99 Problems

Or more like 99 passwords. Took me forever to get the exact combo to get back into this thing. My laptop already brings everything up automatically because I'm lazy like that and tell it to keep me signed in and because of the fact that I have 99 different passwords for just about everything under the sun. Sometimes I think I should just keep one central password but no....that's not cool and it's not smart. Plus at work my ten main passwords I am required to change up in some insanely simple variation every three months. Some systems let you cycle through the same trinity but those annoying few remind you that you've had this password or some far too too close variation within the past billion years...okay. Rant over. Hello, World. How are ya?

Ain't It Uncool

Have this compulsion to keep updating Jilly's FB and now the stupid site keeps freezing up and giving off error messages. You have got to be kidding me. Used Picnik and Photobucket to play around with some pictures I took in NYC a few months ago...my work becoming Jillian's artwork. Now if only FB would cooperate. Going to have to call it and get ready for class soon. -_-.

Done and done

Or not quite. With the nature of my project, it's so open-ended that there's no way that I can be done. Only satisfied that I've put in enough work up to this point. For tonight at least. Can't believe the semester is almost over.

Whatchamacallit

Ever had a book or plot on the brain. Something you read forever and a day ago that twitches at the edge of memory. It drops hints, some false and others true. I really love the internet. You can find just about anything and if you don't know or can't remember what it is then somewhere out there someone knows and wants to share. :)

Promises (Work In Progress)

Created a wordpress account just for this work-in-progress and my final project. I've been working for weeks, shuttling back and forth for the three facebook accounts that I created for three of the main characters in Promises; Jillian Guthrie, Vinni Saito, & Lucinda Saito. I've spent more time working and fleshing out Jilly's with the other acting as supporting and bit players but I plan to add even more to these latter two accounts as well. Friend them all and check out my progress and the backstory of Jillian's past.

Jillian G: Begins after she leaves home for college and meets up with her best friend and roommate during freshman year at NYU.

Vinni S: Jillian's roomate. The girls form a tightknit bond that is cemented by the time Promises actually starts up, years later.

Lulu S: Vinni's BTVS/Angel obssessed grandmother who also forms her own bond with budding artist Jillian. The two eventually begin working together on children's books.

Shakepeare's Women

The Many Faces of Willa, it's a play that I created (not actually sat down and wrote) but created for the purposes of Vinni and Jilly's back and forth. Their life as students at NYU. It's a play featuring segments of Shakespearan plays but set in the present and with a modern twist. Something like 10 Things and Leo/Claire's Romeo & Juliet, but not really. Picture Hamlet's Ophelia performing in a burlesque show and you'll get close to what I was thinking of. Jillian's best friend and sidekick, Vinni lands a part in the Tisch production (as Bianca from The Taming of the Shrew). There's crossdressing and murder-for-hire. It's Shakespeare but more.


Jillian, artist that she is, was volunteered by her bestie to work with Set Design and Wardrobe for the costumes, as well as, designing posters to go up around campus. (one pictured above and a second pictured below)

Stop the Presses

Still hammering away at my final project...an exercise in meta. There's so much more to do and I don't think it'll get done by Thursday night. Of course, I have every intention of carrying onward with fleshing out the life and times of Jillian Guthrie before Promises even begins. Before Jilly meets Colin even. At some point, I'll get there. For now, I've been busily working my way through Jilly's personal dialogue with herself and her friends...surfing my way through 1999 and 2000. Wanted to get through those first few years and I will at some point. Very likely not in the next two days, though.

Happy Earth Day, Peeps!!!!

It's Earth Day. Go plant a tree and change think of your worst two habits...over consuming electricity or non-recycling of recyclables or something. Pick one and not only decide to mend your ways but actually do it ;)

Dancing....Talking to myself...

It's a bad habit and everybody does it at one point or another during the course of their day. Well, I'll taken the idea of talking to myself to another level with my final project. Still working on it and what it mostly entails is a further view into the psyche and friendships of characters from one of my novels. How is this done? Why via facebook of course. Why not twitter? There's just a different experience that you get with the network of friends you invite/allow on your FB. So there I am everyday, switching back and forth between four different FB accounts ranting, posting, replying....to myself, but then again it's not really me. It's the same as if I were typing it all into a word doc. The characters are going back and forth and spilling their darkest secrets and concerns...playing around and teasing one another. It's fun and made somewhat easier by having the apps for FB on my phone and Pod.

Aww and...okay a little disturbing

Found this this morning and gotta say it was just very adorable and a little disturbing in the....er prolonged "lovefest" between lady and beast :). Lovefest

Spring...spring...go away

Pollen. Yes, I know we need it to actually make things flourish and grow but the yellowish film of powder covering everything is insane. Bleary eyes and countless sneezes. Who could possibly get anything done. And tax day on top of it all. What a week.

