Yes, Hello! I am here! I uh... just haven't been for a while. I've been busy with NaNoWriYe and my LJ. Soories...

A quick updated,

Music: I found the two new best alternative/weird/whatever bands: A Fine Frenzy and The Hush Sound. My favorite songs by them are Almost Lovers and You Picked Me and Ranger and Honey Honey and The Boys Are Too Refined.

Quotes: My new favorite ones are:
"I don't use drugs. My dreams are frightening enough" -M.C. Escher
"Good morning, look at the sun!" Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate factory
"Everything in this room is eatable, even *I'm* eatable! But that is called "cannibalism," my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies" -Willy Wonka

NaNoWriYe: I'm at 32%, 64.2k (64,208 words) and I am totally and absolutely thrilled about it!!! That's progress, baby.

School: Not so good, as usual. English is still a real pain in the ass (go figure) but science is looking up and we have a week off for spring break this week so I can chill and do some more writing.

Till then, Ciao, permanenza allegria! ginger<3spice

Ah, this will be a short one because I am busy typing away on YWS, still avoiding any actual writing but I just have to post this quote that I love so much:

"All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things, after that." - Bobby Knight

!!! Alright, anyway, I am off to work on the writing. I will get to it! Oh, and I finished reading too more books today!

Avoir, ginger<3spice

Books

As I read, I will update this list, but for now, here are the books I have read so far in 2008:

1. So B. It
2. Wuthering Heights (I am going to count it even though this was the 13th time I read it)
3. The Luxe
4. There is a [Slight] Chance I May Be Going To Hell
5. Friction

There are more but putting them on here requires remembering them. I plan to read 100 books this year and so far, it isn't going well.

Occupations

I feel so bad, I haven't been here in ages! I've been occupied with (from least occupation to greatest):

10. Catching up in English
9. FastForward
8. Reading
7. Volleyball
6. Art
5. Avoiding Writing
4. Track
3. Science Fair
2. Avoiding the guy I am rather fond of
1. NaNoWriYe

I am rather behind in English because I don't turn things in, so I have a 81 and I am trying to bring it up to an 89 before, oh yeah, THURSDAY.

FastForward has been the ever present weight on my shoulders since like fourth grade... ages ago. See, I started working there as a volunteer summer camp teacher and they managed to suck me in and keep me there, even now.

Reading is always occupying my time. This year, I'm trying to read 100 books, so I have to pretty much read 2 a week. Yikes.

I play club volleyball so we are traveling every other weekend and we have practice two nights a week.

I have been commissioned for several pieces lately. That plus personal art, I have enough projects to keep me going for a long time.

I am sooooo procrastinating with my writing that I have gotten to the point where I am planning stories out to busy myself so i don't have to write.

Track season has started so that takes up the afternoons I don't have volleyball.

Science Fair was on Friday and it was eight hours of solid, foot wrenching torture. My feet and brain were screaming for mercy after I got home. And I have to go back on Tuesday for the awards ceremony to see if I won anything. It is really odd I went to science fair, I am dreadful at science and I hate it with every fiber of my being that isn't occupied hating something else.

My guy plights and problems are endless, there is no point carrying on about them.

Finally, NaNo is taking up a major chunk of my life and I have begun to impulsively go straight to the website as soon as I log onto my computer. Thus, I don't get around to much blogging.

Auvoir, gingerspice.

CoMPLeTe!!!!

I FINISHED TODAY!!!!!

Yes, I finished my first novel. Well, no it isn't my first novel, let me put it like this:

This is the first novel I have ever finished.

Because, in fact, it is. It is a novella, but still. I'm satisfied with all 20k words in it, full sized or not. It isn't the best plot in the world because, well, it was a little excercise I did. I wasn't planning on doing anything to it but my friend was very interested in it and I resolved to write a novel for each of my closest friends (that would be 8 novels). I tried to talk her out of picking that one, I did, but she just wouldn't listen.

So 73.8 hours writing, 91 peanut butter sandwiches, 6 words goals, 7 character changes, and 13 chapters later, I have a completed manuscript.

I suppose I'll have to quit fiddling with it and start something new one of these days but for now, I am going to fiddle to my hearts content.

It wasn't all done for nothing, though. I have a birthday present for one of my friends and around 20k towards my 200k nanowriye2008 goal.

