any for me to read.

It got pretty bad reviews, though. I hate looking at reviews before the movie because often they're very inaccurate, at least when it comes to my personal taste (and Danny's too). But he wanted to, and the reviews weren't so great. But I really thought the movie deserved better reviews. I mean, like I said, it had its moments. But the overall plot was something entirely new, in my opinion, and Hancock was hilarious. I mean, they didn't explain everything, left some areas of the backstory foggy, but to me that's either room for speculation or room for a sequel. Or both.

I'm so happy to have today off. I'll definitely play more KH2, and possibly write some, though that's shaky.

I found some of my writing that Danny agreed to read because it's short. Two pieces, only five pages together. One was really just a sort of freewriting exercise, no real story/plot; the other is my little mermaid spin, "For a Soul." But I have to print them out for him, and I have no idea when I'll get around to that.

Ha. We drank last night, and I just woke up maybe 15 minutes ago. We went to bed at 2:30... but still. I haven't woken up to a PM time in forever, and it makes me feel kind of bad. I guess my body probably needed it. I also haven't been able to just sleep as long as my body desired in a while. Plus I did some good exercise yesterday -- running and some strength training on the Bowflex -- and it's entirely possible that my body needed extra time to heal after that since I decided to drink last night.

I didn't have that much though. Just in the pretty tipsy zone, amplified by the fact that I was tired. He was so cute and sweet. He got to that tipsy zone where he was very affectionate and "You're so pretty," you know.

( We discussed threesomes. )

Well anyway. We saw Get Smart Thursday night/Friday morning, and I liked it quite a lot more than I thought I would. I actually love the Rock as an actor (I know he's going by Dwayne Johnson now but he'll always be the Rock to me), and I loved that Max Smart really did know what he was doing for the most part, really deserved to be an agent, just made a lot of hilarious rookie mistakes.

My favorite line was definitely, "What about Chuck Norris with a BB gun?" x) You'd have to see the movie to get it, but it was awesome.

Meh. I'm getting hungry. I should go get some McDonalds.

ETA Uploaded three more pictures. Not really worth checking out since the three previews are literally the only pictures added... but hey. The deer were very close by in daylight, which is a miracle... and the tanning heart I took after I tanned yesterday evening.

I'm trying to write. I took my last attempt at starting on Names (aerlun.doc) and just continued. I'm sure it's pretty crappy, but what I really need is to get back into it, get a flow going, until I hit my rhythm and the writing falls into place. It's really slow going at the moment, but if I just refuse to start over this time hopefully it'll pick up. Right now writing anything substantial would be a blessing, even fanfiction, so if a plot bunny pops up I'm going to go with it, no matter what it is.

Matter of fact, I need a morale boost. I'm going to dig up anything I've finished or written substantially on, and then I'm going to list it here. Once I'm done with the rest of my update, that is.

I'm going to start a writing community once I get back into the flow of writing. I was going to do something slightly similar to the_dead_muse, but I decided against it. That isn't what helps me most. Throughout my life, I've done the most productive, regular writing is when I have someone actively reading my work as I write, giving me encouragement... and just generally excited to read the rest of my story. So I decided that something along this premise would be the best basis for a writing community if I'm going to run one. I'm going to be calling it wisereaders, the name being derived from Orson Scott Card's 'wise reader,' which is like a more general beta reader. A wise reader doesn't necessarily critique; she reads your work and tells you which parts she enjoyed and which were less enjoyable for whatever reason. Membership is closed at the moment since I'm not ready to work on it actively, but I made it to preserve the name.

Danny bought me Twilight today, but I'm not going to start reading it just yet. He still has Deathly Hallows to get through on audiobook before starting Twilight, and I don't want to be too far ahead. I can finish the book before he starts as long as it's only a day or two before, I suppose, but if I start now I'll be done at least a week before he even starts the book. So I'm going to try finishing A Feast for Crows, which I stopped rereading partway through because schoolwork intensified.

( Now to list my writing accomplishments. )

Justin has me watching Princess Mononoke. I've seen two other Miyazaki movies, Spirited Away and Nausica. I'm not as big a fan as he is, but I do appreciate them. I'm half-distracted so I may not get the true impact, but the same was true with Spirited Away and I liked it well enough. The tree spirits are freaky man.

Lessee. I also updated my profile a tad with codes stolen from one of my older profiles. And that's about it.

So yes I should be studying, but I also have until like 10 tonight by myself for studying so I'm bound to get bored and take breaks once in a while.

Time to rave about Iron Man!

My god the movie was amazing. I loved it to bits. I would go to theaters again to see it. Like right now.

PLUS. There was a new trailer for The Dark Knight at the beginning! Double win! I'm so excited for that movie.

Anyway, I don't want to ruin anything, so mostly this shall be vague raving... but there were so many hilarious lines in the movie, and scenes, and Tony Stark's robots had the most adorably amusing personalities... And there were moving parts with Yinsen, the guy he was imprisoned with in the beginning, that weren't totally cliched...

There were a ton of parts that just made the audience explode with the awesomeness. We had a little louder audience than usual, but it worked. They only laughed and exploded at appropriate parts, which just added to the whole experience.

I want clips, I want hot Iron Man icons. I'd make my own, but I haven't figured out Photoshop yet... I always used Paint Shop Pro before.

Okay, okay, I'm done. Now I'll get back to studying.