Making it Work

In the home stretch of the semester playing catch-up. Working on final project for class and the two stories I've been juggling over the past few months. There's just not enough time...well there's overtime at work but...um that just eats up more time...less productive and creative.

The Man in the Yellow Hat

Okay..the hat wasn't really yellow but there was a man. Trying out a little user testing on my still work in progress website, I recruited my little sis to be my guinea pig. The question...how easy or difficult is it to navigate the site...or find something requested. Scavenger Hunt if you will.

Find the man on the bus I told her. She looked at the screen of my homepage and then back at me and at the page again. "Does this thing scroll up and down?"..."This is just the first page, girlie"..."oh, right." After that she clicked the handy dandy "enter" button I'd created and well...entered the site. The four main pages each had a link and she bypassed "home" and "mywriting" for "lifeatplay"...which yay is where the subheads for my photographs are...actually it's "myphotography." Once there she got a little stopped up on the negatives page. I didn't say pictures. I have it listed under Dodge&Burn. If you've studied photography at all, you have an idea what that means but I guess I left off a greater number of the population who didn't. Then again...most people woud just click to explain their way through and figure out subheads/links that way. Most of the others are self-explanatory and simple "contactme" and "myexercepts" among them. She found it easily enough after that...really just a minute or two.

I asked her what she thought and if she'd had a hard time navigating. She said..."You asked me to look for a man in a picture. You should've had a section on the main page for just pictures"......of course I argued with her...but I did ask her opinion, no? LOL

man on bus

You....change your mind...like a girl...changes clothes.

In and out. Up and down.

Unfunny story...four people get up one morning and go about their day...each return home one by one to find the others standing about and chattering away. The fourth person arrives and tries the door. "Can somebody open the door I gotta pee." Three look to the one and then at each other. "Um we were waiting for you".

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Some elements of this story are pure embellishment flowered by an overactive imagination but the underlying point is unfortunately true gah

How does it end you ask? We didn't live happily ever after but no one broke their necks in the unlocking of a certain window. Hooray. We only wasted three perfectly good hours figuring out a game plan.

Retro

What's old is new again. It happens all the time. Things...people...places come and go out of style. Fashion. Movies. Books. Music. The same song on repeat...different singer. We all have our favored versions. some co-exist. My iPod is proof enough of that. Most don't live up to the original...more so because of the sense memories that we relate to these things like a smell or taste that curls on the tongue like the best kind of nostalgia.

Its the reason why so many studios are rushing out to revive those bits of our youth...movies and comicbooks. They know we'll be following their lead not very far behind. No matter how utterly crappy we just know it'll be. There's some part of the kid that we were and remain who wants to play and indulge. Forget the unending responsibilities of adulthood and slap on a pair of 3D glasses...the REAL kind. Anticipate and quote your favorite tagline or catchphrase because you know it's coming.

So things though...should never ever ever be redone. Gone With The Wind. Classic I know but I still have yet to sit through the whole thing. I've seen the highlights and know the story though :). The new Halloween. Rob Zombie did an admirable job with the first but the second was just....convoluted and WTF. WHY. Just WHY?!?! Most horror movies...can't touch the original (Though...okay...I'm kinda looking forward to remake of Nightmare on Elm St. Loved the original and its beyond weird seeing Not Robert Englund in the trailer) Really could care less about seeing the New Karate Kid. They could've called it something else. It could've been a different movie about a kid and Jackie Chan. Sorry I'm all about the original. There were sequels. And what's this about a 21 Jump Street movie...give me Penhall and Hanson (Deluise & Depp) and I'll be a happy girl but...why. Just...well at least it wasn't the show. Yet.

Star Trek reboot. Yay. Terminator Salvation. Woohoo...woohoo. Battlestar Galatica = pretty frakkin beautiful...The Hills Have Eyes (not the sequel...that was just disgusting) Liked it. Magnificent Seven tv series <3Smurf's Live Action with NPH. I'm there....but please...stay away from:

1. Casablanca
2. Rebel Without a Cause
3. Dynasty
4. Knots Landing
5. Dallas
6. Titanic (Dear God....never ever again. Please)
7. The Getaway (Steve McQueen & Ali were amazing but Alec and Kimmy did pretty damn good too)
8. The Princess Bride (Don't mess with a classic)
9. The Philadelphia Story (see #8)
10. Auntie Mame (see #9 and never see Lucille Ball's version. Love her but Ros Russell PWNed.)

Perspective Found

A friend linked me to this site and I wanted to pay it forward. Alot of just wow...not so much with the depressing but people really do give a crap about one another. I like that.