NaNoWriYe2008

Ok, so I haven't been blogging in a while because:

1. I experimented with vloging. I am way too all over the place to vlog.
2. I have gone mad. Stark raving mad.
3. My brother has been really sick.
4. I do at some point have to get an education, so why not go to school and make it official?
5. I have been in novel and painting zone. Scary, scary place.

First off, I do think I have gone mad. Why? After failing miserably at NaNoWriMo2007, I decided to eff it and delete the whole thing. By failing miserably, I mean failing made me miserable, not that I miserably failed. In fact, I missed the goal by 31 words. THIRTY-ONE WORDS!!!! I wrote my 31st word up there where i said 'raving' for the first time.

This made her go insane?, you ask. No. What made me go mad is that I felt bad because I deleted it. And I threw away all that work. So to earn my karma points back, I joined in NaNoWriYe (does anyone know how the hell to pronounce that? I pronounce it with a silent Ye or sometimes I add the A in so its like NaNoWriYEA!). Which is the same as NaNoWriMo except you set your own goal and you do it over the course of a year. My goal was- is- 200k. 200,000 effing words. That's a lot. UNLESS... you get obsessive about things like I do and write 37,000 in 14 days. See what I mean? Stark. Raving. Mad.

My writing process is strange. I start out with a ton of ideas and write them all down and describe them. Then I take one and plunge head first into it, no planning, no nothing. Just coffee and an apple or twelve. During the down time, I take another and plan it word for word basically. Every character, every scene, every bird flying 2000 miles over head (wait, do they fly that high?) Roughly a month later, I come stumbling out of my sunlit cave (ironic? Of course, why shouldn't it be?) sleep deprived and burnt out with a forty 8.5x11 page novel that makes no sense and an outline that makes all the sense in the world and will bore you to tears. Its how I live my life plus or minus a few meals, workouts, and art projects.

What happens to the other ideas? Frankly, I don't know. To find that out, you might have to find one and ask it.

Be an Employee

Seriously ya'll, who has ever heard of the Office? Check out www.Dundermifflininfinity.com and if you check it out and say to yourself "what do i have to loose, i have nothing better to do while i'm not watching the office, anyway." THEN JOIN!!! and if you join the Ashville, NC branch, not only do I win, you win, too. They post new tasks every so often and if everyone in a branch pitches in, you win...drumroll.... SCHRUTE BUCKS!!!! ok, I give up. Advertising isn't my forte. but still guys, check it out.


Ciao you all! ginger.

Novelista

Hello hello, everyone!

I trust everybody had a great Christmas? I did, for the most part. I got way more than I deserved, though. Somebody needs to tell me when they stopped gaging your presents on naughty and nice. Or when the Big Guy decided naughty was much more deserving than nice.

Otherwise, it was a nice enough Christmas, boring but nice. I decided that next year, I would write a short novel for each of my friends that still read things either for Christmas or their birthdays. It sounds really hard but eh, I have imagination spilling out my ears. I need to get rid of some of it. So I already have four starts, but does anybody have any exciting suggestions for the next New York Times Best Seller?


Ciao bella!

10 Best Christmas Songs Ever

Ok, Christmas is just 3 days away so we need to be in the spirit. I don't know about you but it doesn't feel like Christmas yet to me, so I am trying to be festive and listening to Christmas music like:

1. The Christmas Song- Michael Buble
2. Santa Baby
3. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm- Dean Martin
4. Frosty the Snowman- Dukes of Dixieland
5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen- Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan
6. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas- Burl Ives
7. Winter Wonderland- Martina McBride
8. I Wish You a Merry Christmas- Bing Crosby
9. Sleigh Ride- Reliant K
10. Let It Snow- Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Most Over-Done Christmas Album Award goes to... Josh Groban... duh.
Most Christmasy Non-Christmas Song Award goes to... Ave Maria- Perry Como!!!
Feel-Goodin'-est Christmas Song Award goes to... Sleigh Right- Debbie Gibson!!!
Swingin'-est Christmas Song Award goes to... Christmas Night at Knightsbridge- Arthur Greenslade!!!
and the Strangest Christmas Song Award goes to..... Marshmallow World- Regis Philbin!!!


Ok, fine, I'll admit, I am quite partial to the Big Band/Swing Christmas music, but hey thats the most festive kind!

Luvers Ya! Ginger.