This one:
"My family & I got seperated in New York City when I was little. Scared, I sat crying on the sidewalk as tons of people passed by. A homeless man picked me up, comforted me, & carried me to a police officer, who found my parents. He had a long beard & I asked if he was Jesus. He laughed so hard he cried. He GMH.
#9785 (33) - Aug 14, 2009 09:38 PM by Karina - Random acts of kindness - I Love This! (9629) - (4)"

How amazing is that. We have so many judgements and fears. A world blinded to the life around them. Deafened to the plight of others and then it was the unexpected. How wonderful is that...a homeless man...he himself apart of the world we bypass in our day to day lives. He was there...actually watching and paying attention. Not simply moving and falling into automatic rhythms that blinded others to this child's plight. He was there and observing. Listening. Living.

M...A...N...Man

I remember joking with a good friend of mine after finding out that I'd been hired at my first REAL job. The others were just practice and nothing that would set me on my way for life. Benjamin put my excitement into prospective quite easily with the words..."Oh, man. You work for the MAN." Oh crap, the Man? Seriously. No one likes the Man. The Man gets a bad rap. What MAN am I talking about you ask? The man with the power. (cue you) What power? (me) The power of whodo (you cued) Whodo? (me again) You do. (now you) I do what? (me now) You remind me of a man (circling about) What man? (*raises hand*) The man with the power....

Yes...I'm stuck on movies. The first part was all me but then the last I got pulled into the vicious cycle of one of my favorite bantering quotes. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy (Shirley Temple there in the video) but CG & ML run through it again at the end. Love it.



And I got totally distracted from my rant...the MAN. Yes. I'm told that not only is everything I do on my work computer screen visible whenever they want to check in and make sure that I'm toeing the line but I can't bring my personal laptop to write or do homework...no sorry that's not right. I can't switch it on during breaks and lunch because of airwaves.........

M'kay.

You remind me of a man. What man? The man with the power. What power?

Tiiiiiiiiime is on my side...yes it is

is it? LOL. Weeks have passed and I'm so just catching up from the whole losing of an hour. No seriously. That entire first week, I slept straight through...not just one alarm because as soon as I overslept twice those first two days I switch on my handy-dandy iPod alarm as a back up and damned if I didn't sleep through the very loud quacking of a singular and extremely loud duck. Nothing to dream or troublesome plot twist to keep me busy or ruminate over as I rest...just fathomless sleep. Too much work and not enough time. I'll stop whining at some point....whining is what my facebook is for.

This is a stickup

WOW. New experiences everyday. As a writer I usually revel in that aspect in life but this one....this one I could've done without. Calgon...take me away already.

No, I wasn't held up...well not by a robber. It was a copper. Yes. Stopped for the first time ever on a rain slicked Saturday night or Sunday eve, rather. Was I speeding, officer? Nope. Suspended tags? I'm sorry...what. My dear sweet friend almost cringed at my side in the passenger seat. It was her car you see. She'd asked me to drive since she didn't have her glasses.

So, there I sat, comforting her while they ran her paperwork and MY license. All I could think...hmm, will this shit show up on my newly existent record. Am I in the system? Perp walk. I keep joking about that, but what does it mean. I didn't have to do one. The officer was actually super nice in the face of my friend's incredibly stupid questions.

Curiosity assuaged. Perp walk = ((The term perp walk is an American slang term which refers to the police practice of intentionally parading an arrested suspect (or "perp", short for "perpetrator") through a public place so that the media may observe and record the event. The suspect is typically handcuffed or otherwise restrained, and is often dressed in prison garb.)) Thank you ever so much wiki. I do watch L&O but for some reason the actual meaning escaped me.

Yeah...that didn't happen. LOL. Still super embarrassing despite the blessedly late hour and thankfully that sangria I'd had much much hours and hours and hours earlier in the night was long out of my system.



Yeah, yeah yeah. I know. No sound. Not my fault. I didn't upload it...but couldn't find it anywhere else and I couldn't really invite you all over to watch my DVDs so this will have to do. The video and I'll post the transcript from the scene. It's pertinent...trust me. ;)

Okay so watch the scene and read... (oh..I don't own any of this)

5.22 - A House is Not A Home - (109)
This transcript is from the collection found at http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/gilmoregirls.

POLICE STATION
[Lorelai walks up to the counter.]

LORELAI: Hi. Hello. Yes, I'm here to pick up my daughter.

OFFICER: Your daughter's name?

LORELAI: Rory Gilmore. Lorelai Gilmore. She goes by Rory. I don't know what you have her under.

OFFICER: Rory Gilmore.

LORELAI: Oh, that's good, because she only answers to that. Not that she won't to the other, but -

OFFICER: She'll be out in a minute.

LORELAI: Okay. Thanks. [Pause.] Sorry, when you say she'll be out, do you mean out of a cell?

OFFICER: Yep.

LORELAI: So she was in a cell.

OFFICER: That's where we usually put people when they're arrested.

LORELAI: Was she in the cell alone?

OFFICER: It was a slow night. She had the place to herself.

LORELAI [relieved]: Oh, that's good. I mean, not that she's a snob. She can get along with anyone, it's just, it was her first time in a cell, so I didn't want her to be attacked, you know, like in Caged Heat? Or was it Switchblade Sisters? Anyway. I mean, my daughter never gets into trouble. Except, you know, now. But on the whole, the kid is an angel. She goes to Yale.

OFFICER: She'll be out in a minute.

LORELAI: Right. [She looks around.] I'm sorry. Are you, like, solving something?

OFFICER: What can I do for you?

LORELAI: I was just wondering. Is Rory in the system now? Because I just remember when Sipowicz's son accidentally got arrested because he looked like a drug dealer. Sipowicz was freaked out that the son was going to wind up in the system. And I just wonder, you know, should I be freaked out? And also, what exactly is the system? (Me: My thoughts exactly!!!)

OFFICER: She's got to go to court. They'll figure out what's going to happen.

LORELAI: And am I going to have to pay anything? I mean, bail? Does she need bail?

OFFICER: They're releasing her on a P.T.A. A promise to appear.

LORELAI: Oh, she will. She will appear. She might be there before you will.

OFFICER [losing patience]: I won't be there.

LORELAI: Right. But she will, 'cause she promised. I'll be over there.

[She walks over to sit on the other side of the room. Finn and Colin enter the station, chatting with each other.]

FINN: Well. This is much nicer than the last place we picked him up from.

COLIN: Yes, we definitely need to keep this one in mind for future infractions. Excuse me, Officer, we were wondering if one Logan Huntzberger has been released from your fine custody yet?

OFFICER: Nope. Have a seat.

COLIN: We'll be over here.

FINN: And if you have a moment we'd like to order some appetizers.

[The officer stares at him. He turns around. He and Colin sit near Lorelai, who listens to their conversation with a worried look on her face.]

FINN: So typical. Logan would have to get busted during the one time I almost got Rosemary to agree to go home with me.

COLIN: It's vintage Huntzberger, my friend. Friday nights end in jail.

FINN: The boy knows how to party.

COLIN: Stealing Richardson's boat. Genius.

FINN: Let's not forget the lovely Rory.

COLIN: Yes. Maxwell Smart finally found his Ninety-Nine.

OFFICER: Rory Gilmore is coming out now.

LORELAI: Oh, thank you.

COLIN: You're here for Rory?

LORELAI: Yeah.

FINN: Oh, well, we would have taken her home.

COLIN: Just so you know she was covered.

LORELAI [sarcastic]: Wow. The relief.

COLIN: I'm Colin. This is Finn. And you are?

LORELAI: Her mother.

FINN: My God, those are good genes.

[The door buzzes and Rory comes out. Lorelai gets up. They look at each other for a minute.]

LORELAI: You've got everything?

[Rory holds up her envelope of personal effects.]

LORELAI: Let's go.

[Rory follows her to the door. She glances at Colin and Finn in the corner. They kneel and worship her. She shakes her head at them. Once Lorelai and Rory are gone, they burst out laughing.]


OPENING CREDITS

***

Feeling better now...and it's three am. I've missed Daylight Savings haha. Went from 1am to 3am. Time flies. Think I'll watch GG...not the original (Golden Girls) which I loved or the contemporary (Gossip Girl) which is my very guilty pleasure but my snarky fast talking girls from the Hollow. Ugh. Stars Hollow haha.

Classic

Exit signs v. Green pictograms. I'm all for a good pictogram but when it all comes down to it...I'm a words kinda girl and I like the classic touch of the "Exit" sign. For some reasson it makes me think of diners and drive-in movies. I love change and it can definitely be a good thing...but not on this. What in the world am I talking about? Read on...click.

Gross Out

Today's theme seemed to be, "Let's present Cort with the grossest images on the planet." Worked on next project with Tykia and it seems promising. Though our research left me with a sensitive stomach...then I just had to go dig up that video from "I Love You, Man" and the watch it...a few times. It was funny but gross. The other stuff earlier was less funny but more gross. Yes...keep that in mind.

IN YOUR FACE!!! IN YOUR FACE!!!

Imagine this in 3D with the new tvs set for distribution. Beyond gross. Some things were made just for 2D. I don't know if I'm on board with this whole thing. I LOVED seeing Alice this past weekend, but part of the allure of 3D films is the entire movie theatre experience. It isn't something that you can truly re-create in the comfort of your living room. 3K for the set itself and then the specially made glasses for the entire family...then of course you have to put money out for the movies themselves. Worth it? I don't know...there's a certain amount of magic in sitting in the movie theatre, munching on overly-buttered corn, and "aah"ing at that thing coming at you off the screen.