1000 things to accomplish in my life

100 things to do before i die lists are DEAD!!! It just sounds like such a morbid concept, even if it isn't. So I am making a list of essentially 1000 things to do whild I live. not before I die. Right now I am on 648, but I am stumped. They are any and everything from travel to personal mind over matter sort of things and they are as little as planting a tree to as big as Climbing to the top of Mount Everest to as silly as taking a walk down Easy Street to as serious as telling my whole life story to someone I know will love me even if they know what I've done.

Silly concept, I don't believe so. It gives me personally a sense of direction and purpose and accomplishment. And its so much fun trying to think of all the things you could do and then going out and doing them.

So here are my first 100, the next 100 will probably come after Christmas (have a good one by the way.)


1. Climb a tree, and really climb it.

2. Stand at the top of a mountain and just breathe.

3. Visit that little village outside of Monaco that nobody knows what it is called except for the travel lady on "Passport to Europe."

4. Shop in India.

5. Buy myself a present in January, wrap it, and keep it hidden until Christmas.

6. Only ask for money for celebrations one year and instead of dontate it to charity, keep it for college and go out and give TIME and WOMANPOWER to a charity.

7. Give blood.

8. Ski on a beautiful mountain.

9. Learn Italian.

10. Make a quilt.

11. Paint a self portrait.

12. Donate hair.

13. Do it again.

14. Take a road trip with no destination.

15. Swim in the Pacific ocean.

16. Drink wine in Italy.

17. Play a full piano arrangement.

18. See something performed on Broadway.

19. Sun bath in Uruguay.

20. Stand on the equator.

21. See a solar eclipse.

22. Run a marathon.

23. Paint a giiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttttttttt mural.

24. Do something on an impulse.

25. Buy something from a stand on the side of the road.

26. Visit every Washington DC Smithsonian Museum. Air And Space Museum. American Art Museum. American History Museum. American Indian Museum. Anacostia Community Museum. Freer and Sackler Galleries. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. National Zoo. Natural History Museum. Portrait Gallery. Postal Museum. Renwick Gallery. The Castle.

27. Write a novel.

28. Publish a poem.

29. Spend a week at the Biltmore estate and do everything possible there.

30. Write a piece for someone.

31. Ride in a bike race.

32. Eat paella in Spain.

33. Bake a giant cinnamon roll cake.

34. Visit Messina.

35. Join a entirely absurd group with friends.

36. Learn to play guitar.

37. Sing in a choir.

38. Give umbrella away when it is raining.

39. Teach art.

40. Design a clothing line.

41. Own a convertable (please, oh please be a Pontiac Solstice!)

42. Go to a sample sale in New York.

43. Visit Canada.

44. Own 1000 books.

45. Read 25 classics.

46. Go on the highest waterslide.

47. Work at a museum.

48. Visit the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.

49. Own 10 dvds of shakespeare's plays.

50. Go antique shopping.

51. Googlewack something.

52. Ride the biggest rollercoster findable.

53. Make a sacrifice.

54. Build a treehouse.

55. Find unconditional love.

56. Go to every state.

57. Get into a good college.

58. Help rebuild a school.

59. Study abroad.

60. Win a volleyball tournament.

61. Sing in front of a crowd.

62. Paint a bathroom.

63. Go to a mattress store.

64. Go to Disney Land once.

65. Build an 8 foot snowman.

66. Save a life.

67. Run through a street when the light is green.

68. Dance in Central Park.

69. Paint a bedroom.

70. Go to a College Football game.

71. Walk on the great wall of China.

72. Go to a drive in movie theatre.

73. Marry.

74. Send a message in a bottle.

75. Make a snow fort.

76. Paint a ceiling.

77. Run and dance through the rain.

78. Fly a kite.

79. Be in a parade.

80. Skinny dip.

81. Skinny dip with a love.

82. Flatten a coin on a train track.

83. Lie in bed a whole day.

84. Ride a mechanical bull.

85. Have children.

86. Write a letter to the editor.

87. Grow and eat my own fruits and veggies.

88. Sleep under the stars.

89. Have a meaningful conversation with a homeless person.

90. Talk in a British accent for a day.

91. Start a business.

92. Write to my senator.

93. Be in a newspaper.

94. Dye my hair a crazy color.

95. See the aurora borealis.

96. Call to complain about a perfectly great product.

97. Do 100 pushups in a row.

98. scream 'i'm mad as hell and i'm not gonna take this anymore!' in public.

99. Cuss out a teacher at a highschool reunion.

100. Conquer something cold turkey.

Till the next 100 or until I find something else to list, arrivaderci, bellas!