Could be interesting for certain programs through. Sports, horror movies, & sci-fi shows. Not so interesting for the news, golf (sorry...*snoozefest...1D, 2D, 3D...it doesn't matter)...yea. It's a no-go until maybe it drops from 3k like the flat screens. We'll talk in a few more years.

Get'er done!!! I did it. Phew. It's up and gave my little spiel about it in class :D

faghedaboutit

If you at first do not succeed, try...try...try again. That's fine and I've lived by that for as long as I can remember, but there is virtue in giving up. A lot of the time when you're just too exhausted to think or try any more and your mind is distracted by sleep or anything else that has nothing to do with the problem plaguing your senses, that's when the answer comes. I tried all last night to get this project uploaded onto the student pages and its there...just more so as a list of files, rather than the finished product I can see when I test my links through Dreamweaver. At a point, I threw up my hands and thought "faghedaboutit." It wasn't actually a part of the assignment...and we'll have a section on this in class. So I slept and I dreamed and suddenly I knew the answer or at least I thought I did. Site Map. That's the answer...and now I've got two different programs where I was using the FTP thing...I've got two books and youtube vids giving me directions and yet still...after hours this morning...I'm in "faghedaboutit" mode.

Here's a little vid that expresses my depth of feeling at the moment. Please do not watch if you are sensitive to expletives....no, seriously. Well, just the first minute or so. After that you're on your own. I love Mamet.

To GoDaddy or Not To GoDaddy...

Yes...that was the question. On the site now. I've got my project just about ready to post for tomorrow's class. Now looking at GoDaddy and not sure if I should just do that or use space allotted to students. I could always transfer everything over down the road but I heard that was a pain in the katookis. Hmm...

Midterm + Dreamerweaver = Madwoman

By George, I think I've got it. Kinda. Mostly. Finally just about done with this project. Think...or no I KNOW I made it alot more complicated than it had to be. I'm satisfied, though. Tomorrow, I work on figuring out how to get it all loaded up and ready for Thursday night. *fingers crossed.*

Photoshop Phobic

Okay, so. Photoshop in all its layers and intricacies kinda scare me a little...or let's say mildly intimidate me. I'm sure I could figure it out if I had more time at my disposal. In fact, I like challenges and will set my mind to conquering Photoshop when I get some downtime. For now, I'm in love. There are so many options at your fingers with the internet. It's been almost a year now that I've been all about Picnik.com. So many amazing options. It's no Photoshop but for now it gets the job done and comes out with a hella lot pretty. Lookit. Check it out. Play. I'll be using this to help with my graphics for the midterm project....the one approaching ever so quickly.

Solitary Confinement

Okay, tagging on to that last post (you know...crazy lady who hears voices aka writer) I was just thinking of all the places where I do my best plotting/writing. There's been many a time that I've had to walk away from the computer or just delete large chucks of newly written text.

1. Beneath soothing spray of hot water at 2am...cool tiles slick with persperation and the air cloying with steam.
2. Earbuds tucked firmly in place, quieting the steady buzz of conversation and goings on as the city passes away before my unseeing eyes and my pen scratches away against paper. The play is the thing...or rather the commute to work is the thing. What better time to lose yourself and let your imagination runaway with you.
3. The same spiral notebook sits just in reach, ready and waiting for fingers reaching beyond midnight. Words and images blurred with sleep, mind awakening and voices chattering. Pieces coming together, voiding and the forgetfulness of waking.
4. Fragrant bubbles sliding and music filling the air, words pouring forth and filling line after line as half-fist sized waterprints soaks in....wrinkling pristine white (okay so this one I don't do as much...writing mid-bath...only when I can't get something out of my head and prefer my notebook to whatever book I happen to be reading that day)
5. Lollygagging, daydreamer...I'll cop to that one. Anywhere and everywhere the voices take their fancy. Everything inspires. Plot stutters me mid-sentence. That is the life. I wouldn't give it up for anything else. No, no, no. Not even a better sense of direction (Word to the wise, never ask me for directions...I couldn't tell you who what and where...head left to long in the clouds or buried between the leaf of a typed paged). Again, I wouldn't change it for the world...that's why God created GPS.

Okay so on the flipside, this got me thinking of places where I don't think would be as conductive to my process...despite my lollygagging tendencies:

1. A Cabin in the Woods: I'm curious and I love nature. This would actually be an awesome place to go but I'm a child of the eighties with a taste for bad (horror) movies (among many, many every other type). I think lonely cabin in the woods and envision a hockey-masked wearing manchild with a machete and cannibals with poor dental hygiene.


See what I mean? Crackling fire, blanket, and log cabin yes....this as my welcome committee...thank you and no. I'd get nothing done. LOL.

2. A Deserted Island: ....hmm. Again. Thanks but no thanks. Annoying, infuriating and distracting as they might be...I come from a large family and am accustom to their colorful tales and "pain in the arse" ways. Imagine me...on sandy beaches (yay) alone (boo)...not even a Wilson (Think Tom Hanks in Castaway ) as my only companion. No, I'd go made with only myself for company and probably drown or be nibbled away by sharks attempting to swim back to civilization. Silence and peace can be nice but how boring with out the noise and fury of every day life and the people who crowd us to make things interesting.


WILSON!!!!!!!

Yes...I need help. I promise to see someone about that on the next Friday after never ;)

Say What?

"I see dead people," Little Haley Joel proclaimed breath coming in frosty gusts, fear and uncertainty all about him. Well, Little Haley Joel...I hear voices. Lots of them. They call to me at all hours and the day and invade when I have other important matters to be done like work. Sometimes infusing snark or matters of sadness, the scene building up around those voices. No, I don't need to be medicated people. I'm talking dialogue. It's one of my favorite parts of actually writing. I love engineering twisting and twirling plots of story or clever turns of phrase and prose but there's nothing quite like just sitting down and penning straight dialogue...figuring out the back and forth. When a scene gets too hard or I've written myself into more of a corner than I originally meant to...sometimes the dialogue is all I have until that shining piece of genius comes to me telling me how to get out of the hole I've dug so deeply for my characters.

Like I said before, those voices can intrude at the most inopportune of moments. They steal away your attention and leave you defenseless. High drama or low comedy. Caught in the throes of their interchange, I've worried more than once that I'd blurt those words in a sullen quiet, making my companions regard me as strange. Though, my friends and family have long since accepted that I'm cut out different than the rest. From what they're used to at least because were I to do the same in the company of my writer friends they would understand almost immediately. The same goes if I suddenly erupt into action reaching for a pen and notebook that I usually keep with me or at the side of my bed. They understand...something has come to me and clicked where it didn't make sense before. The voices have gone on and unmedicated and make an awful kind of wonderful sense. Logic. Poetry. Reason. Horror. Okay, I'll admit that I'm rambling now and for no reason at all other than one of the voices took control of my fingers (flying across the keys) for a moment there and insisted on having her say. I'm back now, have her harness and locked tight...working on the chapter that's been awaiting my attention for these few days past. To be quite honest, I'd rather here voices than see dead people. All the time ;)

Confessions of a Jelly Bean Addict

I rarely actually indulge in turkey unless its that special time of the year where everybody's doing it. I'm not much of a chocolate-whore....well at least I'm not if we're talking anything but chocolate covered strawberries. I've recently discovered a weakness for the fruity confection. Don't get me wrong. I'm a girly girl who loves the dark stuff but only when I think about it and there is a super secret stash in my desk that I nip into only when I'm specially annoyed. It's the jellybeans though...they're my addiction. I don't have them year round...only during that time of year meant for the Easter Bunny. President's and Valentine's day have barely made their yearly pass and already the stores are showing off their sugary, pastel...Easter inspired wares. The jellies are my Achilles heel. From mid-Feb until mid-April, every year is the same. Every store I visit I end up buying one or two separate bags of the tiny candies. I don't eat them all on my own. I share with co-workers and take them home to my niece (....big sis isn't too happy about the latter...oops). I don't even think about the candies really during the rest of the year but every winter and late spring...I can't stop buying them. Not too in love with the sour ones and I don't like the little black licorice ones...though I've got a thing for Good & Plentys (Yeah yeah. I know...I hardly know anyone who likes the little candies but every Halloween there was always one house that insisted on giving them out) They tasted like medicine and were therefore disgusting but then they grew on me. Call me contrary...my nearest and dearest do it all the time. :).

Not Quite Friday

Woke up tired and smiling just that little bit, my head swimming with the surety that Friday had arrived and all good things with it. Alas, it is but Thursday and there's another day to slough through. Why so down...I'm stll without my laptop and feeling it. The notebooks are nice but I can't get back into my flow of working on the projects I've got going already this way. Scenes and dialogue come out as note and pieces to be put together at a later date.

Happy thoughts and good distractions...I've found myelf watching the Olympics again this year. It always amazes me, the things that some people can pull off and just the heights they can reach...how fast they can go. I honestly admire them. Though, I'm not even the least bit tempted to strap on a pair of skis or snowboard and try my hand at their death-defying feats. I am awed by their daring but content to live vicariously and been thrilled when they are and ache for their attempts that end in heartbreak. It's weird. They spend years and years working up to one moment (in some cases two...they get two runs sometimes and come out using the best school). Sometimes its a case of national pride and how can you not cheer for the person meant to represent for your country (esp when they're totally kicking ass...go Shaun/Shani/Lindsey/Apollo and the beat...list goes on ;) ) Other times its a case of wow...look what that person has done...you've gotta admire it...no matter where they're from. Spent last night watching with friend and I swear we cheered hard and louder than a few weeks ago during the Superbowl (Go Saints! Who dat ;) haha)

No focus today....feeling all over the place with this thing and that is why it should be Friday. Thank god I'm off today.

Gotta Write...Gotta Dance...Gotta Write.....Gottttta Daaaaance (er read)

Working on borrowed time and my sister's laptop. Want to get some writing done. Didn't get much done over the past few days. Colorful text messages to friends don't count. So what oh what did I do with all this precious free time on my hands? I read...read...read... cleaned...worked out...read...bickered with my sister...played super mario bros with the niece...read...brooded...watched the clock...cleaned some more. And what oh what did I find while I was cleaning? At least 10 empty journals and the pens I'd been buying but left unused in my preference for typing the story straight away. I remember how it was before...before my laptop found its permanent seat upon my thighs. Before that I could always be found in some corner of whatever room, head bent and fingers curled around my pen as I scribbled away...literally penning whatever tale had struck my fancy in that instance.

Sure I'll go back to mostly using my laptop whenever the new one gets here or the old one is fixed. In the meantime...I think I'll indulge in a little reminescience.

Soundtrack

Snowed in again and still working on a borrowed laptop. Can't complain. I'm safe and warm. The words are flowing and Sade's new album is playing in the background. I've heard a few writers say that they've created playlists that carried them through...or rather aided them during projects and the writing process. I can agree with this. I'll find myself stuck on a certain song. It sets the mood for a scene building in my head...soft and sweet or hard and violent. Beautiful and sweeping or with just the right amount of edge to fit the scene or even a certain character. Somedays I find myself listening to the same song on repeat for hours on end while I'm making notes or just writing non-stop. Wuchich song am I stuck on at the moment? Sade's "The Moon & The Sky." Take a listen.

Just Say No!!!

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Sno-Dayz

Okay...yes. Another one. People have been posting their pictures like mad of "Snowmaggedon 2010" or "Snopocalypse Now." 25-30 inches of the white, powdery stuff. Winter wonderland, made slushy or icy pain in the hindquarters. Oh and that's a literal pain...in the back and everywhere else from having to push a few hundreds of thousands of pounds of Japanese steel and glass. This was after digging the car out Saturday afternoon and having nowhere to actually go...unless we were going by means of sled or skis.

It could've been worse I suppose. There's a firehouse right down the block and plows were coming through on the regular even as the thick, white flakes came pouring down. Still somehow one of the fire trucks got stuck for a good two hours before they managed to make it around the corner. Thankfully they were on their way back from whatever emergency had pulled them out into the cold.

*Pictured here was going to be one of the multitude of the pictures that I for some reason couldn't stop snapping the other day and today...as if I've never in my life seen the stuff before. Which of course I have. Native Baltimorean that I am, I'm accostumed to the nip and chill...the occassional flurry or Winter storm. Thundersnow, however, was something all together new.*

**Okay I didn't capture an image of this Thundersnow or even hear the loud booming crack myself. I only heard about it the next morning on facebook and then again when I talked to oen of my sisters.**

***I'll post the pics when I can. For now blogger doesn't seem interested in uploading anymore***

ETA:

Once more with feeling...






*bows*
thank you and good night ;)

You're Just A Butterfly, David..

I'll have to watch the movie again..can't remember if that's actually how it goes when David (Cary Grant) gets dumped by his fiancee after his wild romp in the countryside with heiress, Susan (Katherine Hepburn). This is definitely one of my favorite movies ever. I was looking at someone else's blog and they were talking about how implausible some of the characterizations and plotlines were...how these two people could never exist. Seriously? What would we write...what variety of movies would there be to see if the envelope wasn't pushed. Suppose everything was rational and made absolute sense. How fun would that be? Though, I'm not entirely sure about that first assessment anyway. I've know plenty of people in the real world who could've given Susan a run for her money. Wild and zany antics to the extreme...and that's all I'll say about that :P

Done?

I want to link to my blog or rather Jenny's http://creativeepublishing.blogspot.com .

I want to link to Jenny's blog

Outside the Box

"It takes a banana to notice a monkey" or so writes Harold on his amazing and crazy (see he totally is someone I could get along with) blog. Harold of Cardboard. His blog houses an amazing mix of images that verge on the strange and impossible and just crazed. Who doesn't want to read something like that. His words wandering into poetic ponderance (oops...did new word...I might do that alot, we'll see). Definitely an interesting personality and blog to check out.

Once Upon A Time...or something like it

Neither trite, nor cheesy. It's a classic line. The ultimate intro. The line that pulls you into a timeless place of far ago, readying you for a tale of woe that magically becomes "happily ever after." Stacy Barton has those words and the image of an old typewriter as a part of her homepage. It's the first thing that you see besides her name. Sprawling letters and old timey cars hanging off to the side. There's so much personality in the simplicity of it. The thoughts behind it, meant to draw the eye and hold your attention. The site of course is mostly there just to give information on the author herself and her previous works, but there is a link to her blog, which is where her personal voice truly shines through. A place for networking and putting herself out there. Touching base with writers like herself and just a place to give her work to the world. She posts a few of her poems within the blog or just everyday things that she wants to talk about. The idea of showcasing the website and linking the blog is a good one, because...most author websites are kinda commercial and just gives you the requisite bio...their body of works and odds and ends within that same vein. Linking the blog, takes things a step further by letting you in closer with the writer...reading what they're thinking while their writing. Talking about the struggles of getting the words on paper and the paper into the right pair of hands. "Cultivating the art of the story," Barton writes also on that homepage. Words painting a portrait, telling the whole story or just the barest view to tell the story of a moment. Writing as art. It really is.

Life & Sense in the Abstract

Illustrator and children's book author, Christopher Niemann, has satirical pieces that have appeared in many different venues. Chief among these are his covers for The New Yorker, as well as, "Abstract City" which appears on the New York Times website. He has this really amazing way of telling a story. Sometimes he does it with as few words as possible or none at all, letting the images speak. Truly showing rather than telling. His pieces that appear in the Times' blog are mostly funny cartoons an interesting narrative coming together as he explores the phenomena of sleepless nights and small children that steal into your bed at the dead of night, purloining all the blankets for themselves. Funny and interesting.

His website utilizes cartoons within the navigational tools, adding a touch of the writer's personality. It's different from the usual fare thanks in large part to his higly imaginative graphics. Still there's the requisite sections, i.e. news, books, contact, and buy...but it's the galleries under the portfolio section that grabs your attention and tells you so much about the writer himself. No...really. Niemann did a sort of comic bio or confessional rather that is both fun and...well different. A wonderful mix of words and imagery that say alot about the writer. His ability to think outside the box.

Link to Gallery

Further exploration of his website and the same galleries, turns up other great pieces from his previous work with The New Yorker, American Illustration, Atlantic Monthly, and numerous other publications. Political satire. Social commentary. Out and out monkeying around. All present and accounted for.

Phonetically Sound...It's all Kinetic

It was this past summer, when I first ran across something called kinetic typography. It was interesting and different. Nothing quite like the class I'd taken the previous fall. Of all the things we learned and drew there was nothing on the syllabus that opened our eyes or my eyes rather to the unending possibilities. Rather than writing as I should've been I was reading and lollygagging my way through youtube. River. Mei-Mei. Serenity. One of my favorite movies. Amazing for the dialogue alone.

"We're not going to die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

I went looking for that scene and a few others. Instead I stumbled onto this amazing thing called kinetic typography. Visual media but words and lettering the main tool for the art...for the narrative design. Some people use it for their poetry or quoting favorite movies/tv shows like Firefly (Serenity).

Then of course. There are those who fall in love with a song and either put it to their favorite clips from some type of media or express their own vision with the typography of it.

Both vids belong to their respective vidders as the media used

belongs to their owners. :)

Artists have taken to using this oppurtunity that is youtube and Kinetic Typography, expressing and vocalizing, Using imagery and the force of their words and the letters themselves to make their point. Showing imagination and innovation. There are so many. Here are two of my favorite projects (poem/vids) that I found while looking through it all.

URL:
Nereo II- Spoken Word vs Kinetic Typography

Social Life with Friends

Hello Blog World

My blog title. I think it needs an explanation, though, I should just leave it out there like that, but I don't want you guys to think I've really got a few nuts and bolts and screws loose. At least not until you really get to know me and I think you're ready for my brand of crazy. Okay title. I was under the gun picking this title for class...okay not literally but you get my meaning, no? Yes...Aqualung's Strange & Beautiful has been playing on repeat in my head all day but I didn't think strange and beautiful would be available...of course I was right. Then Crazy/Beautiful. That was a movie. Remember? No? Yes. :P. So that's my story...I might not stick to it. First blog post...Welcome to the World...and here comes K Rudolf.

Told you...crazy haha.